Composers Posters & Prints Index, “Be...-”
for the music and social studies classrooms, home schoolers, and music theme decor.

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach
Ludwig von Beethoven

Vincenzo Bellini
Irving Berlin

Hector Berlioz
Leonard Bernstein

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach
b. 9-5-1867; Henniker, NH
d. 12-27-1944; Cincinnati, OH

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was a pianist and first successful American female composer of large-scale art music.

She was a child prodigy, and primarly self taught, who stopped performing due to the wishes of her physician husband. Most of her compositions and performances were under the name Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.

She spent her later years being supportive of young musicians.

• Amy Beach: Songs, CD

Vincenzo Bellini
b. 11-3-1801; Italy
d. 9-23-1835

Vincenzo Bellini, a child prodigy from a highly musical family, was a noted composer of Bel canto (beautiful singing) opera. His opera 'Norma' is considered the height of Bel canto, a vocal technique featuring extensive ornamentation of fast scales and cadenzas.

• more Bellini posters

Irving Berlin
née Israel Isidore Beilin
b. 5-11-1888; Mogilev, Russian Empire
d. 9-22-1989; New York

Composer and lyricist Irving Berlin is considered by many as one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His first big hit was “Alexnder's Ragtime Band”, in 1911. Other memorable work from Berlin include “God Bless America”, “Easter Parade”, “White Christmas”, and “There's No Business Like Show Business”.

• Top Hat poster

Hector Berlioz
b. 12-11-1803; La Cote-Saint-Andre (near Grenoble), France
d. 3-8-1869; Paris

Berlioz was a French Romantic composer; among his compositions are Symphonie Fantastique, Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem), and the opera Les Troyes.

FYI ~ Berlioz's first wife was actress Harriet Smithson. Franz Liszt helped popularize Berlioz.

• Memoirs of Hector Berlioz

Leonard Bernstein
b. 8-25-1918; Lawrence, Massachusetts
d. 10-14-1990; New York

Leonard Bernstein was a conductor, composer, author, speaker and pianist. He is best known for his Young People's Concert for the New York Philharmonic, the musicals West Side Story and On the Town, and the operetta Candide.