A millionaire, a life insurance company owner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a composer are some of the titles that can be used to identify the great Charles Ives. Charles was born on October 20, 1875 in Danbury, Connecticut to George Ives and Mary Parmelee. Charles’s father was a talented musician and bandleader, while his mother was not often recognized. The eccentric style of music that George created, although not accepted by the people of Danbury, impacted the style of Charles’s compositions. In 1894, nineteen-year-old Charles lost his father who suffered a stroke at the age of forty-nine. Even after this devastating loss, he was still able to complete college at Yale University and later moved to New York City where he worked as an
