1582 Marco da Gagliano – Italian composer (d.1643); important in the early history of opera and the development of the solo and concerted madrigal.
1602 William Lawes baptized – English composer (d.1645); younger brother of the more famous composer Henry Lawes (1595-1662).
1786 premiere of Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro at the Burgtheater in Vienna; a cornerstone of the standard operatic repertoire; number six on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.
1872 Hugo Alfvén – Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter (d.1960); his Swedish Rhapsody No. 1—Midsommarvaka (Midsummer Vigil)—was written in 1903 and is often just called the ‘Swedish Rhapsody’; it’s the best-known piece composed by Alfvén, and one of the best-known works of Swedish music; the composer’s nephew, Hannes Alfvén, received the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics.
1895 Leo Sowerby – American composer and church musician (d.1968); winner of the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1946, and often called the “Dean of American church music” of the early to mid-20th century.
1899 Jón Leifs – Icelandic composer, pianist, conductor and writer (d.1968); most famous work is his Requiem, dedicated to his younger daughter Lif, who died in a drowning accident at the age of 18.
2002 first performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Blue Cathedral by the Curtis Institute Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Curtis Institute of Music.