People in Music

This page is about people who are (or were, or have been) involved in classical music.

It contains mainly biographical details, particularly for composers.  Details of compositions, etc., are listed elsewhere (please refer to the Music Index).

Masters of the King's (or Queen's) Music(k)

The post of Master of the King's Musick was created in 1625 by King Charles I.

The first Master of the King's Musick (1625–49 and 1660–6 – the post was abolished during the Commonwealth)

Nicholas Lanier

The k was dropped during the tenure of the first appointee named in the next table.

Apart from Lanier, you are unlikely to get asked about any appointees before this one.

1924–34		Sir Edward Elgar
1934–41		Henry Walford Davies
1942–52		Sir Arnold Bax
1953–75		Sir Arthur Bliss
1975–2003 (Australian)		Malcolm Williamson
2004–14		Peter Maxwell Davies
2014–24		Judith Weir

The current incumbent is the first woman to be appointed to this post. She uses the traditional term 'Master', rather than any feminine equivalent.

Other

Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, 1979–87; took up the same post with the Berlin Philharmonic, after Karajan's death in 1989; succeeded in 2002 by Sir Simon Rattle		Claudio Abbado
French composer and virtuoso pianist, 1813–1888, probably most famous today for the story that he died after a bookcase fell on him (in fact it was probably a coat stand)		Charles Alkan
Born in Gorky, USSR (now Nizhny Novgorod) in 1937; shared the International Tchaikovsky Competition with John Ogdon in 1962; married an Icelandic fellow–pianist, and defected to the West in 1963; took Icelandic citizenship in 1972, and has lived in Switzerland since 1978		Vladimir Ashkenazy
Choirboy who sang Walking in the Air in the original animated cartoon film of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman (first shown on Channel 4, Christmas Eve 1982)		Peter Auty
Works classified by BWV numbers (Bach–Werke–Verzeichnis – Bach Works Catalogue); fathered 20 children, 7 by his first wife and 13 by his second (10 survived into adulthood)		J. S. Bach
Principal Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, 1943–68		Sir John Barbirolli
Founder of the London Philharmonic (1931) and Royal Philharmonic (1946) Orchestras		Sir Thomas Beecham
Ayrshire–born violinist: "snubbed" by First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell, after winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2004, aged 16 (he "thought that there was insufficient public interest to merit a personal message of congratulations")		Nicola Benedetti
Italian tenor: born (in Tuscany, in 1958) partially sighted, he lost his sight completely at the age of 12 after being hit in the eye by a football (when playing in goal)		Andrea Bocelli
Composer and Professor of Chemistry; founded a school of medicine for women		Alexander Borodin
English classical guitarist and lutenist, born London 1933; made three albums of duets with his Australian–born contemporary John Williams; died in 2020, aged		Julian Bream
First musician to be made a life peer (shortly before his death in 1976)		Benjamin Britten
Co–founder (with his personal and professional partner Peter Pears) of the Aldeburgh Festival (1948)
Centenary celebrated at the BBC Promenade concerts in 2013
English composer, killed in action on the Somme, 1916, aged 31		George Butterworth
Catalan soprano: sang the theme of the 1992 Olympics with Freddie Mercury		Montserrat Caballé
Born Naples 1876, died Naples 1921; described (in Wikipedia) as "arguably the greatest male operatic singer in history"; achieved great commercial success, not least due to his enthusiastic embracing of recording technology; made a record 863 appearances at the New York Metropolitan Opera		Enrico Caruso
Left his native country in 1830, aged 20, less than a month before the start of the event known as the November Uprising; settled in Paris the following year, and died there 18 years later, having been in poor health for most of his life		Frédéric (Fryderyk) Chopin
Eric Fenby was the devoted amanuensis of		Frederick Delius
Resident organist at Blackpool Tower Ballroom, 1930–70		Reginald Dixon
French–born musician: spent much of his working life in England, establishing an instrument–making workshop in Haslemere, Surrey; was a leading figure in the 20th–century revival of interest in early music; died in Haslemere in 1940, aged 82		Arnold Dolmetsch
