January is a big month for birthdays in classical music, including notable composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 26), Franz Schubert (Jan. 31) and Philip Glass (Jan. 31). While all these names are widely recognized, Classical Director Kevin Doherty looks at five composers born in January whose names are not quite as well known.
John Knowles Paine (January 9, 1839)
John Knowles Paine was a founding member of a group of American Romantic composers known as the Boston Six. A virtuoso organist, he was the first American-born composer to achieve large-scale orchestral success. His two symphonies are considered to be the beginning of the American Symphonic Tradition. Paine taught music at Harvard University, the first-ever collegiate program of its kind in the United States, and to this day, the concert hall at the premiere Ivy League School is called Paine Hall.
Carlos Troyer (January 12, 1837)
Carlos Troyer was born in Germany in 1837 but settled in San Francisco sometime in the mid-1800s. Troyer is best known for his involvement in the American Indianist Movement of the 19th century, transcribing the melodies of Native Americans — most notably of the Zuni people. Troyer was an author and a pianist as well. He died in Berkeley in 1920 at 83 years old.
Aaron Jay Kernis (January 15, 1960)
Aaron Jay Kernis is a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer and a leading voice in modern American composition. A Pennsylvania native, Kernis is currently on faculty at Yale University. He studied at the San Francisco Conservatory and went on to become music advisor for the Minnesota Orchestra, where he was the director of their Composer’s Institute for 15 years. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for his String Quartet No. 2. A piece of his in rotation on CapRadio is a lighthearted and entertaining spoof of the dance styles of the 1970s called 100 Greatest Dance Hits.
Melanie Helene “Mel” Bonis (January 21, 1858)
Mel Bonis was a prolific French, Romantic composer. She wrote over 300 pieces consisting mainly of chamber music and works for piano. Bonis attended the Paris Conservatory, where she was a student of Cesar Franck. Due to the obstacles women faced as composers in the 19th century, Bonis adopted a more androgynous form of her first name, Mel. If you are unfamiliar with Bonis’ music, give her Flute Sonata in C-sharp Minor a try. Her gorgeous, ethereal melodies and expert part writing for piano and flute, along with innovative harmonies, make for an enticing precursor to Debussy’s impressionism.
Muzio Clementi (January 23, 1752)
Muzio Clementi was equally revered as a leading pianist and a composer in the 18th and 19th centuries. Born just four years and three days before Mozart, the Italian-English composer famously engaged in a heated “Piano Duel” with his Austrian contemporary in Vienna at the insistence of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. The competition is said to have ended in a draw. In addition to his highly regarded career as a pianist and composer, Clementi was a music publisher and piano manufacturer. He even had full publishing rights in England for one of his greatest admirers, Beethoven. | 
