Favorite Links
Instruments & Musical Styles
The Piano (history of the instrument, how it works, repair and care)
An Educational Guide to Musical Instruments
http://www.distance-education.org/Degrees/An-Educational-Guide-to-Musical-Instruments-A599.html
Jazz Kids
http://www.jazzkids.com/
NYPhil Kids
http://www.nyphilkids.org/
PBS Jazz for Kids
www.pbs.org/jazz/kids
- http://www.ptg.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/cms/review.html?Action=CMS_Document&DocID=109&MenuKey=Menu9
- http://www.ptg.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/cms/review.html?Action=CMS_Document&DocID=19&MenuKey=Menu2
- Technical Information about the Piano, it's history, construction, repair, and maintenance
An Educational Guide to Musical Instruments
http://www.distance-education.org/Degrees/An-Educational-Guide-to-Musical-Instruments-A599.html
Jazz Kids
http://www.jazzkids.com/
NYPhil Kids
http://www.nyphilkids.org/
PBS Jazz for Kids
www.pbs.org/jazz/kids
Inspiration, Motivation, Education
The Piano Guys (fantastic music making & videos)
One-handed violinist helps the disabled make music
Music & Dogs: http://www.moderndogmagazine.com/articles/perfect-pitch-dogs-music/248
Benjamin Zander on music and passion: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html
Music Making Machine: http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/6182/music.swf
From The Top: http://www.fromthetop.com/
Want Quick, Accurate Thinking? Ask a Musician
http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/want-quick-accurate-thinking-ask-musician-66844/
One-handed violinist helps the disabled make music
Music & Dogs: http://www.moderndogmagazine.com/articles/perfect-pitch-dogs-music/248
Benjamin Zander on music and passion: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html
Music Making Machine: http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/6182/music.swf
From The Top: http://www.fromthetop.com/
Want Quick, Accurate Thinking? Ask a Musician
http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/want-quick-accurate-thinking-ask-musician-66844/
Famous Amateur Musicians
(compiled by Elizabeth B. Borowsky)
Ansel Adams (the renowned photographer and environmentalist) was a virtuoso pianist. At age twelve, he taught himself how to read music and play the piano. He began taking lessons, and by his early twenties, considered having a career as a concert pianist. Although he ultimately gave up music for photography, the piano brought substance, discipline, and structure to his life. Moreover, the careful training and exacting craft required of a musician profoundly informed his visual artistry, as well as his influential writings and teachings on photography. He continued to play as an amateur late into life.
John Quincy Adams (sixth president of the United States) was an amateur flutist.
Emperor Akihito of Japan loves to play the cello.
Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria, loved music and fancied himself a composer.
Steve Allen, comedian, author, and Emmy-award winning TV host, was a composer. During his lifetime, Allen wrote over 7,400 songs, wrote the score for several musicals (including the Broadway production of Sophie and the CBS-TV version of Alice in Wonderland), and made over 52 record albums/CD’s.
Chester Alan Arthur (21st President of the United States) played the banjo.
Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) was a gifted pianist. As a teenager, he noticed that a chord struck on one piano would be echoed by a piano in another room. He realized that whole chords could be transmitted through the air, vibrating at the other end at exactly the same pitch. This observation eventually led him to the invention of the telephone.
Jack Benny (comedian)studied violin with Albert Pratz in Canada. Isaac Stern once said that if Jack Benny had pursued a career as a violinist, he would have been one of the greatest violinists in the world. Even as a serious amateur, he was very good, but when he performed it was more often for comic effect than for musical effect. Jack Benny appeared on the Tonight show not long before he died, and Johnny Carson asked him, "If you had it to do all over again, would you go into comedy, or would you be a professional concert violinist?" Benny replied that, although his life had been wonderful and he had no regrets, if he had it to do all over again he would concentrate on the violin. He knew that he was very good as an amateur, and he was confident that he could have been one of the top few violinists in the world had he made that his sole study.
Alexander Borodin (chemist; his research eventually led to the fabrication of nylon) devoted his spare time to music. By his teens, he could play the piano, flute, and cello. He was a member of “The Five,” a group of five Russian composers who saw themselves as Russian patriots, standing for spontaneity and ‘truth in music'. He was in the first rank as a scientist. As well as being a professor at the academy of medicine in St. Petersburg, he was a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences all over Europe.
