Stefan Wolpe

Stefan Wolpe was a German-born American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz movement to the Eighth Street Artists' Club, Black Mountain College, and the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. He lived and worked in Berlin (1902–1933) until the Nazi seizure of power forced him to move first to Vienna (1933–34) and Jerusalem (1934–38) before settling in New York City (1938–72). In works such as Battle Piece (1942/1947) and "In a State of Flight" in Enactments for Three Pianos (1953), he responded self-consciously to the circumstances of his uprooted life, a theme he also explored extensively in voluminous diaries, correspondence, and lectures. His densely eclectic music absorbed ideas and idioms from diverse artistic milieus, including post-tonality, bebop, and Arab classical musics.

25 August 1902

Born on the same birth day (25 August): Althea Gibson • Angela Park • Billy Ray Cyrus • Blair Underwood • Catriona Matthew • Emil Theodor Kocher • Erich Honecker • Gene Simmons • Giga Chikadze • Ivan the Terrible • Javed Qadeer • Marvin Harrison • Max Muncy • Michael Rennie • Richard Greene • Robert Horry • Robert Maschio • Van Johnson • Vivek Razdan • Wilhelm von Homburg

Born in the same month (August 1902): Alfredo Binda • Christian de Castries • Fernand Braudel • Leni Riefenstahl • Lloyd Nolan • Margaret Murie • Mina Rees • Ogden Nash • Paul Dirac • Thomas Pelly • Wallace Thurman