January Musicians Birthdays on Stamps

It’s time to celebrate January Musicians Birthdays on Stamps. A lot of musicians and composers appear on stamps. You can read about many of them on this blog, from classical composers to American pop stars. Yet, in order to highlight a few more of these stamps and the musicians on them, I am sharing a monthly calendar of musicians birthdays. It will not even be close to complete. Yet, each moth I will select a few stamps from my collection and share them with links to relevant articles elsewhere on my blog. If you are looking for more musician birthdays you can check out this site.

January 2
Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer. He is best known for being a proponent of Russian nationalist music and encouraging other prominent composers, particularly Tchaikovsky. Balakirev was a member of a group of Russian composers known as “The Mighty Handful,” or “The Five.” The others in the group were Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Nickolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky. Balakirev’s most famous works include Islamey an Oriental Fantasy for piano solo, his Symphony No. 1 in C Major, and his symphonic poem Tamara.

January 4
Josef Suk (1929-2011) was a Czech violinist, composer, and conductor. He studied with Antonin Dvorak and was greatly inspired by his music. The two men became close and Suk married the composers’ daughter. Suk became a leader in Czech modernism.

January 6
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was a Russian pianist and composer. He was renowned for his mastery of the piano, though he started composing at an early age. HIs first works were in the Romantic style, though he gradually became a leader in early modernism and atonality. Scriabin had synesthesia and associated colors with musical pitches and harmonies.

January 8
Elvis Presley (1935-1977) was an American singer known as “The King” of rock and roll. He was one of the most significant cultural figures of the twentieth century and was a teen icon. Some of his greatest hits were the songs “Hound Dog,” “Love Me Tender,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” and “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Robby Krieger (b. 1946) is an American guitarist and singer and was a member of “The Doors.” He is an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was a co-writer for many of the famous songs by the band including “Light My Fire,” and “Love Me Two Times.” Krieger was listed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

January 14
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was an Alsatian organist and Bach scholar. In addition to his musical accomplishments he was also a humanitarian, theologian, philosopher, and physician. He was a recipient of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy on the “Reverence for Life.” Schweitzer also founded a hospital in what is now Gabon.

January 16
Ethel Merman (1908-1984) was an American singer. She was known for her powerful voice and her leading roles in musical theater. Merman created several iconic roles in show including Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly! She went on to perform many of these stage roles in musical versions. She also had many hit songs with standards such as “I Got Rhythm,” “Everything’s Coming UP Roses,” and “It’s De-Lovely.”

January 19
Ferdinand Laub (1832-1875) was a Czech violinist and composer. He made his first public performance on the violin at the age of six and gave a solo concert at ten in a theater in Prague. He became a virtuoso in Vienna where he performed at the Imperial court. In 1850, he began touring Europe. He gave up touring in 1866 and began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory.

Kaddour Srarfi (1913-1977) was a Tunisian violinist and composer.

Janis Joplin (1943-1970) was an American rock singer and songwriter. She was one of the most successful female rock musicians of the 1960s and was known for her powerful mezzo-soprano voice and for her energetic stage performances. She became famous after singing at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, fronting the psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. She left the band after two albums. She had hits with “Piece of my Heart,” “Cry Baby,” “Down on Me,” and “Ball and Chain.” She died at the age of 27 in 1970.

January 20
Lead Belly (1888-1949) was an American folk and blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was known for playing the twelve-string guitar, but he also performed on mandolin, harmonica, violin, and button accordion. Lead Belly left home at the age of fifteen to become a musician and traveled the south where he picked up a number of folk styles. He also served time in prison where he learned other songs. He was recorded by the Lomax’s who brought his music to a wider audience.

January 22
Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981) was an American operatic soprano. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest sopranos of the twentieth century. She was born to Italian immigrants living in the town of Meriden, Connecticut, Ponselle had her professional start in vaudeville shows where she appeared along with her sister Carmela. After singing for Enrico Caruso, Ponselle was given an audition for The Metropolitan Opera. She spent the majority of her career performing in roles for this New York City opera company.

January 23
Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) was a Romani jazz guitarist and composer. He is considered the first major jazz figure to come from Europe. Reinhardt is credited with creating the subgenre of “hot jazz” along with violinist Stephane Grapelli. They formed the Parisian jazz band known as the Quintette du Hot Club de France.

January 25
Wilhelm Furtwangler (1886-1954) was a German conductor and composer. He held the post as the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra from 1922 until 1945, and then after World War II from 1952 until 1954. He was also a guest conductor at major orchestras throughout Europe including at the Vienna Philharmonic. He is somewhat controversial in that while not a professed Nazi, he was the most important conductor to remain in Germany and in a major orchestral position during their time in power.

January 26
Stephane Grapelli (1908-1997) was a French-Italian jazz violinist. He began playing violin at the age of twelve and though his parents encouraged him in lessons and he eventually studied for a time at the Paris Conservatoire, Grapelli preferred playing by ear and gravitated towards more folk fiddle styles. At the age of 15, he began to support himself through busking and then joined an orchestra accompanying silent movies. He is most famous for his work with Django Reinhardt and their style of “hot jazz” music.

January 27
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer. Born in Salzburg into a musical family, Mozart was the first internationally famous child prodigy musician. He toured throughout Europe at an early age, impressing audiences with his musical prowess. Many subsequent musical children tried to copy his success. He went on to become one of the greatest composers of all time, spending much of his life in Vienna. Mozart composed for all musical forms and ensembles popular during his lifetime from solo keyboard works, to chamber works, concertos for several different instruments, large form sacred works, and even opera.

January 28
Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982) was a Polish-American classical pianist. Rubinstein is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. He showed signs of musical talent at an early age and by the age of four was already a musical prodigy. At ten, he moved to Berlin to study and gave a performance with the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of 13. Rubinstein performed piano recitals for eight decades and many considered him the foremost interpreter of the music of Frederick Chopin.

January 30
Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) was a German composer, flutist, and flute maker. He spent the majority of his professional career at the court of Frederick the Great. He composed hundreds of pieces for the flute and also wrote an important treatise on playing the instrument. Quantz was also an innovative flute maker, building from at least 1739 forward, he added a second key to the instrument (the Eb) to help with intonation.

January 31
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was an Austrian composer. Though he lived to be only 31 years old, he had an enormous creative output. He is known to have written more than 600 songs, mostly secular lieder, along with seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, chamber music, and piano solos. Born in a suburb of Vienna and spent most of his life in and around the City.