Jimmy Carter (39th President of the United States) loved classical music. Col. John R. Bourgeois, who retired as director of the U.S. Marine Band in 1996 said that of all the presidents with whom he worked, President Carterhad the most extensive knowledge of classical music. Arnold Steinhart reported that Carter spoke very intelligently about the Beethoven String Quartets.
Virginia Cha (NBC News correspondent, Today show reporter) plays the piano. She was also first runner up to Miss America 1990 and performed the piano for her talent selection.
William Jefferson Clinton (42nd President of the United States) plays the saxophone. He conducted the college pep band while in college and was the "concertmaster" of the college concert band, ready to conduct if the regular director couldn't.
Thomas Money Coutts (scion of the Coutts banking family--one of the wealthiest in the UK) was an amateur musician. He also wrote opera libretti, for which he employed Isaac Albeniz to set to music. One of them, Pepita Jimenez, premiered at the Opera Conique in Paris.
Phyllis Diller(comedienne and humanitarian) was a very accomplished pianist. She finally gave up the concerts because practicing 5 hours per day was too much on top of her comedy preparations.
George Eastman (founder of Kodak) was an amateur flutist. This could be one reason for his large contribution to Rochester University for the Eastman School of Music.
Thomas Edison (inventor extraordinaire) was an accomplished pianist, as well as a pioneer of the recording industry. By the 1890s, Edison began to manufacture phonographs for both home, and business use. Like the electric light, Edison developed everything needed to have a phonograph work, including records to play, equipment to record the records, and equipment to manufacture the records and the machines. In the process of making the phonograph practical, Edison created the recording industry!
Albert Einstein’s school said he was "too stupid to learn". However, Albert's parents disagreed and bought him a violin. Music was the key that helped Albert Einstein become one of the smartest men who has ever lived. A friend of Einstein, G.J. Withrow, said that the way Einstein figured out his problems and equations was by improvising on the violin. Einstein was almost more famous around Princeton (NJ) for playing the violin than for being a great physicist. He not only played violin for fun, both solo and with others, but also taught violin at Westminster Choir College. He befriended Schinichi Suzuki (founder of the Suzuki Method) during Suzuki’s music studies in Berlin.
Emperor Hirohito of Japan was an amateur cellist. His daughter-in-law, the present Empress is a virtuosa pianist. Benjamin Franklin (scientist, inventor, statesman, printer, philosopher, and economist) played the violin, harp, and guitar, and invented the glass harmonica.
Frederick the Great of Prussia was an accomplished flautist, and a composer.
Abe Fortas (Supreme Court Justice from 1965-1969)was a string player. He frequently invited National Symphony members to his house to play string quartets. He served as a Kennedy Center trustee from 1964 until his death in 1982. The Kennedy Center has established the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund for the support of chamber music concerts in the Terrace Theater and for the further development of the musical programs Fortas envisioned.
Dr. Elizabeth Gehrer (the Austrian Minister of Education and Science) plays accordion and wrote several folk music singing books.
Gordon Getty, son of J. P. Getty (an American business executive who was one of the richest men in the world during his life) declared that it was his life's ambition “to make everyone think of the name Getty when asked ‘who is your favorite composer?’”
Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve Chairman) was a Juilliard student and professional jazz musician before he entered New York University's School of Commerce in 1945.
Sir Edward Heath (former British Prime Minister) recorded an LP of the Mozart Concerto for 2 pianos K365 with Helmut Schmidt (German Chancellor in the 70's). Sir Edward was a frequent guest conductor of the LSO and the other big London orchestras during his time in 10 Downing Street and was an organ scholar at Balliol college.
William Herschel (astronomer) was an amateur composer.
Walter Hewlett (the son of William Hewlett who founded Hewlett Packard Co. , and currently an HP Board Member) is an excellent amateur cellist. The 57-year-old plays 10 instruments, his favorite being the cello, and performs with several amateur chamber music ensembles, among them a quintet that included Condoleezza Rice on piano until she left for Washington to become National Security Adviser. He frequently writes code all night at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH), a lab he created at Stanford University in 1984 to digitize classical music for easy access by students and others.
