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Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff lived from 1873 until 1943.
He was born in Russia and was famous as a composer, conductor and pianist. He based the style of his symphonies and other works on the late romanticism of Wagner. Rachmaninoff left Russia in 1917 to live in Switzerland and the U.S.
He is best known for his piano concerti, including the Prelude in c-sharp minor and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini in 1934. This Rhapsody includes 24 variations.
Rachmaninoff's birthday
History of the Piano
Rachmaninoff MIDI Section
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Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau lived from 1683 until 1764 and was generally regarded as the greatest French
musical dramatist. He is best remembered as a Baroque composer for
harpsicord.
Rameau's birthday
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Rampal
Jean-Pierre Rampal, a flutist born in 1922, in the southern port city of
Marseille, the son of a flute teacher who did not encourage his son
to become a professional musician. His early interest was medicine. He became serious about music during World War II, after Nazi occupying
forces in France drafted him for labor in Germany. He left medical
school and went underground in Paris, where he studied at the National
Conservatory and attracted the attention of the Paris musical community.
When Mr. Rampal began his career, the flute was often overlooked as
a solo instrument, with audiences preferring more traditional solo
works for piano and violin. During his decades-long career, Mr. Rampal
helped propel the flute back into the spotlight.
He said he believed his career began at an auspicious time, as
Europeans turned away from heroic music after the war. "With all this
bad mess we had in Europe during the war," he said, "people were
looking for something quieter, more structured, more well balanced
than Romantic music. This is why Baroque music was so successful
after the war."
After the war ended, he became principal flutist in the Paris Opera's
orchestra.
He was much loved in North America, where he performed recital tours
annually, topped Billboard charts and gained recognition as a conductor.
One of the most recorded classical musicians in history, he was
best-known for his love of Baroque music, though he played everything
from jazz to Indian music to English folk songs, said Sony Classical,
his record label. Mr. Rampal's trademark was his gold flute, with
which he never parted.
The French president, Jacques Chirac, said in a statement that Mr.
Rampal's flute "spoke to the heart." He has played with New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago,
Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Houston, Minnesota, San Francisco, San Diego and Cincinnati symphony orchestras.
Rampal's birthday
anniveriversary of Rampal's death
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Ravel
Maurice Ravel lived between 1875 and 1937. He is considered to be an impressionistic composer, because he tried to capture the mood of the action instead of the action itself.
He was one of the most original French composers, famous for his technical
mastery of compositions.
Maurice Ravel's work was influenced by another Impressionistic composer, Claude Debussy.
Born in Ciboure, France. He studied under Fauré at the Paris Conservatoire, and
won recognition with the Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899, Pavane for a Dead Princess). He
wrote several successful piano pieces, Rapsodie espagnole (1908, Spanish Rhapsody), and the
music for the Diaghilev ballet Daphnis et Chloé (first performed, 1912). After World War 1, in
which he saw active service, his works included the "choreographic poem' La Valse (1920), the
opera L'Enfant et les sortilèges (1925, The Child and the Enchantments), and Boléro (1928),
intended as a miniature ballet.
Bolero is his most famous piece. It is unique because it is a single melody, repeated over and over, louder each time.
Ravel's birthday
Ravel MIDI Section
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Reger
Max Reger (Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger) lived from 1873 until 1916. He was a composer who was born in Brand, Germany. He studied at Weiden, taught music at Wiesbaden and
Munich, and became director of music at Leipzig University (1907), then professor (1908). He
composed organ music, piano concertos, choral works, and songs.
Reger's birthday
Read quotes by and about Reger
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Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was a
viola-player, pianist and composer. His most famous works are Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome), Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome), and
Feste romane (Roman Festivals). His Pines of Rome is featured in Fantasia 2000.
Respighi's birthday
anniversary of Respighi's death
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Rice
Tim Rice (popular name of Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice) was born in 1944. He is a
lyricist, writer, and broadcaster, born in Buckinghamshire, SC England, UK. He
has co-written lyrics on many award winning records, has appeared on numerous radio and TV
quiz shows, and written several books. He is best known for writing the lyrics to music by Andrew
Lloyd Webber for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1968), followed by Jesus
Christ Superstar (1971) and Evita (1978). Later works include the lyrics for Chess (1984),
Cricket (1986), Starmania (1991), and Beauty and the Beast (1997). He was knighted in 1994. Rice is currently working on Aida with pop star Elton John.
His Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is due to be released on video in the U.S. March 28, from Universal.
You can pre-order Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from amazon on either video or DVD.
Rice's birthday
Nominated for a Broadway Tony Award
News Item about Rice's Aida
News Item about Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
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Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter lived from 1915 until 1997. He was a pianist who was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory (1937--42), and won the
Stalin Prize in 1949. He has since made extensive concert tours, with a wide repertoire, and has
been associated with the music festivals at Aldeburgh and Spoleto.
Richter's birthday
anniversary of Richter's death
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Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimski-Korsakov lived from 1844 until 1908. He was a Russian composer, born in Tikhvin, Russia, known for his colorful and brilliant orchestration as in his
symphonic suite Sheherazade, composed 1887 to 1888, based on the tales of the "Arabian Nights" Song of India and The Flight of the Bumblebee.
His early
musical education was perfunctory, but his interest was kindled after meeting Balakirev in 1861. He wrote his first symphony in 1865.
