- Jan 2 Michael Kemp Tippett, English composer/conductor (A Child of Our Time), born in London (d. 1998)
- Jan 4 Sydney Lipton, British dance band leader, born in London (d. 1995)
- Jan 8 Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer and surrealist poet, born in La Spezia, Italy (d. 1988)
- Jan 13 Percy Humphrey, American jazz trumpet player and bandleader, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1995)
- Jan 15 Roosevelt Holts, American blues singer and guitarist, born in Tylertown, Mississippi (d. 1994)
- Jan 16 Ernesto Halffter, Spanish composer and conductor, born in Madrid, Spain (d. 1989)
- Jan 25 Julia Smith, American composer, pianist, and author on musicology (Aaron Copland), born in Denton, Texas (d. 1989)
- Jan 26 Maria Augusta von Trapp, Austrian singer who inspired the "Sound of Music", born in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1987)
About January 1905
How Old? 115 or 116 years old
Generation: Greatest Generation
Leap Year: No