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(b Pisky, near Khar′kiv, 8/Sept 20, 1876; d Paris, Jan 8, 1945). Ukrainian composer and pianist. Aged ten he was sent, along with his brother Yakiv (later known as the composer Stepovy), to sing in the choir of the Imperial Chapel in St Petersburg. It was during his time there (1886–95) that he began to compose under the influence of his teachers Balakirev and Lyapunov. He finished studies with Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov at the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1901, the year in which the latter conducted the first performance of the Lyric Poem, op.20. Akimenko then became the director of a music school in Tbilisi (1901–03). He performed widely as a pianist, particularly in France and Switzerland, and lived for a while in Paris (1903–06) before returning to Khar′kiv. In 1914 he was invited to teach composition and theory at the St Petersburg Conservatory, a post he held until ...

(b Santiago, Sept 2, 1911; d Santiago, Aug 2, 1954). Chilean composer and pianist. He studied with Allende for composition and Renard for the piano at the Santiago National Conservatory (1923–35), where he then held appointments as coach at the opera department (1935), assistant professor of the piano (1937), professor of analysis (1940), and director (1945). At the same time he taught at the Liceo Manuel de Salas in Santiago. He was secretary-general to the Instituto de Extensión Musical (from 1941), a founder-director of the Escuela Moderna de Música, Santiago (1940), and a member of various arts societies. In 1943 he went to the USA as a guest of the Institute of International Education and in 1953 he was in Europe for the performance of his Wind Sextet at the ISCM Festival. His early compositions show the influences of French music and Chilean folklore; from the late 1940s his work became more Expressionist and abstract....

[née WilckeWülcke]

Member of Bach family.

(b Sept 22, 1701, Zeitz; d Feb 17, 1760, Leipzig). German singer, keyboard player, music copyist, teacher, and the second wife of Johann Sebastian Bach. Surviving contemporary documents, including those signed by her, use a German feminine form for her married surname, ‘Bachin.’ She began her career as a well-paid musician; in various documents she is called ‘princely court Singer’ (fürstl[liche]. Sängerin); ‘chamber musician’ (Cammer-Musicantin) and ‘Frau Capellmeisterin’ (Madame Music-Director); she was an integral collaborator in the Bach family’s musical success. Later in her life, she acted as music manager of Leipzig church services and as sales agent for influential musical works such as her husband’s Art of Fugue (bwv1080) and the Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (part 1, 1753), a keyboard treatise by her stepson Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

Anna Magdalena Wilcke was born into a family of musicians. Her mother, Margaretha Elisabeth Wilcke née Liebe (...

[not Jean-Baptiste]

(b Lunel, 1710; d Paris, Dec 1, 1772). French haute-contre singer, music teacher, cellist and composer. His début in 1733 at the Paris Opéra, according to La Borde, was in the monologue of Pélée, ‘Ciel! en voyant ce temple redoutable’ from Act 3 of Collasse's Thétis et Pélée (1689). He soon joined the Italian troupe, performing in divertissements between the acts of operas. After three years he returned to the Opéra and took several minor roles between 1737 and 1745 in Rameau's works: Un Athlète in Castor et Pollux (1737), Un Songe in Dardanus (1739), Lycurgue in Fêtes d'Hébé (1739), and Tacmas (replacing the well-known haute-contre Tribou) in the third entrée of Les Indes galantes (1743 revival). In 1743 he sang the title role in the première of Boismortier's ballet-comique, Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse, with the famous soprano Marie Fel as Altisidore. Two years later he retired from the opera to devote himself to teaching and playing the cello. He became first cellist of the orchestra at the Comédie-Italienne in ...

(b Big Cove, Qualla Boundary, NC, May 13, 1918; d Big Cove, March 28, 2012). Native American elder, singer, dancer, banjoist, and teacher. A member of the Cherokee tribe, he was introduced to Cherokee music and dance as a child by his uncle Will West Long, an elder in the Big Cove community and co-author of Cherokee Dance and Drama (Berkeley, 1951, 2/1983). He taught and performed Cherokee music and dance and formed the Raven Rock Dancers in the 1980s. Calhoun is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing his work as a teacher and culture bearer including the first Sequoyah Award in 1988, the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1990, and a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1992. He may be heard on such albums as Where the Ravens Roost: Cherokee Traditional Songs of Walker Calhoun (Mountain Heritage Center Recording, ...

