Hector Berlioz (1803 until 1869), along with Felix Mendelssohn was one of the first conductors of a large orchestra. Berlioz was generally regarded as the most important French Romantic composer. He was also known as a critic and conductor. People either really loved him, or really hated him. His music could be so powerful and original, or trite and vulgar. His music is emotional and full of the drama of the Romantic life, but it also contained the Classicism of Gluck.

Louis Hector Berlioz's father, a property owner and a doctor, wanted him to study medicine, but it was clear that the boy was destined for music. He had an aptitude for music, composing little bits as a child. But, with his father set against a career as a musician, young Hector had to piece together a musical education. He never even learned how to play the piano, the building block for almost every composer. But Berlioz gave a positive spin to his deficiency, saying that it allowed him to create music anywhere, piano or not. This freedom gave Berlioz a voice unlike any other.

But Hector's father still insisted that the boy study medicine, so at 16, Berlioz began his medical studies. In 1821, he went to the Medical School in Paris, but the city of Paris was the wrong place for a frustrated musician stuck in medical school. Berlioz attended the opera and heard Gluck's work, Iphigenie en Tauride. He fell in love with the music, and soon became obsessed with it. He went to the library at the Paris Conservatoire, studying all of Gluck's opera scores. A year later, he was writing his first opera, and in 1823, he wrote an oratorio. He still managed to receive his Bachelor of Science in 1824, but this would be as far as he would go in his medical career.

He enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire, and lived the life of the starving artist. To earn extra money, he worked at the theatre, where he met Harriet Smithson. She was an Irish lass, an actress, and the 26-year-old Berlioz fell in love with her, but she rejected him. For the next three months, he poured all of his heartbreak into his Symphonie Fantastique, subtitled An Episode in the Life of an Artist. The symphony became his first success. Eventually, though, true love would conquer all and Berlioz and his beloved Harriet would marry, and then separate.

But, Berlioz wasn't satisfied with success as a composer of orchestral works. He wanted to conquer the stage. Paris at the time of Berlioz was a difficult place for anyone who did not compose operas. Regular concert orchestras were such a rarity that an audience didn't exist, and composers wanting to give concerts usually ended up losing money. The old patronage system that supported the likes of Mozart and Haydn was drying up, and making a living as a composer was almost impossible, unless you composed operas. But another reason for Berlioz's enthusiasm for the stage was his own dramatic personality. One listen to his Requiem, and you get the feeling that his aim was more theatrical than religious. His Symphonie Fantastique also contains operatic elements. After writing his first opera in 1823, Berlioz tried again in 1826, and again in 1838 with Benvenuto Cellini. It failed after only 4 performances. His next opera, The Damnation of Faust (1846), premiered in Paris, did not do any better. According to Berlioz, it had only two performances, and both were before a half-empty house.

Frustrated, Berlioz left Paris and went travelling to Russia, Berlin, and London. The British and the Germans loved his music, and Berlioz regularly visited them for the next 15 years. His once beloved Paris was changing, embracing the new music of Liszt and Wagner. Liszt tried to help Berlioz's cause, reviving Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini in 1852 and later that year having a Berlioz Week featuring performances of Berlioz works. Berlioz reciprocated by dedicating the published version of his Damnation of Faust to Liszt in 1854.

Leonard Bernstein lived between 1918 and 1990. He is considered to be a twentieth century composer.

Georges Bizet, 1838 to 1875, was a French composer who wrote piano music, orchestral works and eight operas. Best known for his opera Carmen. He was asked to compose music for Daudet's play L'Arlésienne when he was only 33. This play needed 27 musical pieces, which Bizet amazingly produced, even though he had little time and his health was poor. He died 3 years later.

Herbert "Eubie" Blake, 1883 to 1983, was an American jazz pianist, vaudevillian, songwriter and composer of 1,000 songs. Some of them are: Charleston, Chocolate Dandies, Blackbirds of 1930, Memories of You, Shuffle Along of 1932, Atrocities of 1932, Swing It, Tan Manhattan, Brownskin Models and Hit the Stride. He teamed up with Noble Sissle to write: It’s All Your Fault, Shufflin’ Along, Love Will Find a Way, I’m Just Wild About Harry.