In 1871 he was made a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he was able to develop
his technique. He produced three great orchestral masterpieces, Capriccio Espagnol, Easter Festival,
and Scheherazade, but his main works after that were operas, such as The Golden
Cockerel (1907). Ever conscious of his earlier technical shortcomings, he rewrote almost all his early
work. He also edited and completed works by Borodin and Mussorgsky.
As a teacher, his pupils included Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
Rimsky-Korsakov's birthday
anniversary of Rimsky-Korsakov's death
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Robinson
Bill "Bojangles" (Luther) Robinson, born in 1878 and died in 1949, was a vaudeville dancer, tap-dancing coach for Sammy Davis, Jr. and Shirley Temple. He began dancing professionally at age eight in Louisville, Ky.,
then moved to New York City in 1891 to dance in the popular musical, The South Before the War.
He performed in vaudeville and later was one of the few black dancers to star on the Keith circuit.
He first performed on Broadway in 1928, becoming the first African-American to star in a Ziegfield
Follies. He danced in the first movie to have its own original musical score, Dixiana (1930), and
during the 1930s and 1940s he danced in black revues and musicals. He appeared in four films with
Shirley Temple, including The Little Colonel (1935); although extremely popular in their day, these
films would later be criticized for forcing this superb dancer into the role of a shuffling servant. He
starred in the movie Stormy Weather (1943). Known as "the King of Tapology," he was one of the
first performers to tap dance on his toes (as opposed to flat-footed), he led in using tap dance to
create rhythmic sound, and is credited with originating the routine of tapping up and down stairs.
Robinson's birthday
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Rodgers
Richard Rodgers was the
Academy Award-winning composer of It Might as Well be Spring in 1945 and half of Rodgers and (Lorenz) Hart and
Rodgers and (Oscar) Hammerstein. Together, they wrote The Sound of Music, Love Me Tonight, My Funny Valentine, The Lady is a
Tramp, Oklahoma!, State Fair, The King and I, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Carousel, Getting to Know You and
Some Enchanted Evening.
Rodgers' birthday
anniversary of Rodgers' death
Read about Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "South Pacific"
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Rorem
Rorem's birthday
Read quotes by and about Rorem
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Rossini
Antonio Rossini (1792 - 1868) was an Italian operatic composer whose style is
famous for its frequent long crescendos. His best known opera is The Barber of Seville (based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais).
Rossini's overtures to The Barber of Seville and William Tell are often played in movies and on TV.
Rossini was considered to be lazy, although he composed a great deal of music. He often composed in bed and if a sheet of music fell on the floor, he would write a new one, rather than bend down to pick it up.
By the age of 37, in 1829, he had already written 40 operas and was the most popular musician in the world. In France, he was paid a pension that allowed him to feast on caviar, truffles and champagne every day.
William Tell was his last opera and it is very well known to many people as the theme to The Lone Ranger and many TV cartoons.
Rossini's birthday
Read quotes by and about Rossini
Interesting information about Rossini
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Rostropovich
Mstislav (Leopold) Rostropovich, born in 1927 is a composer and cellist. Born into a distinguished musical family in Baku, USSR, he began piano lessons
with his mother at the age of four, then switched to cello studies with his father at the age
of eight. He made his cello debut in 1940. His conducting debut was in 1961 in the USSR.
As pianist he accompanies his wife, the acclaimed soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, in recital.
His extensive discography includes many performances in that role, and together they
have toured the world. With the London Symphony Orchestra he has collaborated on a
number of major festivals, among them his own sixtieth birthday series in 1987,
Shostakovich: Music from the Flames (1988), a twelve-concert series celebrating the
centenary of Sergei Prokofiev's birth in 1991, two more celebrating the music of Britten
(1993) and Schnittke (1994), and his 70th birthday celebrations with the LSO in 1997. His
latest recordings with the LSO have included the Shostakovich symphonies and works
featuring young soloists just beginning their musical careers.
His most important legacy is the large number of works written for him by greatest
composers: Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Miaskovsky, Shostakovich, Britten, Lutoslawski, Bliss and Dutilleux He was conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Rostropovich’s musicianship has earned him numerous awards, including the Albert
Schweitzer Music Award and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Music Prize, previously
given only to Benjamin Britten and Olivier Messiaen. His recordings have brought him the
world's most coveted recording prizes, including a Grammy award and the Grand Prix du
Disque. He holds over 40 honorary degrees, and over 30 different nations have lavished
more than 100 decorations and prizes upon him, including the Knight Commander of the
Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Commander of the Legion d'honneur of France,
membership in the Academy of Arts of the French Institute, often called the 'Forty
Immortals'. the Japan Art Associations Praemium lmperiale, and, from the United States,
the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Kennedy Center Honours of 1992. Prior to
leaving for the West in 1974, he had received the Stalin Prize, had been named a People's
Artist of the USSR, and was a recipient of the Lenin Prize, the nation's highest honour. For
his support of the democratic forces during the aborted coup in Moscow in August 1991,
Rostropovich was presented with the State Prize of Russia.
Mstislav Rostropovich’s various efforts on behalf of human rights, artistic freedom and
humanitarian aid have garnered him various awards and medals, among them the 1974
Annual Award of the International League of Human Rights.
Rostropovich's birthday
Interesting information about Rostropovich
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Rubinstein
Rubinstein's birthday
Read quotes by and about Rubinstein
In Praise of Pianos and the Artists Who Play Them
Paderewski's Piano
News Item about Rubinstein
History of the Piano
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