The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
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List of the most influential people in Communications,
#15451
Felix Berber
1871 - 1930 (59 years)
Karl Heinrich Felix Berber was a German violinist. Life Born in Jena, Berber was the youngest child of music and art-loving parents. He spent the first part of his childhood in Weimar, where the family moved soon after his birth. In Dresden, where his parents had moved again, he received violin lessons from the age of 7. Already at the age of nine, he made his first public appearance as a child prodigy in 1880. He was then a pupil at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber and with Adolph Brodsky at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig. He gave his first major concerts at the age of 13.
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Gustave Gagnon
1842 - 1930 (88 years)
Gustave Adolphe Mathurin Gagnon was a Canadian organist, composer, and music educator. Family background and education Born in Louiseville, Gagnon was from a prominent family of musicians in Québec City. He is the younger brother of composer Ernest Gagnon and the father of composer Henri Gagnon. His sister Élisabeth was married to pianist Paul Letondal with whom he studied the piano in Montreal from 1960 to 1964. In 1870 he studied in Paris with Charles-Alexis Chauvet , Antoine François Marmontel , and Marie-Auguste Durand , and under Félix-Etienne Ledent and Jean-Théodore Radoux in Liège. ...
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Alvin Etler
1913 - 1973 (60 years)
Alvin Derald Etler was an American composer and oboist. Career A student of Paul Hindemith, Etler is noted for his highly rhythmic, harmonically and texturally complex compositional style, taking inspiration from the works of Bartók and Copland as well as the dissonant and accented styles of jazz.
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Václav Smetáček
1906 - 1986 (80 years)
Václav Smetáček was a Czech conductor, composer, and oboist. He studied in Prague among others with Jaroslav Křička, conducting with Metod Doležil and Pavel Dědeček, musicology, aesthetics, and philosophy at Charles University, receiving his doctorate in musicology in 1933. He was the founder and member of the Prague Wind Quintet , with whom he performed, composed and arranged compositions for it. From 1930 to 1933, he was a member of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1934 to 1943, he worked on Czech Radio as conductor and editor. From 1945 to 1966 he worked as a pedagogue at the Pra...
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Tudor Ciortea
1903 - 1982 (79 years)
Tudor Ciortea was a Romanian composer, musicologist, and music educator. Life and career Ciortea was born in Brașov and began his music studies under Gheorghe Dima in Cluj. He went on to study at the Bucharest Conservatory under Ion Nonna Otescu and in Paris under Nadia Boulanger and Paul Dukas. He lived most of his life in Bucharest where he taught for over thirty years at the Bucharest Conservatory. Amongst his students there were the composers Liana Alexandra, Irina Odagescu, Maya Badian, and Carmen Petra Basacopol.
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Eric Wollencott Barnes
1907 - 1962 (55 years)
Eric Wollencott Barnes was an American educator, diplomat, actor, and writer. Education Barnes attended public schools in Little Rock. He entered UCLA in 1925, and in 1926 transferred to L'École des Sciences Politiques in Paris, where he graduated in 1930. He received a diplome d'études superieures from the University of Paris in 1931, followed by a fellowship at the Sorbonne, then obtained a teaching post at the University of Paris in 1932.
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Evgeny Golubev
1910 - 1988 (78 years)
Yevgeny Kirillovich Golubev was a Soviet and Russian composer. Golubev was born and died in Moscow. He was taught by Nikolai Myaskovsky, and his students included Iosif Andriasov from 1958 till 1963, Alfred Schnittke, who studied with him from 1953 until 1958, Asya Sultanova, and Michael L. Geller. His own compositions included at least twenty-four string quartets, seven symphonies, three piano concertos - the last dedicated to and recorded by Tatiana Nikolayeva -, concertos for violin, cello and viola, ten piano sonatas , sonatas for violin, cello and for trumpet , and quintets for strings with piano and with harp, among other works.
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Alexander Chuhaldin
1892 - 1951 (59 years)
Alexander Gregorovitch Chuhaldin was a Russian violinist, conductor, composer, and music educator who later emigrated to Canada. He spent his early career working in his native country but after 1927 he was active in Canada. His compositional output includes over 30 works for string orchestra; many of which were published by Carl Fischer Music. He also composed five pieces for solo violin which were published by Paling & Co in Australia and more recently by Thompson Publishing Group in Canada.
