Today's Birthday in Music: August 16 (J. Guerrero)

1895 - Jacinto Guerrero, Toledo, Spain; composer (zarzuela)

Biography

"Marcha de la Amistad" from Guerrero's Los Gavilanes (Lima, Peru, 2007)


Alfredo Kraus sings "Mujer de los ojos negros" from El huésped del Sevillano

Today's Birthdays in Music: August 15 (Coleridge-Taylor, Ciccolini, Hunter)

1875 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, London, England; composer and conductor

Wikipedia
Biography and more

Julian Joseph plays "Deep River" from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 24 Negro Melodies



1925 - Aldo Ciccolini, Naples, Italy; pianist

Biography and pictures

Aldo Ciccolini plays Four Mazurkas Op. 30 by Chopin



1933 - Rita Hunter, Wallasey, England; opera soprano

Wikipedia
Official website

Rita Hunter as Brünnhilde

Today's Birthdays in Music: August 14 (Prêtre, Tagliavini)

1924 - Georges Prêtre, Waziers, France; conductor

Wikipedia
Biography

Georges Prêtre conducts the Radio Symphonieorchester Stuttgart in Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 1



1913 - Ferruccio Tagliavini, Reggio Emilia, Italy; opera tenor

Wikipedia
Obituary (The Independent, London, Feb. 1995)

Ferruccio Tagliavini sings "Una furtiva lagrima" from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore

Tories axe arts funding

The Tory government cut two federal programs designed to support Canadian arts at home and abroad. PromArt, which provides cultural travel grants issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and Trade Routes, a grant program through the Department of Heritage which helps Canadian cultural groups sell products abroad. Trade Routes will end on March 31, 2009, the end of the fiscal year.

The programs granted $13.7 million each year collectively, and aided thousands of artists and art programs.

Today's Birthdays in Music: August 13 (Battle, Grove)

1948 - Kathleen Battle, Portsmouth, U.S.A.; opera and concert soprano

Short Biography & pictures
Wikipedia

Kathleen Battle sings:

with Pavarotti, "Prendi, per me sei libero" from Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore (Metropolitan Opera, 1990)


"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (National Centre of Performing Arts, Beijing, June 2008)



1820 - George Grove, London, England; musicologist (Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians)

Wikipedia
Grove's Dictionary

Today's Birthdays in Music: August 12 (Tourangeau, Biber)

1940 - Huguette Tourangeau, Montreal, Canada; opera mezzo-soprano

Biography (Encyclopedia of Music in Canada)

Huguette Tourangeau (with Allan Monk) sings "Batti batti, o bel Masetto" from Mozart's Don Giovanni (The Met., 1978)


Huguette Tourangeau and Joan Sutherland sing "Viens, Mallika" (Flower Duet) from Delibes' Lakmé



1644 - Heinrich von Biber, Wartenberg, Bohemia; composer and violinist

Wikipedia

Agnus Dei from Mass in B flat major (Gabrieli Consort and Players, director Paul McCreesh)


Sonata "La Battaglia" in D major (Il Giardino Armonico, director Giovanni Antonini)

Today's Birthday in Music: August 11 (Leppard)

1927 - Raymond Leppard, London, England; conductor

Biography

The Legacy of Leppard

Today's Birthday in Music: August 10 (Glazunov)

1865 - Alexander Glazunov, St. Petersburg, Russia; composer

Wikipedia

Sviatoslav Richter plays Glazunov's Piano Concerto No. 1, 1st mvt., Kiril Kondrashin conducting (1952 recording)


Maya Plisetskaya performs excerpts from Glazunov's ballet Raymonda