Ottorino Respighi was a viola-player, pianist and composer. His most famous works are Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome), Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome), and Feste romane (Roman Festivals). His Pines of Rome is featured in Fantasia 2000.

Tim Rice (popular name of Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice) was born in 1944. He is a lyricist, writer, and broadcaster, born in Buckinghamshire, SC England, UK. He has co-written lyrics on many award winning records, has appeared on numerous radio and TV quiz shows, and written several books. He is best known for writing the lyrics to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1968), followed by Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) and Evita (1978). Later works include the lyrics for Chess (1984), Cricket (1986), Starmania (1991), and Beauty and the Beast (1997). He was knighted in 1994. Rice is currently working on Aida with pop star Elton John.

His Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is due to be released on video in the U.S. March 28, from Universal. You can pre-order Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat from amazon on either video or DVD.

Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter lived from 1915 until 1997. He was a pianist who was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory (1937--42), and won the Stalin Prize in 1949. He has since made extensive concert tours, with a wide repertoire, and has been associated with the music festivals at Aldeburgh and Spoleto.

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimski-Korsakov lived from 1844 until 1908. He was a Russian composer, born in Tikhvin, Russia, known for his colorful and brilliant orchestration as in his symphonic suite Sheherazade, composed 1887 to 1888, based on the tales of the "Arabian Nights" Song of India and The Flight of the Bumblebee.

His early musical education was perfunctory, but his interest was kindled after meeting Balakirev in 1861. He wrote his first symphony in 1865. In 1871 he was made a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he was able to develop his technique. He produced three great orchestral masterpieces, Capriccio Espagnol, Easter Festival, and Scheherazade, but his main works after that were operas, such as The Golden Cockerel (1907). Ever conscious of his earlier technical shortcomings, he rewrote almost all his early work. He also edited and completed works by Borodin and Mussorgsky.

As a teacher, his pupils included Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

Bill "Bojangles" (Luther) Robinson, born in 1878 and died in 1949, was a vaudeville dancer, tap-dancing coach for Sammy Davis, Jr. and Shirley Temple. He began dancing professionally at age eight in Louisville, Ky., then moved to New York City in 1891 to dance in the popular musical, The South Before the War. He performed in vaudeville and later was one of the few black dancers to star on the Keith circuit. He first performed on Broadway in 1928, becoming the first African-American to star in a Ziegfield Follies. He danced in the first movie to have its own original musical score, Dixiana (1930), and during the 1930s and 1940s he danced in black revues and musicals. He appeared in four films with Shirley Temple, including The Little Colonel (1935); although extremely popular in their day, these films would later be criticized for forcing this superb dancer into the role of a shuffling servant. He starred in the movie Stormy Weather (1943). Known as "the King of Tapology," he was one of the first performers to tap dance on his toes (as opposed to flat-footed), he led in using tap dance to create rhythmic sound, and is credited with originating the routine of tapping up and down stairs.

Richard Rodgers was the Academy Award-winning composer of It Might as Well be Spring in 1945 and half of Rodgers and (Lorenz) Hart and Rodgers and (Oscar) Hammerstein. Together, they wrote The Sound of Music, Love Me Tonight, My Funny Valentine, The Lady is a Tramp, Oklahoma!, State Fair, The King and I, You?ll Never Walk Alone, Carousel, Getting to Know You and Some Enchanted Evening.

Antonio Rossini (1792 - 1868) was an Italian operatic composer whose style is famous for its frequent long crescendos. His best known opera is The Barber of Seville (based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais).

Rossini's overtures to The Barber of Seville and William Tell are often played in movies and on TV.

Rossini was considered to be lazy, although he composed a great deal of music. He often composed in bed and if a sheet of music fell on the floor, he would write a new one, rather than bend down to pick it up.

By the age of 37, in 1829, he had already written 40 operas and was the most popular musician in the world. In France, he was paid a pension that allowed him to feast on caviar, truffles and champagne every day.

William Tell was his last opera and it is very well known to many people as the theme to The Lone Ranger and many TV cartoons.