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Henri Verbrugghen
1873 - 1934 (61 years)
Henri Adrien Marie Verbrugghen was a Belgian musician, who directed orchestras in England, Scotland, Australia and the United States. Born in Brussels, Verbrugghen made his first appearance as a violinist when only eight years old, and was a successful student at the Brussels Conservatorium under Hubay and Ysaÿe, winning many prizes. He visited England with Ysaÿe in 1888, and in 1893 settled in Scotland as a member of the Scottish Orchestra. During the summer he led the orchestra at Llandudno under Jules Riviere. For a time he was a member of the Lamoureux Orchestra at Paris and then for three years was deputy-conductor at Llandudno.
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Henry Thomas
1874 - 1930 (56 years)
Henry Thomas was an American country blues singer, songster and musician. Although his recording career, in the late 1920s, was brief, Thomas influenced performers including Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Grateful Dead, and Canned Heat. Often billed as "Ragtime Texas", Thomas's style is an early example of what later became known as Texas blues guitar.
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Leone Giraldoni
1824 - 1897 (73 years)
Leone Giraldoni was a celebrated Italian operatic baritone. He created the title roles of Gaetano Donizetti's Il duca d'Alba and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra as well as the role of Renato in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera .
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Ray Copeland
1926 - 1984 (58 years)
Ray Copeland was an American jazz trumpet player and teacher. Early life Copeland was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He studied at Boys High School in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Career Copeland's active career spanned from the 1940s to the 1980s. Throughout his career he participated on many swing and hard bop dates, appearing on the well known Monk's Music by Thelonious Monk recorded in June 1957. Copeland played with a swinging, upbeat approach, but was undoubtedly overshadowed by other top trumpeters of the era such as Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown. He toured with Thelonious Monk in 1968, and appeared at the 1973 Newport Jazz Festival.
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Jules Irving
1925 - 1979 (54 years)
Jules Irving was an American actor, director, educator, and producer, who in the 1950s co-founded the San Francisco Actor's Workshop. When the Actor's Workshop closed in 1966, Irving moved to New York City and became the first Producing Director of the Repertory Company of the Vivian Beaumont Theater of Lincoln Center.
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Alwin Schroeder
1855 - 1928 (73 years)
Alwin Schroeder was a German-American cellist. He was well known for playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra . He was the cellist of the Kneisel Quartet from 1891 to 1907. Alwin was the youngest of four sons of Carl Schroeder , the music director in Neuhaldensleben. He had three older brothers that were also musicians: Hermann Schroeder became a composer and violin professor in Berlin, Germany; Carl Karl Schröder II II became a cello professor in the Leipzig Conservatory before being appointed as court conductor to the Prince of Sondershausen in 1881; and Franz would work as a conductor in St.
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Millicent Silver
1905 - 1986 (81 years)
Millicent Irene Silver was an English harpsichordist, who began her career as a pianist and violinist. Early life Born in South London, her father, James Brand Silver, was a violinist and oboist, and had been a boy chorister at St. George's Chapel, Windsor where his singing attracted the attention of Queen Victoria. Her mother Amelia Argyle Silver was a piano teacher. Millicent was the second of four children. Her musical talent was discovered at the age of three, when she imitated her elder brother's practising.
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Robert Johnson
1583 - 1633 (50 years)
Robert Johnson was an English composer and lutenist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean eras. He is sometimes called "Robert Johnson II" to distinguish him from an earlier Scottish composer. Johnson worked with William Shakespeare providing music for some of his later plays.
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Peter Olrog Schjøtt
1833 - 1926 (93 years)
Peter Olrog Schjøtt was a Norwegian philologist and politician. Personal life Peter Olrog Schjøtt was born in 1833 to priest and politician Ole Hersted Schjøtt and his wife Anna Jacobine, née Olrog, in Dybvaag where his father was stationed as vicar. He was named after his maternal grandfather Peter Olrog. He was the brother of philologist Steinar Schjøtt, who was born Stener Johannes Stenersen Schjøtt, named after professor of theology Stener Johannes Stenersen, but later adhered to Landsmål and Norwegianized his name.
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Buddy Johnson
1915 - 1977 (62 years)
Woodrow Wilson "Buddy" Johnson was an American jump blues pianist and bandleader active from the 1930s through the 1960s. His songs were often performed by his sister Ella Johnson, most notably "Since I Fell for You", which became a jazz standard.
