MARCH 20

John Braham

1680 Birth of Italian composer Baron Emanuel d'ASTORGA in Augusta Sicily. aka Gioacchino Cesare Rincon. A composer of operas and cantatas. d-Madrid(?), 1757.(?)

1723 FP of G. F. Handel's Concerto in F (HWV 331) at the Drury Lane Theater, in London. (New calendar: 31 MAR).

1739 FP of Handel's Organ Concerto in A (HWV 296a) at a benefit performance of Handel's cantata Alexander's Feast. (New calendar: 31 MAR). 

1739 Birth of composer Eligio Celestino.

1748 FP of Handel's oratorio Joshua. (New calendar 9 MAR).

1774 Birth of tenor John Braham. d-17 FEB 1856. BIO. Debut 1796 Teachers, Michael Leoni, Venanzio Rauzzini Pupils, Fanny Corri-Paltoni, Adelaide Kemble Created Huon in Oberon (Weber) Araspe in Artemisia (Cimarosa).[ed note: Not to be confused with the American conductor and composer, John J. Braham.]

1804 Birth of soprano Louise-Zulema Dabadie-Leroux in Boulogne. Died Nov 1877 Debut as Antigone in Oedipe (Sacchini) 1821 Created Jemmy Tell in William Tell (Rossini) Sinais in Mose in Egitto (Rossini).

1811 Birth of German pianist Louisa DULCKEN in Hamburg. d-London, 12 APR 1850.

1812 Death of Bohemian pianist and composer Jan Ladislav DUSSEK in Tschaslau. b-Caslav, Bohemia 12 FEB 1760.

1829 Birth of American composer Charles A. WHITE. d-1892.

1833 Birth of composer Henry Southwick Perkins.

1843 Debut of 14 year old pianist Anton Rubinstein at a Philharmonic concert attended by Tsar Nicholas I, in St. Petersburg.

1861 Birth of soprano Sigrid Arnoldson   in Stockholm. Died 7 Feb 1943 Debut as Rosina in Narbiere di Siviglia (Rossini) 1885 Teachers, Oscar Arnoldson, Desiree Artot de Padilla, Mathilde Marchesi, Maurice Strakosch.

1863 Birth of Brazilian pianist and composer Ernesto NAZARETH in Rio de Janeiro. d-2 FEB 1934.

1866 Death of Dutch composer Rikard Nordraak. b-12 JUN 1842.

1872 Birth of composer Bernhard Seklas.

1883 Birth of composer Karl Hasse. d-1960.

1887 FP of Vincent d'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Air at a Lamoureux Concert, in Paris.

1890 Birth of Italian tenor Beniamino GIGLI in Recanati. d-Rome, 30 NOV 1957. Debut as Ezio in Gioconda (Ponchielli) 14 Oct 1914 Teachers, Agnese Bonucci, Antonio Cotogni, Lazzarini, Enrico Rosati Pupils, Rina Gigli (daughter), Walter Gullino, Mischa Alexandrovitch.

1890 Birth of Danish tenor Lauritz Melchior

   in Copenhagen. Lauritz MELCHIOR Died 18 Mar 1973 Debut as Silvio in Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) 2 Apr 1913 Teachers, Anna Bahr-Mildenburg, Paul Bang, Victor Beigel, Ernst Grenzebach, Vilhelm Herold Pupil, William Cochran.

1890 Birth of Maria Janowska Soprano Born 20 Mar 1890 Poznan Poland Died 31 Dec 1977 Debut as Zofi in Halka (Moniuszko) 1913 Teacher, Jean de Reszke Created Angele in Tsar Has A Photograph Taken (Weill)

1894 Birth of soprano Anne Roselle   in Budapest. Debut as Musetta in Boheme (Puccini) 1915

1894 FP of S. Rachmaninoff's symphonic fantasy The Rock (New calendar 1 APR). Rachmaninoff: The 3 Symphonies, The Rock Op. 7

1898 FP of Antonin Dvorák's symphonic poem The Wild Dove Op. 110, in Brno. aka The Wood Dove Op. 110.

1904 Death of soprano Louisa Payne. Born 27 Aug 1832. Debut as Amina in Sonnambula (Bellini) 1849 Teacher, Smart Created Lurline in Lurline (Wallace) Bianca in Bianca (Balfe) Satanella in Satanella (Balfe).