Member of Corri family

(b Edinburgh, ?1784; d Baltimore, Feb 19, 1832). Italian composer, tenor, pianist, and teacher, son of Domenico Corri, and possibly twin brother of Montague Philip Corri. As P. Antony Corri he was well established as a composer in London from about 1802 to 1816, when many of his piano pieces and songs were published. His L’anima di musica (1810) is the most extensive piano tutor of its period, and ran to several editions. He was a founder of the London Philharmonic Society and the Royal Academy of Music in 1813, and was director of the Professional Society in 1816. He was expelled from the Philharmonic in December 1816 (due to a scandal probably involving his wife) and emigrated to the USA, where he settled in Baltimore by autumn 1817. There he was christened Arthur Clifton on 31 December 1817 and remarried the following day. He served as organist of the First Presbyterian Church (...

(b Philadelphia, PA, Oct 30, 1886; d New York, NY, Jan 25, 1962).

American pianist, composer, singer, and teacher. His early musical studies were with his father, Samuel James Diton, a professional musician. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1909 and became the first African American pianist to make a cross-country tour of the United States. A protégé of E(mma) Azalia Hackley, he received a scholarship to study in Munich, Germany from 1910–11. After returning to the United States, he taught at Paine College, Georgia (1911–14), Wiley University, Texas (1914–15) and Talladega College, Alabama (1915–18). Seeking a more active musical community, he returned to the Northeast, where he continued to perform as a pianist. He accompanied singers such as Marian Anderson and Jules Bledsoe, and taught privately in Philadelphia and New York City. Also an active composer, he gained acclaim for his solo and choral transcriptions of Negro spirituals and won many prizes for his compositions, including a Harmon award for composition in ...

[Vincentio, Vincenzio]

(b S Maria a Monte, Tuscany, probably in the late 1520s; d Florence, bur. July 2, 1591). Italian theorist, composer, lutenist, singer and teacher. He was the leader of the movement to revive through monody the ancient Greek ideal of the union of music and poetry.

Galilei was probably born later than his traditionally accepted date of birth of about 1520. As a youth he studied the lute. It was probably his playing that attracted the attention of Giovanni de' Bardi, his principal patron, who facilitated his theoretical studies with Zarlino in Venice, probably about 1563. By that time he had settled in Pisa, where in 1562 he married a member of a local noble family. The scientist Galileo (who was born in 1564) was the first of his six or seven children; another was the lutenist Michelagnolo Galilei (b 18 Dec 1575; d 3 Jan 1631...

(Thomas )

(b Hollywood, CA, April 13, 1945; d Arlington, VA, June 29, 1979). American Rock singer, songwriter, guitarist, and leader of the group Little Feat.

Georgia, University of. State university founded in Athens in 1785. The university’s current enrollment exceeds 34,000 students. The Department of Music was established in 1928 with the hiring of alumnus Hugh Hodgson as the first professor of music, and was later named the Hodgson School of Music. The first degree programs were established between 1930 and 1941. Currently the school offers the BA and BM in composition, education, therapy, performance, and theory, and a certificate program in music business. Graduate degrees include the MA, MM, MME, EdS, DMA, EdD, and PhD in musicology, composition, conducting, performance, music literature, education, theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology. In 2009 enrollment reached 450 students (300 undergraduates, 150 graduate students) guided by a faculty of 65. The Music Library holds over 130,000 titles, including the archival collections of Guido Adler, ...

(Pasquale)

(b Vienna, Jan 1, 1825; d Vienna, Dec 20, 1890). Austrian violinist, singer, composer and teacher. He began his career as a violinist, as a pupil of Mayseder, and at the age of 12 performed his own Violin Concerto in E minor, dedicated to Spohr, at the Vienna Redoutensaal. After a period touring in Italy he went to Paris, where Rubini and Meyerbeer urged him to become a singer. In 1843, after study with Rubini and Bordogni, he made a successful début at Padua in Donizetti’s La regina di Golconda, appearing later in Verona and Genoa. In 1847 he went to London to appear with Jullien, and from 1850 to 1861 he made several provincial concert tours in England with Grisi, Alboni, Mario and others. He then settled in London, where he taught for many years at the RAM, retiring a few months before his death. Goldberg was commissioned by the Italian government in ...

