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Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernist[1] composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown,[2] though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original".[3] Ives combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music, and was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones,[4] foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century.

Sources of Ives' tonal imagery are hymn tunes and traditional songs, the town band at holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster.

Thomas Hampson (born June 28, 1955, Elkhart, Indiana) is an American lyric baritone.

Thomas Hampson grew up in Spokane, Washington. He studied with Marietta Coyle, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Martial Singher, and Horst Günther. In 1980 he took the second prize at the 's-Hertogenbosch International Vocal Competition, and in 1981 first place in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. In 1992, Hampson earned a BA degree in Government from Eastern Washington University. He also studied at the Music Academy of the West.

As the protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Hampson recorded Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with him for Deutsche Grammophon, a recording that is widely appreciated. After this and up to the time of the conductor's death, Thomas Hampson contributed to many major Bernstein recordings.

Today considered one of America's leading baritones, Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a wide range of roles: the title roles in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet, and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin; Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville, Germont in Verdi's La traviata and more recently also Amfortas in Wagner's Parsifal and Scarpia in Tosca. In 2003 his recording of Wagner's Tannhäuser received the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. On 20 December 2008 he sang Athanaël in the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD video transmission of Jules Massenet's Thaïs.

Thomas Hampson is also a celebrated lieder singer (Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf, Joseph Marx, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and others) and a soloist of choice for the world's leading conductors. He is also noted for his renditions of Aaron Copland's Old American Songs. He has appeared in all major opera houses and concert halls. His impressive discography includes many award-winning recordings.

Celia Cruz (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003) was a Cuban-American salsa performer. One of the most popular salsa artists of the 20th century, she earned twenty-three gold albums and was renowned internationally as the "Queen of Salsa" as well as "La Guarachera de Cuba."[1]

She spent much of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. Leila Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music."

From the 1938 movie, "That Certain Age". A 16 year old Deanna Durbin performs Juliet's Waltz Song, an aria from Gounod's opera, "Romeo et Juliette".

Charles-François Gounod (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl fʁɑ̃swa ɡuno]; 17 June 1818 – 17 October[1][2] or 18 October[3][4] 1893) was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria (based on a work by Bach) as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.