Billie Holiday (1915-1959)

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Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was an untrained singer who was capable of invoking the soul of her music and grab at the hearts of her audience. Her music dealt with not only mainstream topics of love and loss, but addressed issues of social justice such as civil rights, prejudice, and racial inequality.  She struggled throughout her career simply because of her race. She has been deemed one of the greatest vocal jazz musicians of all time. She died at 44 years of age after struggling with drug addiction.    In the selection here, we can hear Holliday on one of her most iconic songs, Strange Fruit, which details the aftermath of a man’s death by lynching.

Irving Berlin (1888-1989)

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Russian-American composer Irving Berlin (1888-1989) lived in New York and came from a working-class background. When his father passed away, he began singing in the streets for money. This is where he was discovered and began his career writing music for singers. His lyrics were very catchy and caught the eyes of Vaudeville. He often wrote parodies of the currently popular music and found himself accidentally writing new melodies. He utilized an arranger to assist him with his music writing skills since he was able to create the music in his head, but couldn’t play it very well himself. Irving went to war in World War I and wrote music to help uplift the troops. After the war, he began his own publishing company and his own theater. This theater, The Music Box, is still in business today. Berlin composed some of the most well-known melodies of the 20th Century, including the patriotic standard "God Bless America."

Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948- )

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Raised in a musical family, British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948 - ) is responsible for some of the most famous and enduring Broadway musicals of all time.  Many of Webber’s most famous music was composed with lyricist Tim Rice.  Rice created the words to the songs, while Webber composed the music.  The stories for many of his most famous musicals came from famous works of literature or were inspired by historical figures.  The musical Cats was inspired by author T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, while The Phantom of the Opera is based on the eponymous novel by French author Gaston Leroux.  Webber’s first major hit was the musical  Jesus Christ Superstar.  He is also the composer of Evita and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. 

Many of his famous female roles, such as Christine in Phantom of the Opera, were originally written for his ex-wife, soprano Sarah Brightman. While Webber’s style has changed over the years, but has remained a combination of classical, rock, pop, and jazz, with inclusion of electronic c music and chorus numbers in his musicals.  His musicals are some of the most successful productions of the 20th Century.