Beethoven. The personal strife he overcame to produce such great music...
Steven Hawking and Carl Sagan...2 of the greatest minds in the latter half of the 20th century.
Composer Stephen Melillo. Completely self-published, he has a tremendous body of work both under comission and already performed and recorded. ALL of his success is due to word of mouth. He has a manner of discussing music and music education and teaching kids that is astounding.
www.stormworld.com Check him out, music educators! Students...check him out, too. I would think most directors would welcome well-thought suggestions for music selection.