Category Archives: Other Notable Birthdays

Nora Clench~ May 6, 1867-May 17, 1938

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World renowned violinist Nora Clench was a child prodigy, born Esther Leonora Clench in what is now Ontario, Canada. Nora made her debut as a violinist at the age of 8. When she was fifteen she entered the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, and after graduating in 1889 she became first violinist and leader of an orchestra in Buffalo, New York. She later toured Europe and eventually moved to London. • In 1900 Clench temporarily gave up playing the violin in order to go to Paris to paint. When she returned to music she founded the all-female “Nora Clench Quartet”, which played a prominent role in the music of fin de siecle London. • Clench again retired from the violin in 1908, at the age of 41, when she married the Australian landscape painter Arthur Streeton. The Nora Clench Quartet continued without her. In 1923, the Streeton family moved to Australia. In 1937 Streeton was given a knighthood for his services to fine art, and Clench became Lady Streeton. • Nora Clench died in Australia in 1938; her husband died in September 1943 after a long illness. The couple’s property with its house, studio and cottage, in 5 acres of garden, remains in the ownership of the Streeton family today.

Biography & Photos~
http://www.riversidestmarys.biz/story-of-nora-clench/
Program of her farewell appearance~ https://archive.org/details/cihm_36309


Nude Study (1903) attributed to Nora Clench

Rudolph Valentino: Born May 6, 1895

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While in New York during the spring of 1923, Rudolph Valentino paid a visit to the Brunswick studios and recorded two songs. El Relicario in Spanish and The Kashmiri Song in English. According to legend, Valentino recorded these songs for his new bride, Natacha Rambova since they had recently wed after a few very tense years of legal difficulties concerning Valentino’s divorce from Jean Acker.
It was reported that after he heard his voice, he quipped “There goes my opera career!“
https://www.popsike.com/19231926-Rudolph-Valentino-SingsKashmiri-Love-SongEl-Relicario-78rpm-Record/200783413331.html

Queen Elizabeth II: Born April 21, 1926

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BabyLizNational Portrait Gallery Collection~
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01454/queen-elizabeth-ii
Queen Elizabeth II: Her first year~
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/20/world/gallery/tbt-queen-elizabeth-ii-first-year/
Why Queen Elizabeth Has Two Different Birthdays~
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/04/why-queen-elizabeth-has-two-different-birthdays
More Queen Elizabeth here~
https://schristywolfe.com/2015/04/21/elizabeth-alexandra-mary-born-april-21-1926/

Sisters

Leopold Stokowski: Born on April 18, 1882

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This great conductor was born on 18 April 1882 and died on 13 September 1977…Stokowski began his conducting career at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1909, at the young age of 27….After a few years in Cincinnati, however, Stokowski moved on to the Philadelphia Orchestra and molded it into one of the finest orchestras in the world. In fact, Rachmaninoff claimed that the Philadelphia WAS the finest orchestra in the world.
FROM http://www.classical.net/music/guide/society/lssa/stokybio.php

Stokowski arrived in Los Angeles January 2, 1938 to record the Sorcerer’s Apprentice with a hand-picked orchestra of 85 Hollywood session musicians…Disney had decided that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice short film needed to be expanded to a full-length movie, in order to be financially viable. Fantasia was issued in 1941 and 1942, and was released again many times over the years, and continues even today to play in some theaters.
FROM http://www.stokowski.org/1939_1940_Electrical_Recordings_Stokowski.htm

Mickey

Leopold Stokowski was a frequent visitor to the [New York] Philharmonic over the years, appearing with the Orchestra on nearly 200 occasions…In his last appearance with the Philharmonic, on February 8, 1969, he led a program of music by Bach and two modern works inspired by him: Lukas Foss’s Phorion, and Rock Variations and Fantasy on a Brandenburg Concerto, written and performed by the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble.
FROM https://nyphil.org/about-us/artists/leopold-stokowski

Bessie Smith: Born on April 15, 1894

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Smith’s childhood in 1890s Tennessee began with a series of setbacks that most people don’t get over: Her parents were dead by the time she was 10, and she and her siblings were raised in Chattanooga by an aggrieved older sister. They nearly starved. For money, her sister took in laundry. Young Bessie sang on the street and at churches that sent for the child with the extraordinary voice.

By the age of nine, she had a following. By 16, she’d met blues great Ma Rainey and begun traveling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a touring variety show that played to rural populations of the South and Midwest. By 24, Smith had lit out as a solo act…
FROM https://www.npr.org/2018/01/05/575422226/forebears-bessie-smith-the-empress-of-the-blues

https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bessie-smith-mn0000054707/biography
http://www.naxos.com/person/Bessie_Smith_2941/2941.htm

Lily Pons: Born on April 12, 1898

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Few opera stars have led such an impressive career. For over a quarter of a century, her coloratura voice captured the stages of Paris, London, Buenos Aires, Mexico, and the United States. Like Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti, she acted in second-rate films about opera stars, which were surprisingly well-attended.

Her sweet soprano voice had an extremely high tessitura. It was said she could hold a high D for about a minute. The Metropolitan Opera revived roles especially for her, like Delibes’ Lakmé, Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’or.
FROMhttp://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/s/sny60655a.php

In 1932, the tiny Frederick County post office of Lilypons opened for business. “It was a dot on a map, because nobody has ever been quite sure what to call it. Lilypons, Md., was never a city, town or even a hamlet,” said The Evening Sun in 1986. “It is now what it has always been: one frame building surrounded by a small cluster of ponds nestled into a bdaycakepeaceful crook of the Monocacy River eight miles south of Frederick.” In 1963, during a period of cost cutting, the Postal Service discontinued the Lilypons postmark and combined its functions with the nearby Buckeystown post office. A plaque commemorating the tiny post office was mounted on the building in 1986. ~Fred Rasmussen FROMhttps://www.baltimoresun.com/

Tom Lehrer: Born April 9, 1928

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Thomas Andrew “Tom” Lehrer is a retired American singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and ’60s. ~Wikipedia

Biography~ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/tom-lehrer-mn0000611877/biography

“Looking For Tom Lehrer”~
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom-lehrer?utm_term=.ruJ6aPBRrd#.xq4Xe2dq4w

Billie Holiday: April 7, 1915-July 17, 1959

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withDog“Billie Holiday was the daughter of Clarence Holiday. Her early life is obscure, as the account given in her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, is self-serving and inaccurate.

At some point after 1930, she began singing at a small club in Brooklyn, and in a year or so moved to Pods’ and Jerry’s, a Harlem club well known to jazz enthusiasts. In 1933, she was working in another Harlem club, Monette’s, where she was discovered by the producer and talent scout John Hammond. Hammond immediately arranged three recording sessions for her with Benny Goodman and found engagements for her in New York clubs.
FROM~ http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_holiday_billie.htm

BHolidayStrange Fruit: the first great protest song~ http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/16/protest-songs-billie-holiday-strange-fruit

The Guardian~“Billie Holiday’s centenary: a life in pictures”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2015/apr/07/billie-holidays-centenary-a-life-in-pictures

SFGate~“Billie Holiday at 100: Artists reflect on jazz singer’s legacy”
http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Billie-Holiday-at-100-Artists-reflect-on-jazz-6177350.php

Looking For Lady Day’s Resting Place? Detour Ahead~ http://www.npr.org/2012/07/17/156686608/looking-for-lady-days-resting-place-detour-ahead