August 25

Births:

1758 – Franz Teyber, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1810)

1796 – James Lick, American carpenter and piano builder (d. 1876)

1829 – Carlo Acton, Italian pianist and composer (d. 1909)

1902 – Stefan Wolpe, German-American composer (d. 1972)

1915 – Walter Trampler, American viola player and educator (d. 1997)

1918 – Leonard Bernstein, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1990). Thinking so much about and listening to so much Mahler lately…. I can appreciate Bernstein’s influence as an educator and hugely enormous proponent of Mahler’s works (thanks also, I suppose in part, to Mitropolous), but I tend not to go for his interpretations (granted, I haven’t given them as much play as Abbado, Sanderling, Levine, Scherchen, Chailly, Gielen, etc. but he tends to be a bit emotional). All that said, he is a hugely important figure in both the performance and education of the 20th century music world. 

Deaths:

1742 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese organist and composer (b. 1704)

1774 – Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (b. 1714)

1822 – William Herschel, German-English astronomer and composer (b. 1738) Yes, he was! 

August 26

Births:

1926 – Anahit Tsitsikian, Armenian violinist (d. 1999)

Deaths:

1958 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)

August 27

Births:

1886 – Rebecca Clarke, English viola player and composer (d. 1979)

1886 – Eric Coates, English viola player and composer (d. 1957) Two violists on the same day!

Deaths:

1521 – Josquin des Prez, Flemish composer (b. 1450) That goes back a way

August 28

Births:

1739 – Agostino Accorimboni, Italian composer (d. 1818)

1867 – Umberto Giordano, Italian composer (d. 1948)

1894 – Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (d. 1981)

Deaths:

1959 – Bohuslav Martinů, Czech composer (b. 1890)

August 29

Births:

1875 – Leonardo De Lorenzo, Italian flute player and educator (d. 1962)

Deaths:

1982 – Lehman Engel, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)

August 30

Births:

1927 – Piet Kee, Dutch organist and composer

1943 – David Maslanka, American composer- Played some of this guy’s stuff in concert band in high school

Deaths:

2012 – Bernardo Bonezzi, Spanish composer (b. 1964)

August 31

Births:

1741 – Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, French composer (d. 1816)

1834 – Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (d. 1886)

1879 – Alma Mahler, Austrian-American composer (d. 1964) Not a huge fan of hers, but she perhaps gave us more significant music as her husband’s emotional inspiration moreso than her own compositions. 

1941 – Emmanuel Nunes, Portuguese-French composer (d. 2012)

1945 – Itzhak Perlman, Israeli-American violinist and conductor

1952 – Kim Kashkashian, American viola player (OH my goodness… so many jokes to be made here with that name.)

1975 – Daniel Harding, English conductor

Deaths:

1730 – Gottfried Finger, Czech-German composer (b. 1660) Also some jokes to be made about this name….