Post-War on Music Theory Print

Abdelwahab Doukkali

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Abdelwahab Doukkali (; 2 January 1941 – 8 May 2026) was a Moroccan composer and performer. He was born in Fes, one of the 13 children of a conservative family. At the age of 18, in 1959, he went to Rabat, where he worked briefly at RTM (Radio Television Maroc), but upon seeing his boredom, colleagues encouraged him to move to Casablanca where he first entered the music culture. From 1959 to 1962 he pursued careers in both theatre and radio. He toured Algeria in 1962, then left Morocco and settled in Cairo. During his three years in Egypt, he gained popularity outside North Africa, then returned to Morocco in 1965. Doukkali continued to write and perform music through the 1990s, including popularly acclaimed songs such as Kān yā mākān and Montparnasse. His works include songs in both Moroccan dialect as well as literary Arabic. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Mérite et Dévouement français in 2004, the Grand Prix Humanitaire de France in 2006, and medals from both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. His music has been featured in several films from Morocco. Doukkali died on 8 May 2026, at the age of 85. Filmography * Vaincre pour Vivre (Life is

Abhijit Banerjee (composer)

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Abhijit Banerjee (July 24, 1931 – February 21, 2022; ) was an Indian composer and lyricist, who primarily composed music for Bengali non-film songs (singles). He worked with musicians such as Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle, Pratima Bandyopadhyay, Pulak Bandyopadhyay and others. He was a close associate of Salil Chowdhury and a music teacher at Bani Chakra school. Banerjee was born in Kolkata in 1931 and took interest in Rabindra Sangeet. He was brought into music by his friend Prabir Mazumdar and first played xylophone while in class eight. He played near a railway station where meetings were held, and from there got to know Salil Chowdhury. His first composition was when his brother asked him to compose two poems. His second poem was acknowledged by Salil Chowdhury, who took the song to Saregama. It was sung by Shyamal Mitra. He inspired songs by Salil Chowdhury like “Dhitang Dhitang Bole” and “Ranar.” Later, he worked with Pulak Bandyopadhyay and composed film songs with him like “O Pakhi Ure Aay” by Asha Bhosle and “Ekhono Sarengita Bajche” by Haimanti Shukla. He died in 2022 from health issues of old age. Mamata Banerjee, Shukla and others respond

Abie Rotenberg

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Abie Rotenberg () is a prolific Orthodox Jewish musician, composer and entertainer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Rotenberg grew up in Queens, New York, surrounded by other up and coming religious Jewish musicians, including Eli Teitelbaum, who directed the first Pirchei boys choir, as well as Rabbi Baruch Chait and Label Sharfman who attended yeshiva with him. Rotenberg studied piano and taught himself guitar at a young age. Musical career Rotenberg has cited the musicians Rabbi Ben Zion Shenker and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach as strong influences. Rotenberg has also been a main fixture of the annual HASC A Time for Music concerts. He has produced a children’s audio series called the Marvelous Midos Machine comprising four volumes, with all original material. Rotenberg said that wanted to raise awareness of different traits inherent in each child through this series. He also produced the children’s audio CDs The Golden Crown and The Lost Treasure. Writing career In September 2015, Rotenberg published his first novel, The Season of Pepsi Meyers, a book about an 18-year old Jewish boy playing for the New York Yankees, set in the future (Audley Street Books). In November 2016, Rotenberg r

Abu Taher (composer)

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Abu Taher (1 November 1954 – 14 July 1999) and “Beder Meye Jyotsna Ammay Kotha Diyeche”. He has composed music for 20 films in his career. His repertoire includes films Beder Meye Jyotsna (1989), Khotipuron (1989), Beder Meye Jyotsna (1991), Gariyal Bhai (1992), Kkhoma (1992), Tumi Amar (1994), Rakhal Raja (1995), Buk Bhora Bhalobasha (1999) etc. Early life and career Abu Taher was born in a musical family. He is the eldest son of Ekushey Padak-winning music director Dhir Ali Miah. Veteran composer Alauddin Ali and composer Mansur Ali are the paternal uncles of him. His younger brother is music director Ali Akram Shuvo. Discography Taher has scored music for 31 films. 1980s 1990s 2000s References External links *

Ada Gentile

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Ada Gentile (born 26 July 1947) is an Italian pianist and composer. She has taught at the Rome Conservatory and been artistic director of uovi Spazi Musicali, Rome, Goffredo Petrassi Chamber Orchestra, Rome and the opera house in Ascoli Piceno, and advisor to the Venice Biennale Festival. Her works have been performed internationally, and she was honoured by the Polish Ministry of Culture in 1988 ‘for cultural services’. She was also awarded the Cavaliere al merito of the Italian Republic. Life Ada Gentile was born in Avezzano and attended the Conservatorio di St. Cecilia in Rome, graduating in piano and composition. She then completed a graduate degree in composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia with Goffredo Petrassi. She was successful in international competitions, including Gaudeamus in 1982, ISCM, Budapest in 1986 and Essen in 1995. Gentile was honoured by the Polish Ministry of Culture in 1988 ‘for cultural services’. Works Selected works include: *Adagios for string orchestra (1993–94) *Adagio for a Summer for flute and strings (1998) *Concertante for flute, guitar and orchestra (1989) *Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1995) *Concert (“Veni Lumen Cordis”) for femal

Adam Pounds

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Adam Pounds (born ) is a British composer and conductor, mostly active in Cambridge. Biography Adam Pounds is the first living British composer recorded by the Sinfonia of London and its conductor, John Wilson. Born in Walthamstow, in London, to Edward Pounds and Annie Pounds (née Crisp)., he moved to Cambridge with his wife, Dinah Pounds, and their two children, in 2000. Education As a child, Pounds was a chorister at St Michael’s Church, in Walthamstow. Pounds continued his studies at Goldsmiths’ College, graduating with a BMus (Hons) degree. In 2002, Pounds began studying for a MEd at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where his research focused on the decline of classical music provision in state schools. During his studies at Trinity Hall, Pounds joined the choir of Great St Mary’s, the University Church. He subsequently founded the Academy of Great St. Mary’s at the University Church in Cambridge, where some of his later works have received their debut. Pounds also conducts the Stapleford Choral Society. Between 2015 and 2021, then again from 2024, Pounds also served as the chairman of the Lennox Berkeley Society, which encourages the performance, study, recording and broadcast of his

Adegoke Steve Colson

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Adegoke Steve Colson is an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since the early 1970s, Colson has performed and recorded with musicians including Joseph Jarman, Reggie Workman, David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Malachi Favors, Kahil El’Zabar, among many others. His work incorporates themes of African American identity and social consciousness, and has been reviewed in publications such as The New York Times, JazzTimes, All About Jazz, and The New York City Jazz Record. Early life and education Colson was born in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in East Orange, where he graduated from East Orange High School. He studied piano at Northwestern University’s School of Music beginning in 1967 and also studied alto saxophone with Fred Hemke. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education (BME) in 1971. where he is referenced alongside his spouse, vocalist, composer and educator Iqua Colson, as part of the AACM’s second generation Career Colson’s early recordings were with The Unity Troupe, a group he founded in the 1970s. Their debut album, Triumph!, was released in 1979 and followed by No Reservation in 1980 on t

Adel Heinrich

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Adel Verna Heinrich (July 20, 1926 – August 10, 2022) was an American composer, organist, and university teacher. She taught music at Colby College until her retirement in 1988. Personal life and career Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Heinrich graduated from Flora Stone Mather College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1951, and a master’s degree in sacred music from the Union Theological Seminary in 1954. In 1976, she received a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison based on her thesis Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge : a living compendium of fugal procedures. Her book Organ and Harpsichord Music by Women Composers was published in 1991. Her compositions for organ include A Carol is Born (a music drama for two sopranos, alto, flute, organ) and the oratorio The Nazarene. Heinrich taught at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, from 1964 to 1988, where she was associate professor of music and director of chapel music. Heinrich died on August 10, 2022, at the age of 96. Awards Heinrich received the Award of Merit from the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Clemens Award in music. She also received three grants, the Maximum Humanities Travel Grant to use and study old organs in Europe, a

Adelaide Pereira da Silva

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Adelaide Pereira da Silva (São Paulo, July 5, 1928 - São Paulo, August 8, 2021) was a Brazilian pianist, composer and painter. Biography Adelaide Pereira da Silva was born in São Paulo. She started studying piano with her mother from an early age, and later with Nair de Souza. She became a well-accomplished pianist, when she took advanced interpretation classes with Professor Hans Bruch. According to pianist Gilberto Tinetti, she was one of Bruch’s most talented students, along with Tinetti himself; Isolde Bass, Bruch’s wife; Rudolf Frisch; Elisa Capocchi; Arnaldo Antunes; Maria Elisa Figueiredo; and Roberto Delollio. In her thesis, as well as in an article about Pereira da Silva’s compositions, Maria Mati Sakamoto quotes Gilberto Tinetti, who referred to Prof. Pereira da Silva’s “exuberant sonority” as a pianist. Initially, Adelaide Pereira da Silva studied composition with Dinorah de Carvalho and Osvaldo Lacerda. Later, she was Camargo Guarnieri’s student, and became one of the major figures of his composition school, along with famous composers such as Lacerda, Almeida Prado, , Nilson Lombardi, Lina Pires de Campos and Kilza Setti. She began working as a music teacher in 1960, a

Adolphus Hailstork

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Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III (born April 17, 1941) is an American composer and educator. He was born in Rochester, New York, and grew up in Albany, New York, where he studied violin, piano, organ, and voice. He currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Career Hailstork began his musical career in 1963, when he studied composition with Mark Fax at Howard University, Washington, D.C. (BMus 1963). In the summer of 1963 he attended the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger. In 1965, Hailstork received a Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, and in 1966 received a Master of Music at the same institution. In October 2022, he was featured as “Composer of the Week” on BBC Radio 3. Hailstork married in 2007. * 1977: Belwin-Mills Max Winkler Award, presented by the Band Directors National Association ** Out of Depths * 1987: Fulbright fellowship for study in Guyana * 1992: named a Cultural Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia * 1999: Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association *2001: Doctor of Humane Letters honorary doctorate from the

Adrian Enescu

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Adrian-Floru Enescu (31 March 1948 – 19 August 2016) was a Romanian composer of film soundtracks and contemporary music. As an individual musician, he also pioneered the local electronic scene during the 1970s and 1980s. He graduated from the Ciprian Porumbescu Music Conservatory in Bucharest, following the composition class of Aurel Stroe and in harmony. Among his list of accomplishments are music for ballet in Italy, China, and Australia, music for theater in Romania, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Australia, Canada, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Other accomplishments * In 1976, Basorelief (symphonic pop) * In 1980, Funky Synthesizer vol 1 (electronic music) * In 1983, vocal lead Stereo Group (pop music) * In 1984, Funky Synthesizer vol 2 (electronic music) * In 1988, (vocal lead, Loredana Groza (pop music)) * In 1989, (vocal lead, Loredana Groza) (pop music) * In 1999-2000, Jingle for “Arcadia Jingle Bank”, Germany * In 2000, Millennium Angel (produced by PRO TV Romania) * In 2001, Diva (vocal lead, Loredana Groza) (pop music) * In 2001, November Dreams produced by Axel Springer Company, Germany * In 2001, EarthTone records division of Sonic Images Records USA published Invisible Music ch

Adrian Jack

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Adrian Frederick Joseph Jack (16 March 1943 – June 2026) was a British composer. Life and career Adrian Frederick Joseph Jack was born in Datchet, near Slough, Buckinghamshire, England, on 16 March 1943. He was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood (1954–1960), and the Royal College of Music, London (1961–1964), where he studied composition with Peter Racine Fricker, fugue and orchestration with Gordon Jacob, piano with Antony Hopkins and organ with John Birch. From 1967 to 1969 he studied composition and electronic music with Włodzimierz Kotoński at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw, Poland. Jack started composing at the age of 13. He later studied at the Royal College of Music. The main conscious influence at that time was Messiaen. Hearing Boulez’s “Le marteau sans maitre” brought a new atonal complexity to his music, replaced by an austere paring-down following his discovery of Edgard Varèse. He actually wrote to Varèse to ask if he could study with him in New York and received a letter of refusal, not very long before Varèse died in November 1965. For the next 20 years, Jack composed somewhat intermittently, but his works included “Holly Bush”, written in Po

Adriana Hölszky

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Adriana Hölszky (born 30 June 1953) is a Romanian-born German music educator, composer and pianist who has been living in Germany since 1976. During her studies she performed as a pianist of the Trio Lipatti, together with her twin sister, violinist Monika Hölszky-Wiedemann and cellist Hertha Rosa-Herseni. In 1977 and 1978, she participated in the International Mozarteum Summer Academy, and in 1978–1984 regularly in the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. In 1980 she received a teaching position at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart, and in 1983 a grant from the Arts Foundation of Baden-Württemberg. In 1986 she took first place at the Composers’ Forum of the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. In 1987 she received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture of Lower Saxony. In 1992 she took composition seminars in Tokyo and Kyoto, and at the IRCAM in Paris. Her increasing international popularity was shown by three concerts she performed in Athens, Thessaloniki and Boston in 1993. Between 1997 and 2000, Hölszky was professor of composition at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre, and since 2000 she has been professor of composition at the Moza

Adriano Guarnieri (composer)

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Adriano Guarnieri (born 10 September 1947, in Sustinente, Italy) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Guarnieri studied at the Conservatory in Bologna, where he got his diploma in musical composition with Giacomo Manzoni and another diploma in choral music with Tito Gotti. He started his activity as a conductor as well, founding the Nuovo Ensemble Bruno Maderna in Florence. He taught musical composition at the Milan Conservatory, Florence, Pesaro Conservatory and Bologna Conservatory. In his earliest works, from Musica per un’azione immaginaria to L’art pour l’art?, he tries to incorporate graphical elements into the music, and in so doing, he clearly shows his structuralist approach, which only later becomes more informal. Nafshi, Recit and other compositions show a turning point in his way of composing, since he pays more attention to the form, which is thought of as a synthesis of a fluid episodic multiplicity. Through his Pierrot series, he was able to reveal a “melodic” component of his music, which broadens in the opera Trionfo della notte (1986–87 season at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna), which won the Premio Abbiati as the best composition of t

Agim Krajka

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Agim Krajka (1 May 1937 – 1 March 2021) was an Albanian composer. He was known as one of the greatest masters of music at that time. Biography He was born on 1 May 1937, in the small city of Kavajë, Albania to a family from Debar, present day North Macedonia. Krajka began his musical career at the Pioneer Palace in Tirana sometime in the early 1950s where he learned accordion, the musical instrument for which he was to become famous. He went on to study composition at the State Conservatory in Tirana between 1963 and 1968. Known for his close collaboration with singer Vaçe Zela, he authored two of her most well-known songs, Lemza and Djaloshi dhe Shiu. He also composed music for several films such as “Zonja nga Qyteti”, “Udha e Shkronjave”.. etc. He was awarded Albania’s Merited People’s Artist prize for his long contribution to music. He received the “Honor of the Nation” Decoration. Krajka died on 1 March 2021, aged 83 from COVID-19. References External links * *

Agnes Nebo von Ballmoos

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Agnes Nebo von Ballmoos (February 21, 1938 – March 29, 2000) was a Liberian professor of music, scholar of Liberian folk music, conductor, composer, and lawyer. Von Ballmoos contributed to the preservation of Liberian folk music by collecting and transcribing folk music representing diverse cultural traditions around the country and composing original arrangements of traditional songs. She also taught at the University of Liberia for nearly thirty years, directing the university choir. Under her leadership, the choir gave concerts at venues around the world, performing a varied repertoire which included classical pieces, spirituals, and traditional Liberian music. Early life and education Agnes Nebo von Ballmoos was born in Grand Cess in Grand Kru County. Her father was Amos S. Nebo and her mother was Grace Nah Tameh Nebo. In 1975, she completed a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from Indiana University, which she attended on a Fulbright fellowship. Shortly after completing her undergraduate degree, Agnes married Rudolph von Ballmoos, with whom she had two sons. Their younger son, DeWitt von Ballmoos, leads Liberia’s National Social Security and Welfare Corporation. Career From 1

Ahmed Achour

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Ahmed Achour () was a Tunisian conductor. Biography Achour was born in Hammam Lif. After studying law, he studied music and violin at the Tunis Conservatory of Music in Tunis in 1967 where he obtained the diploma of Arabic music and the Presidential Award for violin. He continued his musical studies at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he received degrees in several specialties: harmony, counterpoint, conducting and orchestral writing. he became responsible for directing and administering and over the years worked with many international musicians. He then assumed the direction of the National Conservatory of Music in Tunis and the International Festival of Popular Arts. Achour has presented numerous concerts with symphony orchestras in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, Brive-la-Gaillarde, Rabat, Algiers and produced operas by Carl Maria von Weber, Abu Hassan, in Sofia (Bulgaria). He won the National Music Prize in 2005. Death Achour died on Friday January 29, 2021, at the age of 75. Works References

Ailsa Dixon

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Ailsa Mary Pauline Dixon (born Ailsa Harrison, 15 August 1932 – 8 August, 2017) was an English composer, teacher, singer and lutenist. Career Born in Bristol, Dixon grew up in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, where her mother Pat Harrison (who had studied music with Edward Bairstow) founded the music festival in 1960. A distant ancestor was the Polish-Lithuanian violinist and composer Felix Yaniewicz, who co-founded the first Edinburgh Festival. Ailsa studied music at Durham University in the 1950s under Arthur Hutchings, and later studied privately with Paul Patterson, Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. She also studied lute with Diana Poulton. A student composition for string quartet was awarded the Eve Myra Kisch Prize at Durham. After graduating Dixon taught singing and music appreciation, while also singing and playing lute in recitals with her guitarist husband Brian Dixon. In 1976 she directed a production of Handel’s opera Theodora, and this inspired her to compose an opera of her own. Letter to Philemon was staged at Aston Rowant Church in 1984. She was most active as a composer in the 1980s and 1990s. Notable performances included the premiere of th

Aivars Kalējs

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Aivars Kalējs (April 22, 1951, Riga, Latvian SSR) is a Latvian composer, organist and pianist. Career Aivars Kalējs has written more than 100 opuses of symphonic, organ, piano, chamber and choir music. His works have won several composition awards, e.g. symphonic work “Musica Dolente” - dedicated to the victims of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. His works are included in many CD’s of the great musicians and collectives such as Iveta Apkalna, Andris Nelsons, Maxim Novikov and Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, Vita Kalnciema released retrospective CD Flashes of Aivars Kalējs organ music recorded in Riga Cathedral. Aivars Kalējs is a concert organist at the Dome Cathedral in Riga and chief organist for the New St. Gertrudes Lutheran Church. He has performed solo recitals, included participating in dozens of important international organ festivals, and toured with various ensembles throughout North America, Colombia, almost all European countries, and Asia, including prestigious venues as Notre Dame de Paris (only Latvian who had three recitals there), Musikverein, West Point Military Academy Cadet Chapel with largest pipe organ in the world. Kalējs is known as an

Åke Parmerud

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Åke Parmerud (born 24 July 1953) is a Swedish composer, musician, and multimedia artist noted for his acoustic and electronic works, which have been performed mostly in Europe, Mexico, and Canada. He is also noted for the design of stage and acoustics as well as interactive media and software. He has received recognition for his work from a number of festivals in Europe and has won two Swedish Grammis awards. He has been a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since 1998. Biography Education Parmerud was born in Lidköping, Sweden. After working as a photographer from 1972 to 1974, Parmerud began his music studies in 1978 at the Högskolan för Scen och Musik (Conservatory of Theatre and Music) at the University of Gothenburg, where his teachers included the electronic-music composer and visual artist Rune Lindblad. He also studied with electronic-music pioneer Lars Gunnar Bodin Electronic Music Studio (EMS) in Stockholm (Peterson 2001; Parmerud n.d.). Career Parmerud has been active since the 1970s in music (instrumental and electro-acoustic), multimedia and interactive art and music for videos, dance and cinema (Anon. 2011a). He has been commissioned to write works for instit

Aki Takase

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(born January 26, 1948) is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer. Biography Takase was born in Osaka and started to play piano at age 3. Raised in Tokyo, she studied classical piano at Toho Gakuen School of Music. Starting in 1978, Takase began performing and recording in the US. Awards * The German Record Critics’ Award 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2009, CD “Cherry-Sakura” with David Murray 2017/2. In total she received the awards 9 times (1988–2017). * Berliner Zeitung Award (the best Artists of 1999 in the Berlin Newspaper) * The SWR Jazz Award 2002. * Jazzpreis Berlin, 2018 * German Jazz Preis for Piano/Keyboard Award 2021. * Albert Mangelsdorff Prize 2021 References External links * Official site (in German, English and Japanese) * Aki Takase Representation

Akin Euba

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Olatunji Akin Euba (28 April 1935 – 14 April 2020) was a Nigerian composer, musicologist, and pianist. Career Born on 28 April 1935 in Lagos, Nigeria, Akin Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the Trinity College of Music, London, obtaining the diplomas of fellow of the Trinity College London (Composition) and fellow of the Trinity College London (Piano). He was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Mantle Hood, Charles Seeger, J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Klaus Wachsmann, and Roy Travis. He held a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Ghana, Legon (1974). While at Legon, Euba’s doctoral work was supervised by Professor Nketia, and his dissertation is titled “Dundun Music of the Yoruba”. Euba was professor and director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos, and also served as a senior research fellow at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria. He served as head of music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation for five years. He was a research scholar and artist in residence at IWALEWA House, the African

Akio Yashiro

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was a Japanese composer. Biography He was born in Tokyo. Yashiro entered the Tokyo Music School (presently the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music) in 1945, where he studied composition under Saburo Moroi, Kunihiko Hashimoto, Tomojirō Ikenouchi, and Akira Ifukube, and piano under Noboru Toyomasu, Leonid Kreutzer, and Kiyo Kawakami. Upon finishing graduate courses in 1951, he went to Europe with Toshiro Mayuzumi and Sadao Bekku to study with a French governmental fellowship at Paris Conservatory. There he learned composition and orchestration from Olivier Messiaen, Tony Oban, and Nadia Boulanger. He returned home in 1956. He received several prizes for his compositions, including the Eighth Mainichi Music Prize in 1957 for String Quartet, which he had written while studying abroad, and Sixteenth Otaka Prize and the Twenty-first National Art Festival Award in 1968 for his Piano Concerto (1964–1967) which was commissioned by NHK. In 1968, Yashiro was inaugurated as an assistant professor at his alma mater, and he was promoted to professor in 1974. He died suddenly of heart failure at the age of 46. List of works *24 Preludes for piano (1945) *Sonatina for piano (1945) *Vi

Akira Inoue (musician)

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(born 8 September 1953), is a Japanese keyboard player, composer, arranger and producer. He was the recipient of the 23rd Japan Record Awards arranger award. History Inoue was born in Tokyo. His father was the pioneering Japanese cello player Yoritoro Inoue (井上頼豊). In the late 1970s, he played in the fusion group PARACHUTE. He released his first of many solo albums in the early 1980s. He has also composed, arranged, and performed music for several films and OVAs, including SF Shinseiki Lensman, Lily C.A.T., and the Japan/West Germany 1984 film Windy Story. In the 1990s, he played in The Voice Project and on projects with Masako Kawamura. He has produced projects for Anri, Mikio Sakai, Yoriko Ganeko, Masako Kawamura, The Voice Project, Kyosuke Himuro, MOON CHILD, Furukawa Ten-sei, Sojiro, harpist Mai Takematsu, Minako Honda and the Yoshida Brothers. Discography As solo artist * Tokyo Installation As arranger With Yui Asaka * C-Girl * TRUE LOVE * 恋のロックンロール・サーカス * Chance! * ボーイフレンドをつくろう * Self Control With The Alfee * 讃集詩 ALMIGHTY doubt * 恋人になりたい * 通り雨 * 泣かないでMY LOVE * SUNSET SUMMER * 暁のパラダイス・ロード * STARSHIP -光を求めて- With Anri * Trouble in Paradise With Ayumi Ishida * 赤いギヤマン * 波になって Wit

Akira Miyoshi

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Akira Miyoshi (三善晃; January 10, 1933 – 4 October 2013 ) was a Japanese composer. Biography Miyoshi was born in Suginami, Tokyo. He was a child prodigy on the piano, studying with Kozaburo Hirai and Tomojiro Ikenouchi. He studied French literature at the University of Tokyo, He returned to Japan in 1957 and graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1960. In 1965, he became a professor at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In 1996, Miyoshi was awarded the Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government. In 1999, he received the 31st Suntory Music Award. He received the Otaka prize six times for his compositions. Works Orchestral * 1960 Trois mouvements symphoniques – (Kôkyô sanshô) * 1962 Concerto for piano and orchestra * 1964 Duel for soprano and orchestra * 1964 Concerto for Orchestra * 1965 Concerto for violin and orchestra * 1969 Concerto for marimba and string ensemble * 1969 Odes métamorphosées * 1970 Festival Overture * 1970 Requiem for mixed choir and orchestra * 1974 Concerto for cello and orchestra * 1978 Noesis * 1979 Psaume for mixed choir and orchestra * 1982 En-Soi Lointain * 1984 Kyômon for children’s choir and orchestra * 1988 Litania pour Fuji

Akira Nishimura

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was a Japanese composer from Osaka. Biography Nishimura studied composition and musical theory on a graduate course at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He also studied Asian traditional music, religion, aesthetics, cosmology and the heterophonic concepts, all of which had a lasting influence on his music. Nishimura won several national and international awards, including the 36th Suntory Music Award (2004), and was commissioned by many overseas music festivals. His style consistently relied on a modal sense. When Heterophony for String Quartet was performed for the first time, he felt strongly that the tone selection at the beginning of the piece was strange, so much so that he immediately rewrote it into a modal version. Along with Joe Kondo, Nishimura has a wealth of recordings of his own works, but Nishimura also has many important works that are not included in his discography, such as Guren and From the Edge of Manra. In his later years, he wrote new works for the world of wind instruments. Nishimura was the judge at the 2007 Tōru Takemitsu composition award. Akira Nishimura died from jaw cancer on 7 September 2023, one day short of his 70th birthday. Works Op

Ákos Rózmann

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Ákos Rózmann (; 16 July 1939 – 12 August 2005) was a Hungarian-Swedish composer and organist. Biography Rózmann was born in Budapest, Hungary, on 16 July 1939. He studied composition with Rezső Sugár at the Bartók Béla Secondary School of Music between 1957 and 1961. From 1961 on, he attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, studying composition with Endre Szervánszky and organ with Sebestyén Pécsi. He graduated in both subjects in 1966. After gaining his diplomas, he worked as a teacher of score reading at the Teacher’s College of the Liszt Academy in Szeged. At the end of the sixties, he composed film music for Mafilm (Hungarian Film Studios). His Improvisazione for flute and piano was published in 1971 by Editio Musica Budapest. In 1971, he went to Sweden for postgraduate studies in composition. His teacher was Ingvar Lidholm at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. In the college studio, he discovered the tools of electroacoustic music making. He also started to work in Elektronmusikstudion (EMS, the Stockholm Electroacoustic Music Studio). The first result of his experiments was Impulsioni, a cycle of short electronic pieces from 1974, which won third prize at the Bourges

Alain Bancquart

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Alain Bancquart (20 June 1934 – 27 January 2022) was a French composer. Biography Bancquart had his musical formation at the Conservatoire de Paris (violin, viola, chamber music, counterpoint, fugue and composition) with Darius Milhaud. He was a violist with the Orchestre National de France until 1973. He became Directeur Musical des Orchestres de Régions at the ORTF (1973–1974), then musical director of the Orchestre National de France (1975–1976). Since 1967, he had dedicated his compositional work to the study of micro-intervals in a neo-serial approach using quarter-tones, and more recently 16th tones. Bancquart was married to French poet Marie-Claire Bancquart. He died on 27 January 2022, at the age of 87. Selected works * Five symphonies for large orchestra * Two concertos for violin * Partition concertante for cello and ensemble * Two works for string trio and orchestra * Two chamber operas * Three string quartets * Many pieces for flute * Many vocal works * Baroques for viola and orchestra (1973) * Concerto for viola and orchestra (1965) * Jeux pour lumière for violin, viola, cello and orchestra (1969) * Les Tarots d’Ulysse for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, violin,

Alain Bernaud

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Alain Henri Bernaud (8 March 1932 – 4 December 2020) was a French composer. Life Bernaud was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine of a polytechnician father, a good violinist and violist and a mother playing the piano, daughter of Marcel Chadeigne who was, before and after the First World War, choir conductor at the Paris Opera and pianist - accompanist - decipherer - reducer of orchestral scores. He had formed with Maurice Ravel, Maurice Delage, Déodat de Séverac, Florent Schmitt, Paul Ladmirault, Émile Vuillermoz, Désiré Inghelbrecht, Ricardo Viñes and Tristan Klingsor, a group they had named Les Apaches, and whose rallying call was whistling the first theme of Borodin’s Second Symphony. Arriving in Paris in 1938, he began studying piano and music theory with , wrote his Opus 1, a string quartet (for the family!) and then returned to the Conservatoire de Paris (direction of Claude Delvincourt) in specialized solfege class, at Lucette Descaves, where he met Michel Legrand, Roger Boutry, Jean-Michel Defaye and Alain Weber. He then followed Jules Gentil’s piano class (1st medal) - studied harmony with Jacques de La Presle (1st prize) - counterpoint and fugue with Noël Gallon (1st medal and 1st

Alain Crépin

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Alain Crepin (born 28 February 1954) is a Belgian saxophonist, composer, music educator and conductor. Crepin was born in Mettet near Dinant. He began his studies for saxophone, cello and piano at the Music Academy of Dinant. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and studied under François Daneels, Roland Cardon, Yvon Ducène and Jacques Leduc From 1975 to 1981 he was solo saxophonist in Musik Corps of the Gendarmerie and from 1981 to 1983 he also worked as a saxophonist in the Large Band of the Belgian Guides in Brussels. In 1984 he became conductor the band Chasseurs Ardennais. In 1985 he became music director of the Band of the Belgian Air Force. He has performed with the saxophone quartet Dinant. From 1986 to 1997 he was vice president of the International Association for the Promotion of the Saxophone. He was also professor of saxophone at the University of Gap, France and in Alicante, Spain. Since 1981 he has been a professor for saxophone at the Royal Conservatory of Music Brussels. As a composer, he has written numerous works for symphonic bands and orchestras and as a soloist or composer has featured on over 60 albums. Works * 1991 Relâche * 1991 Temptations * 2

Alain Gagnon

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Alain Gagnon (22 May 1938 − 26 March 2017) was a Canadian composer and music educator based in Laval, Quebec. His compositions have been performed by ensembles throughout Canada. Early life and education Gagnon was born in Trois-Pistoles, Quebec. He began teaching himself the piano as a young child; in 1951, at the age of 13, he began taking music lessons at the Rimouski Seminary with Father Philippe-Antoine Lavoie with whom he studied until 1958. In 1960 he entered the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec where he was an organ student with Henri Gagnon. Those honours enabled him to pursue graduate studies in France at the École Normale de Musique de Paris with Henri Dutilleux and at the École César Franck with Olivier Alain in 1965–1966. He studied for a short period of time at the Institut de Sonologie of Utrecht in 1966 and in 1967 at the Geneva Conservatory with André-François Marescotti. He joined the Canadian League of Composers and was an associate of the Canadian Music Centre. The Quebec Symphony Orchestra commissioned his Prélude and performed the works premiere in 1969 under conductor Pierre Dervaux. In 1980 he composed “Pastourelle”, his first composition for orga

Alain Goraguer

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Alain Goraguer (; 20 August 1931 – 13 February 2023) was a French jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. He was a sideman of Boris Vian and Serge Gainsbourg, and a composer/arranger for Gainsbourg, Salvatore Adamo, Jean Ferrat, Serge Reggiani, and Nana Mouskouri. In 1965 he was the orchestra conductor for Luxembourg’s winning entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”. (Though it represented Luxembourg, the song had an entirely French creative team behind it, as it was sung by France Gall, written by Gainsbourg, and conducted by Goraguer.) He composed some or all of the music for films including La Planète Sauvage (1973), La Vie de bohème (1992), Deux jours à tuer (2008) and Saint Laurent (2014). Goraguer died on 13 February 2023, at the age of 91. Composer Soundtracks See also * List of jazz arrangers References External links * * https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/alain_goraguer - list of songs *

Alain Jomy

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Alain Jomy (born 23 April 1941 in Nice) is a French film music composer, music critic, film critic, director, and writer. He trained at the École Normale de Musique de Paris where he was taught by Hélène Boschi. Filmography * 1972: La Soirée du baron Swenbeck, by Hubert Niogret (short film) * 1974: Nouvelles de Henry James, by Luc Béraud (TV series) (episode Ce qui savait Morgan) * 1976: The Best Way to Walk, by Claude Miller * 1977: This Sweet Sickness, by Claude Miller * 1980: L’Embrumé, by Josée Dayan (TV) * 1980: Haine, by Dominique Goult * 1980: The Little Mermaid, by Roger Andrieux * 1980: Anthracite, by Édouard Niermans * 1981: Instinct de femme, by Claude Othnin-Girard * 1981: Les Filles de Grenoble, by Joël Le Moigné * 1984: O Lugar do Morto, by António-Pedro Vasconcelos * 1985: L’Art d’aimer, by Dominique Cabrera * 1985: An Impudent Girl, by Claude Miller * 1988: The Little Thief, by Claude Miller * 1991: Flora de Dresde, by Alain Jomy (short film) * 1992: Ladrão Que Rouba a Anão Tem Cem Anos de Prisão, by (short film) * 1992: Le Lieutenant Lorena (Aqui D’El Rei!), by António-Pedro Vasconcelos (TV) * 1992: Un ballon dans la tête, by Michaëla Watteaux (TV) * 1992: The Acco

Alain Louvier

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Alain Louvier (born 13 September 1945) is a French composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Born in Paris, Louvier studied from 1953 to 1967 at the headed by Marcel Landowski, then from 1967 to 1970 at the Conservatoire de Paris with Henriette Puig-Roget, Olivier Messiaen, Tony Aubin, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, Norbert Dufourcq and Manuel Rosenthal. As a student in 1968, he won the 161st and last annual Prix de Rome for musical composition. Louvier headed the École Nationale de Musique of Boulogne-Billancourt from 1972 to 1986. From 1986 to 1991, he was the director of the Conservatoire de Paris. From 1991 to 2009, he taught music analysis and orchestration at the CNSMDP (Conservatoire) in Paris. From 2009 until 2013, he was again director of the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory (the École Nationale de Musique de Boulogne-Billancourt). Louvier has composed pieces for piano, harpsichord, chamber music and orchestra. He is particularly known for his invention of a new piano technique (also used on organ and harpsichord) centered around the “aggressors”: the 10 fingers, 2 palms, 2 fists and 2 forearms, treated individually. He forged a precise gestural vocabulary, and an adapt

Alain Marcel

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Alain Marcel (1952 — 9 March 2020) was an Algerian-born French music composer and author. An important figure of musical theatre and musical comedy in the 1980s, he notably adapted the French versions of Little Shop of Horrors, Kiss Me, Kate, and La Cage aux Folles. Biography Marcel studied musical theatre at the Conservatoire de Tours, then at the Conservatoire de Paris. He wrote his first song in 1975 when he was a student of Antoine Vitez. Marcel initially acted in television and films, while also composing, producing, and appearing in theatrical productions such as Essayez donc nos pédalos and Rayon femmes fortes. In total, he was involved in 570 performances. Essayez donc nos pédalos was choreographed by Tonie Marshall, and it explored homosexuality while it was still criminal. His greatest success was in the field of musical theatre. He starred in the French versions of Little Shop of Horrors, Kiss Me, Kate, and La Cage aux Folles. He performed at the Théâtre Déjazet, Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, Casino de Paris, and Théâtre Mogador. In the 2000s, Marcel gradually returned to music, composing music for the shows Le Paris d’Aziz et Mamadou, L’Opéra de Sarah (both at the T

Alain Margoni

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Alain Margoni (13 October 1934) is a French classical composer. Life Born in Neuilly-Plaisance, Margoni studied harmony with Henri Challan, counterpoint and fugue with Noël Gallon, orchestral conducting with Louis Fourestier, musical analysis with Olivier Messiaen and Ondes Martenot with Maurice Martenot. at the Conservatoire de Paris. In the competition for the Prix de Rome in 1957 and 1958 he won a second prize each and in 1959 the Premier Grand Prix with the cantata Dans les Jardins d’Armide after Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered. After the four-year stay at the Villa Medici in Rome, he worked for nine years at the Comédie-Française, first as factotum musical, later as musical director. He then held a chair in musical analysis at the Conservatoire de Paris. He also acted as a conferencier, conductor, improviser with the Ondes Martenot, pianist and music theorist and musical comedian, the latter with Jérôme Deschamps and Alain Germain. For Germain he wrote the music for the play Un piano pour deux pianistes, in which he himself performed with Pascal Le Corre in 1987. In addition to some 150 film, television and dramatic music, Margoni composed a musical narrative about the di

Alain Weber

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Alain Weber (8 December 1930 — 14 November 2019 ) was a French composer and music educator. Training and activities Born in Château-Thierry, Weber began his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1941. First Grand Prix de Rome in 1952, he won the same year the Sogeda Prize for his ballet Le Petit Jeu. Lecturer at the Conservatoire de Paris since 1957, he taught preparation for the teaching profession, solfège and counterpoint, then in 1970 he assumed the function of professor advisor to studies. The Grand Prix du disque français was awarded to him in 1982 for his television work La Rivière Perdue. President of many juries, he was also a member of the symphonic commission of the SACEM (1980–83), then of the reading committee of Radio France. He carried out numerous educational missions abroad (Tunisia, Canada, Yugoslavia, Taiwan…). Alain Weber was an officer of the Ordre national du Mérite. Technique and aesthetics Weber’s work focuses on an exploration of forms of writing that are constantly being renewed. Parallel to some serials works freely treated (Variations pour dixtuor, 1965 - Synecdoque pour hautbois, 1970), he developed a writing in quarter tones (Saxophone Quartet, 19

Alakbar Taghiyev

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Alakbar Taghiyev (; April 28, 1924 – April 16, 1981) was an Azerbaijani composer and author of popular Azerbaijani songs. Biography He was born in 1922, in Ganja, into a large, low-income family. At the age of 14, he began to work in case of need in secretariat of judicial trials. Soviet Union Judicial Institute and after graduation began to work in Goychay as an investigator. He worked in Public Procurators’ Office for more than 30 years and worked until he became the chief of investigation department of Public Procurators’ Office of Baku city. He died in Baku. Creativity From Alakbar’s youth people around him noticed his musical talent, but he chose the other way and engaged in jurisprudence. But absence of special musical talent didn’t prevent him from composing his first song called (“Neighbour Girl”) in 1958, which was heard on the air of Azerbaijan State Television performed by Zeynab Khanlarova. The prominent musician Akif Bakikhanov helped Alakbar Taghiyev to become a composer. Later, Alakbar Taghiyev composed more than 2000 songs and many of them are stored in archive of the composer’s son, and only more than 200 of them have been dubbed. There are such well known and popu

Alan Laurillard

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Alan Laurillard (born April 20, 1946) is a Canadian composer, workshop leader, saxophonist, keyboard player and sample artist, living in the Netherlands and Bulgaria. He plays jazz, improvisational music and non-Western music. For his work as a musician, orchestral and workshop leader, and driver of the jazz scene in Groningen, Laurillard received the Boy Edgar Prize in 1982, the most important jazz award in The Netherlands, and four years later received the Henri de Wolf Jazz Prize. Youth, education and early career in Canada From 1955 to 1963 Laurillard was a member of the North Vancouver School Orchestra, which won the Canadian championship for school orchestras in 1960. During this period, he studied music theory and composition with Gordon Webster. Besides the tenor saxophone Laurillard also studied the piano and percussion. Between 1959 and 1972 he worked as a semi-professional saxophonist and arranger for various rock and roll and rhythm and blues groups and big bands in Vancouver. The soul group the Accents (1962–1967) was the most prominent of them. At the University of British Columbia, he completed his studies in mechanical engineering, but did not pursue a career in tha

Alan Lloyd (composer)

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Alan Huber Lloyd (10 January 1943 – 31 March 1986) was an American composer, primarily known for his scores for the theatrical works of Robert Wilson and the ballets of Andy de Groat. His score for Wilson’s A Letter for Queen Victoria was nominated for Best Original Score at the 29th Tony Awards. He also composed works for solo piano and for chamber ensembles in a conservative tonal style. Life and career Lloyd was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Mary née Grant and Allen Huber Lloyd. His father was a mechanical engineer who founded the toy company Multifold Inc. in Milford, Ohio. Lloyd received his BA in Music from Antioch College where he studied under the composer Donald Keats. According to Laurence Shyer in Robert Wilson and his collaborators, Lloyd was the first of several composers with whom Robert Wilson would work. Their collaboration began when Lloyd composed the incidental music for Wilson’s 1969 production of The King of Spain. Lloyd also played the title role and constructed the gigantic pair of cat’s legs which hung from the proscenium throughout the play. Lloyd went on to compose incidental piano music for several more early works by Wilson, sometimes performin

Alan Mauritz Swanson

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Alan Mauritz Swanson (born Chicago, Illinois October 29, 1941) is an American composer and academic who lives in the Netherlands. He took his BA (1963) and MA (1965) at Indiana University and his PhD at the University of Chicago (1973). In between he studied at Stockholm University. As an academic, he taught at Augustana College (Rock Island, Illinois), Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah), and the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), and came to specialize in the theatre and opera of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Trained as a singer, many of his early compositions are for voice, but recent work has tended to be varied in form: string quartets, a viola concerto, a partita for piano, and others. In 2006, he was honored for his academic and community work by being appointed Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau. Partial works list Vocal Choral * 1970: Prairie Conversation 2 voices Alto, Baritone * 1970: Carol “Child, sleeping, do not wake” Trebles, solo instrumental * 1971: Magnificat Choir SATB * 1975: God is gone up SSA, Triangle * 1980: Good Shepherd Variations for Choir, SSA * 1980: Preliminary Look at Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty” Baritone solo * 1986

Alan Rees (composer)

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Abbot Alan William Rees, O.S.B. (1 February 1941 – 2 October 2005) was a Welsh Roman Catholic monk, organist, and composer of choral and organ music. From 1986 to 1993, Rees was abbot of Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire. Biography Rees was born in Morriston, near Swansea, to Hilda and John Rees. He was the ninth person to hold the position. Rees died suddenly after a fall in 2005. Rees had suffered from depression for much of his life, and attempted suicide the year before. *Congress Mass, for the National Pastoral Congress in Liverpool, 1980 *Cardiff Mass, for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Britain, 1982 *“A Winter Rose”, carol References

Alan Ridout

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Alan Ridout (9 December 1934 – 19 March 1996) was a British composer and teacher. Life Born in West Wickham, Kent, England, Alan Ridout studied briefly at the Guildhall School of Music before commencing four years of study at the Royal College of Music, London with Herbert Howells and Gordon Jacob. He was later taught by Michael Tippett, Peter Fricker and (under a Dutch government scholarship) Henk Badings. He went on to teach at the Royal College of Music, the University of Birmingham, the University of Cambridge, the University of London, and at The King’s School, Canterbury. He also broadcast musical talks on the radio. Alan Ridout lived for much of his life in Canterbury, but after a serious heart attack in 1990 he moved to France, settling in the town of Vitré, Brittany, before moving on to Caen at the very end of his life. Music Ridout’s style is mostly tonal, though in younger life he wrote some microtonal works. His works include church, orchestral and chamber music, often intended for amateurs and children. Much of the church music came out of a collaboration between Ridout and Allan Wicks, organist and master of the choristers at Canterbury Cathedral which began in 1964.

Alan Shacklock

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Alan Albert Shacklock (born 20 June 1950) is an English musician, composer, arranger and recording producer, who lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee. His 1972 song “The Mexican” as performed by Babe Ruth is considered influential in the early development of b-boying and hip-hop culture. Life and career Alan Shacklock was born in London and began playing guitar as a child. His first band was The Juniors, which included the Rolling Stones’ guitarist Mick Taylor and Jethro Tull bassist John Glascock. He then joined Chris Farlowe’s Thunderbirds. Shacklock later completed classical guitar and lute studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating with a master’s degree in music. Well-noted for never being seen without a hat, in 1969 Shacklock played in a band called the Gods, and in 1971 formed the band Babe Ruth. He worked as the group’s songwriter and producer from 1971 to 1975, and then left to work as a solo songwriter and record producer. He has received four Grammy Award nominations, and has produced a number of silver, gold and platinum recordings for artists, including Mike Oldfield, Bonnie Tyler, Jeff Beck (of the Yardbirds), Meat Loaf, the Alarm, the Look, Roger

Alan Silvestri

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Alan Anthony Silvestri (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and music producer of film scores. He has received two Grammy Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. He has been associated with director Robert Zemeckis since 1984, composing music for nearly all of his feature films, including the Back to the Future film series (1985–1990), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), What Lies Beneath (2000), Cast Away (2000), The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007), Flight (2012) and The Walk (2015). Silvestri also scored many other popular movies, including Predator (1987), The Abyss (1989), Father of the Bride (1991), The Bodyguard (1992), Eraser (1996), The Parent Trap (1998), Practical Magic (1998), Stuart Little (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001), Lilo & Stitch (2002), Van Helsing (2004), the first three Night at the Museum films, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), The A-Team (2010), Ready Player One (2018), and five Marvel Cinematic Universe films including Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Aveng

Alan Wilson (composer)

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Alan J. Wilson (26 May 1947 - 4 April 2026) was a British composer of church music. Professional career He was born in 1947, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, UK. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He studied piano with Phyllis Sellick, harpsichord with Dr. Thorntam Lofthouse, and composition with John Lambert. He attended composition masterclasses with Nadia Boulanger. He went on to study at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he studied keyboard with Gustav Leonhardt. From 1974 to 1986 he was Director of Music at the Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury, for which he wrote many choral works. In 1976, he became Director of Music at Queen Mary College, University of London. There, he composed ‘The Palace of Delights’ and ‘The Harmony of the Spheres.’ He conducted research to restore and edit songs from the Queen Mary College, including the ‘Westfield Songbook,’ and set writings of Constance Louisa Maynard to music, including ‘The Downs’ as well as several poems and hymns. In 1986, he became Organist and Director of Music at the Bow Bells Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, London. There, he researched music by William Babell and John Stanley and composed ‘2015 Requiem.’ Du

Alba Lucía Potes Cortés

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Alba Lucía Potes Cortés (born 1954) is a composer of contemporary classical music, and teacher at the Mannes School of Music, College Preparatory Division, in New York. Life Born in Cali, Colombia, she studied at the Antonio M. Valencia conservatory, and the University of Valle in Cali Colombia, where she studied with Leon J. Simar. In 1983, she moved to the United States. She graduated from Temple University degree in music theory, cum laude, and with a master’s and doctorate in composition. She studied with Matthew Greenbaum, Ursula Mamlok and Maurice Wright. She lives in New York City. Career Alba Potes’ compositions have been performed by the Montreal Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony of Colombia, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Venezuela, Darmstadt 2000 Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, the Symphony Orchestra of Cali, Festival Internacional Cervantino, International Alliance for Women in Music, the ISCM in New York, Parnassus, the Composer’s Conference at Wellesley College, the Network for New Music, Momenta Quartet, The Stefan Wolpe Society, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Institute for New Music in Freiburg, Germany, the ISCM in Seoul, South Korea and at

Alba Quintanilla

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Alba Quintanilla (born July 11, 1944) is a Venezuelan composer, harpist, harpsichordist, pianist, singer, conductor, and pedagogue. Biography Quintanilla was born in Mérida, Mérida, and had her first contact with music through her parents, especially her father, Venezuelan painter, sculpturist, and pedagogue Luis Felipe Quintanilla Ponce. At age 10 she matriculated at the Escuela Superior de Música José Ángel Lamas, where she studied piano, harp, harpsichord, singing (soprano), composition, and conduction; her instructors there included Vicente Emilio Sojo, Raimundo Pereira, Juan Bautista Plaza, Gonzalo Castellanos Yumar, Evencio Castellanos, Cecilia de Majo, Evelia Taborda, Lidya Venturini, and Pablo Manelski. She continued her music studies at the Conservatory in Warsaw, Poland, during one of her sabbatical years (1970). There, she studied with conductor Ryszard Dudek and composer Witold Rudzinski. From 1982 through 1984 Quintanilla attended the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim in Mannheim, Germany, continuing her postgraduate studies in composition with Prof. Helmut Weindland. Quintanilla was the first woman to conduct the Venezuela Symphony Orches

Albert Mayr

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Albert Mayr (1 August 1943 – 28 January 2024) was an Italian composer of experimental and contemporary music. He studied music and composition in three different cities: at conservatories in both Bolzano and Florence and at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in German. In 1965, Mayr graduated in music and choral singing from the Florence Conservatory. From 1963 to 1969, Mayr worked with Pietro Grossi at “Fonologia Musicale’s study” in Florence and received commissions from the musicological division of CNUCE/CNR. He received commissions from Südtiroler Künstlerbund, from “Brixner Iniziative Musik und Kirche” and from Sound Art at Mobius, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities. He is a composer of the Florentine artistic movement that has been active since the end of World War II up to the present, including Sylvano Bussotti, Giuseppe Chiari, Giancarlo Cardini, Sergio Maltagliati, Daniele Lombardi, Pietro Grossi, Lelio Camilleri, Francesco Giomi. These musicians have experimented with the interaction among sound, sign and vision, a synaesthetics of art derived from historical avant-gardes, from Wassily Kandinsky to futurism, to Alexander Scriabin and Arnold Schoenberg, all the wa

Alcides Lanza

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Alcides Emigdio Lanza (June 2, 1929 – July 17, 2024) was an Argentine-born Canadian composer, conductor, pianist, and music educator. As both a composer and performer he was known as an exponent of contemporary classical music and avant-garde music. His works often utilize a combination of traditional and unusual instruments, and incorporate electronic sounds and extensions. Many of his compositions are published by Boosey & Hawkes, and Lanza himself owned his own publishing company, Shelan Editions. He was an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, a member of the Canadian League of Composers, and an Honorary Member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. In 2019 Lanza was named a Member of the Order of Canada. Lanza died on July 17, 2024, at the age of 95. Background Born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Lanza received his initial musical training in Buenos Aires where he was a pupil of Julián Bautista (music composition), Ruwin Erlich (piano), Alberto Ginastera (composition), and Roberto Kinsky (conducting). He received a scholarship from the Torcuato di Tella Institute in 1963-1964 which enabled him to pursue advanced studies in music composition and electronic music. He received furth

Alden Jenks

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Alden Jenks (born August 10, 1940) is an American composer. Biography Alden Jenks was born in Michigan and received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. He studied composition with Lawrence Moss, Andrew Imbrie and Seymour Shifrin. He also studied composition in 1967 with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the University of California, Davis, and electronic music with David Tudor and Anthony Gnazzo. As a performer, he served as a controller of the live electronics for Stockhausen’s 1967 Darmstadt collective-composition project, Ensemble, and performed on synthesizer in the 25th anniversary concert of Terry Riley’s In C in 1989, released as a recording in 1995 on New Albion Records CD NA071. As a composer he is primarily known for his work in electronic media, and was Professor of Composition and Director of the E. L. Wiegand Composition Studio at the San Francisco Conservatory. John Adams has cited him as an influential colleague, crediting Jenks with introducing him to Wagner His composition Nagasaki won the Bourges Electronic Music Competition, and Marrying Music won the Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition award. Compositions (sele

Aldo Clementi

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Aldo Clementi (25 May 1925 – 3 March 2011) was an Italian classical composer. Life Aldo Clementi was born in Catania, Italy. He studied the piano, graduating in 1946 at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. His studies in composition began in 1941, and his teachers included and Goffredo Petrassi. After receiving his diploma in 1954 again at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, he attended the Darmstadt summer courses from 1955 to 1962. Important influences during this period included meeting Bruno Maderna in 1956, and working at the electronic music studio of the Italian radio broadcaster RAI in Milan. Further reading * Clementi, Aldo, Maria Rosa De Luca, Salvatore Enrico Failla, and Graziella Seminara. 2005. Per Aldo Clementi: nell’occasione dei suoi ottant’anni, 25 maggio 2005. Catania: Università degli studi di Catania. * Cresti, Renzo. 1990. Aldo Clementi: studio monografico e intervista. Milan: Edizioni Suvini Zerboni. * Lux, Simonetta, and Daniela Tortora. 2005. Collage 1961: un’azione dell’arte di Achille Perilli e Aldo Clementi. Luxflux prototype arte contemporanea, Documenti 1. Rome: Gangemi. * Mattietti, Gianluigi. 2001. Geometrie di musica: il periodo diatonico di Aldo Cl

Aldo Donati (singer)

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Aldo Donati (2 September 1947 – 24 August 2014) was an Italian singer, composer and television personality. Born in Rome, he started his career at very young age as a member of the blues-rock group “Gli Arciduchi”. In 1974 he was one of the co-founder and a stable member of the vocal group Schola Cantorum, that had a consistent success for the whole decade. As a solo singer, his main hits are the songs “Canterò canterò canterò”, which ranked fourth at the 1980 Sanremo Music Festival, and “Cantando”, which entered the competition at the 1982 Festivalbar. Donati was also very active as a composer, signing among others several songs for Mina. Among his compositions, the most successful was “Canzoni stonate”, a 1981 hit by Gianni Morandi which was later covered by several artists, including Andrea Bocelli and Stevie Wonder in a Spanish adaptation (“Cançion desafinada”) for the album Amore. A supporter of S.S. Lazio, for which he composed the hymn “So’ già du ore”, in the 2000s he was active in television sport programs as an opinionist and occasionally a presenter. In 2009 he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, due to an aneurysm, for which he fell into a coma. Never fully recovered, he di

Aldo Piga

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Aldo Piga (1928–1994) was an Italian-American composer who worked mainly in New York. Aldo Piga’s work was mainly produced in the 1950s and 1960s in Italy. He started as a song composer and later approached the movie soundtrack field. His participation in the pop music Italian market counts with two participations in the famous contest of Sanremo, one of which was overshadowed in the year of the famous Modugno’s song “Volare”. He recorded about one hundred film soundtracks. One film soundtrack that he contributed to was Il grido, a 1957 Italian drama directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, which included “Non lo saprai mai” (You will never know it) by Piga and Renato Barneschi. His activity as a composer was strongly influenced by classical music and bebop jazz roots of his early years in the New York music scene. Piga’s work was also known to British television audiences in the last late 1950s. “Come to My Arms”, which Piga wrote with Maurizio de Angelis and Jack Elliott featured on the British television programme Six-Five Special in 1958, where it was performed by Dickie Valentine. After a promising career as a music writer, he decided to start working as a film producer in the late

Alec Roth

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Alec Roth (born 1948) is an English composer. He is best known for his collaboration with Vikram Seth to produce the opera Arion and the Dolphin in 1994 based on the myth of Arion. Roth studied music from 1976 as a mature student at Durham University, having previously completed a science degree at the University of Nottingham. He earned a doctorate from Durham in 1986. His thesis was entitled New composition for Javanese gamelan. Works, editions and recordings * California Songbook - settings of poems written by Vikram Seth when he was living on the West Coast of the US * Sometime I Sing - settings for solo voice and guitar, including: My Lute and I; Dark Night; 3 Night Songs; Autumnal; English Folk Songs; Lights Out. Mark Padmore, Morgan Szymanski piano. Signum Records, 2013 * Earth and Sky (2000) - A choral work for children’s choir, percussion, and piano on an entirely monosyllabic text by Vikram Seth. A BBC Proms commission, it was first performed by the Finchley Children’s Music Group, Joanna MacGregor (piano), and Ensemble Bash, conducted by Nicholas Wilks at Royal Albert Hall in London on July 18, 2000. According to Roth, “In keeping with the millennial theme, a piece prese

Alejandro Núñez Allauca

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Alejandro Núñez Allauca (born April 18, 1943) is a Peruvian composer and accordionist who performed outside of his native country. Biography He was born in Moquegua, Peru on April 18, 1943, and first performed on the radio in Cerro de Pasco as a soloist on accordion at the age of nine. His style was initially tonal, then moved toward pointillistic atonalism. Later, his work began to include ornamentation in a neo-Baroque style. His works exhibit a personal nationalism, incorporating elements of traditional Andean music as well as echoes of neo-Romanticism. Works *Suite Koribeni for orchestra. *Fisuras for two flutes. *Salmo 100 for chorus. *Trío para vientos (flute, oboe, bassoon). *Salmo 100 for 8 soloists. *Gravitación humana for magnetic tape. *String quartet. *El alba for chorus (1965). *Diferenciales I y II for piano (1967). *Variables for 6 and magnetic tape (1967). *Cuarteto de cuerda nº 1 (1970). *Concierto para orquesta (1970). *Moto ornamentale e perpetuo for piano (1970). *Sinfonía ornamental (1972). *Ornamenti per 3 flauti e pianoforto Op. 3 (1973-7). *Invention I, II, III and IV for orchestra (1978). *Ornamentos for piano (1979). *Movimiento ornamental for guitar (1980

Alejandro Viñao

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Raul Alejandro Viñao (born 4 September 1951) is an Argentine composer based in London. Early life Viñao studied musical composition in Buenos Aires with the composer Jacobo Ficher. In 1976 he was awarded a British Council scholarship to study in London at the Royal College of Music and later on at the City University where he was awarded a PhD in composition. Career In the 1980s, Viñao worked at IRCAM in Paris where he developed a particular interest in sound interpolation (sound morphing) a technique that has featured in many of his compositions such as Chant D’Ailleurs which won the Prix Ars Electronica in 1992. Viñao has written orchestral and chamber music for the concert hall, opera and music-theatre, film scores, music for multimedia events and rock and popular music. He has also created and presented programmes for BBC Radio 3. He has written a number of percussion works, such as Khan Variations for solo Marimba, which have become very well known in the US, Europe and Japan. At the rhythmic level Viñao’s work has been influenced by non-western musical traditions as well as by the music of Conlon Nancarrow. In percussion pieces such as Estudios de Fronteras (2004), Viñao used

Aleksandër Peçi

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Aleksandër Peçi (born 11 July 1951 in Tirana) is an Albanian composer. Peçi has composed for movie soundtracks, symphonic, ballet, and operatic settings, among many others. Education He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Academia Santa Cecilia, and the University of Arts, Tirana, where he worked with Çesk Zadeja. In Paris, he worked with Ton de Leeuw, Paul Méfano, and Jacques Charpentier. In Amsterdam, Peçi studied with Daan Manneke at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Career Peçi has written over 922 compositions and editions, and 35 CD albums of his music have been published. At the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia, he composed “Etera Tondo”, modeled after Paradis of Dante Alighieri. Then, he worked as the director of the Palace of Culture in Përmet. In 1979, he became the artistic director of the National Ensemble of Popular Songs and Dances. In 1989, Peçi composed the song “Toka E Diellit”, which won the Albanian music contest, Festivali i Këngës. Since 1992, he has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana. Aleksandër Peçi has participated in the Venice Biennale, the Manchester International Festival, and ISCM World Music Days. His m

Aleksander Szeligowski

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Aleksander Robert Szeligowski (24 August 1934 – 4 May 1993) was a Polish composer, conductor, organist and pedagogue. He studied in Poznań and Warsaw, later working as assistant conductor for the Poznań Philharmonic. Son of Tadeusz Szeligowski, he is the author of numerous compositions for piano, female and mixed choirs and others. Life and work Aleksander Szeligowski was born in Wilno, Poland, on 24 August 1934. He was initially educated in the class of Mariana Ochalskiego where he began playing organ, then at the State Music High School in Lublin. Later he began studying at the State School of Music in Poznań where he studied composition and organ, and at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where he was a conducting student of Stanisław Wisłocki and Bohdan Wodiczko. He also studied composition under the guidance of his father, Tadeusz Szeligowski, graduating in 1959, and again in 1960 in the class of Joseph Pawlak. From 1964 to 1993 he worked at the National School of music in Poznań, where he lectured, among other disciplines, score reading, orchestration, composition and pedagogy of improvisation. In the second half of the 1960s, he worked as assistant conductor

Aleksandr Lokshin

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Aleksandr Lazarevich Lokshin () (1920–1987) was a Soviet composer of classical music. He was born on 19 September 1920 in the town of Biysk, in the Altai Region, Western Siberia, and died in Moscow on 11 June 1987. An admirer of Mahler and Alban Berg, he created his own musical language; he wrote eleven symphonies plus symphonic works including Les Fleurs du Mal (1939, on Baudelaire’s poems), Three Scenes from Goethe’s Faust (1973, 1980), the cantata Mater Dolorosa (1977, on verses from Akhmatova’s Requiem). Only his Symphony No 4 is purely instrumental; all his other symphonies include vocal parts. Symphony No 3 by Lokshin was written on Kipling’s verses, and a ballet Fedra was staged to music from Symphony No 4. Lokshin also wrote a cycle of piano variations for Maria Grinberg (1953) and another one for Yelena Kushnerova (1982). Life Early life The composer’s father, Lazar Lokshin, was an accountant and his mother, Maria Korotkina, a midwife. Lokshin’s sister, Maria, was born in 1914. The family suffered from communist repression, Lokshin’s father having been classified as a capitalist because of their small farm business. Their land and cattle were confiscated, and Maria was exp