Charles Ives wrote insurances procedures that are still used and quoted today. Ives’ profession was insurance, his passion was music, and hence exemplified the term amateur: "one who loves." It is only today that audiences have retroactively bestowed upon him the title of professional composer.
Thomas Jefferson (statesman, politician, author of the Declaration of the United States, and 3rd President of the United States) declared that music "is the favorite passion of my soul, and fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism." To improve the state of music in America, Jefferson encouraged its practice, and music played an important role in the life of his family through the generations. Jefferson played violin and clavichord, and less frequently, cello. He claimed that as a youth, he practiced three hours a day, and he played well enough to participate in weekly concerts at the Governor's Palace while a student in Williamsburg. Jefferson purchased several violins, including a portable one he took on his travels. According to legend, Jefferson's love of music helped him win his bride Martha. Two rival suitors came to call one day but left without a word when they saw the couple playing a duet on the harpsichord and violin
Gilbert Kaplan (former Wall Street journalist, and founder and publisher of the influential financial magazine Institutional Investor) is an amateur conductor. At the age of 42, Kaplan hired a conductor to teach him conducting and rented the American Symphony Orchestra to make his first debut leading Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1983. Since then, Kaplan has led more than 50 orchestras all over the world. recording of Mahler's Second Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra is the best-selling Mahler recording in history.
Danny Kaye (actor) was an amateur conductor. He took up the baton at the invitation of Eugene Ormandy, and although he claimed he could not read a note of music, over time he raised millions of dollars for charity. Danny couldn't resist bringing comedy to the symphony, though, and had been known to conduct "Flight of the Bumblebee" with a flyswatter and lie on the podium on his back and keep time by kicking his feet in the air. Despite this, his conducting was well praised, with Zubin Mehta stating that Danny "has a very efficient conducting style."
Paul Klee (20th century Swiss-born painter and graphic artist) was a violin virtuoso in his youth, but chose painting as a career.
Vytautas Landsbergis (first president of Post-Soviet Lithuania) was a musicologist. He also was a skilled conductor: he performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony frequently as a national protest and statement during the final Soviet time and the early days of new Lithuania.
Emile Lagasse (TV chef) turned down a full scholarship to New England Conservatory as a drummer, opting instead for cooking school.
Sidney Lanier (the Georgian author of Tiger-Lilies and poetry of the Civil War era) left Georgia after the Civil War to become first flutist for the Peabody Orchestra. His love of music, as well as his love for his home state, was reflected in his writings.
Madonna (pop star) enjoyed "the cheerleading squad, piano lessons, and ballet classes" during her childhood.
The Marx Brothers (actors and comedians):Chico was a pianist, Harpo was a harpist, Groucho was a guitarist, and Gummo was a tenor. As a young boy, Chico would get jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. Sometimes he would even get work playing in two places at the same time. He would acquire the job with his piano playing skills, work for a few nights, and then ask Harpo to substitute for him on one of the jobs. The two brothers looked so much alike, no one could tell the difference. Harpo however could only play a few tunes on the piano, which often would get both brothers fired.Harpo was renowned for his harp skills. He studied with many great harpists of the 1920’s and 30’s, and his harp technique was absolutely unique—famous harpists would ask Harpo to show them how he accomplished certain affects on the instrument. Out of the remaining Marx brothers, Groucho was a fine guitarist and Gummo was a very fine tenor.
Dayton Miller (renowned scientist who took the first surgical X-ray photograph in the United States) was an amateur flutist. He was also an inventor and authority on acoustics. His flute collection comprises over 1,400 flutes made of a variety of materials. He also had the most extensive collection of flute books and literature in the world.
Dudley Moore (comic actor) was an accomplished jazz pianist, composer and arranger. He often used the piano in his comedy routines. Moore attended Magdalen College at Oxford on an organ scholarship.
Nicholas II (Czar of Russia) was an amateur flutist.
Richard Nixon (37th President of the United States) started playing the piano as a child, and continued playing the piano for enjoyment throughout his life.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a famous pianist who became the Premier (President) of Poland.
