December 25 is the birthday of English composer ORLANDO GIBBONS (1583-1625).

Gibbons "was an English composer and keyboard player who was one of the last masters of the English Virginalist School and English Madrigal School. The best known member of a musical family dynasty, by the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his sudden death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons's oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd, but he made considerable contributions to many genres of his time. He is often seen as a transitional figure from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods." (Wikipedia)

January 4 is the birthday of English mathematician, scientist, theologian and alchemist SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727).

Newton "was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His pioneering book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, consolidated many previous results and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing infinitesimal calculus, though he developed calculus years before Leibniz. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential scientists in history." (Wikipedia)

December 25 is the birthday of French violinist and composer JEAN-JOSEPH DE MONDONVILLE (1711-1772).

Mondonville "was a younger contemporary of Jean-Philippe Rameau and enjoyed great success in his day. Pierre-Louis Daquin (son of the composer Louis-Claude Daquin) claimed, "If I couldn't be Rameau, there's no one I would rather be than Mondonville.'"

December 25 is the birthday of Caribbean-French violinist, conductor and composer CHEVALIER DE ST. GEORGES (1745-1799).

"Moreover he demonstrated excellence as a fencer, an athlete and an accomplished dancer. His historical significance lies partly in his distinctive background as a biracial free man of color.[a] Bologne was the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in European music. He composed an array of violin concertos, string quartets, sinfonia concertantes, violin duets, sonatas, two symphonies and an assortment of stage works, notably opéra comique." (Wikipedia)

December 25 is the birthday of EDWARD "KID" ORY Edward "Kid" Ory (1886– 1973) .

Ory "was a Louisiana jazz trombonist and bandleader. He was born in Woodland Plantation, near LaPlace, Louisiana. In 1925, Ory moved to Chicago, where he was very active, working and recording with Louis Armstrong." (Wikipedia)

December 25 is the birthday of American actor HUMPHREY BOGART (1899-1957).

Bogart's "performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema." (Wikipedia)

December 25 is the birthday of American singer-songwriter and bandleader CAB CALLOWAY (1907-1994).

Calloway "was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus 'Doc' Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon 'Chu' Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole." (Wikipedia)

December 25 is the birthday of French-American artist LOUISE BOURGEOIS (1911-2010).

The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City has an especially fine example of Bourgeois’s work, Spider.

"Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the unconscious. These themes connect to events from her childhood which she considered to be a therapeutic process. Although Bourgeois exhibited with the abstract expressionists and her work has a lot in common with Surrealism and feminist art, she was not formally affiliated with a particular artistic movement." (Wikipedia)

To see samples of her art, CLICK HERE.

December 25 is the birthday of Slovak painter, graphic artist, lithographer and illustrator Albín Brunovský ALBÍN BRUNOVSKŶ (1935-1997).

As his mastery of various techniques evolved over time, so too did his vision as an artist. When he was young, Brunovsky exhibited surrealistic tendencies—defined as a tendency to individualism and absurdity and the unchecked play of the subconscious. Later his work became more evaluative and critical of Man in relation to himself and society." (Wikipedia)

To see samples of his work, CLICK HERE.

Happy Birthday, ANNIE LENNOX!! The Scottish singer-songwriter is 70 years old today. Woo Hoo!! 🎉 🎂 🎈

"After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart went on to achieve international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. Appearing in the 1983 music video for "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" with orange cropped hair and wearing a man's lounge suit, the BBC wrote, 'all eyes were on Annie Lennox, the singer whose powerful androgynous look defied the male gaze.'" (Wikipedia)

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On December 25, 1870, Richard Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll" was first performed.

Wagner "composed the Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870, by a small ensemble of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen (today part of Lucerne), Switzerland. Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Conductor Hans Richter learned the trumpet in order to play the brief trumpet part, which lasts only 13 measures, in that private performance, reportedly having sailed out to the centre of Lake Lucerne to practise, so as not to be heard." (Wikipedia)