Aleksandr Zatsepin

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Aleksandr Sergeyevich Zatsepin (; born 10 March 1926) is a Russian composer, known for his soundtracks to movies, notably comedies directed by Leonid Gaidai. He received the titles of People’s Artist of Russia (2003) and Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation (2025). Biography Aleksandr was born on 10 March 1926 in Novosibirsk in the family of the surgeon Sergei Dmitriyevich Zatsepin and teacher Valentina Boleslavovna Oksentovich. In 1941, Aleksandr’s father was arrested under Article 58 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. After his release, he did not return to his family. The mother raised her son alone. After graduating from high school number 12, he entered the Novosibirsk Institute of Railway Engineers. In March 1945 he was expelled from the university and drafted into the army. While in the military service, he independently mastered playing several instruments. The platoon commander, where Aleksandr served, was the future artist Yevgeny Matveyev, who invited Aleksandr to participate in the army amateur performances. As a result, he was admitted to the Novosibirsk Army Song and Dance Ensemble. After leaving the reserve in 1947, he worked at the Novosibirsk Philharmonic as

Aleksandre Basilaia

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Aleksandre Aleksandres dze Basilaia (11 March 19423 October 2009) was a Georgian composer and songwriter of popular music and film scores. He led the popular musical group Iveria since its founding in 1968 through the mainstream success in the 1970s and 1980s until his death of a long and severe disease in Germany in 2009. He held the titles of Honored Artist of Georgia and Honored Citizen of Tbilisi. Basilaia was trained as a contrabassist at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and became active at the Soviet Georgian scene in 1963. In 1968 he founded an ensemble (VIA) which was named Iveria after an ancient Georgian kingdom. Basilaia was a principal composer and an art manager for Iveria which quickly gained popularity for its fusion of pop, rock and jazz with traditional Georgian music and attained to Soviet-wide fame with its musicals The Wedding of Jays (1980) and The Argonauts (1982). Basilaia’s third and the last musical Pirosmani was successfully staged in both Georgia and Russia in 1996. Basilaia’s last work “Something Has Ended” appeared shortly before the composer’s death in October 2009. He was buried at the Didube Pantheon in Tbilisi. Notes References External links *Alexa

Alemdar Karamanov

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Alemdar Sabitovich Karamanov (10 September 19343 May 2007) was a composer. Biography Karamanov was born on September 10, 1934, in Simferopol, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. His father, Sabit Temel Kağırman, of Turkish origin, left Turkey and emigrated to Crimea. His mother, Paulina Sergeyevna, was a Russian singer and librarian and taught him music. In 1992, he composed the anthem of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Karamanov died on 3 May 2007, in Simferopol. Honours The minor planet 4274 Karamanov, discovered in 1980 by Nikolai Chernykh, is named in his honour. Notes References

Alessandro Alessandroni

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Alessandro Alessandroni (18 March 1925 – 26 March 2017) was an Italian musician and composer. He played multiple instruments, including the guitar, mandolin, mandolincello, sitar, accordion and piano, composed more than 40 film scores and countless library music tracks, and was renowned for his whistling technique. Biography Alessandroni collaborated with his childhood friend Ennio Morricone on a number of soundtracks for Spaghetti Westerns. Morricone’s orchestration often calls for an unusual combination of instruments, voices, and whistling. Alessandroni’s twangy guitar riff is central to the main theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Alessandroni can be heard as the whistler on the soundtracks for Sergio Leone’s films, including the Dollars Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Pervirella. He also collaborated with Morricone in scoring the 1974 film Around the World with Peynet’s Lovers. Alessandroni founded the octet vocal group (English: The Modern Choristers) in 1961. The group, which included his wife, , performed wordless vocals on several Italian movie soundtracks. Most notably, I Cantori Moderni are featured on the song “Mah Nà Mah Nà”, written by Piero Umiliani

Alex Bradford

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Alex Bradford (January 23, 1927 – February 15, 1978) was an American gospel composer, singer, arranger and choir director, who was an influence on artists such as Little Richard, Bob Marley and Ray Charles, and who helped bring about the modern mass choir movement in gospel. Biography Born in Bessemer, Alabama, United States, he first appeared on stage at the age of four, then joined a children’s gospel group at the age of 13, soon obtaining his own radio show. He organized another group after his mother sent him to New York City following a racial incident; he continued singing after returning to attend the Snow Hill Institute in Snow Hill, Alabama, where he acquired the title “Professor” while teaching as a student. He moved to Chicago in 1947, where he worked briefly with Roberta Martin and toured with Mahalia Jackson, then struck out on his own with his own group, the Bradford Singers, followed by another group, the Bradford Specials. He recorded his first hit record, “Too Close To Heaven” (1954), billed as Professor Alex Bradford and the Bradford Specials, sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc, then followed it with a number of other successes in the rest o

Alex Pauk

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Alexander Peter Pauk (born October 4, 1945) is a Canadian conductor and composer, most noted as the founder of the Esprit Orchestra. Awards and nominations At the Juno Awards of 1996, both Alexina Louie and Harry Freedman received Juno nominations for Classical Composition of the Year, for works they had composed for the Esprit Orchestra album Music for Heaven and Earth, and Harry Somers was nominated at the Juno Awards of 2001 for “The Third Piano Concerto”, from the Esprit Orchestra album Celebration. Pauk and the Esprit Orchestra were themselves nominees for Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment) at the Juno Awards of 1998, for Tabuh-Tabuhan, Music of Colin McPhee. In 1999, Pauk and Louie received a Genie Award nomination for Best Original Score at the 19th Genie Awards, for their work on the film Last Night. In 2007, he was a recipient of the Canada Council’s Molson Prize for distinguished achievement in the arts. In 2014, he was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to Canadian orchestral music and longstanding support and fostering of new music and early career composers. Compositions *Fragmenta

Alexander Arutiunian

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Alexander Grigori Arutiunian (23 September 192028 March 2012), was a Soviet and Armenian composer and pianist, widely known for his 1950 Trumpet Concerto. A professor at Yerevan State Conservatory, he was recognized with many awards for his work, including the Stalin Prize in 1949 and People’s Artist of the USSR in 1970, as well as numerous honors from his homeland of Armenia. Biography Arutiunian was born in Yerevan, First Republic of Armenia, in the family of Grigor and Eleonora Arutiunian. His father was a military serviceman. In 1927, Arutiunian became a member of the Yerevan State Conservatory’s children group, then, at age 14, he was admitted to the Conservatory to the studios of Olga Babasyan (piano), and Sergei Barkhudaryan and Vardges Talyan (composition). He graduated from the Music Conservatory of Yerevan on the eve of World War II. After the war he moved to Moscow, where between 1946 and 1948 he participated in the workshops of House of Armenian Culture, and studied composition with Genrikh Litinsky. After graduation he returned to Yerevan to teach at the local Conservatory and in 1954 he was appointed artistic director of the Armenian State Philharmony. He was also a m

Alexander Brincken

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Alexander Brincken (born 23 December 1952 in Leningrad) is a classical composer, pianist and organist. Since 1992 he has resided in Lucerne, Switzerland. Biography Graduated from Saint Petersburg Conservatory as composer (class of Prof. Sergei Slonimsky) and musicologist (class of Michail Druskin). Since 1992 Brincken is giving concerts as a composer and pedagogue, mainly in the Switzerland. Among the works written by Brincken are 5 symphonies, “The Queen of Snow” ballet, “The Song about Armenia” oratorio, a Mass, Sextett for strings, and a number of choral and chamber works. His Concerto grosso for solo viola and string orchestra (1991-1992) was premiered on 27 September 1998 in Maienfeld, Switzerland in the final concert of the “Kulturherbst Bündner Herrschaft” Music Festival in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden, performed by the Bündner Chamber Orchestra with Jürg Dähler (Zurich, Switzerland) as soloist, conducted by Christoph Cajöri (Switzerland). The Russian Premiere took place in 2003 in the Rakhmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, performed by “The Seasons” Moscow Chamber Orchestra with Aleksandr Barsukov (Moscow) as soloist, conducted by Vladislav Bulakhov (Moscow). Select

Alexander Goehr

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Peter Alexander Goehr (; 10 August 1932 – 26 August 2024) was a German-born English composer of contemporary classical music and academic teacher. A long-time professor of music at the University of Cambridge, Goehr influenced many notable contemporary composers, including Thomas Adès, Julian Anderson, George Benjamin and Robin Holloway . Born in Berlin, Goehr grew up in London surrounded by musicians, including his father, the conductor Walter Goehr. Goehr emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers, including Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle, in his early twenties. He joined Olivier Messiaen’s masterclass in Paris in 1955. Back in England and working for the BBC, he experienced an international breakthrough in 1957 with his cantata The Deluge in 1957, conducted by his father Walter Goehr. He composed Little Symphony in 1963 as a memorial to his father, arriving at a serialism that allowed expressive freedom. He combined avant-garde techniques with elements from music history in works of many genres including the Piano Trio (1966), his first opera, Arden Must Die (1966), the music-theatre piece Triptych (1968–1970), the orchestral

Alexander Goldscheider

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Alexander Goldscheider (born 22 June 1950) is a Czech-born British composer, music producer, writer, computer specialist and photographer. Life and career He read music at Charles University in Prague, and received a PhD for his analysis of the music of The Beatles in 1975. Initially a music writer, critic, and radio/club DJ (1968–73), he moved into songwriting and music production, becoming a staff producer at Supraphon (1976–79), where he produced a number of pop, rock, and jazz LPs of Czech singers and bands. He pioneered the use of synthesizers in Czechoslovakia and his music was released by Panton Records and Supraphon, used on TV and in films. He moved to London in 1981, recorded two solo albums (Themes for a One-Man-Band Vol. 1 & 2), and in 1983 worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop producing his own music for radio, TV, and films. Goldscheider then co-founded a music and computer company Romantic Robot, which initially designed and sold hardware (Multiprint, Videoface, Multifaces 1, 2, 3, 128 and ST) and published software (Music Typewriter, Trans-Express, Genie, Wriggler) for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST computers. Romantic Robot became a recording label in 1991

Alexander Knaifel

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Alexander Knaifel (; also Alexandr Knaifel; 28 November 1943, Tashkent – 27 June 2024, Berlin) was a Soviet and Russian composer, often described as one of the most prominent Russian composers of his generation Music From the very beginning of his composing career he associated himself with the group of so-called “avant-garde” Soviet composers that include Andrey Volkonsky, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Leonid Hrabovsky, Arvo Pärt, Tigran Mansuryan, and others. The works of the 1990s and 2000s were strongly influenced by religious themes and showed dramatic changes in his musical language. He wrote more than 80 compositions in various genres and also more than 40 scores for feature films and documentaries. His music often surprises by its extravagant ideas, strange combination of the instruments or incredibly long duration. For example, his very slow and quiet Agnus Dei (1985) written for four instrumentalists (each of whom plays several instruments including keyboards, percussion, electronics, saxophones and double bass) lasts exactly 120 minutes. Alexander Knaifel had a performance dedicated to his music in Ireland on 1 May 2009 as part

Alexander Kolker

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Alexander Naumovich Kolker (; 28 July 1933 – 1 August 2023) was a Soviet and Russian composer and Honored Artist of the RSFSR, awarded in 1981. Biography Alexander Naumovich Kolker was born in Leningrad. He was evacuated from the city in 1942 and returned in 1944. Since 1958 Alexander Kolker has worked as a professional composer. Kolker died in Saint Petersburg on 1 August 2023, a few days after his 90th birthday. Filmography * 1966 – We Fly to the Ocean * 1966 – White Night * 1967 – Private Life of Kuzyayev Valentin * 1968 – Songs Address - Youth * 1969 – Tomorrow, on April 3rd… * 1969 – Singing Guitars * 1970 – And People Need a Song So… * 1970 – Magic Power * 1971 – Shadowboxing * 1971 – Singing by Maria Pakhomenko * 1972 – The Last Days of Pompeii * 1974 – Krechinsky’s Wedding * 1975 – Love Will Remain * 1976 – Truffaldino from Bergamo * 1978 – Leaving Go Away * 1979 – Travel to Another City * 1979 – Three Men in a Boat * 1980 – Two-voice Melody * 1981 – Three Short Stories about Love * 1981 – Two Voices * 1982 – No One Can Replace You * 1989 – Death of Tarelkin Awards and honours Kolker is Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1981) and winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1968). He

Alexander Ledkovsky

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Alexander Borisovich Ledkovsky (June 3, 1944 – December 24, 2004) was an American conductor, composer, and music editor of Russian descent. Life Alexander Ledkovsky was born in Teupitz, Germany during war-time to parents Marina Viktorovna Ledkovsky (née Fasolt) and Boris Mikhailovich Ledkovsky, a prominent choral director and composer/arranger of Russian Orthodox Church music. Having emigrated to the United States in 1951, Alexander was educated at Trinity School and Columbia University, where he earned a B.A. in Music. Although he developed a successful career as a computer expert and software developer, his life’s love was his work as a musician of the Russian Orthodox Church. Having studied choir direction both at university and under his father’s tutelage, he took on responsibilities as assistant choirmaster at the Russian Orthodox Synod Cathedral “Our Lady of the Sign” located on Park Avenue at 93rd Street in New York. He also ran a secondary choir for the cathedral’s English-speaking parish in the late 1960s. When his father’s health declined, Alexander assumed full responsibility for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR)’s flagship choir, on Forgiveness Sunday i

Alexander Mullenbach

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Alexander Mullenbach (born 1949) is a Luxembourgish pianist, composer and conductor. Since 2002, he has been director of the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Career Born in Luxembourg City on 23 January 1949, Mullenbach studied piano, chamber music and composition at the Conservatoire de Paris and at the Salzburg Mozarteum, where his teachers included Gerhard Wimberger and Cesar Bresgen. From 1970, he taught piano at the Conservatoire de Luxembourg and, from 1981, composition. Since then, he has also taught at the Mozarteum. Since 1978, he has composed over 100 works, of which thirteen for symphony orchestra, as well as an opera. They have been performed at major music festivals in Salzburg, Echternach, Strasbourg, St.Petersburg, London, Vienna and Munich. Performers have included Heinrich Schiff, Boris Pergamenschikow, Marjana Lipovšek, Roberto Fabbriciani, Julius Berger, Alois Brandhofer, Irena Grafenauer, Elliot Fisk, Kurt Widmer, Edoardo Catemario, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Christina Ortiz, Ruggiero Ricci, Roberto Szidon, Edda Silvestri, Gottfried Schneider, Lewis Kaplan, Yair Kless, Frank Wibaut, Antonello Farulli, Frederico Mondelci, Maria Christina Kiehr,

Alexander Raichev

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Alexander Raichev () (11 April 1922 – 28 October 2003) was a Bulgarian music educator and composer. Biography Raichev was born in Lom, Bulgaria, and studied with Pancho Vladigerov at the State Musical Academy in Sofia where he graduated in 1947. He then studied with Zoltán Kodály and Janos Ferencsik at the Budapest Conservatory from 1949-50. After completing his studies, he taught at the Bulgarian State Conservatory, serving as Rector from 1970 to 1978. Notable students include Rosica Petkova. In 1969 Vasheto prisatvie (Your Presence) was the earliest Bulgarian radio opera to be broadcast. Selected works *1937: Suite for chamber orchestra *1943: Largo and Scherzo for string orchestra *1945: Symphonic Suite for orchestra *1947: Piano Concerto (lost) *1949–50: Symphony No.1: Symphony/Cantata “He Shall Not Die” for chorus and orchestra *1949–50 “Pioneers Suite” for female chorus and orchestra *1953: Ballet “Haidouk Song” (and two Ballet Suites, 1954 and 1955) *1953 Oratorio “Dimitrov still Lives” for soloist, narrator, male chorus and orchestra *1954: Oratorio “Friendship” for bass, chorus and orchestra *1954: Sonata-Poem for Violin and Orchestra *1955: Suite for chamber orchestra *19

Alexander Raskatov

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Alexander Mikhailovich Raskatov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Раска́тов; born 9 March 1953, in Moscow) is a Russian composer. Life Alexander Raskatov’s father was a leading journalist of the magazine Krokodil, his mother was a medical doctor and war hero of World War II. Raskatov studied composition under Albert Leman and Tikhon Khrennikov at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he was composer in residence at Stetson University and 1998 in Lockenhaus. Raskatov was a member of the Union of Soviet Composers; after the collapse of the Soviet Union he is a member of the Composers’ Union of Russia. In the early nineties he moved to Germany, then to France in 2004. Raskatov is a member of the Russian Authors’ Agency (RAO). Musical style Raskatov’s music, especially his sound development, is influenced by Modest Mussorgsky and Anton Webern. His vocal works are often based on texts of Russian poets like Alexander Blok or Joseph Brodsky. His viola concerto ‘Path-Put-Chemin-Weg’ was commissioned on the occasion of the 50th birthdays of Yuri Bashmet and Valeri Gergiev and premiered in Le Chatelet in January 2003. A documentary on the concerto was recorded by the Dutch National Television (NTR

Alexander Sukhanov

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Alexander Alekseevich Sukhanov (, 25 May 1952) is a Soviet and Russian poet, composer, bard and mathematician who created more than two hundred songs. Biography Alexander Sukhanov was born on 25 May 1952 in Saratov, Russia, USSR. During childhood he studied music, graduating from music school as a violin major. In 1974 Sukhanov earned an undergraduate degree (with honors) from the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University. He later earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the same institution. He taught mathematics at Gagarin Air Force Academy; since 1981 he has worked at the computational methods laboratory at MSU. In 1969 Sukhanov began writing music to his own lyrics, as well as to the poetry of Samuil Marshak, Iosif Utkin, Percy Shelley, Alexander Vertinsky, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Rubtsov, and others. He gained wide success as a performer of his songs at concerts and festivals. Sukhanov composed scores for several plays, released a Melodia record as well several CD albums. Selected discography *Green Carriage, 1996 *Oh, you’re my cart …, 1998 *Romance of old age, 2000 *Snowdrops of tenderness, Disk 2, Disk 1, 2002 *Selected songs References Links * Home Pa

Alexander Vustin

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Alexander Kuzmich Vustin, also Voustin or Wustin (; 24 April 1943 – 19 April 2020) or COVID-19, as other sources report. Works Vustin’s works were published by Hans Sikorski. * Three Poems of Moses Teif for bass and piano, in Russian, translated by Yunna Moritz, (1965) * String Quartet (1966) * Symphony (1969) * Three Toropets songs for piano (1972) * Nocturnes for chamber ensemble and high voice in three movements (1972–1982) * Sonata for six for piccolo, flute, clarinet, viola, cello, and 5 string double bass (1973 * Lamento for piano (1974) * Toropets Songs for ensemble (1975 * The Word for winds and percussions, dedicated. text by Fried (1975) * Capriccio (tunes from the collection of M. Beregovsky) fr voice (mezzo-soprano), male voices and ensemble (1977–1982) * In memory of Boris Klyuzner (1977) for voice, violin, viola, cello and double bass, to the text by Yuri Olesha * Memoria-2, oncerto for percussion, keyboards and strings (1978) * Fairy Tale (Skazka) for oboe solo (1979) * Homecoming for voice and 13 instruments (2 string quartets, 2 pianos, horn, 2 percussion players), verses by Dmitri Shchedrovirsky (1981) * The Leisure Time of Kozma Prutkov (Dosugi Kozmy Prutkova) fo

Alexandra Pierce

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Alexandra Pierce (February 21, 1934 – February 1, 2021) was an American composer, pianist, music theorist, movement educator, author, and Emerita Research Professor of Music and Movement at the University of Redlands. Early life and education Born and raised in Philadelphia, her family later moved to Washington, D.C., where she studied piano with contemporary music specialist, Margaret Tolson. She received a Bachelor of Music, Phi Beta Kappa (1955), from the University of Michigan, where she majored in piano performance and medieval history; a Master of Music in piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music (1958); a Master of Arts in music history from Harvard University (1959); and a Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Brandeis University (1968), where her teachers included composers Irving Fine and Harold Shapero. Her dissertation, written at Brandeis, is entitled The Analysis of Rhythm in Tonal Music. Career Pierce taught from 1968 to 2001 at the University of Redlands, where she was Professor of Music and Movement, and where she integrated movement research with the teaching of music theory, piano, and with her own composing. Prior to her arrival in Redla

Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky

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Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky (; born 30 March 1945) is a Russian-born composer, conductor and classical pianist who lives in Switzerland. He is one of the first composers of minimalism (from 1969); “La Belle Musique N.3” (1977) is the first work for orchestra in the minimalist field. He emigrated to Paris from Moscow in 1974, and now lives in Switzerland. He has collaborated with numerous musical artists, notably with the pianist Martha Argerich, with whom he has recorded works by Rachmaninoff and Brahms. Selected works Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky defined his musical conceptions as >. Rabinovitch-Barakovsky’s main works are all part of a global work-in-progress called “Anthology of Archaic Rituals – In Search of the Center”. * “Les mots de Andrei Biely” (1969) cantata * “Le point d’appui trouvé” (1970) chamber music * “Happy end”" (1972) electro-acoustic piece * “La Belle Musique n°2” (1974) chamber music * “Perpetuum mobile?” (1975) amplified violin solo, amplified piano, amplified vibraphone" (+ amplified campanelli) * “Le récit de voyage” (1976) violin, cello, marimba, piano" (dedicated to Alexei Lubimov) * “La Belle Musique n°3” (1977) for orchestra * “Requiem pour une

Alexey Rybnikov

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Alexey Lvovich Rybnikov (; born July 17, 1945) is a modern Russian composer. He is the author of music for Soviet and Russian musicals (rock operas) The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta (, 1976) and Juno and Avos (, 1981, shown more than 700 times), for numerous plays and operas, for more than 80 Russian movies. More than 10 million discs with his music have been sold to 1989. Biography Alexey Rybnikov was born in Moscow on July 17, 1945. In 1962 he graduated from the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967 he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in the composition class of Aram Khachaturian. Alexey composed one of his first works, “The Thief of Baghdad”, being influenced by a very popular at those times trophy film under the same name. In 1969 Rybnikov was admitted to the Union of Soviet Composers. In 1999, by decree of the Moscow Government, the Alexey Rybnikov Theater was established under the Moscow Committee for Culture. Rybnikov is a member of the United Russia party; in 2022, he supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Movie soundtracks Since 1965 Alexey has already started composing movie music. Since 1979 Rybnikov has been a member of the

Alexina Louie

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Alexina Diane Louie, (born 30 July 1949), is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music. She has composed for various instrumental and vocal combinations in a variety of genres. She has fulfilled a number of commissions, and her works, which have been performed internationally, have earned her a number of awards, including the Order of Canada and two Juno Awards. Early life and education Louie was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. She earned an ARCT in Piano Performance diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music at the age of 17 while under the tutelage of Jean Lyons. Shortly thereafter, Louie received a Bachelor of Music in music history from the University of British Columbia in 1970. In 1974, she completed her M.A. degree in composition from the University of California, San Diego. Career While studying in the Greater Los Angeles Area, Louie was a member of an ensemble, and later she taught piano, theory, and electronic composition at Pasadena College and Los Angeles City College. One of her earliest compositions, completed in 1972, is an electronic piece for 4-channel tape entitled, Molly. The object in this composition, based on the last segment of James Joyce’s

Alfi Kabiljo

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Alfons “Alfi” Kabiljo (; 22 December 1935 – 1 April 2025) was a Croatian composer and musician. He was composing for over 60 years. Kabiljo was a president of the Croatian Composers’ Society () and a member of the FIDOF organization. Later, he wrote soundtracks for various films, including the 1991 film Scissors, starring Sharon Stone and Ronny Cox, and the 1986 film The Girl. He also wrote soundtracks for over 100 television episodes, including the Croatian TV mini-series Ljubav ili smrt, based on a novel by Ivan Kušan, the TV series Ne daj se Floki, and series about the famous inventor Nikola Tesla. His songs have been sung by award-winning singers such as Ivo Robić and Tereza Kesovija. Kabiljo’s best-selling and best known work is the musical Jalta, Jalta, for which he received the 2004 Porin award for the magnum opus. To date, the musical has been released in audio format three times and it had its first premiere in 1971. All three releases were sold out decades ago. References Further reading * External links * * Alfi Kabiljo’s filmography at Fandango.com * Alfi Kabiljo at Hollywood.com *

Alfons Karl Zwicker

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Alfons Karl Zwicker (born 22 April 1952) is a Swiss composer, pianist and painter. Life Born in St. Gallen, Zwicker began as a painter and designer. He created several paintings, which were exhibited between 1973 and 1980. Zwicker then studied piano from 1976 to 1981 with Hadassa Schwimmer at Zurich University of the Arts and from 1983 to 1987 with Werner Bärtschi in Zurich. From 1984 to 1988 he studied musical composition with Rudolf Kelterborn at the City of Basel Music Academy. With them he realized a music project for Paul Klee. In the context of the project he composed for the the work «Unter dem Grabhügel» (“Under the Grave Mound”) for saxophone and orchestra, which was performed with the soloist Vincent Daoud (saxophone) under the direction of Otto Tausk was premiered on 20 February 2015 in the Tonhalle St. Gallen. He completed a postgraduate course in Arts Management at the University of Basel in 2002 with a Master of Advanced Studies. Awards * 1989: Kulturförderungspreis der Stadt St. Gallen (for contribution to the music podium Contrapunkt) * 2012: – endowed with CHF 20,000 (for experimental music theatre and impressive stage productions) Works Stage music Operas * Die Hö

Alfred Bartles

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Alfred Howell Bartles (November 10, 1930 – December 28, 2006) was an American composer and musician. He played the cello and piano and he is best known for Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble, a work that has been described as pioneering of the crossover between jazz and classical music. Bartles grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, He moved back to Nashville in 1997, where he spent the remainder of his career. At the University of Mississippi, he became interested in the cello as an instrument to take up despite not knowing much about it. Because of his musical past and devotion towards it, the learning curve was easier. Also while there he met Claus Adam, a cellist for the Juilliard String Quartet who would later become his mentor. At the University of Mississippi he met a piano student Martha Jean Smith. They married January 31, 1954, in the middle of their graduate studies at Ohio University (Athens Ohio). It was at Ohio University where Bartles studied composition with Karl Ahrendt and Roy Harris. Bartles received his master’s degree in composition from Ohio University in 1954. Alfred and Martha moved to New York City later that year where Bartles studied music theory wi

Alfred Hans Zoller

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Alfred Hans Zoller (6 October 1928 – 14 October 2006) was a German composer, jazz pianist, church musician and organist. He is known for the 1964 song “Stern über Bethlehem”, which is often used by star singers, and appeared in 2004 as a cover version, She. Life Born in Neu-Ulm, Zoller was organist from 1956, then in 1960 also cantor in Reutti near Neu-Ulm. There he founded the “St. Margret Singers”, a gospel choir, which contributed to the fact that elements of jazz and “black music” found their way into German Protestant church services. He composed numerous songs in the genre Neues Geistliches Lied. Legacy Zoller’s song “Stern über Bethlehem” found its way into some regional parts of the Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch (EG), for example in Bavaria EG 545, in Hesse EG 542, in Württemberg EG 540. In the Catholic prayer and hymn book Gotteslob (GL), the song is printed as GL 261. In the it can be found under the number 265. In some communities it is also sung by the star singers. This makes it one of the most important Christmas hymns of modern times. Compositions * “Lass uns spüren”, 3rd prize at the 2nd competition of the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing 1963 * “Schiff in

Alfred Janson

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Alfred Janson (10 March 1937 – 19 May 2019) was a Norwegian pianist and composer. He was born in Oslo as the son of sculptor Gunnar Janson and pianist Margrethe Gleditsch, and was brother of journalist Mette Janson. He was first married to actress and singer Grynet Molvig and later to Berit Gustavsen. He made his piano debut in 1962. Among his early compositions is the piano piece November from 1962 and the orchestral Vuggesang from 1963. He composed the ballet Mot solen for the Bergen International Festival in 1969, and in 1991 he was the festival’s principal composer. Career A number of Janson’s works bear the mark of his jazz background, and several of his earliest compositions are written for a jazz line-up, including Patrice Lumumba (1961) for piano, bass, and drums. From 1962 onwards, Janson would gradually focus more on notated music and gained recognition with works such as November (1962) for piano and Vuggesang for 48 strykere og sopran (1963). 1966 saw his orchestral work Konstruksjon og hymne winning the prize for best non-Dutch work at the Bilhoven Festival. The same year also saw Janson’s international breakthrough at the ISCM World Music Days with the work Kanon for

Alfred Kunz (composer)

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Alfred Leopold Kunz (26 May 1929 – 16 January 2019) was a German-Canadian composer, conductor, and arts administrator from New Hamburg, Ontario. Early life Kunz was born in Neudorf, Saskatchewan, and grew up in this rural area. He later moved with his family to Kitchener where he took private music lessons. He studied at Toronto Conservatory of Music as well as privately in composition and conducting in Toronto from 1949 to 1955. In 1965 he completed the state examinations in choral conducting at the Musikhochschule Mainz and was assistant conductor of the opera of the Staatstheater Mainz. He directed the Waterloo Regional Police Male Chorus from 1973 to 1984. In 1985 he founded the Millennium Choir, and served as its director until 2015. Throughout his career Kunz composed hundreds of musical works, many for unaccompanied choir. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Waterloo on June 14, 2001. References External links *Official Website of Alfred Kunz

Alfred Peschek

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Alfred Peschek (14 May 1929 – 4 February 2015) was an Austrian composer and musician. Life and career Born in Linz, Peschek was drafted into the Volkssturm as a 15-year-old in the last year of the war, suffered a leg injury and was briefly taken prisoner of war in America. From 1946 he was able to continue piano lessons, received cello and music theory lessons and wrote his first compositions. Due to interruptions in his schooling caused by several months of hospitalisation, he did not complete the Matura until 1951 and then studied church music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna as well as art history at the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate in 1957 with a dissertation on the masses of František Tůma. During his studies he was a member of the Akademie-Kammerchor, played organ concerts and appeared as a percussion substitute with the Wiener Symphoniker. Between 1957 and 1968 he wrote music reviews for daily newspapers and specialist journals and was on the staff of the ORF. In 1961, while working as a scientific advisor at the Anton Bruckner Private University, he conducted the first Brucknerfest in Linz and in nearby Sankt Florian, He worked as a f

Alfred Prinz

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Alfred Prinz (4 June 1930 – 20 September 2014) was an Austrian composer, clarinetist, and music educator. In 1947 he was awarded a gold medal at the Geneva Music Competition and in 1971 he won a composition award from the city of Vienna. His compositional output includes 7 symphonies, many concertos, several works for solo piano, songs, and chamber music. In 1998 his Fünf Goethe-Lieder (Five Goethe Songs) were premiered by soprano Caroline Dowd-Higgins for whom Prinz had composed the pieces. As a concert clarinetist, he performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world and performed in concerts of chamber music internationally. He recorded for Ariola Records, Decca Records, Deutsche Grammophon, His Master’s Voice, and the Telarc International Corporation among other record labels. Born in Vienna, Prinz began studying the clarinet at the age of 9 at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna with Leopold Wlach of the Vienna Philharmonic. He also earned a diploma in piano performance, studying from 1942 with Bruno Seidlhofer. He later studied music composition under Alfred Uhl and conducting under Hans Swarowsky. In 1945, at the age of 15, he became a clarinetist i

Alfred Reed

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Alfred Reed (born as Alfred Friedman) (January 25, 1921 – September 17, 2005) was an American neoclassical composer, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble to his name. He also traveled extensively as a guest conductor (most notably for the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra after the retirement of Frederick Fennell) and served as a professor at the University of Miami School of Music. Life Alfred Friedman was born on January 25, 1921, in Manhattan, New York City, to Austrian immigrants Carl Friedemann von Mark and Elizabeth Strasser. Because of anti-German sentiment during World War I, Carl changed the family surname to Friedman shortly before having Alfred. Alfred began his formal music training at the age of ten studying cornet at the New York Schools of Music. In 1938, he started working in the Radio Workshop in New York as a staff arranger and assistant conductor. In the early 1930s, Reed hired an agent to help market himself around the New York circles. The agent suggested changing his original surname to something less Jewish- and German-sounding to help avoid discrimination. The agent took a syllable from “Friedman”, sho

Alfred Schnittke

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Early life#

Schnittke’s father, (1914–1975), was Jewish and born in Frankfurt. He moved to the Soviet Union in 1927 and worked as a journalist and translator from the Russian language into German. His mother, Maria Iosifovna Schnittke (née Vogel, 1910–1972), was a Volga German born in Russia. Schnittke’s paternal grandmother, Tea Abramovna Katz (1889–1970), was a philologist, translator, and editor of German-language literature. Alfred Schnittke was born in Engels in the Volga German ASSR of the Russian SFSR. He began his musical education in 1946 in Vienna, where his father had been posted. It was in Vienna, Schnittke’s biographer Alexander Ivashkin writes, where “he fell in love with music which is part of life, part of history and culture, part of the past which is still alive.” “I felt every moment there,” the composer wrote, “to be a link of the historical chain: all was multi-dimensional; the past represented a world of ever-present ghosts, and I was not a barbarian without any connections, but the conscious bearer of the task in my life.” Schnittke’s experience in Vienna “gave him a certain spiritual experience and discipline for his future professional activities. It was Mozart and Schubert, not Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, whom he kept in mind as a reference point in terms of taste, manner and style. This reference point was essentially Classical … but never too blatant.” In 1948, the family moved to Moscow.

Alfredo Rolando Ortiz

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Alfredo Rolando Ortiz (December 10, 1946) is an internationally acclaimed soloist of the Paraguayan harp, a composer, author, educator and recording artist. Biography Alfredo considers his “most important concerts” playing in the delivery room during the birth of his second daughter, on New Years Eve, 1980, and for the birth of a grandson from each of his two daughters. Dr. Alfredo Rolando Ortiz was invited to compose a piece to be premiered on July 22, 2008, during the Tenth World Harp Congress in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Originally created for four harps or harp ensemble, the classical composition, titled “Cumbia Verde,” was performed by 232 harpists. Alfredo was born in Cuba. When he was eleven years old he immigrated with his family to Venezuela. Four years later he began studying the Venezuelan folk harp with his school friend Fernando Guerrero. A year later he became a pupil of Alberto Romero on the Paraguayan harp. Just two years after his first harp lesson, he began medical studies in Medellín, Colombia, began performing professionally and recorded his first album. Music supported his medical studies until graduation. Five years later he moved to the United States to con

Ali Darmar

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Ali Cemal Darmar (born May 13, 1946) is a Turkish pianist and composer. He studied piano with Verda Un at the Istanbul Conservatory and privately Ferdi Statzer, Popi Mihailides in his early years. Later he became a private student of Ayşegül Sarıca. He has a degree in Pharmacy. In 1974 he moved to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonne privately, when he was also a registered student in Alfred Cortot’s Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where he studied with Germaine Mounier, Monique Deschaussées and Cécille de Brunhoff. Darmar had scholarships from UNESCO (1976) and the French government (1981). He graduated from the composition department of the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory, under the direction of Francine Aubin, then got another degree in composition from Jacques Castérède’s class in the Ecole Normale De Musique. He came back to Istanbul in 1987 and became a piano teacher. He taught at Bilkent University from 1990 to 2000, and later at YTU Art and Design Faculty, until he retired in 2014. Darmar was encouraged to compose by his piano teacher, Ferdi Statzer. One of his first compositions, “Aşkın Elinden”, for piano and soprano, was performed by Suna Korat in 19

Alice Doria-Gamilla

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Alice Doria-Gamilla (born 20 September 1931) is a composer whose works include the 1960 song “A Million Thanks to You,” which was later covered by Pilita Corrales in the first Philippine recording to sell a million copies. It became the signature song of Pilita’s musical television show An Evening with Pilita and was later recorded by Bobbi Martin of the Jackie Gleason Show in the United States under Coral Records. The song was recorded in seven languages. Born in Nagcarlan, Laguna, Philippines, Doria-Gamilla could play the piano by ear at the age of three and began formal instruction when she was six. She was raised in an atmosphere of music teaching by her mother (Socorro Plantilla Cuento), father (Santos Montañano Doria) and elder sister (Consuelo Cuento Doria). She completed Elementary Teacher’s Certificate at the National University. She first worked as a critic teacher for two years at the Elementary Department of National University. She became the pianist of the Division City schools of Manila, and a demonstrator and choral conductor of teachers and children’s group. As a new discovered composer in 1964, she was featured as a pianist playing her own compositions in The Tele

Alice Parker

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Alice Stuart Parker Pyle (December 16, 1925 – December 24, 2023), known professionally as Alice Parker, was an American composer, arranger, conductor and teacher. Early life and education Parker was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1925, to Gordon Parker, who worked in the hardwood business, and Mary Shumate Stuart, who founded and directed a plastics laminate company. Career Having begun her career as a high school teacher, Parker also collaborated with Robert Shaw on arrangements of materials to be recorded by the Robert Shaw Chorale, In addition to her work with the Chorale, Parker wrote a total of 5 operas, 11 song-cycles, 33 cantatas, 11 works for chorus and orchestra, 47 choral suites, and more than 40 original hymns. She also arranged spirituals, hymns, and folk songs, including French, Spanish, Hebrew, and Ladino folk songs, many of which have become part of the repertoire of choirs around the world. Having divided her time between a New York apartment and her home in Hawley, Massachusetts, Parker decided, at the age of 70, to move permanently to Singing Brook Farm in Hawley, which her father had purchased in 1920 and where she had spent her childhood summers.

Alice Shields

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Alice Shields (born Alice Ferree Shields, Manhattan, New York, February 18, 1943) is an American classical composer. She is one of the pioneers of electronic music, and is particularly known for her cross-cultural operas. Her work is influenced by non-Western forms of music drama including Indian Bharata Natyam and Japanese Noh Theater, and has been performed by the New York City Opera VOX Festival of New American Operas, the Akademie der Künste and SAVVY-Contemporary in Berlin, the Venice Biennale, NYC-Electroacoustic Music Festival, American Chamber Opera Company, The Composers Chamber Theater, The American Virtuosi Baroque Opera Co., Association for the Promotion of New Music, New York Consort of Viols, American Composers Alliance, Ensemble Pi, Iktus Percussion, Dance Alloy (Pittsburgh), and the Arangham Dance Theater (India). Education Shields earned three degrees from Columbia University including the Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition, studying with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Jack Beeson, Otto Luening and Chou Wen-Chung. She served as Associate Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and Director for Development of the Columbia University Computer Music

Alicia Terzian

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Alicia Terzian (born 1 July 1934) is an Argentine conductor, musicologist and composer of Armenian descent. Biography Alicia Terzian was born in Córdoba, Argentina. She studied at the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires under Alberto Ginastera, Gilardo Gilardi, Roberto García Morillo and Floro Ugarte. She received a degree in piano in 1954 and a degree in composition in 1958. In 1962 she continued her studies in electronic music and medieval Armenian church music with Father Leoncio Dayan at the Mekhitarist Monastery of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Venice. After completing her studies, Terzian taught music in Argentina at the National Conservatory, the Municipal Conservatory of Buenos Aires, the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and at the Art Institute of the Teatro Colón. She founded the Fundación Encuentros Internacionales de Música Contemporánea (EIMC) festival in 1968 and the Grupo Encuentros in 1979. Terzian has served as a member of the Music Council of UNESCO, is Vice President of the International Women’s Council of UNESCO, Vice-President of the Argentine Composers Association, general secretary of the Argentine Society for Musicology, founder of the Latin-American Music Cou

Alicia Urreta

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Alicia Urreta (12 October 1930 – 20 December 1986) was a Mexican pianist, music educator, and composer. Biography Alicia Urreta was born in Veracruz, Veracruz. In 1952, she entered the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City, studying harmony with Rodolfo Halffter, and other topics under Hernández Moncada, León Mariscal, and Sandor Roth. In 1969, she studied with Jean-Etienne Marie at Schola Cantorum of Paris, France. She also studied piano instruction from Alfred Brendel and Alicia de Larrocha. She later worked as a concert pianist for the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. She also taught at the University of Mexico and was an instructor in acoustics at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional of Mexico City. In 1984, she had begun organizing musical festivals to promote Mexican and Spanish contemporary music, collaborating with Spanish composer Cruz de Castro. She premiered her Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in 1982. She died in Mexico City in 1987. Works Urreta composed, among other works, a chamber opera, five ballets, pieces for solo instruments, a cantata, incidental music, a musique concrète composition for Noh theater and film scores. Stage *

Alistair Hinton

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Alistair Richard Hinton (born 6 October 1950) is a Scottish composer and musicologist with a focus on the works of his friend Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. He is the curator of the Sorabji Archive. Career and works Hinton, a native of Dunfermline, Fife, began studying music at the age of eleven; following the advice of Benjamin Britten, he studied at the Royal College of Music, where Humphrey Searle and Stephen Savage were among his teachers. Although he began composing at an early age, he later destroyed most of his pre-1985 output. His Op. 1 was a piano sonata (1962); although part of it was lost soon after it was written, the composer responded to a private request in 2020 to reconstruct it. His other compositions include sonatas, variations and other works for piano, a violin concerto (dedicated to Jane Manning), songs (amongst them settings of Rabindranath Tagore, Hinton’s Opp. 7 and 9), works for the organ, a string quintet (for two violins, viola, cello, double-bass and soprano, and lasting for 2 hours and 45 minutes in performance), and a Sinfonietta. They include homages to Karol Szymanowski (Szymanowski-Etiud, Op. 32, for 18 wind instruments), Richard Strauss (Passeggiata S

Alla Pavlova

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Alla Yevgenyevna Pavlova (born July 13, 1952, in Ukraine) is a Russian composer. Pavlova was born and initially raised in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. She and her family moved to Moscow in 1961, and she then moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1990, where she has settled. She is best known for her symphonic work. Biography Soviet life During the Soviet era, the Pavlova family was transferred to Moscow in 1961. There Alla received her bachelor’s degree in 1975 from the Ippolitov–Ivanov Music Institute, and in 1983 her master’s degree from the Gnessin State Musical College. She studied with Armen Shakhbagyan, a composer with a reputation established in the 1970s, and paid special attention to the works of Anna Akhmatova. This influenced a good part of her output until the 1990s. Following the achievement of her master’s in 1983, Pavlova moved to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, where she worked at the Union of Bulgarian Composers and the Bulgarian National Opera. She returned to Moscow three years later. From 1986, Pavlova worked for the Russian Musical Society Board in Moscow, before relocating in 1990 to New York City. American life Lieder and chamber music Following her arrival in New York, Pavl

Allan Blank

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Allan Blank (December 27, 1925 – November 12, 2013) was an American composer who has more than 60 published works. He attended the Juilliard School of Music (1945–47) and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Washington Square College (1948). He received a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota (1970) and also studied at the University of Iowa. He was a violinist in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1950–52). He taught composition at Western Illinois University (1966–68), Paterson State Teachers College (1968–70), Lehman College (1970–77), and at Virginia Commonwealth University (1978–96). In 1985 he received a commission from the New York State Council on the Arts’ Presenting Organization to compose “Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet” for the Roxbury Chamber Players. Other awards mentioned in his University of Akron Bierce Library Archives composer profile are: First Prize in the George Eastman Competition (1985) sponsored by the Eastman School of Music for his Duo for Bassoon & Piano, and a grant (1985) from the National Endowment for the Arts to support his one-act opera, The Magic Bonbons. The Virginia Shakespeare Festival at Williamsburg commissioned Blank to write m

Allan Gordon Bell

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Allan Gordon Bell, (born 24 May 1953) is a Canadian contemporary classical composer. Career Born in Calgary, Alberta, Bell received a Master of Music degree from the University of Alberta where he studied with Violet Archer, Malcolm Forsyth, and Manus Sasonkin, after completing undergraduate studies in philosophy. He also did advanced studies in composition at the Banff Centre for the Arts where his teachers were Jean Coulthard, Bruce Mather, and Oskar Morawetz. He has created works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra, band, and electroacoustic media. Bell is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, for which he served as President of the National Board from 1984 to 1988. From 1978 to 1980, and from 1985 to the present, he has been a professor of composition and music theory at the University of Calgary, where he helped to create the Department of Music’s doctoral programme. He served on the jury of the 2002 SOCAN Awards for Young Composers and was a composer-in-residence at the 2001 Cantai Festival in Taiwan. In the works of Bell one can hear the influences of prairie cultures and scenes and the sounds of nature, which he illustrates with orchestration. I

Allan Rae (composer)

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Allan Rae (born 3 July 1942 in Blairmore, Alberta) is a Canadian composer, conductor, and trumpeter based in Calgary, Alberta. An associate and former board member of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers, he is particularly known for his works for the theatre which include several musicals and operas as well as incidental music. He has been commissioned to write music for productions mounted by the National Arts Centre, the Shaw Festival, and the Stratford Festival, as well as Theatre Passe Muraille, Vancouver Playhouse, Theatre Calgary, and the Globe Theatre, Regina. Between 1985 and 2000 he was composer-in-residence at Alberta Theatre Projects. He has also written numerous symphonic and many chamber works, including commissions for the Calgary Philharmonic and the Calgary Youth Orchestra. His music has been performed by Carol McLaughlin, Gloria Saarinen and Cenek J. Vrba among others. Rae studied composition and arranging at the Berklee College of Music. He later studied electronic music and composition with Samuel Dolin at The Royal Conservatory of Music from 1970 to 1973. He began his career as a trumpeter in the Band of Lord Strathcona’s H

Allee Willis

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Alta Sherral “Allee” Willis (November 10, 1947 – December 24, 2019) was an American songwriter and art director. Willis co-wrote hit songs including “September” and “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind & Fire and “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” by Pet Shop Boys featuring Dusty Springfield. She won two Grammy Awards for Beverly Hills Cop and The Color Purple, the latter of which was also nominated for a Tony Award. She was also nominated for an Emmy Award for “I’ll Be There for You”, which was used as the theme song for the sitcom Friends. Her compositions sold over 60 million records and she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018. In June 2024, Willis was also inducted posthumously into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. Early life Willis was born and grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where she attended Mumford High School. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a journalism major, was a member of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority and later became an activist, “marching and demonstrating” during the 60s. Willis also wrote songs for artists including Debby Boone, Rita Coolidge, Crystal Gayle, Sister Sledge, Jennifer Holliday, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Cyndi La

Allen Cohen (composer)

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Allen Cohen (born 1951) is an American composer, arranger, conductor, vocal coach, pianist and university professor. Education Cohen holds his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Drama from Ripon College and Master of Fine Arts in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Purchase. He received a doctorate in composition from the City University of New York, where he studied with Thea Musgrave, Bruce Saylor, and David Del Tredici. Awards Allen Cohen has received a Meet the Composer grant and several ASCAP Plus awards. Compositions Cohen’s work includes music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and voice. His pieces on compact disc include Autumn Morning for orchestra (Vienna Modern Masters), Duo-Partita for cello and guitar (Artek), Grace for piano solo (New Ariel), Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (Song of Myself) and Wings of Desire for flugelhorn and piano (Capstone). He has written incidental scores for films and off-Broadway plays, and has arranged dance music for five Broadway musicals. Performance career He has conducted many operetta and musical theater productions on Broadway and elsewhere, and has performed extensively as a pianist. Teaching c

Allen Shawn

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Allen Evan Shawn (born August 27, 1948) is an American composer, pianist, educator, and author based in Vermont. His music Shawn began composing at the age of ten, but dates his mature work from 1977. He has written a dozen orchestral works, including a symphony, two piano concertos, a cello concerto, and a violin concerto; three chamber operas; five piano sonatas and many additional works for piano; and a large catalogue of chamber music, songs and choral music. Among Shawn’s available recordings are several of chamber music, four CDs of piano music, including a CD devoted to his piano work by German pianist Julia Bartha, a piano concerto performed by Ursula Oppens with the Albany Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Alan Miller, and the chamber opera The Music Teacher, with a libretto by his brother, Wallace Shawn. As author Shawn is the author of a book about Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, Arnold Schoenberg’s Journey, and a book about Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician. He is also the author of Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life, which examines his experiences with anxiety and panic disorder, as well as his relationship with

Allyn Ferguson

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Allyn Malcolm Ferguson Jr. (October 18, 1924 – June 23, 2010) was an American composer whose works include the themes for 1970s television programs Barney Miller (1975—1982) and Charlie’s Angels (1976—1981), which he co-wrote with Jack Elliott. In its obituary, Variety called him “among the most prolific composers of TV-movie scores in the past 40 years.” After graduating from San Jose State University, he traveled to Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland. During the 1970s, he collaborated extensively with composer Jack Elliott, co-writing the themes to Barney Miller and Charlie’s Angels. University of Southern California music historian Jon Burlingame called the themes “iconic in the sense that most people who were around in that era can easily recall those tunes”. Discography * Pictures at an Exhibition Framed in Jazz (1963) * Kenneth Patchen Reads With Allyn Ferguson And The Chamber Jazz Sextet (1983) * Master Of The Game (1984) * The Film Music of Allyn Ferguson Volume 1 (1993) * The Film Music of Allyn Ferguson Volume 2 (1994) * The Film Music of Allyn Ferguson Volume 3 (1997) See also * * References External links * *

Almir Chediak

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Almir Santana Chediak (June 21, 1950 – May 25, 2003) was a Brazilian musical producer, entrepreneur, publisher, guitarist, teacher, composer, writer and researcher. Almir Chediak was born into a Lebanese immigrant family and grew up on the state of Minas Gerais. He showed an early aptitude for music, starting guitar lessons at 7. As he moved to live in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 13, he started studying guitar under the instructions of reputed guitarist of that time Dino 7 Cordas. Precociously at age of 17, Chediak already began working professionally as a guitar instructor and also scoring soundtracks for films directed by Jece Valadão and others, also writing string and horn arrangements for recording sessions. Still young, he recorded a single with the actress and Belgian model living in Brazil Annik Malvil, introducer of the little tube dress fashion in the 1960s. His students included the likes of Gal Costa, Nara Leão, Cazuza, Tim Maia, Carlos Lyra, and Elba Ramalho, among numerous others. In 1984, Almir Chediak launched his first book “The Dictionary of Notated Chords” and in 1986 he founded his own publishing house, the “Lumiar Record”. At the same year, he launched his sec

Alois Ickstadt

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Alois Ickstadt (born 22 September 1930) is a German pianist, choral conductor, university professor and composer. He was professor at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. He promoted choral singing from children’s choir to adult groups for the state broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk, namely the Figuralchor Frankfurt which he founded in 1966 and conducted until 2011. Life Ickstadt studied music pedagogy at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. He also studied piano with Erich Flinsch, composition with Kurt Hessenberg and conducting with Walther Davisson and Karl Maria Zwißler. * Kritzel-Kratzel und was nun?Spannendes Hörspiel., audio play, 25712 XAW. Ariola Eurodisc. Munich 1979 * Bach: St John Passion, Sonntag, Browner, Kraus, Schramm, Collegium Instrumentale Alois Kottmann (live recording at St. Gallus, Flörsheim), Opus 27042. Cappella Wiesbaden 1989 * Andrei Volkonsky: Der 148. Psalm and others. Wergo WER 6601-2. Schott Wergo Music Media. Mainz 1996. * Gedenk-Konzert, works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert. Melisma 7139/40-2. Cappella Wiesbaden 1998 * Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem. Melisma 7177-2. Cappella Wiesbaden 2001 * Mendelssohn: Elias. Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft. Frankfurt am

Alojz Ajdič

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Alojz Ajdič (born September 6, 1939, Fojnica) is a multiple-time awarded Slovenian composer. Ajdič lives in Britof pri Kranju. Recognitions In 1994, Ajdič received the Župančič Award for his second symphony, named Window of the Soul. In 1997, he received the Prešeren Fund Award for his third symphony, entitled Symphony for Percussion and Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, he received the Kozina Award, bestowed by the Society of Slovenian Composers. In 2012, his work Concert for Trombone and Orchestra was performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 2012, Ajdič’s Rhapsody for Trumpet and Orchestra was performed in Huddersfield by the Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra, with guest soloist, Rebecca Robertson. The composition received great acclaim. Avdič listened to it in the honorary lodge in the company of the mayor of Huddersfield and the leadership of the orchestra. Works Among the more notable Ajdič’s works are: * Phantasy (Slovene: ; 1971) * Colour Vision (; 1972) * Concert Music for Horn and Orchestra (; 1978) * Concert for Piano (; 1988) * Mirage (; 1984) References See also *List of Slovenian composers

Alun Davies (guitarist)

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Alun Davies (born 27 July 1942) is a Welsh guitarist, studio musician, recording artist, and composer who rose to fame primarily with his supporting guitar work and backing vocals as accompanist for English musician Cat Stevens from early 1970 to 1977. Prior to his association with Stevens, Davies co-wrote, sang, and played on two albums: in 1963, with Jon Mark (known then as John Michael Burchell), and in 1968, as a member of the band Sweet Thursday with Mark, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Harvey Burns and Brian Odgers, when folk-rock music was still in its infancy. When their label declared bankruptcy, Davies was invited to join Cat Stevens as a session musician, who was attempting to change his sound and advance in the music world. Davies’ experience, similar tastes in the emerging folk-rock genre, and capabilities with guitar and voice placed him in a pivotal role in Stevens’ career, resulting in hit songs and a string of RIAA platinum certified breakthrough albums. Two such albums, Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat, propelled Stevens to stardom and a stellar musical career, and solidified a friendship between the two men. Davies, who recorded a solo album after a f

Alun Hoddinott

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Alun Hoddinott CBE (11 August 1929 – 12 March 2008) was a Welsh composer of classical music, one of the first to receive international recognition. Life and works Hoddinott was born in Bargoed, Glamorganshire, Wales. His first major composition, the Clarinet Concerto, was performed at the Cheltenham Festival of 1954 by Gervase de Peyer with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli. This brought Hoddinott a national profile, which was followed by a string of commissions by leading orchestras and soloists. These commissions continued up to his death, and he was championed by some of the most distinguished singers and instrumentalists of the 20th century. These include singers such as Dame Margaret Price, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Sir Thomas Allen, Jill Gomez, Sir Geraint Evans and more recently Claire Booth, Helen Field, Gail Pearson and Jeremy Huw Williams. Instrumentalists have included Ruggiero Ricci, Mstislav Rostropovich, Dennis Brain, Osian Ellis, Cecil Aronowitz, Nia Harries, Roger Woodward and John Ogdon to name a few, and more recently euphonium player David Childs, cellist Kathryn Price, trombonist Mark Eager and song pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen. Hoddinott was prolific, writi

Álvaro Carrillo

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Álvaro Carrillo Alarcón (2 December 1919 – 3 April 1969) was a Mexican popular music composer and songwriter, born in San Juan Cacahuatepec, Oaxaca. He wrote over 300 songs, mostly boleros, including the great hits Amor mío, Sabor a mí, Como se lleva un lunar, El andariego, Luz de luna, Sabrá Dios, Seguiré mi viaje and La mentira. Early life and education Álvaro Carrillo Alarcón was born in 1921 to a father of Spanish descent and a mother of Indigenous Mixtec and African descent. He came from a very humble family as they lived in extreme poverty . His father owned three cows which he believed made him a “rich” man. Since his father was a farmer who came from a long line of farmers, he was eagerly set on keeping all his sons within his family’s business. A young Alvaro was not interested in obeying his father’s wishes and would often hide instead of working. Carillo would spend his time reading poetry, as he was fascinated by Greek mythology from an early age. At the age of eight, his mother died. Into his adolescence, he had discovered an interest in the guitar. As he grew older, his musical talent developed following the many types of music while growing up in San Juan Cacahuatepe

Álvaro Cassuto

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Álvaro Leon Cassuto Cassuto studied with Herbert von Karajan, whom he admired. External links * * *

Alvin Curran

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Alvin Curran (born December 13, 1938) is an American composer, performer, improviser, sound artist, and writer. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and lives and works in Rome, Italy. He is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, of Musica Elettronica Viva, and a former student of Elliott Carter. Curran’s music often makes use of electronics and environmental found sounds. He was a professor of music at Mills College in California until 2006 and now teaches privately in Rome and sporadically at various institutions. He is an artistic advisor at the American Academy in Rome. His works include solo performance pieces such as Endangered Species, TransDadaExpress, and Shofar; radio works such as Crystal Psalms, Un Altro Ferragosto, I Dreamt John Cage Yodeling at the Zurich Hauptbahnhof, and Living Room Music; large-scale musical choreographic works such as Oh Brass on the Grass Alas, for 300 amateur brass-band musicians, and the Maritime Rites series of performances on and near water; sound installation works such as Magic Carpet, Floor Plan, The Twentieth Century, and Gardening with John; chamber music such as For Cornelius for piano, the trio Schtyx, the st

Alvin Lucier

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Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (May 14, 1931 – December 1, 2021) was an American experimental composer and sound artist. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which also included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of Lucier’s work explores psychoacoustic phenomena and the physical properties of sound. Early life Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. was born on May 14, 1931, in Nashua, New Hampshire, to Kathryn E. Lemery, a pianist, and Alvin Augustus Lucier Sr., a lawyer and politician who served as mayor of Nashua from 1934 to 1937. He was educated in Nashua public and parochial schools; the Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island; Yale University; and Brandeis University. In 1970, Lucier left Brandeis for Wesleyan University, where he would remain until his retirement. In 1972, Lucier became a musical director of the Viola Farber Dance Company, a position he held until 1979. Personal life Lucier was married to his first wife, Mary, until their divorce in 1972. He then married Wendy Stokes; they had one daughter and remained together until his death. Other works Other ke

Alvin Singleton

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Alvin Singleton (born December 28, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York) is a composer from the United States. Born and raised in New York City, he received his music education from New York University (B.A.), studying with Hall Overton and Charles Wuorinen. Singleton then moved to study at Yale School of Music (M.M.), studying with Yehudi Wyner and Mel Powell. Singleton was a Fulbright Scholar, he studied with Goffredo Petrassi at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome from 1971-1985. After living and working in Europe for fourteen years, Singleton returned to the United States to become a Composer-in-Residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (1985-88). He subsequently served as Resident Composer at Spelman College in Atlanta (1988-91), as UNISYS Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1996-97), and was the 2002–03 Composer-in-Residence with the Ritz Chamber Players of Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, he has served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the Yale University School of Music. Awards * Recipient of 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship Singleton’s music shows the evidence of a wide range of influences - “from Mahler to Monk, Bird to Bernstein, James Baldw

Amedeo Minghi

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Amedeo Minghi (born 12 August 1947) is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer and producer. Life and career Born in Rome, Minghi started his career in the mid-1960s participating in a large number of musical contests, and then making his professional debut in 1966 with the single “Alla fine”, with lyrics by Mogol. The disappointing commercial results of the song and the military service took him away from the musical industry for several years. His subsequent albums got him an increasing following, until the exploit in 1990 thanks to “Vattene amore”, a duet with Mietta, a singer he produced; the song ranked third at the Sanremo Music Festival and topped the Italian hit parade for several weeks. Discography ;Albums * 1973 – Amedeo Minghi (Apollo DZSLA-55165) * 1980 – Minghi (CBS 84156) * 1983 – 1950 (It ZPLT 34186) * 1984 – Quando l’estate verrà (EP) (RCA Italiana PG 70349) * 1986 – Cuori di pace (RCA Italiana PL 71141) * 1987 – Serenata (Durium ms al 77471) * 1988 – Le nuvole e la rosa (Fonit Cetra LPX 210) * 1991 – Nené (Fonit Cetra TAL 1002) * 1992 – I ricordi del cuore (Fonit Cetra TDL315) * 1994 – Come due soli in cielo (Fonit Cetra TLPX 380) * 1996 – Cantare è d’amore (EMI Ita

Ami Maayani

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Ami Maayani (; January 1936 – February 17, 2019 ) was an Israeli composer. The founder and conductor of the Israel National Youth Orchestra, the Tel Aviv Youth Orchestra, the Haifa Youth Orchestra and the Technion Symphony Orchestra, from 1970 to 1973 and 1976–1980 he was the chairman of the Israel Composers’ League. Of note is Maayani’s Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, Qumran and Serenade in D. Zvi Keren in his book Contemporary Israeli music: its sources and stylistic development (1980) said “The works of Ami Maayani, which have formed a continuation and extension of this school, have a style which might be described as post-Eastern-Mediterranean.” The American Organist said, “The lush improvisatory elements and Arabic modal influences in the music of Ami Maayani complement the pandiatonic polyphony of Yuval Rabin. Sabin Levi, on the other hand, employs minimalism and Sephardic folklore.” Ami Maayani died of cancer on 17 February 2019, at age 82. - Four Baroque Sonatas Sonata for Solo Violin; Sonata for Solo Cello; Sonatina for Guitar; Sonatine en trio Bing Jing Yu, violin; Natalia Khoma, cello; Tali Roth, guitar; Orit Wolf, piano IMP Digital / FONS 01-2096 - Piano Music – Perc

Anatol Vieru

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Anatol Vieru (; 8 June 1926 – 8 October 1998) was a Romanian music theoretician, pedagogue, and composer. A pupil of Aram Khachaturian, he composed seven symphonies, eight string quartets, concertos, and chamber music. He also wrote three operas: Iona (1976), Praznicul Calicilor (1981), and Telegrame, Temă și Variațiuni (1983). He was awarded the Herder Prize in 1986. Biography Vieru was born in Iași. In 1954 he married Nina Shutikova, with whom he had one son and one daughter; his son is the pianist, writer and mathematician . He was a conductor at the Bucharest National Theatre from 1947 to 1950, when he became editor of magazine. Vieru died in Bucharest at age 72. List of works Dramatic *Iona (opera, 1, after Marin Sorescu and sketches by M.C. Escher), 1972–75, concert performed in Bucharest, 31 October 1976 *Praznicul calicilor The Feast of the Beggars (op, after Mihail Sorbul), 1978–80, Berlin, 1991 *Telegrame (mini-opera, after Ion Luca Caragiale), 1983 *Temă cu Variațiuni Theme and Variations (mini-opera, after Caragiale), 1983 *Ultimele zile, ultimele ore The Last Days, the Last Hours (opera, 3, after Alexander Pushkin: Mozart and Salieri and Mikhail Bulgakov: The Last Days

Anđelka Bego-Šimunić

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Anđelka Bego-Šimunić (23 October 1941 – 9 February 2022) was a Bosnian-Herzegovinian composer of Croatian descent. She taught at the Sarajevo Music Academy in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Biography She studied composition at the academy under Ivan Brkanović and Miroslav Špiler, earning a master’s degree in 1973. Afterwards, she taught theory at the secondary music school in Sarajevo. She joined the staff of the academy in 1975, and later became assistant (1985) and full professor at the academy, where her students include Igor Karaca. From 1986 to 1992 she was president of the Bosnian composers’ association (1986–1992) and one of the principal organizers of the Days of Musical Creation festival. Her music is mostly neo-classical in style, influenced by Sergei Prokofiev’s extended tonality and treatment of form, with elements of neo-romanticism, particularly in the style of Franz Liszt, and early Expressionism. Her works occasionally refer to Bosnian folklore. Works (selective list) https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000050832 Instrumental * Sonatina in E♭, pf, 1963 * Allegretto scherzoso, sym. orch, 1963

Anders Eliasson

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Anders Erik Birger Eliasson (3 April 1947 – 20 May 2013 ) was a Swedish composer. Life Eliasson was born in Borlänge. His “earliest musical experiences originated from within myself: they were my own singing, and familiar tunes I heard on the radio. No classical music.” Marching his toy soldiers up and down, he used to imagine sounds, learning only later to describe them as an orchestra. Aged 9, he began the trumpet, started up a small jazz orchestra (two clarinets, trombone, rhythm section, guitar, trumpet), and aged 10 he was writing arrangements. A jazz bass-player, “an unbelievable musician”, taught him chords. Aged 14, he went to an organist, Uno Sandén, to learn harmony and counterpoint. Aged 16 he went for private study in Stockholm to “the wonderful Valdemar Söderholm”, who “confronted me once more with real music” – music such as he had first heard aged about 12. “The first real piece of music” which Eliasson heard “on a gramophone record was Haydn’s Symphony No. 104.” Under Söderholm, he studied counterpoint: there followed five years’ intensive work on Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso and above all Johann Sebastian Bach, “the highest form of energy with which it’s possible t

Anders Hillborg

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Per Anders Hillborg (born 31 May 1954 ) is one of Sweden’s leading composers. Education Anders Hillborg was born in Sollentuna, and studied composition, counterpoint and electronic music at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm from 1976 to 1982. His teachers were Gunnar Bucht, Lars-Erik Rosell, Arne Mellnäs and Pär Lindgren. An important source of inspiration was Brian Ferneyhough who was a visiting professor at the time. Career Apart from some minor teaching positions, professor in composition at Musikhögskolan i Malmö 1990 and masterclasses, Hillborg has been a freelance composer since 1982. His output is vast and covers genres as orchestral, choir, chamber works as well as film and popular music. An example of his work in the popular realm is his collaboration with Eva Dahlgren, which resulted in the album Jag vill se min älskade komma från det vilda (1995). The project was first presented at the Helsinki Festival with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. His collaboration with Salonen has resulted in numerous works, among others Dreaming River (premiered by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999), Eleven Gates (2005–06) premiered

André Almuró

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André Almuró (3 June 1927 – 17 June 2009) was a French radio producer, composer, and film director. Early years Almuró was born in Paris in 1927 and studied piano from an early age. In 1946, influenced by Surrealism and René Daumal, he founded a literary journal titled Les Cahiers Sensationnistes. In 1947, he joined Pierre Schaeffer’s Club d’Essai on RTF (Radio Télévision Française) as a radio producer. During the 1950s, he produced many radio plays based on French writers, with a preference for Surrealists like André Breton, René Char, Jean Cocteau, Antonin Artaud, Julien Gracq. 1950s Almuró used increasingly difficult and provocative texts for his radio plays, like Jean Genet’s homoerotic poem Le Condamné à Mort, for which Almuró created electroacoustic music in 1952, or Antonin Artaud’s Van Gogh, Le Suicidé De La Société in 1958, a text written 1947, the same year as Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu To Have Done With the Judgment of God , written for radio but withheld from broadcast by directors in 1948. In 1957, his meeting with 15-year-old Pierre Clémenti influenced Almuró to start recording Clémenti’s poetry readings and make him his assistant. Clémenti, born 1942, lat

Andre Asriel

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Andre Asriel (22 February 1922 – 28 May 2019) was an Austrian-German composer. Life Born in Vienna, Asriel first attended the Akademisches Gymnasium and then the Bundesgymnasium IX (Gymnasium Wasagasse) in Vienna, where the later Oscar winner and composer Ernest Gold was his classmate. Here he pursued musical studies at the same time, studying piano with Grete Hinterhofer and theory with Richard Stöhr at the State Academy of Music in Vienna from 1936 to 1938. He was extraordinarily gifted and an outstanding pianist even at a young age. After the Anschluss to Nazi Germany, his mother ensured that her 16-year-old son Andre was able to emigrate to England with a Kindertransport as a racially persecuted person at the end of 1938. She herself did not manage to escape. With the beginning of the war in September 1939, all ties to the old homeland and the family were severed. Music was Asriel’s interest even in a foreign country, but he did not know how to start and finance a suitable course of study. Through an encounter with the later poet Erich Fried - also a former pupil of Wasagymnasium - he found contact with the exile organisation Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ), which also financed his

André Bon

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André Bon (born August 17, 1946) is a French composer. A student of Olivier Messiaen, he has composed over fifty works including several chamber operas. He is Professor of Composition at the Argenteuil Conservatory. Biography André Bon was born in Lille and studied music and composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Following his graduation from the Conservatoire, he won the Prix de Rome, and spent two years of further study at the French Academy in Rome. In succeeding years, his work in composition has been supported by several further fellowships and prizes, including the Lili Boulanger Prize (1975), the Hervé Dugardin Prize from the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (SACEM) (1979), SACEM’s Composers Prize (1992), and the Monbinne Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1995). Awards for his operas include the Award for the Best French Creation granted by the French Society of Drama and Music Critics (1987) and the New Talents Award of the French authors’ society, the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), in 1988 for Le Rapt de Persephone (The Rape of Persephone); the Samuel Rousseau Prize from the

André Boucourechliev

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André Boucourechliev (28 July 1925 – 13 November 1997) was a French composer of Bulgarian origin. Born in Sofia, Boucourechliev studied piano at the Conservatory there. Subsequently, he studied in Paris at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where he later taught piano. His first attempts at composition date from 1954, when he was engaged in the famous contemporary music sessions at Darmstadt. He honed his compositional technique by seeking out Berio and Maderna in Milan. Following the success of his Piano Sonata (1959), which was performed at the Domaine musical, and works involving choice and chance, he spent a period in America, during which he met Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Rauschenberg. The summit of his exploration of choice and freedom on the part of the performer was reached in Archipels (1967–1971). Many of his later works have gone on to refine or extend these principles. Boucourechliev died in Paris in 1997 at the age of 72. Honours * Grand Prix Musical de la Ville de Paris, 1976 * Grand Prix National de la Musique, 1984 * Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres * Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur Works Writings * Schumann, 1956 (French), 1959 (English), 2010 (Bulgarian) *

André Duchesne (musician)

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André Duchesne (born 1949) is a Canadian experimental music guitarist and composer. He was a co-founder of Ambiances Magnétiques, a Canadian musical collective and record label, and formed several experimental music bands, including Conventum, Les 4 Guitaristes de l’Apocalypso-Bar and Locomotive. Duchesne has also released five solo albums. Biography André Duchesne was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1949. As a teenager he learnt acoustic guitar, but was not satisfied with the popular rock music being played at the time. In the mid-1970s he formed an avant-garde folk-rock group called Conventum with René Lussier, Jean Derome, Jean-Pierre Bouchard, Jacques Laurin, Bernard Cormier and poet Alain-Arthur Painchaud. Conventum was described by AllMusic as a mixture of “Quebec’s folk roots with absurd poetry and progressive arrangements”.