(b Brooklyn, NY, Jan 4, 1887; d Chapel Hill, NC, Sept 4, 1963). American pianist, singing teacher, and composer. He was the son of the sculptor Robert P. Golde. He studied piano with Hugo Troetschel in Brooklyn, and credited the development of his tastes to attending performances at the Metropolitan Opera and Walter Damrosch’s children’s concerts. At Dartmouth College he wrote a three-act musical show for his class prom, the success of which decided him in favor of a musical career. After graduating in 1910, he spent three years at the Vienna Conservatory studying counterpoint and composition with Robert Fuchs, as well as voice and score reading. He returned to New York and accompanied many well-known musicians, including Elman, Thibaud, Casals, Salmond, Tertis, Rethberg, Jeritza, Gerhardt, Teyte, Garden, Bampton, Seagle, Bonelli, Tibbett, and Melchior. His song At Nightfall (1918) was the first of many that were to become part of the repertories of famous singers; he also wrote piano music. Golde conducted the De Feo Opera Company in ...

[Rhodes (née Guy), Helen M.]

(b Château Hardelot, nr Boulogne, c1858; d London, Jan 7, 1936). French composer, pianist and singing teacher. She was the daughter of an English sea captain and the singer Helen Guy. At the age of 15 she was taken to Paris, where she studied at the Conservatoire under Renaud Maury, and success came in her early 20s with the song Sans toi (words by Victor Hugo). Gounod and Massenet were among those who encouraged her in composition, and those who introduced her songs included Nellie Melba, Victor Maurel and Pol Plançon, as well as Emma Calvé, with whom she went to the USA in 1896 as accompanist. After marrying an Englishman she settled in London, where she continued to produce sentimental songs, about 300 in all, notable for their easy melody and typical dramatic climax. They include Three Green Bonnets (H.L. Harris; 1901), Because (E. Teschemacher; ...

(Kaleihoku )

(b Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan 7, 1881; d Miami, FL, 1962). Hawaiian ukulele, slide guitar, and mandolin player, singer, writer, teacher, and manufacturer. Active in a wide variety of musical roles, he was the most influential Hawaiian musician of the early 20th century. An accomplished performer and recording artist, he played in and organized many ensembles as the century opened, and was said to have established Honolulu’s first modern dance band, fostering a number of talented musicians including Johnny Noble. From 1909 to 1917 he manufactured ukuleles through the Kaai Ukulele Manufacturing Company and initiated the role of the ukulele as a featured instrument of the Hawaiian orchestra (see Ukulele). He subsequently introduced and popularized Hawaiian music through his music schools in Honolulu, Detroit, and San Francisco, and on ensemble tours of Australasia, Southeast Asia, Japan, and India between 1911 and 1937.

He wrote the earliest known ukulele method (...

(b Budapest, April 27, 1919; d Budapest, May 22, 1981). Hungarian viola player, singer and teacher. He studied at the Budapest Academy with Imre Waldbauer (violin), 1934–9, and with Imre Molnár (singing), 1937–43. While still a student he sang in oratorio and changed from the violin to the viola. He was appointed a professor of singing at the academy in 1946, and leader of the viola faculty in 1947, when he also became principal viola of the Hungarian State Opera orchestra. The first Hungarian to gain an international reputation as a viola player, he won the 1948 Geneva International Competition, and toured widely in Europe. He was admired for his warm timbre, faultless technique and stylish musicianship over a wide repertory, and he applied the style of the Hungarian violin school to the viola. He gave the first performance of Hartmann's Concerto at the 1958 Venice Biennale, and inspired a number of new works by Hungarian composers, including Gyula Dávid’s Concerto, which he recorded. Lukács brought about a new critical appreciation of the viola in Hungary, and was an outstanding teacher. He edited classical and modern works and published a pedagogical work, ...