Ernest Bloch

Andrea Bocelli was born in 1958 in rural Tuscany. Music has been a lifelong passion and it was noted at an early age how enthralled Andrea was by opera. Through a growing collection of 78s, Bocelli spent his childhood attempting to emulate his heroes, great Italian tenors including Gigli and particularly Franco Corelli. As a child Andrea learned whole operas, dreaming of performing the great heroic and tragic roles on famous opera stages.

Bocelli's musical talents were nurtured, with classical tuition for instruments including flute and piano. However, despite a clearly beautiful natural vocal talent, formal study of the voice was not to come until later in life. While harbouring deep operatic ambitions, Bocelli's family were sceptical that music was a realistic or secure career for any young man. Respecting his parent's wishes, Bocelli studied law at the University of Pisa. After graduation Andrea practiced law in Pisa, but having achieved future security, turned his attention to formal training for his mature voice and the ambitions of his youth.

Andrea first studied under the maestro Luciano Bettarini of Prato, known for working with some of Italy's finest voices. Bocelli discovered that Franco Corelli was to give master classes. Performing for his childhood idol was a daunting prospect and acceptance as a pupil of Corelli vindicated Bocelli, strengthening the confidence to pursue his goals. Bocelli put his legal career on hold to devote his life to music.

"I don't think that one really decides to be a singer. It's decided for you, by the reaction of those around you. Perhaps one shouldn't sway 'listen to me, I want to sing for you', but if people say 'please sing for us', well...."

Andrea Bocelli is a true phenomenon. The manner in which the voice of one man captured the hearts of music lovers across five continents, is truly unprecedented. In just five years since the Italian public were introduced to the voice of Andrea Bocelli, through his remarkable triumph at the Sanremo Festival, this amazing talent has become the biggest selling classical performer to emerge in several decades. His two classical discs, "Viaggio Italiano" and "Aria", have achieved international success. Just one illustration of the huge scale of Bocelli's international popularity occurred in the US in 1999, when four of his albums featured simultaneously on the official Billboard album chart. Such a feat had been achieved only twice in recent memory, in the early 1990s by Garth Brooks and before this in the mid 1980s by U2.

Following the success of his first three albums in Italy, the contemporary album "Romanza" became Andrea Bocelli's international debut release. In just twelve months, "Romanza" transformed Bocelli into one of the globe's most popular recording artists. Conquering Europe, "Romanza" was released throughout 1997 in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia & New Zealand. "Romanza" has sold over 15 million copies to date, introducing millions of the world's music lovers to the passionate voice of Andrea Bocelli. Andrea Bocelli has since acquainted them with his passion for opera.

Léon Boëllmann lived from 1862 until 1897. His name is known to all organists because of his brilliant Toccata for the instrument, the final movement of a Suite gothique. Born in Alsace in 1862, he served as organist at the church of St. Vincent-de-Paul in Paris from 1881 until his early death in 1897.

In addition to the Toccata from the Suite gothique, Op. 25, the Douze Pièces (Twelve Pieces), Op. 16, and Heures mystiques, Opp. 29 & 30, are well enough known.

Claude Bolling

William Bolcom

Victor Borge was born in 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is an entertainer and pianist - a deliciously funny performer. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, and in Vienna and Berlin. He made his debut as a pianist in 1926, and as a revue actor in 1933. Since 1940 he has worked in the USA for radio, television, and theatre, and has performed with leading symphony orchestras on worldwide tours since 1956. He is best known for his comedy sketches combining music and narrative. He uses his classical training to skew serious music and performers.

One of the most beautiful string quartets ever written was Borodin's Second String Quartet in D Major, composted in the 1880's. Two of the melodies in the 1953 production of Kismet were based on themes from this quartet.

Lili Boulanger lived from 1893 until 1918. Encouraged by her elder sister Nadia, the French composer Lili Boulanger was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome and was prolific, during her short life, writing music very much in the prevailing style of the period.

Lili Boulanger's compositons for orchestra include Pièce, Sicilienne and Marche gaie for small orchestra and a fuller Poème symphonique.

Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979) is better known as a teacher and conductor than as a composer. In the first capacity she was responsible for the musical training of a generation of distinguished composers from Europe and America. Her work as an interpreter influenced many, not least by the part she played in the revival of interest in Monteverdi.

Nadia Boulanger's few compositions include Les heures claires, settings of poems by Verhaeren completed in 1912, after which she wrote little, although in 1908 she had won the second Prix de Rome.