André Ducret

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André Ducret (4 June 1945 – 1 February 2025) was a Swiss singer, composer, choir conductor and teacher. Life and career Born in Fribourg on 4 June 1945, Ducret was gifted a tenor voice and performed as a soloist in works composed by , , and Émile Gardaz. He then founded the Chœur des XVI, which he directed from 1970 to 2018. In 1980, he participated in the Étoile d’or competition, organized by Télévision Suisse Romande, in which he won first prize with the work Noël à danser, performed by the Chœur de Sainte-Thérèse. In 2004, he participated in an international competition in Barcelona and was a finalist, which preceded his victory in the Association faîtière européenne. As a teacher at the Collège Saint-Michel, he developed methods for reading music. On 4 June 2007, an exhibition of his works was opened at the Cantonal and University Library of Fribourg, which displayed nearly 500 works. A book titled André Ducret, compositeur, chef de chœur et pédagogue was published for the occasion. In 2013, the association Plans Fixe released a report dedicated to him. In 2022, a biographical work on him was written by Philippe Rolle. Ducret died on 1 February 2025, at the age of 79. Reference

André Gagnon

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André Gagnon (2 August 1936 – 3 December 2020) was a Canadian pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and actor, known for his fusion of classical and pop styles, including compositions Neiges, Smash, Chevauchée, Surprise, Donna, and Mouvements in the disco and pop fields. The youngest of nineteen children, Gagnon began composing at the age of six and according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, “He took theory lessons with Léon Destroismaisons in Ste. Anne-de-la-Pocatière from 1952-53 and studied at the Conservatoire de musique à Montréal with Germaine Malépart (piano), Clermont Pépin (composition), and Gilberte Martin (solfège) from 1957 to 1961.” In 1975, the album Neiges stayed on the American Billboard’s Top 10 for twenty-four weeks and sold 700,000 copies worldwide. while Gagnon’s album Le Saint-Laurent rapidly reached 100,000 sold copies. In 1978, André Gagnon was made an officer of the Order of Canada. In January 1992, Gagnon composed the music for the film The Pianist. In 1999, the album Juliette Pomerleau was released. In 2011, the album Les chemins ombragés was certified a gold album having sold 40,000 copies. Awards and recognition Juno awards * 1978: Instrumental Artist of

Andre Hajdu

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André Hajdu (; ; 5 March 1932 – 1 August 2016) was a Hungarian-born Israeli composer and ethnomusicologist. Biography Hajdu studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Endre Szervánszky and Ferenc Szabó (composition), Erno Szégedi (piano), and Zoltán Kodály (ethnomusicology). As a Kodály disciple, he was involved for two years in research about Gypsy musical culture and published several articles on this subject. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Hajdu escaped to Paris and continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire with Darius Milhaud (composition) and Olivier Messiaen (philosophy of music), obtaining the 1st prize in the discipline. Among his class mates were Gilbert Amy, William Bolcom, Philip Corner and Paul Méfano. In Paris he met a variety of stimulating people from the playwright Samuel Beckett to Prof. Israel Adler of the Hebrew University, who brought him on his first visit to Israel in 1966. Hajdu took up residence in Jerusalem in 1966. He taught at the Tel Aviv Music Academy from 1966 to 1991 and at Bar-Ilan University since 1970. He served as chairman in the Music Department there and founded a composition department. His notable students hav

André J. Thomas

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André Jerome Thomas (born 15 August 1952) is an American composer and conductor. He served as a professor of music at the College of Music at Florida State University and the artistic director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus. In addition to his conducting and composition credits, Thomas is a published author, having written Way Over in Beulah Lan’: Understanding and Performing the Negro Spiritual, and numerous journal articles. Early life Thomas grew up in Wichita, Kansas with his two sisters and mother. Thomas’s mother cleaned buses for Continental Trailways and sang in church. According to Thomas, this singing initiated his fascination with music. Upon entering junior high school, Thomas decided to pursue piano formally. He began taking lessons at Wichita State University, and by eighth grade, he won the Federated Music Clubs Piano Competition. While the discomfort may have continued throughout high school, it did not stop him from being actively involved in music and composition. At 16, Thomas accepted the role of Minister of Music at Tabernacle Baptist Church. He began arranging music to meet the needs of his choir. However, his time as a music minister was not easy. Many

André Laporte

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André Laporte (; born 12 July 1931) is a Belgian composer. Biography Laporte was born in Oplinter, near Tienen in Flemish Brabant. He studied music with Edgard de Laet, Flor Peeters, and Marinus De Jong at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen, and musicology and philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1953 to 1957. From 1960 to 1964 he participated annually in the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, where he came into contact with Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Mauricio Kagel, amongst others.( In addition, he attended the Second and Third Cologne Courses for New Music organized by Karlheinz Stockhausen, in 1964–65 and 1965–66 where, in addition to Stockhausen, he had the opportunity of meeting the composers Henri Pousseur and Luciano Berio, as well as the conductor Michael Gielen. Starting in 1953, Laporte taught music at a secondary school in Brussels. In 1963 he helped to establish the SPECTRA work group at the Institute for Psycho-Acoustic and Electronic Music (IPEM). In 1972, together with Herman Sabbe, he founded the Belgian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), and has been its chairp

André Mathieu

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André Mathieu (18 February 1929 – 2 June 1968) was a Canadian pianist and composer. Life Mathieu was born René André Rodolphe Mathieu on 18 February 1929 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, were received very enthusiastically by the Parisian critics. They unanimously agreed that André Mathieu was a “Canadian Mozart”. Mathieu returned to Montreal for the holidays, but due to the outbreak of war he could not return to Europe. Instead, Mathieu performed in a series of recitals in Canada and the United States of America, and gave a performance at the New York City Town Hall on 3 February 1940. He remained in New York with his family until 1943, studying composition with Harold Morris and fulfilling concert and radio engagements. In 1941 when he was not yet 12 years old, Mathieu won the first prize at the composition competition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He also played his Concertino No. 2 for piano and orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Mathieu also played his compositions at a concert of the League of Composers. In 1943 he returned to Montreal and gave numerous concerts performing Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Ravel, as well as his ow

André Popp

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André Charles Jean Popp (19 February 1924 – 10 May 2014) was a French composer, arranger and screenwriter. Biography Popp was born into a family of German-Dutch background, in Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée. He started his career as a church organist, filling the place of the abbot who had been called up to serve in World War II in 1939. In the 1960s, he co-wrote, with Pierre Cour, three songs for the Eurovision Song Contest: “Tom Pillibi”, which won the competition for France when it was sung by 18-year-old newcomer Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, and “L’amour est bleu” (Love is Blue) which came fourth for Luxembourg in 1967, but which later became a number-one hit instrumental in the US for Paul Mauriat. Popp is the composer of Piccolo, Saxo et Compagnie, to a text by , a musical tale for children intended as a guide to the instruments of the orchestra and the rudiments of harmony. Discography *André Popp présente Elsa Popping et sa musique sidérante. Fredo Minablos, Marie-Jeanne Popp, vocals; André Popp and his orchestra; Pierre Fatosme, sound effects. LP recording, 1 disc: analog, rpm, monaural, 12 in Fontana 680201. N.p.: Fontana, 1957. Reissued on CD, Basta 30-90312. Aalsmeer, the Nethe

André Previn

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André George Previn (; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German and American conductor, composer, and pianist. His career had three facets: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved success, and the latter two were part of his life until the end. In movies, he arranged and composed music. In jazz, he was a celebrated pianist, accompanist to singers, and interpreter of songs from the “Great American Songbook”. In classical music, he also performed as a pianist but gained television fame as a conductor, and during his last thirty years created his legacy as a composer. Before the age of twenty, Previn began arranging and composing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He would go on to be involved in the music of more than fifty films and would win four Academy Awards. He won ten Grammy Awards, for recordings in all three areas of his career, and then one more, for lifetime achievement. He served as music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1967–1969), principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (1968–1979), music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1976–1984), of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1985–1989), chief c

André Prévost (composer)

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André Prévost, (30 July 193427 January 2001) was a Canadian composer and music educator. He was awarded the Canadian Music Council Medal in 1977 and in 1985 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He also received the “Trophy for Concert Music” from the Performing Rights Organization of Canada. Early life and education He was born in Hawkesbury, Ontario. He grew up in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec. Prévost was trained at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal where he was a pupil of Isabelle Delorme, Jean Papineau-Couture, and Clermont Pépin. Following graduation, he was awarded grants from the Canada Council and the Government of Québec which enabled him to study with Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux in Paris. In 1963 he won the Prix d’Europe, an award which provided him with the opportunity to study electroacoustic music under Michel Philippot. Career During the 1960s Prévost taught at the Tanglewood Music Centre with fellow faculty members Aaron Copland, Zoltán Kodály, Gunther Schuller and Elliott Carter. Performances In April 1967, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Festival Choir conducted by Pierre Hétu performed Prévost’s major oratorio Terre des h

André Tchaikowsky

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André Tchaikowsky (also Andrzej Czajkowski; born Robert Andrzej Krauthammer; November 1, 1935 – June 26, 1982) was a Polish composer and pianist. In addition to his musical work, he is also notable for bequeathing his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use as Yorick in Hamlet. Life and career Robert Andrzej Krauthammer was born in Warsaw in 1935 into a Jewish family. He had shown musical talent from an early age, and his mother, an amateur pianist, taught him the piano from the age of four. When the Second World War broke out, they were moved into the Warsaw Ghetto. Krauthammer remained there until 1942, when he was smuggled out and provided with forged identity papers that renamed him Andrzej Czajkowski. He then went into hiding with his grandmother, Celina. The pair remained hidden until 1944, when they were caught up in the Warsaw Uprising, and they were then sent to Pruszków transit camp as ordinary Polish citizens, from which they were released in 1945. Tchaikowsky’s father, Karl Krauthammer, also survived the war, and remarried, producing a daughter, Katherine, later Krauthammer-Vogt. Tchaikowsky’s mother, Felicja Krauthammer (née Rappaport) was confined in the Warsaw

Andrea Centazzo

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Andrea Centazzo (born 1948) is an Italian-born American composer, percussionist, multimedia artist and record label founder. Music career Centazzo was born in Udine, Italy. In the 1970s he played percussion in avant-garde jazz with John Zorn, Steve Lacy, and Don Cherry, and became “a leading figure in the European avant-garde”. After 1986 he turned to video making and composed operas, film soundtracks and orchestral compositions. Centazzo has recorded over 60 LP’s and CD’s, and has composed 350 musical works of diverse types, in addition to writing eight musicology books. In 2012 the Library of the University of Bologna opened the “Fondo Andrea Centazzo” with a collection of his works and documents. Instrumental innovations During his earlier career Centazzo developed a number of percussion instruments, including the icebell, a bowl-shaped instrument made from a bronze alloy. In his 1980 work Indian Tapes he introduced the ogororo, lokole, tampang, tubophone and square bell, based on Native American instruments. ICTUS The ICTUS record label was founded in 1976 by Centazzo and his wife, Carla Lugli. Its first release was Clangs by Centazzo and Steve Lacy. Subsequent albums also feat

Andrea Mingardi

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Andrea Mingardi (born 1 August 1940) is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer, musician, author and occasional actor. Life and career Born in Bologna, Mingardi approached the music at young age, founding the group “Golden Rock Boys” in 1959. His debut album Nessuno siam perfetti, ciascuno abbiamo i suoi difetti was released in 1974, while he got his first commercial success in 1976 with the song “Datemi della musica”. In 2006 he composed six songs of the Mina’s album Bau, also duetting with her in the single “Mogol/Battisti”. Mingardi wrote several books about the Bolognese dialect as well as some novels. Discography Album * 1974 - Nessuno siam perfetti, ciascuno abbiamo i suoi difetti (Cipiti Record, LP OK 14) * 1976 - Datemi della musica (Dischi Ricordi SMRL 6196) * 1977 - Lo sfighè, Gisto e Cesira, Delone, un marziano e altre storie (Dischi Ricordi ORL 8099) * 1977 - A iò vest un marzian (Dischi Ricordi ORL 8797) * 1978 - Zabajone (Dischi Ricordi SMRL 6219) * 1981 - Xa vut dalla vetta (F 1 Team DM 919) * 1985 - Eccitanti conflitti confusi (Dischi Ricordi SMRL 6336) * 1988 - Prossimamente (Fonit Cetra CDM 2060) * 1990 - Si sente dire in giro (Fonit Cetra CDL 264) * 1992 - Andrea

Andrei Eshpai

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Andrei Yakovlevich Eshpai (15 May 19258 November 2015) was a Soviet composer. He was awarded the title of People’s Artist of the USSR in 1981. Biography Eshpai was born at Kozmodemyansk, Mari ASSR, Russian SFSR to a Mari father and Russian mother. A Red Army World War II veteran, he studied piano at Moscow Conservatory from 1948 to 1953 under Vladimir Sofronitsky, and composition under Nikolai Rakov, Nikolai Myaskovsky and Evgeny Golubev. He performed his postgraduate study under Aram Khachaturian from 1953 to 1956. Eshpai was the son of the composer Yakov Eshpai, and the father of the filmmaker Andrei Andreyevich Eshpai. On 8 November 2015, Eshpai died in Moscow from a stroke at the age of 90. Notable works Stage * Nobody Is Happier Than Me, operetta (1968–1969); libretto by V. Konstantinov and B. Ratser * Love Is Forbidden, musical (1973) * Angara, ballet (1974–1975) * A Circle, ballet (1979–1980) Orchestral * Symphonic Dances on Mari Themes (1951) * Symphony no. 1 in E minor (1959) * Symphony no. 2 in A major “Praise the Light” (1962) * Symphony no. 3 (1964) * Symphony no. 4 “Symphony-Ballet” (1980–1981) * Simon Bolivar, Symphonic Poem (1982) * Symphony No. 5 (1985) * Symphony N

Andrei Petrov

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Andrei Pavlovich Petrov (; 2 September 1930 – 15 February 2006) was a Soviet and Russian composer. He was named a People’s Artist of the USSR in 1980. Andrey Petrov is known for his music for numerous classic Soviet films such as Walking the Streets of Moscow, Beware of the Car, and Office Romance. Life A native of Leningrad, Petrov was the son of a military doctor; his mother was an artist. He had little interest in music until, at fourteen, he saw The Great Waltz; after this he decided to become a composer. He studied composition at the Leningrad Conservatory under Orest Yevlakhov. Petrov is known for his work in various genres; he wrote a number of operas and ballets, as well as symphonic works, incidental and film music, and various songs. He is especially famous for his ballet Creation of the World (1968), based on drawings by Jean Effel. This was performed around the world, with Mikhail Baryshnikov among its first performers. Petrov also scored over eighty films, including the Soviet-American co-production The Blue Bird (1976). From 1964 until his death Petrov was the head of the St. Petersburg Union of Composers, to which he was introduced by Dmitri Shostakovich. He also fou

Andrei Volkonsky

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Prince Andrei Mikhaylovich Volkonsky (also Andrey, André, Mikhailovich, Michailovich, Volkonski, Volkonskiy) (; 14 February 1933 – 16 September 2008) was a Russian composer of classical music and harpsichordist. He was a key figure in Early Music Revival in Russia. Biography A descendant of Volkonsky, Russian aristocratic princely family in exile, he was born in Geneva in 1933. As a child he played his improvisations to Sergei Rachmaninoff. Then he studied piano at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève with Johnny Aubert and with the legendary Dinu Lipatti. The Volkonsky family resettled in Moscow in 1947. From 1950 to 1954 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Yuri Shaporin, but was expelled for breaking some minor disciplinary rules. In 1956 Volkonsky began the career of a harpsichord and organ player. He pioneered performing renaissance and baroque music, which had hitherto not been played in the USSR. In 1965 he founded an ensemble of early music, called “The Ensemble Madrigal”. He was among the first Soviet composers who began experimenting with twelve-tone and serial techniques. An early work in this style was his piano suite “Musica Stricta” (1956). His works greatly

Andrés Lewin-Richter Ossiander

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Andrés Lewin-Richter Osiander (born 1937) is a Spanish composer of electronic music. Background Born in Miranda de Ebro, Spain, he began his studies in engineering at Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1955. Seven years later, he received a Fulbright Fellowship to continue his studies at Columbia University in New York to study with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Mario Davidovsky and Edgard Varèse. While there, he worked as a teaching assistant in the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center and composed music for the film “The Gondola Eye” by Ian Hugo and as a sound engineer at the Alwin Nikolais Dance Company. In 1966 Lewin-Richter founded the Estudio de Música Electrónica del Conservatorio de Música in Mexico City. In 1968, he returned to Spain and established the Barcelona Electronic Music Studio. He then widened his scope by becoming a founding member -together with Josep Mestres Quadreny and Lluís Callejo i Creus- and vice-president of the Phonos Electronic Music Studio in 1973. He has served as artistic and executive director for the music ensemble Conjunt Català de Música Contemporània (1968-1973). Always centering on electronic methods, his work has used tape, other instrumen

Andrew Carter (composer)

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Andrew Carter (13 December 1939 – 5 January 2026) was an English composer, pedagogue, conductor and arranger. Carter conducted choral concerts in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. As a singer at York Minster, he founded the Chapter House Choir and conducted them for 17 years. He was known for choral works such as an arrangement of the carol “A maiden most gentle”, his Benedicite and a mass for the tercentenary of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. His compositions have been described as well-crafted accessible music building on tradition, with strong melodies respecting the texts. His mother was an amateur pianist, and several family members were bell-ringers. At Leeds, he was taught by James Clifford Brown and Philip Wilby. He then moved to York and joined the York Minster choir, External links * * * Andrew Carter Naxos *

Andrew Culver (composer)

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Andrew Culver (born August 30, 1953) is a Canadian-American composer and software entrepreneur. Culver’s works have included chamber and orchestral music, electronic and computer music, sound sculpture and music sculpture, film, lighting, text pieces, and installations. He performs concerts with sound sources of his invention based on the tensegrity structural principle as elaborated by Buckminster Fuller, a lifelong influence. Career Culver worked as John Cage’s creative assistant for 11 years and was involved in all aspects of Cage’s musical, poetic, operatic, and film work. He wrote the chance operations and compositional process software Cage used during that period and directed Cage’s operas, sound, and light installations. He continued directing Cage installations and operas after the composer’s death, including posthumous premieres. 3 Culver was the founding member of Sonde, a music design and ensemble that grew out of McGill University. Culver’s interests are varied in concept, technique, and media. He has created and directed work in various performance, theatrical, electronic, computer, audio-visual, sculptural, and installation situations. He has written on art, music, a

Andrew Downes (composer)

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Andrew Downes (20 August 1950 – 2 January 2023) was a British classical composer. He was head of the School of Composition and Creative Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire from 1992 until 2005. His compositions have been performed and broadcast internationally. Early life Downes was born in Handsworth, Birmingham. He attended St. John’s College, Cambridge, on a scholarship, receiving his master’s degree in composition. at the Royal College of Music. He kept working as a freelance composer. and 4, BBC TV, France Musique, Italian TV, Austrian Radio, Dutch Radio, and his Centenary Fire Dances were first performed for the City of Birmingham’s Centenary Festival of Fireworks and Music. song cycles for Sarah Walker and the tenor John Mitchinson broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and anthems for the BBC 4 Daily Service. He wrote Mela Kamavardhani for Indo-Jazz Fusions musicians in Calcutta, Delhi, and Bombay, and Fanfare for Madam Speaker for the installation of Betty Boothroyd MP as Chancellor of the Open University in 1994. which was premiered at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Suite for Brass Sextet written for the Czech Philharmonic Brass Sextet. He died

Andrew Imbrie

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Andrew Welsh Imbrie (April 6, 1921 – December 5, 2007) was an American contemporary classical music composer and pianist. Career Imbrie was born in New York City and began his musical training as a pianist when he was 4. In 1937, he went to Paris to study composition briefly with Nadia Boulanger and piano with Robert Casadesus. His notable students include Larry Austin, Tamar Diesendruck, Richard Festinger, Alden Jenks, Frank La Rocca, Neil Rolnick, Valerie Samson, Allen Shearer, Laura Schwendinger, Nils Frykdahl, Kurt Rohde, Hi Kyung Kim, Leslie Wildman and Carolyn Yarnell. Style Imbrie’s style was influenced early by Béla Bartók, and then by Roger Sessions, his teacher at both Princeton and Berkeley. Imbrie preferred harmony that was non-triadic, * Three Against Christmas (1960 opera) * Angle of Repose (1976 opera) * Dandelion Wine (1961 for chamber ensemble) * To a Traveler (1971 for chamber ensemble) * Sextet for Six Friends (2007 for chamber ensemble) * Drumtaps for chorus with orchestra (text by Whitman) * Prometheus Bound for chorus with orchestra (text by Green after Aeschylus) * Adam for chorus with orchestra (text from medieval and Civil War sources) * Requiem (1984, chor

Andrew Poppy

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Andrew Poppy (born 29 May 1954, Kent) is an English post-minimal composer, pianist, and record producer. Life and work Poppy studied at Goldsmiths College in the 1970s. In 1981 he was a founder member of minimalist ensemble The Lost Jockey and composed several pieces for them as well as playing piano. He wrote the orchestral score for Force the Hand of Chance, the debut album by Psychic TV which was released in 1982. In 1984 he signed to ZTT Records after Paul Morley heard a cassette he had sent the label. Discography *Cadenza and Matters of Theory from the self-titled LP by The Lost Jockey (1982, Les Disques du Crepuscule) *Crude Din from “Professor Slack” EP by The Lost Jockey (1982, Operation Twilight 10"; reissued 1983, Battersea Records 12") *The Beating of Wings (1985, ZTT) *Alphabed (1987, ZTT) *Recordings (1992, Bitter and Twisted Records) *Ophelia/Ophelia (1995, Impetus) *Rude Bloom (1995, ArtGallery / Wotre Music) *Time at Rest Devouring Its Secret (2000, Source Research Recordings) *Another Language (with Claudia Brücken ex. Propaganda singer) (2005, There (there)) *Andrew Poppy on Zang Tuum Tumb - comprises The Beating of Wings, Alphabed, Under the Son (previously unrel

Andrew Thomas (composer)

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Andrew William Thomas (October 8, 1939 - April 19, 2026) was an American composer. He studied with Karel Husa at Cornell University, with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and earned his M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees in Composition at the Juilliard School. At Juilliard he studied with Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, and Otto Luening. Dr. Thomas taught and served as chairman of the Composition Department in the Juilliard Pre-College Division from 1969 to 1994, and in 1994 he was appointed Director of the Pre-College Division at the Juilliard School. In addition to composing, Thomas performed as a pianist and conductor, and was a guest teacher, throughout the world. His awards included a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts and a Distinguished Teacher Citation from The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. Career Although he taught throughout the world, from 2000 on, Thomas was a regular guest of the People’s Republic of China. Under the auspices of the Chinese government, Thomas performed his composition for solo piano, Music at Twilight, in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Thomas was an Advisor of the Guangxi Arts College and a guest conductor of the Guangxi Arts College Youth Orches

Andrew Wilson-Dickson

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Andrew Wilson-Dickson (born 1946) is a British composer, pianist and an authority on early music practice. Biography Wilson-Dickson was born in London on 20 January 1946. He attended Marlborough College where in a school music competition he was spotted by Sydney Watson who offered him a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, in spite of unfavourable A-level results. He turned this down in favour of an exhibition to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received piano lessons from Lamar Crowson and John Lill. Later he held the post of organ scholar at York Minster where he studied the organ with Nicholas Danby and Francis Jackson. He was appointed as one of the first members of staff of the newly formed University of Leicester music department in 1970. In 1984 he was appointed to the staff of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama where his focus on period music led to the creation there of an Early Music Department in 1999. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the college in 2005. Now semi-retired, he divides his time between his homes in Cardiff and the south of France. He is the brother of the voice and dialect coach Julia Wilson-Dickson. Composition He began composition at schoo

Andrzej Bujakiewicz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Andrzej Bujakiewicz (21 September 1939 – 31 March 2022) was a Polish conductor. Biography Bujakiewicz was born in Winna Góra, Greater Poland Voivodeship. In 1983, he was honored with the Honorary Badge of the City of Kalisz. Bujakiewicz was also honored with the Award of the President of the City of Kalisz in 2009. Bujakiewicz died in March 2022 in Kalisz, at the age of 82. References

Andrzej Cwojdziński

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Andrzej Cwojdziński (28 January 1928 – 23 March 2022) was a Polish composer, conductor and music teacher. He attended the Academy of Music in Kraków, where he studied composing and conducting. Cwojdziński served as the director for the Koszalin Philharmonic from 1964 to 1979. In 2020, Cwojdziński was made an honorary citizen of Koszalin. Cwojdziński died in March 2022, at the age of 94. References

Andrzej Dobrowolski

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Andrzej Dobrowolski (September 9, 1921 – August 8, 1990) was a Polish composer and teacher. He studied at the Warsaw Conservatoire during the war and afterwards in the State High School of Music in Kraków. He went on to teach theory and, later, composition in Kraków and then Warsaw at the State Higher School of Music, becoming a Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz in 1976, where he taught composition and electronic music. Dobrowolski was one of the first Polish composers to concentrate on music for tape, and one of the first to pioneer the combination of pre-recorded tape and live performers. He was one of the first composers to use the Experimental Studio of the Polish Radio in Warsaw, which was founded in 1958. External links *Polish Music Information Centre biography and worklist Footnotes Sources *Casken, John. 2001. “Dobrowolski, Andrzej”. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. *Thomas, Adrian. 2005. Polish Music since Szymanowski. Music in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. * Andrzej Dobrowolski in MoMa’s post online resource devoted to art and the hi

Andrzej Kurylewicz

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Andrzej Roman Kurylewicz ( Polish pronunciation : ; 24 November 1932 – 12 April 2007), was a Polish composer, pianist, trombonist, trumpet player and conductor. His works range from classical music, including both chamber and orchestral music, to theatrical, film, ballet, and jazz. He was shaped in the tradition of classical music and pioneered Polish jazz, pursuing a parallel career. He gained nationwide popularity by writing music for Janusz Morgenstern’s 1976 TV series Polskie drogi. Life Education Kurylewicz was born in Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine). His musical education began at the Lwów Music School under Stanisław Ludkiewycz when he was aged 6. From 1946 to 1950, he continued his education at the Instytut Muzyczny in Gliwice. Between 1950 and 1954, he studied classical piano under Henryk Sztompka and composition under Stanisław Wiechowicz at the Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Muzyczna in Kraków. In 1954, he was excluded from academic life owing to Kurylewicz’s professional involvement with jazz and his refusal to join the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR, or Polish Communist Party). Career In 1954, by invitation of Władysław Szpilman, Kurylewicz accepted a ful

Andrzej Trzaskowski

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Andrzej Trzaskowski (23 March 1933 – 16 September 1998) was a Polish jazz musician, composer and musicologist. From the mid-1950s onward, he was regarded as an authority on syncopated music. Biography Early life and education Andrzej Trzaskowski was born in Kraków on 23 March 1933. He began playing piano at age four and founded his first jazz band, Rhythm Quartet. He attended Jan III Sobieski High School in Kraków and collaborated with prominent Polish jazz pianists. His paternal grandfather, Bronisław Trzaskowski, established some of the first girls’ secondary schools in Poland. Trzaskowski died in Warsaw on 16 September 1998, aged 65. He is buried at the Powązki Military Cemetery. Selected recordings * The Wreckers (1960, Muza 0133) * Polish Jazz Vol. 4 (1965, Muza 0258) * Andrzej Trzaskowski Sextet Featuring Ted Curson “Seant” (1966, Muza 0378) References Further reading *Liner notes (in English) for the recording of Andrzej Trzaskowski’s Polish Jazz Quintet (includes a biographical sketch and an analysis of Trzaskowski’s jazz compositions) External links * *Andrzej Trzaskowski filmography at Film Polski

Ángel Tavira

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Ángel Tavira Maldonado (July 3, 1924 – June 30, 2008) was a Mexican composer, musician and violinist of son calentano. He was awarded the Best Actor Award on the 2006 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section for his role in the movie The Violin. Biography Ángel Tavira Maldonado was born in the town of Corral Falso in the municipality of Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Guerrero, which lies in the region known as Tierra Caliente. He was the only child of J. Isabel Maldonado Tavira and Anita Tavira López, and grandson of Juan Bartolo Tavira, a composer and performer of son, gustos, Indias, malagueñas, rhymes and coplas, who inspired and taught him the love for local traditional music. Being born in a family traditionally related with music, he was successively encouraged by his uncles and cousins Félix, José Guadalupe Lupito, and Sósimo Tavira López in learning and playing music. When he was six years old, he began to play four instruments by ear training: saxophone, bass, guitar and violin, and later he went to take courses in classical, semi-classical and romantic music. When he was 60 years old he enrolled at the Music Conservatory of Morelia to study music notation with the

Angela Morley

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Angela Morley (born Walter Morley Stott, 10 March 1924 14 January 2009 ) was an English composer and conductor who became familiar to BBC Radio listeners in the 1950s under the name of Wally Stott. Morley provided incidental music for The Goon Show and Hancock’s Half Hour. She attributed her entry into composing and arranging largely to the influence and encouragement of the Canadian light music composer Robert Farnon. Morley transitioned in 1972 and thereafter lived openly as a transgender woman. Morley won three Emmy Awards for her work in music arrangement. These were in the category of Outstanding Music Direction, in 1985, 1988 and 1990, for Christmas in Washington and two television specials starring Julie Andrews. Morley also received eight Emmy nominations for composing music for television series such as Dynasty and Dallas. She was twice nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Song Score: first for The Little Prince (1974), a nomination shared with Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, and Douglas Gamley; and second for The Slipper and the Rose (1976), which Morley shared with Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. She was the first openly transgender

Angelo Branduardi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Angelo Branduardi (born 12 February 1950) is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece. Early and personal life Branduardi was born in Cuggiono, a small town in the province of Milan, but early moved with the family to Genoa. He was educated as a classical violinist at the Genoa Conservatory. At the age of 18, he composed the music for the Confessioni di un malandrino (Hooligan’s Confession) by Sergei Yesenin. He is married to Luisa Zappa, who wrote the lyrics for many of his songs. They have two daughters, Sarah and Maddalena, both musicians. Career Beginnings Branduardi’s first album was never released, and resulted from a co-operation with Maurizio Fabrizio, composer and gifted performer. The first released album, Angelo Branduardi ‘74 was arranged with Paul Buckmaster. The minstrel La Luna (“The Moon”), including “Hooligan’s Confession” (translation of a poem by Esenin) and the fine, delicate song giving the LP its name, was a prelude to the success of the following works. Alla fiera dell’Est (English edition: Highdown Fair, 1976) was Branduardi’s

Angelo Gilardino

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Angelo Gilardino (16 November 1941 – 14 January 2022) was an Italian composer, guitarist, and musicologist. Life and career Gilardino was born in Vercelli, Italy, on 16 November 1941. During his concert career, from 1958 to 1981, he premiered hundreds of new works for the guitar. Among his premieres was John Duarte’s Mutations on Dies Irae in 1974. He taught at the Liceo Musicale G. B. Viotti in Vercelli from 1965 to 1981, and held a professorship at the Antonio Vivaldi Conservatory in Alessandria from 1981 to 2004. The Conservatory awarded him the Marengo Music Prize in 1998. Gilardino has composed much music for solo guitar, as well as chamber music and concertos. His solo works include five volumes of Studi di virtuosità e di trascendenza (1981–1988), two numbered sonatas (1985, 1986) as well as several titled sonatas and sonatinas, two sets of variations (1989, 1991), and Ikonostas for a guitar tuned in G (2004). The Studi di virtuosità e di trascendenza represent one of the most significant contributions to the guitar repertoire in the 20th century. The title places the collection in the tradition of the Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt. Numbers 1 through 48 have dedicatio

Angy Palumbo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Angelo Palumbo (died 1960) was an Italian musician, composer and music teacher, mainly active in London. As a musician and teacher Palumbo was a specialist of various fretted instruments, and his advertisements in the trade journal B.M.G. shows that he taught guitar as well as banjo, mandolin and violin playing. He himself also played several of these instruments as a member of “Troise and his Mandoliers”, a band led by fellow Italian immigrant Pasquale Troise (1895–1957). This band recorded frequently and also made regular radio appearances. British-American banjoist John A. Sloan (born 1923) was one of Palumbo’s pupils as a youngster and witnessed that Palumbo was an excellent but also very temperamental musician. As composer During his career, Palumbo composed several numbers. His 6/8 March It’s Up To You (lyrics: Arthur Beale) from 1940 became familiar to Swedish audiences by being used in the soundtracks for two of the popular films about private eye Hillman in 1958 and 1959. In more recent years his Petite Bolero for Mandolin & Guitar has appeared on the CD Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and the Latin Trilogy – Music from the Novels of Louis de Bernières. In addition to the numbe

Aníbal Velásquez

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Aníbal Velásquez Hurtado (born June 3, 1936) is a Colombian singer, composer and musician, recognized for playing the accordion. He is also known by his nicknames “El Mago” (“The Magician”) and “El Rey de la Guaracha” (“The King of the Guaracha”). Biography Aníbal Velásquez was born in 1936 in Barranquilla, Colombia to parents José Antonio Velásquez and Belén Hurtado, and is the brother of the musician José “Cheíto” Velásquez. Due to the local rise in cartel-associated violent crime, Velásquez moved to Caracas, Venezuela in the 1970s and resided there for 18 years before returning to Barranquilla. In 2018 Telecaribe, a regional television network for the Caribbean region of Colombia, launched a bio-series as a living tribute to his career, called Aníbal ‘Sensación’ Velásquez. In 2019, Velásquez was reported to be seriously sick and was hospitalized in Barranquilla due to a severe lung infection. References External links * Aníbal ‘Sensation’ Velásquez Telecaribe series website

Anita Sleeman

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Anita Sleeman (née Andrés) (December 12, 1930 – October 18, 2011) was a Canadian contemporary classical music composer. She was also a conductor, arranger, educator, and performer. Biography Life Born Anita Andrés December 12, 1930, in San Jose, California, to Alejandro Andrés from Salamanca, Spain, and Anita Dolgoff from Stavropol, Russia, Sleeman began taking piano lessons at age three and took up trumpet and French horn at school in San Francisco. While there, her music teachers noted her exceptional abilities at an early age (she began to show a talent for composition at age eight). Sleeman attended Placer Junior College as a music student. She met her future husband, Evan Sleeman, in Placer County and they married in 1951. They purchased a ranch in Elko County, Nevada, and along with their six children immigrated to Canada in 1963. They lived on a ranch in the remote Anahim Lake area near Bella Coola. In 1967, the couple relocated to Tsawwassen, Metropolitan Vancouver. Throughout her life she played the French horn in a variety of stage and concert bands and performed as a keyboardist in jazz ensembles. Career At age 19 Sleeman composed a march that was played at her community

Ann Callaway

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ann Marie Callaway (born October 28, 1949) is an American composer. Life and career Callaway was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Langley Park. She began her musical training in Baltimore under Grace Newsom Cushman and later studied with Alvin Etler at Smith College, George Crumb at University of Pennsylvania and with Jack Beeson, Fred Lerdahl and George Edwards at Columbia University, where she earned her D.M.A. in 1991. Callaway’s compositions have been widely broadcast in the U.S., and she is the subject of a documentary produced by Swedish Radio. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Guild of Organists, and has held residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Voci and the Leighton Artist Colony in Banff. She is a recipient of the Fred Waring Award, and the Miriam Gideon Prize. In 1984 Callaway was one of the founders of the New York Women Composers, Inc., an organization that supports women composers in the State of New York and the Greater New York City area through catalogs, events and grants. Works Her principal publisher is Subito Music. Recordings * The Gregg Smith Singers American Choral Mas

Ann Carr-Boyd

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Ann Kirsten Carr-Boyd (born 13 July 1938) Her formal music studies were at the University of Sydney, where in 1960, she was one of two students (the other was Norma Tyer) to graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree. Carr-Boyd then received the university’s first Master of Arts in music. She also studied in London with Peter Racine Fricker and Alexander Goehr. She married and had children in London. In 1975 she won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. ), and she and her three daughters play in the orchestra. Her quasi-namesake and fellow Australian composer Anne Boyd is no relation. Music Carr-Boyd’s works encompass a symphony, concertos (piano; violin), chamber music and vocal music. The harpsichord figures prominently in her output, such as in Suite for Véronique. She is perhaps best known to the general music-listening public for a short piece for mandolin ensemble, titled Fandango. It was nominated for the Most Performed Classical Composition at the 1999 APRA Awards, and it ranked 55 in the 2008 Classic 100 chamber survey conducted by ABC Classic FM radio. References

Ann Loomis Silsbee

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ann Loomis Silsbee (21 July 1930 - 28 August 2003) was an American composer and poet who composed two operas, published three books of poetry, and received several awards, commissions, and fellowships. Silsbee was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College, a master’s in music from Syracuse University, and a doctor of musical arts in composition from Cornell University. She studied with Irving Fine, Earl George, and Karel Husa, and in Paris with unspecified teachers. Her dissertation was on a composition by Peter Maxwell Davies called Stone Litany. While at Cornell, she attended a poetry seminar led by Archibald Randolph (A.R.) Ammons, whose poetry she would later set to music. She married Robert Silsbee, a physicist who taught at Cornell, In 1964, Silsbee’s work River was performed at the Ferienkurs fuer Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she taught at the State University of Cortland (New York) and at Cornell University. *Composer Fellowship Grant, National Endowment for the Arts They include: Books *Book of Ga *Expressions (clarinet) *Quest (string quartet) *Runemusic (cello) *Spirals (string quartet;

Ann Southam

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ann Southam, (4 February 1937 – 25 November 2010) was a Canadian composer and music teacher. She is known for her minimalist-influenced style, her work in electronic music, her long-term collaborations with performers and choreographers, her large body of work, and, according to The Globe and Mail, “blazing a trail for women composers in a notoriously sexist field”. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2010. Biography Southam was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 4 February 1937. She was the great-great-granddaughter of Canadian newspaper baron William Southam, and benefited from the inherited wealth of the family business. In 1966, she began teaching electroacoustic composition at the Royal Conservatory. In 1966, she was introduced to Patricia Beatty, a Canadian choreographer who had just returned from studying modern dance in New York. Shortly afterward, Southam began working on a new score for Beatty’s adaptation of Macbeth and the two became friends. Music Southam’s early works are lyrical atonal pieces written in a Romantic style, and lyricism remained an important element of her later electronic work. She also worked with the twelve-tone technique. (1981) is cons

Anna Bofill Leví

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anna Bofill Leví (; born 25 April 1944 in Barcelona) is a Catalan Spanish pianist, architect and composer. Life Anna Bofill Leví was born on 25 April 1944 in Barcelona, Spain, daughter of Catalan Emilio Bofill y Benessat, and Maria Levi, a Venetian of Jewish origin. Her brother was architect Ricardo Bofill. She has two daughters and is married to María Cinta Montagut, a Spanish female writer. She studied piano and music theory with Jordi Albareda, Xavier Montsalvatge, Josep Cercós and Josep Mestres Quadreny. She also graduated with a PhD in architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture. From 1963 she participated in the early development of Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA), the multidisciplinary architecture firm led by her elder brother Ricardo Bofill. She left RBTA in 1981. Bofill continued her studies in electroacoustic music with Gabriel Luis and Callejo Brncic and computer music with Xavier Serra and Sergi Jordi at the Phonos Laboratory in Barcelona. In 1982 she attended the Conference of New Music in Sitges and took courses at the Miró Foundation with Luigi Nono, Joan Guinjoan, and Coriúnn Aharonián. In 1985 she worked at the Centre d’Études de Mathémathi

Anna Rubin

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anna Rubin (born 1946) is an American composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music. Biography Anna Rubin studied with composers Mel Powell, Earle Brown, and Pauline Oliveros while completing her MFA at California Institute of the Arts. She also holds a doctorate in composition from Princeton University where she studied with Paul Lansky. After completing her studies, she taught composition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Lafayette College. From 2002 to 2018, she taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Rubin is a member of the American Music Center, is a co-founder of the Independent Composers Association of LA, serves on the editorial board of Perspectives of New Music, and has served as president of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Rubin is the author of professional articles on the work of composer Francis Dhomont. Honors and awards *Two awards, Maryland State Arts Council *Fellow, National Orchestral Association *Delta Ensemble Gaudeamus Prize for De Nacht: Lament for Malcolm X, 1984 *Jury prize, Aether Festival #1 - International Radio Art/Radio Station KUNM, Albuquerque, NM, for Family Stories: Sophie, Sally, with Laurie Hollander S

Anne Eggleston

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Anne Elizabeth Eggleston (September 6, 1934 – November 27, 1994) was a Canadian composer and educator. The daughter of Wilfrid Eggleston, a journalism professor, and Magdelana Raškevičiutė, a writer, she was born in Ottawa, Ontario and studied music there, at The Royal Conservatory of Music and at the Eastman School of Music (MMus 1958). Her teachers included Gladys Barnes, Robert Fleming, Pierre Souvairan, Oskar Morawetz, John Weinzweig, Godfrey Ridout, Bernard Rogers and Orazio Frugoni. Eggleston began giving private lessons in piano and composition in Ottawa in 1958. After winning two scholarships in 1965, she studied teaching for voice and piano at the Banff School of Fine Arts. In 1964, her String Quartet won the CBC Radio Ottawa Original Music Competition. Eggleston also composed musical exercises for use in teaching the piano. Some of her pieces for piano students were incorporated into the Royal Conservatory of Music syllabus and examinations. She died in Ottawa at the age of 60. Eggleton’s papers and piano are held at Library and Archives Canada. Selected works * Piano Quartet chamber quartet (1955) * Autumnal Clouds orchestra (1958) * The Woodcarver’s Wife opera (1961) *

Anne La Berge

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Anne La Berge was born in Palo Alto, California, in 1955. Her father, David LaBerge is a neuropsychology scientist and her mother, Jane Schuneman, a violinist. She is a composer, performer and improviser, currently residing in Amsterdam. Her work grows from the social and political issues that shape the world she moves through. Many of her pieces are multi level structures where performers make choices, follow flexible cues, and shape the music together in real time. She performs internationally as a multimedia musician and is a longtime member of the Amsterdam ensemble MAZE. She has served on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and worked as a coach for many organizations including the SPLICE Festival, US and the European Cortona Sessions. She has been an invited artist at both the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Headlands Center for the Arts. Her instruments include the flute, electronics, controllers, live processing, and spoken text, forming her signature sound world. She builds pieces that let performers interact with computer programs through phones, tablets, and laptops, giving them real time agency in how the music unfolds. Her performances shift freely

Anne Lauber

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anne Lauber (born 28 July 1943) is a Canadian composer, conductor, and music educator. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, she has been commissioned to write works by the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Music Competitions, the Canada Council, and the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec among many other groups. In 1985 she was awarded first prize for her Arabesque at the International Guitar Competition in Marl, Germany. She became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1972. In 2007 the Eastman School of Music featured her in the school’s Women in Music Festival. Her son Tristan Lauber is a successful concert pianist. Education and work as a teacher Born in Zürich, Switzerland, Lauber studied the violin and piano privately before entering the Lausanne Conservatory in 1964 on a scholarship from the Association des musiciens suisses. She studied there through 1967 where she was a pupil of Andras Kovach and Zoltán Kodály. At the same time she studied music composition privately with Jean Perrin and Darius Milhaud. In 1967 Lauber came to Canada to pursue studies in music composition priv

Anne LeBaron

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Alice Anne LeBaron (born May 30, 1953) is an American composer, harpist, academic, and writer. Frequently combining tonal and atonal techniques with an experimental approach, LeBaron’s compositions utilize elements of blues, jazz, pop, rock, and folk music. She explores environmental, cultural, philosophical and cultural themes, incorporating theater, mixed media, literature, and humor. As an improvising harpist, she employs a wide array of electronic enhancements and extended techniques for the harp, including preparing the harp and bowing the strings. Among other venues, LeBaron’s work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Kennedy Center, by orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra. She is the recipient of an Alpert Award in the Arts, a Toulmin grant from Opera America, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a Fulbright Full Scholarship. She has been commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Library of Congress, among other organizations. She also served as chair of the Board of the American Composers Forum from 2018 to 2020. LeBaron was a professor at California Institute of the

Annea Lockwood

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Annea Lockwood (born July 29, 1939) is a New Zealand-born American composer. Her work incorporates microtonal, electroacoustic, and vocal music, as well as field recordings; she has also composed Fluxus-inspired pieces involving intentionally damaging pianos. She taught electronic music at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, from 1982 until her retirement. Early life and education Lockwood studied composition and completed a Bachelor of Music degree with honours from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. Her composition studies continued with Peter Racine Fricker at the Royal College of Music in London from 1961 to 1963; with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse from 1963 to 1964; and at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. She also studied in the Netherlands. Lockwood settled in London in 1964. Career and style During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Lockwood performed and composed around Europe. Her compositions featured non-conventional instruments such as glass tubing used in The Glass Concert (1967). This work was published in the magazine Source: Music of the Avant Garde and later recorded and released by Tangent Records. In the 1970s, Lockw

Annette LeSiege

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Annette LeSiege (1947 – August 26, 2012) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and teacher. She studied French horn and then composition at the San Jose State University, later receiving a composition PhD from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Samuel Adler and possibly Warren Benson. LeSiege taught composition for seven years at Wake Forest University, later teaching at New Jersey City University and the University of Maine. Her compositions number 70 published works, and often feature the French horn. Life and career Annette LeSiege was born in 1947 in Oakland, California, US. She was raised in Sunnyvale, California by her parents Armand and Mabel LeSiege; amid her father’s early death, her stepfather Raymond Phelps helped out. Although a bassoonist in her youth, LeSiege attended San Jose State University (SJSU) to study French horn, graduating in 1968. She stayed at SJSU for a Master of Arts, initially in music history; after studying composition with Higo Hugo Harada she switched to an MA in composition, graduating in 1970. After briefly studying at Cornell University for a PhD in composition, LeSiege switched to the doctorate program at the

Annette Vande Gorne

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Annette Vande Gorne (born 6 January 1946) is a Belgian electroacoustic music composer currently living in Ohain, Belgium. Biography Annette Vande Gorne was born in Charleroi, Belgium. She initially studied music at the conservatories of Mons and Brussels, and privately with Jean Absil. After discovering the acousmatic music developed by Pierre Schaeffer, she became interested in the music of Schaeffer as well as François Bayle and Pierre Henry. She moved to Paris in order to study at the conservatoire with Schaeffer and Reibel. On returning to Belgium she founded the Association de Musiques et Recherches and the Métamorphoses d’Orphée studio. She also launched a series of concerts and an acousmatics festival called L’Espace du son in Brussels in 1984. Since 1986 she has taught in Liège, Brussels, Mons. Recordings * Vox Alia (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 25196, 2025) * Exils (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 0890, 2008) * Impalpables (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9839, 1998) * Le ginkgo; Architecture nuit; Noces noires (SONARt, IMSO 9504, 1995) * Tao (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9311, 1993) List of works * Action / Passion (1987), ballet music for a choreography by Patricia Kuypers * Aglavaine

Anthony Braxton

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Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto sax. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago and was a key early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He received great acclaim for his 1969 double-LP record For Alto, the first full-length album of solo saxophone music. A prolific composer with a vast body of cross-genre work, the MacArthur Fellow and NEA Jazz Master has released hundreds of recordings and compositions. During six years that he was signed to Arista Records, the diversity of his output encompassed work with many members of the AACM including duets with co-founder and first president Muhal Richard Abrams; collaborations with electronic musician Richard Teitelbaum; a saxophone quartet with Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett; compositions for four orchestras; and the ensemble arrangements of Creative Orchestra Music 1976, which was named the 1977 DownBeat Critics’ Poll Album of the Year. Many of Braxton’s projects are ongoing including the Diamond Curtain Wall works, in which

Anthony Davis (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anthony Davis (born February 20, 1951) is an American pianist and composer. He incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm ’n’ blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesian gamelan, and experimental music. He has played with several groups and is also a professor of music at the University of California, San Diego. Davis is perhaps best known for his operas; he has been called “the dean of African-American opera composers.” Biography Davis was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1951. He has a 1975 degree from Yale University, and has taught at Yale and Harvard University. Davis is a Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego, having joined the department in 1996. He has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader or sideman with various ensembles. In 1997 his opera Amistad, with a libretto by his cousin Thulani Davis, premiered at the Chicago Lyric Opera. Its ambition was recognized but the production received mixed reviews. It was accepted for production in 2008 at Spoleto Festival USA. It underwent a major revision and the production was highly praised. Opera Today said that the revised Amistad was “much leaner,

Anthony Gilbert (composer)

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Anthony Gilbert (26 July 1934 – 5 July 2023) was a British composer and academic, long associated with the Royal Northern College of Music. He also taught for extended periods as head of composition at the New South Wales State Conservatorium. His works, many of them for larger chamber ensembles, were published by Schott and University of York Music Press. Several of them were written for particular musicians, who performed and recorded them. He wrote a memoir, published in 2021. Biography Gilbert, who was born in London on 26 July 1934, trained initially as a translator, then studied composition privately with Mátyás Seiber, piano with Denis Holloway at Trinity College, and composition with Alexander Goehr and Anthony Milner at Morley College. He also studied with Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood. He worked for the London branch of Schott, beginning as a warehouseman and later chief editor of contemporary music, and head of production. Tim Benjamin, Martin Butler, Simon Holt, Adam Johnson, Paul Newland, Priti Paintal, Janet Owen Thomas, James Saunders Jane Antonia Cornish and Ian Vine. Gilbert was an active committee member of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, the music se

Anthony Hedges

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Anthony J. Hedges (5 March 1931 – 19 June 2019) was an English composer, the son of children’s writer Sidney Hedges. Life Hedges was born in Bicester, Oxfordshire, and studied music at Keble College Oxford, where his tutors included Thomas Armstrong. While on National Service for two years at Catterick (from 1955) he was a member of the Band of the Royal Signals Regiment. From 1957 he was a music lecturer at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow, and from 1962 a lecturer at The University of Hull (1962–94) where he was awarded an Hon.DMus. During his time in Glasgow he also contributed regular reviews and articles on music to The Glasgow Herald, The Scotsman, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Works Hedges is often regarded primarily as a light-music composer due to the large number of recordings of his light orchestral music, such as the Four Miniature Dances (1967) and the popular Kingston Sketches of 1969. But such works in fact represent only a small portion of his overall output. He also published a considerable amount of educational music. The record label Divine Art has signed pianist Adam Davis to record the complete piano music of Anthony Hedges. Volume 1, to b

Anthony Iannaccone

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anthony Joseph Iannaccone (born October 14, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American composer and conductor. His music has been performed by major orchestras and chamber ensembles, and he has conducted numerous regional and metropolitan orchestras in the United States and in Europe. He was a conductor and professor at Eastern Michigan University, from which he retired at the end of the winter semester of 2013. He studied with Aaron Copland (1959–1964); with David Diamond, Vittorio Giannini, and Ludmila Ulehla at the Manhattan School of Music, from which he earned a master’s degree (1962–1968); and with Samuel Adler at the Eastman School of Music, from which he earned a doctoral degree. During the 1960s he supported himself as an orchestral violinist, and taught at the Manhattan School of Music from 1966 to 1968. He taught at Eastern Michigan University from 1971, where he founded an electronic music studio, taught composition, and for 30 years conducted the Collegium Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, focusing on late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century repertory. He won first prize from the National Band Association in 1988 for Apparitions, won the SAI/C.F. Peters Competition in

Anthony Moore

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anthony Moore (also known as Anthony More) (born 13 August 1948) is a British experimental music composer, performer and producer. He was a founding member of the band Slapp Happy, worked with Henry Cow and has made a number of solo albums, including Flying Doesn’t Help (1979) and World Service (1981). As a lyricist, Moore has collaborated with Pink Floyd on two of their albums: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), and contributed music to the instrumental “Calling” from The Endless River (2014). He contributed lyrics to Richard Wright’s Broken China (1996), worked with Kevin Ayers on various projects and also contributed lyrics to Trevor Rabin’s Can’t Look Away (1989) and Julian Lennon’s Help Yourself (1991). For a fuller list of works and more recent activity since 2010 to date see Biography Anthony Moore’s musical career began when he met Peter Blegvad, while both were students at St Christopher School, Letchworth. They played in various bands, including Slapp Happy (the name was a reference to Blegvad’s then-girlfriend) and the Dum-Dums. After school Moore studied Indian classical music with Viram Jasani in 1969, and went on to compose his first film

Anthony Payne

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anthony Edward Payne (2 August 1936 – 30 April 2021) was an English composer, music critic and musicologist. He is best known for his acclaimed completion of Edward Elgar’s third symphony, which gained wide acceptance into Elgar’s oeuvre. Payne is particularly noted for his chamber music, much of which was written for his wife, the soprano Jane Manning, and the couple’s new music ensemble Jane’s Minstrels. Initially an unrelenting proponent of modernist music, by the 1980s his compositions had embraced aspects of the late English romanticism, described by his colleague Susan Bradshaw as “modernized nostalgia”. Born in London, Payne first seriously studied music at Durham University. His professional career began around 1969 with his first major work, the staunchly modernist Phoenix Mass for choir and brass band. He continued to write choral and vocal works, almost exclusively to British poets. From his 1981 chamber work A Day in the Life of a Mayfly on, he synthesised modernism with the English romanticism of Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. Two orchestral commissions for The Proms, The Spirit’s Harvest (1985) and Time’s Arrow (1990) were well received. After his successful comp

