Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons was an English composer and keyboard player who was one of the last masters of the English Virginalist School and English Madrigal School. The best known member of a musical family dynasty, by the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his sudden death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons's oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd, but he made considerable contributions to many genres of his time. He is often seen as a transitional figure from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods.

25 December 1583

Born on the same birth day (25 December): Armin van Buuren • Ernst Ruska • Evelyn Nesbit • Glenn McCarthy • Helena Christensen • Hyun Young-min • Jeremy Strong • Louis Lane • Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain • Noel Hogan • Patrick Gilmore • Thomas Halyburton