IN: Gyorgy Sandor Ligeti (; Hungarian: Ligeti Gyorgy Sandor, pronounced ['ligeti 'jorj 'Sa:ndor]; 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". Born in Transylvania, Romania, he lived in Hungary before emigrating to Austria in 1956, and became an Austrian citizen in 1968. In 1973 he became professor of composition at the Hamburg Hochschule fur Musik und Theater until he retired in 1989.

Ligeti was born in 1923 at Dicsoszentmarton (which was renamed Tarnaveni in 1941), in the Romanian region of Transylvania to Dr. Sandor Ligeti and Dr. Ilona Somogyi. His family was Hungarian Jewish. He was the grandnephew of the violinist Leopold Auer and cousin of Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller.  Ligeti recalled that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation among the Romanian-speaking town police. Before that he had not known that other languages existed. He moved to Cluj with his family when he was six years old. He was not to return to the town of his birth until the 1990s. In 1940, Northern Transylvania was annexed by Hungary following the Second Vienna Award and Cluj became part of Hungary.  In 1941 Ligeti received his initial musical training at the conservatory in Cluj, and during the summers privately with Pal Kadosa in Budapest. In 1944, Ligeti's education was interrupted when he was sent to a forced labor brigade by the Horthy regime. His brother, age 16, was deported to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp and both of his parents were sent to Auschwitz. His mother was the only other survivor of his immediate family.  Following World War II, Ligeti returned to his studies in Budapest, Hungary, graduating in 1949 from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He studied under Pal Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas, Zoltan Kodaly and Sandor Veress. He went on to do ethnomusicological research into the Hungarian folk music of Transylvania. However, after a year he returned to Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, this time as a teacher of harmony, counterpoint and musical analysis, a position he secured with the help of Kodaly and held between 1950 and 1956. As a young teacher, Ligeti took the unusual step of regularly attending the lectures of an older colleague, the conductor and musicologist Lajos Bardos, a conservative Christian whose circle represented for Ligeti a safe haven, and whose help and advice he later acknowledged in the prefaces to his own two harmony textbooks (1954 and 1956). However, communications between Hungary and the West by then had become difficult due to the restrictions of the communist government, and Ligeti and other artists were effectively cut off from recent developments outside the Eastern Bloc.
QUESTION: Did he marry anyone?
IN: Mr. Children (misutachirudoren, Misuta Chirudoren), commonly referred to by their contracted nickname "Misu-Chiru" (misuchiru)) is a Japanese pop rock band formed in 1989 by Kazutoshi Sakurai, Kenichi Tahara, Keisuke Nakagawa, and Hideya Suzuki. They made their major debut in 1992. As a group, they are one of the best selling artists in Japan and one of the most successful Japanese rock artists, having sold over 50 million records and creating the "Mis-chil Phenomenon" (misuchiruXian Xiang ) in the mid-1990s in Japan. They held the record for the highest first week sales of a single in Japan for 15 years, with 1.2 million copies of their 10th single "Namonaki Uta" (Ming monakiShi ), have 30 consecutive number 1 singles, replaced Glay as the all-male band (with 3 or more members) to have the most number 1 albums on the Oricon charts, and won the Japan Record Award in 1994 for "Innocent World" and in 2004 for "Sign".

On February 11, 1998, they released their 14th single "Nishi e Higashi e" (nishiehigashie), theme song to the Japanese drama Kira kira Hikaru (kirakirahikaru). The group was still on hiatus during this time and made no live performances to promote the single and did not appear in the music video for the song. Finally on October 21, 1998, Mr. Children officially re-grouped and released their 15th single, "Owarinaki Tabi" (Zhong warinakiLu ) with the Japanese drama Naguru Onna (Ou ruNu ) using it as their theme song. The song remains a public favorite in voting polls, Oricon citing its inspirational lyrics as the reason.  On January 13, 1999, "Hikari no Sasu Hou E" (Guang noShe suFang he), their 16th single, was released, followed by their seventh album, Discovery, on February 3, 1999. Sakurai compared his approach to the songwriting for the record to surfing:  Eleven days later they began the Discovery Tour '99, from February 14 to July 12, where the group visited 16 cities and held 42 shows. During the tour, Mr. Children released their 17th single "I'll Be" on May 12, which was used in Shiseido's (Zi Sheng Tang ) Sea Breeze commercials. Though originally released on the Discovery album, the song was re-released as a single with a lighter beat. The single was not a success and became Mr. Children's lowest selling single since "Cross Road". During the Discovery Tour '99, an idea for a live album was brought up. It was released as a 500,000 copy limited edition on September 8, 1999 and called 1/42 (referring to one of the 42 shows in the tour). Most of the tracks were recorded on June 16, 1999 at the Makomanai ice arena, while the bonus track "Dakishimetai" was recorded at the Okinawa Ginowan-Shi seaside park.  At the beginning of a new century "Kuchibue" (Kou Di ), released on January 13, 2000 became the group's 18th single. While "I'll Be" failed to be a success, "Kuchibue" proved to be a hit selling 724,070 copies. On August 9, 2000, their 19th single "Not Found" was also used as the theme song to the Japanese drama Bus Stop (basusutotsupu), followed a month later by their 9th original album Q on September 27, 2000. The band went to New York to record this album, where they re-recorded some of their old indie material and for the first time, producer Takeshi Kobayashi performed with the band on a recording. The cover for the album was shot bought Size, Inc. at the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States. The album was not a favorite amongst fans for various reasons and became their first album since Atomic Heart to not sell over one million copies. 'Concert tour Q' started, visiting 13 cities and holding 35 concerts between October 15, 2000 and February 24, 2001.
QUESTION:
Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?