# Famous people who were musicians



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Of whatever skill levels. Here's George Washington, who evidently played the flute.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

William Herschel the astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus,several moons and galaxies even if he did not know they were galaxies was also a composer:


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Sloe said:


> William Herschel the astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus,several moons and galaxies even if he did not know they were galaxies was also a composer:


Other things Herschel did:
- Cataloged binary stars and determined they revolve around common centers of gravity
- Discovered infrared radiation
- Discovered that the Martian ice caps change size with the seasons
- Coined the word "asteroid"
- Cataloged nebula and galaxies with a numbering system still used today
- Discovered numerous moons of other planets
- Built over 400 telescopes (remember, he had to grind his own mirrors) including a behemoth with a four-foot mirror, the largest of its time.

Haydn made a special trip to look through Herschel's telescope while he was in London


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

......................never mind.


----------



## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Ewan McGregor, Horn 
Rainn Wilson, Bassoon
Sarah Palin, also Flute
Richard Gere, Trumpet


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Thomas Jefferson was a violinist of some proficiency. There is an interesting discussion here:

https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/violins


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

dgee said:


> Ewan McGregor, Horn
> Rainn Wilson, Bassoon
> Sarah Palin, also Flute
> Richard Gere, Trumpet


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Friedrich the Great-flute and composer


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

arpeggio said:


> Friedrich the Great-flute and composer


Re Frederick the Great: As Brahms said, never criticize the work of royalty. You can't tell what composer you are insulting. (But it's probably Quantz in this case)


----------



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)




----------



## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

Albert Einstein is reported to have been a pretty good amateur violinist, according to Walter Isaacson's excellent biography of the esteemed gentleman.


----------



## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Sir Edward Heath was a quite good conductor.
I saw him once conducting the European Community Youth Orchestra, of which he was also a Founder/President I believe.

That was the time when our (Conservative) British friends believed in the European Union...


----------



## Überstürzter Neumann (Jan 1, 2014)

Two famous philosophers and the first truly great chess champion.

Jean Jaques Rosseau:





Friedrich Nietzsche:





Francois-Andre Danican Philidor:


----------



## Guest (Feb 23, 2016)

JS Bach, on keyboards.


----------



## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

Some that come to mind:

The Irish author Samuel Beckett loved music more than words and was an avid pianist.

James Joyce was another accomplished pianist. He liked performing as a tenor and even composed music. Like Beckett, he included frequent references to music in his works.

Another Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw, taught himself to play the piano and became a respected music critic.

The Scottish writer, Compton (Whisky Galore) MacKenzie, founded "The Gramophone".

Everybody knows that Einstein played the violin.

Stephen Jay Gould was a keen choral singer.

Edward Heath (British PM) did a bit of orchestral conducting.

Condoleeza Rice regularly played chamber music while Secretary of State.

Alastair Cook, the England [cricket] Captain is an accomplished musician, according to an interview I heard. He was a chorister at St Pauls Cathedral, studied several instruments and won a music scholarship to his later school.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Astronomer Patrick Moore played a mean xylophone and glockenspiel.


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

As a young man the Duke of Wellington played the violin.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Then of course there was Paderewski, prime minister of Poland was also a well known composer and pianist. I'm not sure which came first though.

We probably shouldn't find any of this too surprising since the arts are quintessentially human activities. Most of us aspire toward them.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Chico & Harpo Marx
Johnny Carson played a bit of drums.


----------



## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Condoleeza Rice (former Secretary of State under Bush) is a very good pianist. Not professionally trained, but very good nevertheless.


----------



## Guest (Feb 23, 2016)

Alma Deutscher, a little girl famous for being cute and jump-roping in front of Ellen Degeneres, is also, supposedly, a passable amateur musician.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

jenspen said:


> James Joyce was another accomplished pianist. He liked performing as a tenor and even composed music.


He was also an accomplished alcoholic.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

nathanb said:


> Alma Deutscher, a little girl famous for being cute and jump-roping in front of Ellen Degeneres, is also, supposedly, a passable amateur musician.


Has she joined Lindsay Lohan's entourage yet?


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Of whatever skill levels.


This will be a really, really long thread. Play a musical instrument isn't exactly rare today, and used to be practically de rigueur among educated classes.

Just for US Presidents: Aside from Washington and Clinton, it appears that JQ Adams, Tyler, Lincoln, Arthur, FDR, Wilson, Hadring, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon and Reagan (harmonica!) all played something.

http://www.nafme.org/the-most-musical-united-states-presidents/


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

GioCar said:


> Sir Edward Heath was a quite good conductor.
> I saw him once conducting the European Community Youth Orchestra, of which he was also a Founder/President I believe.
> 
> That was the time when our (Conservative) British friends believed in the European Union...


Sailor Heath also liked to get his hands on an organ.