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Archie Camden
1888 - 1979 (91 years)
Archie Camden was a British bassoonist; he was a pedagogue and soloist of international acclaim. His career began in 1906 when he joined the Hallé Orchestra, where he became principal bassoonist in 1914. In 1933 he moved to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, where he stayed until 1946 when he took up the same position in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Camden was also one of the first bassoonists to experiment with recording. His record of the Mozart bassoon concerto still remains one of the most popular today.
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Walter Bache
1842 - 1888 (46 years)
Walter Bache was an English pianist and conductor noted for his championing the music of Franz Liszt and other music of the New German School in England. He studied privately with Liszt in Italy from 1863 to 1865, one of the few students allowed to do so, and continued to attend Liszt's master classes in Weimar, Germany regularly until 1885, even after embarking on a solo career. This period of study was unparalleled by any other student of Liszt and led to a particularly close bond between Bache and Liszt. After initial hesitation on the part of English music critics because he was a Liszt p...
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William Murdoch
1888 - 1942 (54 years)
William David Murdoch was an Australian pianist, composer and author. Early life and education Murdoch was born at Sandhurst , the son of Andrew Murdoch, an engineer, and his wife Annie, née Esler. At 11 years of age William began piano lessons and soon won several solo competitions. In 1903 he was awarded the first Bendigo Austral Scholarship. This entitled him to three years' tuition at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where he continued his studies under William Adolphus Laver, later Ormond Professor of Music. In 1906 Murdoch won the Clarke Scholarship, which entitled him to three years' tuition at the Royal College of Music, London.
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Prince Lucien Campbell
1861 - 1925 (64 years)
Prince Lucien Campbell was an American academic who served as the fourth president of the University of Oregon from 1902–1925. He had been president of the Oregon State Normal School in Monmouth, Oregon, a precursor of Western Oregon University, from 1890–1902. He was educated at Christian College in Monmouth, and at Harvard College, graduating in 1886. As president of the University of Oregon, he led expansion of financial and physical resources, increased student enrollment, and developed the university's curricular offerings by establishing multiple new departments and programs.
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Elmer Snowden
1900 - 1973 (73 years)
Elmer Chester Snowden was an American banjo player of the jazz age. He also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. He contributed greatly to jazz in its early days as both a player and a bandleader, and launched the careers of many top musicians.
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William Turner
1651 - 1740 (89 years)
William Turner was a composer and countertenor of the Baroque era. A contemporary of John Blow and Henry Purcell, he is best remembered for his verse anthems, of which over forty survive. As a singer, he was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1669 until his death.
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Charles Oberthür
1819 - 1895 (76 years)
Charles Oberthür was a German harpist and composer active in Germany, Switzerland and England. Biography The son of a violin maker, Oberthür was born in Munich and studied the harp there with Elisa Brauchle and composition with Georg Valentin Röder , music director at the Bavarian court. He was successively employed at theatres in Zürich , Wiesbaden , and Mannheim , before he settled in London in 1844, initially as harpist at the Royal Italian Opera House. In 1861, he became the first Professor of Harp at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He died in London in 1895.
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Caroline Hatchard
1883 - 1970 (87 years)
Caroline Gertrude Hatchard was a British lyric soprano, musical theatre and opera singer of the 20th-century who was the first English-born and trained soprano to be engaged by the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden where she played Sophie in the British premiere of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier on 29 January 1913 with Thomas Beecham conducting.
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Waldemar von Baußnern
1866 - 1931 (65 years)
Waldemar Edler von Baußnern was a German composer and music teacher. Life Born in Berlin, and descended from Transylvanian Saxons, Baußnern was the son of a financial official. He grew up in both Transylvania and Budapest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Between 1882–1886 he was a student of Friedrich Kiel and Woldemar Bargiel at the Berlin Musical Academy . He then conducted various choirs; after 1909 he became director of the Großherzoglichen Musikschule in Weimar. From 1916 to 1923 he served as director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main. In 1923, he became undersecretary of the Academy of Arts, Berlin.
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James Kwast
1852 - 1927 (75 years)
James Kwast was a Dutch-German pianist and renowned teacher of many other notable pianists. He was also a minor composer and editor. Biography Jacob James Kwast was born in Nijkerk, Netherlands, in 1852. After studies with his father and Ferdinand Böhme in his home country, he became a student of Carl Reinecke at the Leipzig Conservatory, and had later studies in Berlin under Theodor Kullak, and Brussels under Louis Brassin and François-Auguste Gevaert. He settled in Germany in 1883, initially as a teacher at the Cologne Conservatory, and later at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt and the Klindworth-Scharwenka and Stern conservatories in Berlin.