Prince Andrei Razumovsky (Russian ambassador in Vienna) was a great patron of the arts. In 1806 he commissioned three String Quartets from Beethoven, known today as the Razumovsky Quartets, Opus 59. He occasionally took over the 2nd violin's chair in his famous "in-house" string quartet
Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Coethen (patron of J.S. Bach) played viola da gamba.
Prince Charles of England is an amateur cellist.
Count Rebsomen (a 19th century one-armed general) invented a mechanism that enabled him to play the flute with only his right hand.
Red Skelton (actor and comedian) was a composer.
Condoleezza Rice (U.S. National Security Advisor, Secretary of State) was considered a child prodigy on piano and entered college at the age of 15 with the intention of becoming a concert pianist.
Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher) was noted to be a pessimist on his world views, but liked to play flute after dinner in the later years of his life (when his disposition became somewhat better. Maybe there's a connection!).
Helmut Schmidt (former German Chancellor) is a pianist. He recorded an LP of the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos K365 with Ted Heath (former British Prime Minister).
Wolfgang Schuessel (Austrian Chancellor) is a pianist and cellist.
Albert Schweitzer, Doctor, Philosopher, and Humanitarian, was an organist
George Templeton Strong (1856-1948), American aristocrat, painter and Romantic composer who lived in Geneva, was the son of George Templeton Strong (1820-1875), wealthy NY laywer, abolishionist, Columbia Univ. Trustee, founder and trustee of the NY Phil., and renowned diarist. The son, a pupil of Raff, composed numerous orchestral works, some of which were premiered by Ansermet and Ehrenberg. Strong's compositions are now experiencing a renaissance of appreciation through recent recordings. Strong once played viola in the Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Harry Truman (33rd President of the United States) was a pianist. He occasionally carried study scores to concerts of the National Symphony, and he is the only president known to have made specific requests for repertory (other than Richard Nixon's comment to Antal Dorati that his favorite orchestral work was "Victory At Sea"--which Dorati didn't know at all, but promised to look into! His daughter was a soprano.
Mark Twain played the piano, and some taste in music ran toward popular songs of the era, hymns, and spirituals. He is also quoted as saying, "Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
Queen Victoria, though not a musician herself, is reputed to have been an avid music lover possessed of a keen ear.
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian artist and scientist) also profoundly occupied with music. was not only proficient on many musical instruments, but also the inventor of some (although he was the only one who could play them.) In addition to performing and teaching music, he was deeply interested in acoustics and made many acoustical experiments with immediate bearing on music. He wrestled with the concept of musical time and invented a considerable number of ingenious musical instruments and improved existing ones. Leonardo also had some highly original ideas about the philosophy of music that were intimately connected with his philosophy of painting.
Noah Webster (of Webster's dictionary) was an amateur flutist.
King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia was an ardent amateur cellist
Peter Wingfield (actor) plays both flute and saxophone to studio standards.
James Wolfensohn (President of the World Bank) is an amateur cellist.
Frank Lloyd Wright (architect) learned to play the piano as a child and later developed a life-long appreciation of the relationship of music to his career work as an architect.
Ansel Adams (the renowned photographer and environmentalist) was a virtuoso pianist. At age twelve, he taught himself how to read music and play the piano. He began taking lessons, and by his early twenties, considered having a career as a concert pianist. Although he ultimately gave up music for photography, the piano brought substance, discipline, and structure to his life. Moreover, the careful training and exacting craft required of a musician profoundly informed his visual artistry, as well as his influential writings and teachings on photography. He continued to play as an amateur late into life.
John Quincy Adams (sixth president of the United States) was an amateur flutist.
Emperor Akihito of Japan loves to play the cello.
Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria, loved music and fancied himself a composer.
Steve Allen, comedian, author, and Emmy-award winning TV host, was a composer. During his lifetime, Allen wrote over 7,400 songs, wrote the score for several musicals (including the Broadway production of Sophie and the CBS-TV version of Alice in Wonderland), and made over 52 record albums/CD’s.
Chester Alan Arthur (21st President of the United States) played the banjo.
Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) was a gifted pianist. As a teenager, he noticed that a chord struck on one piano would be echoed by a piano in another room. He realized that whole chords could be transmitted through the air, vibrating at the other end at exactly the same pitch. This observation eventually led him to the invention of the telephone.
Jack Benny (comedian)studied violin with Albert Pratz in Canada. Isaac Stern once said that if Jack Benny had pursued a career as a violinist, he would have been one of the greatest violinists in the world. Even as a serious amateur, he was very good, but when he performed it was more often for comic effect than for musical effect. Jack Benny appeared on the Tonight show not long before he died, and Johnny Carson asked him, "If you had it to do all over again, would you go into comedy, or would you be a professional concert violinist?" Benny replied that, although his life had been wonderful and he had no regrets, if he had it to do all over again he would concentrate on the violin. He knew that he was very good as an amateur, and he was confident that he could have been one of the top few violinists in the world had he made that his sole study.
Alexander Borodin (chemist; his research eventually led to the fabrication of nylon) devoted his spare time to music. By his teens, he could play the piano, flute, and cello. He was a member of “The Five,” a group of five Russian composers who saw themselves as Russian patriots, standing for spontaneity and ‘truth in music'. He was in the first rank as a scientist. As well as being a professor at the academy of medicine in St. Petersburg, he was a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences all over Europe.
Jimmy Carter (39th President of the United States) loved classical music. Col. John R. Bourgeois, who retired as director of the U.S. Marine Band in 1996 said that of all the presidents with whom he worked, President Carterhad the most extensive knowledge of classical music. Arnold Steinhart reported that Carter spoke very intelligently about the Beethoven String Quartets.
Virginia Cha (NBC News correspondent, Today show reporter) plays the piano. She was also first runner up to Miss America 1990 and performed the piano for her talent selection.
William Jefferson Clinton (42nd President of the United States) plays the saxophone. He conducted the college pep band while in college and was the "concertmaster" of the college concert band, ready to conduct if the regular director couldn't.
Thomas Money Coutts (scion of the Coutts banking family--one of the wealthiest in the UK) was an amateur musician. He also wrote opera libretti, for which he employed Isaac Albeniz to set to music. One of them, Pepita Jimenez, premiered at the Opera Conique in Paris.
Phyllis Diller(comedienne and humanitarian) was a very accomplished pianist. She finally gave up the concerts because practicing 5 hours per day was too much on top of her comedy preparations.
George Eastman (founder of Kodak) was an amateur flutist. This could be one reason for his large contribution to Rochester University for the Eastman School of Music.
Thomas Edison (inventor extraordinaire) was an accomplished pianist, as well as a pioneer of the recording industry. By the 1890s, Edison began to manufacture phonographs for both home, and business use. Like the electric light, Edison developed everything needed to have a phonograph work, including records to play, equipment to record the records, and equipment to manufacture the records and the machines. In the process of making the phonograph practical, Edison created the recording industry!
Albert Einstein’s school said he was "too stupid to learn". However, Albert's parents disagreed and bought him a violin. Music was the key that helped Albert Einstein become one of the smartest men who has ever lived. A friend of Einstein, G.J. Withrow, said that the way Einstein figured out his problems and equations was by improvising on the violin. Einstein was almost more famous around Princeton (NJ) for playing the violin than for being a great physicist. He not only played violin for fun, both solo and with others, but also taught violin at Westminster Choir College. He befriended Schinichi Suzuki (founder of the Suzuki Method) during Suzuki’s music studies in Berlin.
Emperor Hirohito of Japan was an amateur cellist. His daughter-in-law, the present Empress is a virtuosa pianist. Benjamin Franklin (scientist, inventor, statesman, printer, philosopher, and economist) played the violin, harp, and guitar, and invented the glass harmonica.
Frederick the Great of Prussia was an accomplished flautist, and a composer.
Abe Fortas (Supreme Court Justice from 1965-1969)was a string player. He frequently invited National Symphony members to his house to play string quartets. He served as a Kennedy Center trustee from 1964 until his death in 1982. The Kennedy Center has established the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund for the support of chamber music concerts in the Terrace Theater and for the further development of the musical programs Fortas envisioned.
Dr. Elizabeth Gehrer (the Austrian Minister of Education and Science) plays accordion and wrote several folk music singing books.