----------



## Johnhanks (Feb 21, 2016)

GioCar said:


> Sir Edward Heath was a quite good conductor.


I've seen that opinion vigorously contested, mostly by musicians. Here, for example, and here.


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Nixon was a decent pianist...

The sound cuts out half way through but you get the idea...


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Both Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce from "Frasier" were accomplished pianists.. Hyde Pierce had even been on track to be a concert pianist at one point.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

James May, ex-presenter of BBC's _Top Gear_, has a music degree and is apparently an accomplished keyboard player and flautist. I saw him on TV once where he said he loved Bach but loathed Stravinsky.


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Another one of my favorite people who also happens to be a musician...


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Jack Benny played the violin... famously not well, but supposedly he was better than he let on. He raised money for orchestras by performing as a soloist.

William F. Buckley was a respectable harpsichordist, performing in concert on occasion.


----------



## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

The famous painter J-A-D Ingres was a violinist. The famous author E.T.A. Hoffmann was a composer as well, so I reckon he also must have played an instrument.


----------



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

*Albert Schweitzer*


----------



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Austrian emperor Leopold is doing his best.


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

The writer Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange) also composed.:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Burgess#Life_in_music


----------



## Guest (Feb 23, 2016)

Morimur said:


> Has she joined Lindsay Lohan's entourage yet?


Typical life track for these kind of people:

Do nice things, have prospects ---> Get scooped up by Mouseketeers ---> *Five years pass* ---> Dance around, autotuned and preferably 90% naked ---> Rehab ---> Attempted reinvention, botched plastic surgery ---> Rehab ---> Relevance extending no further than People magazine ---> Drug overdose ---> Death.


----------



## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Edward Said was an accomplished pianist, and writer on music.


----------



## Autocrat (Nov 14, 2014)

Spike Milligan reportedly played an awesome jazz trumpet.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


>


This reminds me of Epic Sax Guy.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

ArtMusic said:


>


Gotta love 'Bubba'.


----------



## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Trololol guy was a singer.


----------



## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Prince Albert played the piano and accompanied his wife Victoria, setting an example for middle class families in Britain.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Republicans had fun with that, referring to Bill Clinton playing his taxophone.


----------



## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

manyene said:


> Prince Albert played the piano and accompanied his wife Victoria, setting an example for middle class families in Britain.


First I thought you meant Prince Albert of Monaco.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays Classical guitar.


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Autocrat said:


> Spike Milligan reportedly played an awesome jazz trumpet.


Peter Sellers played the drums.


----------



## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

GioCar said:


> Sir Edward Heath was a quite good conductor.
> I saw him once conducting the European Community Youth Orchestra, of which he was also a Founder/President I believe.
> 
> That was the time when our (Conservative) British friends believed in the European Union...


He actually wasn't a particularly good conductor but he was quite a good pianist and organist.

Quite a few Conservatives still believe in the EU. Both the "In" and the "Out" camps include people of all parties.


----------



## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Dr Johnson said:


> Peter Sellers played the drums.


You know you just reminded me, so did Stanley Kubrick...


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I thought I remembered reading in Pepys's diary that he played the viol.

Checking in Wikipedia it seems he "played the lute, viol, violin, flageolet, recorder, and spinet to varying degrees of proficiency."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pepys#Personal_life


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

I've seen a video of her playing the flute. Not great...


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Weston said:


> Then of course there was Paderewski, prime minister of Poland was also a well known composer and pianist. I'm not sure which came first though.
> 
> We probably shouldn't find any of this too surprising since the arts are quintessentially human activities. Most of us aspire toward them.


He was a pianist before becoming a politician.


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Hugh Laurie of _House_ fame is a fine jazz pianist and has given public performances to some acclaim.

British actor Max Beesley studied percussion at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and made a living as a professional session percussionist. He has performed and recorded as percussionist and pianist for Robbie Williams, Take That, Jamiroquai and the Paul Weller Movement.

Dudley Moore was a truly accomplished pianist and could easily have made it as a professional performer, as was comedian Les Dawson.


----------



## Johnhanks (Feb 21, 2016)

Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was an accomplished pianist. I have a CD of him playing third piano in Mozart's concerto K242, with Christoph Eschenbach and Justus Franz.


----------



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

TxllxT said:


> Albert Schweitzer.


This fella was also a truly great humanitarian. He would have been an exceedingly successful musician, but instead, chose to do medical work in Africa. "He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of "Reverence for Life", expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, now in Gabon, west central Africa (then French Equatorial Africa)." Wiki. RIP is Schweitzer!


----------



## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Mussolini played the violin.


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Another politician with musical interests:










Cool Britannia. Wasn't that the phrase?

:lol:


----------



## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

I don't write his name. I'm ashamed. Hint: he made the entire world laugh at us....


----------



## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Comedienne Phyllis Diller was also a concert pianist.
Comedian Steve Martin is an excellent banjo player.


----------