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Edgar Stillman Kelley
1857 - 1944 (87 years)
Edgar Stillman Kelley was an American composer, conductor, teacher, and writer on music. He is sometimes associated with the Indianist movement in American music. Life Kelley was of New England stock, his ancestors having come to America from England before 1650. He himself was born in Sparta, Wisconsin. His mother was from a musical family, and herself was skilled in music; she became his first teacher. Kelley's own college career was interrupted by bouts of poor health. He was a talented artist and writer, but he decided to devote his life to music after a performance of Felix Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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G. Ramanathan
Gopalan Iyer Ramanathan was an Indian music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as Isai Methai or Sangeetha Chakravarthy and is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers to take Carnatic music to the masses. Notable for his association with M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. G. Ramanathan also composed for films of Salem Modern Theatres and Coimbatore Central Studios. His career lasted until his death in 1963. During the 1950s G.Ramanathan's music dominated most of the box office hits of the then leading Tamil movie stars Shivaji Ganesan and M. G. Ramachandran.
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Liane Haid
1895 - 2000 (105 years)
Juliane "Liane" Haid was an Austrian actress and singer. She has often been referred to as Austria's first movie star. Biography Juliane Haid was born in Vienna on 16 August 1895, the first child to Georg Haid and Juliane Haid . She had two younger sisters, Grit, who also became an actress, and Johanna .
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Zheng Xiaocang
1892 - 1979 (87 years)
Zheng Xiaocang , was a Chinese writer, translator, and educator. He is well known for his large publications about education in China. Zheng was a former acting president of Zhejiang University, and former president of Zhejiang Normal University.
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Julius Rietz
1812 - 1877 (65 years)
August Wilhelm Julius Rietz was a German composer, conductor, cellist, and teacher. His students included Woldemar Bargiel, Salomon Jadassohn, Arthur O'Leary, and Sir Arthur Sullivan. He also edited many works by Felix Mendelssohn for publication.
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Eddie López
1940 - 1971 (31 years)
Manuel Eduardo López Rolón a.k.a. Eddie López was a Puerto Rican journalist. Early life and career Eddie López was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico in 1940, the son of Manuel López Canals and Teresa Rolón Perez . Brother to María Esperanza Teresa López Rolón, who was then born in 1953. He lived in Fajardo, Mayagüez, Toa Alta, Bayamón and Guaynabo where he finally settled with his wife Margarita Alicea and three sons; Jorge Luis, Carlos, and Victor Antonio until his death. He attended Santa Rosa High School in Bayamón, and did two years at Notre Dame University in Indiana.
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Jack Cassidy
1927 - 1976 (49 years)
John Joseph Edward Cassidy was an American actor, singer and theater director known for his work in the theater, television and films. He received multiple Tony Award nominations and a win, as well as a Grammy Award, for his work on the Broadway production of the musical She Loves Me. He also received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He was the father of teen idols David Cassidy and Shaun Cassidy.
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Eric Porter
1911 - 1983 (72 years)
Eric Ernest Porter was an Australian filmmaker and animator who specialised in documentaries and commercials, but also made several features. He directed Australia's first animated feature, Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon . That film's financial failure forced him to close his animation studio.
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Leo Smith
1881 - 1952 (71 years)
Joseph Leopold Smith was an English composer, writer, music critic, music educator, and cellist who was primarily active in Canada. His compositional output consists of works for cello, piano, choir and orchestra and a considerable amount of chamber music .
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J.-J. Gagnier
1885 - 1949 (64 years)
Jean-Josaphat Gagnier was a Canadian conductor, composer, clarinetist, bassoonist, pianist, arts administrator, and music educator. His compositional output mainly consists of works for orchestra and band, although he did write some choral pieces, songs, works for solo piano and organ, some incidental music for the theatre, and a work for solo harp. His compositions are written in a wide variety of styles from romanticism to impressionism to 20th century idioms.
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David Owen
1712 - 1741 (29 years)
David Owen was a Welsh harpist, best remembered as the composer of the popular song, "Dafydd y Garreg Wen" , which according to tradition Owen composed as he was dying. Dafydd y Garreg Wen was later adapted and published by harpist Edward Jones. David Owen was the son of Owen Humphreys of Ynyscynhaearn in Caernarfonshire . His mother's maiden name was Gwen Roberts. He composed several well-known airs. He was buried in the churchyard of St Cynhaiarn's Church in his home village of Ynyscynhaearn.