Anthony Powers

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anthony Powers (born 13 March 1953) is a British composer of classical music. He has received a number of commissions, including the BBC and the Three Choirs Festival Society and a number of individuals, while his works have been performed both in Great Britain and abroad. He was shortlisted for a British Composer Award in 2003. Life Born in London, England, Powers took private tuition from Elisabeth Lutyens and Harrison Birtwistle between 1969 and 1971, and also with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1972 to 1973. From 1973 to 1976 he studied at the University of York for a DPhil in Composition under David Blake and Bernard Rands. Following the completion of his studies, Powers taught at Dartington College of Arts for two years and was composer-in-residence at Southern Arts. In 1987 he moved to a position at Cardiff University, where he became composer-in-residence in 1990 and Professor of Composition from 2004 until 2010. He was Chairman of the Association of Professional Composers between 1995 and 1997. Powers has written over sixty works, including four string quartets, two symphonies, a cello concerto, a horn concerto, as well as many choral and chamber works. He has also done set

Antoine Duhamel

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Antoine Duhamel (30 July 1925 – 11 September 2014) was a French composer, orchestra conductor and music teacher. Life and career Born in Valmondois in the Val-d’Oise département of France, Antoine Duhamel was one of the three sons of the French writer Georges Duhamel and actress Blanche Albane. He studied music at the Sorbonne. He was a pupil of René Leibowitz, an exponent of Arnold Schoenberg’s dodecaphonic and serial method of composing. Together with other Leibowitz pupils, Serge Nigg, André Casanova and Jean Prodromidès, he gave the first performance of Leibowitz’s Explications des Metaphors, Op. 15, in Paris in 1948. He wrote the score for his first film in 1960, going on to work with many of Europe’s film directors. In 2002 he was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his music for the Bertrand Tavernier directed film, Laissez-passer. Duhamel scored several of Jean-Luc Godard’s films, including Pierrot le Fou and Week End. He died at the age of 89 in September 2014. Partial filmography * 1963 : Méditerranée * 1964 : The Pit and the Pendulum * 1965 : Pierrot le Fou * 1966 : Trap for the Assassin * 1966 : La Longue marche * 1966: La Voleuse * 1967 : The Sailor

Antoine Tisné

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Antoine Tisné (29 July 1932 – 19 July 1998) was a French composer. Life Tisné was born in Lourdes. He began his musical studies at the Tarbes Conservatory. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1952 in a music writing class. He was then a student of Georges Hugon in harmony and Noël Gallon and Jean Rivier in fugue and counterpoint, then had Darius Milhaud and André Jolivet as his teachers. He won a Second Grand Prix de Rome in 1962. He was principal music inspector at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs between 1967 and 1992, and then appointed music inspector in charge of the municipal conservatories of the City of Paris. Tisné composed more than three hundred works ranging from pieces for solo instrument to the symphony orchestra. His works were recorded in France by MFA, REM and Calliope. He was an Officer of the National Order of Merit, a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and was decorated with the Ordre des Palmes académiques. Among other awards, he has received the Copley Foundation Prize, the Helphen Prize, the Lili Boulanger Prize, the Koussevitsky Foundation Prize, the Casa de Velázquez Prize, the Grand Prix musical de la Ville de Paris, the Composers’ Prize

Antoinette Kirkwood

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Antoinette Adell Mahoney Kirkwood (26 February 1930 - 28 January 2014) was an English composer born in London, with Irish family connections. Early life Kirkwood studied music with Claud Biggs at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, and then piano and composition with Dorothy Howell and cello with Paul Tortelier at the Royal Academy of Music in Westminster. She often accompanied her mother, the soprano Rome Lindsay. Career Radio Éireann broadcast Kirkwood’s Symphony, op. 8, composed in 1953. From 1957 until 1961, Kirkwood was the founder and conductor of the St Columba’s Orchestra, associated with St Columba’s Church, Pont Street. On 28 April 1960 the conductor Kathleen Merritt organized and conducted a Wigmore Hall concert of ‘Contemporary British Women Composers’, featuring music of Kirkwood alongside some of that of Ina Boyle, Ruth Gipps, Dorothy Howell, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Grace Williams. For four years beginning in 1969, Kirkwood was a member of the executive committee of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain. Works Kirkwood composed orchestral concert works, theatre music and two ballet scores, as well as instrumental and chamber pieces (including a cello sonata an

Antón García Abril

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Antón García Abril OAXS (19 May 1933 – 17 March 2021) was a Spanish composer and musician. He composed many classical orchestral works, chamber and vocal pieces, as well as over 150 scores for film and television. Biography Between 1974 and 2003, García Abril was head of the department of Compositions and Musical Forms (Composición y Formas Musicales) of the Madrid Royal Conservatory, and in 1982 he was elected a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. In 1994, he was awarded Spain’s Premio Nacional de Música for composition, and in 2008, he was also named a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in Valencia. He died on 17 March 2021, at the age of 87 from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. Classical works García Abril composed many orchestral works and chamber and vocal pieces, as well as music for films and television series such as El hombre y la Tierra, Fortunata y Jacinta, Anillos de oro, Segunda enseñanza, Brigada Central, Ramón y Cajal, La ciudad no es para mí and Compuesta y sin novio. In 1966, he composed the soundtrack for the film Texas, Adios, a Spaghetti Western starring Franco Nero. Also, in 1969, he worke

Anton Heiller

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Anton Heiller (15 September 1923 – 25 March 1979) was an Austrian organist, harpsichordist, composer and conductor. Biography Born in Vienna, he was first trained in church music by Wilhelm Mück, organist of Vienna’s Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral). He then combined work as répétiteur and choirmaster at the Vienna Volksoper with further study at the Vienna Academy of Music under Bruno Seidlhofer (piano, organ, harpsichord) and Friedrich Reidinger (music theory and composition) while serving in the military, mostly as a medical aide. In 1945, he both graduated from the academy and was appointed organ teacher there. He was promoted to professor in 1957. Heiller’s career after World War II is an uninterrupted list of concerts, lectures, records, jury service at contests, and professional honors. In 1952 he won the International Organ Competition in Haarlem, Netherlands, and toured both Europe and the United States, where his organ recitals at Harvard University (on the then new C.B. Fisk instrument in Memorial Church) — still available on a 4-CD boxed set — were particularly appreciated. A few years before this, he had released a set of recordings for Vanguard of many of Bach’s

Antonín Tučapský

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Antonín Tučapský (27 March 1928 – 9 September 2014) was a Czech composer. From 1973 until his death he lived in the United Kingdom. Biography Tučapský was born in 1928 in Opatovice (part of Vyškov) in Czechoslovakia. In 1947 he graduated from the Teachers’ Training College in Valašské Meziříčí. He studied in Brno before beginning his career as composer, teacher and conductor. From 1950 to 1951 he studied Choral Conducting at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Brno. In 1951 he graduated from Masaryk University, Brno, in Music Education and Musicology. Privately he studied composition with Jan Kunc, who was a pupil of Leoš Janáček. In 1951 he took up a teaching post at the Higher Music School in Kroměříž. In the same year he became a member of the well-known Moravian Teachers’ Male Voice Choir and from 1964 to 1972 he was a choirmaster of that choir. In 1955 Tučapský moved to Nový Jičín, where he accepted a teaching post at the Teachers’ Training College and also conducted the local mixed choir. In 1959 he moved to Ostrava and became a lecturer at the Pedagogical Faculty there. From 1961 he conducted the Children’s Choir of Ostrava Radio. In 1964 he became musical dire

Antonino Riccardo Luciani

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Antonino Riccardo Luciani (10 August 1931 – 29 January 2020) was an Italian classical composer, conductor and academic. Life and career Born in Palermo, Luciani moved with his family in Florence when he was two years old. Following his early studies by , at 17 he moved to Canavese to become the last pupil of Rosario Scalero. His early compositions include the chamber opera Lo starnuto and the sonatina Sonatina Chigiana. Partial discography * 1970: Panoramiche * 1970: Musiche Per Un Telefilm (with Paolo Renosto) * 1970: Contraspunti * 1971: Musica Poliformale * 1971: Civiltà Sepolte * 1971: Panorami Attuali * 1972: Agonia della Civiltà * 1973: Allarme Ecologico * 1975: Situazioni * 1975: Europa 1930-1940 * 1975: Documenti di Storia * 1975: Musica Arcaica * 1975: Dal Medioevo al Rinascimento * 1976: Ambiente e Musica * 1976: Jazz in Libertà * 1976: Mediterranee * 1976: Paesi del Sud * 1976: Barocchiade * 1977: Gli Occhi sulla Città * 1978: Eventi * 1979: Cronache * 1979: Psyco Mood * 1979: Tecnica di un colpo di stato * 1980: Atmosfere (with Marco Melchiori) * 1980: Aspetti della Natura (with Marco Melchiori) *1983: “Picnic” * 1984: Contemporary Classics References External links * *

Antonio Bibalo

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Antonio Gino Bibalo (18 January 1922 – 20 June 2008) was an Italian-Norwegian pianist and composer of contemporary classical music, primarily operas. Biography Bibalo was born in Trieste and studied piano at the conservatory there. His path to Norway and a career as a composer was a convoluted one. During World War II he was drafted into the Italian army and ended up in military prison when he tried to desert. He escaped from prison, was caught by the German army, and then forced to fight with them at Monte Cassino. During the battle, he was captured by the American army and sent to the United States as a prisoner of war. When he eventually returned to Trieste in 1946, he received his diploma from the conservatory and worked as a bar pianist to support himself. He then walked to Marseille, hoping to study composition, but ended up in the French Foreign Legion and was sent to Oman where he was assigned to entertain in the officer’s mess, and teach piano to their wives. Once again he escaped and eventually ended up in London in 1953 where he studied with Elisabeth Lutyens. In 1956 he settled in Norway. There he supported himself while composing by working as a music copyist and as ba

Antonio Breschi

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Antonio Breschi, also known as Antóni O’Breskey (born in Florence, Italy, with Argentine roots) is a composer, pianist and trumpet player, singer, writer, poet and music educator. Oliver Sweeney, in the Irish music magazine Hot Press, wrote of him: “He is a genius whose music is without frontiers, and whose originality makes him one of the most innovative artists in the varied musical genres of today.” As composer and pianist he is very original and eclectic, and he composed enormous varieties of music, creating a very personal style: “one of the most exciting sounds we have heard in years" (The 20th Queen Festival at Queen, Belfast 1981). His compositions for cello and piano and for oboe and piano as well as his world music became soundtracks for films, television programs, theatre and ballets. His album “Ode to Ireland” won the award for the best album of the year. His roots are classical music and jazz, but he began to explore many other ethnic traditions. He was also an anticipator of minimalism and many other styles: “The categories of “World” and “New Age” music did not exist when Breschi began his trailblazing journey”. He is also a jazz innovator introducing piano in a crea

Antonio Buonomo

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Antonio Buonomo (13 December 1932 – 23 November 2025) was an Italian composer, solo percussionist and music educator. A professor of percussion at the conservatories of “S.Pietro a Majella in Naples” of Naples and “S.Cecilia” of Rome, Buonomo’s professional experience included performing as timpani soloist in various orchestras (such as the “San Carlo” of Naples and “La Fenice” of Venice), and director of one of Europe’s first all-percussion instrument groups. His many compositions and transcriptions for percussion instruments have been published by the main houses of this sector and include teaching materials as well as music for plays and television documentaries. They have been performed for the occasion of prestigious avant-garde musical events, television and radio programs as well as in public concerts. Life and career Buonomo was born in Naples in December 1932. In the preface to his biography, he said that “Being born into a family of musicians doesn’t give you much choice”. The fifth of ten children, he began studying music before he even knew how to read or write. He was already performing at the age of 12 (as a conservatory student), playing the trumpet and drums with hi

Antônio Carlos Jobim

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Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (25 January 1927 – 8 December 1994), also known as Tom Jobim (), was a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger and singer. Jobim is considered a great exponent of Brazilian music and one of the fathers of bossa nova for having merged samba with cool jazz in the 1960s as a pioneer of the genre. He is also regarded as one of the most celebrated songwriters of the 20th century, and his compositions have been played and recorded by many singers and instrumentalists internationally since the early 1960s. Jobim is best known for his composition “Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema)”, which has been recorded over 240 times by other artists, and is believed to be one of the most recorded popular songs in history. Along with “Garota de Ipanema,” many of Jobim’s compositions are included in jazz and pop standard repertoires. Several of these compositions are featured on the 1964 album Getz/Gilberto, which won the Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Album – Individual or Group, Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and was the first jazz record to win Album of the Year. The recording of “Garota de Ipanema” that features

Antônio Maria

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Antônio Maria de Araújo Morais, known as Antônio Maria (17 March 1921—15 October 1964), was a Brazilian writer of pop music lyrics as well as radio sports commentator, poet, composer, and chronicler. Career At 17 he got his first job presenting a musical program at Pernambuco’s Radio club. In 1940, he arrived in Rio de Janeiro, “with four changes of clothing and five quid in the pocket”, to work as a sports commentator for Radio Ipanema. The job didn’t last long and he went back to Recife, where he married Maria Gonçalves Ferreira in May 1944. By 1948, he was back in Rio. His family now increased by a son and daughter, Rita and Antônio Maria Filho, he took a position as Rádio Tupi’s production director, and was also a feature writer for the “O Jornal” newspaper. Antônio Maria wrote daily features for more than 15 years - a daily account of what was going on in Rio de Janeiro. Up until 1955, his by-line appeared on “Long is The Night - A Noite É Grande”, the “Antônio Maria Report - Jornal de Antônio Maria” and “Copacabana Cop’s Story - Romance Policial de Copacabana”. In his Cop’s Story column, Antônio Maria would frequently interview the protagonists of the moment, right in the pol

António Pinho Vargas

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António Pinho Vargas (born 15 August 1951 in Vila Nova de Gaia) is a Portuguese composer and pianist specializing in jazz and contemporary music. He has also authored books, essays, and articles on music. Career After earning a degree in history from the University of Porto, he studied music at the Rotterdam Conservatory from 1987 to 1990, graduating with a degree in Musical Composition. In 1991, he began teaching musical composition at the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon. His first jazz album, Outros Lugares, was released in 1983. He has also composed soundtracks for Portuguese films and theatrical plays. Since his return from the Netherlands, he has primarily focused on classical composition, creating operas, orchestral and ensemble works. His pieces have been recorded by groups such as the Arditti Quartet, Galliard Ensemble, Royal Scottish Academy Brass, and the Northern Sinfonia. * 1983 Outros Lugares * 1985 Cores e Aromas * 1987 As Folhas Novas Mudam de Cor * 1989 Os Jogos do Mundo * 1991 Selos e borboletas * 1995 Monodia * 1996 A Luz e a Escuridão * 2001 Versos * 2003 Os Dias Levantados * 2008 Solo * 2009 Solo II * 2011 Concerto No IST Improvisações * 2014 Step by Step, D

Antonio Ruiz-Pipó

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Antonio Ruiz-Pipó (27 April 1934 – 24 October 1997) was a Spanish virtuoso pianist and composer. Ruiz-Pipó was born in Granada, Spain. He studied the piano with Alicia de Larrocha and composition with Salvador Bacarisse and others. The latter part of his productive life was spent in France where, in addition to pursuing his performing career, he taught at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. He partnered with his longtime friend the violinist Serge Blanc in duos, trios, and quartets with piano with whom he toured within France, Spain and many other countries. In 1987, Ruiz-Pipó wrote for Blanc a violin concerto for string orchestra dedicated to him. In his youth he played the guitar a little, and this provided him with a working knowledge of the instrument, for which he wrote numerous works; Canción y Danza is his main legacy for the guitar. His music is not consistently tonal, evidenced by a recording by Jean Bruno Dautaner (E. His treatment and harmonization of his thematic material (often deceptively simple-sounding) is sophisticated, and he revels in sharp contrasts of mood and color. He died in Paris, aged 63. Legacy Based on his Can

António Sala

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António Manuel Sala Mira Gomes (born in 1949) is a Portuguese radio and television presenter and journalist, as well as a singer and songwriter. He has worked in various capacities throughout his life, including as a singer, music producer and composer, journalist, radio director, radio host and television presenter. After a quite noteworthy career with the Maranata musical ensemble Life and career António Sala was born in 1949 in Vilar de Andorinho, Vila Nova de Gaia, in Northern Portugal. It was on the radio that António Sala stood out the most, making his debut in 1967, at Rádio Ribatejo and Emissores Associados de Lisboa, from where he later moved to Radiodifusão Portuguesa. At the end of the 1960s, he took his first steps in music taking advantage of his studies in choral singing. He came to prominence as a member of the Maranata, a music group founded in 1972. In 1978, he was voted announcer of the year, in what was the first of many awards he won thanks to his work as a radio presenter and director, mainly on Rádio Renascença’s “Despertar” program, which aired for 18 years. Between 1981 and 1994, with the Renascença’s “Despertar”, the morning radio show that was a popularity

Antony le Fleming

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Antony R le Fleming (born 1941 in Wiltshire, England) is an English composer of classical music. He is a former student of Raymond Leppard, Herbert Howells and Malcolm Arnold. The bulk of his composition is choral. Career Le Fleming served as a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral and later studied music at the University of Cambridge. He was appointed Director of Music at Abingdon School from 1968 until 1974. He started composing his most significant works in the 1980s. His works include Four Partitas for string orchestra, Nocturnes for chamber choir and piano quintet, Serenade for strings, Magnificat for soprano, chorus, and chamber orchestra, and Cantate Domino for double choir, organ and orchestra. In 2000, he was commissioned by the Exeter Chamber Choir to set words by Hilaire Belloc and Heinrich Hoffmann for chorus, piano and orchestra. Matilda, drawn from one of the Cautionary Tales for Children by Belloc, was described by the composer as “mixing in the somewhat acidic taste of Hoffmann with the misadventures of ‘Matilda’ and ‘Henry’ while allowing the exemplary C A Fortescue to have the final say.” Reviewing it for the BBC Music Magazine website, Terry Barfoot wrote that le Fle

Antun Nikolić Tuca

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Antun Nikolić Tuca (Županja, Croatia, 10 June 1943) Croatian musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, music producer, ethnographer, tamburitza virtuoso Biography Antun Nikolić Tuca is a Croatian composer, arranger, music producer, music editor, ethnographer, tamburitza virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist. Along with Pajo Kolarić, Franjo Kuhač, Julije Njikoš, Mijo Majer and Branko Mihaljević, he is a living legend of tamburitza and rock music. He was born in Županja, Croatia, on 10 June 1943. As a six-year-old boy, he played tamburitza in a school show. His family moved to Osijek in 1956, where he attended Osijek’s reputable music school, “Franjo Kuhač”, along with primary school. In 1958, before he was fully fifteen, he became a member of Radio Osijek’s Tamburitza Orchestra, led by the giant of tamburitza music, Julije Njikoš, until 1964. In this orchestra Nikolić played all of the tamburitza instruments. There his successful music work started, not only with folk significance, but also with a cultural and social dimension. At the beginning of the 1960s, along with tamburitza instruments (and other stringed instruments banjo, bouzouki, balalaika, then piano, mouth organ, fi

Aram Satyan

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Awards = Honored Artist of Armenia, Gold Medal of the Ministry of Culture of Armenia, Movses Khorenatsi Medal, Order of 1st degree Merit for the Fatherland Aram Satyan (also Satian) (; born 23 May 1947) is an Armenian classical composer and popular music songwriter. Biography Aram Satyan was born in Yerevan (Armenia) into the second generation of a musical family. His father Aram Satunc (Satyan) and uncle Ashot Satyan were also notable composers. He studied at the Romanos Melikian Music College under Armenian composer and educator Edvard Baghdasaryan and then later at the Armenian State Conservatory with Edvard Mirzoyan and Alexander Arutiunian. In 1970 Satyan went on to postgraduate study at the Moscow Conservatory with Tikhon Khrennikov. At the time, Khrennikov was Chairman of the Union of Soviet Composers. On his advice, Satyan joined the union in 1971. His awards include First Prize in the 1969 Young Composers Review held in Moscow, for his Symphonic Variations. He went on to win national competitions in 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1979. In 1981, he won the Armenian Communist Union State Award. In addition to his symphonies and concertos, he has also composed over 300 songs, mus

Areski Belkacem

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Areski Belkacem (23 January 1940 – 1 June 2026), also known simply as Areski, was a French singer, multi-instrumentalist, comedian, and composer. Life and career Areski Belkacem grew up in Versailles, where his parents, of Kabyle (Berber) descent, welcomed Algerian musicians: “at my house, post-war stars, old chaâbi veterans, were coming to play at my parents’ home.” As an adolescent, he watched rehearsals, for Olympia concerts, by Édith Piaf, The Beatles or Jacques Brel, in the great room of the Cyrano cinema. He began in dancing clubs, second-rate restaurants, and then went on to play at weddings, playing popular hits, and began performing on stage thanks to catholic sponsorship. Discography Albums with Jacques Higelin * Higelin et Areski (Saravah, 1969) Albums with Brigitte Fontaine * Comme à la radio (with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Saravah, 1970) * Je ne connais pas cet homme (Saravah, 1973) * L’Incendie (Byg Records, 1974) * Le Bonheur (Saravah, 1975) * Vous et Nous (Saravah, 1977) * Les églantines sont peut-être formidables (RCA/Saravah, 1980) Solo albums * Un beau matin (Saravah, 1970) * Le Triomphe de l’amour (Universal Music Classic & Jazz, 2010) Singles * Quand tous le

Aribert Reimann

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Aribert Reimann (, 4 March 1936 – 13 March 2024) was a German composer, pianist, and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeare’s King Lear, the opera Lear, was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who performed the title role. His opera Medea after Grillparzer’s play premiered in 2010 at the Vienna State Opera. He was a professor of contemporary Lied (art song) in Hamburg and Berlin. In 2011, he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for his life’s work. Life and career Reimann was born in Berlin on 4 March 1936. He was honoured repeatedly, including the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Order of Merit of Berlin. Reimann died on 13 March 2024, at the age of 88. Awards Reimann received many awards: *Melusine, opera after Yvan Goll’s play (1971) *Lear, opera after Shakespeare’s King Lear (1978) *Die Gespenstersonate, opera after August Strindberg’s play The Ghost Sonata (1984) *Troades, opera after Euripides’ The Trojan Women(1986) *Das Schloß, opera after Kafka’s Das Schloss (1992) *Bernarda Albas Haus, opera after Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba *Medea, opera (after part 3 of Grillparz

Ariel Ramírez

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Ariel Ramírez (4 September 1921 – 18 February 2010) was an Argentine composer, pianist and music director. He was considered “a chief exponent of Argentine folk music” and noted for his “iconic” musical compositions. Biography Ariel Ramírez was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. Ramírez had two daughters, Mariana and Laura, and a son, Facundo. (NB: The Washington Post reported in error that he had two sons.) He married musicologist Norma Inés Cuello de Ramírez. Compositions In 1964, the Ramírez composition Misa Criolla marked the beginning of a period of high musical productivity for the composer, which also heralded the premieres of the works Navidad Nuestra and La Peregrinación (both 1964); Los Caudillos (1965); Mujeres Argentinas (1969), and Alfonsina y el mar (1969), all produced in collaboration with writer Félix Luna. Misa Criolla and Alfonsina y el mar are probably his best-known compositions. Misa Criolla Misa Criolla was one of the first masses not in Latin shortly after the Second Vatican Council permitted use of the vernacular in Catholic churches. by Philips Records, directed by Ramírez himself with Los Fronterizos as featured performers (Philips 820-39 LP, including Navidad

Aristid von Würtzler

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Aristid von Würtzler (born as Würtzler Arisztid) (September 20, 1925, Budapest – November 30, 1997, Debrecen) Hungarian-American harpist, composer, leader of the New York Harp Ensemble. Biography Aristid von Würtzler was born into a middle-class family. His father was a violinist, a music critic and composer, who had devoted much attention to his sons’ musical education. His older brother, Béla Würtzler also became a musician. Aristid received his education at the Lutheran High School in Aszód and at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Initially Aristid studied piano and cello, and then switched to harp at the age of 12–13 years. His first teacher was Henrik Rohmann. At the academy he studied harp with Miklós Rékai and composition with Zoltán Kodály. Würtzler was expelled from the academy once because he had not attended lectures on Marxism. But he was taken back by the intervention of Director Ede Zathureczky. Of his teachers he remembered Zoltán Kodály with pleasure. He considered him his mentor and invited him later to the USA. Würtzler’s last performance in Hungary took place on 22 November 1956, in the Opera House when he was substituting for the bedridden Rékai. Whe

Arkady Ukupnik

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Arkady Semyonovich Ukupnik (; born February 18, 1953, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ) is a Russian composer, pop singer, actor, and producer. Honoured Artist of Russia (2004). In 2017 he became a member of the jury of 3rd Moscow Jewish Film Festival. Selected filmography *Moths Games (2004) *Kiss through a Wall (2011) *All Inclusive (2011) References External links * Официальный сайт * Аркадий Семёнович Укупник // Народный биографический справочник. Сайт Eternaltown.com.ua

Arlein Ford Straw

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Arlein Ford Straw (January 15, 1920 – February 10, 2009) was an American music teacher and composer. She helped create The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) songbook. Early life and education Ford was born in New York City, the second daughter of Arnold Josiah Ford and Olive Nurse Ford. Her father was from Barbados, a musician and religious leader known as “Rabbi Ford”. Ford graduated from Wadleigh High School for Girls in 1936, and won a Rachel Herstein Scholarship from the NAACP to attend Hunter College. She graduated from Hunter in 1940, and earned a master’s degree there in 1962; her thesis was a composition, a musical setting of Psalm 139. Career During and after college, Ford and her older sister Enid played piano for children’s shows called Ella Gordon’s “Peter Pan Kiddies”. She taught music at schools in Queens, and chaired Negro History and Brotherhood Week observances for the Jamaica branch of the NAACP. In 1952, her work was performed at the annual meeting of the National Association of Negro Musicians. She contributed music to a 1958 event organized by composer Margaret Bonds, in tribute to poet Langston Hughes. She served on the committ

Arlene Zallman

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Arlene Zallman (9 September 193425 November 2006) was an American composer and music educator. Life Zallman was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the Juilliard School of Music. She received a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied composition with Vincent Persichetti and George Crumb. In 1959 she received a two-year Fulbright Scholarship to Florence, Italy, to study with Luigi Dallapiccola. She held positions on the faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Yale University and then became a professor of composition at Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1976. She received the Marion S. Freschl Award for Vocal Composition, and awards from Meet the Composer, the Mellon Foundation, the Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her Three Songs from Quasimodo won awards from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the International Society for Contemporary Music. She held fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, where she received the Faye Barnaby Kent Fellow. During 2001-2, she was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In 2003 Zallman was a guest composer-in-residence at the Rocca di

Armand Amar

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Armand Amar (born 1953 in Jerusalem (Israel)) is a French composer, who grew up in Morocco. He won the 2010 César Award for Best Original Music for Le Concert (Radu Mihăileanu). Life and career Armand Amar is a French composer living in Paris. In 1968, he began playing the congas. He also practiced the tabla and the zarb in the following years. In 1976 he met South African choreographer Peter Goss, who introduced him to dance. In the subsequent years, he worked with a number of choreographers in contemporary dance. His works are focused particularly on Eastern music. He is the author of several ballets and soundtracks films such as The Trail, Days of Glory, Live and Become, The First Cry, Earth from Above, Bab’Aziz and Home. Since Amen., he has also collaborated with Costa-Gavras scoring all of his subsequent films. He founded the label Long Distance in 1994 with his partners Alain Weber and Peter Gabriel. Compositions Films * 2002: Amen. by Costa-Gavras * 2004: Earth from Above by Renaud Delourme * 2004: Tabous (Zohre & Manouchehr) by Mitra Farahani * 2005: Live and Become by Radu Mihăileanu * 2005: The Axe by Costa-Gavras * 2006: La Piste by Éric Valli * 2006: Bab’Aziz by Nacer K

Armando Manzanero

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Armando Manzanero Canché (7 December 1934 – 28 December 2020) was a Mexican musician, singer, composer, and music producer, widely considered the premier Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era and one of the most successful composers of Latin America. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in the United States in 2014. He was the president of the Mexican Society of Authors and Composers (Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México). Early life Manzanero was born in Mérida, Yucatán on 7 December 1934. His father was singer and composer Santiago Manzanero and his mother Juanita Canché Baqueiro played the jarana jarocha. At the age of eight he was introduced to the world of music at the Escuela de Bellas Artes (School of Fine Arts), later furthering his musical studies in Mexico City. The following year he began his professional career as a pianist. In 1957 he was signed as musical director by the Mexican branch of CBS International and as Musical Promoter for EMI, becoming the next year the pianist of Latin American artists such as Pedro Vargas, Lucho Gatica and Raphael. In 1970, his song “Somos Novios” was reissued with new lyrics by Sid Wayne, composer for Elvis Pre

Armando Pierucci

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Fra Armando Pierucci (born 3 September 1935 in Moie, Italy) is an Italian Franciscan musician who lives in Jerusalem. He graduated from the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, from the Music Conservatories of Naples, and from the Rossini Music Conservatory in Pesaro. Some of his composition professors include Maestro Vincenzo Donato (who studied with Ottorino Respighi) and Maestro Argenzio Jorio. Career Pierucci was an Organ professor at the Rossini Music Conservatory of Pesaro. Today many of his past students teach music at various Italian Music Conservatories. He has conducted choirs and given organ recitals in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and the Holy Land. Since 1988, he has been the organist at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. from 1989 to 1999, he was Chief Editor of the Italian magazine La Terra Santa (“Holy Land”), quarterly published by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. Presently, he is a professor of sacred music at the Studium Theologicum Hierosolymitanum and President of the Magnificat Musical Institute. Fra Armando Pierucci has composed music for organ, choir, recorder, accordion, brass, and piano, including: *4 Cori su testo di Salvatore Quasi

Armando Santiago

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Armando Santiago (18 June 1932 – 9 September 2025) was a Portuguese-born Canadian composer, conductor, music educator and university administrator. A member of the Canadian League of Composers, his compositional output includes a considerable amount of orchestral works and chamber works. From 1974 to 1978 he was the director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Trois-Rivières and from 1978 to 1985 he was the director of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec. Early life and education Born in Lisbon on 18 June 1932, Santiago became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1972. He studied singing and piano privately in his native city before entering the Lisbon Conservatory where he earned a premier prix in music history (1954) and music composition (1960). He then studied the techniques of musique concrète with Pierre Schaeffer through the research service of the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française in Paris in 1960. From 1962 to 1964 he studied in Rome with Boris Porena privately and with Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia through grants awarded to him by the governments of Portugal and Italy. He obtained an advanced studies diploma in

Arndt Bause

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Arndt Bause (30 November 1936 – 11 February 2003) was a German composer of popular songs. Arndt Bause produced more than 1350 dance music melodies, many of which became “hits”, which meant that he had a decisive influence on the music scene in East Germany for this genre. Life Arndt Bause was born in Leipzig, the fourth of the recorded children of Werner Bause, an accountant, and his wife Emma. For several years, starting in 1948, Arndt Bause was made to learn the piano: by 1955 he had been captivated by music in general and Boogie-woogie in particular. He made progress as a self taught musician and started to appear in several bands, both as a pianist and as an accordionist. Between 1960 and 1963 he was also taking trombone lessons. Meanwhile, out of deference to his father’s wishes, he had embarked on an apprenticeship in the relatively secure trade of glass blowing, which in 1954 he completed. and Kurt Demmler. By 1968 his compositions were bringing in enough money to enable him to abandon glass blowing again, this time for good. In 1975 Bause relocated with his family from Leipzig to Berlin. In April 1976 they acquired a plot of land in Berlin-Biesdorf, which is where Arndt wou

Arne Nordheim

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Arne Nordheim (20 June 1931 – 5 June 2010) was a Norwegian composer. Nordheim received numerous awards for his compositions, and from 1982 lived in the Norwegian government’s honorary residence, Grotten, next to the Royal Palace in Oslo. He was elected an honorary member of the International Society for Contemporary Music in 1997. On 18 August 2006, Arne Nordheim received a doctor honoris causa degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He died at the age of 78 and was given a state funeral. Musical education At the then Oslo Conservatory of Music (now the Norwegian Academy of Music), where Nordheim studied from 1948 to 1952, he started out as a theory and organ student, but changed to composition, studying with Karl August Andersen (1903–1970), Bjarne Brustad, and Conrad Baden. Then in 1955 he studied with Vagn Holmboe in Copenhagen, and studied musique concrète in Paris. Later he studied electronic music in Bilthoven (1959), and paid many visits to the Studio Eksperymentalne of Polish Radio (1967–1972), where many of his early electronic works were realised (including Pace, Solitaire, and Lux et tenebrae (Poly-Poly)). In 2005, many lost and forgotten tapes of electronic compositio

Arnie Roth

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Arnold “Arnie” Roth (born April 28, 1953) is an American conductor, composer, and record producer, known for his expansive career in the music industry. Roth began his career as a professional violinist before founding AWR Music, where Roth became more involved as a producer of orchestral concerts and recordings. Roth is perhaps best known as the co-creator (along with composer Nobuo Uematsu) and Music Director of Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY, produced in collaboration with the video game company Square Enix. Distant Worlds has performed hundreds of sold-out concerts around the world and has produced seven full-length albums of orchestral Final Fantasy music. Roth’s son Eric (born 1977) is also a famed conductor. Career Roth is a classically trained violinist. As a freelance violinist in Chicago throughout the ’70s and ’80s, Roth worked with dozens of notable musicians and bands like Styx, Curtis Mayfield, and the Chi-Lites. He was also a performing member of the Grammy Award-winning music group Mannheim Steamroller for decades. In the early 2000s, Roth composed, arranged, and conducted the music for eight of Mattel’s sixteen animated Barbie movies. He won the Best Scor

Arno Babajanian

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Arno Harutyuni Babajanian (January 22, 1921 – November 11, 1983) was a Soviet and Armenian composer and pianist. He was made a People’s Artist of the USSR in 1971. Biography Babajanian was born in Yerevan on January 22, 1921. By age 5, his musical talent was apparent, and the composer Aram Khachaturian suggested that the boy be given proper music training. Two years later, in 1928, Babajanian entered the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan. In 1938, he continued his studies in Moscow with Vissarion Shebalin. He later returned to Yerevan, where from 1950 to 1956 he taught at the conservatory. In 1952, he wrote the Piano Trio in F-sharp minor. It received immediate acclaim and was regarded as a masterpiece from the time of its premiere. Subsequently, he undertook concert tours throughout the Soviet Union and Europe. In 1971, he was named the People’s Artist of the USSR. Babajanian wrote in various musical genres, including many popular songs in collaboration with leading poets such as Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Robert Rozhdestvensky. Much of his music is rooted in Armenian folk music and folklore, which he generally uses in the virtuosic style of Rachmaninoff and Khachaturian. His later

Arnold Dreyblatt

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Arnold Dreyblatt (born 1953) is an American composer, performance artist and visual artist from the second generation of New York minimal composers. His musical compositions are usually based on just intonation harmonics that he performs by a bowing technique he developed for his modified double bass and other modified and conventional instruments which he specially tunes. In his installations, performances and media works, Dreyblatt creates complex textual and spatial metaphors for memory which serves as a media discourse on recollection and the archive. His installations, public artworks and performances have been exhibited and staged extensively in Europe. Biography Arnold Dreyblatt was born in 1953 in New York City. His mother, Lucille Wallenrod (1918–1998), was a painter. Dreyblatt started his studies at Wesleyan University in the 1970s. He transferred to the Center for Media Study at the University at Buffalo. Dreyblatt studied music with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young and Alvin Lucier (at Wesleyan University), and new media art with Steina and Woody Vasulka. Dreyblatt originally used a steady pulse provided by the bowing motion on his double bass (placing his music in the

Arnold Rosner

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Arnold Rosner (November 8, 1945 in New York City – November 8, 2013) was an American composer of classical music. Biography Rosner got his training at State University of New York at Buffalo, New York. According to his own account, he “learned practically nothing” there. Rosner developed an individual style that fused elements of Renaissance music with the heightened drama and rich sonorities of late romanticism. He composed three operas, eight symphonies, six string quartets, chamber music and songs. Many of his compositions were influenced by his Jewish background, but also by Catholicism. Most of his music is available on recording. Principal works Operas * Chronicle of Nine: The Tragedy of Queen Jane, Op. 81 (1984); libretto by Florence Stevenson * Bontsche Schweig, Chamber Opera, Op. 102 (1994) * Spinoza, Chamber Opera, Op. 123 (2011); libretto by the composer, including some prayers and historical documents Symphonies * Symphony No. 1, Op. 3 (1961) * Symphony No. 2, Op. 8 (1961) * Symphony No. 3, Op. 20 (1963) * Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 (1964) * Symphony No. 5 Missa sine Cantoribus super “Salve Regina”, Op. 57 (1973) * Symphony No. 6, Op. 64 (1976) * Symphony No. 7 in A minor T

Art Resnick

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Arthur “Art” Resnick was a jazz pianist and composer who toured and recorded with several jazz greats. Some of the famous musicians Resnick accompanied include Freddie Hubbard, Nat Adderley, Benny Golson, James Moody, Eddie Harris, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Bobby Shew, Hal Crook and Richie Cole. He released three albums as leader, and played on at least 13 other recordings. He performed in Europe, Australia and the US, playing in major clubs in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Lisbon and Sydney. Biography Arthur Irwin Resnick was born on March 20, 1941, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He studied classical piano with Sanford Margolis. Resnick became interested in jazz and played several clubs in Minneapolis and St. Paul before heading to San Francisco in 1968. Shortly after arriving in the Bay Area, he joined a psychedelic rock band, Salvation, who frequently opened for bands like the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin. After San Francisco, his focus turned to jazz, playing and teaching in New York, San Diego, and Alaska. In 1973, he recorded Jungleopolis, with Paul Lagos (drums), Willard Peterson (bass), and Bob Rockwell (clarinet, saxophone, flute). The album was released by UK reco

Arthur B. Rubinstein

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Arthur Benjamin Rubinstein (March 31, 1938 – April 23, 2018) was an American Emmy Award-winning composer. He composed several television series soundtracks and songs for film scores. He was frequently hired by film director John Badham, and the majority of his movie soundtracks are found in Badham’s work, including Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), WarGames (1983), Rubinstein also created a very unusual sound by placing a microphone inside a large empty water bottle and placing it underneath a Steinway grand piano. His other film and TV movie scores include The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972), The Great Bank Hoax (1977), The Great American Traffic Jam (1980), On the Right Track (1981), The Phoenix (1982), Deal of the Century (1983), The Cartier Affair (1984), It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (1984), Lost in America (1985), Murder in Space (1985), The Best of Times (1986), Hyper Sapien: People from Another Star (1986), Love Among Thieves (1987),Once Upon a Texas Train (1988), Inherit the Wind (1988), several Season Two episodes of The Simpsons and Dead Man’s Island (1996). He died on April 23, 2018, from cancer at the age of 80. He was among those honored at the 2019 Grammy awar

Arthur Butterworth

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Arthur Eckersley Butterworth, (4 August 1923 – 20 November 2014) was an English composer, conductor, trumpeter and teacher. While playing with the band, he caught his trombone in tram tracks and, discouraged by the accident, changed to the trumpet. His music teacher at North Manchester Grammar School, Percy Penrose, gave him much encouragement but his parents and headmaster tried to dissuade him from a full-time career. Five years in the wartime Army gave him little scope for music-making but Butterworth more than made up for it afterwards. In 1939, however, he won the Alexander Owen Scholarship for young brass players and had his first work played in public by the Wingates Band conducted by Granville Bantock. At the time, Butterworth was unaware of Bantock’s fame, or that he was a friend of Jean Sibelius, whom Butterworth revered, but Bantock was nevertheless encouraging. At the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the Royal Northern College of Music), Butterworth studied composition with Richard Hall and also learned the trumpet and conducting. He studied composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams after writing to the composer in 1950, requesting lessons. he also played as a freel

Arthur Russell

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Charles Arthur Russell Jr. (May 21, 1951 – April 4, 1992) was an American cellist, composer, producer, singer, and musician from Iowa, whose work spanned a disparate range of styles. After studying contemporary composition and Indian classical music in California, Russell relocated to New York City in the mid-1970s, where he became involved in Lower Manhattan’s avant-garde community and later the city’s burgeoning disco scene. His eclectic music was often marked by adventurous production choices and his soft tenor vocals. Russell worked as musical director of the New York avant-garde venue The Kitchen in 1974 and 1975, but later embraced dance music, producing or co-producing several underground club hits under names such as Dinosaur L, Loose Joints, and Indian Ocean between 1978 and 1988. He co-founded the independent label Sleeping Bag Records with Will Socolov in 1981, and collaborated with a wide variety of artists, including musicians Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, and Talking Heads, DJs such as Walter Gibbons, Nicky Siano, and Steve D’Acquisto; and poet Allen Ginsberg. The only full-length studio albums Russell issued under his name were the orchestral recording Tower of Meaning

Arthur Wills (musician)

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Arthur William Wills OBE (19 September 1926 – 30 October 2020) was an English musician, composer and professor, born in Coventry. He was director of music at Ely Cathedral from 1958 to 1990 and also held a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1964 until 1992. He toured extensively as a recitalist in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. He also broadcast, appeared on television and made many recordings, both as a soloist and with Ely Cathedral Choir. Works Wills composed prolifically for the organ and choir. His ensemble works include a concerto with strings and timpani, a concerto for guitar and organ and a symphonic suite, entitled “The Fenlands”, for brass band and organ. His choral concerto, “The Gods of Music”, for organ, chorus and brass with percussion ensemble was commissioned for the biannual keyboard festival of the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in 1992. Wills’s secular music includes seven song cycles, and an opera, Winston and Julia, based on the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. His book Organ appeared in the Menuhin Music Guide Series in 1984, with a second edition in 1993 and a third reprin

Arturo Márquez

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Arturo Márquez Navarro (born 20 December 1950) is a Mexican composer of orchestral music who uses musical forms and styles of his native Mexico and incorporates them into his compositions. His best known work is Danzón No. 2. Life Márquez was born in Álamos, Sonora, in 1950 where his interest in music began. Márquez is the firstborn of nine children of Arturo Márquez and Aurora Navarro. Márquez was the only one of the nine siblings to become a musician. Márquez’s father was a mariachi musician in Mexico and later in Los Angeles. His paternal grandfather was a Mexican folk musician in the northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Márquez’s father and grandfather exposed him to several musical styles in his childhood, particularly Mexican “salon music” which would be the impetus for his later musical repertoire. His education began in La Puente, California where he spent his middle school and high school years. After returning to Mexico, Márquez studied at the Conservatory of Music and the Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico. He also studied privately in Paris with Jacques Castérède after receiving a scholarship from the French government. Márquez began composing at the age of 16 and att

Arturo Rodas

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Arturo Rodas (born 3 March 1954, in Quito) is an Ecuadorian-born French-citizen composer. Biography Rodas studied at the National Conservatory in Quito, took private composition lessons with Gerardo Guevara, and also graduated in Law at the Universidad Central del Ecuador. Between 1978 and 1980 he was assistant to the French composer José Berghmans in Quito and Paris. He studied at the École Normale de Musique de Paris from 1979-84. There he graduated in counterpoint (Ginette Keller’s class) and composition with Yoshihisa Taira as his mentor. In 1983 he attended a composition course with Luciano Berio. He also studied electroacoustic music with Mesias Maiguashca (CERM in Metz) and with Phil Wachsmann in London. He has attended short courses at the IRCAM in Paris. While in París he also attended courses given in several institutions by Michèle Reverdy, Pierre Boulez, Gerard Grisey, Guy Reibel and Iannis Xenakis. He returned to Ecuador in 1984 where some of his orchestral works were performed by the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alvaro Manzano. In Ecuador he became one of the three “notable composers of the following generations”. The Banco Central del Ecuador issued a two

Arvo Pärt

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Early life, family and education#

Pärt was born in Paide Järva County Estonia, on 11. September 1935. He was raised by his mother and stepfather in Rakvere in northern Estonia. He began to experiment with the top and bottom notes of the family’s piano as the middle register was damaged. Pärt’s musical education began at the age of seven when he began attending music school in Rakvere. By his early teenage years, Pärt was writing his own compositions. His first serious study came in 1954 at the Tallinn Music Middle School, but less than a year later he temporarily abandoned it to fulfill military service, playing oboe and percussion in the army band. After his military service he attended the Tallinn Conservatory, where he studied composition with Heino Eller and it was said of him, “he just seemed to shake his sleeves and the notes would fall out”. During the 1950s, he also completed his first vocal composition, the cantata Meie aed (‘Our Garden’) for children’s choir and orchestra. He graduated in 1963.

Ary Toledo

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Ary Christoni de Toledo Piza (August 22, 1937 – October 12, 2024) was a Brazilian humorist, singer, lyricist, and actor. Life and career Toledo was born in 1937 in Martinópolis, São Paulo. first working at Teatro de Arena de São Paulo. He was also a singer and lyricist; his jokes drew humor from the difference between Brazilians and Portuguese. He wrote around 60,000 jokes and described himself as a “garimpeiro of humor”. Music was his hobby. During the Brazilian military government AI-5 he was imprisoned for his anti-government satire, but was soon freed due to his popularity. Ary Toledo died in São Paulo on October 12, 2024, at the age of 87. Published works Books * Descobrimento do Brasil (with Chico de Assis) * Modinha de ser * Ovos que a galinha pôs * Tiradentes * Os Textículos de Ary Toledo (A Anarquia da Filosofia) (2011) Discography * No Fino Da Bossa (1968–1988) RGE FERMATA LP * Ary Toledo (1970) * Antologia do Sexo (1979) Copacabana LP * Pois é (1982) Copacabana LP * Na Base do Riso Explícito (1985) Copacabana LP * Ary Toledo Ao vivo (1968) RGE LP * A Todo Vapor (2008) Songs As well as being a writer of jokes, he has also written satirical songs such as: * A moda do Zé *

Åse Hedstrøm

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Åse Hedstrøm (born 17 April 1950 in Moss) is a Norwegian contemporary composer. Life and career Åse Hedstrøm studied music at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, and composition at the Norwegian State Academy of Music. She continued her studies in Stockholm with composer Sven-David Sandström. After completing her studies, Hedstrøm received a three-year working grant from the state in 1987, and began composing full-time. She received the Norwegian Society of Composers’ Work of the Year award for the chamber music work Right After in 1985 and for the string quartet Sorti in 1989. Parallel to her compositional career, Hedstrøm has also been active as an organizer and coordinator on the Norwegian music scene, beginning in 1978 when she was appointed as director for NyMusikk (the Norwegian section of ISDM). I the time-frame 1983 to 1987, Hedstrøm was the music co-ordinator for Henie Onstad Kunstsenter which resulted in a number of contemporary music concerts and festivals at the art centre. From 1994 to 1998, Hedstrøm served as director and artistic leader for the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. From 1999 to 2002, Hedstrøm was the director of the Stockholm Concert Hall and th

Astor Piazzolla

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Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as “the world’s foremost composer of Tango music”. Life and career Childhood Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1921, His paternal grandfather, a sailor and fisherman named Pantaleo (later Pantaleón) Piazzolla, had immigrated to Mar del Plata from Trani, a seaport in the southeastern Italian region of Apulia, at the end of the 19th century. His mother was the daughter of two Italian immigrants from Villa Collemandina in Garfagnana in province of Lucca in the central region of Tuscany. In 1925 Astor Piazzolla’s family moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, which in those days was a violent neighbourhood inhabited by a volatile mixture of gangsters and hard-working immigrants. His parents worked long hours, and Piazzolla, despite having a li

Atli Heimir Sveinsson

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Atli Heimir Sveinsson (21 September 1938 – 20 April 2019) was an Icelandic composer. Atli Heimir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland and started piano lessons at the age of 10. He studied piano with Rögnvaldur Sigurjónsson at the Reykjavík College of Music and took his diploma in 1957. He went on to study at the State Academy in Cologne, Germany, from 1959, studying composition with Günter Raphael and Rudolf Petzold, instrumentation with Bernd Alois Zimmermann, conducting with Wolfgang von der Nahmer and piano with Hermann Pillney and Hans Otto Schmidt. He also took private lessons with Gottfried Michael Koenig. He took his diploma in composition and theory in 1963, a year in which he also attended summer courses in Darmstadt, making the acquaintance of Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti and Bruno Maderna. In 1964 he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, Christoph Caskel and Frederic Rzewski. In 1965 he went to the Netherlands and studied electronic music with Gottfried Michael Koenig in Bilthoven. He was president of the Icelandic Composers Association from 1972 to 1983. In 1976 he received the Nordic Council Music Prize for his Flute Concerto, which was writt

Attila László

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Attila László (born 10 July 1953) is a Hungarian jazz guitarist and composer. László is one of the leaders of Hungary’s second generation of jazz musicians, which includes Lakatos, Dés, Kőszegi, and Pege. He was president of the Hungarian Jazz Federation (1999–2005) and performed with Anthony Jackson, Randy Brecker, James Moody, David Friedman, Gary Willis, Bob Mintzer, Peter Erskine, Hiram Bullock, Miroslav Vitous, Ilaiyaraaja, Russell Ferrante, and Jimmy Haslip. Laszlo won the Golden Cross of Merit prize. Biography After finishing his studies at Béla Bartók Secondary School of Music he performed with prominent jazz bands in Hungary. In 1975 he founded a jazz band by the name of Kaszakő and recorded his first album with them in 1983. He worked as a musician in the studio of Magyar Rádió, Hungary’s publicly funded radio broadcasting organization, from 1980 to 1988. In 1985 he joined Tony Lakatos to form his second band, Things. They performed at various events, including performances on Hungarian television. Since 1987 he has been teaching at Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He is the leader of its big band. It was not until 1992 that László formed his own band, the László Attila Band

Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter

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Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter (9 September 1936 – 26 September 2003) was member of the Austrian , composer and organist. Life Born in Hargelsberg, Kropfreiter spent his school years from 1948 at the Catholic Bischöfliches Gymnasium Petrinum, where he received his first basic musical education. Immediately after the Matura he entered the Augustiner-Chorherrenstift St. Florian in 1953, where he was initially taught music theory by Johann Krichbaum. From 1955 to 1960 he studied composition and organ at the Linz Anton Bruckner Private University and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. After completing his studies, he worked as an organist in Sankt Florian. Along the way he was also a teacher of the St. Florian Boys’ Choir and, from 1966, director of the monastery choir (Regens Chori). Kropfreiter died in 2003 in Sankt Florian at the age of 68. Works Kropfreiter created an extensive organ oeuvre and is thus one of the most important Austrian organ composers of the 20th century. He helped The St. Florian Monastery to even greater fame. He composed several orchestral works (among others organ concertos, 3 symphonies), masses, church music, choral music, chamber music and

Augusto Martelli

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Augusto Martelli (15 March 1940 – 3 November 2014) was an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and television personality. Life and career Born in Genoa, the son of conductor and composer Giordano Bruno Martelli, Martelli is probably best known for the song Djamballà, the theme song of the 1970 film Il dio serpente, which reached the first position in the Italian charts. He is also well known for his romantic and professional relationship with pop singer Mina, with whom he collaborated as a composer and an arranger and with whom he co-founded the music label PDU. He also composed songs and scores for a large number of Fininvest TV programmes, including the jazz-fusion instrumental piece “Round D Minor” for the motor racing show “Grand Prix” hosted by Andrea de Adamich in the 1980s. Martelli always claimed his innocence. Selected filmography * Pensando a te (1969) * More Dollars for the MacGregors (1970) * Il dio serpente (1970) * Sartana in the Valley of Death (1970) * The Wind’s Fierce (1970) * We Are All in Temporary Liberty (1971) References External links * * * *

Aurel Stroe

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Aurel Stroe (5 May 1932, in Bucharest – 3 October 2008, in Mannheim) was a Romanian composer, philosopher and linguist. In 2002 he was awarded the Herder Prize from the University of Vienna. Life and career From 1951 to 1956 Stroe studied piano with Maria Totino, composition with Mihail Andricu, and harmony with Marṭian Negrea at the Bucharest Conservatory. He also took summer courses at the Darmstadt Conservatory from 1966 to 1969 where he was a pupil of Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was awarded a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service which enabled him to pursue research at the International Comparative Musicology Institute of Alain Danielou in 1972-1973. Stroe was appointed the position of reader at the Bucharest Conservatory in 1962. From 1986 to 1993 he was a professor of composition at the Mannheim Hochschule für Musik. In 2006, he was awarded the Promaetheus Prize by the Anonimul Foundation. Musical works Including electronic music. Opera * Asta nu va primi Nobel Prize (1969) - opera în three parts (Paul Sterian) * Pacea (1973) - opera în three acts (Aristophanes) * Trilogia Cetății Închise (1973-1988) opera, libretto after Aesch

Aurlus Mabélé

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Aurlus Mabélé (24 October 1953 – 19 March 2020) was a Congolese singer and composer. He was commonly referred to as the “King of Soukous”. Biography Aurlus Mabélé, real name Benoit Aurélien Miatsonama, was born on 24 October 1953 in Brazzaville in the Poto-Poto district in the Republic of Congo. In 1974, he founded the group Les Ndimbola Lokole with Pedro Wapechkado, Mav Cacharel and Jean Baron. He later left the Congo for Europe, founding Loketo in 1986 with Diblo Dibala and Mav Cacharel. His soukous music swept Africa and he would be proclaimed “king”, hence the slogan “It is Aurlus Mabele the new king of the soukous”. In 25 years he has sold more than 10 million albums and contributed to making soukous known outside continent. Mabélé was diagnosed with throat cancer and had battled the disease . Fellow musician Nyboma Mwan’dido, while on tour in Kenya, broke the news of Mabélé’s sickness to Kenyans and asked his fans to pray for him. At one point of the show he played Mabélé’s song as a tribute. Mabélé was admitted to hospital in Eaubonne on 19 March 2020 and died there the same night due to contracting COVID-19. The news of his death was later confirmed via social media (Twitte

Avet Terterian

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Alfred Roubenovich “Avet” Terterian (also Terteryan) (, July 29, 1929 – December 11, 1994) was an Armenian composer, awarded the Konrad Adenauer Prize. Terterian was a friend and colleague of Giya Kancheli, Konstantin Orbelyan, and Tigran Mansurian. Dmitri Shostakovich praised Terterian as “very talented” and “with great future” in one of his letters, published by his friend Isaak Glikman, having heard a recording of Terterian’s works at Armenia’s “House of Composers” summer resort in Dilijan, Armenia. He studied at the Music Academy in Baku from 1948, and moved to the Romanos-Melikian Music Academy in 1951. He studied composition at the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan from 1952. He was Executive Secretary of the Armenian Composers’ Union from 1960 to 1963, and Chairman of the Music Department at the Armenian Cultural Ministry from 1970 and 1974. He joined Yerevan Conservatory as a professor in 1985. In 1989, he moved to the village of Ayrivank, located on the western shore of Lake Sevan, Gegharkunik region of Armenia. Terterian’s son, Dr. Ruben Terterian, was a professor of music in Samborondón, Ecuador, until his death in January 2020; and former prorector at the Komitas St

Avgust Ipavec

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Avgust Ipavec (2 June 1940 – 3 October 2023) was a Slovenian Roman Catholic priest and composer. Biography Ipavec was born at the onset of World War II in Gorizia. In the 1960s, he studied theology at the in Ljubljana and was ordained a priest in 1966 in . He graduated from composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 1974. After graduation, he moved to Vienna to further his musical knowledge, and he then worked there as a hospital priest for almost 50 years. In his free time, he composed works mostly for large ensembles, such as oratorios, symphonies, and cantatas. His major compositions were the Christmas Pastorale; the oratory titled (“The Mass in the Field”) he wrote for the 900th anniversary of Cistercians in Stična; the only existent mass in four languages titled (“The Mass of the Nations”); and the symphony Colours of the Green Emerald, which premiered in September 2016, dedicated to the memory of the 100th anniversary of World War I. He occasionally visited his house in Bovec. In December 2006, the Chancellor of Austria awarded Ipavec the Decoration of Merit in Gold of the Republic of Austria for his music, which “connects peoples as music is the only language that c

Avi Schönfeld

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avi Schönfeld is a Polish pianist and composer. He was born in Lodz, Poland on 15 December 1947. Life Schönfeld gave his first concert in his native Poland at the age of 19 before going to Israel to become a pupil of the Bartók disciple Ilona Vincze-Kraus. After winning several national and international prizes, including one with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and first prize in the Leo Kestenberg competition, Schönfeld made his debut in 1968 with the Israeli Radio and Television Orchestra playing Rachmaninov’s Paganini Variations. In November 1972, at the invitation of the French government, Schönfeld undertook study with Vlado Perlemuter, Yvonne Lefébure, Arthur Rubinstein, and Marcel Ciampi in piano, Henryk Szeryng in chamber music, and Nadia Boulanger and Alexandre Tansman in composition. After a period of teaching at the Royal Brussels Conservatory, Schönfeld was appointed to a post at the Maastricht Conservatory in the Netherlands. In addition to his creative work, Schönfeld is artistic director and founder of the European Pianistic Research Institute of Maastricht (EPRIM) and artistic adviser to the Anglo Dutch Piano Platform and the Académie Pianistica of the Maastricht

Avni Mula

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Avni Mula (4 January 1928 in Gjakova – 29 October 2020 in Tirana) was an Albanian singer and composer. For his contribution to the arts, he received two of the highest awards from the Albanian government: the People’s Artist of Albania decoration and the Honor of the Nation () decoration. Personal life Mula’s family moved from Gjakova, Kosova to Shkodër, Albania, when he was young, and after World War II, he moved to Tirana, Albania. He studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and graduated in 1957 as a lyric singer. He is the father of the soprano Inva Mula. Career Singing Mula was part of the National Troupe of Songs and Dances () and the Troupe of the Army (). In addition, he won many prizes over his career as a composer and singer in the Festivali i Këngës (Albanian Festival of Song), which is held every year in Tirana. Composition Mula composed many songs over the span of his career. Some of the most famous are: * “Nënë Moj Do Pres Gërshetin” (Mother, I’ll cut Off My Braid), which won first prize in the 1976 Festival and was interpreted by Vaçe Zela. * “Këngët e atdheut tim” (Songs of My Country) * “Valsi i Lumturisë” (The Waltz of Happiness). * “Një Djep Në Barrikadë” (A Cradl

Avo Sõmer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avo Sõmer (June 27, 1934 – May 30, 2024) was an Estonian-born American musicologist, music theorist and composer of Estonian birth. Sõmer was born in Estonia. He emigrated from Estonia with his parents in 1944, when he was ten years old, first to Germany and then to the United States. He had already begun playing the piano as a child in Pärnu. In Germany he took some piano lessons and instruction in theory, and began to compose, but systematic instruction in music came only later. He majored in music education, piano performance, and composition at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, followed by graduate studies at the University of Michigan where, in 1957, he earned an M. A. with a thesis on Monteverdi’s madrigals, and then, in 1963, a PhD with a dissertation “The Keyboard Music of Johann Jakob Froberger”. In 1962 he joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut, where he remained until his retirement in 2000. Since that time he has increased his activity as a writer, and has spoken at conferences in Estonia on the music of Eduard Tubin, twentieth-century music in general, and the theories of Heinrich Schenker. He is best known for his analytical publications on ear

Avril Anderson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avril Anderson (born 10 June 1953) is an English music educator and composer. She has composed for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, solo instruments, and organ. She worked at the Royal College of Music in London, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame in London. Anderson is co-director of contemporary music ensemble Sounds Positive. Biography Avril Anderson was born in Southsea, Hampshire, England in 1953. In 1972 she entered the Royal College of Music where she studied with Humphrey Searle and John Lambert. Anderson won the Cobbett Prize for composition, and her music has been performed in Europe, Australia and the United States. Anderson has directed educational projects, and took a position at the Royal College of Music in 2001. She is co-artistic director with her husband David Sutton-Anderson of contemporary music ensemble Sounds Positive, which has performed more than a hundred premieres of works by British composers. Anderson was Composer-in-Residence for the Young Place London Contemporary Dance School from 1990 until 2000. She is an adjunct professor at University of Notre Dame, London programme, where she has taught since 1997. Works Anderson has c

Awilda Villarini

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Awilda M. Villarini-Garcia (born 6 February 1940) is a Puerto Rican composer and pianist who publishes and performs under the name “Awilda Villarini.” Villarini was born in Patillas. Her first piano teacher was her mother, who was a church organist. She went on to earn a B. Mus. (1961) from Peabody Conservatory and a M. Mus. (1973) from the Juilliard School. Grants from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture enabled Villarini to study piano in Paris and Vienna. She received a Ford Foundation scholarship for a Ph.D. from New York University in 1979. Villarini’s teachers included Claus Adam, Jean Marie Darre, Carmelina Figureoa, Alexander Gorodnitzky, William Kroll, Eugene List, Walter Panhofer, and Dieter Weber. Villarini received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1981. Villarini’s compositions include: Chamber *Three Fantastic Pieces (clarinet and piano) Orchestra *Cinquillo Dramatico *Concerto (orchestra and piano) *Legend of the Indian *Suite Portoricinses (also orchestrated) *Ten Preludes Vocal *“Dialogue” (text by Pat Parker) *Four Songs *Two Love Songs (texts by Julia de Burgos and Pablo Neruda) References