Born in Spain, emigrated to Mexico (with parents) aged 13		Placido Domingo
Composed the East German national anthem; won Oscars for music to Hangmen Also Die (1942) and None but the Lonely Heart (1944)		Hans Eisler
Music director of the English National Opera, 1979–93; Principal Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, from 2000 to date		Mark Elder
English contralto: born 1912 in the Lancashire village of Higher Walton (between Preston and Blackburn); died of cancer in 1953		Kathleen Ferrier
English ballet dancer: born 1919 in Reigate, Surrey; real name Margaret Hookham; had a long relationship with the composer Constant Lambert.  Married a Panamanian diplomat in 1955, and was arrested when he attempted a coup against the Panamanian government; he was shot by a rival politician in 1964 and was a quadriplegic for the rest of his life; he died in 1989 (his mistress committed suicide on the same day); she (the ballet dancer) had just been diagnosed with cancer, and died 15 months later (February 1991) in Panama City, aged 71		Margot Fonteyn
Spanish composer and pianist: died in 1916 when HMS Sussex was torpedoed		Enrique Granados
German–born pianist and conductor (1819–95): gave his name to Manchester's most famous orchestra, which he founded in 1858		Charles Hallé (born Karl Halle)
Works classified by Hoboken numbers; spent much of his career as Kappelmeister (court musician) for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate in Hungary		Haydn
Four days after his death, his head was stolen by Joseph Carl Rosenbaum and Johann Nepomuk Peter, who had an interest in phrenology
Pianist (1890–1965) remembered for her morale–boosting lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery during World War II		Dame Myra Hess
Unable to support himself by his compositions, played the trombone professionally and later became a teacher – a great one, according to Ralph Vaughan Williams; served as musical director at Morley College (an adult education college in London) from 1907 until 1924, and pioneered music education for women at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith, where he taught from 1905 until his death in 1934		Gustav Holst
US composer (1874–1954), earned his living through the insurance company that he set up in 1907 (his music was little known in his lifetime)		Charles Ives
Born in 1970; in 2016, released two albums of duets with his 15–year–old self, entitled One Voice and One Voice at Christmas		Aled Jones
Principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1955–89; founder of the Salzburg Festival (1964)		Herbert von Karajan
Soloist in a 1989 recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which sold over 2 million copies and topped the UK classical charts for over a year		Nigel Kennedy
Mozart's father – himself a prominent musician and composer		Leopold (Mozart!)
Hungarian pianist and composer: said to have been the first to play the piano side–on to the audience		Franz Liszt
Founder and conductor of the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields		Sir Neville Marriner
Popular Irish tenor (naturalised US citizen 1917), received the title of Papal Count from Pope Puis XI in 1928 in recognition of his work for Irish charities		John McCormack
Indian–born conductor of the 'Three Tenors' concerts (1990, 1994)		Zubin Mehta
Australian soprano (1861–1931), after whom the renowned French chef Auguste Escoffier named several dishes while working at London's Savoy Hotel in the 1890s		Dame Nellie Melba
US–born violinist: founder of music festivals at Gstaad, Bath and Windsor; also founded a school for young musicians in Surrey, in 1963		Yehudi Menuhin
US electronic engineer, invented (and gave his name to) the first commercially successful music synthesiser		Robert Moog
Principal Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, 1992–9		Kent Nagano
Born in Kiev in 1889; described as the greatest male ballet dancer of the early 20th century; moved to St. Moritz around the end of World War I; diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1919, and never danced again; died in London in 1950		Vaslav Nijinsky
Popular composer and actor, imprisoned for four weeks during World War II for misuse of petrol coupons		Ivor Novello
