The month of June is often associated with romance and weddings. Tomoko was born in June, the same month as several of her favorite composers of the Romantic age.
Mikhail Glinka. (born June 1, 1804 in Russia) was the first Russian composer to be well known in his country, creating operas, orchestral works, chamber music, art songs, along with piano pieces. For years his composition "Patrioticheskaya Pesnya" was the country’s national anthem.
Robert Schumann (born June 8, 1810 in Germany) intended to become a virtuoso pianist, but instead he became known as one of the greatest Romantic era composers. For years, he wrote only piano pieces; later he added other orchestral instruments to his compositions and write many lieder.
Richard Strauss (born June 11, 1864 in Germany) wrote his first composition at age six and continued composing music into his eighties. He represents later German Romanticism. He is best known for his operas, but also wrote tone poems, lieder, orchestral works, chamber works, and solo pieces. Straus also made live-recording play piano rolls.
Edvard Grieg (born June 15, 1843 in Norway) made Norwegian
music famous and helped develop its national identity, especially when he based
his compositions on Norwegian folk music. Grieg was the cournty’s leading Romantic
composers. Professionally, he started as
a concert pianist, but was inspired by Norwegian composers he met to write his
own music, including piano pieces.
