American composer and conductor John Williams has scored more than 100 films, including 'Jaws,' six 'Star Wars' movies, 'E.T.' and the first three 'Harry Potter' films.

An originator of big-band jazz, Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist and bandleader who composed thousands of scores over his 50-year career.

Richard Wagner is best known for creating several complex operas, including Tristan and Isolde and Ring Cycle, as well as for his anti-semitic writings.

Influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky created such famed works as 'The Rite of Spring,' 'Symphony in C' and 'The Rake's Progress.'

Itzhak Perlman is a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning classical musician, highly revered for his work as a violinist and conductor.

Composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger was the first woman to conduct the Boston and New York Philharmonic orchestras, among others.

Tommy Dorsey was a popular American trombonist who performed with brother Jimmy in the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra during the 1920s and '30s. He was bandleader of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the 1930s and '40s.

Arturo Toscanini was one of the world's most admired conductors during the first half of the 20th century. He worked at La Scala and later led the NBC Symphony.

James Levine is a renowned musician and conductor best known for his work as music director of the Metropolitan Opera.

Bandleader and TV performer Lawrence Welk’s TV program featured band music with vocalists, dancers, and instrumental soloists, and was a huge success.

Virgil Thomson was a composer, conductor and musical critic known for his work in opera.

Leopold Stokowski was a composer and organist whose strong advocacy of new music did much to broaden American musical taste.

William Grant Still was a gifted conductor and composer, and the first African American to have major productions of both a symphony (1931) and opera (1949).

Composer and arranger Henry Mancini wrote some of the most popular scores in classic movies, including the song Moon River for the film Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler became popular in the late 19th century for his emotionally charged and subtly orchestrated symphonies.

Lester Lanin was a band leader and contractor who was known for playing inaugural balls and high-society functions.

American jazz musician Harry James learned to play the trumpet at age eight and became one of the most admired trumpet players of the big band era.

Woody Herman was a clarinetist, saxophonist, singer and leader of one of the most popular big bands in jazz.

For nearly four decades, American composer Aaron Copland achieved a distinctive musical characterization of American themes in an expressive modern style. He is known for works like Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man, among many others.

Composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic won a Grammy Award in 1986 for their recording of Witold Lutoslawski's "Symphony No. 3".

Tito Puente was a musical pioneer, mixing musical styles with Latin sounds and experimenting in fusing Latin music with jazz.

German Romantic composer, pianist and conductor Felix Mendelssohn wrote Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream and founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music.

American conductor Robert Shaw is best known for his innovations in seating a choir in quartets and for bringing new standards to choral performance.

Bandleader Glenn Miller inspired the World War II generation and boosted morale with many popular songs.