Axel Borup-Jørgensen

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Axel Borup-Jørgensen (22 November 1924 – 15 October 2012) was a Danish composer. He was born in Hjørring in Denmark, but grew up in Sweden. He died in Birkerød. He studied piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. As a composer, apart from studies in instrumentation with Poul Schierbeck and Jørgen Jersild, he is self-taught. He emerged on the international spotlight when his Nordisk Sommerpastorale, Op. 51 (Nordic Summer Pastoral, 1964) won first prize in the competition for a short orchestral work held by Denmarks Radio in 1965. Borup-Jørgensen was one of the first Danish composers to go to the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (1959 and 1962), but he never composed serial music. While the avant-garde of the sixties exerted a strong influence on his sound world, he always followed his own intuition and obeyed his extraordinary sense of organizing sound combined with a passionate, almost mystical regard for nature. Nevertheless, his encounter with Ligeti’s early orchestral works and the works of the Swedish composer Bo Nilsson left traces in his output from the 1960s, primarily in the orchestral work Marin (‘Marine’) op.60 (1963–70), a large symphonic suite that includes 44 i

Ayo Bankole

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ayo Bankole (17 May 1935 – 6 November 1976) was a composer and organist from the Yoruba ethnic group in southwest Nigeria. Early life and education Ayo Bankole was born in Jos, Nigeria, into a musical family: his father, Theophilus Abiodun Bankole was an organist and Choirmaster at St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Jos. His mother was a music instructor for several years at Queen’s School, Ede, Osun State, a Federal government high school. Bankole studied in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. There he met drama student and poet Brian Edward Hurst and set one of Hurst’s poems, “Children of the Sun”, to music; this was performed at the Guildhall School in 1960. He also studied at Clare College, Cambridge and received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Musical career Bankole returned to Nigeria in 1966 and was appointed Senior Producer in Music at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos, where he worked until 1969, after which he was appointed lecturer in music at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Lagos. He worked as a music educator, composer, choral conductor, performer and

Azio Corghi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Azio Corghi (9 March 1937 – 17 November 2022) was an Italian composer, academic teacher and musicologist. He composed mostly operas and chamber music. Corghi was interested in both painting and music. His first instrument was an accordion. From 1956, he studied the piano at the Turin Conservatory with Mario Zanfi. After graduation in 1962, he moved to the Milan Conservatory, where he studied composition with Bruno Bettinelli, choral music with Amerigo Bortone, conducting with Antonino Votto, and polyphonic vocal composition with . Corghi’s orchestral composition Intavolature, performed at La Fenice in Venice, won the Ricordi composition competition of 1967. Vito Palumbo, Marco Stroppa. He was awarded the Massimo Mila Award in 1991 for his dedication to teaching. He composed his second opera, Blimunda to a libretto by José Saramago who became his longtime friend and collaborator. In 1999, Corghi was commissioned to compose an opera for La Scala, Tat’jana, based on Chekhov’s play Tatyana Repina. Awards and legacy In 1994, Corghi became a Fellow of the Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome. La Scala reacted to his death stating that it joined “in the condolences of the Italian and in

Balduin Sulzer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Balduin Sulzer (Cistercians) (as Josef Sulzer (15 March 1932 – 10 April 2019) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest. He became known as a music educator and composer. Life Sulzer was born in Großraming. At the age of ten Sulzer came to Linz, where he attended grammar school. He sang as an altar boy in the New Cathedral, Linz in the “Domschola” under the direction of Josef Kronsteiner. After the Matura, he joined the religious order of the Cistercians in Wilhering Abbey in 1949 and received the religious name “Balduin”. He began his philosophical-theological studies in Linz and Rome, as well as studying history at the University of Vienna. He completed his musical education at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, among others with Hans Gillesberger. In 1955, Balduin Sulzer received the priesthood ordination. From 1959 to 1977, he was a music teacher at the Wilhering Abbey, where he led the Wilhering Boys’ Choir and the Wilhering Kantorei. From 1974 to 1997, Sulzer was a music professor at the Linzer Musikgymnasium. He was also répétiteur at Linz’s Anton Bruckner Private Unive

Barbara Benary

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Barbara Benary (April 7, 1946 – March 17, 2019) was an American composer and ethnomusicologist specializing in Indonesian and Indian music. Benary composed music for a number of theatrical productions at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club during the 1970s. She composed music for the ETC Company of La MaMa’s repertory production of The Only Jealousy of Emer, which was produced during the early 1970s at La MaMa’s East Village theater and on tour. She composed music for Gauntlet or the Moon’s on Fire, written and directed by John Braswell and produced at La MaMa in 1976. In 1976, she co-founded Gamelan Son of Lion with Philip Corner and Daniel Goode. She constructed most of the group’s instruments. Benary performed with Gamelan Son of Lion in a production called 1001 Instruments You’ve Never Seen or Heard at La MaMa in 1979. Her major works include two shadow puppet operas entitled Karna and The Story of Esther. Personal life Barbara Benary was born in 1946 in Bay Shore, NY. Daughter of Harold and Blanche Benary. She received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT where her areas of specialization were music

Barbara Buczek

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Barbara Buczek (9 January 1940 – 17 January 1993) was a Polish composer and music teacher who taught at the Academy of Music in Kraków. Early life and education Barbara Buczek was born on 9 January 1940 in Kraków. She began learning to play the piano under her father’s instruction, She studied with Kazimierz Mirski and Maria Bilińska-Regierowa at the State Music School (now the Academy of Music) in Kraków, and graduated from the latter’s piano class in 1959. Buczek then continued her piano studies with Ludwik Stefański from 1959 to 1965, before studying composition with Bogusław Schaeffer between 1969 and 1974. She graduated with distinction from both classes. Career Buczek stayed at the State Music School as a teacher, and taught piano, counterpoint and composition there. Works *Sonata breve per pianoforte (1968) 5'20" (Ariadne) *Mikrosonata for violin solo (1968) 2'45" (Ariadne) *Study No. 1, for flute (1968) 4'10" (Ariadne) *String Quartet no. 1 (1968) 8'18" *Quintet for wind instruments (1969) 7'20" (Ariadne) *Intermezzo for piano and instrumnets (1969) 5'50" *Koncert wokalny Vocal Concerto for twelve solo voices (1969) *Fuga *Study for violin solo (1970) 2'40" (Ariadne) *Metaf

Barbara Heller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Barbara Heller (born 6 November 1936) is a German composer and pianist. She lives in Darmstadt, in the Odenwald and at times on the Canary Island of La Gomera. Biography Barbara Heller was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. Her father Eugene Heller was a restorer of church art. After the parental home was bombed in 1943, the family moved to Hammelbach/Odenwald. In 1948 they returned to Ludwigshafen, in 1949 moved to Mannheim, then to Cologne and Darmstadt. Barbara Heller studied music in Mannheim and Munich and graduated in 1957. Her first attempts at composition were in 1949, though self-taught. She studied composition with Hans Vogt and Harald Genzmer and film music for a short time in Siena. She received several scholarships to the Darmstädter Ferienkurse where she studied under Hermann Heiss and David Tudor, among others. From 1958 to 1962 she was a lecturer and piano teacher at the School of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim. In 1970 she established the “Hermann Heiss Archive, Darmstadt” from the estate of the composer, and continued to collect documents for the archive. In 1978 she participated in the construction of the Internationaler Arbeitskreis Frau und Musik (Internatio

Barbara Jazwinski

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Barbara Jazwinski is a Polish-American composer and pianist known for her contributions to contemporary music. She is Head of the Composition Program at the Newcomb Music Department, Tulane University in New Orleans. She was honored with the Prince Pierre of Monaco Composition Award for her work on the Sextet, and she also secured the top position in the Nicola De Lorenzo Composition Contest for her composition of Music for Chamber Orchestra. Education She studied composition and theory at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and earned her M.A. in composition and piano from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York. Career Jazwinski’s music has been selected for programming at Diffrazioni Multimedia Festival in Florence, the London Festival of American Music, Laboratorium Muzyki Wspolczesnej in Poland, Washington Square Contemporary Music Series, the New York University New Music Ensemble, and the International Music by Women Festival in Oxford, Mississippi. Her works have been performed or recorded by ensembles and organizations such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Polish Radio and TV Orchestra of Cracow, the Kos

Barbara Kolb

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Barbara Kolb (February 10, 1938 – October 21, 2024) was an American composer and educator, the first woman to win the Rome Prize in musical composition. Her music features sound masses of colorful textures, impressionistic sounds and atonal vocabulary, with influences from literary and visual arts. She taught at the Third Street Music School Settlement, Rhode Island College and Eastman School of Music. Life and music Kolb was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on February 10, 1938 (many sources erroneously state her birth year as 1939). As her father was the music director of WTIC there, she was exposed to music early, meeting musicians. She went to jazz clubs with her parents. At the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, she studied composition with Lukas Foss and Gunther Schuller. Following her graduation, Kolb relocated to Vienna, Austria, from 1966 to 1967 with a Fulbright Fellowship grant. Kolb’s composition Soundings was premiered by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1972. It was performed in a revised version for orchestra in 1975, played by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez, with the orchestra positioned in three groups on the stage. From 1979 to

Barbara Maria Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Barbara Maria Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk (Poznań, 1 January 1946 – Poznań, 30 November 2023) was a Polish composer and musicologist. She studied composition with Florian Dąbrowski at the Poznań Academy of Music, graduating in 1969. She finished her postgraduate studies in library and information science in 1974; two years later she received a doctorate at the Institute of History, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. She studied electronic music for three months in Utrecht, Netherlands, in 1981, and in Oxford, England. Life and career Zakrzewska-Nikiporczyk began working in the music collection of the Poznań University Library in 1972. From 1982 through 1998 she was the chair of the Polish national committee of the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) in New York, and through this time she prepared over 800 abstracts of Polish music books and articles. In 1996 she began working as a bibliographer for another database project, the Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals (Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale; RIPM), and by 2000 she fully indexed five Polish music periodicals published during the 19th century (Echo Muzyczne, 1879-1882; Ruch Muzyczny, 1857-18

Barbara Monk Feldman

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Barbara Monk Feldman is a Canadian composer. She was born in 1953, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Education She studied composition with Bengt Hambraeus at McGill University from 1980 to 1983 where she achieved her MMus and then at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany. Stage * Pyramus and Thisbe (2010) * Io and Prometheus (2019) Orchestra * Design for String Orchestra (1980) * The Northern Shore for Percussion, Piano and Chamber Orchestra (2018) Chamber * Movement for Solo Viola (1979) * Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (1984) * Variations for Six String Instruments (1986) * Two Flutes and Vibraphone (1987) * Duo for Piano and Percussion (1988) * The Immutable Silence (1990) * Pure Difference (1990) * Shadow (1991) * Three Clarinets and Percussion (1994) * Verses for Metal, Wood and Drums (1994) * Verses for Five (1996) * The Northern Shore (1997) * Verses for Vibraphone (1997) * Pour un nuage violet (1998) * Proche et lointaine…la femme (2001) * Glockenspiel (2004) * The Loons of Black Sturgeon Lake (2004) * String Quartet, ‘Desert-Scape (2004) * The Chaco Wilderness (2005) * The Pale Blue Northern Sky (2007) * Landscape Near La Pocatière, Québec (2007) * A Veil for Time (20

Barbara York

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Barbara York née Spence (23 February 1949 – 6 November 2020) was a Canadian-American composer and pianist. She is noted for her many contributions to chamber and solo repertoire for low brass instruments like tuba, trombone, and euphonium. Biography Barbara York was born in Winnipeg to Edith (née Pitblado) and Howard Spence and was the youngest of their three children. She began taking piano lessons when she was around four years old, and then learned cello in middle and high school. She began composing original music as early as age seven. York attended McGill University and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in music when she was twenty years old. After graduating, she worked at the Manitoba Theater School as a teacher, but soon after moved to Toronto. For the next ten or so years, York worked in theater, performing a variety of roles including arranging, directing, and composing. York asked Fischer if he would mind if she wrote a piece for him, and her very first work for tuba, Sea Dreams, was the result. Awards and Honors Barbara York (at the time Barbara Spence Potter) won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Score in 1981 for a production entitled Colette. A recordi

Barney Childs

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Barney Sanford Childs (February 13, 1926 – January 11, 2000) was an American composer and teacher. Born in Spokane, Washington, he taught and composed avant-garde music and literature at universities in the United States and United Kingdom. Childs and Elliott Schwartz edited the 1967 anthology Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music; a revised and expanded edition, co-edited with Jim Fox, was published in 1998 by Da Capo Press. Music He was a musical autodidact till his association in the 1950s with Leonard Ratner and Elliott Carter in New York and with Aaron Copland and Carlos Chavez at Tanglewood . He was associated later with double bass player Bertram Turetzky and clarinet player Phillip Rehfeldt. He wrote several pieces for these and other players, often using extended techniques. Much of his music employs improvisation and indeterminacy (see his “Roachville Project,” 1967). However, his influences are diverse and include jazz artists, John Cage, Charles Ives, and Paul Hindemith. Childs won the Koussevitzky Award at Tanglewood in 1954. Education and teaching career Trained originally as a literary scholar, Childs studied at Deep Springs College (1943–45), the University o

Barry Anderson (composer)

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Michael Barrie Gordon Anderson (22 February 1935 – 27 May 1987), known as Barry Anderson, Biography Anderson was born in Stratford, New Zealand, in 1935. His father was a civil engineer and his mother played the piano as an amateur to a high level. Anderson learned the piano and performed in New Zealand. In 1971, he began to work full-time at the South Bank Institute (later part of Morley College). Recordings * Mask, Songs Penyeach, Sound the Tucket Sonance and the Note to Mount, Colla Voce (Continuum, CCD 1008, 1989) * Electroacoustic Fanfare, ARC, Piano Piece No.1, Piano Piece No.2, Piano Piece No.3, Domingus (Continuum, CCD 1009, 1989) * The Mask of Orpheus (with Harrirson Birtwistle) electronic music (NMC Recordings, NMCD050, 1998) Works Anderson completed around 20 works. *Maui (1959-64) full-length opera based on Polynesian legends of the Pacific *Sound Frames (1964-66) for instrumental ensemble (10 players) *Songs Penyeach (1971) for mezzo-soprano, amplified violin, bass clarinet, and percussion * Piano Pieces 1,2,3 (1969-74) for piano, tape mix, and sine tone ring modulation *Topograph (1973) for 3 percussion groups, filters, and ring modulators *Synt Axis-Mix (1973) The Me

Barry Conyngham

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Barry Ernest Conyngham (born 27 August 1944) is an Australian composer and academic. He has over 70 published works and over 30 recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japan, North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe. He is former Dean of the Faculty of the Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne. Biography Conyngham was born in Sydney. He was initially interested in jazz and studied with Raymond Hanson but turned his attention to orchestral writing in the mid-1960s with encouragement from Peter Sculthorpe. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney in 1967, and a Master of Arts (Hons.) This was unusual at the time, as Australian composers typically chose Europe and Britain as their location for further study. In 1972, he went to the United States on a Harkness Fellowship and gained a Certificate of Post-Doctoral Studies from the University of California, San Diego in 1973. He was a Fellow of Princeton University 1973–74, and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Aix-Marseille in 1974–75. He was a lecturer at the University of Melbourne from 1975 to 1979, then Senior Lecturer 1

Barry Guy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London, England) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there. Other activities Guy has also written for other large improvising ensembles, such as the NOW Orchestra and ROVA (the piece Witch Gong Game inspired by images by the visual artist Alan Davie). His current improvising activities include piano trios with Marilyn Crispell and Agusti Fernandez. He has also recorded several albums for ECM, which often focus on the interface between improvisers and electronics, including his work in Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and his own Ceremony. Guy’s session work in the pop field includes playing double bass on the song “Nightporter”, from the Japan album Gentlemen Take Polaroids. He is married to the early music violinist Maya Homburger. After spending some years in Ireland, they now live in Switzerland. They run the small label Maya, which releases a variety of records in the genres

Barry Truax

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Barry Douglas Truax (born 10 May 1947) is a Canadian composer of electroacoustic music, a writer, and a teacher. He is best known for his association with the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and his development of granular synthesis using sampled sounds to create multi-channel soundscape compositions, such as Riverrun (1986) and Wings of Nike (1987). He is also known for his books Acoustic Communication (1984, 2001) and the Handbook for Acoustic Ecology (1978, 1999). He is the only Canadian recipient of the Magisterium award at the International Competition of Electroacoustic Music, Bourges, France, in 1991. He is a professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University (SFU). In June 2025, SFU awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. Biography Barry Truax was born in Chatham, Ontario. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and mathematics from Queen’s University in 1969, and a Master of Music degree from the University of British Columbia in 1971. His academic path further led him to the Institute of Sonology at Utrecht University from 1971 to 1973, where he studied electronic and computer composition under the guidance of Gottfried Michael Koe

Bart Berman

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Bart Berman (; born 29 December 1938) is a Dutch-Israeli pianist and composer, best known as an interpreter of Franz Schubert and 20th-century music. Career Bart Berman studied piano with Jaap Spaanderman at a predecessor of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and complemented his piano education with Theo Bruins and a master class by Alfred Brendel. In 1978 he moved to Israel. the Friends of the Concertgebouw Award and four first prizes at competitions for young soloists. He has performed in Israel, Europe and the United States, as a soloist and in chamber music. Berman was a soloist with many Dutch and Israeli orchestras and has recorded for radio and television. Collaborations included those with flautist Abbie de Quant (since 1970), Duo 4 with pianist Meir Wiesel, the Tamar Piano Trio with violinist Itzhak Segev and cellist Louis Rowen, as well as ensembles with several vocalists among whom Bat-Sheva Zeisler. Past partnerships include Duo Beer Sheva with the late pianist Sara Fuxon, Ensemble M, and Negev Baroque. From 2004 until 2008 Berman accompanied the remake of Hanoch Levin’s satirical cabaret You, Me and the Next War, in 2007 he was the pianist and musical director of Schube

Barton McLean

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Barton McLean (born 8 April 1938) is an American composer, performer, music reviewer, and writer. Life Barton McLean was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of John and Grace McLean, on April 8, 1938. He graduated from State University of New York (SUNY) Potsdam (BS 1960), Eastman School of Music (MM 1965), where he was a student of Henry Cowell, and Indiana University (DMA 1972). He taught music theory and double bass at SUNY (1960–66), while performing on double bass in jazz groups and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1969–76 he taught music composition and theory at Indiana University South Bend. From 1969–76 he directed the Electronic Music Center at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1967 he married fellow composer Priscilla Taylor, and by 1974 they began professional touring as The McLean Mix, presenting their electro-acoustic music, which became a full-time occupation by 1983. He created a series of solo instrument and stereo tape pieces, best known of which is Dimensions II (1974), championed by pianist David Burge, who performed it extensively for several years. Another extensively performed set in this series, Dimensions III and IV for saxophone and s

Baruch Berliner

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Baruch Berliner (; born in 1942) is an Israeli composer, mathematician and poet. He is the author of musical works, songs, books, and articles. Biography Baruch Berliner was born in Tel Aviv. He completed his doctoral studies in mathematics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, where he also worked as an actuary at the Swiss reinsurance company “Swiss Re”, One of The largest Reinsurance in the world, until 1990, when he returned with his family to Israel. From 1990 until his retirement in 2007, he served as a senior researcher at the Faculty of Management at Tel Aviv University and as the chairman of the Erhard Scientific insurance Institute. As part of his work and research, he was invited to lecture at many universities and actuarial conferences. Wrote two books and over 100 articles on actuarial, finance and economics. For years he has been writing poetry in Hebrew, German and English. Besides the work “The Creation of the World”, other works such as “Abraham” which is a symphonic poem for a philharmonic orchestra, a narrator and a male choir, as well as pleasant South American dances to the waltz rhythm. In 2016 a memorial concert was held in Kyiv that marked the 75th ann

Basil Poledouris

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Basil Konstantine Poledouris (; August 21, 1945 – November 8, 2006) was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film and television scores, best known for his long-running collaborations with directors Simon Wincer, John Milius and Paul Verhoeven. Among his works are scores for the films Conan the Barbarian (1982), Red Dawn (1984), Iron Eagle (1986), RoboCop (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Free Willy (1993), Starship Troopers (1997) and Les Misérables (1998). Poledouris won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for his work on the four-part miniseries Lonesome Dove in 1989, and was a four-time recipient of the BMI Film Music Award. Life and career Born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Greek immigrant parents from Messenia, he credited two influences with guiding him towards music: the first was composer Miklós Rózsa; the second his own Greek Orthodox heritage. Poledouris was raised in the Church, and he used to sit in services enthralled by the choir’s sound. At the age of seven, Poledouris began piano lessons, and after graduation from Garden Grove High School, he enrolled at the University of Southern

Bayan Northcott

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Bayan Peter Northcott (24 April 1940 – 13 December 2022) was an English music critic and composer. Biography Born in Harrow on the Hill, London to Roy and Cecilia Northcott (née Venning) on 24 April 1940 he was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith. Northcott read English at Oxford University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford in 1962. He then taught English from 1964 to 1970 at Chichester High School For Boys. Subsequently he read music at the University of Southampton, where his instructors included Goehr and Jonathan Harvey. Northcott earned a BMus degree from Southampton in 1971. He mentored other composers such as Robin Holloway and Julian Anderson. Northcott served as a music critic for the New Statesman, for The Sunday Telegraph from 1976 to 1986, He also wrote on music for Tempo and BBC Music Magazine. He was a director of the independent recording company NMC. He died in London on 13 December 2022, aged 82. Compositions As a composer, Northcott’s output was modest and mainly scored for small forces. Choral pieces include Hymn to Cybele (1983, performed at the 2010 Proms), the Four Votive Antiphons, Op. 7 (2003, a cumulative cycle), and Canticle: T

Beat Furrer

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Beat Furrer (born 6 December 1954) is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018. Biography Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Furrer relocated to Vienna in 1975 to pursue studies with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (composition) and Otmar Suitner (conducting) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 1985 he co-founded what is now one of Europe’s leading contemporary music ensembles, Klangforum Wien, which he still conducts. Recent awards and honors include the Music Prize of the City of Vienna in 2003 and the Golden Lion, for the monodrama “FAMA”, at the 2006 Venice Biennale. Since 1991, he has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. Furrer is co-founder and chairman of “impuls”, an International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music. The 25th anniversary of the Klangforum Wien was celebrated in 2010 at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik with the premiere of his Xenos-Szenen for eight voices and ensemble. Works Since 1989, Furrer’s main pro

Beatrice Schroeder Rose

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Beatrice Schroeder Rose (15 November 1922 – 12 October 2014) was an author, composer, harpist and teacher who was best known for her classic reference work, The Harp in the Orchestra: A Reference Book for Harpists, Teachers, Composers and Conductors. She was the principal harpist of Houston Symphony for 31 years. Life Rose was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, to Ida LeHovey and Henry William Schroeder. She performed on the harp as a student at Ridgewood High School. She studied harp at Blue Ridge College in New Windsor, Maryland, and at Mannes School of Music. Her teachers included Lucile Lawrence and Carlos Salzedo. In 1936, Rose received First Prize in the Federated Music Clubs contest. Rose debuted as a harpist at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In 1940, she performed on the Damrosch Music Appreciation Hour and in 1945, she won the New York Hour of Music award. She was an associate harpist in the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra from 1944 to 1950. In 1952, then a resident of Bergenfield, New Jersey, she travelled to Europe for a tour of France, Italy and Switzerland that included a performance in Genoa that was attended by the United States Ambassador to Italy. She joined the Houst

Beatrice Siegrist

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Beatrice Houllier Siegrist (born 21 December 1934) is a French composer, music educator, and organist who is best known for winning an Honorable Mention for composition in the Prix de Rome and for her compositions for trombone. Siegrist was born in Paris. She studied music at the Paris Conservatory and the Ecole Normale de Musique. After graduating, she taught solfege at the Toulouse Conservatory and several other schools in Paris and Toulouse. She also worked as an organist in Paris. Siegrist won an Honorable Mention in the Prix de Rome and first prize for counterpoint and fugue at the Ecole Normale de Musique. Her music is published by Editions Francaises de Musique Her compositions include: Chamber *Essai (two percussion) Vocal *Chorus for Three Equal Voices *“Melodies” (text by Paul Fort) *“Soleils Couchants” (text by Paul Verlaine) References

Beatriz Bilbao

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Beatriz Bilbao (born 8 December 1951) is a Venezuelan composer. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and studied piano with Judith James and Gerty Haas, composition with Modesta Bor, and conducting with Alberto Grau and Gonzalo Castellanos in Venezuela. She continued her studies at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington with Frederick Fox, Juan Orrego Salas and John Eaton and at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Cluj Napoca Conservatory in Romania. After completing her studies, Bilbao worked as a composer and music teacher. In 1991 she took a teaching position at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Musicales (IUDEM) in Caracas and from 2001 to 2002 served as director of the Ministry of Culture’s Prudencio Esáa Music School. Her music has been performed internationally. Honors and awards *1995 Ramón Delgado Palacios National Prize for her piano work Secuencias Mestizas *1994 Munizipal Prizes for Trilogía Aborígen and Four Color Dances *1989 First Symphonic Composition Contest Seguros la Previsora prize for Concierto de las Tres Esferas Works Bilbao works with both electronic media and acoustic instruments, composing for orchestra, chamber ensembl

Beatriz Ferreyra

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Beatriz Mercedes Ferreyra (born 21 June 1937) is an Argentine composer. She lives and works in Hameau de Hodeng, France. Early work and study Ferreyra was born in Cordoba, Argentina, and studied piano with Celia Bronstein in Buenos Aires. She continued her study of music with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and worked with Earle Brown and György Ligeti in Germany. Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) In 1963 she took a position in the research department of the Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise (ORTF), working with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) directed by Pierre Schaeffer. She assisted with Henri Chiarucci’s and Guy Reibel’s Rapport entre la hauteur et la fondamentale d’un son musical, published in 1966 in Revue Internationale d’Audiologie and Pierre Schaeffer’s Solfège de l’Objet Sonore. During this time she also lectured at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Film music In 1973, Ferreyra was invited to write the music for Fiorella Mariani’s film Homo Sapiens (Fiorella is the niece of filmmaker Roberto Rossellini). The hour-long work was completely electroacoustic, for which Ferreyra also did the performing, editing, and mixing. Mariani’s fi

Bebu Silvetti

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Juan Fernando Silvetti Adorno (March 27, 1944 – July 5, 2003), professionally known as Bebu Silvetti or simply Silvetti, was an Argentine-Mexican pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and record producer. In the 1970s he moved to Mexico and became a citizen. Popularly known for the 1975 instrumental disco hit, “Lluvia De Primavera” (“Spring Rain)” in English), the album was produced in Spain and for the 1980 modern instrumental mariachi album. Silvetti was also a successful, Grammy-winning producer for a wide variety of Latin and international music performers. He was the father of six children, including the actress . Silvetti also worked in the music of successful films and telenovelas in Mexico. Biography Early life Silvetti was born in the city of Quilmes, Argentina, located in the province of Buenos Aires, approximately 17 kilometers from the capital city of Buenos Aires. He started his piano education at the age of six. During his teenage years he formed his own jazz quartet and a few other musical groups. At 19, Silvetti left Argentina to go to Spain where he stayed a few years working as a pianist at some of the most popular jazz clubs of the time. Career In the early 197

Ben Johnston (composer)

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Benjamin Burwell Johnston Jr. (March 15, 1926 – July 21, 2019) was an American contemporary music composer, known for his use of just intonation. He was called “one of the foremost composers of microtonal music” by Philip Bush and “one of the best non-famous composers this country has to offer” by John Rockwell. Biography Johnston was born in Macon, Georgia, and taught composition and theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1951 to 1986, before retiring to North Carolina. During his time teaching, he was in contact with avant-garde figures such as John Cage, La Monte Young, and Iannis Xenakis. Johnston’s students included Stuart Saunders Smith, Neely Bruce, Thomas Albert, Michael Pisaro, Manfred Stahnke, and Kyle Gann. He also considered his practice of just intonation to have influenced other composers, including Larry Polansky. In 1946 he married dance band singer Dorothy Haines, but they soon divorced. In 1950 he married artist Betty Hall, who died in 2007. Johnston began as a traditional composer of art music before working with Harry Partch. He helped the senior musician to build instruments and use them in the performance and recording of new composition

Ben McPeek

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Benjamin Dewey McPeek (28 August 1934 – 14 January 1981) was a Canadian composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist. Early life McPeek was born in Trail, British Columbia. He earned an associate degree from The Royal Conservatory of Music in 1954 and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto in 1956. He was a pupil of John Beckwith, Gordon Delamont, Talivaldis Kenins, Oskar Morawetz, Godfrey Ridout, and John Weinzweig. Career McPeek began performing as a pianist with dance bands in Toronto during the mid-1950s. In the late 1950s he performed with the Five Playboys with some frequency on CBC Radio. In 1960 McPeek made his first foray into musical theatre when he became music director of the revue Up Tempo 60 at the King Edward Hotel. He went on to compose music for several other theatrical productions between 1963 and 1968, including That Hamilton Woman, Suddenly This Summer, Actually This Autumn, and Spring Thaw. In 1963 he wrote his first opera, The Bargain, which was based on the legend of Faust. The opera was filmed for CBC Television in 1966 and was later staged for the first time in 1978 by the COMUS Music Theatre of Canada. McPeek’s original handwritten piano score fo

Ben Steinberg

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Ben Steinberg (22 January 1930 – 10 February 2023) was a Canadian composer, conductor, organist, and music educator. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he is known for his contributions to Jewish music. He has presented many programs of Jewish music (some featuring his own compositions) for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and has presented similar programs in lecture-recitals throughout Canada, the United States, Australia, and Japan. He has also contributed articles on Jewish music to a number of publications. Several of his original manuscripts and papers are held in the collection at the library of the University of Calgary. Steinberg was a founding member of the Guild of Temple Musicians, an affiliate of the American Conference of Cantors. The GTM named their most prestigious award for young composers of Jewish music after Steinberg, the Ben Steinberg Young Composer Award. Steinberg was an honorary member of the American Conference of Cantors and a featured composer for Transcontinental Music Publications, the largest and oldest publisher of Jewish music. Steinberg died on 10 February 2023, at the age of 93. Early l

Ben-Zion Orgad

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Ben-Zion Orgad (Hebrew: בן ציון אורגד, originally Ben-Zion Büschel; born Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 21 August 1926; died Tel Aviv, Israel, 28 April 2006) was an Israeli composer. His family emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1933, where he started violin lessons in 1936. From 1942 until 1946, Orgad studied violin and composing with Rudolf Bergmann and Paul Ben-Haim in Tel Aviv and in 1947 with Josef Tal in Jerusalem. In the years 1949, 1952, and 1961 he took part in composing courses at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, with Aaron Copland and others. From 1960 until 1962 he studied composing at Brandeis University in Waltham. Beginning in 1956, Orgad was employed by the Israeli Ministry of Education, in the department of its school of music. His musical works consist primarily of choir music and songs, although he also wrote orchestral works and chamber music. Awards *In 1952, Orgad received the Kussewitzky Prize of UNESCO. *In 1961, he received the Joel Engel Prize of the city of Tel Aviv. *In 1997, he was awarded the Israel Prize, for music. See also *List of Israel Prize recipients References External links * Ben-Zion Orgad bio * Bibliography on Ben-Zion Orgad, in Ronit Sete

Benedetto Ghiglia

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Benedetto Ghiglia (27 December 1921 – 4 July 2012) was an Italian composer, conductor and pianist. Life and career Born in Fiesole, Ghiglia graduated in composition and piano from the Florence Conservatory. He then started an activity as a chamber musician, both as solo and in couple with cellist Pietro Grossi. In 1976 he formed the stage company “Teatro-Canzone” with his wife Adriana Martino. He also composed incidental music for all the stage plays by Mario Missiroli. Between 1980 and 1985 he was vice-president of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. Selected filmography * Adiós gringo (1965) * Six Days a Week (1965) * Espionage in Tangier (1965) * I Knew Her Well (1965) * Balearic Caper (1966) *El Rojo (1966) * Secret Agent Super Dragon (1966) * 4 Dollars of Revenge (1966) * Johnny Colt (1966) * A Stranger in Town (1967) * The Strange Night (1967) * Pigsty (1969) * Psychout for Murder (1969) * Corbari (1970) * Tulips of Haarlem (1970) * Lover of the Great Bear (1971) * St. Michael Had a Rooster (1972) * Trevico-Turin: Voyage in Fiatnam (1973) * To Forget Venice (1979) References External links * *

Benedict Mason

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Benedict Mason, born on 23 February 1954, is a British composer. Mason was educated at King’s College, Cambridge (1971–75) and took a degree in film-making at the Royal College of Art (1975–78). He did not turn to composition until his early 30s, but his first acknowledged work, Hinterstoisser Traverse (1986), attracted attention from the European new music scene. His early works are decidedly postmodern in inclination, with considerable use of stylistic irony (some commentators have noted in these works a similarity to the music of Mauricio Kagel). Mason then developed an interest in polyrhythmic music, and in works such as his Double Concerto one can hear a stylistic affinity to the later works of György Ligeti. More recent works have concentrated on the spatial dimension of music, such as in his Music for European Concert Halls series, and sometimes have come close to installation art. Mason has composed in different genres, and his soccer opera Playing Away, with a libretto by Howard Brenton, was commissioned by the Munich Biennale and premièred there in 1994 by Opera North. References ;Sources * * Further reading *Kennedy, Michael (2006). The Oxford Dictionary of Music, *Toop,

Bengt Hambraeus

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Bengt Hambraeus (29 January 1928 – 21 September 2000) was a Swedish-Canadian organist, composer and musicologist. Biography Hambraeus was born in Stockholm. He studied organ with Alf Linder and musicology with Carl-Allan Moberg, earning his doctorate in 1956 on a thesis about medieval musical notation. From 1957 to 1972 he worked at the music department of the Swedish Radio, eventually holding executive and producer posts, and during this time became a very high-profile emissary of new music in Sweden, encouraging discussion of new musical forms, a renewal of organ music with new tonal/technical concepts and the integration of performance art, improvisation, live electronics and stereo/spatial effects into traditional concert performing. He was also a prolific composer. In 1972 he became professor of composition at McGill University, Montreal, and he remained in Canada until his death in Glen Roy, Ontario, in 2000. Among his notable pupils are composer Peter Allen and pianist Richard Hunt. He was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1967 and received the Swedish Royal Medal Litteris et Artibus in 1986. Hambraeus wrote music for a large number of instruments, but he is

Benjamin Boretz

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Benjamin Aaron Boretz (born October 3, 1934) is an American composer and music theorist. Life and work Benjamin Boretz was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Abraham Jacob Boretz and Leah (Yullis) Boretz. He graduated with a degree in music from Brooklyn College in 1954, studied composition with Tadeusz Kassern, and later studied composition at Brandeis University with Arthur Berger and Irving Fine, with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music Festival and School, with Lukas Foss at UCLA, and with Milton Babbitt and Roger Sessions at Princeton University. Boretz was one of the first composers to work with computer-synthesized sound (Group Variations II, 1970–72). In the late 1970s and 1980s he converged his compositional and pedagogical practices in a project of real-time improvisational music-making, culminating in the formation at Bard College of the music-learning program called Music Program Zero, which flourished until 1995. He has written extensively on musical issues, as critic, theorist, and musical philosopher, from the perspective of a practicing composer. His earliest (1970) large-scale music-intellectual essay was the book-length “Meta-Variations, Studies in the Foundations of Mu

Benjamín Gutiérrez

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Benjamín Gutiérrez (born January 3, 1937, in Guadalupe, Costa Rica) is a celebrated composer in Costa Rica. He is a conductor, composer, and pianist. Gutiérrez began by studying music with his grandmother, Rosa Jiménez Nuñez, daughter of the composer Pilar Jiménez.” Gutiérrez then studied music in Guatemala City, Boston, Ann Arbor, Aspen, and Buenos Aires. The following were among his teachers: Ross Lee Finney, Darius Milhaud, and Alberto Ginastera. Gutiérrez has written music for piano, orchestra, violin, viola, clarinet, flute, saxophone, trombone quartet, bassoon quartet, marimba, opera, and several other instruments. Early years Benjamín Gutiérrez was born into a musical family outside of San José; they all played instruments. Gutiérrez’s father was an amateur violinist who owned a shoe factory. His mother, Lupita Sáenz Jiménez-Núñez, played the piano. Gutiérrez’s grandmother recommended that he join the Conservatorio de Música in San José. Gutiérrez took piano lessons from the conservatory under the tutelage of Professor Miguel Angel Quesada until he was thirteen years old. Gutiérrez was persuaded by one of his professors to drop out of high school and enroll at Omar Dengo Sch

Benjamín Solís Menéndez

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Benjamín Solís Menéndez (4 May 1932, in Chalchuapa – 26 July 2019) was a Salvadoran composer, pianist, organist and choir director. As choirmaster, he participated in the opening and closing of the V Central American Games in 1994 with the choir “Nueva Vida”, and also formed part of the Vienna Opera, presenting the operetta “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss and the “Merry Widow” by Franz Lehar, in the same year. Coro de la Primera Iglesia Bautista de El Salvador, and the Opera de El Salvador. As a composer, his best known works are “Mis Caites”, “Guanaquita Ausente”, “Casamiento Pueblerino”, “Acuarela Campesina” and “Los Inditos”. He has also composed the hymns “Himno al trabajador Pueblo Salvadoreño”, Himno del Liceo Cristiano “Revdo. Juan Bueno” (with lyrics by his wife), Himno de la Escuela Ciudad Normal “Alberto Masferrer” and others. In 2004 he was recognized by the FLADEM (Foro Latinoamericano de Educación Musical), and awarded a Distinguished Honorary membership, the first Salvadoran to receive this recognition for his contributions to Latin American identity. References

Benny Andersen

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Benny Andersen (7 November 1929 – 16 August 2018) was a Danish poet, author, songwriter, composer and pianist. He is often remembered for his collaboration with the singer Povl Dissing; together they released an album with Andersen’s poems from the collection Svantes viser. This album and Andersen’s book “Svantes viser” (Svante’s Songs) from 1972 were included by the Danish Ministry of Culture in the Danish Culture Canon in 2006, in the category “Popular music”. Andersen’s “Samlede digte” (Collected poems) have sold more than 100,000 copies in Denmark. In Denmark, Benny Andersen was also a well-known author of children’s literature and in 1971, he was awarded the Ministry of Culture’s children book prize (“Kulturministeriets Børnebogspris”). In the 1980s, his books about the fantastical creature Snøvsen, became widely popular and later inspired two films in the early 90s. Andersen became a member of the Danish Academy (Det Danske Akademi) in 1972. His wife, the jurist Elisabeth Ehmer, reported that Benny Andersen died in the family home in Sorgenfri, north of Copenhagen, on 16 August 2018. Selected bibliography Some of Benny Andersen’s notable poem collections, includes: * Den musi

Benny Andersson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia! For the 2008 film version of Mamma Mia! and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, he also worked as an executive producer. Since 2001, he has been active with his own band Benny Anderssons orkester. Early life Göran Bror Benny Andersson was born 16 December 1946 in the Vasastan district of Stockholm to civil engineer Gösta Andersson (1912–1973) and his wife Laila (1920–1971). His sister Eva-Lis Andersson followed in 1948. Andersson’s musical interest was spurred by his father and grandfather (Efraim), who played the accordion. At the age of six, they bought him one, too, and introduced him to Swedish folk music, traditional music, and schlager. The first records he owned were “Du Bist Musik” by Italian schlager singer Caterina Valente and Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock”. He was especially impressed by the flip side, “Treat Me Nice”, as this featured a piano. This variety of different kinds of music influenced him through the years. At ten, Andersson got hi

Bent Fabric

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bent Fabricius-Bjerre (7 December 1924 – 28 July 2020), better known internationally as Bent Fabric, was a Danish pianist and composer. Biography Bent Fabricius-Bjerre was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark. He started a jazz ensemble after World War II and founded a label, Metronome Records, in 1950. He released a series of ten inch albums on the Metronome label entitled 50 Years Of Evergreens in 1955, under the pseudonym Frank Barcley. However, he is best known for his 1961 instrumental “Omkring et flygel” (literally, “Around a Grand Piano”) which became a hit in Denmark. The song was re-released worldwide under the name “Alley Cat” on Atco Records the following year, and went to No. 1 in Australia and No. 49 in Germany. The tune also became a hit in the United States; the song hit No. 2 on the AC chart and no. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the LP of the same name hit No. 13 on the Billboard 200. “Alley Cat” also won a Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Recording. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The follow-up single, “Chicken Feed”, hit No. 63 in the U.S. Fabricius-Bjerre had done extensive work in film scores prior to the success of his singles, and co

Bent Lorentzen

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Bent Lorentzen (11 February 1935, Stenvad – 3 October 2018, Copenhagen) was a Danish composer. He was one of the outstanding figures in contemporary Danish music. His works are frequently performed at festivals at home and abroad, and he had established particularly close links with musical life in Poland and Germany. He was honoured with several international prizes and was named Choral Composer of the Year in Denmark in 1989 (Source: Edition·S – music¬sound¬art – Denmark). Bent Lorentzen was born in Stenvad, a village on Djursland, East Jutland. He studied musicology at the university in Aarhus and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He was a pupil of Knud Jeppesen, Finn Høffding, Vagn Holmboe and Jørgen Jersild. After his final examination he taught at the Academies of Music in Aarhus and Copenhagen for several years. (Source: Bonde 2005) Lorentzen was one of the earliest pioneers in the field of Danish electronic music (The Bottomless Pit in 1972 for the Nordic Music Days in Oslo, and Visions 1978), which was also introduced with an educational aim: the LP Elektronmusikkens materiale The Material of Electronic Music, 1968 and the LP Water – electronic music for

Bernadetta Matuszczak

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bernadetta Matuszczak (10 March 1937 – 3 September 2021 ) was a Polish composer. She was born in Toruń, Poland, and studied with Zygmunt Sitowski for music theory and with Irena Kurpisz-Stefanowa for piano at the State Higher School of Music in Poznań. Later she studied with Tadeusz Szeligowski and Kazimierz Sikorski for composition at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw (now the F. Chopin Academy of Music). She continued her education in composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1968. After completing her studies, she worked as a composer. Her works have been performed internationally. Honors and awards *Prize from the Young Polish Composers’ Competition, Association of Polish Composers (1965) *Prizes from the Grzegorz Fitelberg Competition for Composers (1966) *Jeunesses Musicales Competition (1967) *Prix Italia for radio opera-oratoria (1973, 1979) Works Selected works include: *Septem Tubae, 1969 *Juliet and Romeo, chamber opera, 1972 *Diary of a Fool, opera monodrama, 1976 *Musica da camera per 3 flauti, 4 timpani e 5 tom-toms (1967) *Humanae voces, (1970–71) *Apocalypsis according to St. John, (1976–77) *Ballet Miniatures for orchestra (1985) *Notturno - Karol Szyma

Bernard Galais

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bernard Galais (30 January 1921 – 14 August 2009) was a French classical harpist and composer. His work, which is highly stylistically independent, reflects the multiple influences of his own career: soloist at the Paris Opera, and the French Republican Guard Band. He also left many transcriptions and recorded recitals in the 1970s. Life Youth Galais was born on 20 January 1921 in Le Havre. His mother introduced him to music, with solfège and piano. In 1934, Galais joined Marcel Tournier’s class, His 80th birthday is celebrated at the International Association of Harpists and Friends of the Harp the Divertimento No 2 by Paul Arma, the Nocturne in E major by Glinka and he composed cadenzas for the concertos in G minor and B flat major by Krumpholz. Discography * 1970: Trois siècles de harpe - three vinyls in a box set, Vega * 1970: Bernard Galais, série de transcriptions pour la harpe, Vega. References External links * Official website * Discography on Discogs * Bernard Galais plays Krumpholtz (YouTube)

Bernard Parmegiani

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Bernard Parmegiani (27 October 1927 − 21 November 2013 ) was a French composer best known for his electronic or acousmatic music. Biography Between 1957 and 1961 he studied mime with Jacques Lecoq, a period he later regarded as important to his work as a composer. He joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in 1959 for a two-year master class, shortly after its founding by Pierre Schaeffer. After leaving his studies with Lecoq, he was first a sound engineer and was later put in charge of the Music/Image unit for French television (ORTF). There he worked in the studio with several notable composers, Iannis Xenakis, for example. While at ORTF Parmegiani produced music for numerous film directors including Jacques Baratier and Peter Kassovitz, and for A, a 1965 short film animated by Jan Lenica. He also wrote a number of jingles for the French media and the “Indicatif Roissy” that preceded every PA announcement at Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris until 2005. In April 2010 he sat on the jury at the sixth Qwartz Electronic Music Awards, a promotional project and support group for electronic music artists. Parmegiani has been cited as a major influence by younger e

Bernard Rands

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Bernard Rands (2 March 1934 – 4 March 2026) was a British and American contemporary classical composer and professor. He composed orchestral works and chamber music, often with a vocal element, and a series of Memos for solo instruments. His Canti del Sole for tenor and orchestra received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1984. He taught at Harvard University from 1988 to 2005. Life and career Rands was born on 2 March 1934. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan. He taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. Rands was married to American composer Augusta Read Thomas. Works Rands’s music was published by Schott. The publisher maintains works and their performances on its website. Opera *Belladonna (1999) *:opera in two acts, with a libretto by Leslie Dunton Downer, commissioned by the Aspen Festival. Première: 1999, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado *Vincent (c. 1973–2010) *:opera based on the life of Vincent van Gogh, with libretto by J. D. Mc

Bernice Johnson Reagon

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Bernice Johnson Reagon (October 4, 1942 – July 16, 2024) was an American song leader, composer, professor of American history, curator at the Smithsonian, and social activist. In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia. In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, based in Washington, D.C. She was the founder/the 1st member of Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1973 to 2006. Reagon, along with other members of the SNCC Freedom Singers, realized the power of collective singing to unify the disparate groups who began to work together in the 1964 Freedom Summer protests in the South. The Albany Singing Movement became a vital catalyst for change through music in the early 1960s protests of the Civil Rights era. Reagon devoted her life to social justice through music via recordings, activism, community singing, and scholarship. She earned her Ph.D. from Howard University, becoming a cultural historian, centered on the role of music. She was professor emerita in the Department of History at the American Unive

Bertil Palmar Johansen

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Bertil Palmar Johansen (born 18 February 1954) is a Norwegian contemporary composer and violinist. Johansen was born in Brattvåg. He studied violin at the Trøndelag Music Conservatory (today the NTNU) and took composition classes with Per Hjort Albertsen, Holger Prytz and Olav Anton Thommessen. His list of works spans a wide spectrum of styles and instrumentation and includes a number of commissioned works for domestic as well as international ensembles and soloists. Key works includes his ballet Tiden Bygger Byen written for the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the oratory De varme vinder as well as the symphonic work Tors Hammer – a work that earned him the 2002 Edvardprisen. In 2000, his opera Hjerter Dame til Ringve saw its premiere as part of the millennial celebration. Other major works written in recent years includes Johansen’s opera Madonna Furiosa, premiered in Nidarosdomen in 2005 and 2010’s major scenic work Drømmen og Ilden, premiered at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival. 2010 marked the Kristiansund premiere of a new opera, Med Kniven På Strupen, a work that was later performed at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. 2012 saw the premiere of the opera Den Unge Pil

Berto Pisano

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Berto Pisano (born Umberto Pisano, Cagliari, 13 October 1928 – Rome, 29 January 2002) was an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and jazz musician. Born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Pisano started his career as a double bassist in the jazz groups Quartetto Astor and Asternovas. He later learned to play the trumpet. He is best known as a song writer for Italian pop star Mina and his work as film composer. Selected filmography References External links * * * Berto Pisano at Discogs

Bertold Hummel

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Bertold Hummel (27 November 1925 – 9 August 2002) was a German composer of modern classical music. Life Bertold Hummel was born in Hüfingen, Baden. He studied at the Academy of Music in Freiburg from 1947 to 1954, taking composition with Harald Genzmer, and cello with Atis Teichmanis. He toured as a cellist and composer between 1954 and 1956, worked as choirmaster in Freiburg, as well as for the Südwestrundfunk Baden-Baden broadcasting station from 1956 to 1963. He became a teacher of composition at Würzburg in 1963 where he directed the Studio for New Music for the next 25 years. After becoming a professor in 1974, he was president of the Würzburg College of Music from 1979 to 1987 (and was an honorary president after 1988), and in 1982 he became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. Hummel travelled as a guest lecturer, and received performances of his work in countries all over the world. He died on 9 August 2002 in Würzburg. Awards In 1956, Hummel received a scholarship from the Federal Association of German Industry. In 1960, the city of Stuttgart awarded him a prize in composition. He was given the Robert Schumann prize in Düsseldorf in 1961. In 1968, he received a s

Bertram Turetzky

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Bertram Jay Turetzky (born February 14, 1933) is an American double bass player, composer, teacher, and author of The Contemporary Contrabass (1974). Early life and education Turetzky was born in Norwich, Connecticut, He received a master’s degree in music history from the University of Hartford. He started out playing classic jazz. Career Turetzky has performed and recorded many pieces written by and for him. Turetzky’s first recording was in 1964, featuring the work of American composers George Perle, Jay Sydeman, Donald Martino, Kenneth Gaburo, Ben Johnston, and Charles Whittenberg. His recording activities continued with records on labels Nonesuch, Son Nova, Ars Antigua, and Desto. He also made a series of recordings on the Nine Winds label with improvisational musicians George E. Lewis, Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith, Mike Wofford, and others. Turetzky is the most widely recorded double bass soloist, with seven albums on the Advance Records, Ars Nova Records, Nonesuch, Takoma, Desto, and Finnadar Records music labels. Turetzky plays chamber music, baroque music, jazz, renaissance music, improvisational music, klezmer music and many other genres of world music. Bernard Jacobson

Beth Anderson (composer)

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Beth Anderson is an American neo-romantic composer. She studied with John Cage, Terry Riley, Robert Ashley, and Larry Austin, among others. She studied at the University of Kentucky, UC Davis, New York University and Mills College. Education Anderson attended the University of Kentucky after graduating from high school. After two years there she transferred to the University of California at Davis. After completing her undergraduate degree she received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Piano Performance. Shortly before completing that degree, her piece Peachy Keen-O was performed at Mills College. Bob Ashley, director of the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music, upon hearing the performance, urged her to stay there and study. She completed her M.A. in Composition there. Later life In California, Anderson became known as one of the prominent “avant-garde feminist composers, critics, and poets.” External links * Listening *NewMusicJukeBox.org: Beth Anderson

Betsy Jolas

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Elizabeth MacDonald Jolas (born 5 August 1926) is a French and American composer. Life and career Jolas was born in Paris on 5 August 1926. Her mother, the American translator Maria McDonald, also studied singing. Together with Betsy’s father, the poet and journalist Eugene Jolas, she founded and edited the magazine transition, which published over ten years many of the great writers of the interwar period. Her family settled in the United States in late 1940. While completing her general studies in New York, then specializing in music at Bennington College, she joined the Dessoff Choirs, discovering Renaissance music, which had a lasting influence on her work. After graduating from Bennington College, Jolas returned to Paris in 1946 to continue her studies at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique, notably with Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. From 1971 to 1974 she served as Messiaen’s assistant at the Conservatoire, and in 1975 was appointed to the faculty. She has since then also taught in the U.S., at Yale, Harvard, Mills College, the University of California, Tanglewood, and the University of Michigan. Jolas is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Betty Beath

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Elizabeth Margaret Beath, née Eardley, (born 19 November 1932) is an Australian composer, pianist, and music educator. Life and career Betty Beath was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, and began piano lessons at the age of three. She was twice a finalist in the ABC Concerto competition when in her teens. In 1950, she was awarded a University of Queensland Music Scholarship, After completing her education, Beath settled in Brisbane and took positions as an accompanist and later teacher at Queensland Conservatorium and was Head of Music at St. Margaret’s Girls’ School, Brisbane. She is an Examiner with the Australian Music Examinations Board. Beath received a Southeast Asian Fellowship from the Australia Council in 1974 to conduct research in Bali and Java. She is married to author/illustrator, David Cox. She represented women composers of Australia at the 3rd International Congress on Women in Music, held in Mexico City in 1984. She has also been an executive member of the International League of Women Composers. Her most performed music is perhaps the piano solo piece “Merindu Bali” (Bali Yearning), written for the Indonesian pianist Ananda Sukarlan and dedicated to the memory of the

Betty Jackson King

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Betty Jackson King (Feb 17, 1928 – June 1, 1994) was an American pianist, singer, teacher, choral conductor, and composer. She was best known for her vocal works. Biography King, who was of African American heritage, was born in 1928 in Chicago. She first started learning music from her mother, Gertrude Jackson Taylor. King’s father, Reverend Frederick D. Jackson a pastor at the Community Church of Woodlawn, helped expose her to church hymns and spirituals. Along with her mother and sister Catherine, she sang in the Jacksonian Trio. She was married to Vincent King, had one daughter, Rochelle King, and has two granddaughters Vincena and Joysaleen. King wrote arrangements of spirituals, operas (Saul of Tarsus, My Servant Job), a cantata (Simon of Cyrene) and a requiem. Saul of Tarsus has had several performances since it was premiered in 1952. She wrote a ballet, Kids in School With Me, and various other chamber and choral compositions. Piano and Organ * Aftermath (A Tone Poem) (1975) * Four Seasonal Sketches for piano (1973) * Mother Goose Parade (1971) * Nuptial Suite for organ (1969) Songs * A Lullaby for You (1973) * A Set of Three Dunbar Poems (1975) * Calvary (1954) * Climbing

Betty Olivero

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Betty Olivero (; born 16 May 1954) is an Israeli composer and music educator. Biography Olivero was born in Tel Aviv, Israel to parents Dora Kapon and Eli Olivero. She graduated with a Bachelor in Music from the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University in 1978, where she studied with Ilona Vincze-Kraus for piano and Yizhak Sadai and Leon Schidlowsky for composition. She continued her studies at Yale University where she studied under Jacob Druckman, Bernard Rands and Gilbert Amy, and graduated with a Masters in Music in 1981. She continued her studies in Florence with Luciano Berio from 1983 to 1986 and began her develop career as a composer in Europe. She married Raffaello Majoni and had two children, and returned to Israel in 2002 to take a position as professor of composition at Bar-Ilan University, where she received her tenure in 2008. She was the first female professor of composition at an Israeli institution. In 2004-2008, she served as composer-in-residence at the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Olivero’s music has been performed internationally by orchestras and ensembles including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Ensemble, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the N

Betty Roe

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Eileen Betty Roe MBE (30 July 1930 – 19 May 2026) was an English composer, singer, vocal coach and conductor. Life and career Eileen Betty Roe was born in North Kensington, London, England on 30 July 1930. Her father was a fishmonger at the Shepherd’s Bush Market, and her mother was a bookkeeper. Roe took piano lessons from the age of six with local teacher Madam Dorina. She began writing music and arrangements in her teens during World War II when assisting with choirs at the local church. As a Junior Exhibitioner she studied piano with Fiona Addie, Muriel Dale, and Sadie MacCormack, and cello with Alison Dalrymple at the Royal Academy of Music, but left school in 1947 and took a job as a filing clerk. She continued at the Royal Academy in 1949, studying piano with York Bowen, cello with Alison Dalrymple, and voice with Jean McKenzie-Grieve. She continued her study of singing with Clive Carey, Roy Hickman, Peter van der Stolk, and Margaret Field-Hyde, and studied composition with Lennox Berkeley. In the 1950s Roe became involved with a drama group where she began writing for musicals. She also worked as a sessions singer with London ensembles, and in light entertainment with celeb

Beverly Grigsby

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Beverly Grigsby (née Pinsky, January 11, 1928 – August 22, 2022) was an American composer, musicologist and electronic/computer music pioneer. Early life Beverly Pinsky was born in Chicago, Illinois, and studied music and ballet as a child. She danced in Chicago Civic Opera’s ballet chorus. She moved to California with her family at the age of 13 and graduated from Fairfax High School at age 16. Education Grigsby entered the University of Southern California to study pre-med, and also studied composition with Ernst Krenek at the Southern California School of Music and the Arts. She earned Bachelor of Arts (in 1961) and Master of Arts (in 1963) degrees in composition from San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge); upon graduation she was hired to teach at her alma mater. In 1971 she earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in composition from the University of Southern California. She later studied computer music generation at Stanford University’s Center for Artificial Intelligence (CCRMA) and at M.I.T. in 1975-1976. She taught theory, composition, and musicology there until her retirement in 1993. Her studio focused on analog synthesis, electronic m

Biancamaria Furgeri

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Biancamaria Furgeri (born 6 October 1935) is an Italian organist, music educator and composer. Life Biancamaria Fugeri was born in Rovigo, Italy, and studied at the Conservatorio di Padova and in Milan and Venice with Wolfgango Dalla Vecchia, Bruno Coltro, Bruno Bettinelli, Giuseppe Piccioli and Giorgio Federico Ghedini. After completing her studies, Furgeri taught music in Ferrara and Padua, and in 1969 took a teaching position at the Conservatorio G.B. Martini in Bologna. Her works have been performed internationally. She has placed first in a number of international competitions, including the 1973 National Sacred Music competition in Verese, the 1985 GEDOK competition in Mannheim, and the 1987 International Competition for Women Composers in Zürich. She was director (1977-1979) of the Conservatory of Music in Rovigo. Works Fugeri composes mostly orchestral, choral, chamber and vocal works. Selected compositions include: *1958 Sonata, Opus 1 *1960 Piano Suite, Op 2 *1963 Sonata, Opus 3 for organ *1965 Suite by Gioconda, Opus 4 *1968 Toccata and Ricercare, Opus 5 for organ *1970-71 Piccoli Musici (Volume 1), Op 6 *1970-71 Piccoli Musici (Volume 2), Opus 7 *1972 Il libro dei Ritmi

Bidzina Kvernadze

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Bidzina Kvernadze (), (29 July 1928, Sighnaghi, Georgia, – 8 July 2010, Tbilisi), was a famous Georgian composer. Bidzina was born in Sighnaghi, the Kakheti region of former Soviet Georgia to Alexander Kvernadze, a pharmacist, and Nino Nadirashvili, a music teacher. In 1948, Bidzina presented his musical works to Examination Commission, and he was accepted to the Tbilisi State Conservatoire with the highest score. He finished the composition class in 1958, taught by Andria Balanchivadze. In the same year he was accepted as a member of the Union of Soviet Composers. Among his honors are the title of “People’s Artist of the USSR” (1979), the “Z. Paliashvili Prize” (1981, for My Entreaty, Old Georgian Inscriptions and Vocal-Symphonic Poem) and the “Shota Rustaveli State Prize” (1985, Opera “And it was in the eighth year”). He was also named an Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi (1995). Filmography * 2001: Antimoz iverieli * 1996: Qva (Short) * 1995: Tsarsulis achrdilebi * 1991: Premiera (TV Movie) * 1990: Omi kvelastvis omia * 1990: White Banners * 1985: Ert patara qalaqshi * 1985: Christmas tree of Neilon * 1983: Andredzi (Short) * 1983: Tsigni pitsisa (TV Movie) * 1981: Me davbrundebi * 19

Bijan Khadem-Missagh

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Bijan Khadem-Missagh (; born 26 October 1948) is an Austrian violinist, composer and conductor of Iranian descent. He is the founder and was the artistic director of the International Chamber Music Festival until 2016. . Concerts and Festivals Khadem-Missagh celebrated an early debut as a violin soloist, which was followed by numerous international concert tours. In 1971, he became first concertmaster of the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester. In the same year he won the Grand Prix at the International Chamber Music Competition in Colmar, France. Also in 1971 he founded the Eurasia Quartet and in 1977 the Tonkünstler Chamber Orchestra, later called Academia Allegro Vivo. In 1979, he founded Allegro Vivo, the international chamber music festival in Horn, where the summer academy also takes place, where young musicians can attend master classes. Allegro Vivo also sees itself as a place of encounter and a fixed component of public life in the region. From 1980 to 1990, the musician was artistic director of the Midsummer Music Festival in Umeå, Sweden. In 1981, he founded the Badener Beethoventage in Baden near Vienna, of which he was artistic director until 1998. In 1997, he

Bijan Mofid

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Bijan Mofid (; May 31, 1935 – November 12, 1984) was an influential Iranian playwright and stage director. His most famous work, Shahr-e Ghesseh, is an allegorical satire written in the form of a musical play using elements of Iranian folklore, for which he also composed the music. Bijan Mofid (playwright/director) was one of very few serious modern Iranian artists whose writing has reached beyond the intelligentsia to a broad general audience. Life He was born in Tehran in 1935. After teaching for several years at the University of Tehran, he founded a theater workshop, where many of Iran’s finest actors received their training. The workshop’s major production was Bijan’s own City Of Tales (Shahr-e-Ghesseh), a profound satire that weaves social comment through adaptations of traditional music and folk tales. It toured for 3 years, was made into an award-winning film and is recognized as a classic of Iranian literature. Bijan’s work as playwright and director has had a continuous and controversial presence in Iranian theater, both on the popular stage and in experimental productions. Nine of his plays have been produced and published and their songs recorded. He directed over fifty

Bilge Özgen

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Bilge Özgen (born in Viranşehir, Turkey in 1935) is a Turkish composer and lyricist. Özgen graduated from Ankara Boys’ Senior Technical School of Teaching in 1959. He received his first music instruction from his father Sabri Özgen, an amateur musician. Özgen met Vedia Tunççekiç and Erol Sayan while he was a student in Ankara, a period which he calls his “second period in music”. He worked as an instrument builder for a while, and retired in 2000 from his job as a lute performer at Istanbul Radio. Özgen was encouraged as a composer by Alaeddin Yavaşça, Niyazi Sayın, Yılmaz Pakalınlar and Mustafa Erses. A composer of memorable works, Özgen has produced more than 300 pieces. See also * List of composers of classical Turkish music References

