Music History Events: Births
January 13, 1887 Comic singer Sophie Tucker is born Sonya Kalish in the Ukraine. She settles in Hartford, Connecticut, and sings at her family's restaurant for tips.
May 26, 1886 Al Jolson is born Asa Yoelson in Seredžius, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire).
April 26, 1886 Blues singer Ma Rainey is born Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia.
January 27, 1885 Jerome Kern, a storied composer of Broadway musicals, is born in New York City. His songs include "The Way You Look Tonight" (from Swing Time), "Ol' Man River" (from Show Boat) and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (from Roberta).
January 20, 1885 Folk and blues musician Leadbelly is born Huddie William Ledbetter in Mooringsport, Louisiana.
December 16, 1882 Composer Zoltan Kodaly is born in Kecskemét, Hungary.
June 17, 1882 Composer Igor Stravinsky is born in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
April 17, 1882 Classical pianist Artur Schnabel is born in Lipnik, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Bielsko-Biala, Poland).
August 10, 1880 Composer/violinist Clarence Cameron White is born in Clarksville, Tennessee.
December 4, 1879 The Irish composer Herbert Hamilton Harty is born.
March 7, 1875 Composer Maurice Ravel is born in France.
September 21, 1874 Gustav Holst, the English composer known for the orchestral suite The Planets, is born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.
September 13, 1874 Composer/painter Arnold Schoenberg is born in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Austria.
December 20, 1871 Composer/conductor Henry Kimball Hadley is born in Somerville, Massachusetts.
May 17, 1866 Composer and pianist Erik Satie is born in Honfleur, France.
July 6, 1865 Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, a composer who developed Dalcroze Eurhythmics to teach music to students, is born in Vienna, Austria.
June 9, 1865 Composer Carl Nielsen is born on the Danish island of Funen.
June 11, 1864 Composer Richard Strauss is born in Munich, Germany.
January 29, 1862 Composer Frederick Delius is born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England.
May 29, 1860 Spanish pianist and composer Isaac Albéniz is born in Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
August 8, 1857 Composer/pianist Cécile Chaminade is born in Paris, France.
June 2, 1857 Composer Edward Elgar is born in Worcester, England.
November 6, 1854 John Philip Sousa is born in Washington, DC. He serves as the director of the President's Own Marine Corps band from 1880 to 1892 before touring the world with his own Sousa Band and earns the title of March King thanks to famous compositions like "The Liberty Bell," "Semper Fidelis," "The Washington Post" and "Stars And Stripes Forever."
October 22, 1854 James Bland is born in Flushing, New York. While minstrel shows in the US were dominated by men in blackface, the African American artist would surpass them as "The World's Greatest Minstrel Man."
July 3, 1854 Czech composer Leoš Janáček is born in Hukvaldy, Moravia.
March 18, 1844 Composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is born in Russia.
June 15, 1843 Romantic era composer Edvard Grieg is born in Bergen, Norway.
September 8, 1841 Composer Antonin Dvorak is born near Prague, Czech Republic (then part of Bohemia in the Austrian Empire).
May 7, 1840 The composer Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky is born in Votkinsk, Russia.
March 21, 1839 Composer Modest Mussorgsky is born in Russia.
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