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Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington was born April 29, 1899, in Washington, D.C. A major figure in the history of jazz music, he created a unique style of big-band jazz, he also composed thousands of songs for the stage, screen and contemporary songbook. -
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Carlos Chávez
Carlos Chávez, Mexican conductor and composer whose music combines elements of traditional folk songs and modern compositional techniques. Chávez’s music is unmistakably Mexican in its melodic patterns and rhythmic inflections. From indigenous Mexican music he took the uses of percussion, straightforward rhythms, and old forms of harmony and melody. He was also influenced by modern European and American composers, especially Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. -
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Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland became one of the century’s most famous composer with highly influential music that had a distinctive blend of classical, folk and jazz idioms. Some of Copland’s most prominent pieces included Fanfare for the Common Man, El Salon Mexico and Appalachian Spring, for which he won the Pulitzer. -
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Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong, an African-American jazz musician who revolutionized jazz. He was the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history. -
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Dimitri Shostakovich
Dmitry Shostakovich, Russian composer, renowned particularly for his 15 symphonies, numerous chamber works, and concerti, many of them written under the pressures of government-imposed standards of Soviet art. He was considered the most important Russian composer working in Russia on his day. -
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Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter, American composer a musical innovator whose erudite style and novel principles of polyrhythm, called metric modulation, won worldwide attention. He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music, in 1960 and 1973. -
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Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen, influential French composer, organist, and teacher noted for his use of mystical and religious themes. As a composer he developed a highly personal style noted for its rhythmic complexity, rich tonal colour, and unique harmonic language. Was the first to advocate total serialism. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olivier-Messiaen -
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Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber, (born March 9, 1910, West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died January 23, 1981, New York, New York), American composer who is considered one of the most expressive representatives of the lyric and Romantic trends in 20th-century classical music. Barber studied the piano from an early age and soon began to compose. In 1924 he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where, in addition to piano and composition, he studied singing and conducting. -
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John Cage
John Cage is an american composer and philosopher. He was considered the most innovative composer of the 20th century and changed the definition of music. He was the center of the avant-garde music in the mid 20th century. -
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Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten, he was a leading British composer of the mid-20th century, whose operas were considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the 17th century. His works kept opera alive in English speaking countries -
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World War I
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Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein was an american conductor, composer, teacher, author and pianist. He was the most influential American musician of the 20th century. He brought classical music to the public via various media. -
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Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez, most significant French composer of his generation, as well as a noted conductor and music theorist who championed the work of 20th-century composers. Advocated total serialism, he said "all art of the past must be destroyed". -
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Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer, an important creator and theoretician of electronic and serial music who strongly influenced avant-garde composers from the 1950s through the ’80s. One of the most important musical innovators in the 20th century post WWII. -
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Great Depression
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Philip Glass
Philip Glass, (born January 31, 1937, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.), American composer of innovative instrumental, vocal, and operatic music. Glass studied flute as a boy and enrolled at age 15 at the University of Chicago, where he studied mathematics and philosophy and graduated in 1956. His interest in atonal music drew him on to study composition at the Juilliard School of Music (M.S., 1962) in New York City and then to Paris to study under Nadia Boulanger. -
John Corigliano
John Corigliano, (born Feb. 16, 1938, New York, N.Y., U.S.), American composer who drew from eclectic influences to create music that was generally tonal, accessible, and often highly expressive. Corigliano, who composed works for orchestra, solo instruments, and chamber groups, as well as operas, choral works, and film scores, won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Corigliano -
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World War II
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Korean War
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Vietnam War
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Eric Whitacre
Grammy-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is one of the most popular musicians of our time. His concert music has been performed throughout the world by millions of amateur and professional musicians alike, while his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united singers from over 110 different countries. A graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, Eric was recently appointed Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.