Well if you can call him a musician, Englebert Humperdinck (mark 2!) is 72 today

At the weekend Gennadi Rozdhesvensky was 77. Harpist Marisa Robles 71
Tammy Wynette would have been 66 today.

Also today it's the birthdays of John Flansburgh (of They Might Be Giants) and Bob Seger.

Never heard of those two !!

I got my husband's opinion and he said he thinks it is quite alright to have not heard of them. Husband used to manage a record shop so he knows about the public recognition of musical names, sounds, etc!

They Might Be Giants only really had one hit in the UK, "Birdhouse in Your Soul" in 1990. Just because I know them from both before and after that, most other people won't.

Bob Seger is American 'FM Rock", as my husband put it. A bit sort of middle-of-the-road, adult-oriented rock. A bit Smashie and Nicey, a bit Bachman Turner Overdrive, he was saying. Funny, I know hise name but couldn't name a Bob Seger song; but my husband said most people would recognise at least one of his songs if they heard it, but wouldn't be able to name him or his song. He's also done some stuff with the Eagles which kind of gives you the genre.

Still, I have a tendency to name people and get blank looks. In late 2007 I was working in the US for a week, and we dialled in to a teleconference. When I dial in from the UK, with a UK hosted conference I get something Beethoven-y to listen to, and with a US hosted conference I get something on the rocky-side-of-pop piano-y to listen to. When I was in the US and we dialled in, they didn't get music, they just got silence interrupted by occasional advertising for the conference service. I commented that it was funny, when at home I got some music that sounded like "they couldn't quite afford Bruce Hornsby". My American colleagues found this most amusing.
I made a similar comment when back in the UK, comparing the Beethoven-y-ness to the not-quite-Bruce-Hornsby-ness, and just got blank looks from everyone (except one person, who said "Didn't he do that song? 'The Way It Is' or something?"

Anyway, today...

Brahms (would have been 175)
Tchaikovsky (would have been 168)
Anne Dudley (52; member of "The Art of Noise", composer of the soundtrack to The Full Monty, and the Jeeves and Wooster theme tune)

Bob Seger (and his backing group The Silver Bullet Band) is probably best known for a lovely song called "We've Got Tonight".

Soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom is 81 today

Following on from last post, two more eminent sopranos had birthdays yesterday, Heather Harper was 78 and Felicity Lott was 61.

Roy Massey, Organist at Hereford Cathedral is 74 today.

Billy Joel is 59 today.

I love her music!

Songwriter Burt Bacharach is 80 today.

Jane Glover is 59 today, Stevie Wonder is 58 today, David Hill (cond of BBC Singers) is 51 today, and my favourite violinist Tasmin Little is 43 today.

Kenny Ball is 78 today

I always remember being very embarrassed when I was at school that I shared a birthday with Kenny Ball...

If it's any consolation, Wagner would have been 195 today

Umm...no, it isn't, sorry - afraid Wagner doesn't do it for me (sorry, Deborah - I'm a Stone Age fan)!!!

It would be for me though What do you mean "would have been" ? I'm sure he's still around, probably sharing a desert island (and the discs) with Elvis..

Quite right too! And in the same vein, in December, Beethoven will be 238

and he (or his music) is wearing very well

Yesterday composer Thea Musgrave was 80, and Liverpool organist Ian Tracey was 53 (I thought he was younger than that !).
Today Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German baritone legend, is 83, and would you believe Kylie Minogue is 40!

Conductor Mark Elder was 61 on Monday. Suzi Quattro is 58 today.

Cecilia Bartoli is 42 today

Nancy Sinatra was 68 yesterday. Bonnie Tyler was 57.

Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage is 48 today. Chick Corea is 68.

Tenor Ian Partridge is 70 today

Today writer, broadcaster, critic, and one time tenor, John Amis is 86 today.

Barry Manilow is 65 today.

Igor Strvainsky would have been 126 today.

Paul McCartney is 66 today

Conductor Libor Pesek (formally of Royal Liverpool Phil) is 75 tomorrow.

Conductor Claudio Abbado is 75 today, only a few days after Libor above!

Katherine Jenkins was 28 at the weekend.

And composer Hans Werner Henze is 82 today.

Singer Debbie Harry is 63 today

Ringo Starr is 68 today

Is he not more famous as a narrator?

Tenor John Mark Ainslie is 45 today.
Courtney Love is 44 today.

Former Singer, Ian Wallace is 89 today. Former Opera Singer Josephine Veasey is 78 today, and super accompanist Graham Johnson is 58 today.

Composer Harrison Birtwistle is 74 today (Though I have never enjoyed any of his work!)

Julian Bream (Guitarist and Lutenist extraordinaire) is 75 today

Pinchas Zuckerman is 60 today, and Joanne MacGregor is 49

I had been forgetting about this thread. Today Ann Murray , mezzo-soprano is 59. Conductor Sian Edwards is 49.

Today John Shirley-Quirk is 77 ! I recall singing in ' A Sea Symphony' in Harrogate in the 70's. He also did the Copland 'Six American Songs' His 'I bought me a cat' was a right laugh.
Also today pianist Imogen Cooper is 59.
For the record, though he's not in 'Maestro' anymore , David Soul is 64 today.

Itzhak Perlman was 63 yesterday.

Flautist Susan Milan is 61 today

Christopher Hogwood is 67 today. Thomas Allen is 64 today

Soprano Jessye Norman was 63 yesterday

At the weekend, John Dankworth was 81, John Harle was 52, and Liam Gallagher was 36 (should I really include him in this company ??)
Today Andrea Bocelli is 50 (yes, really!), and bass John Tomlinson is 62.

A few more, if not classical.

Bruce Springsteen is 59, Julio Iglesias is 65, Gerry Marsden is 66.

Today pianist Kathryn Stott is 50. Organist Nicholas Kynaston is 67 (Once heard him give a great recital at the Kelvin Art Gallery in Glasgow)

Beethoven was 238 yesterday! (I was too late to post last night and some say his birthday is today!).

*Has a Beethoven CD fest planned for this evening!*

Another December birthday like the two of us!

I share my birthday with Sibelius (the composer that is, not the computer program ).

Tommy Steele was 72 yesterday and 'Rolling Stone' Keith Richards is 65 today

'Cellist Steven Isserlis has just celebrated his 50th birthday.

Violinist Andrew Manze is 44 today.
I noted that over the holiday period, Ian Bostridge was 45 ! I didnt think he was anywhere near that.

Today Sir Simon Rattle is 54, and Dolly Parton is 63.

Oh, and Phil Everley is 70. (for those if you old enough to remember the Everley Bros)