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Leclair, Jean-Marie

(Encyclopedia)Leclair, Jean-Marie zhäN-märēˈ ləklĕr [key], 1697–1764, French violinist and composer. Leclair studied in Italy, and his music was strongly influenced by Italian models, especially Vivaldi, al...

Koechlin, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Koechlin, Charles shärl kāklăNˈ [key], 1867–1950, French composer. Koechlin studied composition with Massenet and Fauré. He composed in all forms and many styles, but his music is rarely perfor...

Grainger, Percy Aldridge

(Encyclopedia)Grainger, Percy Aldridge grānˈjər [key], 1882–1961, Australian-American pianist and composer. A friend of Grieg, whose music he often played, he settled (1914) in the United States after establis...

Humperdinck, Engelbert

(Encyclopedia)Humperdinck, Engelbert hŭmˈpərdĭngk, Ger. ĕngˈəlbĕrt ho͝omˈpərdĭngk [key], 1854–1921, German composer and teacher. He is known chiefly for his first opera, Hänsel und Gretel (1893), suc...

Rochester, University of

(Encyclopedia)Rochester, University of, at Rochester, N.Y.; co-educational; chartered and opened 1850. It is noted for the Eastman School of Music (1918), the Memorial Art Gallery, its schools of dentistry and medi...

Masekela, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Masekela, Hugh măsˌəkĕlˈə [key], 1939–2018, South African singer, composer, band leader, and trumpet player. After working with several South African jazz bands, he and his then-wife Miriam Ma...

Smetana, Bedřich

(Encyclopedia)Smetana, Bedřich bĕˈdərzhĭkh smĕˈtänä [key], 1824–84, Czech composer, creator of a national style in Czech music. He studied in Pilsen and in Prague, where in 1848, with the encouragement o...

Little Richard

(Encyclopedia)Little Richard, 1935–2020, American musician and singer, b. Macon, Ga., as Richard Wayne Penniman. One of the first rock musicians in the 1950s, he recorded such tunes as “Tutti Frutti,” “Long...

Antheil, George

(Encyclopedia)Antheil, George ănˈtīl [key], 1900–1959, American composer, b. Trenton, N.J. He went to Europe in 1920 and became known for his iconoclastic approach to music. In 1927 a performance of his Ballet...

Erskine, John, American educator, author, and musician

(Encyclopedia)Erskine, John, 1879–1951, American educator, author, and musician, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1900; Ph.D., 1903). He taught first at Amherst (1903–9) and then at Columbia, becoming pr...