Samuel Barber was born on March 9, in 1910 (d. 1981). Barber was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator. At the age of 10, he wrote his first operetta, “The Rose Tree”, to a libretto by the family’s cook. By the end of his career he had received numerous awards and prizes, including the Rome Prize, two Pulitzer Prizes, the Henry Hadley Medal, and the Gold Medal for Music at the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and, as a Fellow, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961.