British pianist, born 1926, career interrupted by schizophrenia		John Ogdon
Concert pianist and composer who became Prime Minister of Poland in 1919		Ignacy Paderewski
19th century Italian violinist, reputed to have made a pact with the Devil		Niccolo Paganini
Singer who enjoyed a long personal and professional relationship with Benjamin Britten; they were co–founders (in 1948) of the Aldeburgh Festival		Peter Pears
Soviet composer who died approximately 50 minutes before Joseph Stalin (on 6 March 1953)		Sergei Prokofiev
As Westminster Abbey organist, composed birthday odes (1690 and 1691) and funeral music (1694) for Queen Mary II; died himself less than one year after her, aged 36; buried at the foot of the organ in Westminster Abbey		Henry Purcell
Principal Conductor at the City of Birmingham SO, 1980–98, and of the Berlin Philharmonic, 2002–18; Music Director of the LSO, from 2018		(Sir) Simon Rattle
Dutch violinist (with a French name): founder of the Johann Strauss Orchestra, whose light classical concerts and recordings are so popular that the Sky Arts 2 television channel was renamed in his honour for two weeks in 2013		André Rieu
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, of Russian parents, in 1927; widely recognised as one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century; a staunch advocate of human rights, he settled in the USA in 1974 and was deprived of his Soviet citizenship in 1978; died in 2007		Mstislav Rostropovich
Oboeist who married Sir John Barbirolli		Evelyn Rothwell
Composer to the Austrian court in the 1780s; Mozart's great rival (in Amadeus); claimed to have poisoned him		Antonio Salieri
Works classified by K (Köchel) numbers: Mozart and		Scarlatti
Died in 1828 aged 31, and was buried at his own request alongside Beethoven who had died 20 months earlier		Franz Schubert
German soprano: chose seven of her own recordings on Desert Island Discs; died in 2006 aged 90		Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Fantasia para un Gentilhombre (Rodrigo): composed at the request of (he is presumed to be the gentleman of the title)		Andres Segovia
Indian sitar virtuoso and composer, made famous by his collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin and the Beatles (particularly George Harrison)		Ravi Shankar
Composed his second piano concerto in 1957 to celebrate his son's 19th birthday; dedicated it to him, and the son conducted it at its premier		Dmitri Shostakovich
Czech composer: died in a mental asylum in Prague in 1884, aged 60 – possibly of syphilis – having been completely deaf for the last ten years of his life		Bedrich Smetana
London–born conductor (with a Polish father and an Irish mother) whose best–known work is in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia		Leopold Stokowski
Mozart's pupil and copyist; completed the Requiem after Mozart's death		Franz Xaver Sussmayr
Born Sydney, 1926; nicknamed La Stupenda after her performance of the title role in Handel's Alcina at La Fenice (Venice) in 1960; once described by Pavarotti as "the Voice of the Century"; died in 2010 near Montreux		Joan Sutherland
Hungarian–born music director of the Cleveland Orchestra (one of the United States' 'Big Five') from 1946 to 1970		George Szell
Conductor at the opening of Carnegie Hall, New York		Tchaikovsky
Sang Handel's Let the Bright Seraphim at Charles & Diana's wedding		Kiri Te Kanawa
Italian–born conductor, widely considered to be the greatest of his era; the NBC Symphony Orchestra was created for him in 1937; died in New York, 1957, aged 90		Arturo Toscanini
Italian composer: name translates as Joseph Green		Giuseppe Verdi
Real name Philip Heseltine; noted for his unconventional behaviour, including an interest in the occult (hence the pseudonym); the art critic Brian Sewell is said to be his illegitimate son; died in 1930 of gas poisoning, aged 34 – possibly suicide		Peter Warlock
Austrian composer, shot near Salzburg in 1945 for breaking curfew		Anton von Webern
Pianist who married Robert Schumann; also beloved of Wagner		Clara Wieck
Austrian pianist, lost his right arm in World War I – Ravel wrote a concerto for the left hand in his honour (1929/30)		Paul Wittgenstein
Conductor who founded the Promenade Concerts in London (1895)		Sir Henry Wood

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23