Bill Fontana

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Bill Fontana (born April 25, 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio) is known internationally for his pioneering experiments in sound art. Life and career Fontana attended the New School for Social Research in New York and studied both music and philosophy. He traveled to Australia, and also stayed in Japan and Germany composing. Fontana began making sound sculptures in 1976. In a career spanning 40 years, Fontana’s sound sculptures use the urban environment as a living source of musical information, all with the potential to conjure up visual imagery in the mind of the listener. He has made works all over the world and has presented his sound sculptures extensively, including at the Venice Biennale (1999), the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (1995), The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1991), Tate Modern, London (2006), Madison Square Park, New York (2007), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1987, 1997, 2010). Some of his more famous works include Distant Trains, Satellite Ear Bridge Cologne-San Francisco, Journey Through My Sound Sculptures, The Sound of an Unblown Flute, Panoramic Echoes and “Acoustical Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge” In 2005, Fontana was an Artadia Awardee. Fon

Bill Hopkins (composer)

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George William Hopkins (5 June 1943 – 10 March 1981), known as Bill Hopkins, was a British composer. He also published music criticism, mostly under the name G. W. Hopkins. Biography Hopkins was born in Prestbury, Cheshire, and educated at Hillcrest Grammar School and Rossall School, Lancashire; his mother’s disability meant she was unable to look after him, and he was raised by aunts. Studies with Luigi Nono at Dartington Summer School consolidated his interest in serialism; subsequently he studied at Oxford University with Edmund Rubbra and Egon Wellesz. In 1964 he went to Paris in order to study with Olivier Messiaen, and with an ambition to meet Jean Barraqué. Returning to England, he supported himself as a music critic in London and then, after moving first to Tintagel, Cornwall and subsequently to Peel, Isle of Man, by translation and writing music criticism. He married Clare Gilbert in 1972. Subsequently, he taught at Birmingham University and University of Newcastle upon Tyne before succumbing to a heart attack, in Chopwell, near Newcastle, at the age of 37. His few pupils included the British composers Paul Keenan and Patrick Ozzard-Low. Career Hopkins’ music is published

Bill Justis

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William Everett Justis Jr. (October 14, 1926 – July 16, 1982) was an American pioneer rock and roll musician, composer, and musical arranger, best known for his 1957 Grammy Hall of Fame song, “Raunchy”. As a songwriter, he was also often credited as Bill Everette. Biography Justis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, but grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and studied music at Christian Brothers College (high school department) and Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. A trumpet and saxophone player, while in university he performed with local jazz and dance bands. He returned home to Memphis in 1951 and was eventually taken on by Sam Phillips at Sun Records where he recorded music for himself as well as arranged the music for Sun artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and Charlie Rich, the latter of which he is credited with discovering. and reached No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Justis had one other significant hit record, “College Man”, that went to U.S. No. 42, and No. 11 in Canada In 1961, Justis moved to Nashville where he became a successful record producer and music arranger for b

Bill Lee (musician)

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William James Edwards Lee III (July 23, 1928 – May 24, 2023) was an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, his compositions for jazz percussionist Max Roach, and his session work as a “first-call” musician and band leader to many of the twentieth-century’s most significant musical artists, including Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Harry Belafonte, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Billy Strayhorn, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, among many others. Lee recorded three critically acclaimed albums at the Black independent label Strata-East Records: (1) The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe: A Spirit Speaks; (2) The Brass Company: Colors, in collaboration with his two sisters; and (3) The New York Bass Violin Choir, a collaboration of seven basses, which JazzdaGama described as “a true Holy Grail for all musicians,” and which Lee classified as one of his “narrative folk, jazz operas” along with “One Mile East,” both of which were inspired by memories of the former slave quarters near his childhood home. Stagings at New York City’s Central Park, Lincoln Center and Newport Jazz Festival followe

Bill Richards (musician)

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Bill Richards (28 March 1923 – 28 February 1995) was a Canadian musician. His compositional output includes several film scores, a Flute Quartet (1964), and a number of fiddle tunes. He recorded two of his own fiddle compositions for Spiral Records in 1957 and another of his fiddle compositions was featured in the movie The Pyx. He also was active as a musician and concertmaster on a number of studio recordings from the 1950s through the 1990s, and can be heard on recordings by artists Moe Koffman, Catherine McKinnon, Anne Murray, and Gordon Lightfoot among others. In 1962 he and a quartet featuring the organist Lou Snider recorded two LP albums for the Canadian Talent Library Trust. Early life and education Born William Francis Caven Richards in Ottawa, Ontario, Richards began his musical training as a child at the Canadian Conservatory of Music in his native city with Jack Cavill (violin) and Herbert Sanders (piano). He started his performance career at the age of eight working as a violin soloist on radio programs in Ottawa and Hull. He continued with violin studies in Ottawa with David Shuttleworth and then in Toronto with Broadus Farmer in 1939. Career In 1942 Richards joined

Bill Whelan

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William Michael Joseph Whelan (born 22 May 1950) is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, “Riverdance”, was a seven-minute piece of original music accompanying a new take on traditional Irish stepdance that became a full-length stage production and spawned a worldwide craze for Irish traditional music and dance. The corresponding soundtrack album earned him a Grammy. “Riverdance” was released as a single in 1994, credited to “Bill Whelan and Anúna featuring the RTÉ Concert Orchestra”. It reached number one in Ireland for 18 weeks and number nine in the UK. The album of the same title reached number 31 in the album charts in 1995. Whelan has also arranged a symphonic suite version of Riverdance, with its premiere performed by the Ulster Orchestra on BBC Radio 3 in August 2014. A studio recording was released on CD (on the RTÉ lyric fm label) in 2018. Whelan is second cousin to British-Irish comedian, Jimmy Carr. Biography Whelan is a native of Limerick city, and was educated at Crescent College. He gained his Bachelor of Civil Law degree at University College Dublin in 1973 and then we

Billy Burnette

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Dorsey William Burnette III (born May 8, 1953, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was part of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1987 to 1996. Burnette also had a brief career in acting. Family background The son of Dorsey Burnette and Alberta Burnette, Billy Burnette was born into a musical family. He toured with Brenda Lee After Fleetwood Mac went on hiatus in 1996, Burnette and Bramlett formed the country duo Bekka & Billy. They moved to Nashville and attracted the attention of producer Garth Fundis. They released the album Bekka and Billy in 1997 but they broke up in 1998. Discography Albums * Billy Burnette (Entrance, 1972) * Billy Burnette (Polydor, 1979) * Between Friends (Polydor, 1979) * Billy Burnette (Columbia, 1980) * Gimme You (Columbia, 1981) * Try Me (Curb, 1985) * Soldier of Love (Curb, 1986) * Brother to Brother (Curb, 1988) * Coming Home (Capricorn, 1993) * Bekka & Billy (Almo, 1997) (with Bekka Bramlett) * All Night Long (Grand Avenue, 1999) * Are You With Me Baby (Free Falls, 2000) * Memphis in Manhattan (Chesky, 2006) * The Bluegrass Elvises, Volume 1 (American Roots, 2007) (with Shawn Camp) * Rock & Roll With It

Billy Goldenberg

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William Leon Goldenberg (February 10, 1936 – August 3, 2020) was an American composer and songwriter, best known for his work on television and film. Early life Goldenberg was born on February 10, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York, New York. His mother played the violin, and she taught him how to play the violin and the viola. Then he played it in chamber and symphonic groups. His father was a staff percussionist at WOR and the NBC Symphonic Orchestra. At age five, he played piano and sang Broadway shows. He wanted a musical career but since his father was laid off, he was dissuaded in the early 1950s. Instead of attending Juilliard, he studied physics and mathematics at Columbia College. Career After college, Goldenberg was a computer programmer, but he quit the job due to an ulcer. He found work as a pianist and arranger. He was hired to write the soundtrack for comedy sketches of Mike Nichols and Elaine May in the Broadway show, An Evening with Nichols and May. In the mid-1960s, Goldenberg met Steven Spielberg at Universal Studios. He started to compose music for Spielberg’s television episodes on shows such as The Name Of The Game, Night Gallery and the 1971 TV film, Duel. His other f

Billy Peterson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Billy Peterson (born Willard Peterson in Minnesota) is an American bass player, songwriter, composer, session musician and producer. Peterson, who grew up in a family of professional musicians, became involved with music at a very young age. Billy is the brother of Paul Peterson (bass guitarist/singer/songwriter/keyboardist) and Ricky Peterson (keyboardist/singer/song writer/producer). Career Early career In 1967, Peterson joined The Righteous Brothers on a summer tour. While in school, he played bass and drums in local orchestras, big bands, and R&B bands, and toured with the Lawrence Welk Show All Stars. After graduating high school, he played bass with trumpet legend Clifford Brown’s pianist Billy Wallace until 1973. Peterson was the bassist on three of folk guitarist Leo Kottke’s albums in the mid ’70s, and played electric and upright bass on Bob Dylan’s multi-platinum Blood On The Tracks for Columbia Records. Peterson joined the Gibson guitar staff in 1976, giving him the opportunity to perform with B.B. King, Johnny Smith, Lenny Breau, Les Paul, and Howard Roberts. During this decade, record producer and engineer David Rivkin (aka David Z, who produced Prince in the 1980s) in

Birgitte Alsted

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Birgitte Alsted (born 15 June 1942) is a Danish violinist, teacher and composer. Life and career Alsted was born in Odense, and was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and in Warsaw. She has done much within the electronic music and often uses creative expressions, which includes other forms. Thus, she has been a part in theater and performance / dance in Denmark. Her work list, besides the music theater includes works for soloists and chamber ensembles, often unconventional compositions and the use of acoustic instruments. Birgitte Alsted also worked some with multimedia performances in which the use of electronic resources, poetry, dance and slides have been compounded in experimental fashion. Literature and poetry, both old and new have been an important source of inspiration for her. Birgitte Alsted was a founder of the “Gruppen for Alternativ Musik”, which was important for her career as a composer. The group experimented with alternative forms and collective improvisation and performed the members’ own compositions in unusual places, such as the Nørreport Station and Copenhagen Zoo. Alsted has worked as a teacher in Hørsholm municipality in St. Annæ Gymnasium and in

Birgitte Grimstad

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Birgitte Grimstad (born 15 December 1935) is a Danish-born Norwegian singer, guitarist, composer and writer. Personal life Grimstad was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the daughter of Aksel Schiøtz and Gerd Haugsted. She was married to ambassador Per Øystein Grimstad from 1958 to 1988. Career Grimstad studied theatre and mass media at the University of Minnesota, United States. She made her musical debut in 1966 with the single “Det første som jeg ønsker meg”, with lyrics by Alf Prøysen, and “Å være barn en sommerdag” (lyrics by André Bjerke). Later in the 1980s she performed Bach’s Geistliche Lieder and the medieval ballad Draumkvedet in churches in Denmark and Norway. Her album Pas på de vilde fugle from 1983 included a Danish version of Prøysen’s “Vise for gærne jinter”, Nordahl Grieg’s poem “Til Ungdommen” to Otto Mortensen melody, and a translation of the Elvis Presley hit “Love Me Tender”. Later albums are Wondering And Calling from 1986, and Love Is A Flow from 1996. She was awarded a Musikkritikerprisen in 1972, and a Prøysenprisen in 1999. References

Bjørn G. Gjerstrøm

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Bjørn G. Gjerstrøm (7 June 1939 – 7 May 2017) was a Norwegian contemporary composer. Biography Bjørn G. Gjerstrøm was born in Oslo on 7 June 1939. From an early age, Gjerstrøm’s interest in music was influenced by his parents, the composer and organist Gunnar Gjerstrøm and music teacher Elsa Gjerstrøm. His mother began teaching him piano from the age of 4-5. He completed his first composition at the age of 9. At the age of twelve, his first compositions, 5 piano pieces that he performed on Norwegian and Swedish radio, were published by Norsk Notestikk and Forlag. In the 1960s, Gjerstrøm studied with Trygve Lindeman and Conrad Baden at the Oslo Conservatory or Music, where he attended classes in music theory, harmony and composition. He also studied piano with Waldemar Alme and Ivar Johnsen. From 1969 to 1976 he studied composition with Hallvard Johnsen. Gjerstrøm’s list of works encompasses film scores, orchestral works, chamber music as well as solo pieces for flute, oboe, guitar and accordion. Gjerstrøm has also penned songs for poems by Peter R. Holm, Stein Mehren, Arnulf Øverland and Elsa Gjerstrøm. Bjørn G. Gjerstrøm died on 7 May 2017, at the age of 77. Production Selected wo

Bo Linde

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Anders Bo Leif Linde (1 January 1933 – 2 October 1970) was a Swedish composer whose style resembled that of notable 20th-century neoclassical composers like Benjamin Britten and Samuel Barber. Born in Gävle, Linde studied music theory with Eric Harald Bengtson before enrolling at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1948, where he studied composition with Lars-Erik Larsson and piano with Olof Wibergh. In 1953, one year after leaving the academy, he went to Vienna to study conducting and traveled around Europe before returning to Sweden. His most performed pieces are his violin concerto, and his Preludio E finale for string orchestra of 1955. His piano concertos display a raucous humour, also found in his children’s opera for radio Slotts-skoj (1959). Works Symphonies * Symphony No. 1 (Sinfonia fantasia), op. 1 (1951) * Symphony No. 2 (dedicated to the Lions Club of Gävle), op. 23 (1960) * Symphony No. 3 Piano Concertos * Piano Concerto in E major (without op.9 (1950-51) * Piano Concerto No. 1, op.12 (1954) * Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 17 (1956) Other Orchestral Works * Cello Concerto (written for Guido Vecchi), op. 29 (1964-65) * Violin Concerto (dedicated to Josef Grunfard), op. 1

Bo Nilsson

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Bo Nilsson (1 May 1937 – 25 June 2018) was a Swedish composer and lyricist. Career Bo Nilsson was born in Skellefteå, and first drew notice as a composer at the age of 18 when his Zwei Stücke (Two Pieces) for flute, bass clarinet, percussion, and piano were performed in a 1956 Westdeutscher Rundfunk “Musik der Zeit” concert in Cologne. He had taught himself composition by listening to the radio, having previously had only basic training from a local music teacher and some experience as a jazz pianist. Though his early style owes much to Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, it also displays a number of personal features: the use of bright percussion sounds behind finely wrought vocal or flute (usually alto flute) lines, a “nervous” fluttering of tonal nuances, and a feeling for miniature, calculated forms. Because he has chosen to live in the small town of Malmberget, he received the journalistic epithet “the genius from Malmberget”. By 1957 Nilsson remained largely unknown in his own country, but had attracted considerable attention in Germany with a succession of small chamber-music compositions characterised by their unusual instrumentation. The best-known of these is Frequen

Bob Cobert

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Robert W. Cobert (October 26, 1924 – February 19, 2020) was an American composer of film and television scores. He is best known for his work with producer/director Dan Curtis, notably the scores for the ABC gothic fiction soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71) and the TV mini-series The Winds of War (1983) and its sequel War and Remembrance (1988), for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. Together, the latter two scores constitute the longest film music ever written for a film. Early years Cobert was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1924. and wrote songs for bandleader Freddy Martin and jazz singer Frances Wayne. and the two tie-in feature films House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971). Cobert composed the scores for the 1972 TV movie The Night Stalker, the sequel The Night Strangler (1973), and the offshoot 1974–75 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. His other scores include the horror films Burnt Offerings (1976) and Scalpel (1977), the comedy film Me and the Kid (1993), and the television movies The Norliss Tapes (1973), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1974), Scream of the Wolf (1974), Melvin Purvis: G-Man (1974) and the 1975 sequel The Kansas City Massacre

Bob Curnow

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Robert Harry Curnow (born November 1, 1941) is an American musician who served as a trombonist, staff arranger and producer for the Stan Kenton Orchestra during the 1960s and 1970s. As a composer and arranger, he has become well known for large ensemble jazz music set to contemporary fusion and rock music of groups such as Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and the Yellowjackets. Most notably, he arranged the music for and produced the award-winning and critically acclaimed CD, Bob Curnow’s L.A. Big Band Plays The Music of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. His compositions and arrangements are heavily influenced by earlier writers for the Stan Kenton Orchestra such as Pete Rugolo, Bill Russo, Johnny Richards and Bill Holman. Curnow is currently owner and President of Sierra Music Publications, Inc., he is also prominent in the instrumental music and jazz education fields. Early life, musical education and influences Bob Curnow was born and grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania and was first exposed to music through learning the trumpet at age 9 but then switched to baritone horn. He ultimately started to play the trombone at age 12. Curnow had started high school when he first heard the Stan Kent

Boris Brott

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Boris Brott, (March 14, 1944 – April 5, 2022) was a Canadian conductor and motivational speaker. He conducted on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, La Scala, and Covent Garden. Over his career, he commissioned, performed, and recorded a wide variety of Canadian works for orchestra. Brott was the founder and artistic director of the Brott Music Festival, National Academy Orchestra of Canada and BrottOpera all based in Hamilton, Ontario. He was the founding Music Director and Conductor Laureate of the New West Symphony in Thousand Oaks, CA and artistic director and conductor of the Orchestre classique de Montreal (formerly the McGill Chamber Orchestra). He was a former Principal Youth and Family conductor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, where he led family and education programs. Early life and emerging career Boris Jeremiah Brott was born in Montreal in 1944 to violinist and composer Alexander Brott and cellist Lotte/Charlotte Brott (née Goetzel). His younger brother is cellist Denis Brott. His mother was born in Mannheim, Germany, a country she had left in 1939 because of the Nazis. His family was Jewish. He studied v

Boris Midney

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Boris Midney (born October 22, 1937) is a Soviet-born American musician, producer, composer and conductor. Biography Midney was born in Moscow to a conductor and pianist father and classical singer mother. He studied classical composition and clarinet also teaching himself to play saxophone. In 1964 he defected from the USSR via the US embassy in Japan. After arriving in New York City, he formed The Russian Jazz Quartet with whom he recorded an album for Impulse Records. In the 1960s, Midney married Tania Armour from the Armour & Company family. Later, Midney became a prolific composer and producer of disco music although he rarely was credited under his own name. Using guises such as USA-European Connection, Masquerade, Double Discovery, Caress, Companion and Festival, Midney produced a large body of disco music. He is recognised as being among the first producers to take full advantage of 48-track recording and one of the creators of the Eurodisco genre. Among his productions were disco adaptations of the Broadway musical Evita and of the score for The Empire Strikes Back. Describing his disco music, critics Alan Jones and Jussi Kantonen wrote: On the Mount Olympus of disco there

Boris Parsadanian

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Boris Khristoforovich Parsadanian (, ; May 14, 1925 – May 14, 1997) was a Soviet Armenian and Estonian composer, violinist, and arts administrator. Biography Parsadanian was born in Kislovodsk, Russian SFSR, in 1925. He began his musical studies in Ashgabat, Turkmen SSR, studying violin with Anton Gerbler. Later he moved to Moscow and enrolled at the Armenian House of Culture, where he studied with . His studies were interrupted by his military service in World War II, during which he was decorated. After the war Parsadanian enrolled in the Gnessin Institute where he studied composition and violin. He resumed studies with Litinsky and also began studying orchestration with Nikolai Timofeyev. He was well liked by his classmates for his playing and personality, but school staff initially disapproved of his behavior, particularly his constant playing of excerpts from Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto. Parsadanian graduated in 1950. His first work to earn success was his Piano Trio, which was premiered at a student concert; the piano part was played by fellow student Yevgeny Svetlanov. This was followed by his tone poem David of Sassoun, which was based on the eponymous hero from the

Boris Porena

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Boris Porena (Rome, 27 September 1927 - Cantalupo in Sabina, 3 May 2022) was an Italian thinker, music composer and didactical expert. He was married to Paola Bučan, a famous Croatian cellist and teacher who, until her retirement in 2014 was a tenured professor at the Conservatorio di Musica in Perugia (Italy). He was a disciple of Goffredo Petrassi – alongside other distinguished musicians such as Ennio Morricone, Aldo Clementi, and Sergio Cafaro. Although he was initially influenced by neoclassical poetics, he later evolved towards the use of the harmonic language of the late Renaissance period, which he has used with originality in order to build his own musical research which directly influenced his later compositional processes. He started composing when only 12 years old. His career is effectively in two distinct and different periods – the first being up until 1967 during which time he gained a wide national and international success. From 1968, as consequence of the evolution of both his thought and his social involvement, he abstained from composing, a period which lasted for the next twenty years. During that time he devoted himself to a grassroots cultural practice and s

Boris Tchaikovsky

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky (; 10 September 1925 – 7 February 1996), PAU, was a Soviet and Russian composer, born in Moscow, whose oeuvre includes orchestral works, chamber music, and film music. He is considered as part of the second generation of Russian composers, following in the steps of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (to whom he was not related ) and especially Mussorgsky. He was admired by Dmitri Shostakovich, with whom he studied, who (according to Per Skans in his notes for a recording) suggested in a letter of 1 February 1969 to Isaak Glikman, that “If Barshai’s orchestra (the Moscow chamber orchestra) makes a guest appearance in Leningrad playing Vainberg’s Tenth Symphony and Boris Tchaikovsky’s Sinfonietta, you really have to hear them”. Of his larger-scale works almost all have been recorded. Boris Tchaikovsky generally wrote in a tonal style, although he made brief forays into serialism. Selected works ;Stage * The Star (Звезда), unfinished opera in three scenes (1949); libretto by David Samoilov after the novel by Emmanuil Kazakevich; Moscow Conservatory diploma-work ; Orchestral * Procession (Шествие) (1946) * Symphony No.1 (1947) * Fantasia on Russian Folk Themes (Фа

Boris Tishchenko

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Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko (Russian Бори́с Ива́нович Ти́щенко; 23 March 1939 – 9 December 2010) was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist. Life Tishchenko was born in Leningrad. He studied at the Leningrad Musical College from 1954 to 1957. There he learnt composition under Galina Ustvolskaya and piano under Mikhelis. Then from 1957 to 1963 he studied composition with Vadim Salmanov, Victor Voloshinov and Orest Evlakhov, and piano with L. Logovinski at the Leningrad Conservatory. He took a postgraduate course with the composer Dmitri Shostakovich from 1962 to 1965. He subsequently joined the faculty of the Leningrad Conservatory from 1965, and became a professor there in 1986. Tischenko was married three times. His first marriage, to the pianist Anastasia Braudo, produced a son, Dmitri. His second wife was the singer Galina Kulichenko, and the couple had a son, Vsevolod. Both of these marriages ended in divorce. His third wife was the harpist Irina Donskaya, and their marriage produced a son, Andrei. His third wife and all of his sons survived him. Music His output includes eight numbered symphonies, nine unnumbered symphonies, two violin concertos, two cello concertos, a piano

Boudewijn Buckinx

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Boudewijn Buckinx (born 28 March 1945, in Lommel) is a Belgian composer and writer on music. Buckinx attended the Antwerp Conservatory, and from 1964 studied composition and serial music with Lucien Goethals in Ghent, where he also studied electronic music at the IPEM. In 1968 he attended Stockhausen’s composition studio in Darmstadt and participated in the composition of Stockhausen’s Musik für ein Haus, contributing a quintet for flute, oboe, bass clarinet, bassoon, and cello titled Atoom. However, his principal influences are Mauricio Kagel and John Cage. He also studied musicology at the Catholic University of Leuven, graduating in 1972 with a dissertation on Cage’s Variations. Writings *1994. De kleine pomo: of, de muziekgeschiedenis van het postmodernisme. Peer: Alamire. . *1999. (With Yves Knockaert). Muziek uit de voorbije eeuw. Peer: Alamire. . *2001. Aria van de diepe noot: verzamelde commentaren. Peer: Alamire. . Compositions (selective list) * Sløjd, for mixed media (1968) * Piotr Lunaire, for narrator, one singer, and piano (1985) * Ce qu’on entend dans la salle de concert, for orchestra (1987) * In de buurt van Neptunus, for cello and piano (1987) * 1001 Sonatas, for

Boyd McDonald (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Boyd McDonald (born 28 September 1932) is a Canadian pianist, fortepianist, composer, and music educator. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, his compositional output includes works for choirs, bands, orchestras, and art songs. His works have been performed throughout Canada and Europe by ensembles like the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Renaissance Singers, the Scholars of London, Symphony Hamilton, the Waterloo Chamber Players, and the Wellington Winds among others. A documentary film regarding Boyd’s life, “From the City of Bridges to the City of Lights”, premiered on 27 October 2024 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Early life and education Born in Tuberose, Saskatchewan, McDonald studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music where he earned an associate diploma in 1951 and a licentiate diploma in 1953. Among his teachers were Murray Adaskin (music composition) and Lyell Gustin (piano). A grant from the Canada Council enabled him to pursue further studies in Paris from 1957 to 1960 with Nadia Boulanger (composition) and Jean Casadesus (piano). He also studied composition in the summers with John Cage, Darius Milhaud, and Stefan Wolpe. Career In 1963 McDonald won the Lescheti

Božidar Kantušer

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Božidar Kantušer (Bozidar Kantuser) (December 5, 1921, Pavlovski Vrh, Slovenia – May 9, 1999, Paris) was a Slovene composer of classical music. He was a Slovenian citizen and an American citizen. Kantušer is the author of symphonic music, ballets, chamber music and solo pieces. He lived in France since 1950. He was married to the American painter Grace Renzi. Since 1968, Kantušer was the director of the International Library of Contemporary Music (B.I.M.C.). He is buried in Paris, at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Music List of compositions by Božidar Kantušer Life Božidar Kantušer was born on the farm of Pavlovski vrh, in the countryside of northeastern Slovenia. He was the first of the five children of Blaž Kantušer and his wife Katarina, born Hočevar. The father, from a family of farmers near Celje, and the mother, from a family of blacksmiths from Kamnik, were both employed in Ljutomer after World War I and lived at Pavlovski vrh, close to Ljutomer, from 1919 to 1929. The rural environment, the cultural heritage and the nature of his native Prlekija, where he lived the first seven years, left a lasting impression on the composer. The dances of masks of pagan origin (Kurenti) and t

Bramwell Tovey

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bramwell Tovey (11 July 1953 – 12 July 2022) was a British conductor and composer. Life and career Tovey was educated at Ilford County High School, the Royal Academy of Music and the University of London. His formal music education was as a pianist and composer. Whilst at the Royal Academy, he also became a tuba player, studying with John Fletcher. During his student years he conducted several broadcasts on the BBC, and also played in the London Symphony Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival. Tovey was appointed a staff conductor of London Festival Ballet at the age of 22, working with Léonide Massine on a production of Parade, Ronald Hynd on Nutcracker and Sanguine Fan and with Rudolf Nureyev on Romeo and Juliet. In 1978 he became Music Director of Scottish Ballet, conducting Peter Darrell’s major ballets including Cheri and Five Rückert Songs (with Janet Baker). During this period he also conducted several British orchestras and appeared as pianist in Elite Syncopations. Between 1989 and 2001, he was the music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and was instrumental in establishing the city’s annual New Music Festival, which began in 1992. Tovey became music director of the

Brendan Graham

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brendan Graham (born 12 February 1945) is an Irish songwriter and novelist. Among songs he has written are “Rock ’n’ Roll Kids” (1994) and “The Voice” (1996), both of which won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland in their respective years, and “You Raise Me Up” (2002), which was an international hit recorded by various artists, including Josh Groban. Early life Graham was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland. Songwriting Brendan Graham is one of Ireland’s most famous lyricists and songwriters. In an article about the song tradition of Ireland, Con Houlihan wrote, “Some of the best poetry being produced in this country today is in the form of song – Christy Moore and Brendan Graham and Jimmy McCarthy are touched by genius.” In a feature article, the Irish Times described Graham as a ‘Musical Midas in the Mayo Silence.’ Graham wrote the lyrics for the 2002 song, “You Raise Me Up”. Rolf Løvland, who composed the music, was inspired by The Whitest Flower, Graham’s first novel. Rolf asked the songwriter/novelist to write lyrics to his melody called Silent Story at the time. “You Raise Me Up” was a huge international hit for Irish boyband Westlife. It has been covered by differe

Brian Cherney

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Cherney (born September 4, 1942) is a Canadian composer, teacher and writer. Cherney was born in Peterborough, Ontario. He studied at the University of Toronto where he was a pupil of John Weinzweig, Samuel Dolin, and John Beckwith. In 1972 he joined the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he has taught analysis and composition for over fifty years. His pieces, often characterized by carefully calculated formal trajectories and a rich harmonic language, give the impression of a quiet intensity, usually featuring “stillness” in some manner. Cherney was awarded the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music in 1985 for River of Fire. His works have been played throughout North America, Europe, and elsewhere. His book, Harry Somers, remains one of the most important and detailed studies of this composer. The Cherney portrait in the Canadian Composers Portraits series was released in 2005. Illuminations: Essays in Honour of Brian Cherney, a special edition of the journal, Musical Intersections, was published in 2017. Cherney was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2021. He is the brother of oboist Lawrence Cherney. Works Orchestra * Variations for Orchestra (196

Brian Dennis

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Brian Dennis was an English experimental music composer, and author born in Marple, Cheshire in May 1941 and died in June 1998. Brian studied with Stockhausen, Berio, Earle Brown and Cathy Berberian at The Cologne Course for New Music and was a lecturer in Composition and Contemporary Music at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Brian wrote two books in the 1970s: Experimental Music in Schools () and Projects in Sound (), which propose a new graphical form of Musical notation, showing instruments as images representing their sound, rather than traditional notation on a stave. For example, the notation of a scraping wood Güiro would be shown as zig-zag lines. Both books have been used extensively in classrooms and became part of the National Curriculum of England, Wales and Northern Ireland He also featured in BBC documentary Music in Schools and has inspired Dan Mayfield’s School of Noise. His compositions include approximately 150 songs many of which are settings of Chinese poems with lyrics in English prepared by the composer, as well as a number of piano pieces. He completed a trilogy of one-act operas based on Japanese Noh plays as well as an unfinished three-act oper

Brian Elias

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Brian Elias (born 30 August 1948) is a British composer. Biography Brian Elias was born in Bombay, India, and has lived in the U.K. since he was thirteen years old. After studying at the Royal College of Music under Humphrey Searle and Bernard Stevens he undertook private studies with Elisabeth Lutyens. His first major orchestral work L’Eylah was premiered at the BBC Proms in 1984. He has since had his works performed and recorded extensively by leading orchestras and soloists including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, Jane Manning, Roderick Williams, Natalie Clein, and the Jerusalem Quartet. Elias collaborated with Kenneth MacMillan on his final ballet The Judas Tree, premiered in 1992 at the Royal Opera House. He has won two British Composer Awards - the first for his 2010 work Doubles, and the second for his 2013 work Electra Mourns. Elias was featured in a Wigmore Hall retrospective in April 2021. He has taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music and the Purcell School, and his students have included Joby Talbot and Darren Bloom. His works are published by Chester Music. Compositions Orchestral * L’Eylah: commissioned by the BBC for the 1984 Proms. The BB

Brian Ferneyhough

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and the University of California, San Diego; he teaches at Stanford University and is a regular lecturer in the summer courses at Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He has resided in California since 1987. Life Ferneyhough was born in Coventry and received formal musical training at the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music from 1966 to 1967, where he studied with Lennox Berkeley. Ferneyhough was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1968 and moved to mainland Europe to study with Ton de Leeuw in Amsterdam, and later with Klaus Huber in Basel. Between 1973 and 1986 he taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany, where his students included Toshio Hosokawa, Joël-François Durand, Roger Redgate, Alessandro Melchiorre, Giulio Castagnoli, Kaija Saariaho, Joël Bons (winner of the 2021 Grawemeyer Award), Hans-Ola Ericsson, and Rodney Sharman. The Royan Festival of 1974 saw the premiere of Cassandra’s Dream Song, the first of

Brian Jackson (conductor)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Jackson (born 26 December 1943) is a British-Canadian conductor, organist and pianist. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1974. Until 2012 he was Principal Pops Conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Orchestra London, and the Victoria Symphony. Early life and education Anthony Brian Jackson was born in Penzance, Cornwall, England. He began performing as a concert pianist at age 6 and as an organist at the age of 12. He attended Clifton College in Bristol, and also started conducting choirs and orchestras as a teenager. He also served as the organist-choirmaster at St John’s Anglican Church in Peterborough, Ontario from 1968 to 1971 and taught on the music faculty at Trent University. He studied conduction from 1971 to 1973 with Karel Ančerl and Victor Feldbrill in Toronto, Richard Lert in Los Angeles, and Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. He was awarded the Heinz Unger Award in 1972. In 1974, he received a grant from the Canada Council, which allowed him to study conducting further in Detmold, West Germany. From 1973 to 1974 and 1976 to 1977, Jackson served as director of music at the Erskine and American Church in Montreal. He also taught during that time at Concordi

Brian Keane

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Keane (born January 18, 1953) is an American composer, music producer, and guitarist. Keane has been described as “a musician’s musician, a composer’s composer, and one of the most talented producers of a generation” by Billboard magazine. Keane grew up in Westport, Connecticut, and started his career as a guitarist, eventually touring and recording in a duo with Larry Coryell. Best known as a composer, Keane’s first music score for a documentary came in 1980 with Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey, which was nominated for an Academy Award. As the cable television business bloomed in the 1980s, Keane quickly became one of the foremost pioneers in documentary music scoring. By the 1990s The Hollywood Reporter respectfully called him “the John Williams of the documentary”. Keane has worked with every major network, and many multi award-winning filmmakers including Barry Levinson, Ric Burns, Susan Lacy, Henry Hampton, Stephen King, and Thomas Lennon, scoring some of the most memorable documentaries in television history such as the epic Burns history of New York in New York: A Documentary Film, the inspiring story of the 1980 Olympic hockey team in Do You Believe in Miracles

Brian Newbould

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Newbould (born 26 February 1936) is an English composer, conductor and author who has conjecturally completed Franz Schubert’s Symphonies D 708A in D major, No. 7 in E major, No. 8 in B minor (“Unfinished”), No. 10 (“Last”) in D major, Piano Sonata in C major, D 840, Quartettsatz, D. 703 and String Trio, D. 471. He was educated at Gravesend Grammar School, and earned a BMus degree with top honors from the University of Bristol. Schubert’s Eighth Symphony The first two movements of Schubert’s Eighth or “Unfinished” Symphony, an Allegro moderato in B minor and an Andante con moto in E major, completed in the Autumn of 1822, were sequestered by Anselm Hüttenbrenner in Graz after Schubert had sent them to him in full score in fulfillment of a commission by the Graz musical society. They were not discovered and conducted until 1865, when Johann Herbeck visited the aging Hüttenbrenner and persuaded him to show him, and lend him, the MS of the legendary rumored missing Schubert B minor Symphony in return for promising to conduct a still unperformed overture of Hüttenbrenner’s. The last pages of the Schubert MS contained a sketch of the projected third movement (a scherzo in B major

Bronisław Kazimierz Przybylski

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Bronisław Kazimierz Przybylski (born 11 December 1941 in Łódź, died 4 April 2011 in Łódź) was a Polish composer and educator. Biography He studied at the Academy of Music in Łódź where he received a diploma in music theory from Franciszek Wesołowski in 1964 and a diploma in composition under Tomasz Kiesewetter in 1969. He also studied under Bolesław Szabelski in Katowice and with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik. From 1965, he was an academic teacher at the Academy of Music in Łódź, and starting in 1987 taught composition there – first as an associate professor, and later as a full professor (from 1992 until his death). In the years 1978–1981 he was the Vice-Rector for Didactic Affairs at his alma mater, from 1987 to 1990 the Dean of the Faculty of Composition, Theory of Music and Eurhythmics, and in the years 1991–2011 the head of the Department of Composition. In 1982 he initiated “Musica Moderna”, a program that presents contemporary works of Polish and foreign composers twice each academic year. Selected works * In honorem Nicolai Copernici for orchestra (1972) * Memento for orchestra (1973) * Guernica – Pablo Picasso in memoriam for orchestra (1974)

Bronius Kutavičius

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bronius Kutavičius (13 September 1932 – 29 September 2021) was a Lithuanian composer and academic composition teacher. He wrote numerous oratorios and operas, often inspired by ancient Lithuanian polytheistic beliefs and music. He also composed film scores, orchestral works and chamber music. Kutavičius is regarded as a symbol of Lithuanian cultural identity, both in music and in politics. He studied Western techniques such as random operations, timbre experiments and spatial sound concepts (Zufallsoperationen, Klangfarbenexperimente und Raumklangkonzepte). He worked from 1991 to 1995 on one of his major works, The Gates of Jerusalem, which earned him the Lithuanian State Prize in 1996. He composed his first opera in 2000, Lokys to a libretto by Aušra Marija Sluckaitė-Jurašienė based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée. His music is performed at international festivals, including the Warsaw Autumn, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Mare Balticum, Wratislavia Cantans, Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Spitalfields Festival, MaerzMusik, ISCM World Music Days in Vilnius. Kutavičius died in Vilnius at age 89. Works Although an element of drama appears in compositions by Kutavičius,

Bruce Babcock

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Bruce H. Babcock (born 1951) is an American composer. He is known for his works in television, film, and the concert hall. He has composed for various television series, including Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and Father Dowling Mysteries. He has also composed for many films, including Lethal Weapon, the Die Hard franchise, and King Kong. Babcock credits his study with other composers such as Hugo Friedhofer, Earle Hagen and Paul Glass as an important contributor to his music. Babcock spent more than 25 years in media music before returning to his classical roots, leading to performances of his concert works across the United States. Early life and education Bruce Babcock grew up in Santa Barbara, California. He is the son of astronomer Horace W. Babcock and grandson of astronomer Harold D. Babcock. Bruce went on to earn both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music composition from California State University at Northridge in the mid-1970s. Career Babcock began studying with Swiss-American classical composer Paul Glass in 1971 and won the Young Musicians Foundation composition prize in 1976 for his “Music for String Orchestra,” performed at UCLA’s Royce Hall under the baton of Calvi

Bruce Broughton

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruce Harold Broughton (born March 8, 1945 ) is an American composer of television, film, and video game scores and concert works. He composed the 1994 version of the 20th Century Fox fanfare. He has won ten Emmy Awards and has been nominated once for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Broughton is currently a lecturer in composition at University of California, Los Angeles. Career Broughton has composed the score for many notable films including Disney films such as The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) and its sequel, Lost in San Francisco (1996), as well as popular westerns such as Silverado (1985) and Tombstone (1993). Other films scored by Broughton include Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Baby’s Day Out (1994), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Miracle on 34th Street (1994), and The Boy Who Could Fly (1986). Additionally, he composed music for the video game Heart of Darkness and the animated TV series Tiny Toon Adventures. Broughton composed music for Disney theme park attractions including Soarin’, Spaceship Earth, and Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Silverado earned him an Academy Award nomination, losing to Out of Africa. He has won n

Bruce Carlson (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruce Carlson (born 1944) is a Canadian composer from Manitoba. Early life and education Carlson was born in Toronto. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo in 1967 and a teaching certificate from the University of Toronto. He also studied music at the University of Manitoba under Robert Turner. Career Carlson, through the Manitoba Arts Council and other funding bodies, has received numerous commissions to write for groups such as the Festival Quartet of Canada, the Purcell String Quartet, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Winnipeg Singers, the Winnipeg Brass and numerous high school and university concert bands and choirs. His symphony, Toledo (1992), premiered by the John Henderson Junior High Wind Ensemble under the direction of Jeff Kula, was the first work to be commissioned by a Manitoba high school band through the Manitoba Arts Council. It was chosen in 2002 to be the first Canadian work to be included in the publication Teaching music through performance in band. Toledo has been performed internationally including performances in the United States, Hong Kong, Germany and Singapore. In 2007, in the MBM Times magazine, Toledo was selected to be

Bruce MacCombie

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruce MacCombie (1943 in Providence, Rhode Island – May 2, 2012, in Amherst, Massachusetts) was an American composer. He studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Freiburg Conservatory, and holds a Ph.D. in music from the University of Iowa. He was appointed to the music faculty of Yale University in 1975, and one year later joined the composition faculty of the Yale School of Music. MacCombie was Director of Publications for G. Schirmer and Associated Music Publishers from 1980 to 1986, Dean of the Juilliard School from 1986 to 1992 and Dean of the School for the Arts at Boston University from 1992 to 2001. Since 2002 he has been Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst at Amherst. He was succeeded by Derek Gordon in 2004. References External links * Profile at University of Massachusetts Amherst * Five Colleges New Music Festival profile * Juilliard School press release * Boston University’s B.U. Bridge News on MacCombie * Schott Music profile * Schott Music promoting Color and Time * Schott Music promoting Elegy

Bruce Mather

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruce Mather (born May 9, 1939) is a Canadian composer, pianist, teacher, and writer who is particularly known for his contributions to contemporary classical music. Career One of the most notable composers of microtonal music, he was awarded the Jules Léger Prize twice, first in 1979 for his Musique pour Champigny and again in 1993 for Yquem. Some of his other awards include the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada’s Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux prize in 1987 for Barbaresco and the Serge Garant Prize from the Émile Nelligan Foundation in 2000. Mather is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. As a writer he has contributed works to numerous musical journals and publications, including authoring the articles on Serge Garant, François Morel, and Gilles Tremblay in the Dictionary of Contemporary Music. He has taught on the music faculties of the University of Toronto (1964–1966), the University of Montreal (1970–1973), the Paris Conservatoire (1978–1979) and McGill University (1966–2001). His notable pupils include Marc Patch, Peter Allen, John Burke, Paul Crawford, Jacques Desjardins, José Evangelista, Anthon

Brunhilda de Portilla

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brunilda de Portilla (2 June 1929 – 9 July 2025) was a Costa Rican educator and composer. Life and career De Portilla was born as Brunilda Rodríguez Martínez, to Nicaraguan parents in La Cruz on 2 June 1929. After graduating in 1947, she enrolled at the University of Costa Rica, where she was part of the University Theater, performing various productions of works by Miguel de Cervantes, Alejandro Casona and Henrik Ibsen. In 1953, de Portilla married Roberto Portilla Ibarra, with whom she had three children. De Portilla was a primary school teacher in different institutions in Guanacaste. She began teaching science, Spanish, history, mathematics, plastic arts, and physical education in the public schools of Guadalupe, Sabanilla and Desamparados. She also took the opportunity to form choirs with his students and teach them various compositions. De Portilla recorded some of the songs she had composed in later years; most of them with a love theme and a Christmas carol. They were interested in Christmas songs, so that same afternoon, de Portilla composed the eleven carols that were missing to complete the album. In the recording, he was accompanied by a group of children. Four years la

Brunhilde Sonntag

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Brunhilde Sonntag (27 September 1936 – 18 December 2002) was a German composer, musicologist and music teacher. Biography Brunhilde Sonntag was born in Kassel, Germany. She studied organ at the School of Church Music in Schlüchtern and education at the Pedagogical Institute Jugenheim. From 1959 to 1963 she worked as a teacher at the Friedrich Ebert School in Frankfurt and took private composition lessons from Kurt Hessenberg. From 1963 to 1969 she studied composition at the Hochschule for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with and Gottfried von Einem, and took a teaching position in the Department of Music of the Justus Liebig University, Giessen. From 1973 to 1977 Sonntag studied musicology at the Philipps-University in Marburg, and graduated with a PhD. She took a position as assistant professor at the College of Education Westfalen-Lippe, Münster Department. From 1981 to 1992 she worked as a professor at the University-GH-Duisburg, and in 1992 took a position as professor at the University of Wuppertal. Sonntag published a number of books and professional articles on music. She served as co-editor of the Journal of Music Education, co-editor of the cultural magazine Sound Trac

Bruno Canfora

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Canfora (; 6 November 1924 – 4 August 2017) was an Italian composer, conductor, and music arranger. Life and career Born in Milan, Canfora studied piano at an early age, then studied oboe at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. During the Second World War, he played several concerts with his group in Trieste. Canfora was the conductor for the Sanremo Music Festival in 1961, 1988 and 1993. Selected filmography * The Man Who Wagged His Tail (1957) * It Happened in Broad Daylight (1958) * Wolves of the Deep (1959) * The Huns (1960) * Fall of the Mohicans (1965) * Rita the Mosquito (1966) * Il vostro super agente Flit (1966) * James Tont operazione D.U.E. (1966) * Don’t Sting the Mosquito (1967) * The Funny Face of the Godfather (1973) * Free Hand for a Tough Cop (1976) * Destruction Force (1977) References External links * * *

Bruno Canino

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Canino (born 30 December 1935) is an Italian classical pianist, harpsichordist and composer. Early life Bruno Canino was born in Naples, Italy in 1935, where he studied piano with Vincenzo Vitale. He continued his musical education in Milan, studying both piano and composition. His teachers included Enzo Calace and Bruno Bettinelli. In 1956 and again in 1958, he won prizes at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition and in 1960 at the Darmstadt competition. Career Canino has an international reputation as a soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist. Among those with whom he has appeared are the violinists Itzhak Perlman, Salvatore Accardo, Franco Mezzena, Viktoria Mullova, Pierre Amoyal, Oleksandr Semchuk, Uto Ughi, Ksenia Milas, Alessio Bidoli the flutists Severino Gazzelloni, Luisa Sello, Roberto Pasquini, the cellist Lynn Harrell and vocalist Cathy Berberian. He is also the pianist of the celebrated Trio di Milano, together with the violinist Mariana Sîrbu and cellist Rocco Filippini. He is an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music. Among the composers who have dedicated works to him are Luciano Berio, Mauricio Kagel, Wolfgang Rihm and Iannis Xenakis. He

Bruno Ducol

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Ducol (22 March 1949 – 11 January 2024) was a French pianist, composer and teacher of contemporary music. Life and career Born on 22 March 1949 in Annonay, Ducol trained as a pianist External links * ** Discography * * * * Fitch, Fabrice: (L’)Écrit du cri (CD review) Gramophone 2009

Bruno Liberda

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Bruno Liberda (born 17 February 1953, in Mödling, Vienna) is an Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. Life Liberda started his academic and musical education when he was 16. He studied composition under Alfred Uhl at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. Later, he studied under Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, who became his most influential teacher and mentor. He received several awards and scholarships in Europe & US. Today Liberda lectures electronic music at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. His ballet Valse triste (1978) was the first composition of electronic music ever to be performed in the Staatsoper Wien. By combining traditional and electronic instruments, he explores the fascination of music as so aptly described by Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński: Music is the corporealisation of the intelligence that is in sound. His scores are often the result of process-oriented, non-linear composing. Traditional notation, optical stimulation and integration of graphical & verbal description are key elements of his attempt to describe sound in a very direct way. Compositions Stage * Yerma, ballet (1977) • Valse triste, ballet (1978) • Das Ende d

Bruno Maderna

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Bruno Maderna (born Bruno Grossato, 21 April 1920 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian composer, conductor and academic teacher. Life Maderna was born Bruno Grossato in Venice but later decided to take the name of his mother, Caterina Carolina Maderna. At the age of four, he began studying the violin with his grandfather. “My grandfather thought that if you could play the violin you could then do anything, even become the biggest gangster. If you play the violin you are always sure of a place in heaven.” As a child, he played several instruments (violin, drums and accordion) in his father’s small variety band. A child prodigy, in the early thirties, he was not only performing violin concertos, he was already conducting orchestral concerts: first with the orchestra of La Scala in Milan, then in Trieste, Venice, Padua and Verona. He was originally Jewish. Orphaned at the age of four, Maderna was adopted by a wealthy woman from Verona, Irma Manfredi, who saw to it that he received a solid musical education. He took private lessons in harmony and musical composition from Arrigo Pedrollo from 1935 until 1937 and studied composition with Alessandro Bustini at the Rome Conservatory from 193

Bruno Martino

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Bruno Martino (11 November 1925 – 12 June 2000) was an Italian composer, singer, and pianist. He is best remembered for his songs Dracula Cha Cha Cha (1959) and Estate (1960). Career Martino learned to play the piano at the age of fourteen. A jazz fan, he spent the early years of his career performing with European radio and nightclub orchestras. In the mid-1950s, he was a member of the RAI orchestra. He later started composing music for popular Italian singers, eventually touring the world with his own orchestra. This resulted in a late-blossoming career as a singer. Internationally he is best known for his 1960 song Estate, a standard that has been performed by many jazz musicians and singers since the early 1960s, including João Gilberto, Joe Diorio, Chet Baker, Toots Thielemans, Shirley Horn, Eliane Elias, Michel Petrucciani, Monty Alexander, Mike Stern, John Pizzarelli and Robert Jospé. Another one of Martino’s hit-songs, the humorous novelty song Dracula Cha Cha (later also called Dracula Cha Cha Cha) was originally composed for Steno’s horror-comedy film Tempi duri per i vampiri (1959) and released as a single the same year. It was later included in the album Italian Graffit

Bruno Nicolai

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Bruno Nicolai (20 May 1926 – 16 August 1991) was an Italian film music composer, orchestra director, conductor, pianist and musical editor, most active in the 1960s through the 1980s. While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, he befriended Ennio Morricone and formed a long working relationship, with Nicolai eventually conducting for and co-scoring films with Morricone. Morricone noted in an interview discussing the Dollars Trilogy, “I chose a great musician and friend to be my conductor: Bruno Nicolai, who conducted almost every score of mine from that point on until 1974.” Nicolai also scored a number of giallo exploitation films and wrote many scores for director Jesús Franco. Collaboration with Ennio Morricone Nicolai frequently collaborated with Morricone, conducting many of his scores, including those for Sergio Leone’s “For a Few Dollars More” (1965) and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966). Morricone praised Nicolai as a great musician and friend who conducted nearly all his scores until 1974. Their partnership eventually ended due to disagreements over credit attribution. His work was featured in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill

Bruno Spoerri

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Bruno Alexander Spoerri (born 16 August 1935) is a Swiss jazz and electronics musician. Born in Zurich, he studied applied psychology in Basel and Zurich. He played the saxophone as a student and toured with the Modern Jazz Group Freiburg in Germany and Switzerland. In the early 1960s, he worked as a psychologist and career counsellor. He experimented with an electrified saxophone and published the album Voice of Taurus in 1978. Discography * Jazz-Rock Experience (Deram, 1970) * Glückskugel (Finders Keepers Records, 1971–1980) * Container (1976) * Voice of Taurus (Gold Records/Inzec, 1978) * Toy Planet with Irmin Schmidt (Spoon Records, 1981) * AX+BY+CZ+D=0 (1983) * Zürich Tenors (FFO 1983, with Ernst Gerber, Fernando Fantini, Richard Lipiec, Umberto Foletti, Rolf Cizmek, Hans Brunner) * Albert Mangelsdorff - Bruno Spoerri - Christy Doran - Reto Weber: Shake, Shuttle and Blow (Enja, 1999) Awards * Jazz Festival Zürich 1954: First Prize for Saxophone and Band * Jazz Festival Düsseldorf (Deutschland) 1956: Second Prize for Alto Saxophone with Modern Jazz Group Freiburg * Jazz Festival Zürich 1958: First Prize for Bigband * International Advertising Film Festival Cannes 1965: First Pr

Burr Van Nostrand

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Burr Van Nostrand (born 1945) is an American classical composer and cellist. He is known for his avant-garde works which use aleatory and graphic notation and were composed from the 1960s through the 1980s. Van Nostrand was born in Los Angeles and began composing while still in high school in San Diego. He studied cello at Yale with Aldo Parisot and composition at the New England Conservatory under Robert Cogan. After his graduation from the NEC with a Masters in Music in 1971, he spent four years in the Netherlands at the Gaudeamus Foundation where several of his works were premiered. He stopped composing in the late 1980s but remained active as a cellist until 2000. There was renewed interest in his music following a concert of his early works at the New England Conservatory in 2012 and the release of a CD the following year containing his 1969 Voyage in a White Building I and two other works from that period. Life and career Van Nostrand was born in Los Angeles, California. Both his parents were visual artists. He grew up in San Diego where he studied painting, piano, and cello and later composition with John Glasier and Howard Brubeck. He also became acquainted with the music a

C. Curtis-Smith

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Curtis Curtis-Smith (September 9, 1941, Walla Walla, Washington – October 10, 2014, Kalamazoo Michigan), better known as C. Curtis-Smith or C.C. Smith, was a modernist American composer and pianist. Education Curtis-Smith was born in Walla Walla, Washington, and received a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College, where he studied with John Ringgold and David Burge. He received a Master of Music degree in piano at Northwestern University where he studied with Alan Stout and Guy Mombaerts. He pursued further studies at the University of Illinois with Kenneth Gaburo, the Tanglewood Music Center with Bruno Maderna, and in master classes at the Blossom Music Festival with Pierre Boulez. Curtis-Smith was an adjunct professor then full-time faculty at Western Michigan University from 1965-2012. Career In 1972, he pioneered the technique of bowing the piano. Pianist David Burge wrote about the technique, saying “Loose bows made of strands of fishline are woven throughout the piano strings at various places in the instrument … to give the pianist the possibility of crescendo and diminuendo on a single note or group of notes.” Curtis-Smith performed at Carnegie Hall in 1968, and had several

Caiphus Semenya

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Caiphus Semenya (born 19 August 1939) is a South African composer and musician. As a young musician he sang in the cast of the jazz musical King Kong. After moving to the United States in the 1960s he had a successful career as a composer and arranger, including work on the scores for Roots (1977) and The Color Purple (1985). Biography Caiphus Katse Semenya was born in Johannesburg’s Alexandra Township on 19 August 1939 in a musically inclined family. Semenya formed a recording label, “Munjale”. He returned to South Africa in 1991. * 2015: ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Music * 1986: Academy Award for Best Original Score for the 1985 film The Color Purple; shared the nomination with nine other composers. Discography * The Very Best of Caiphus Semenya (Columbia, 1996) * Woman Got a Right to Be (1996) * Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow (Munjale, 1984) * Listen to the Wind (CBS, 1982) With Quincy Jones * Roots (A&M, 1977) References External links *Unisa honours the love story of Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya *

Camilla Kolchinsky

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Camilla Alexandrovna Kolchinsky (Russian: Камилла Александровна Кольчинская; 25 December 1931 – 16 February 2016) was a Jewish conductor who was born in Russia. She was born in Moscow and made her debut as a conductor in Leningrad, now is known as St. Petersburg, while still a student. In 1976 she emigrated to Israel. She had conducted performances of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and according to Gramophone was “one of the few Russian women to have made a successful international career as a conductor.” At the time of her death she was the emeritus director of the El Camino Youth Orchestra. Recordings *Glazunov/Dvorák Violin Concertos – Ilya Kaler (violin), Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Camilla Kolchinsky (conductor). Label: Naxos References External links * (Internet Archive)

Camillo Togni

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Camillo Togni (18 October 1922 – 28 November 1993) was an Italian composer, teacher, and pianist. Coming from a family of independent means, he was able to pursue his art as he saw fit, regardless of changing fashions or economic pressure. Life Togni was born in Gussago, near Brescia. He began studying piano at the age of 7, with Franco Margola in Brescia, then from 1939 to 1943 with Alfredo Casella in Rome and Siena, and Giovanni Anfossi in Milan. Later he studied with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, receiving his diploma from the Conservatory of Parma in 1946 . He studied Classics in Brescia, musical aesthetics at the University of Milan, and in 1948 graduated in philosophy from the University of Pavia with a dissertation titled “The Aesthetics of B. Croce and the Problem of Musical Interpretation”. Contemporaneously, he began to study composition in Brescia with Margola, subsequently in Rome and in Siena with Casella. He was active as a concert artist until 1953; subsequently, he performed only his own music in public. Michelangeli introduced him in 1938 to the music of Arnold Schoenberg, which affected him profoundly and caused him to develop a tremendous interest in the Second

Canary Burton

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Canary Lee Burton (born September 16, 1942) is an American keyboardist, composer and writer. Biography Burton was born on September 16, 1942, in Richmond, California. In 1972 she moved to Moscow, Idaho, to attend the University of Idaho where she was one of the first women to be accepted into the music composition program. After passing her third-year piano exam, she left to form her own rock ’n roll band and play in various rock and jazz ensembles. She attracted followers through her gigs, but she came to find performance unfulfilling and turned to composition. She relocated to Washington D.C., where she worked at WPFW Pacifica radio for three years. She then moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she established her own contemporary music radio show, The Latest Score, on WOMR in Provincetown. She worked as a music teacher from 1996 to 2000. Selected pieces of her work were included in the published collection Music of Living Composers, compiled by the Campbell University piano professor and composer Betty Wishart in 1997. In 2014, Southern River won the PatsyLu Prize in the annual Search for New Music competition of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Burton’s works h

Caravelli

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Caravelli (born Claude Vasori; 12 September 1930 – 1 April 2019) was a French orchestra leader, composer and arranger of orchestral music. Biography He was born on 12 September 1930 in Paris. The son of an Italian father and a French mother, Vasori was initially instructed in music by his mother in piano and voicing/harmony at seven years old, and later, when he was thirteen he began to attend the Paris Conservatoire. At twenty he was professionally touring, accompanying singers on piano, and at 26 years old he started as an orchestra conductor. Vasori took his stage name in 1956 from the newly introduced twin-jet Caravelle from Sud Aviation. This plane was the first jet created for the short-haul market. The first Caravelle entered service for Air France on May 9, 1959. He made it more Italianate in honor of his father’s origins, changing the last letter: “CARAVELLI et son Violons Magiques/& his Magnificent Strings”. In 1959 with the help of the French jazz musician Ray Ventura, he obtained a contract to form his own orchestra oriented to popular music. He signed a contract with the French record label Versailles. His first album Dance Party was recorded. Under licenses these earl

Carl Bertil Agnestig

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Bertil Agnestig (né Andersson; 7 March 1924 – 14 July 2019) was a Swedish music teacher and composer. He was son to engineer Anders Ruben (Andersson) Agnestig (1897–1982) and Karin, née Grahn (1904–1990). He’s represented in Den svenska psalmboken (1986) with two works. Carl-Bertil Agnestig was married for a time with Alfhild Kerstin Linnéa Burman (1920–2010) before he married Agneta Åkerfeldt (born 1932). Agnestig has two sons. References

Carl de Groof

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Carl de Groof (born Karl Krof; 3 December 1923, in Vienna, Austria – 18 January 2007, in Javea, Spain) was an Austrian composer, film composer and orchestra conductor. De Groof began his career shortly after the end of the Second World War. He worked as an orchestral musician and a writer for composers like Hans Lang. He also became a conductor, most notably for the Hofburg Palace in 1946 and for the Vienna Boys’ Choir. In 1953 he founded the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra RAVAG, later dance orchestra of the Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation). In the same year he graduated with his own orchestra and also made an appearance in Anna Louise and Anton. De Groof was then selected to write the background music and arrangement by Helmut Käutner for his legendary guerrilla and anti-war film Die letzte Brücke (The Last Bridge). He also conducted the Austrian song in the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest. De Groof carried on in media and television work until the late 1960s and became known to many directors including Georg Tressler, Rolf Thiele and Rudolf Jugert. His career ended in 1969 with the theme tune to the programme Der alte Richter starring Paul Hörbiger. De Groof h

Carl Stone

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Stone (born Carl Joseph Stone, February 10, 1953) is an American composer, primarily working in the field of live electronic music. His works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the Near East. Biography From 1966 to 1969 he formed a band with Z’EV and James Stewart, performing jazz rock. After auditioning for Frank Zappa’s Bizarre Records, the band ceased activities and both he and Z’EV went on to attend CalArts. Stone studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts with Morton Subotnick and James Tenney and has composed electro-acoustic music almost exclusively since 1972. Stone utilizes a laptop computer as his primary instrument and his works often feature very slowly developing manipulations of samples of acoustic music, speech, or other sounds. Because of this, as well as his preference for tonal melodic and harmonic materials similar to those used in popular musics, Stone’s work has been associated with the movement known as minimalism. Prior to his settling on the laptop, in the 1980s, he created a number of electronic and collage works utilizing various electronic equipment as well as turntables. Pro

Carl Vine

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Edward Vine, (born 8 October 1954) is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music. From 1975 he has worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a variety of theatre and dance companies, and ensembles. Vine’s catalogue includes eight symphonies, thirteen concertos, music for film, television and theatre, electronic music and numerous chamber works. From 2000 until 2019 Carl was the Artistic Director of Musica Viva Australia. Within that role he was also Artistic Director of the Huntington Estate Music Festival from 2006, and of the Musica Viva Festival (Sydney) from 2008. In 2005 he was awarded the Don Banks Music Award. In the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Vine was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), “for distinguished service to the performing arts as a composer, conductor, academic and artistic director, and to the support and mentoring of emerging performers.” Vine currently lectures in composition and orchestration at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He studied physics, then composition at the University of Western Australia (now the UWA Conservatorium of Music), before moving to Sydney in 1975, where he worked as a freelance pia

Carl Walter Roskott

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Carl Walter Roskott (March 4, 1953 - June 18, 2008) was an American composer, conductor and academic. He served as associate professor of music at Northern Illinois University and the University of Virginia, and as associate conductor at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. He studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and New England Conservatory of Music ; his principal teachers included Leonard Bernstein, Gunther Schuller, Sheldon Morgenstern, Leo Mueller, Richard Pittman and Michael Tilson Thomas. Roskott’s compositions included works for full orchestra, chamber ensembles, and solo works for trumpet, trombone, horn and violin. He was also a double recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to Tanglewood. In 1972, when he was 19, two of his works were included at the 1972 Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four years later he returned to the festival as a conductor; the following year he was named the festival’s associate conductor, a position he held until 1997. In 1979 Roskott was a finalist for the assistant conductor position with the National Symphony also served as associate professor of music and principal conductor at Northern