Gordon Getty, son of J. P. Getty (an American business executive who was one of the richest men in the world during his life) declared that it was his life's ambition “to make everyone think of the name Getty when asked ‘who is your favorite composer?’”
Alan Greenspan (Federal Reserve Chairman) was a Juilliard student and professional jazz musician before he entered New York University's School of Commerce in 1945.
Sir Edward Heath (former British Prime Minister) recorded an LP of the Mozart Concerto for 2 pianos K365 with Helmut Schmidt (German Chancellor in the 70's). Sir Edward was a frequent guest conductor of the LSO and the other big London orchestras during his time in 10 Downing Street and was an organ scholar at Balliol college.
William Herschel (astronomer) was an amateur composer.
Walter Hewlett (the son of William Hewlett who founded Hewlett Packard Co. , and currently an HP Board Member) is an excellent amateur cellist. The 57-year-old plays 10 instruments, his favorite being the cello, and performs with several amateur chamber music ensembles, among them a quintet that included Condoleezza Rice on piano until she left for Washington to become National Security Adviser. He frequently writes code all night at the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH), a lab he created at Stanford University in 1984 to digitize classical music for easy access by students and others.
Charles Ives wrote insurances procedures that are still used and quoted today. Ives’ profession was insurance, his passion was music, and hence exemplified the term amateur: "one who loves." It is only today that audiences have retroactively bestowed upon him the title of professional composer.
Thomas Jefferson (statesman, politician, author of the Declaration of the United States, and 3rd President of the United States) declared that music "is the favorite passion of my soul, and fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism." To improve the state of music in America, Jefferson encouraged its practice, and music played an important role in the life of his family through the generations. Jefferson played violin and clavichord, and less frequently, cello. He claimed that as a youth, he practiced three hours a day, and he played well enough to participate in weekly concerts at the Governor's Palace while a student in Williamsburg. Jefferson purchased several violins, including a portable one he took on his travels. According to legend, Jefferson's love of music helped him win his bride Martha. Two rival suitors came to call one day but left without a word when they saw the couple playing a duet on the harpsichord and violin
Gilbert Kaplan (former Wall Street journalist, and founder and publisher of the influential financial magazine Institutional Investor) is an amateur conductor. At the age of 42, Kaplan hired a conductor to teach him conducting and rented the American Symphony Orchestra to make his first debut leading Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1983. Since then, Kaplan has led more than 50 orchestras all over the world. recording of Mahler's Second Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra is the best-selling Mahler recording in history.
Danny Kaye (actor) was an amateur conductor. He took up the baton at the invitation of Eugene Ormandy, and although he claimed he could not read a note of music, over time he raised millions of dollars for charity. Danny couldn't resist bringing comedy to the symphony, though, and had been known to conduct "Flight of the Bumblebee" with a flyswatter and lie on the podium on his back and keep time by kicking his feet in the air. Despite this, his conducting was well praised, with Zubin Mehta stating that Danny "has a very efficient conducting style."
Paul Klee (20th century Swiss-born painter and graphic artist) was a violin virtuoso in his youth, but chose painting as a career.
Vytautas Landsbergis (first president of Post-Soviet Lithuania) was a musicologist. He also was a skilled conductor: he performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony frequently as a national protest and statement during the final Soviet time and the early days of new Lithuania.
Emile Lagasse (TV chef) turned down a full scholarship to New England Conservatory as a drummer, opting instead for cooking school.
Sidney Lanier (the Georgian author of Tiger-Lilies and poetry of the Civil War era) left Georgia after the Civil War to become first flutist for the Peabody Orchestra. His love of music, as well as his love for his home state, was reflected in his writings.
Madonna (pop star) enjoyed "the cheerleading squad, piano lessons, and ballet classes" during her childhood.
