Active Years: 1912-1997
Position: Conductor/Pianist
Career Highlights: All major operas of Wagner, Strauss, and Mozart; Verdi’s Otello, Simon Boccanegra, Aida, Falstaff; Britten’s Billy Budd and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron.
Career Totals: 1938 conducting debut in Budapest Le Nozze di Figaro; left Hungary because of disagreement with anti-Jewish hiring practices; moved to Switzerland, won 1942 [...]

Active Years: 1681-1767
Position: German Baroque composer
Career Highlights: The Paris Quartets, Suite for Flute and Strings, Don Quixote Suite, Concertos for Two Instruments
Career Totals: 1700 church cantatas, six oratorios, over fifty solo cantatas, nine operas, over one hundred and twenty overtures, over forty-seven concertos, over one hundred trio sonatas, over fifty quintets, many fugues, preludes, and [...]

Active Years: 1840-1893
Position: Russian composer.
Career Highlights: Symphony Pathetique, Piano Concerto No. 1, 1812 Overture, and Swan Lake.
Career Totals: 11 operas, 3 ballets, 6 symphonies and dozens of other orchestra works, several concertos, miscellaneous chamber music, scores of piano pieces, and over 100 songs.
Scouting Report: Tchaikovsky’s music is known for its’ beautiful melodies, brilliant instrumental writing, [...]

Active Years: 1910-1971 (born 1882)
Position: Started out as a Russian composer, switched to the French team, finished his career as an American.
Career Highlights: Petrushka, The Rites of Spring, The Firebird, The Soldier’s Tale, Oedipus Rex, The Rake’s Progress, Elegy for J.F.K.
Career Totals: Fifteen ballets, three operas, two symphonies, five concertos, twenty-seven other orchestral works, sixteen [...]

Active Years: Born 1933
Position: Soprano
Career Highlights: Lucia di Lammermore, Amina in La Sonnambula, Marguite in Faust, Tosca, Norma, Abigaille in Nabucco, Mimi in La Boheme, all three heroines in Il Trittico, Lady Macbeth, Desdemona in Otello, Butterfly in Madama Butterfly.
Career Totals: Came to international recognition in 1957 by replacing Maria Callas in La Sonnambula; U.S. [...]

Active Years: 1864- 1949
Position: German composer.
Career Highlights: Der Rosenkavalier, Also Sprach Zarathustra, (2001 theme song), Death and Transfiguration.
Career Totals: 15 operas, over twenty orchestral works, works for piano, almost 200 songs, and various chamber music.
Scouting Report: The son of a famous horn player, Strauss was a precocious child who had already composed a symphony by [...]

Active Years: 1792-1868
Position: Composer of Comic and Romantic Opera.
Career Highlights: Tancredi and L’Italiana in Algieri (placed him at the forefront of the Italian composers); Il Barbiere di Siviglia; La Cenerentola; Semiramide; Il Pirata; Le Siege de Corinthe and Guillaume Tell were written in Paris and are among his finest serious (non-comic) works.
Career Totals: 15 operas
Scouting [...]

Active Years: 1845-1884 (born 1824)
Position: Czech Composer.
Career Highlights: Ma Vlast, The Bartered Bride, the “From My Life” string quartet
Career Totals: Nine operas, nineteen orchestral works, two string quartets, one piano trio, over twenty-five choral works, many piano works.
Scouting Report: Smetana was the first of the great Czech nationalist composers. His six part tone poem, Ma [...]

Active Years: 1865-1957
Position: Finnish Composer
Career Highlights: Finlandia, Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 5, Tapiola.
Career Totals: Seven symphonies; eight tone poems; one violin concerto; four string quartets and various other chamber pieces; incidental music for several theater productions, including Shakespeare’s Tempest; vocal music of all kinds.
Scouting Report: Sibelius witnessed a massive upheaval in music during his [...]

Active Years: 1906-1975
Position: Russian composer.
Career Highlights: Lady Macbeth, Symphony #5, and Eighth String Quartet.
Career Totals: A dozen ballets and operas, 15 symphonies, 15 string quartets, 36 film scores, incidental music for 11 plays, and vocal music of all kinds.
Scouting Report: A member of the Soviet team (the Reds) throughout his career, Shostakovich was torn between [...]