15 February 23

Henry Steinway, originally Heinrich Engelhardt Steinweg, was born on 15 February 1797. He became famous as a piano builder and the founder of Steinway & Sons. My tie shows a flowing keyboard accompanied by a harp, violins and a wooden horn/flute.

15 February 22

Today marks the birthday of Henry Steinway (2/15/1797 - 2/7/1871), builder of pianos and founder of the Steinway & Sons company. His original name was Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg but he changed it to Henry Steinway after moving from Germany to New York in 1851. When 2-year-old Evelyn saw this tie today she first said "What that on your tie?" but then she immediately shouted "piano!"

25 October 21

This is the birthday anniversary for Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) and Georges Bizet (1838-1875). My tie shows a flowing keyboard with a violin, harp and some kind of long horn. Maybe you want to help guess what kind of horn it is?

11 September 19

September is National Piano Month. I learned to play the piano when I was 5, in 1958, and my first teacher was my sister Gloria. Today my tie shows a ribbon of piano keys!

17 February 19

I'm going to call 17 February "Lesser Known Musicians' Day." My tie sports a harp, violin, keyboard and wooden (?) horn. What follows is a list of 45 musicians born on this date. How many names do you recognize?

1444 Rudolf Agricola, [Roelof Huysman], Dutch humanist/organist
1653 Arcangelo Corelli, Italian violinist/composer (Concerto Grossi), born in Fusignano, Italy (d. 1713)
1667 Georg Bronner, German composer and organist, born in Hamburg (d. 1720) baptismal date
1675 Johann Melchior Conradi, composer
1696 Ernst Gottlieb Baron, composer, born in Breslau Silesia
1697 Louis-Maurice de La Pierre, composer
1747 Narciso Casanovas, composer
1754 Jan Jachym Kopriva, Czech composer and organist, born in Cítoliby, Czech Republic (d. 1792)
1796 Giovanni Pacini, composer
1816 Friedrich Wilhelm Markull, composer
1820 Henri Vieuxtemps, Verviers Belgium, composer/teacher (Brussels Cons)
1831 Francisco Salvador Daniel, composer
1850 Anton Urspruch, composer
1850 Ludwig Bonvin, composer
1858 Ernest Ford, English composer, born in Warminster, Wiltshire (d. 1919)
1862 Edward German (Jones), Whitchurch Shropshire, British composer
1882 Kurt Schindler, composer
1887 Leevi Antti Madetoja, composer
1906 Ramon Tapales, composer
1907 Alec Wilder, composer (1973 ASCAP award), born in Rochester, New York
1913 Oskar Danon, Yugoslav composer, born in Sarajevo (d. 2009)
1913 Rene Leibowitz, composer
1915 Homer Keller, American composer (d. 1996)
1920 Paul Fetler, American composer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1925 Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)
1926 Friedrich Cerha, composer
1926 Lee Hoiby, composer (1957 Arts & Letters), born in Madison, Wisconsin
1930 Usko Merilainen, composer
1932 Buck Trent, Spartanburg SC, banjoist/singer (Hee Haw)
1933 Bobby Lewis, singer (Tossin' & Turnin'), born in Indianapolis, Indiana
1935 Johnny Bush, country singer
1939 John Leyton, British singer
1941 Gene Pitney, vocalist/songwriter (Town Without Pity), born in Hartford, Connecticut
1944 Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer
1948 José José, Mexican singer and actor
1957 Loreena McKennitt, Canadian musician
1966 Quorthon, Swedish musician (Bathory) (d. 2004)
1966 Michael Lepond, American musician
1967 Chanté Moore, American R&B singer, actress and author (Precious), born in San Francisco, California
1970 Tim Mahoney, American musician (311)
1971 Martyn Bennett, Canadian composer (d. 2005)
1972 Billie Joe Armstrong, singer/musician (Green Day), born in Oakland, California
1972 Taylor Hawkins, American musician (Foo Fighters)
1974 Kaoru, Japanese musician
1991 Ed Sheeran, English singer-songwriter (Shape of You, Thinking Out Loud), born in Halifax, England

17 July 17

Three hundred years ago today, Handel's "Water Music" premiered! You can listen to a beautiful concert hall rendition at this link. Today also marks the 82nd birthday of Peter Schickele, who has been discovering the unpublished musical works of P. D. Q. Bach since 1965, and the 1928 birthday of jazz musician and pianist Vince Guaraldi, who is most famous for his compositions for the animated Peanuts® cartoons.

29 August 16

Among this week's birthdays we can celebrate #330 for Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel (1686-1764) today, and #363 for his father Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) on Thursday, 1 September. Both were composers; you are probably very familiar with Johann's "Canon in D."

16 February 16

Yesterday was the birthday of Henry Steinway (1797-1871), founder of the Steinway & Sons piano company. My tie celebrates keyboards and several instruments. My own history with Steinway pianos goes back to childhood piano lessons (with a Steinway at one teacher's home) and several recitals. Our own upright piano is a Baldwin from around 1929.

4 May 14

May The Fourth Be With You! Besides being "Star Wars Day," today marks the 359th birthday of Bartolomeo Cristofori, credited as the inventor of the piano.

12 September 13

September is National Piano Month! Celebrate by playing a piano today.

7 May 12

Happy Birthday, Johannes Brahms (1833) and Peter Tchaikovsky (1840)!

15 February 11

Today marks the birthday of Henry Steinway (2/15/1797 - 2/7/1871), builder of pianos and founder of the Steinway & Sons company. His original name was Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg but he changed it to Henry Steinway after moving from Germany to New York in 1851.

01 September 10

The National Piano Foundation (NPF) celebrates National Piano Month every September. This month is also "Classical Music Month"!

02 February 10

Today marks the birthday of two extraordinary violinists, Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) and Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987). Another musician, Graham Nash (of Crosby, Stills and Nash (and Young)), was born on this date in 1942.

01 September 09

September is "Classical Music Month," at least since 1994.

19 April 09

No special occasion for today, so I'm simply celebrating music.

16 December 08

Today marks the birthday in 1770 of Ludwig van Beethoven. I don't have a tie (yet) that features either Beethoven himself or Schroeder (from Peanuts®) at his piano, so this very musical tie went to work today.