The Marx Brothers (actors and comedians):Chico was a pianist, Harpo was a harpist, Groucho was a guitarist, and Gummo was a tenor. As a young boy, Chico would get jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. Sometimes he would even get work playing in two places at the same time. He would acquire the job with his piano playing skills, work for a few nights, and then ask Harpo to substitute for him on one of the jobs. The two brothers looked so much alike, no one could tell the difference. Harpo however could only play a few tunes on the piano, which often would get both brothers fired.Harpo was renowned for his harp skills. He studied with many great harpists of the 1920’s and 30’s, and his harp technique was absolutely unique—famous harpists would ask Harpo to show them how he accomplished certain affects on the instrument. Out of the remaining Marx brothers, Groucho was a fine guitarist and Gummo was a very fine tenor.
Dayton Miller (renowned scientist who took the first surgical X-ray photograph in the United States) was an amateur flutist. He was also an inventor and authority on acoustics. His flute collection comprises over 1,400 flutes made of a variety of materials. He also had the most extensive collection of flute books and literature in the world.
Dudley Moore (comic actor) was an accomplished jazz pianist, composer and arranger. He often used the piano in his comedy routines. Moore attended Magdalen College at Oxford on an organ scholarship.
Nicholas II (Czar of Russia) was an amateur flutist.
Richard Nixon (37th President of the United States) started playing the piano as a child, and continued playing the piano for enjoyment throughout his life.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a famous pianist who became the Premier (President) of Poland.
Prince Andrei Razumovsky (Russian ambassador in Vienna) was a great patron of the arts. In 1806 he commissioned three String Quartets from Beethoven, known today as the Razumovsky Quartets, Opus 59. He occasionally took over the 2nd violin's chair in his famous "in-house" string quartet
Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Coethen (patron of J.S. Bach) played viola da gamba.
Prince Charles of England is an amateur cellist.
Count Rebsomen (a 19th century one-armed general) invented a mechanism that enabled him to play the flute with only his right hand.
Red Skelton (actor and comedian) was a composer.
Condoleezza Rice (U.S. National Security Advisor, Secretary of State) was considered a child prodigy on piano and entered college at the age of 15 with the intention of becoming a concert pianist.
Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher) was noted to be a pessimist on his world views, but liked to play flute after dinner in the later years of his life (when his disposition became somewhat better. Maybe there's a connection!).
Helmut Schmidt (former German Chancellor) is a pianist. He recorded an LP of the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos K365 with Ted Heath (former British Prime Minister).
Wolfgang Schuessel (Austrian Chancellor) is a pianist and cellist.
Albert Schweitzer, Doctor, Philosopher, and Humanitarian, was an organist
George Templeton Strong (1856-1948), American aristocrat, painter and Romantic composer who lived in Geneva, was the son of George Templeton Strong (1820-1875), wealthy NY laywer, abolishionist, Columbia Univ. Trustee, founder and trustee of the NY Phil., and renowned diarist. The son, a pupil of Raff, composed numerous orchestral works, some of which were premiered by Ansermet and Ehrenberg. Strong's compositions are now experiencing a renaissance of appreciation through recent recordings. Strong once played viola in the Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Harry Truman (33rd President of the United States) was a pianist. He occasionally carried study scores to concerts of the National Symphony, and he is the only president known to have made specific requests for repertory (other than Richard Nixon's comment to Antal Dorati that his favorite orchestral work was "Victory At Sea"--which Dorati didn't know at all, but promised to look into! His daughter was a soprano.
Mark Twain played the piano, and some taste in music ran toward popular songs of the era, hymns, and spirituals. He is also quoted as saying, "Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
Queen Victoria, though not a musician herself, is reputed to have been an avid music lover possessed of a keen ear.
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian artist and scientist) also profoundly occupied with music. was not only proficient on many musical instruments, but also the inventor of some (although he was the only one who could play them.) In addition to performing and teaching music, he was deeply interested in acoustics and made many acoustical experiments with immediate bearing on music. He wrestled with the concept of musical time and invented a considerable number of ingenious musical instruments and improved existing ones. Leonardo also had some highly original ideas about the philosophy of music that were intimately connected with his philosophy of painting.
Noah Webster (of Webster's dictionary) was an amateur flutist.
King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia was an ardent amateur cellist
Peter Wingfield (actor) plays both flute and saxophone to studio standards.
James Wolfensohn (President of the World Bank) is an amateur cellist.
Frank Lloyd Wright (architect) learned to play the piano as a child and later developed a life-long appreciation of the relationship of music to his career work as an architect.