Male classical composers

Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou (Greek: Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( vang-GHEL-iss; Greek: Βαγγέλης ), was a Greek musician and composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, and orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.

Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferencz, in modern usage Liszt Ferenc 22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, and organist of the Romantic era. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. He was also a writer, philanthropist, Hungarian nationalist, and Franciscan tertiary.

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (GREEG, 15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana in Bohemia.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( chy-KOF-skee; Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский, 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He was honored in 1884 by Tsar Alexander III and awarded a lifetime pension.

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff ( rahkh-MAH-nə-nawf, -⁠nof, rahk-; Russian: Серге́й Васи́льевич Рахма́нинов, Sergei Vasilyevich Rakhmaninov, 1 April [O.S. 20 March] 1873 – 28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the late Romantic period. The influence of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, and other Russian composers is seen in his early works, later giving way to a personal style notable for song-like melodicism, expressiveness and rich orchestral colours.

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian: Дми́трий Дми́триевич Шостако́вич, Dmitriy Dmitrievich Shostakovich, 25 September [O.S. 12 September] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century, with a unique harmonic language and a historic importance due to his years of work under Stalin.

Ivan Moody (11 June 1964 – 18 January 2024) was a British composer and musicologist.

Marc Broude (born August 23, 1984) is an American musician whose work encompasses experimental music, noise, musique concrète, industrial, psychedelic and punk.

Arvo Pärt (born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and religious music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. Pärt's music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. His most performed works include Fratres (1977), Spiegel im Spiegel (1978), and Für Alina (1976). From 2011 to 2018, Pärt was the most performed living composer in the world, and the second most performed in 2019. The Arvo Pärt Centre, in Laulasmaa, was opened to the public in 2018.

György Sándor Ligeti (Hungarian: Ligeti György Sándor 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time".