Classical Piano June Composers

 Happy June birthday to the following classical composers of piano music who were born in June! Tomoko has played the pieces of several of these famous musicians.

Mikhail Glinka was born June 1, 1804, in Novospasskoye, Russia. He is known as the father of Russian classical music. As a child, the first music he heard were church bells (which he didn’t like) and folk songs, which influenced his compositional style, particularly his art songs.

Robert Schumann was born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany. He wanted to have a career as a virtuoso pianist, but a hand injury dashed that dream. The musical world benefitted as he became a renown composer for piano; in fact, he wrote exclusively for the piano until 1840.

Richard Strauss was born June 11, 1864, in Munich, Germany. He bridged the late Romantic and early modern styles. He is famous for his lieder tone poems piano compositions.

Edward Grieg was born June 15, 1843, in Bergen, Norway. He was both a concert pianist and composer of the Romantic era. His mother was his first piano teacher.

Igor Stravinsky was born June 17, 1882, in Lomonosov, Russia. He is most known for his Firebird suite, The Rite of Spring, Petrushka, and is 1924 Sonata for piano. After his Russian phase, her transitioned to a more austere neoclassical style.

Charles Gounod was born June 18, 1818, in Paris, France. He is best known for his Ave Maria and his “Funeral March of a Marionette,” which was used as the theme song for the TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was born June 21, 1732, in Leipzig, Germany. He was Johann Sebastian Bach’s ninth son. He wrote mainly keyboard compositions: for sonatas, choir pieces, oratorios, motels, operas, and songs.