Carleton Elliott

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Carleton Weir Elliott (15 March 1928, Welland, Ontario24 August 2003, Fredericton, New Brunswick) was a Canadian composer, music theorist, choir conductor and music educator. Early life and education Elliott was the son of Weir and Gertrude (née Chrysler) Elliott. He studied at Mount Allison University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 1951. He also served as a music examiner and adjudicator, becoming the Mount Allison Local Centre Examinations in Music supervisor in 1967, and adjudicating at many music festivals in eastern Canada. As an examiner, he “dispelled students’ fears and nervousness by his gentleness and his genuine interest in them as people as well as musicians.” Among his compositions were many choral works and piano pieces for young learners. Works *String Quartet No.1 in C Minor (1951) ms. * Piano Sonata * Toccata for Piano (1961) * Suite for Flute and B♭ Clarinet * Sonatina in one movement for Clarinet and Piano * 17 Canons for Piano (Waterloo Music) See also *Music of Canada *Canadian classical music *List of Canadian musicians *List of Canadian composers References ;Citations

Carlisle Floyd

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Carlisle Sessions Floyd (June 11, 1926 – September 30, 2021) was an American composer primarily known for his operas. These stage works, for which he wrote not only the music but also the librettos, typically engage with themes from the American South, particularly the Post-civil war South, the Great Depression and rural life. His best known opera, Susannah, is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary rural Tennessee, and written for a Southern dialect. It was premiered at Florida State University in 1955, with Phyllis Curtin in the title role. When it was staged at the New York City Opera the following year, the reception was initially mixed; some considered it a masterpiece, while others degraded it as a ‘folk opera’. Subsequent performances led to an increase in Susannah ’ s reputation and the opera quickly became among the most performed of American operas. In 1976, he became M. D. Anderson professor at the University of Houston. He co-founded the Houston Opera Studio for the training of young singers. Floyd is regarded as the “Father of American opera”. Life and career Youth and education Floyd was born in Latta, South Carolina, on June 11, 1926,

Carlo Alessandro Landini

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Carlo Alessandro Landini (born April 20, 1954) is an Italian composer, scholar, and essayist. Educated in Italy, France, and the United States, he has been active in contemporary classical music since the late 1970s. His work encompasses large-scale instrumental and chamber compositions and reflects sustained engagement with post-war European compositional traditions. Landini has taught at Italian and international conservatories and universities, including the Conservatory of Piacenza and Columbia University, and has held visiting professorships in Europe and the United States. His music has been performed at major contemporary music festivals and venues, including the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the Venice Biennale, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Landini has received several international composition awards, including the Valentino Bucchi Prize, the Ernest Bloch Competition, and the Witold Lutosławski International Composers Competition. Early life and education Carlo Alessandro Landini began his musical studies in the piano and composition classes of the Milan Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi”, under the guidance of Piero Rattalino and Bruno Bettinelli respectively

Carlo Domeniconi

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Carlo Domeniconi (born 20 February 1947) is an Italian guitarist and composer. Although his compositions include a wide variety of genres and instrumentation choices, he is best known for his works for solo guitar, and particularly the Koyunbaba suite. Domeniconi’s style is characterized by his adoption of multicultural influences. His works explore and borrow from a wide variety of national traditions, including Turkish, Indian, Brazilian, and many more. Biography Domeniconi was born in Cesena, Italy. He received his first formal guitar lessons in 1960 from Carmen Lenzi Mozzani, granddaughter of the famous guitarist and luthier Luigi Mozzani. Making rapid progress, he won first prizes at the Ancona International Festival of Guitar in 1960 and 1962. Upon graduation in 1969, Domeniconi took up a teaching position in Berlin, which he held until 1992. establishing and heading the first classical guitar course at the Istanbul University State Conservatory, and on many shorter trips he took to Istanbul. A milestone in his oeuvre is the “Concerto di Berlinbul” for bağlama, guitar and chamber orchestra, composed in 1987. The world premiere took place in the Berliner Philharmonie together

Carlo Donida

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Carlo Donida Labati (30 October 1920 in Milan – 22 April 1998 in Porto Valtravaglia) was an Italian composer and pianist. Carlo Donida Labati was born in Milan on 30 October 1920. He graduated in piano and composition from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Carlo Donida began his musical career as a pianist of the musical group “The Dandies”. He was then hired as an arranger by Casa Ricordi, which at that time had just created a pop music section. Entered into the “songbooks”, he decided to put on paper his first songs, with the assistance of Gian Carlo Testoni wherein the songs “Dimmi t’amo” (“Tell Me I Love You”) and “Sotto il mandorlo” (“Under the Almond Tree”) debuted on the radio and received a warm reception from the public. Then came the binomial Donida–Pinchi that gave rise to such hits as “Vecchio scarpone” (“Old Boot”) and “Canzone da due soldi” (“Twopenny Song”), which had international success. The long association with Giulio Rapetti Mogol, which eventually created 126 songs, began in 1960 with the song “Briciole di baci” (“Crumbs of Kisses”) starring Mina and “Diavolo” (“Devil”) sung by Jimmy Fontana. “Uno dei tanti” (“One of the Many”), sung by Tony Dallara an

Carlos Almenar Otero

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Carlos José Almenar Otero (21 March 1926 – 7 August 2018) was a Venezuelan tenor and composer. Nicknamed “La voz de oro de Venezuela” (), he rose to international prominence after taking part in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer singing contest The Great Caruso, organised in 1951 to promote the film of the same name starring Mario Lanza. Early life and career Almenar Otero was born on 21 March 1926 in Aragua de Barcelona, the second of five children of a modest family. At his parents’ urging he initially studied law, but he abandoned his studies to pursue a musical career, singing in theatres and on radio. He shared the stage with contemporary artists including Alfredo Sadel on the radio programme La Caravana Camel. In 1951, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer organised the international singing contest The Great Caruso to promote its film of the same name, Almenar won the Venezuelan stage. At the final, held in Rio de Janeiro, he received honourable mention; the contest was won by the Brazilian baritone João Gibin. Career in Europe Later in 1951, Almenar travelled to Italy to study at the Milan Conservatory and received private lessons from the tenor Nino Piccaluga, a former La Scala star. He made his

Carlos Azevedo

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Carlos Azevedo (29 March 1949 – 26 October 2012) was a Portuguese composer and pianist. Biography Having studied composition with Jorge Peixinho in Lisbon, he was a 20th-century music composer and a jazz pianist. As a teacher and director of the Jazz School at the Hot Club of Portugal, he taught and influenced many Portuguese musicians. Among others, he has been accompanied on stage by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (Academy Award winner for Best Original Score in 2005), Steve Potts, Carlos Alberto Augusto, Paleka and Maria João. He performed in several Music Festivals such as the Bruges Jazz Festival in Belgium. An inspired melodist and intriguing harmonizer, his musical style was based on the fusion of several musical idioms and in this domain his work with traditional fado forms and improvised music is considered particularly unique and relevant. Prizes He won a “Gold Leopard” Award for Best Original Score in Lucerne, Switzerland for the film “Zefiro”, a film by José Alvaro Morais His music has also won 1st prize on various occasions for Best Original Score with other films and for other works such as Marcha da Bica (Bica March) in the Lisbon summer festivity called “Santos Populares, marc

Carlos Lazzari

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Carlos Ángel Lazzari (Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 9, 1925 – ibidem, June 7, 2009), also known by his pseudonym Palmer, was a bandoneonist, composer, arranger, and orchestra conductor dedicated to the tango genre. He spent 26 years in the bandoneon section of Juan D’Arienzo’s orchestra. He later joined Francisco Canaro’s orchestra, playing alongside the Uruguayan bandoneonist Minotto Di Cicco, where he learned the bandoneón cadenero technique —those signature flowing skills that helped define the sound of the great orchestras of the time. He then had brief stints with the ensembles of Juan Canaro and Domingo Federico. In 1950, Héctor Varela and Alberto San Miguel, the first and second bandoneonists of Juan D’Arienzo’s orchestra, left the group. Francisco Canaro himself recommended Lazzari—then 25 years old—as a replacement. Lazzari, in turn, recommended Enrique Alessio, who became the first bandoneonist. The bandoneon section was completed by Aldo Junnissi, Felipe Ricciardi, and Eladio Blanco, while Fulvio Salamanca set the rhythm from the piano. When Alessio and Salamanca left the ensemble, the role of cadenero fell to Lazzari, along with that of arranger. The ovations from a

Carlos Lyra

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Carlos Eduardo Lyra Barbosa (11 May 1933 – 16 December 2023) was a Brazilian singer, and composer of numerous bossa nova and Música popular brasileira classics. He has also worked as a writer, with notable contributions to musical films such as Para Viver um Grande Amor and Intimidade. He and Antônio Carlos Jobim were the first two music composers, together with lyricists Vinicius de Moraes and Ronaldo Boscoli, to be recorded by João Gilberto on his first LP entitled Chega de Saudade (1959), which is referred to as the first generation of Bossa Nova. Career The first of Lyra’s songs to be recorded was “Menina” (1954), issued as a single by Sylvia Telles in 1955, with “Foi a noite” by Antônio Carlos Jobim on the B-side. The writers first met because of this single, when Jobim called Lyra “the other side of the record”. At that time, both were writing their own music and lyrics creating a colloquial and completely new style. They wrote about their own experiences and feelings. A completely different lyrical style from most songs written at that time. His first compositions (music and lyrics), from 1954 to 1956 included: “Quando chegares”; “Menina”; “Barquinho de Papel”; “Ciúme”; “Cri

Carlos Micháns

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Carlos Eduardo Micháns (born 18 August 1950) is a Dutch composer, writer and draughtsman of Argentine origin. He has lived in the Netherlands since 1982. His works (from solo pieces to large compositions for choir and orchestra) are published in The Hague by Donemus. Micháns is also a writer. He has published poetry, short stories, novels and a series of essays on Argentine history. From 1995 to 2012 he was in charge of Podium Neerlandés, a program of Radio Nederland (the Dutch international broadcast) for Latin American audiences featuring recordings made in concert halls in the Netherlands. Biography Early life and training Michans was born in Buenos Aires into a middle-class family with Spanish, French, Swedish, English, Scottish and North American ancestry, including the Argentine-born, anglo-American composer Mildred Couper (1887-1974), a pioneer of microtonal music in the US. Micháns started taking piano and theory lessons at seven, but gave up after a few years. Aged 12, he returned to piano, and while still a teenager, he was encouraged by his piano teacher Almah Melgar to play his own compositions at the yearly students concerts held at a piano shop in downtown Buenos Aire

Carlos Roqué Alsina

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Carlos Roqué Alsina (19 February 1941 – 5 August 2023 ) was a French composer and pianist of Argentinian origin. Biography Alsina was born in Buenos Aires. His career as a pianist began at the age of six. He gave numerous concerts first in Latin America, then in North America and finally in Europe, some under the direction of prestigious conductors: Gilbert Amy, Ernest Bour, Semyon Bychkov, Jascha Horenstein, Otto Klemperer, Manuel Rosenthal, Michel Tabachnik, among others. At the same time, he studied musical composition on his own, writing his first piece at the age of fourteen. In Argentina, he actively participated as a pianist and composer in artistic programs of various musical institutions (including “Nueva Musica” in Buenos Aires from 1959 to 1964). In 1964, he was invited to Germany as part of the “Artists-in-Residence” program, which gave him the opportunity to meet Iannis Xenakis, Elliott Carter and Luciano Berio. In 1965, his composition Funktionen was premiered in Darmstadt under the direction of Bruno Maderna, of whom he became the assistant to the Deutsche Oper Berlin the following year. In 1967, a New York period began, participating in the Center of Creative and Pe

Carlos Veerhoff

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Carlos Enrique Veerhoff (3 June 1926 in Buenos Aires – 18 February 2011 in Murnau) was an Argentine-born German composer of classical music. Life and work Carlos Enrique Veerhoff was born with his twin brother, Wolfgang Otto, as premature infants. Their father could only find a hospital with an incubator two days later, so that the birth date in the birth certificate is 5 June 1926, not the correct date of 3 June. His father, Heinrich Veerhoff, was German and the head of an own company in Buenos Aires. His mother, Karla, was a violinist and the daughter of conductor Karl Panzner and singer Ida Panzner. The Veerhoff family moved back to Germany in 1930 due to a job change by the father. In 1933, the family moved on to South Africa. The countryside and the way of living in Africa had a great impact on the young Carlos Veerhoff, and these impressions found their way into several compositions of his later years. Another experience in South Africa was important for him as well: In 1935, the first South African airline was founded, and the young Carlos got the opportunity to take part at a pleasure flight. Afterwards, he developed an enormous interest in flight engineering, which was onl

Carlton Gamer

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Carlton Edwin Wesley Gamer (February 13, 1929 – July 14, 2023) was an American composer and music theorist. Gamer composed more than seventy works in a variety of genres, including songs, music for dance, solo piano pieces, chamber music, choral works, orchestral works, and computer music. His compositional approach has been fundamentally shaped by his theoretical interests, the latter influenced by an interest in mathematics. He taught at Colorado College, Princeton University, and the University of Michigan; he studied at Northwestern University and Boston University and later privately with Roger Sessions. Life and career Gamer was born in Chicago on February 13, 1929. He grew up in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where his father taught at the University of Illinois. At the age of eight he began to study piano with Tanya Kessler and composition with her husband Hubert Kessler. From 1942 to 1946, Gamer attended University High School in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. In New York City, from 1951 to 1953, Gamer founded a workshop of composer-performers (“The Seven”) He was also the pianist, composer, and music director for dancer and choreographer Ilka Suarez and her company. After stu

Carmen Petra Basacopol

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Carmen Petra Basacopol (5 September 1926 – 15 October 2023) was a Romanian composer, pianist, musicologist and academic teacher. She taught at the National University of Music Bucharest, between 1962 and 2003, and at the Rabat Conservatoire in Morocco in the 1970s. As a musicologist, she achieved a PhD from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1976, with a dissertation about three Romanian composers who had influenced her, George Enescu, Mihail Jora and Paul Constantinescu, composers representing essential features of Romanian music. She composed music of many genres, with a focus on chamber music, including compositions with the harp; her works have been performed internationally. Her music has been described as stylistically diversified, “defined by the freshness of inspiration, the elegance of construction and the ability to communicate directly with the listener through the simplicity of melodic and harmonic expression”. Works Petra Basacopol composed for orchestra, opera, chamber ensemble, harp, piano, voice, and ballet performance, Her Concertino for Harp, String Orchestra and Timpani together with the Harp Concerto by Paul Constantinescu, played by soloist Elena Ganţolea and

Carmino Ravosa

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Carmino Ravosa (January 29, 1930 – July 19, 2015) was an American composer and lyricist, singer, pianist, as well as a producer, director, and musical historian. Ravosa, who wrote music for children for decades, The two were married for almost 60 years. Performances Ravosa performed his music at many historic landmarks, including: His musical “Seneca Falls: A Documusical on the History of Women’s Rights and Achievements”, a work about the history of women’s rights, was performed at the National Women’s Hall of Fame. External links *Personal website

Carol Ann Weaver

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Carol Ann Weaver (born May 6, 1948) is an American-Canadian composer, pianist, and teacher. Biography Weaver was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia, to a Mennonite family. At the time of her birth, her parents belonged to a Mennonite church that banned musical instruments in members’ homes. Fortunately, the ban was lifted during Weaver’s childhood, and her family immediately got a piano. She attended Indiana University (Bloomington), where she earned a B.M. (1970), M.M. (1972), and D.M.A. in composition (1982). During the summer of 1974, she studied theory and composition at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Weaver studied composition with John Eaton, Bernard Heiden, Juan Orrego-Salas, and Higo Hirado; piano with Gyorgy Sebok, Robert Weisz, and Enrica Cavallo Gulli; and theory with Mary Wennerstrom, Vernon Kliewer, and Elaine Barkin. Currently a Professor Emerita at Conrad Grebel University College/University of Waterloo, Weaver also taught music at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canadian Mennonite University (formerly Concord College), Indiana University, and Eastern Mennonite University. Her Sound in the Land Festival Conferences at the University of Waterloo have brought together

Carol E. Barnett

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Carol Edith Barnett (born 23 May 1949) is an American composer. She was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and studied at the University of Minnesota with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler (composition), Bernard Weiser (piano) and Emil J. Niosi (flute). She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition in 1972 and a masters in theory and composition in 1976. After completing her education, Barnett went on the road, playing keyboard and singing background vocals with Mexican guitar player Ben Peña, worked as a freelance music copyist (1976-1997), and played in the Children’s Theatre pit and various community orchestras (1980-2016). She married Minnesota Orchestra violist John Tartaglia in 1985. Barnett was composer-in-residence with the Dale Warland Singers from 1991 to 2001, and an adjunct instructor in music theory and composition at Augsburg College in Minneapolis from 2000 to 2015. She was awarded the 2003 Nancy Van de Vate International Prize for Opera for her chamber opera, Snow, and her music theater work Meeting at Seneca Falls was featured at the 2006 Diversity Festival in Red Wing, MN. The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass, commissioned in 2006 by VocalEssence and wr

Carol Hall

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Carol Hall (April 3, 1936 – October 11, 2018) was an American songwriter. She was best known for composing the music and lyrics for the Broadway stage musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1978, adapted as a film in 1982). Her other works include the Broadway sequel The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public (1994), as well as the Off-Broadway musical To Whom It May Concern (c. 1986). Career Hall was born in 1936 in Abilene, Texas, United States. She graduated with a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1960 and joined ASCAP in 1970. She penned eight one-act plays, all under the title “The Days Are As Grass”. The work was acquired by Samuel French for publication and theatrical licensing. In 2012 a production was mounted at Theater of the Spirit, Newcastle, Maine. Her career included singing in clubs and similar venues. In 1970, she signed to Elektra Records as a singer-songwriter and had two albums released on the label in 1971 and 1972, If I Be Your Lady and Beads and Feathers. Her album Hallways: The Songs of Carol Hall was released in 2009 on the LML Music label. In 1972, Hall was invited by Marlo Thomas to create three songs for the album Free to Be… You and Me (1972) and

Caroline Lloyd

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Caroline Grace Parkhurst Lloyd (April 12, 1924 – 1980) was an American composer, pianist and music director. Her best-known composition was the Spanish-language opera Doña Bárbara performed in the Teatro Municipal of Caracas, July 1967. The opera’s libretto was provided by Isaac Chocrón and orchestrated by Hershy Kay. Other compositions include works for voice, solo piano and chamber ensemble; of note is the (). Life and career Caroline Grace Parkhurst was born in Uniontown, Alabama, US, on April 12, 1924. The daughter of “Mr. and Ms. T. Harmon Parkhurst”, she was raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received a Bachelor of Music from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1945, after piano study with both Nina Ancona and George Robert, and composition study with John Donald Robb. Her UNM education was partially funded by a scholarship from the Sigma Iota fraternity. At UNM she met Andrew Richard Lloyd, whom she married in 1946, adopting her husband’s surname. The Lloyds had four children: Timothy, Angela, Richard and Christopher. Like her mother, Angela later later pursued a career in the arts as a storyteller-entertainer. Caroline Lloyd later studied with Bernard Rogers at the Eastm

Carson Kievman

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Carson Kievman (December 27, 1949 – October 12, 2021) was an American composer, director and producer and an innovator of contemporary classical music. His works were noted for their originality, skill, and frequent integration with music theatre and contemporary opera. Kievman’s artistic focus ranged from avant-garde music and operatic works in the 1970s to symphonic works in the 1990s, along with orchestral, choral, solo instrument and chamber music. He established the SoBe Institute of the Arts, a performing arts institute in Miami Beach, Florida, from which he produced contemporary music events as well as his earlier operas in a chamber setting. Early life and music education Kievman was born in 1949 in North Hollywood, California to an artistic family; his mother was a jazz singer, his father an actor, an uncle a violist. He pursued interdisciplinary studies at California Institute of the Arts (BFA/MF1977), studying music composition under James Tenney and Earl Brown and earning two BMI composition awards (1974, 1976). Before graduating, he found an audience for his works at European music festivals including Darmstadt (1974, 1976, and a retrospective concert in 1992) and Tang

Cecilia McDowall

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Cecilia McDowall (born 1951 in London, England) is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions. Life and career Born in London, McDowall attended Grey Coat Hospital School and read music at the University of Edinburgh, continuing her studies at Trinity College of Music in London and later completing an MMus in composition. She studied with Joseph Horovitz, Robert Saxton and Adam Gorb. She has won many awards and has been short-listed seven times for the British Composer Awards. In 2014 she won the British Composer Award for her choral piece Night Flight. Her publisher since 2010 has been Oxford University Press. Since 2015, she has been Visiting Composer in Dulwich College, London. In 2015, she served on the panel for a Women Composers Competition of The Arcadian Singers of Oxford. She lives in Chiswick. Music McDowall’s music has been commissioned and performed by both professional and amateur choirs. A commission from the Portsmouth Festival Choir, The Shipping Forecast, gained her national media attention in June 2011. The work draws together the poetry of Seán Street, the psalm ‘They that go down to the sea in ships’, and the words of the Shipping Forecas

Cecilie Ore

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Cecilie Ore (born 19 July 1954) is a Norwegian composer. Biography Cecilie Ore was born in Oslo, Norway, and studied piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. She also studied piano in Paris, and composition at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, and with Ton de Leeuw at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. During the eighties, Ore gained international acclaim for several of her electro-acoustic works. 1988 saw her winning both the first and second prize at the International Rostrum for Composers in the Electro Acoustic category for her work Etapper. The same year saw Ore bestowed with the Norwegian Society of Composers´ Work of the Year Award for the orchestral work Porphyre. Towards the end of the 80s, Orce gradually introduced a compositional focus on time, a focus that would lead to work cycles Codex Temporis and Tempura Mutantur. Codex Temporis comprises works Praesens Subitus (for string quartet 1989), Futurum Exactum (for 12 strings 1992), Erat Erit Est (for sinfonietta 1991) and Lex Temporis (for string quartet 1992). The ideas presented in Codex Temporis were further developed in Tempura Mutantor which is made up of works Non Nunquam (for string trio 1999), Nu

Celestine Ukwu

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Celestine Ukwu (1940 – 7 May 1977) was a Nigerian Igbo highlife musician during the 1960s and 1970s, best known for his hit songs “Ije Enu”, “Igede” and “Money Palava”. Described as a “prolific and outstanding composer” by music critic Benson Idonije of Radio Nigeria Two, Ukwu’s works have been featured on various world music compilations including The Rough Guide to Highlife and The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Africa. Early life Ukwu was born in Enugu, the capital city of Enugu State in southeastern Nigeria, and raised in Abor, located in the Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. His father was a local performer of the igede, ikpa and ode genres of Igbo music while his mother was lead singer in a women’s musical group. He learned to read music and play the harmonium through his uncle, a choirmaster, with whom he would frequently travel. He briefly attended primary schools in the locales they lived in, namely Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Igbariam, and Buguma, and completed his primary education in Abor in 1955. He spent the next three years at the Teacher Training College in Zaria, where in 1958 he would obtain his teachers’ grade three certificate and begin teaching. He returned to

César Camargo Mariano

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César Camargo Mariano (born 19 September 1943) is a Brazilian pianist, arranger, composer and music producer. Biography Mariano was born in São Paulo. In June 1957 the American trombone player Melba Liston invited thirteen-year-old Mariano to participate in her concert at a jazz club in Rio de Janeiro, and he appeared in a program on Rio’s Globo Radio called “The Boy Prodigy Who Plays Jazz”. Thar same year, Mariano met Johnny Alf, who went to live with Mariano’s family due to their great friendship. Together at the family home in São Paulo, Mariano became familiar with arranging, composing, and the arts of cinema and theatre, thanks to Johnny Alf’s encouragement. Through his own instincts, tenacity and raw talent, Mariano formed amateur instrumental and vocal groups, when TV Record in São Paulo invited him for a special called “Passport to Stardom” (Passaporte para o Estrelato). In the early 1960s, a teenaged Mariano became famous for his ability to swing and for his legendary left hand. His ensembles of that era, notably Sambalanço Trio and Som Três, are regarded today as high points in Brazilian jazz; so for his 1981 album Samambaia, one of his thirty-plus instrumental albums. Ma

Çesk Zadeja

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Çesk Zadeja (born Françesk Zadeja; 8 June 1927 – 15 August 1997) was an Albanian composer, conductor and music educator. He is often described as the “father of Albanian classical music” or “father of Albanian professional music” because of his role in the formation of Albania’s cultivated music tradition after the Second World War. Zadeja studied in Italy and the Soviet Union, worked in radio and military ensembles, and later held leading posts in major Albanian musical institutions. He was associated with the development of the National Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances, the Higher Institute of Arts in Tirana, and the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania. His works include symphonic music, concertos, chamber works, piano music, ballets, vocal music and film scores. Music Zadeja’s music has been described as combining European art-music forms with Albanian folk elements. His Symphony No. 1, written in 1956, is widely cited as the first Albanian symphony. Tirana Times described him as the author of more than 100 works of concert music, including ballets, chamber music, symphonies and songs. Selected works Orchestral and concert works * Symphony No. 1 (1956) * Concerto fo

Čestmír Gregor

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Čestmír Gregor (14 May 1926 – 2 March 2011) was a Czech composer, theorist and publicist. His career as a composer lasted from 1942 to 2005, and encompassed a variety of styles and formats. Life and career Čestmír Gregor was born in Brno, the son of composer and theorist Josef Gregor (1892-1957) and Františka Gregorová Koldová. After graduating from grammar school, he studied composition at the Brno Conservatory with Jaroslav Kvapil and musicology at the Masaryk University in Brno. He then continued studies in studio tracks with Kvapil at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, which he eventually completed in 1970. Gregor settled in Nový Jičín and worked as a composer. He married and had one son, Vit Gregor. He served as secretary of the creative branch of the Union of Czechoslovak Composers. Beginning in October 1959, he moved to Ostrava to work as head of the music broadcast station for Ostrava Czech Radio. In 1968 the arrival of Warsaw Pact troops disrupted his work at the radio station, and in 1972 Gregor was banned from publishing. In 1976 he moved to Prague, where he continued working as a composer. As a composer, Gregor was initially heavily influenced by 20th cen

Cezary Skubiszewski

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Cezary Jan Skubiszewski (born 1948) is a Polish-born Australian film and television composer whose work has received international acclaim winning numerous awards. Most notably Cezary is the recipient of four Australian Academy Film Television Awards (AACTA). He composed the film scores for Two Hands (1999), Death Defying Acts (2008) Red Dog (2011), The Sapphires (2012) and the TV series, Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018). Personal life and education Skubiszewski was born in Warsaw, Poland. His mother was a classical pianist. Skubiszewski, himself began piano lessons at 8 years of age and received a classical musical education over a period of 10 years under the tutelage of the choir director of the Warsaw Opera. In the late 1960s, Skubiszewski played in bands including ACB with other Warsaw musicians such as Aleksander Bem. He then spent one year in Paris and did not return to Poland due to the nation’s political situation and his own sense of wanderlust. They have two children, Viva Bianca and Jan Skubiszewski. Both work in the Australian entertainment industry. Career In Australia, during 1978 and 1979, Skubiszewski played the Moog synthesizer, Rhodes piano and Clavinet in his jazz

Chan Ka Nin

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Chan Ka Nin (born 3 December 1949) is a Canadian composer and music educator of Chinese descent. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1971. He has been commissioned to write works for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, New Music Concerts, the Quebec Contemporary Music Society, and Symphony Nova Scotia among many others. He has also been awarded funds to compose works by the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Ontario’s Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, and the Toronto Arts Council. He has won two Juno Awards for Best Classical Composition. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chan immigrated with his family to Canada in 1965 at the age of 15. The family settled in Vancouver and after completion of high school, Chan entered the University of British Columbia where he studied music composition with Jean Coulthard while pursuing degrees in both music and electrical engineering. He graduated from the UBC in 1976 and proceeded to enter the graduate composition program at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where he was a pupil of Bernhard Heiden. He e

Chan Wing-wah

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Chan Wing-wah (JP (; born 1954, in Hong Kong) is a Chinese conductor and composer. He is professor of music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and president of the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong. He was also chairman of the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild, vice president of the Asian Composers’ League and board member of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). He composed over 100 works, including eight symphonies. He was awarded several times, e.g. with the ACL Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize, the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award and the composition award of the International Double Reed Society in Florida. Life and work Chan Wing-wah earned a teacher’s diploma from Northcote College of Education in 1974. 1975 he graduated from the Sir Robert Black College of Education. From 1975 to 1979 he studied composition with David Gwilt at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Music). In 1979 he received the Fellowship Diploma in Music Composition (FTCL) from Trinity College of Music in London. From 1980 to 1985 he was Commonwealth Fellow with John Beckwith at the University of Toronto (Master of Music and Doctor of Music). S

Chandrabose (composer)

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Chandrabose (11 July 1950 – 30 September 2010) was an Indian composer and singer. He composed music for more than 300 films between 1977 and 1995. In 2007 he made his debut on the silver screen as an actor. Personal life Chandrabose’s son, Bose Santhosh, has also worked in films as a composer, working in the Malayalam film Sandwich (2011) and the Tamil films, Meenkothi and Deva Kumaran. He is married twice, since 2007 he started acting in Kalaignar TV serials. Career Chandrabose began his career as child artist in the film Thaayum Magalum, he then started to concentrate on music by composing for stage plays of R. S. Manohar and Prameela drama group. His debut film as composer was Madhura Geetham (1977). During the 1980s, he was the official composer of the AVM Productions, in particular the Tamil movies, some of which starred Rajini Kanth. Filmography Composer ;Films * Madhurageetham (1977) * Mangudi Minor (1978) * Machanai Paatheengala (1978) * Tharayil Vaazhum Meengal (1979) * Saranam Ayyappa (1980) * Vadivangal (1981) * Parvaiyin Marupakkam (1982) * Paasa Madal (1982) * Ithu Engal Rajyam (1984) * Oru Malarin Payanam (1985) * Rajathi Rojakili (1985) * Yemaatrathe Yemaaraathe (198

Charlemagne Palestine

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Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born August 15, 1945 or ‘47), known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Phil Niblock, although he prefers to call himself a maximalist. Formational years Born in Brooklyn, New York, From 1962 to 1969, Palestine was carillonneur for the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan, eventually creating a piece that consisted of 1,500 15-minute performances. From 1968 to 1972, Palestine studied vocal interpretation with Pandit Pran Nath, in Tribeca in the company of his bevy of stuffed animals. From 1980 to 1995, Palestine performed only rarely, exhibiting instead at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and in documenta 8. During that time, he also founded the Ethnology Cinema Project in New York, which is dedicated to preserving films that document disappearing traditional cultures. After moving to Europe in 1995, he settled in Brussels. In addition to creating exhibitions, Palestine performed regularly, re-releasing old

Charles Amirkhanian

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Charles Benjamin Amirkhanian (born January 19, 1945; Fresno, California) is an American composer. He is a percussionist, sound poet, and radio producer of Armenian origin. He is mostly known for his electroacoustic and text-sound music. Career Amirkhanian received his Master of Fine Arts from Mills College in 1980, where he studied electronic music and techniques of sound recording. He was music director of Pacifica Radio’s KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California, from 1969 to 1992, where he initiated the long-running program dedicated to avant-garde music, Ode to Gravity. He was also a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Creative Arts Department at San Francisco State University from 1977 to 1980. In 1984, the American Music Center awarded him its Letter of Distinction for service to American composers through his work at KPFA FM in Berkeley, California. This was followed in 2005 by another for his co-founding and directing the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco. From ASCAP in 1989 he received the Deems Taylor Award, also for service to American composers. Amirkhanian received a 1997 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. In 2009, Chamber Music America and ASCAP honore

Charles Bernstein (composer)

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Charles Bernstein (born February 28, 1943) is an American composer of film and television scores. He is a Daytime Emmy Award winner, and a two-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee. Since 1995, he has been a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Music Branch. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors for both the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the Society of Composers & Lyricists. Early life and education Bernstein was born in Minneapolis to mother Mildred Wolf (1910–2011) and father Charles Bernstein, Sr. (). Western horror film Hex (also 1973). His first score for a major Hollywood studio was for the United Artists film, White Lightning (1973), starring Burt Reynolds. The film marked the first of many collaborations between Bernstein and director Joseph Sargent. He even wrote the dance music in the latter film. Bernstein also scored non-horror films such as Foolin’ Around (1980). Bernstein reunited with Cujo director Lewis Teague to score his independent films, Cante Jondo (2007) and Charlotta-TS (2010). A Nightmare on Elm Street Under the recommendation of his agent, Bernstein met with Wes Craven and

Charles Boone (composer)

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Charles Boone (born Cleveland, on June 21, 1939) is an American composer of contemporary classical music, living in San Francisco. Biography Charles Boone studied at the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, the University of Southern California, and San Francisco State College. Karl Schiske, Adolph Weiss, and Ernst Krenek were among his teachers. He has been awarded three National Endowment for the Arts Commissions as well as a two-year Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) artist-in-residency in Berlin. His works have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as the Berlin, Avignon, and Ojai Festivals. Performers have included Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, Michael Tilson Thomas, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Jan Williams, Bertram Turetzky, and Karl Kohn. An archive of the composer’s scores, manuscripts, recordings, letters, and other documents is being gathered at the Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley. Boone has encountered a number of young people, through teaching and otherwise, who have been meaningful to him. They include Jon Beacham, Dicky Bahto, Claire Jackel, P

Charles Camilleri

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Charles Camilleri (7 September 1931 – 3 January 2009) was a Maltese composer. Early life Camilleri was born in Ħamrun on 7 September 1931 He received initial piano tuition and grounding in the rudiments of music from his father, and also played the accordion. In 1959, he studied under John Weinzweig at the University of Toronto for four years. Whilst in Toronto, he had contact with Stravinsky around the time of April 1962. Career Camilleri moved from his early influences by Maltese folk music to a musical form “in which nothing is fixed and his compositions evolve from themselves with a sense of fluency and inevitability”. He composed over 100 works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, voice and solo instruments. During the 1970s he gained international attention. Camilleri’s work has since been performed throughout the world and his research of folk music and improvisation, the influences of the sounds of Africa and Asia, together with the academic study of European music, helped him create a “universal” style. Camilleri himself identified four key influences in his world music: According to the Historical Dictionary of Malta, Camilleri is the most internationally recognized of major

Charles Chaynes

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Charles Augustin Chaynes (11 July 1925 – 24 June 2016) was a French composer. Biography Chaynes was born in Toulouse in 1925. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Darius Milhaud and Jean Rivier. In 1951 he won the Prix de Rome with the cantata Et l’homme se vit les portes rouvrir. During his stay at the Villa Medici in Rome he wrote the First Concerto for String Orchestra and the Ode for a Tragic Death. In 1956 he became a producer at the Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (RTF). In 1964 he succeeded Marius Constant as head of the channel France Musique. From 1975 to 1990 he headed the service de la création musicale at Radio France. In addition to several operas, one symphony and chamber works Chaynes composed numerous concertos, etc. for trumpet, violin, piano and organ, and two orchestral concerts. In 1966 he composed a concerto for organ, string orchestra, timpani and percussion for Marie-Claire Alain. His Piano Concerto was premiered in 1967 by Yvonne Loriod, the wife of Olivier Messiaen. He died on 24 June 2016 in Saint-Mandé at the age of 90. Selected works * Symphony (1955) * Concerto for organ, string orchestra, timpani and percussion (1966) * Piano Concerto (196

Charles Dodge (composer)

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Charles Malcolm Dodge (born June 5, 1942 in Ames, Iowa) is an American composer best known for his electronic music, specifically his computer music. He is a former student of Darius Milhaud and Gunther Schuller. Education and teaching career Dodge earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Iowa in 1964, studying composition with Richard Hervig. He studied with Jack Beeson, Chou Wen-chung, Otto Luening, and Vladimir Ussachevsky during a Master of Arts (1966) and Doctor of Arts (1970) from Columbia University. There he was active in the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. At Princeton University (1969–1970), he studied computer music with Godfrey Winham. Dodge became a leading innovator in computer music composition, as distinct from the analog electronic composition norm through the 1970s. He taught at Columbia (1970–1977), then founded the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music in 1977 at Brooklyn College (City University of New York), serving as Professor of Music. In recent years he is best known, with his wife Katharine, as co-owner of the Putney Mountain Winery in Putney, Vermont, which has grown annually since its 1998 founding. Music Dodge created many work

Charles Fussell

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Charles Clement Fussell (born February 14, 1938, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is an American composer and conductor of contemporary classical music. He has composed six symphonies and three operas. His symphony Wilde for solo baritone and orchestra, based on the life of Oscar Wilde and premiered by the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the baritone Sanford Sylvan in 1990, was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He received a citation and award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1992. Fussell received advanced degrees in composition and conducting from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Thomas Canning and Bernard Rogers. He received a Fulbright grant to study at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where he worked with Boris Blacher. He also attended the Bayreuth masterclasses of Friedelind Wagner. He was an assistant and close friend of the composer Virgil Thomson. He served as the president of the Thomson Foundation for many years. Fussell has served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the North Carolina School of the Arts (1976–1977), Boston University (1983–2003), and Rutgers University. Catalogue of works Late 1

Charles Gross

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Charles Gross (May 13, 1934 – March 24, 2026) was an American film and television composer who lived in New York City. Life and career Gross was born in Boston, Massachusetts on May 13, 1934. He was educated at Harvard University (BA), the New England Conservatory and Mills College (teaching fellowship), and a student of Darius Milhaud. He arranged for the West Point Band for three years, and served in the US Army. Later, he became a writer for industrial films and cartoons. He wrote original music for the 1976 Broadway production of The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. His film and television scores included Valdez Is Coming (1971), The Tenth Level (1976), Blue Sunshine (1977), The Dain Curse (1978), Heartland (1979), My Body, My Child (1982), Terrible Joe Moran (1984), Country (1984), The Burning Bed (1984), The Night They Saved Christmas (1984), Arthur the King (1985), Sweet Dreams (1985), Between Two Women (1986), Punchline (1988), Turner & Hooch (1989), Air America (1990), Another You (1991), A Family Thing (1996), and Fakin’ Da Funk (1997). Gross died on March 24, 2026, at the age of 91. References External links *

Charles Hamm

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Charles Edward Hamm (April 21, 1925 – October 16, 2011) was an American musicologist, writer, composer, and music educator. He is credited with being the first music historian to seriously study and write about American popular music. He also was one of the founders of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Hamm graduated from the University of Virginia in 1947 where he was a member of the Virginia Glee Club. Zachary Woolfe wrote in The New York Times that “Mr. Hamm was one of the first scholars to study the history of American popular music with musicological rigor and sensitivity to complex racial and ethnic dynamics, and both oral and written traditions. He traced pop’s history not just to its full recent flowering in the 1950s or to the 19th century and Stephen Foster, but also to the colonial-era compositions that created the context for all that followed.” Hamm was a 1967 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. In 2002 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society for American Music. He died of pneumonia, leaving 3 sons. Works *Yesterdays: Popular Song in America (1979) *Music in the New World (1983) *Put

Charles Knox (composer)

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Charles C. Knox (April 19, 1929 – December 11, 2019 ) was an American composer and music educator. He is particularly noted for his music for brass instruments and chamber music, among his over 100 compositions. Knox received a B.F.A. in music from the University of Georgia, where he joined the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity (Epsilon Lambda chapter) in 1950 and was later elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He subsequently earned both his Master of Music and Ph.D. from Indiana University School of Music, where he studied composition with Bernhard Heiden. Knox was professor of music at Georgia State University for over three decades. In 2001 he was recipient of a Mayor’s Fellowship in the Arts from the City of Atlanta. Examples of Knox’s chamber works can be found in audio format on two compact discs, Clouds Are Not Spheres (1997, Albany Records #254) and 2002: Chamber Music of Charles Knox (2000, ACA Digital #ACD 20066). Selected works *Music for Brass Quintet (1953, revised 1967) *Symphony for band (1955) *Concert Piece for bassoon and orchestra (1959) *Suite for piano 4-hands (1959) *A Dedication Litany for mixed chorus a cappella (1960) *Solo for trumpet with brass trio (1966) *So

Charles Ravier

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Charles Ravier (5 June 1934 – 5 March 1984) was a 20th-century French composer, music director and choral conductor. Biography Born in Savigny-sur-Grosne in Saône-et-Loire, Charles Ravier first studied the violin, then entered the conservatoire de Lyon where he won prizes in harmony, counterpoint and fugue. He was interested in polyphonic music, and particularly in the early repertoire of the Middle Ages in the 17th century. At the end of the 1950s, he formed the Ensemble Polyphonique de la RTF, and performed with this group the music by Guillaume de Machaut, Clément Janequin, Gesualdo, Claudio Monteverdi among others. Interested in the works of Safford Cape, he chose to have the vocal pieces of the Renaissance, and mainly the songs of the 16th century, interpreted by one voice per vocal part. As a composer he is the author of the pieces Les Espaces oubliés, Les chemins de l’imaginaire, L’Apocalypse d’Angers, and Liturgie pour un Dieu mort (cantata). He also premiered contemporary works by Girolamo Arrigo and Sylvano Bussotti. He died in Paris as a result of suicide by jumping. Bibliography * Alain Pâris, notice “Charles Ravier” in Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l’interprétatio

Charles Shere

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Charles Shere (August 20, 1935 — December 15, 2020) was an American composer. He studied composition briefly with Robert Erickson and Luciano Berio but was largely self-taught. His music was primarily in unconventional notations and open form through the 1970s and early 1980s, but turned to more conventional forms (though not expression) thereafter. He was Music Director of radio KPFA in Berkeley in the late 1960s, a producer at KQED-TV in San Francisco from 1967 to 1971, and music critic of the Oakland (California) Tribune from 1971 to his retirement in 1988, and taught music history (and occasionally composition) at Mills College (Oakland, California) from 1971 to 1986. Principal work includes the opera The Bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even (1964–1986), after the painting by Marcel Duchamp, a Symphony in three movements (1989), concerti for piano and for violin (1964; 1989), a number of songs, the piano sonatas Bachelor machine (1985) and Compositio ut explicatio (2006), and various pieces for chamber ensembles. His books include Thinking sound music: the life and work of Robert Erickson, “How I Read Stein,” “How I Saw Duchamp,” and (as co-editor) Everbest ever: correspo

Charles Wilson (composer)

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Charles Mills Wilson (8 May 1931 – 13 June 2019) was a Canadian composer, choral conductor, and music educator. Early life and education Wilson was born in Toronto, Ontario. He began studying piano at age six with Wilfred Powell and later studied organ with Charles Peaker. He studied composition with Godfrey Ridout at the University of Toronto, earning a Bachelor of Music in 1952 and a Doctor of Music degree in Composition in 1956. While at the University of Toronto, Wilson also studied at the Berkshire Music Center, at Tanglewood, during the summers with Lukas Foss, Aaron Copland and Carlos Chávez. He became interested in choral music and spent much of his time studying choral conducting. In 1953, Wilson taught music theory and conducted the University Chorale at the University of Saskatchewan while simultaneously finishing his doctoral thesis/composition, Symphony in A. Career From 1954-1964 Wilson served as the organist and choirmaster at Chalmer United Church in Guelph, Ontario. While there he founded the Guelph Light Opera and Oratorio Company (later the Guelph Opera and Concert Singers) in 1955, conducting their performances until 1974. During these years he conducted choirs

Charles Wuorinen

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Charles Peter Wuorinen (, ; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He also performed as a pianist and conductor. Wuorinen composed more than 270 works: orchestral music, chamber music, solo instrumental and vocal works, and operas, such as Brokeback Mountain (2014). His work was termed serialist but he came to disparage that idea as meaningless. Time’s Encomium, his only purely electronic piece, received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize. Wuorinen taught at several institutions, including Columbia University, Rutgers University and the Manhattan School of Music. Life and career Background Wuorinen was born in New York City on June 9, 1938. His father, John H. Wuorinen, the chair of the Columbia University history department, with Paul Zukofsky and the BSO conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. In 1976 Wuorinen completed his Percussion Symphony, a five-movement work for 24 players including two pianos for the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble and his longtime colleague Raymond Des Roches, as well as his opera subtitled “a baroque burlesque”, The W. of Babylon with an original libretto by Renaud Charles Bruce. The New Jersey Pe

Charlie Parker

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Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed “Bird” or “Yardbird”, was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and advanced harmonies. He was a virtuoso and introduced revolutionary rhythmic and harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Parker primarily played the alto saxophone. Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer. Early life Charles Parker Jr. was born on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas, to Charles Parker Sr. and Adelaide “Addie” Bailey, who was of mixed Choctaw and African-American background. He was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, near Westport Road. His father, a Pullman waiter and chef on the railways, was often required to travel for work, but provided some musical influence because he was a pianist, dancer, and singer on the Theatre Owners Booking Association c

Charly Oleg

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Charles Olejniczak (7 August 1931 – 8 September 2025), better known by the stage name Charly Oleg, was a French organist, pianist, composer and orchestra conductor. Life and career Born in Hayange on 7 August 1931 into a family with Polish origins, Olejniczak grew up in Nilvange. He attended the and was a pianist for the French Armed Forces during his military service. At the age of 20, he accompanied Josephine Baker on a tour through London and took over when she got sick. From 1979 to 1982, he was the head conductor at the Théâtre de la Renaissance and directed opérettes such as Dédé alongside Georges Guétary, , . In 1988, he held a small role in the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In 1998, he had an uncredited role in . Charly Oleg died in Le Blanc-Mesnil on 8 September 2025, at the age of 94. Albums *Musique douce n°3 (1957) *Les Plus Belles Mélodies de “Tournez Manège” (1992) *Variations personnelles (2007) References External links * *

Chava Flores

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Salvador Flores Rivera (14 January 1920 – 5 August 1987), known as Chava Flores, was a Mexican composer and singer of popular and folkloric music. His songs often described the lives of Mexico City’s ordinary people. Biography Flores was born in the old La Merced neighborhood, in Mexico City’s historical center, on calle de La Soledad. It is presumed he grew up in Tacuba, in Colonia Roma and in Santa Maria la Ribera, although he is also located in Azcapotzalco and Unidad Cuitláhuac, where he lived until 1933, when he moved to Morelia, Michoacán. His father died in 1933, so he had to start working to contribute to the support of his family. El Álbum de Oro de la Canción Chava Flores had many jobs since his childhood; he worked as a tailor, warehouse manager, collector, door-to-door salesman, a hardware store administrator, owner of a shirt and sausage store and a printer, among other things. Tribute On 14 January 2017, Google celebrated his 97th birthday with a Google Doodle. Some of his songs Flores’s songs featured a popular language, with double entendres and wordplays. Some of his compositions are: Interpreters of his songs Filmography Actor * La esquina de mi barrio, 1957, dir.

Chaya Arbel

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Chaya Arbel (; June 8, 1921 – December 14, 2006) was an Israeli composer. She is one of Israel’s best known female classical composers and the recipient of the ACUM Prize. Biography Arbel studied piano and composition in Germany, until she immigrated to the British mandate of Palestine (1936), where she worked in agriculture at kibbutz HaMa’apil. Only 25 years later, Arbel resumed her composition studies, with professor Leon Schidlowsky. Arbel remained a kibbutz member for the rest of her life. She won the ACUM Prize for Dialogue for Clarinet and Orchestra. * 1992 Agada for woodwinds, brass and percussion (IMC) * 1995 Conzertino for double bass solo, winds and percussion (IMC) * 1996 Time Beats, Quartet for harp, flute, viola and percussion (IMC) Small ensemble * 19?? Roots, Ballad in 2 parts for violin, cello and piano (IMC) * 1986 Drama for clarinet, cello and piano (IMC) * 1987 Roundarounds for tuba and piano (IMC) * 1990 In Memory of Our Soldiers for trombone and piano (IMC) * 1991 The Turtles Voice for horn, violin, cello and piano (IMC) * 1995 Intermezzo for viola and piano (IMC) Solo instruments * 1984 Lament for piano (IMC) * 1985 Remembrance for piano (IMC) * 1983 Fantasia

Chen Yi (composer)

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Chen Yi () (born April 4, 1953) is a Chinese-American composer of contemporary classical music and violinist. Chen Yi has earned global fame as a prolific composer who integrates Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts (M.A.) in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Chen was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Si Ji (Four Seasons), and has received awards from the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and American Academy of Arts and Letters (Lieberson Award), as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. and in 2012, she was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019. Early life Born to parents who are both doctors and enthusiasts of Western classical music and culture, Chen Yi and her two siblings began music lessons at age three. She began learning piano and at age four was introduced to violin. She memorized works by classical composers like Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Tchaikov

Chester Biscardi

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Chester Biscardi (b. Kenosha, Wisconsin, October 19, 1948; nicknamed Chet) is an Italian American composer and educator. He received a B.A. degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1970); he studied during 1969–1970 at the University of Bologna and the Conservatorio di Musica “G. B. Martini”; he received an M.A. in Italian literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1972); he received an M.M. in composition from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1974); he received a M.M.A. in composition from Yale University (1976); and he received a D.M.A. in composition from Yale University (1980). His composition instructors have included Les Thimmig, Mario Davidovsky, Robert Morris, Frank Lewin, Yehudi Wyner, Krzysztof Penderecki and Tōru Takemitsu. He has been a member of the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College since 1977. He is openly gay. Biscardi’s music has been released on the Albany, American Modern Recordings, Bridge, CRI (New World Records), Furious Artisans, Intim Musik (Sweden), Naxos, New Albion, New Ariel, North/South Recordings, Perfect Enemy Records, and Sept Jardins (Canada) labels. Selected works : Works by Biscardi are published by Merio

Chie Mukai

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is a female Japanese composer and musician, best known for her underground improv-folk group Ché-SHIZU. She has been involved in improvised performance since 1975, when she participated in the East Bionic Symphonia group, a graduation project for students of Takehisa Kosugi at the Bigakko art school in Tokyo. Her primary instrument is the bowed Chinese er-hu, although she is also a vocalist, and plays piano and percussion. Every year she organizes the Perspective Emotion mixed media arts festival in Tokyo. She has been frequently collaborating with Kenya Kawaguchi, Masayoshi Urabe, Seiichi Yamamoto since 2010. Discography Solo *Kokyu Improvisation (胡弓インプロヴィゼイション) CD (PSF, 1990) CD *Three pieces, solo improvisations LP (Siwa, 2000; CD, 2007) *Crossing CDR (there, 2004) *V.A., Somethings #1 CD (Last Visible Dog, 2007) Ché-SHIZU *Yakusoku wa dekinai (約束はできない) LP (zero records, 1984; CD reissue on Alchemy Records, 2001) *V.A., Aura Music LP (zero records, 1984) *V.A., Welcome to Dreamland LP/CD (celluloid, 1985) *Nazareth (ナザレ) CD (PSF, 1993) *A Journey CD (PSF, 1994) *Live 1996 Suisho CD (PSF, 1997) *Glimmering Star (瞬きの星) LP (Aleutian Retto, 1999; CD reissue on Alchemy Records, 2001)

Chiel Meijering

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Michael Maria “Chiel” Meijering (born 15 June 1954, in Amsterdam) is a Dutch composer. He studied composition with Ton de Leeuw, percussion with Jan Labordus and Jan Pustjens, and piano at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He composed over 1000 works. Meijering has a fondness for outrageous titles. Some examples include “I Hate Mozart” (for flute, alto saxophone, harp and violin); *Niet te stuiten *Twee eieren, zuurstok en spinrag * Two men and a lady Operas * Alzheimer Opera * The Last Days of Mankind (1988) *St. Louis Blues References External links * Chiel Meijering official site * Chiel Meijering page at Donemus/MuziekGroup Nederland

Chinary Ung

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Chinary Ung ( ) (born November 24, 1942, in Takéo, Cambodia) is a composer currently living in California, United States. Career After arriving in the US in 1965 to study clarinet, he turned to composition studies with Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky, receiving a Doctor of Musical Arts from Columbia University in 1974. In 1988, he became the first American to win the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for musical composition. Additionally, he received the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, as well as awards from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, Asia Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts. In October 2007 the Del Sol String Quartet was invited to premiere the composer’s Spiral X playing the Library of Congress’ collection of Stradivarius instruments. Ung taught music at Northern Illinois University, Connecticut College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Arizona State University, before being appointed to the faculty at the University of California, San Diego. In 2013, UC San Diego promoted Ung to the rank of Distinguished Professor. Ung’s music is

Chou Wen-chung

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Chou Wen-chung (; July 28, 1923 – October 25, 2019) was a Chinese American composer of contemporary classical music. He emigrated in 1946 to the United States and received his music training at the New England Conservatory and Columbia University. Chou is credited by Nicolas Slonimsky as one of the first Chinese composers who attempted to translate authentic East Asian melo-rhythms into the terms of modern Western music. Life Early years in China Chou was born in Yantai (Chefoo), Shandong. He grew up in China and developed an early love for music. (“Sights and Sounds” is an essay by Chou on early influences on his music.) Qin music, in particular, has proved fertile ground for his future exploration. Chou described his early explorations of musical instruments: While in Qingdao, I first discovered the meaning of music in life when I heard our household help enjoying their free time by playing instruments, singing, and drinking. I also became fascinated with harmonium pedals, which I played with at first as a car accelerator, and then discovered their dynamic effect… However, it was in Wuhan that I discovered the violin when my older brothers and I bought a child-size violin as a

Chris Brown (composer)

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Chris Brown (born 1953) is an American composer, pianist and electronic musician, who creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles. He was active early in his career as an inventor and builder of electroacoustic instruments; he has also performed widely as an improviser and pianist with groups as “Room” and the “Glenn Spearman Double Trio.” In 1986 he co-founded the pioneering computer network music ensemble “The Hub”. He is also known for his recorded performances of music by Henry Cowell, Luc Ferrari, and John Zorn. He has received commissions from the Berkeley Symphony, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, the Gerbode Foundation, the Phonos Foundation and the Creative Work Fund. His recent music includes the poly-rhythm installation “Talking Drum”, the “Inventions” series for computers and interactive performers, and the radio performance “Transmissions” series, with composer Guillermo Galindo. His 1992 electroacoustic work “Lava”, for brass, percussion, and electronics is produced by Tzadik Records. He teaches Composition and Electronic Music at Mills College in Oakland, where he

Chris de Souza

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Christopher Edward de Souza (born 6 June 1943) is an English composer, teacher, music director, broadcaster, opera producer and author. He has presented programmes on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and World Service. Education and career Chris de Souza is a graduate in music from Bristol University (1966) and a graduate of the Directors’ Course of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. From then on De Souza produced over 100 operas around the world, Since 1966 he wrote and performed several compositions like 8 Epithalamia for Organ, Maharajahs, The Ides of March, Children of the Light. In 1977 he devised the Liszt Festival of London editing and directing the first modern performance of Franz Liszt’s opera Don Sanche. and Discovering Music on BBC Radio 3 and Sky Digital. As a presenter his own programme Tuning Up, focusing on young musicians, won a Silver Medal at the New York Radio Festival in 1992. He has also presented on TV, BBC World Service, and broadcasts classical channels for many airlines. De Souza is an author of classical music guides like Looking at music, Listening to Music, The Kingfisher Young People’s Book of Music, and wrote articles to The Listener, Music and Musicians, Musica

Chris Mary Francine Whittle

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Chris Mary-Francine Whittle (born 23 May 1927) is a Belgian composer, performer (harpsichord and piano) and teacher. Biography Chris Mary-Francine Whittle was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 23 May 1927. Whittle studied music at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp, where she won several prizes, including the Albert de Vleeschower prize for composition. Whittle also studied music in France with Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Whittle spent 20 years on concert tours throughout Europe. Works Whittle’s compositions were published by Schott frères. They include: * Trio, Op. 11 (violin, cello and piano; 1949) * Variations for Carillon, Op. 1 (1951) * Woodwind Quintet (1951; won the Albert de Vleeschower prize) Orchestra * Concerto for Piano (1948) * Variations on an Old Scottish Song (1952) Piano * 24 Preludes, Op. 14 (1952) * Ballade, Op 15 (1949) * Berceuse, Op. 4 (1947) * Diurne, Op. 22 (1965) * Impromptu, Op. 27 (1966) * Intermezzi, Op. 32 * Ondine, Op. 12 (1952) * Scottish Dances, Op. 16 (1951) * Sonata, Op. 4 (1947) * Sonata, Op. 9 (1948) * Sonatine, Op. 30 (1967) * Two Nocturnes, Op. 6 (1967-68) * Two Small Pieces, Op. 25 (four hands; 1960) * Two Suites, Op 1 (

Christian Calon

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Christian Calon (born 5 September 1950) is a French-born Canadian composer who is active in electroacoustic music. He has worked extensively in large computer-based studios in Canada and Europe and has received commissions from the Canada Council, the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille, and the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec. His work is written in an expressionist and narrative style and his pieces are characterized by acousmatic diffusion. Life Born in Marseille, he immigrated to Canada in 1966 and settled in Montréal. Calon is a largely self-taught musician who became interested in electroacoustic music through his friend and mentor, Francis Dhomont. He received his only formal training at McGill University where he pursued graduate studies in computer music for one year. Calon began his composing career in Montréal. In 1986 he co-founded the Canadian Electroacoustic Community with some 100 other musicians, serving as the organization’s vice-president in 1989–90. In 1985 his work Portrait d’un Visiteur won first prize at the 1985 Luigi Russolo International Competition. He moved to Europe in 1990, and in 1991 was appointed music director of the studios of

Christian Lauba

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Christian Lauba (born 26 July 1952) is a Tunisian-born French composer and teacher, especially noted for his compositions for saxophone. His compositions often incorporate the music of his native North Africa as well as Japanese influences. He sometimes composes under the name of Jean Matitia, particularly for jazz and rag music. Biography Lauba was born in Sfax, Tunisia. His family later settled in Bordeaux, France, where he studied languages at the University of Bordeaux and music at the Conservatory of Bordeaux with composer Michel Fusté-Lambezat. Early in his compositional career, he also worked with saxophonist Jean-Marie Londeix. He has also composed literature for other solo instruments as well as ensembles. He has given master classes in composition and lectured at many universities including Bowling-Green in Ohio, Winnipeg in Canada, and the University of Maryland as well as at several European conservatories including those of Milan, Madrid, Lisbon (Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa), and Amsterdam. He chaired the jury of the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1996. From 2004 to 2007, Lauba was artistic director of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and from

Christian Manen

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Christian Manen (3 July 1934 – 11 September 2020 ) was a French composer and music teacher. Born in Boulogne-Billancourt, Manen studied at the Conservatory of Nice and between 1949 and 1961 at the Conservatoire de Paris. Here he was a student of Berthe Duru (solfège), Jules Gentil (piano), Félix Passerone (drums), Marcel Dupré and Rolande Falcinelli (organ and improvisation), Louis Fourestier (conducting), Noël Gallon (counterpoint and fugue), Henri Challan (harmony), Norbert Dufourcq (music history) and Tony Aubin (composition). In 1961 he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome with the cantata La Loreley. This was followed by a stay at the Villa Medici in Rome until 1965. Career Manen had been teaching at the Conservatory of Asnières since 1954 and a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris since 1965. He also taught at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris (CNR) and other music schools, including the École supérieure de musique César-Franck. Since 1985 he gave regular lectures at the Académie internationale d’été de Nice. Among his students were Thierry Escaich, Selman Ada, Pascal Devoyon, Nicolas Bacri, Pascal Godart, Raphaël Sanchez, Rémi Guillard, Alexandre Tharaud and Cédric Tiber

Christian Münch

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Christian Münch (born 11 April 1951) is a German composer, organist, pianist and conductor. Life Münch was born in Freiberg in 1951 in a cantor’s family. With his father he learned trumpet and organ. Since his childhood he received piano and clarinet lessons at the music school in Freiberg. From 1971 to 1976 he studied musical composition with Manfred Weiss and Wilfried Krätzschmar, conducting with Rudolf Neuhaus and piano with Günter Händel at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber. From 1983 to 1985 he was with Georg Katzer at the Academy of Arts, Berlin. During this time he was engaged in electroacoustic music. Subsequently Münch worked as répétiteur at the Semperoper in Dresden. He conducted the Gruppe Neue Musik Hanns Eisler, the “musica-viva-ensemble dresden” and the “Ensemble für Neue Musik Berlin” as well as a guest conductor at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Münch has conducted more than 100 world premieres. His compositions, including a ballet, have been performed by the Dresden Philharmonic, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Dresdner Kreuzchor, among others. Münch has taught at the Dresden Academy of Music since 1976 and was honorary professor there f

Christian Wolff (composer)

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Christian G. Wolff (born March 8, 1934) is an American composer of experimental classical music and classicist. Biography Wolff was born in Nice, France, to the German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S. in 1941, they helped to found Pantheon Books with other European intellectuals who had fled Europe during the rise of fascism. The Wolffs published a series of notable English translations of European literature, mostly, as well as an edition of the I Ching that came to greatly impress John Cage after Wolff had given him a copy. Wolff became an American citizen in 1946. When he was sixteen (in 1950) his piano teacher Grete Sultan sent him for lessons in composition to the new music composer John Cage. Wolff soon became a close associate of Cage and his artistic circle which was part of the New York School and included the fellow composers Earle Brown and Morton Feldman, the pianist David Tudor, and the dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. Cage relates several anecdotes about Wolff in his one-minute Indeterminacy pieces. Almost completely self-taught as composer, Wolff