Pierre Boulez was born in 1925 in Montbrison, France. He is a conductor and composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1943 until 195), and became musical director of Barrault's Théâtre Marigny (1948), where he established his reputation as an interpreter of contemporary music. During the 1970s he devoted himself mainly to his work as conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1971 to 1975) and of the New York Philharmonic (1971 to 1977), and in 1977 he became director of the Institut de Recherche et de Co-ordination Acoustique Musique at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. His early work as a composer rebelled against what he saw as the conservatism of such composers as Stravinsky and Schoenberg.

Johannes Brahms lived between 1833 and 1897. He is considered to be the foremost romantic composer of instrumental music in the late 19th century. As well as being a fine composer, he was also a pianist. Brahms' father discouraged his talent for music but Robert Schumann gave him help in reaching his goal of becoming a musician and the two remained close friends until Schumann's death.

Brahms wrote four symphonies, two piano concerti, chamber music, piano works, and over 200 songs. Some of his most famous works are Requiem, Symphony #1 in C Minor and his Symphony #4 in E Minor.

Here you will discover some interesting insight into the great composer Johannes Brahms's mind regarding his philosophy and techniques on composing and inspiration.

Anthony Braxton is an American composer and woodwind improviser, one of the most prolific artists in free jazz.

Fanny Brice, was born Fannie Borach in 1891. She debuted in the New York production of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1910. It wasn’t long before Brice became known as America’s funny girl. Brice was originally noticed by composer Irving Berlin; but was truly discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld, appearing as a Ziegfeld show girl, and then as the star of the Follies over the next 26 years. The comedienne, who sang novelty and dialect songs, also wowed the audience with her torch numbers such as, I’d Rather Be Blue, When a Woman Loves a Man, My Man and Second Hand Rose.

A regular on Rudee Vallee’s radio show, The Fleischmann Hour, in the 1920s, Brice joined The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air at age 45. The show on CBS radio was the introduction of her funny-voiced character, Baby Snooks. In 1937 she joined NBC radio and continued as the Snooks kid, a seven-year old spoiled brat. Brice’s most famous line was, “Whyyyyyy, daddy, whyyyyy?” From 1936 through 1951, Brice was one of radio’s biggest draws.

Fanny Brice died on May 29, 1951 at the age of 59 but she is still with us the Broadway show (1964) and film (1968), Funny Girl, based on her life. Barbra Streisand gained recognition and acclaim for her role in both, as Fanny Brice, Funny Girl.

Alfred Brendel was born in 1931 in Wiesenberg, Czech Republic. He is a pianist who made his debut in Graz (1948), and has since performed widely throughout Austria, where he lives. He is known for his interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and Schoenberg. He tours internationally, and has written many essays on music.

Baron (Edward) Benjamin Britten (of Aldeburgh) was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, November 22, 1913 and died in Aldeburgh, December 4, 1976 was a British composer, conductor, and pianist. He was especially admired for his skillful setting of words in his dramatic operas.

Britten began his musical studies at an early age, and although his earliest works are mostly for instrumental forces, he is perhaps best known for his choral and vocal music, especially his operas. Much of his vocal music was composed for tenor Peter Pears, and their artistic collaboration is one of the greatest in music history. Britten's musical idiom is largely in a post-romantic style, with liberal doses of pungent dissonances.

During the 1930s he wrote incidental music for plays and documentary films. He then went to the USA (1939-1942), where he wrote his violin concerto and the Sinfonia da Requiem. Back in the UK, his works were largely vocal and choral - exceptions include the famous Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell (also known as The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra).

Britten's greatest work is most likely his first opera, Peter Grimes, and the Four Sea Interludes are well-known. Premiered in 1945, it was with this work that Britten scored his first international triumph. The opera tells the story of a social outcast, the fisherman Grimes, who, suffering at the hands of an unsympathetic society and in attempting to find acceptance by that society, brings about his own tragic downfall. The theme of the individual against society is one that recurs in many of Britten's operatic works.

A pacifist, Britten composed the War Requiem to express his hope that the world can lay war to rest. The work is comprised of a setting of the Catholic Mass, juxtaposed with nine poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen, a soldier killed during the last days of World War I. The Requiem is scored for chorus, orchestra, children's chorus, chamber orchestra, and three vocal soloists. It was awarded a Grammy Award. Britten's intention was to have a Russian soprano singing the sections of the Latin Mass, while the English poems were to be sung by a British tenor and a German baritone.

Britten helped to found the annual Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, and became a life peer in 1976.