Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 - January 23, 1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. He is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956-57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). He played and studied the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and was an adherent of Johannes Brahms, from whom he learned how to compress profound emotions into small modules of highly charged musical expression. His life partner Gian Carlo Menotti, was also a composer. He died of cancer in 1981 in New York City at the age of 70. At the time of his death, nearly all of his compositions had been recorded. No photographer credited, dated 1938.