1908 Birth of Italian composer Enzo BORLENGHI in Riva del Garde.

1914 FP of George Butterworth's On The Banks of Green Willow in London.

1915 Birth of Russian pianist Sviatoslav RICHTER, at Zhitomir in The Ukraine, the son of a musical family of German extraction. His father was trained at the Vienna Conservatory and was a pianist and teacher. His mother was a gifted musician. He gave his first recital at the age of 18. He studied with Heinrich Neuhaus in Moscow. He died 1 AUG 1997 near Moscow of heart failure. Search for Sviatoslav RICHTER

1917 Death of tenor Emilio De Marchi. Born 6 Jan 1861 in Voghera. Debut as Alfredo in Traviata (Verdi) 1886 Created Cavaradossi in Tosca (Puccini).

1918 Birth of German composer Bernd Alois ZIMMERMANN in Bleisheim, near Cologne. d - (Suicide) Konigsdorf, 10 AUG 1970.

1921 Birth of composer Primoz Ramovs.

1923 Death of tenor George Hamlin. Born 20 Sep 1869 in Elgin, Ill. Debut as Paul Merrill in Natoma (Herbert) 1911 Teachers, Frank Baird, Georg Henschel, Mrs Rudolph Magans.

1927 Birth of South African born English composer John Pierre Herman JOUBERT in Cape Town.

1928 The New York Symphony Society and the New York Philharmonic Society unite to become the Philharmonic-Symphony Society Orchestra of New York.

1929 FP of Bela Bartók's String Quartet No.4. Waldbauer Quartet, in Budapest.

1930 Birth of composer Michel Magne.

1931 Birth of composer Antonio Tauriello.

1932 Birth of American electronic music composer Tod DOCKSTADER in St. Paul, MN.

1933 Birth of composer Jacquez Guyonnet.

1939 Birth of American composer C. Rudolph EMILSON.

1939 Birth of American pianist Ralph VOTAPEK in Milwaukee.

1945 Birth of Polish-American composer Jerzy SAPIEYEYSKI.

1948 Eugene Ormandy conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra on CBS TV in the first symphony concert to be televised in the United States. Assisted by affiliate WCAU-TV, Channel 10, in Philadelphia. The concert was televised live. Ninety minutes later, NBC-TV carried TV’s second symphonic concert. This one was from Carnegie Hall in New York City. Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra performed compositions by Richard Wagner.

1956 FP of Samuel Barber's Summer Music Op. 31, at the Detroit Institute of Arts by the Detroit Chamber Music Society of principal wind players of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

1960 Birth of soprano Linda Kitchen in Lancashire. Debut as Juliet in Let's Make an Opera (Britten) 1981 Teachers, David Keren, Audrey Langford, Nicholas Powell Barbara Robotham Created Elaine in Lancelot (Hamilton) 3rd Maid in Geburtstag der Infantin (Zemlinsky).

1960 Death of soprano Hertha Stolzenberg. Born 1889 in Cologne. Debut 1910.

1980 Death of soprano Gertrude Ribla. Born 1918 in Brooklyn, NY. Debut as Aida in Aida (Verdi) 1949 Teacher, Frances Alda Sang in premiere of Lord Byron's Love Letters (De Banfield).

1989 Death of soprano Rita Streich . Born 18 Dec 1920 in Barnaul. Debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss) 1943 Teachers, Erna Berger, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, Maria Ivogun Pupil , Dinah Harris Sang in premiere of Julietta (Erbse).

1990 Death of tenor Ronald Dowd. Born 23 Feb 1914 in Sydney. Debut as Hoffmann in Contes D'Hoffmann (Offenbach) 1948 Created in Claudius in Hamlet (Searle) Mosbie in Arden Must Die (Goehr)

2000 Death of American composer Vivian Fine in Bennington, VT, at age 86 following an automobile accident. b-28 SEP 1913. Vivian Fine: A Bio-Bibliography...

2002 FP of New chamber work from Jay Reise of University of Pennsylvania. The Cassatt Quartet premiered his string quartet Memory Refrains in Philadelphia, where the Quartet is in residence at the University of Pennsylvania. 

2013 Death of American soprano Risë STEVENS aka Risë Steenberg. Debut in Bartered Bride (Smetana) 1931. Teachers were Herbert Graf, Marie Gutheil-Schroder, Orry Prado, Anne Shoen-Rene. b-11 June 1913. Obit