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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.