(b c1600; d after 1664). French composer, lutenist, singer and teacher. He was active in Paris at least from 1630 to 1648. He was best known in his day as a private teacher: in 1643 Gantez spoke of ‘Vincent, Métru and Massé, the three most famous and famished masters in Paris’ (his actual words are ‘fameux et affamez’). Macé’s chansons and airs, written in syllabic style, have affinities with those of Bataille but lack the depth of feeling of Antoine Boësset’s. His Cantiques spirituels, in French and for two voices, have remarkable dramatic qualities which foreshadow those of late 17th-century French recitative. His Reigles très faciles is simply a little manual for teaching purposes. According to La Borde he also composed ‘rather a good mass and several motets’, but these are now lost.

published in Paris

(b Germany, c1800; d Brooklyn, NY, Sep 11, 1884). American composer, teacher, singer, and pianist of German birth, He appeared in public concerts in New York from 1819 to about 1834 as a singer and pianist, and was a pianist for the first and second seasons of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society in 1842–4. His compositions for piano, some of which are in the Library of Congress, were published between the 1820s and the 1850s and include some half dozen sets of fine and technically demanding variations. He also wrote polkas, waltzes, cotillions, and other dance music, and a few songs, some with chorus. He may have been related to Raymond Meetz, another pianist, teacher, and composer active in New York.

(selective list)

All published in New York, n.d., unless otherwise indicated; estimated dates of publication are given in brackets.

Member of Montero family

(b 1839; d 1881). Venezuelan composer, singer, flautist, and educator, son of José María Montero. His earliest dated composition is a zarzuela, Colegiales son colegiales, of 5 March 1868. Other stage works, El charlatan mudo, Diomira and Virginia, date from 1873. In 1875 he became maestro de capilla of Caracas Cathedral and presided over feasts such as Corpus Christi, S Pedro and Holy Week. On 20 April 1876 he presented to the Venezuelan ministers a proposal for a national musical institute to educate musicians, print Venezuelan compositions and reprint foreign music. He further proposed a musical periodical, the Gazeta musical. Among his board of directors he mentioned the musicians José de Jesús Alas, Rogerio Caraballo and S. Talavera. The President of Venezuela decreed that the institute be created to accommodate 45 students.

The style of Montero’s sacred compositions is rhythmically versatile, dynamic, yet fluid and graceful. His orchestration is dense, with sudden changes in dynamics. He often favoured a homophonic declamatory style and used major–minor shifts and effective word-painting....

(b Brescia, May 13, 1822; d Warsaw, April 10, 1893). Italian flautist, singer and teacher, who worked in Poland. He studied with Basili at the Milan Conservatory. From 1839 he was band-master at Mantua, and later at Genoa, Turin, Milan, Venice and Berlin. He moved to Warsaw in 1843 with Rocca's Italian touring opera company and from 1845 to 1891 ran a singing school there, using his own teaching methods, and in 1846 published a Méthode simplifiée de chant. From 1845 he was joint conductor of the Warsaw Opera with N.T. Nidecki; after Nidecki's death he became sole conductor and held the title of director of opera, shared simultaneously by a number of other conductors, including Moniuszko. He introduced to Warsaw the operas of Meyerbeer (Les Huguenots, Le prophète, Robert le diable, L'Africaine), Halévy (La Juive), Gounod (Faust), Verdi (Jérusalem, Ernani...

[first name unknown]

( fl late 18th century). Italian singer, keyboard player, teacher and composer . Originally from Turin, but in Paris at least from 1778 until 1783, Madame Ravissa quickly made her talents known by singing airs by Pasquale Anfossi and Antonio Sacchini at the Concert Spirituel (25 March 1778), publishing a collection of ...

(Francesco)

(b Genoa, bap. ?July 6, 1632; d London, July 23, 1685). Italian composer, singer, lutenist, guitarist and teacher. He sang bass in the troupe of Italian musicians employed by Queen Christina in Stockholm (not Rome, as stated in EitnerQ, Grove5 and MGG1) from 30 November 1652 to 1 March 1653; he may have stayed in Sweden until the queen’s abdication in 1654. He is reported to have travelled to Germany and Spain, and there is documentary evidence dated September 1657 that about that time he sang in the French royal choir. By July 1664 he was in England: Pepys noted ‘one slovenly and ugly fellow, Seignor Pedro, who sings Italian songs to the theorbo most neatly’. He remained in England, settling in London and Oxford and earning his living by singing, playing and teaching music. The private homes in which he performed included those of Pepys and Evelyn. According to Evelyn in ...