Happy birthday, Duke Ellington!

It is the birthday of composer, pianist and band leader Duke Ellington (1899), whose career spanned a half century in which he wrote more than 1,000 compositions. He is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Here he plays his band's signature song, Take the A-Train, by Billy Strayhorn.

Felix Mendelssohn, child prodigy

It is the birthday of German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809), who was a child prodigy. He began piano lessons at age 6.  He was influenced by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. He wrote music at least from the age of 12. The Overture A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826) was written when he was 17. Mendelssohn was a contemporary of Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz. He was a prolific composer, writing chamber music, piano music, concertos, operas, and symphonies. He also served as a conductor, pianist, organist and teacher.

Franz Schubert's birthday

It is the birthday of Austrian compositor Franz Schubert (1797), who was unusually prolific in his short life, composing more that 600 symphonies, operas, songs, chamber music and piano solos. He died at age 31. Enjoy Schubert's beautiful Ave Maria.

Happy birthday, composer Virgil Thompson

It is the birthday of composer and music critic Virgil Thompson (1896), whose score for the documentary Louisiana Story won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1949. He lived in Paris in the 1920s, where he knew Aaron Copland, Jean Cocteau, e.e. cummings, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Ezra Pound, Orson Welles, and Gertrude Stein, who became his mentor. He was music critic for the New York Herald-Tribune for 14 years.