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May 11

1791 Jan Václav Vorísek – Bohemian composer, pianist and organist; died of tuberculosis in 1825 at the age of 34 and was buried at a Vienna cemetery, where within three years his idol Beethoven (in 1827) and his friend Schubert (in 1828) ended up as well.

1855 Anatoly Liadov – Russian composer, teacher and conductor (d.1914); along with his natural talent came indolence and a certain self-critical lack of confidence that stood in the way of his advancement, like when the commission he had received from Serge Diaghilev for the ballet The Firebird was finally transferred to Igor Stravinsky.

1888 Irving Berlin – Russian-born American composer (d.1989); born ‘Isidore Balin’ in present day Belarus; one of the greatest songwri9ers in American history, his music forming a significant part of ‘The Great American Songbook’.

1895 William Grant Still – African American composer (d.1978); often referred to as ‘the Dean of African-American composers’.

1954 Judith Weir – English composer (70 years old); best known for her operas and theatrical works. She was appointed Master of the King’s Music by Queen Elizabeth II, the first woman to hold the office.

1961 Cecile Licad – Filipina virtuoso pianist (63 years old); The New Yorker dubbed her ‘a pianist's pianist’; studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with three of the greatest performer/pedagogues: Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski.

2000 first performance of Pluto, the Renewer by Colin Matthews (as a new contribution to Gustav Holst's The Planets), in Manchester by the Hallé Orchestra, Kent Nagano conducting; Holst’s work had premiered 12 years before the discovery of Pluto, and ironically, six years after Matthews ‘completed’ Holst’s suite, Pluto was officially reclassified not a planet but a ‘dwarf planet’.