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Richard Henry Mather
1835 - 1890 (55 years)
Richard Henry Mather was a professor of Greek at Amherst College. Biography He graduated at Amherst, was tutor of Greek, assistant professor of that branch, professor of Greek and German in 1864, and professor of Greek and lecturer on sculpture in 1878.
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Eugene L. Roberts
1880 - 1953 (73 years)
Eugene Lusk "Timpanogos" Roberts was head of the department of physical education and a coach of sports including track and field at Brigham Young University starting in 1910. Early life Roberts was born in Provo. Roberts was the child of William D. Roberts and his wife the former Julia Lusk. The family ran the Roberts Hotel in Provo. He studied at Brigham Young Academy from 1898-1904. He also studied at BYU itself receiving at B.A. degree. He then studied at Yale University. He later went to the University of Southern California from which he received a master's degree.
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Schahan Berberian
1891 - 1956 (65 years)
Schahan R. Berberian was an Armenian philosopher, composer, and psychologist. Biography Early years Berberian was born in Constantinople . Shortly thereafter, along with his parents Retheos and Zaruhi and his elder brother Onnig, Berberian moved to Geneva, Switzerland to escape the atrocities against the Armenians perpetrated by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II from 1894 to 1896.
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Winifred Copperwheat
1905 - 1976 (71 years)
Winifred May Copperwheat was an English classical viola player and teacher. She studied under English violist Lionel Tertis at the Royal Academy of Music. Tertis later said after one of her recitals, that she had "played like an angel".
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David Stanley Smith
1877 - 1949 (72 years)
David Stanley Smith was an American composer. Smith started his studies with Horatio Parker in 1895 at Yale University, where his friends included Charles Ives, and was appointed organist at the Center Church in New Haven. He traveled to Europe, and became the pupil of Ludwig Thuille in Munich and Vincent d'Indy in Paris. He returned to the United States in 1902.
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Richard Henry Walthew
1872 - 1951 (79 years)
Richard Henry Walthew, often known as Richard H. Walthew was an English composer and pianist, and an important figure in English chamber music during the first half of the 20th century. Life Richard Henry Walthew was born in Islington in Middlesex, the only son of Richard Frederick Walthew and his wife Emily Jeffreys , and was educated at Islington Proprietary School. William Heath Robinson was also at the school and he remained a lifelong friend. Walthew was a pupil of Hubert Parry for four years at the Royal College of Music . A contemporary at the RCM was Ralph Vaughan Williams. Recogniti...
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Vladimír Šmilauer
1895 - 1983 (88 years)
Vladimír Šmilauer was a Czech linguist, Bohemist and Slovakist. Biography Vladimír Šmilauer was born on 5 December 1895. He studied Czech and German at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University in Prague. From 1921 to 1938 he worked as a high school professor. In 1938 he was appointed professor at Charles University. During the German occupation, he left his job at Charles University and worked at the Slavonic Institute in Prague. After World War II, he returned to the university.
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Tosca Kramer
1903 - 1976 (73 years)
Tosca Berger Kramer was a New Zealand-born American violinist and violist. Kramer, along with her parents, was instrumental in bringing classical music performance and instruction to the state of Oklahoma.
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M. S. Baburaj
1921 - 1978 (57 years)
Mohammad Sabir Baburaj was an Indian music composer. He is often credited for the renaissance of Malayalam film music. Baburaj has rendered music to many evergreen Malayalam film songs. Early years Baburaj was born on 3rd March 1921 in Kozhikode, then known as Calicut. His early childhood was spent in destitution and poverty. His father, Jan Muhammed Khan, who was a Hindustani musician from Bengal who frequently held concerts in Kerala, deserted his Malayali mother when he was very young, and returned to his native Kolkata. Baburaj thus became fatherless, often singing songs in trains to make a living.
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Cheng Maoyun
1900 - 1957 (57 years)
Cheng Maoyun was a Chinese composer and a professor at National Central University and Hangzhou Societal University . He composed the National Anthem of the Republic of China. Early life and education He was born in Xinjian , Jiangxi to a family of officials. He studied music in Jiangxi Provincial Higher Normal School , and the Ueno Music Academy in Tokyo. He majored in violin, then music theory, and composition.
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Miloslav Ištvan
1928 - 1990 (62 years)
Miloslav Ištvan was a Czech composer whose work was inspired by the works of Béla Bartók and by the orientation of the modal style of folk songs. He studied Romanian and African folklore. He also attempted a synthesis of classical and pop music genres.
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