Christian Zanési

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Christian Zanési (born 22 May 1952) is a French composer. Biography Born in Lourdes, Zanési studied with Guy Maneveau and Marie-Françoise Lacaze at the Pau University (South of France) (1974–1975), and with Pierre Schaeffer and Guy Reibel at the Paris Conservatory (1976–1977). In 1977 he joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). There, he learned and practised all the technical skills linked to sound, thanks to a wide range of experiences, productions and encounters. He has initiated many projects in the field of radio, publications and musical events including: the Electromania radio show on France Musique, the festival Présences électronique and the CD box sets Archives GRM, Bernard Parmegiani, l’œuvre musicale, Luc Ferrari, l’œuvre électronique. He currently is the artistic director of the Ina GRM. Since the 1990s Christian Zanési has been composing from his home studio and drawing his inspiration from the poetic encounter with remarkable sounds. In 2011, Christian Zanési took part in Jérémie Carboni’s Musique(s) électronique(s) documentary on Electronic music. Discography * D’un jardin à l’autre (extrait)—Concert Imaginaire Ina C1000 * Stop! l’horizon/ Profil-Désir/—Cour

Christina Kubisch

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Christina Kubisch (born 31 January 1948) is a German composer, sound artist, performance artist, professor and flautist. She composes both electronic and acoustic music for multimedia installations. She gained recognition in the mid-1970s from her early works including concerts, performances and installations. Her work focuses on synthesising audio and visual arts to create multi-sensory experiences for participants. She focuses on finding sounds and music in unusual places that participants would normally not think of as somewhere to experience sound. She is mostly known for her sound installations and “electrical Walks”. Personal life and education Kubisch was born in Bremen, Germany in 1948. She studied painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart from 1967 to 1968. She studied flute, piano and composition at the Academy of Music in Hamburg, Germany and the Jazz Academy of Graz, Austria from 1969 to 1972. From 1972 to 1974, she continued studying music at the Conservatory of Zurich. In 1974 she moved to Milan, Italy where she began studying composition and electronic music at the Milan Conservatory, graduating with a diploma in 1976. Career Kubisch moved to Milan in 1973

Christine Berl

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Christine Berl (born 1943) is an American composer, pianist, and Egyptian-style Oriental dancer. Biography Christine Berl is the daughter of Paul Berl, longtime accompanist of Victoria de los Ángeles. She was born in New York City, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in piano from Mannes College of Music in 1964. She continued her education at Queen’s College, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in composition in 1970. She also studied Schenkerian studies with Ernst Oster and Carl Schachter. As a dancer, she studied ballet for many years in New York with Russian teachers Vera Nemtchinova and Vladimir Dokoudovsky. Then she studied Egyptian-style Oriental dance for many years with the famous Egyptian choreographer Yousry Sharif, as well as with choreographer Mahmoud Reda in Cairo. Career Berl’s music has innovated what she calls a Chakra form, arrived at using serial techniques and interval cycle theory connected to the Passacaglia form. “Elegy” (1974) is completely in this form, “The Lord of the Dance” (1989) ends with a chakra and there are several chakras in “Masmoudi” for violin and piano (2012). She has served as artistic consultant for Tirreno Records. Peter Serkin

Christoph Lehmann (musician)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Christoph Lehmann (7 May 1947 – 31 August 2024 ) was a German organist, harpsichordist, church musician and composer, especially in the field of Neues Geistliches Lied (NGL). He had worked as a continuo harpsichordist and organist in performances and recordings of early music with several ensembles. Life and career Lehmann was born in Beijing. From 1972 to 1984, he was a church musician at the Protestant Thomaskirche in Düsseldorf, as well as a theatre musician in Düsseldorf, Bochum, Bonn and Aachen. Two songs with music by Lehmann were included in the second edition of the common German Catholic hymnal, Gotteslob, in 2013, “Ich lobe meinen Gott, der aus der Tiefe mich holt” with text by ) in the common section as GL 383, and “Wo Menschen sich vergessen”, with text by Thomas Laubach in regional section, such as GL 832 in the Diocese of Cologne. Since 1985, Lehmann has been an organist and harpsichordist in the field of early music for various ensembles, including Il Dolcimelo, Das Kleine Konzert in Dormagen, Movimento, and La Stravaganza in Cologne. Work Popular songs with music by Lehmann include: * “Wir werden leben, überleben” (text: Alois Albrecht * “Komm, lass diese Nacht nich

Christoph von Blumröder

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Christoph von Blumröder (born 18 July 1951) is a German musicologist. Career Born in Northeim, Blumröder studied musicology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in Breisgau with Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, philosophy and history of the . After his doctorate in 1979, Blumröder was a research assistant at the (1972–2006). From 1980 Blumröder also taught at the university there, where he received his habilitation in 1990. After assistant professorships at the University of Bonn in the winter semester of 1991/92 and at the Saarland University in the summer semester of 1995, he accepted an appointment as professor for contemporary music at the Musicological Institute of the University of Cologne in the winter semester of 1996/97. There he founded the cycles of events Composition and Musicology in Dialogue (1997) and Space Music (1998) as well as the publication series Signale aus Köln. Beiträge zur Musik der Zeit and was elected chairman of the association Signale aus Köln in 1999. Furthermore, Blumröder is a member of the Centre for Modern Research at the University of Cologne and was involved in the Cultural Studies Research College Media and Cultural Communication from 2002 to 20

Christopher Bochmann

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Christopher Consitt Bochmann (born November 8, 1950) is a British-born composer, conductor, music teacher, arranger and orchestrator who has lived and worked in Portugal since 1980. Known for composition, teaching and conducting, he is Professor Emeritus of the University of Évora in Portugal, from which he retired in 2020. Early years and studies Bochmann was born in 1950 in Chipping Norton, West Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. As a child, he sang in the choir of St.George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. At age 16, he studied with French musician and teacher Nadia Boulanger in Paris before attending the University of Oxford, New College, where he studied with conductor and choirmaster David Lumsden, composer and pianist Kenneth Leighton, and composer, pianist and music scholar Robert Sherlaw Johnson. His works cross multiple genres, with a detailed overview provided on his website. Compositions include: * 4 String Quartets * 4 Wind Quintets * 21 essays for solo instruments * 7 Canzonas for various ensembles * 11 Letters to composer friends for piano * Lament (2001) * Symphony (2005) * Cicero Dixit (2006) * Opera: Corpo e Alma (2008) * Um leve tremor (2019) * Concerto for orchestra (2019)

Christopher Bowers-Broadbent

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Christopher Bowers-Broadbent (born 13 January 1945) is an English organist and composer. Biography Christopher Bowers-Broadbent was born in Hertfordshire UK on 13 January 1945. He was a boy chorister in the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge under Boris Ord and then briefly under David Willcocks. While at King’s, he played violin and piano. During his teenage years he was a pupil at Berkhamsted School where he first began to learn the organ under Dr Kenneth Abbott. After Berkhamsted School Bowers-Broadbent went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music where his principal studies were organ with Arnold Richardson (organist of the West London Synagogue and Wolverhampton Town Hall), and composition with Richard Rodney Bennett. Christopher Bowers-Broadbent is the father of musician Harry Broadbent. Compositions Choral *1968 Four Lovescapes, canticles (E. E. Cummings) *1972 Worthy is the Lamb, cantata *1974 The Hollow Man (T. S. Eliot) *1975 Rhymes without Reason, four songs (Mervyn Peake) *1976 The Story of Cars, a short cantata *1978 Deo Gratias, a motet *1981 The Quarry, a short cantata (W. H. Auden) *1989 Jubilate-Cantate *1999 Holy Communion service for Gray’s Inn Canticles Evenin

Christopher Brown (British composer)

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Christopher Roland Brown (born 17 June 1943) is a British composer. Career He was born in Tunbridge Wells. and from the age of 9 he was a chorister at Westminster Abbey. He studied under director of music David Lepine at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and then at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley, and with Boris Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He was also a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge between 1962 and 1965. His pupils there and at Cambridge included Kit Armstrong, Charlotte Baskerville, Dominy Clements, Jonathan Pitkin and John Webb. He is a composition supervisor at the University of Cambridge and has been active as conductor (of the Huntingdonshire Philharmonic, Cambridge Players, New Cambridge Singers and Dorset Bach Cantata Club), choral trainer and examiner. Music Much of his work has been choral or vocal, including Three Shakespeare Songs (1965), Elegy (1967, for speaker, soloists, chorus and brass quintet), the Herrick Songs (1971), Hodie Salvator Apparuit (1971, described by Rob Barnett as “one of the finest extended choral items in the British repertoire” and performed by Stephen Wilkinson with the BBC Northern Singers), and Mas

Christopher Gunning

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Christopher Gunning (5 August 1944 – 25 March 2023) was an English composer of concert works and music for films and television. Early life Gunning was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on 5 August 1944, the younger of two sons. He grew up in Hendon, northwest London. His father was a pianist and educator from South Africa, and his mother had been one of his father’s pupils. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where his tutors included Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett. Career Film and television Gunning’s film and television compositions received many awards, including the 2007 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for La Vie en Rose, as well as three additional awards for Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Middlemarch, and Porterhouse Blue. He also won three Ivor Novello Awards, for the TV miniseries Rebecca, and the film scores for Under Suspicion (1991), and Firelight (1997). His other film scores included Goodbye Gemini (1970), Hands of the Ripper (1971), Ooh… You Are Awful (1972), the film version of Man About the House (1974), In Celebration (1975), Rogue Male (1976), Charlie Muffin (1979), Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981), Knights of God (1987), When the Whal

Christopher Hobbs

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Christopher Hobbs (born 9 September 1950) is an English experimental composer, best known as a pioneer of British systems music. Life and career Hobbs was born in Hillingdon, near London. He was a junior exhibitioner at Trinity College London, then was Cornelius Cardew’s first student at the Royal Academy of Music from 1967. Hobbs worked with Cardew and Christian Wolff: he joined AMM, appearing on two albums: The Crypt and Laminal. In 1969, Hobbs was a member from the first meeting of the Scratch Orchestra, and, as its youngest member, designed the Scratch Orchestra’s first concert, at Hampstead Town Hall on 1 November 1969. His early composition Voicepiece, part of his Verbal Pieces group, was used often enough to be called a Popular Classic in the Scratch Orchestra nomenclature. As experimental music was hard to come by, Hobbs gathered sheet music from friends and founded the Experimental Music Catalogue in 1968 as a distribution centre. Various pieces were eventually grouped into a series of Anthologies according to themes: the Verbal Anthology (of text-notation music), Keyboard, and Educational Anthologies are typical. These anthologies published works mainly by British experim

Christopher Rouse (composer)

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Christopher Chapman Rouse III (February 15, 1949 – September 21, 2019) was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015. Biography Rouse was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Christopher Rouse Jr., a salesman at Pitney Bowes, and Margorie or Margery Rouse, a radiology secretary. and his Trombone Concerto was awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2002, Rouse was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Also in that year, he won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for his Concert de Gaudí composed for guitarist Sharon Isbin. In 2009, Rouse was named Musical Americas Composer of the Year and the New York Philharmonic’s Composer-in-Residence in 2012. Rouse also served as Composer-in-Residence with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (1985–88)

Christopher Shaw (composer)

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NOTOC Christopher Shaw (30 July 1924 – 27 September 1995) was a British composer. Shaw was born and lived in London, and studied at New College, Oxford, from 1942 through 1944 with R. O. Morris and Herbert Kennedy Andrews. He died while on holiday at Gatehouse of Fleet, Galloway, Scotland, aged 71. Recordings of A Lesson from Ecclesiastes, Music, when soft voices die, To the Bandusian Spring and Peter and the Lame Man were issued on Argo Records in 1975. Selected works * Piano Sonata (1945) * Ode to Evening, cantata, high voice (1948) * Concerto for Orchestra (1948-9) * Clarinet Sonata (1949) (fp. Colin Davis) *Croagh Patrick, cantata for speaker, contralto, baritone, strings and timpani (1950) * Four Poems by James Joyce for high voice, flute, harp and string quartet (fp. November 1956) * Concerto for Strings * Inventions for Piano (1955) * The Shepherd’s Wonder for chorus (1956) * Seven Folk Songs from the Island of Chios (1958) * No Room at the Inn, carol, published Novello (1961) * A Lesson from Ecclesiastes (1963) * Three Poems by D.G. Rosetti (1963) * Peter and the Lame Man for soli, chorus and orchestra (1964-7, rev. 1970) * Music, when soft voices die for chorus (1972)

Christopher Whelen

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Christopher Whelen (17 April 1927 – 18 September 1993) was an English composer, conductor and playwright, best known for his radio and television operas. Because much of his work was written for specific theatre productions in the 1950s, or directly for broadcast in the 1960s to the 1980s, little of it survives today, though a number of his scores and related papers have been deposited in the British Library. Life Whelen was born in London into a musical family. He became a chorister at New College, Oxford, attended Worksop College (studying piano and ‘cello) and then at the Birmingham and Midland School of Music (now the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) between 1944 and 1946 (studying clarinet and composition). After two years National Service in the RAF he secured conducting lessons with the Austrian émigré Rudolf Schwarz, newly appointed to the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, subsequently becoming his Assistant Conductor. Already interested in Celtic culture (particularly Yeats), the music of Arnold Bax became a central influence for Whelen after hearing a performance of Tintagel. A correspondence began in 1947, which led to a close friendship until Bax’s death in 1953. It was a

Christopher Willcock

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Christopher Willcock (born 1947) is an Australian Jesuit priest and composer of liturgical music. Life Willcock studied music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (graduated 1974) and theology in Melbourne with the Jesuit Theological College, a member college of the United Faculty of Theology. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1977. He then pursued doctoral studies in sacramental and liturgical theology at the Institut Catholique de Paris. In 1998, he won the University of Melbourne’s Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. Collaborating with cartoonist and artist Michael Leunig, Willcock won the 2006 Classical Music Award for Choral or Vocal Work of the Year with excerpts from his work titled Southern Star (his cycle of nine Christmas carols composed in collaboration with Leunig). The carols are composed for 4-part adult voices, or 3-part children’s voices and are accompanied by harp - reminiscent of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. Other major works have been performed by the Tallis Scholars (May 2000) and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (December 1998). In 2006 he was the St Thomas More Chair of Jesuit Studies at the University of Western Australia. He also gave the annu

Christopher Wright (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Christopher Wright (30 April 1954 – 4 December 2024) was a British music teacher and composer. He described the style of his own music as “largely tonal with atonal flavourings”. Others have noted an English pastoral sensibility and the influence of William Walton. Life and career Wright was born in Ipswich, Suffolk He went on to study composition at the Colchester Institute with Richard Arnell and Alan Bullard. While in Colchester he also first made friends with fellow student and East Anglian composer Nicholas Barton. He took further composition lessons with Stanley Glasser at Goldsmiths College and with Nicholas Sackman at the University of Nottingham. But in 1993 illness forced him to retire from teaching and he became a full-time composer. Ruth Wright died of cancer in 2009. Christopher Wright died of pneumonia on 4 December 2024, following a long decline resulting from dementia. His music has been recorded on the Cameo, Dutton Epoch, Divine Art/Metier, Lyrita, Merlin Classics and Toccata labels. Music Wright’s 2010 Violin Concerto was written in memory of his wife and recorded by Fenella Humphreys. He also composed an Oboe Concerto for Jonathan Small, a Horn Concerto for Rich

Christos Hatzis

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Christos Hatzis (; born 1953) is a Juno Award-winning Greek-Canadian composer. Many of his compositions are performed internationally, and he is a professor at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Early life and education Hatzis was born in Volos, Greece, and received his early music instruction at the Volos branch of the Hellenic Conservatory. He continued his musical studies in the United States, first at the Eastman School of Music (B.M 1976 and M.M 1977) and later at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo (PhD 1982). His composition teachers include Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, Wlodzimierz Kotonski, Samuel Adler, Russell Peck, Joseph Schwantner and Warren Benson. Career Hatzis immigrated to Canada in 1982 and became a Canadian citizen in 1985. He composed music related to Christian spirituality, particularly his Byzantine heritage, and the Canadian Inuit culture. In addition to composing and teaching, Hatzis has written extensively about composition and contemporary music. He won the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music in 1996. In 1998, Hatzis received the Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award. He won two Juno Awards in 2006, including Best Classical

Claire Polin

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Claire Polin (January 1, 1926 – December 6, 1995) was an American composer of contemporary classical music, musicologist, and flutist. Education She obtained three degrees in music from the Philadelphia Conservatory: a Bachelor, Masters and Doctorate in Music. List of works Note: This is not a complete list. In some cases, the dates listed may have been the original publication date as opposed to the year it was written. Many pieces were published several times in new editions. Compositions * Sonata No. 1 for Flute 1959 * Symphony in two movements 1960 * No-Rai: Songs from Korea, 1963? Soprano Voice, Flute, Double Bass * Sonata for Flute and Harp 1964/73 * No Man is an Island, SATB chorus, piano, 196_ * Serpentine: Lyrical instances for solo viola and imaginary dancer, 1965 * Structures for Solo Flute 1965 * Consecutivo: Study on a Requiem, 1966 * Summer Settings, harp, 1967 * Makimono, flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano, 1969 * Second Sonata for flute and harp (From the Painter’s Brush), 197x * Music for the Prince of Wales: Hen ganiadau gwanwyn, medium high voice (male or female) with cello accompaniment * Cader Idris: Landscape for Brass Quintet, 1971 * Infinito: A Requ

Claire Renard

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Claire Renard (born 10 December 1944) is a French composer and multimedia artist. Biography Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, Claire Renard studied piano and law in Paris and graduated from the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris in 1973. After completing her studies, she worked as a piano teacher and as a composer of classical and electroacoustic works for sound installations. She has been composer-in-residence at the Theatre of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (1994–1996), Ville d’Epinal (1998), the National Conservatory of Grenoble (1999), the Theatre Athénor/St. Nazaire (2000), Villa Italy Gamberaia (2001–2002), European meeting Objective1 = Art = Objective1 Austria (2001), Park and Grande Halle de la Villette, Grame/Centre National de Création Musicale/Lyon (2005) and the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Programs Montalvo Art Center, California, USA (2006). Honours and awards * Villa Medicis Hors les Murs prize, 1990 * Beaumarchais Foundation Prize for audiovisual works, 1990 * Beaumarchais Foundation Prize for operatic works, 2002 * Fellowship from DICREAM, 2002 References

Claire Ritter

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Claire Ritter (born May 31, 1952, Charlotte, North Carolina) is an American composer and pianist working in a style that fuses jazz with classical, new music, and occasionally other world music cultures. Early life and study Ritter grew up on a horse farm in rural Weddington, North Carolina, and began piano lessons in the public school system at the age of seven. As a teenager, she studied with jazz pianist-arranger Ziggy Hurwitz. In 1974, she received a B.S. in Education from Appalachian State University, where she was also an amateur athlete, competing in tennis, softball, soccer, field hockey, and basketball. to study with pianist Ran Blake and attend New England Conservatory. She lived in Boston for 16 years, during which time her compositions were performed and recorded with artists such as Steve Swallow, Ricky Ford, and Dave Holland, and Boston-area musicians such as Dominique Eade, Ran Blake, and Stan Strickland. In 1996, she served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Contemporary Improvisation Department and taught Contemporary Songwriting. Her composition, “In Between”, was recorded in 1986 by Ran Blake on The Short Life of Barbara Monk and by Franz Koglmann on

Clara Lyle Boone

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Clara Lyle Boone (September 6, 1927 – June 21, 2015) was an American composer and founder of Arsis Press, which specialized in publishing works by contemporary women composers. She also taught music, and ran for a Congressional seat. Early life and education Boone was born in Stanton, Kentucky, the daughter of Jouett Shelby Boone and Deborah Davida Johnson Boone. Her father was a banker, and her mother was a singer. (Daniel Boone was the brother of one of her Boone ancestors; She studied composition with Walter Piston and Darius Milhaud. Beginning in 1957, she taught at the National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington, D.C. In 1967, she began teaching fifth graders at Payne Elementary School, a public school in the city. She retired from school work in 1977, but continued to live in the neighborhood of Payne Elementary. She lobbied for arts funding and equal opportunities in the arts, Despite her Washington, D.C. address, she campaigned for the Democratic nomination for a Congressional seat in Kentucky in 1962, saying “I believe Civil Rights should be rooted in principle rather than in politics, and I believe a principle deserves not its name unless it is practiced every day a

Clare Shore

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Clare Shore (born 1954) is an American composer, music educator mezzo-soprano, and conductor. She continued her studies in composition with Charles Eakin and Cecil Effinger, and voice with Louis Cunningham, graduating with a Master of Music degree in 1977 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She studied with David Diamond, Vincent Persichetti, Roger Sessions, and later with Gunther Schuller and was the second woman to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from the Juilliard School in 1984. She was awarded a prestigious fellowship to MacDowell, and was in residence there in 1985. In addition to her work as a composer, Shore has taught music at The Juilliard School, Fordham University, Manhattan School of Music, the University of Virginia, George Mason University and Palm Beach Atlantic University. Her compositions have been performed internationally. She resides in West Palm Beach, Florida. Honors and awards *Irving Berlin Fellowship in Memory of Jerome Kern *Alexandre Gretchaninov Memorial Award *Grant to Young Composers 1983 *ASCAP Standard Awards since 1982 *Composers Assistance Grants from the American Music Center *MacDowell Colony Fellowship *Atlantic Cent

Clarence Barlow

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Clarence Albertson Barlow Of English, Portuguese, and French colonial descent, he wrote his first compositions in 1957. He studied piano, music theory and natural sciences. In 1965 he received a science degree from Calcutta University, as well as a Licentiate Diploma in piano from Trinity College of Music in London. From 1966 to 1968 he taught music theory and worked as a conductor at the Calcutta School of Music. In 1968 Barlow relocated to Cologne, where he studied electronic music and composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with Herbert Eimert, Vinko Globokar, Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1968 to 1970) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1971 to 1973). From 1971 to 1972 he also studied at the Institute of Sonology of Utrecht University, where he began to use computers as an aid for compositions. Career Barlow was one of the founders of Initiative Musik und Informatik Köln in 1986. He taught at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse from 1982 to 1994. In 1988 he was the director of music at the International Computer Music Conference in Cologne. From 1990 to 1994, Barlow was the artistic director of the Institute of Sonology, at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he also taught in the compos

Claude Abravanel

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Claude Abravanel (; 16 July 1924 – 14 December 2012) was a Swiss-Israeli pianist and composer of classical music. Activities He studied piano with Dinu Lipatti at the Geneva Conservatory of Music. He also studied composition with Arthur Honegger and piano with Yvonne Lefébure at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. A lecturer and director of the library at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (Rubin Academy) until 1992, Abravanel became director of the Archives of Israeli Music at the Academy. Personal history Abravanel was born in Montreux, Switzerland, and settled in Israel in 1951. See also *Aria *Chamber Music *Music of Israel *Petrarca *Pierre de Ronsard *Yemenite References Additional reference material *©The National Library of Israel. All rights reserved retrieved 23/9/11 *book written by Abravanel retrieved 23/9/11 External links *israelcomposers *jnul

Claude Baker

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W. Claude Baker Jr. (born April 12, 1948 Lenoir, North Carolina) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Claude Baker attained a B.M. degree, magna cum laude, from East Carolina University in 1970. He subsequently studied composition at the Eastman School of Music with Samuel Adler and Warren Benson, and holds M.M. (1973) and D.M.A. (1975) degrees from that institution. He is currently Class of 1956 Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Composition in the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he is also the recipient of the university-wide Tracy M. Sonneborn Award for accomplishments in the areas of teaching and research. Before his appointment at Indiana, he served on the faculties of the University of Georgia and the University of Louisville, and was a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music. In the eight-year period from 1991 to 1999, he held the position of Composer-in-Residence of the St. Louis Symphony, one of the longest such residencies with any major orchestra in the country. During this time, he initiated numerous community-based projects, the most notable of which was the establishment of composition programs a

Claude Ballif

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Claude Ballif (22 May 1924 – 24 July 2004) was a French composer, writer, and pedagogue. He worked at a number of institutions throughout more than 40 years of teaching, one of which he had attended as a student. Alexandre Desplat, and Claude Abromont. He was described as a French modernist and as “the product of the exciting and turbulent post World War II years of the Western avant-garde” alongside composers Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Biography Ballif was born in Paris on 22 May 1924, the fifth of ten children. Ballif started music at an early age; though the piano was his first love, he was told piano was for girls and that his fingers would never be able to make the right positions, so he learned violin. While in Madagascar, “Captain Durand,” an artillery director on base, taught Ballif music theory; he took violin lessons from a beggar. Ballif spent the final years of his life living in Haute-Marne at the Château de Riaucourt, which had been passed down to him by his maternal grandfather. He died on 24 July 2004 in Saint-Dizier and is buried in Poissons. He struggled in his early years of music study with balancing his need for independent creation and the univer

Claude Fraysse

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Claude Fraysse (1941–2012) was a French composer. History Fraysse was born in Versailles on 31 July 1941. References External links * *

Claude Léveillée

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Claude Léveillée (16 October 1932 – 9 June 2011) was a Canadian actor, pianist, and singer-songwriter who composed more than 400 songs, instrumental pieces, and musicals. In 1959, Léveillée co-founded Les Bozos, an informal collective of Quebec chansonniers. He notably collaborated with Édith Piaf, writing several songs for her, including “Les Vieux Pianos,” “Ouragan,” and “Boulevard du Crime.” He also composed for a number of Quebec artists, including Julie Arel—“Merci à toi” (1976)—and Nicole Martin, with songs such as “Il est en nous l’amour” (1985), “Mon père et ma mère,” and “On s’aimera” (both 1987). Léveillée performed widely, with appearances in France, the Soviet Union, Belgium, Switzerland, and Japan. His acting credits include roles in the film Line of Demarcation (1966) and the television series Scoop (1991–1994). Biography Youth Joseph Gérard Adolphe Claude Léveillée was born on 16 October 1932 in Montreal. His parents were Pierre Léveillée (1901–1992) and Laurette Lalande (1901–1995). Léveillée’s mother was a pianist and his father was a tenor. In addition to the piano, Claude also played the accordion and harmonica. He began performing with the accordion on the stree

Claude Loyola Allgén

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Claude Loyola Allgén (16 April 1920 – 18 September 1990), officially Claude Johannes Maria Klas Thure Allgén, was a Swedish composer. Background and early life Allgén was born in Calcutta. His family lived briefly in Pixbo (1926-1929) and then Gothenburg before moving to Djursholm, where Allgén spent most of his childhood. At age 12-13 he began studying the violin but soon switched to viola and at sixteen was accepted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Here Allgén studied counterpoint with Melcher Melchers and viola with Charles Barkel. During the 1940s Allgén belonged to the ’Monday Group’ (Måndagsgruppen) along with other radical modernist composers such as Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Sven-Erik Bäck and Hans Leygraf. However, Allgén overestimated the importance of his role in the group. In 1941 he graduated from the Academy of Music and sought further studies with Hilding Rosenberg, but found little encouragement from his tutelage. Religious conversion Due to his conversion to Roman Catholicism Allgén changed his formal first name in 1950, choosing to adopt the names Claude Johannes Maria after a number of saints. He added Loyola after his Catholic confirmation, during which the

Claude Méloni

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Claude Méloni (born 6 August 1940 in Marseille) is a French baritone of the Paris Opera. Life Méloni began very early, at the , to study music: piano, solfège, history of music and harmony. Later, he studied singing and opera. After obtaining awards and fulfilling his military obligations, Méloni, on the advice of Pierre Barbizet, took the entrance exam to the Conservatoire de Paris in 1964 and was admitted to the singing class of Janine Micheau. In 1965 he was unanimously awarded a First Prize in singing and the following year a first prize in opera and comic opera. Following his results, Méloni was engaged in the opera of Lyon in the sedentary troupe and for three seasons he performed the roles of his repertoire: Marcello (La bohème), Figaro (The Barber of Seville), Ourias (Mireille), The Vicar (Albert Herring), Albert (Werther), Valentine (Faust), Brissac (Les Mousquetaires au couvent), Silvio (Pagliacci), Scharpless (Madama Butterfly), Niklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann), etc. In October 1962, he participated in the world premiere of Jacques Emmanuel’s (lyrical drama), with Pierre Delanoë and Louis Amade, to music by Gilbert Bécaud at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. In 1969, on t

Claude Pascal

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Claude Pascal (Paris, February 19, 1921 – Paris, February 28, 2017) was a French composer. After studying at the Conservatoire de Paris, he obtained the 1945 Premier Prix de Rome for the cantata, La farce du contre Bandier. Pascal’s extensive work as a composer includes practically every musical genre. The discography of his works consists of more than thirty CDs. The musical estate of Claude Pascal is archived at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Works *Quatuor à cordes, 1943 *Octuor for wind instruments, 1944 *Sonatine for alto saxophone and piano, 1947 *1ère Sonate for violin and piano, 1947 *Air varié for contrabass and piano, 1950 *Pop-corn for violin and piano, 1951 *Toccata for piano, 1952 *Pastorale héroïque for trombone and piano, 1952 *Pièce for oboe and piano, 1952 *Sonatine for violin and piano, 1952 *Impromptu for alto saxophone and piano, 1953 *Improvisation en forme de canon for trombone and piano, 1958 *Concerto for piano and chamber orchestra, 1958 *Concerto for cello and orchestra, 1959 *Musique pour harpe, 1960 *Quatuor de saxophones, 1961 *Ouverture pour un conte de fées for orchestra, 1961 *2ème Sonate for violin and piano, 1963 *Ut ou do, 5 pieces for chil

Claude Vivier

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Claude Vivier ( ; baptised as Claude Roger; 14 April 19487 March 1983) was a Canadian composer, pianist, poet and ethnomusicologist of Québécois origin. After studying with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne, Vivier became an innovative member of the “German Feedback” movement, a subset of what is now known as spectral music. Between 1976 and 1977, Vivier travelled to Egypt, Japan, Iran, Thailand, Singapore, and Bali, where he came under the influence of aspects of their respective traditional musics. Despite working at a slow pace and leaving behind a small œuvre, Vivier’s musical language is vast and diverse. His place in the spectral movement of Europe entailed the manipulation of the harmonic series and led to music that incorporated microtones to replicate these frequencies, a compositional technique he would later refer to as the jeux de couleurs. He is also known for incorporating elements of serialism, dodecaphony, musique concrète, extended techniques, surrealism, traditional Québécois folk songs, and more. The themes of Vivier’s pieces are largely seen as autobiographical, often centring around loneliness and ostracization, the search for love and companionship, or voyaging

Claudio Spies

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Carlos Claudio Spies (March 26, 1925 – April 2, 2020) was a Chilean American composer. Biography Early life Born in Santiago, Chile, of German Jewish parents, Spies completed primary and secondary education in Santiago in 1941, when he passed the Bachillerato. Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch were mentors to Spies at an early age. Spies came to the United States in August 1942 to study music at New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and, after her departure for California, with Harold Shapero. He entered Harvard College in February 1947. One of his most influential teachers at Harvard was Irving Fine, and another was Otto Gombosi. He wrote his dissertation on “The concept of form in the symphonies and concertos of Strawinsky.” He graduated in June 1950, and received the John K. Paine Traveling Fellowship, which took him to Paris, where he spent a year composing. He returned to Harvard as a graduate student and received his MA degree in composition in 1954. Career Spies has taught music at many institutions: * Harvard University (1953–1957) * Vassar College (1957–1958) * Swarthmore College (1958–1970) * Princeton University (Professor

Claus Bantzer

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Claus Bantzer (born 10 October 1942 in Marburg) is a German church musician, composer and director. Life and work Claus Bantzer was born in Marburg in 1942 into an artist’s family. His older brother Christoph Bantzer is an actor. Bantzer began studying piano, organ, and conducting at the music school of the university of Frankfurt am Main. He continued his studies in Hamburg (Hochschule für Musik und Theater), where he became a master student of the organ teacher Heinz Wunderlich. He was also Wunderlich’s assistant at the church St. Jacobi in Hamburg. Since 1975, Bantzer has been organist at the church of St. Johannis Harvestehude in Hamburg. Later, the honorary title of Kirchenmusikdirektor was conferred onto him. At this church, he leads two choirs, the main church choir of St. Johannis and the chamber choir Harvestehuder Kammerchor, which he founded. As a composer of music for more than 20 films, he has worked closely the film directors Peter Lilienthal, Doris Dörrie, Jan Schütte and Tevfik Başer. Apart from his compositions for film, he has also composed other works, usually combining religious lyrics with modern music, in particular jazz. Film music composed by Bantzer * (1980

Clay Christiansen (organist)

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Clay Christiansen ( ) is an American organist who previously played for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Choir), often on the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ. He accompanied the Choir in Salt Lake City and when it was on tour. Christiansen also provided organ recitals in the Salt Lake Tabernacle and the Conference Center. Early life Christiansen had a fascination with music from an early age. He was born in 1949 in the small city of Emery, Utah. He would play the piano for hours on end. When neighbor children would come to play, he would rather stay in and practice the piano. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), he played his first piano solo, “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet”, in church at the age of six. He played by ear until the age of eight when he took his first piano lessons. He was the accompanist for his church Sunday School and priesthood services, and a substitute ward organist at the age of eleven. Christiansen received a bachelor’s degree in organ performance from Brigham Young University, and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in music composition from the University of Utah. Career From 1972 to 1982, Christiansen was the organist for St. Ma

Clifford Ford

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Clifford Robert Ford (born 30 May 1947) is a Canadian composer, editor, music educator, and author. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he is a founding member of ARRAYMUSIC and a former member of the music faculties of McMaster University and Dalhousie University. He co-founded the Canadian Musical Heritage Society for which he is executive secretary and technical editor. Education Born in Toronto, Ford studied piano, organ, and voice privately in his native city with Eric Lewis from 1957 to 1962. In 1960 he entered The Royal Conservatory of Music where he studied music theory and music composition with John Beckwith through 1964. He later pursued further studies with Beckwith and John Weinzweig at the University of Toronto where he earned a Bachelor of Music in 1970. That same year he won the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada’s Ernest MacMillan Award which provided him with funds to pursue studies with István Anhalt at McGill University in 1970–1971. He later returned to that school for graduate studies in composition, earning a Master of Music in 1981. He also spent a year studying at the Institute for Sonology at Utrecht University with Gottfried Mi

Clive Hunt

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Clive Hunt (born 31 May 1952) is a Jamaican reggae multi-instrumentist, arranger, composer and producer. Biography Hunt was born in Linstead, St. Catherine, Jamaica. He learned the trumpet while at Stony Hill Approved school, and joined the 1st Battalion, The Jamaica Regiment Band at the age of seventeen. On leaving the service he was recruited by Byron Lee for his band the Dragonaires, touring with the group in North America. He went through rehab in 1991 and has since re-established himself as a successful producer, working with the likes of Beres Hammond, Judy Mowatt, The Abyssinians and Garnett Silk, and recorded with Jimmy Cliff, Steely & Clevie and the Rolling Stones. In the 21st century he was signed by VP Records as a producer for the label and has produced for artists such as Etana, Jah Cure, Maxi Priest, Jah9, Richie Spice, and Queen Ifrica. He produced the Various Artists collection We Remember Dennis Brown for the label, released in 2016. VP Records released the instrumental album Blue Lizzard on November 13, 2020. Discography *Satta I (1977) Trojan (as Lizzard) *Orthodox Dub (197?) Wackie’s *Blue Lizzard (2020) VP Records References External links *Clive Hunt at Roots

Clorinda Rosato

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Clorinda Rosato (11 December 191322 May 1985) was a Brazilian composer, pianist and teacher. Rosato was born in Sao Simao, Brazil. She studied music at the Conservatorio Dramatico Musical of Sao Paulo. Her teachers included Martin Braunwieser, Ines de Campo, Antonio Candido, Furio Frenceschini, Miguel Antonio Gallo, Francisco Mignone, Alice Ornellas, Artur Pereira and Frutuoso Viana. Her compositions include: Chamber music *Improviso (violin, cello and piano) *“Quatro Corais” *Tatu e Cabocio do Sui (chorus) *“Trovas” References External links *Listen to Seresta by Clorinda Rosato

Clotilde Rosa

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Maria Clotilde Belo de Carvalho Rosa Franco (11 May 1930 – 24 November 2017), known as Clotilde Rosa, was a Portuguese harpist, pedagogue and composer. Biography Clotilde Rosa was born in Queluz, Portugal, to José Rosa (1895–1939), violinist and tenor, and Branca Belo de Carvalho Rosa (1906–1940), pianist and harpist. She was the younger sister of , who became an architect and sculptor; and the sister-in-law of Helena Almeida. Rosa began piano lessons at age ten with Ivone Santos, and harp lessons at the age of twelve under Cecilia Borba at Lisbon’s National Conservatoire. Between 1960 and 1963 she continued her harp studies with several scholarships in Amsterdam with Phia Berghout, in Paris with Jacqueline Borot, and in Cologne with Hans Zingel. From 1963 until 1966 Rosa also took part in the Darmstadt Summer Courses, directed by Karlheinz Stockhausen, in Germany. After completing her studies, she worked as a harp soloist with various orchestras and ensembles. In 1965 Rosa took part in the first Portuguese happening at Galeria Divulgação, along with António Aragão, E. M. Melo e Castro, Sallette Tavares (poet), Manuel Baptista, Jorge Peixinho (composer) and Mário Falcão (another ha

Clytus Gottwald

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Clytus Gottwald (20 November 1925 – 18 January 2023) was a German composer, conductor, and musicologist who focused on choral music. He was considered by music critics to be a key figure in contemporary choral music, Further reading * “Gottwald, Clytus” in: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart vol. 7, Bärenreiter, Kassel/Metzler, Stuttgart, 2002, , pp. 1409–1410 * Constance DeFotis: From the Work and Writings of Clytus Gottwald, Founder and Director of the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 1988 External links * (archive) * * *

Codé di Dona

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Codé di Dona, nickname of Gregório Vaz, (July 10, 1940 —January 5, 2010) was a Cape Verdean musician and composer. He was born in Chaminé near São Domingos and lived in the locality of São Francisco, in the same municipality he was born has another Cape Verdean music expert Ano Novo. He is considered one of the chief figures of funaná, a music genre once known only in his native island of Santiago and achieved universal renaissance today. He was professionally dependent on agriculture as a farmer, he was also a flower keeper. Codé di Dona composed classic songs at the Cape Verdean National Repertory including “Febri Funaná”, “Fomi 47” (Portuguese: Fome de ‘47, English: ‘47 Famine), “Praia Maria”, “Yota Barela”, “Rufon Baré”, “Pomba” and others. Codé di Dona felt Cape Verdeans with the singularity of its songs and poets of his letters. His composition “Fomi 47”, for example, was about one of the most historic problems that struck Cape Verde, the 1947 drought, the famine and emigration to São Tomé e Príncipe. Image of a part of the ship “Ana Mafalda” was part of an imaginary collection of Cape Verdeans, it was sung as a hymn by other singers. He later married and had children, one of

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

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Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (June 14, 1932, Manhattan, New York or possibly (unconfirmed) Winston-Salem, North Carolina – March 9, 2004, Chicago) was an American composer whose interests spanned the worlds of jazz, dance, pop, film, television, and classical music. Professionally he was often known as “Coleridge Perkinson”. Life and career Perkinson was African-American and was named after the Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912). Perkinson’s mother was active in music and the arts as a piano teacher, church organist, and director of a theater company. Perkinson attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City and New York University. He later transferred to the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied composition with Vittorio Giannini and Charles Mills. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. He also studied with Earl Kim at Princeton University. He was on the faculty of Brooklyn College (1959–1962) and studied conducting in the summers of 1960, 1962, and 1963 in the Netherlands with Franco Ferrara and Dean Dixon and also learned conducting in 1960 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Perkinson co-founded the Symp

Colette Mourey

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Colette Mourey (born 1954) is a French classical guitarist, music educator, musicologist and composer. Biography Born in Kenitra (Morocco), Mourey studied musicology at the Sorbonne under Edith Weber and passed the agrégation. First a classical guitarist and student of Uruguayan guitarist Oscar Cacères, she is also a pianist. As a teacher, she teaches writing, aesthetics and music didactics at the Université de Franche-Comté and the . She is also involved with the “Passeurs d’Art” association for the creation of free children’s orchestras. For her research, she starts from works on the atonal music of her teacher Julien Falk to develop a new musical system called “hypertonality”. This is based on spiral scales (in amplitudes higher than the octave), radically transforming atonal counterpoint techniques. This allows the reintroduction of “natural consonances” within a contemporary language, which contributes to bringing contemporary music closer to the “general public”. She is the author of numerous books on musicology and teaching. As a composer, she is the author of more than 1000 works (published at the éditions Bergmann, Reift Marcophon, Soldano, Delatour, and Profs editions. In

Colin Brumby

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Colin James Brumby (18 June 1933 – 3 January 2018) was an Australian composer and conductor. Biography Brumby was born in Melbourne and educated at the Glen Iris State School, Spring Road Central School, and Melbourne Boys’ High School. He studied at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, from which he graduated in 1957 with a diploma in education. In 1953 he was a finalist in the Australian Youth Aria competition, eventually winning the Lieder Award. He was organist at St. Oswald’s Glen Iris from 1950 to 1953. Before travelling to Europe in 1962 he taught in Queensland schools and was for a time the head of music at Kelvin Grove Teacher’s College. and joined more recently by composers such as Gerard Brophy, Stephen Cronin, Robert Davidson, Kent Farbach, Stephen Leek, Peter Rankine and Nigel Sabin who have attained similar renown. In 1971, he received his Doctorate of Music from the University of Melbourne. In 1981 Brumby was awarded an Advance Australia Award for services to music. He has also won the Don Banks Fellowship (1990) Brumby died in Brisbane on 3 January 2018. * The Bunyip, operetta * The Haunted House of Highgate Hill, operetta * The Spirit of Eureka, ope

Colin Gibson (musician)

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Patrick Colin Gibson (born 21 September 1949, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland) is an English bass player and composer. Career Gibson and guitarist John Turnbull were childhood friends and played together in a band called The Primitive Sect, with Bob Sergeant on organ. In summer 1966, Gibson and Turnbull joined unsigned Newcastle band The Chosen Few, who had released two singles the previous year written by their then vocalist and guitarist Alan Hull, later of Lindisfarne. With Graham Bell joining on vocals, the band changed its name to Skip Bifferty and secured gigs in London. The band then secured a deal with RCA Records in summer 1967 under manager Don Arden and went on to release three singles: “On Love” which made a minor chart appearance, “Happy Land” and “Man in Black” produced by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. Despite being championed by John Peel, with a handful of “Top Gear” appearances, RCA seemed oblivious to their popularity. An album, Skip Bifferty, was recorded at Decca Studios West Hampstead, but withheld by RCA for almost a year before its release in 1968 and later as a double set The Story of Skip Bifferty (Castle Music, 2003), by Sanctuary Records, along with

Colin Matthews

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colin Matthews, OBE (born 13 February 1946) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer’s music, including works by Berlioz, Britten, Dowland, Mahler, Purcell and Schubert. Other arrangements include orchestrations of all Debussy’s 24 Préludes, both books of Debussy’s Images, and two movements—Oiseaux tristes and La vallée des cloches—from Ravel’s Miroirs. Having received a doctorate from University of Sussex on the works of Mahler, from 1964–1975 Matthews worked with his brother David Matthews and musicologist Deryck Cooke on completing a performance version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony. Early life and education Matthews was born in London in 1946; his older brother is the composer David Matthews. He read classics at the University of Nottingham, and then studied composition there with Arnold Whittall, and at the same time with Nicholas Maw. In the 1970s he taught at the University of Sussex, where he obtained a doctorate for his work on Mahler, an offshoot of his long collaboration with Deryck Cooke on the performing version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony. During this p

Colin Mawby

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colin Mawby (9 May 1936 – 24 November 2019) was an English organist, choral conductor and composer. From 1961 he was Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral. Later he served as choral director at Radio Telefís Éireann and as artistic director of Chamber Choir Ireland, then known as the National Chamber Choir. He composed extensively for the liturgy, with an output including over fifty masses and five song cycles. His mother died when he was three, and he was among the first choristers when Westminster Cathedral choir school reopened in January 1946. Under George Malcolm, the boys sang fourteen or fifteen services a week and undertook ten hours of rehearsals, learning plainchant and polyphony. The choir performed in Rome in 1963 and again in 1970 for the canonisation of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, when it became the first ensemble other than the Sistine Choir to sing a papal mass in St Peter’s Basilica. Mawby retired to East Anglia in 2001 but later divided his time between London and Dublin. He served as composer in association with St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. His Ave verum corpus for choir became widely performed, and his setting of Psalm 23 gained wider recognit

Colin Smith (religious and hymnodist)

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Colin Declan Smith (10 June 1928 – 23 October 2005) Arguably Colin’s signature work is the Mass Shalom, originally composed in 1977 and one of the only Australian Mass settings popular before the revision of the English translation of the Mass to be reworked for the 2010 translation. As Colin had died some five years earlier, the revisions were the work of Paul Mason. He was also the director of the John Paul Singers, a Catholic sacred choir formed for the Papal Visit of Pope John Paul II, until May 2005, shortly before his death, when he handed the baton to Donrita Reefman, who in turn passed on the baton to Julie Spencer in September 2014. Death and legacy Brother Colin Smith died in Sydney, Australia on Sunday 23 October 2005 at the age of 77; after his death, Christian Brothers medium Edmund Rice Online described Colin as having given a “huge contribution to liturgical music in Australia”. and Melbourne to mark the tenth anniversary of his death. References

Colin Touchin

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Colin Michael Touchin (3 April 1953 – 30 September 2022) Biography Colin Touchin was educated at William Hulme’s Grammar School and Keble College, Oxford. Touchin taught for eight years at Chetham’s School of Music, and for two years was Head of Composition. For over a decade he was Director of Music at the University of Warwick. While in the UK he played in a piano duo with his friend Peter Donohoe. In 2005 he founded and conducted the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in Coventry, made up of professional and skilled amateur musicians from the Coventry and Warwickshire area. Spires recorded a CD of his compositions in 2012. He also conducted West Midland Wind Orchestra In Frankfurt he was Chief Conductor of the Lufthansa Orchestra, an ensemble made up of pilots, flight attendants, technicians and office workers who make music in their spare time. In Hong Kong he was musical director of the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir, the a capella female choir Grace Notes, and guest conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong and Tak-Ming Philharmonic Winds. His home was in Warsaw, where he died of pancreatic cancer. Selected works * A Beade of Amber (for the National Youth W

Colin Towns

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Colin William Towns (born 13 May 1948) is an English composer and keyboardist. He was noted for playing in bands formed by ex-Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan, and later worked extensively in composing soundtracks for film, television and commercials. Learning piano as a child, by the age of 13 he was earning money playing at weddings and birthdays in his neighbourhood of the East End of London. He went on to play in numerous dance bands, jazz ensembles and also became a session musician. His main musical passion is jazz and he has made several well-received albums together with his big band, the Mask Orchestra. He has also founded an independent record label, Provocateur. Career In 1976 he was recruited as keyboardist to replace Mickey Lee Soule in the Ian Gillan Band. Over the time he developed an increasing interest in composing, and Gillan credits the Towns-penned ‘Fighting Man’ as pointing the direction in which Gillan should go. Gillan dissolved the band, with its jazz-rock leanings, and retained only Towns, putting together the rockier Gillan. Encouraged by Gillan, Towns co-wrote many of the songs for the new band. Whilst with the band he used his free time to seek opportunitie

Colleen Lovett

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Colleen Lovett (born November 3, 1946, in Texas) is an American singer, composer, and arranger who, since the age of six, has flourished as a recording artist and performer in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe in nightclubs, musical theater, and television. Before marrying bandleader Teddy Phillips, she was known as one of the Lovett Sisters, a singing duo with her sister, Charlotte Lovett, who had been married to bandleader Ray Herrera. Formal education Entering as a freshman in the fall of 1963, Lovett earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Texas and studied at the Berklee School of Music. She also studied at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California, California State University in Northridge, and UCLA in Los Angeles. She studied film scoring with composer Earle Hagen. She also studied film scoring and twelve-tone orchestration for several years with George Tremblay, who was well known for creating the definitive cycle, a serial technique of composition. Selected compositions * “Until I Love You” * “Freckle-Face Soldier” * “Asleep in His Arms” * “To Tommy With Love” * “Wait for Me Sue” * “Love’s Melody” * “Birds With Broken Wings” * “Come and Taste

Concha Valdés Miranda

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Concha Valdés Miranda (July 16, 1928 – August 19, 2017) was a Cuban songwriter and performer of Cuban music. Miranda was born in Havana, Cuba. Her greatest success may have been “El que más te ha querido”. It was nominated for the Grammy and the first place in the United States. In addition, she is the author of numerous songs that were popular in the voices of performers such as Toña la Negra, Celia Cruz, Lucía Méndez, Olga Guillot, Tito Rodríguez, Felipe Pirela, Joel Gabino, Los Panchos, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Santos Colón, Floria Márquez, Ismael Miranda, Tito Nieves, Tito Puente, Sergio Vargas, Johnny Ventura, Cheo Feliciano and Dyango, among others. Many of her compositions have been used as themes in Spanish and Mexican movies. She is among the first artists to become part of the composers of Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. She died in Miami, aged 89. Songs * El que más te ha querido * El viaje * La mitad * Tápame contigo * Orgasmo Discography * Concha Valdes Miranda interpreta sus canciones, (LD) KUBANEY MT 323 * Concha Valdes Miranda: Erotismo y osadía, (LD) RODVEN 2012. Movies * Tápame contigo (1970) Tápame contigo * Sauna (1990) Sauna * Jamón Jamón (1992) Jamón, Jamón Reference

Conrad Cummings

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Conrad Cummings (born February 10, 1948) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His compositions include works for orchestra, as well as operatic and chamber works. Many of his works are composed in a minimalist style reminiscent of that of Philip Glass. Cummings was born in San Francisco, California, United States. He studied at Yale University, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Columbia University, from which he received a doctorate. His teachers include Bülent Arel, Mario Davidovsky, and Jacob Druckman. He later conducted post-doctoral research at IRCAM in Paris under Pierre Boulez. He is a former professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Cummings lives in New York City, where he serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School, teaching composition in the Evening Division. Four recordings of his music have been released on CRI’s Emergency Music label. The Golden Gate, an opera in two acts with music by Conrad Cummings and libretto from the novel-in-verse by Vikram Seth, adapted by the composer, is currently (2010) in development by LivelyWorks and American Opera Projects and receives a staged workshop production at the Rose Studio at Lincoln

Conrad Susa

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Conrad Stephen Susa (April 26, 1935 – November 21, 2013) was an American composer. Born in Springdale, Pennsylvania, Susa studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Juilliard School, where his teachers included William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti and, by his own claim, P. D. Q. Bach, the fictitious spoof character created by American composer Peter Schickele. From 1959 to 1994, Susa was composer-in-residence for the Old Globe Theater (San Diego, California), where he wrote incidental music for over 200 productions there. In 1988, he joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and remained there as a professor of composition until his death. Susa became particularly known for his 5 operas. His 1973 chamber opera, Transformations, set to texts from the poems of Anne Sexton, is one of the most frequently performed operas by an American composer. His other compositions include choral works and incidental music for various plays. His music is published by the E.C. Schirmer Music Company. Selected works Operas *Transformations (1973) *Black River (1975, revised 1981) *The Love of Don Perlimplin (1984) *The Wise Women (1994) *The Dangerous Liaisons (1994,

Constança Capdeville

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Constança Capdeville (16 March 19374 February 1992) was a Portuguese pianist, percussionist, music educator and composer. Early years Constança Capdeville was born in Barcelona and lived in the village of Caxias as a child. She came from an artistic family and in her youth was exposed to creative geniuses including Salvador Dalí. She wrote piano compositions at an early age, and studied piano and composition at the Lisbon Conservatorio Nacional, where she received a diploma in Higher Education in Music. Capdeville was a prolific composer. By 1969 she had begun to have her works commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for its orchestra. She produced approximately 100 pieces for orchestra, chamber ensembles and a variety of soloists using different instruments. She also composed music for films and plays, ballet/dance and ‘dramatized’ staged performances. From early on, her music revealed close ties to the dramatic arts and to the imagery of the human condition evoked though sound and Mise en scène. Capdeville’s compositions were laden with multiple artistic perception. During her life, she was a close artistic and personal friend of music genius Jorge Peixinho who had him

Cornel Țăranu

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Cornel Țăranu (; 20 June 1934 – 18 June 2023) was a Romanian classical composer, musicologist, conductor and cultural manager. A native of Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, he was always attached to this region, and contributed to cultural cooperation between Romanian and ethnic Hungarian musicians. He studied locally, at the Cluj Academy, assimilating the local avatar of neoclassicism, alongside influences from Romanian folk music—though his debut years also evidenced conformity with Socialist Realism, he was reportedly censured by the communist regime for keeping company with sidelined figures, such as the poet Lucian Blaga. A teacher at his alma mater, he furthered his studies abroad, at the Conservatoire de Paris, becoming an authority on, and posthumous disciple of, George Enescu. Braving controversy, he worked on completing unfinished scores by Enescu, including his Fifth Symphony and a musical poem, Strigoii. In parallel, he founded Cluj’s Ars Nova, a chamber orchestra dedicated to contemporary classical music and performance art. Țăranu’s main compositions focus on orchestral work; he wrote two operas, vocal music for soloists and choirs, and critically acclaimed film scores. Hi

Cornelia Tăutu

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Cornelia Tăutu (10 March 1938 – 24 March 2019) was a Romanian composer best known for film soundtracks. Biography Cornelia Tăutu was born in Odorhei, Romania in 1938. She studied both music composition and pedagogy at the National University of Music in Bucharest, and was a student of Aurel Stroe, Anatol Vieru, and Mihail Jora. She then worked at both the Dialectological Research Institute and the Institute of Ethnological as a researcher for a time before traveling to New York City in 1971 to study composition at Long Island University with Raoul Pleskov. *1983 Caruta cu mere *1983 Impossible Love *1980 Dumbrava minunata *1978 Actiunea Autobuzul *1978 Buzduganul cu trei peceti *1978 Together Again *1975 Patima External links * References

Cornelius Cardew

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Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, explaining why he had “discontinued composing in an avant-garde idiom” in his own programme notes to his Piano Album 1973. which had evacuated to the Carlyon Bay Hotel for the war. His musical career thus began as a chorister. From 1953 to 1957, Cardew studied piano, cello, and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Career Having won a scholarship to study at the recently established Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne, Cardew served as an assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1958 to 1960. He was given the task of independently working out the composition plans for the German composer’s score Carré, and Stockhausen noted: As a musician he was outstanding because he was not only a good pianist but also a good improviser and I hired him to become my assistant in the late 50s and he worked with me for over three years. I gave him work to do which I have never given to any other musician, which means to work with me on the s

Corrado Castellari

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Corrado Castellari (23 September 1945 – 23 November 2013) was an Italian singer-songwriter and composer. Life and career Born in Bologna, in the 1960s Castellari moved to Milan to pursue his musical career. Castellari is mainly known for his professional association with Iva Zanicchi, for whom he composed some major hits including “Coraggio e paura”. Beyond the songs composed for other artists, Castellari also released several works as singer-songwriter, and took part as a singer in the Un disco per l’estate festival. References External links * * *

Costin Miereanu

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Costin Miereanu (27 February 1943 – 20 August 2025) was a French composer and musicologist of Romanian origin. Biography Miereanu was born in Bucharest in 1943. At the age of eleven, he enrolled in the Bucharest School of Music, where he completed six years of study in piano and chamber music. Following this, he balanced his time between a music academy and a standard secondary education. His dual studies culminated in a science baccalaureate and a degree in piano concert and teaching, after which he continued his musical journey at the Bucharest Conservatory for another six years (1960-1966), studying with Alfred Mendelsohn, Tiberiu Olah, Ștefan Niculescu, Dan Constantinescu, Myriam Marbé, Aurel Stroe, Anton Vieru, and Octavian Lazăr Cosma. He became accointed with composers Iancu Dumitrescu and Horațiu Rădulescu, and started to get immersed into avant-garde music and simultaneously begins his musicological career, writing articles for journals and magazines. Between 1967 and 1969, he was a student of Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, and Erhard Karkoschka at the Ferienkurse für neue Musik in Darmstadt. In September 1968, Miereanu travelled to Paris to sign a contract with Édi

Cristóbal Halffter

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Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter, and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the generation of composers designated the Generación del 51. Early years Halffter was born in Madrid, but in 1936 the family moved to Velbert, Germany, to escape the Spanish Civil War. They returned to Madrid in 1939, and Halftter studied with Conrado del Campo at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, graduating in 1951. He continued his studies, outside of his university education, with Alexandre Tansman and André Jolivet in Paris. Career In 1955, Halffter was appointed conductor of the Falla orchestra. He forged a successful career as composer and conductor, writing music which combined a traditional Spanish element with avant-garde techniques. His neoclassical Piano Concerto (1953) won the National Music Prize in 1954. In 1961 he became Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, where he became Director in 1964 but remained only until 1966. Among his notable pupils are Jean-Luc Darbellay, David Philip Hefti, and . During the 1960s and 1970s,

Cristovão Bastos

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Cristovão da Silva Bastos Filho (born December 3, 1946) is a Brazilian songwriter, pianist and arranger. He has performed and composed for artists including Maria Bethânia, Milton Nascimento, Gal Costa, Ivan Lins, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick and Paulinho da Viola. Bastos has been nominated for a Latin Grammy and has won 6 Brazilian Music Awards. Work Bastos has been active as a songwriter, arranger and pianist since the 1970s. In 1996, he released his first solo album, “Avenida Brasil”. Bastos was the pianist and arranger for Dionne Warwick’s 1994 album “Aquarela do Brasil”, a collection of Brazilian jazz and pop standards. Barbra Streisand’s 1999 song “Let’s Start Right Now” is set to the music of “Raios de Luz”, written by Bastos and Abel Silva. In 2006, Bastos composed the soundtrack for the film “Zuzu Angel”, directed by Sérgio Rezende. Awards and honors Bastos’ album “Cristovão Bastos e Rogério Caetano” was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Album at the 22nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards. Together with Marco Pereira, Bastos won the 1994 Brazilian Music Awards (also known as the Sharp Awards) for Best Instrumental Album for their album “Bons Encontros

Ctirad Kohoutek

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Ctirad Kohoutek (18 March 1929 in Zábřeh, Czechoslovakia – 19 September 2011 in Brno, Czech Republic) was a contemporary Czech composer, music theorist, and pedagogue. Life In 1948–1949 he studied composition, musical theory and conducting under the famous composers Vilém Petrželka, Jan Šoupal, and Jaroslav Kvapil at the Brno Conservatory, later at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. In 1963, he attended the Summer School of Music in Dartington, he attended also courses of Pierre Boulez and György Ligeti in Darmstadt (1965). He worked as a teacher at the JAMU in Brno. Since 1980 he was appointed the director of the Czech Philharmonic. He is the brother of astronomer Luboš Kohoutek, who named the minor planet he discovered in 1975, 2375 Radek in his honor. Selected works ;Stage * O Kohoutkovi a Slepičce (The Cockerel and the Little Hen), Short Opera for children’s soloists, children’s choir and instrumental ensemble (1988–1989); libretto by Vladimír Šefl ;Orchestral * Festivalová předehra (Festival Overture) (1955–1956) * Velký přelom (Great Turning Point), Symphony (1960–1962) * Symfonické tance (Symphonic Dances) (1961) * Sinfonietta (1962–1963) * Preludia (P

Curtis Roads

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Curtis Roads (born May 9, 1951) is an American composer, author, and computer programmer. He composes electronic and electroacoustic music, specializing in granular and pulsar synthesis. Career and music Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Roads studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, San Diego, and Paris 8 University. He is the former chair and vice chair of the Media Arts and Technology Program and former associate director of the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He had previously taught at the University of Naples Federico II, Publications * Roads, Curtis (2015). Composing Electronic Music. Oxford University Press. * Roads, Curtis (2001). Microsound. Cambridge: MIT Press. * Roads, Curtis (1996). The Computer Music Tutorial. MIT Press. * Roads, Curtis, Pope, Stephen Travis, Piccialli, Aldo and De Poli, Giovanni, eds (1997). Musical Signal Processing. Routledge. * Roads, Curtis and Strawn, John, eds (1987). Foundations of Computer Music. MIT Press. Compositions *POINT LINE CLOUD (2005) @Asphodel (Excerpt @ youtube) *Half-life (1998–1999) *Clang-Tint (1991–1994) *nscor (1980) Ref

Cynthia Cozette Lee

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Cynthia Cozette Lee, also known as Cynthia Cozette or Nazik Cynthia Cozette (born October 19, 1953, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a contemporary African-American classical music composer and librettist. Cozette was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Arts degree in music composition. Cozette was also the first African-American woman graduate of the University of Pennsylvania to be instructed in music composition by the American composers, George Crumb and George Rochberg. She began her formal music training at 8 years old by studying piano with Carmen Rummo, a Duquesne University professor. She began studying flute at 10 years old. Her early flute teachers were Alois Hrabak, a former flutist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Bernard Goldberg, the principal flutist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She received the Victor Saudek Flute Award in 1969 to study with Goldberg. She began her musical composition training at 16 years old with Joseph Willcox Jenkins, a Duquesne University music composition professor. Her prize for winning an honorable mention award in the Pittsburgh Flute Club Composition Contest i

Cyril Ornadel

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Simon Cyril Ornadel (2 December 192422 June 2011) was a British conductor, songwriter and composer, chiefly in musical theatre. He worked regularly with David Croft, the television writer, director and producer, as well as Norman Newell and Hal Shaper. He was awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for services to British Music and won a total of four Ivor Novello Awards. Life and career Simon Cyril Ornadel was born into a middle-class Jewish family in London, England, and studied at the Royal College of Music. During the 1950s, he was famous for conducting the orchestra for the hit TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium. “At My Time of Life” from Great Expectations was recorded by Bing Crosby in 1976. Ornadel’s contribution to music for television includes scores for the remake of Brief Encounter (1974) starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, Edward the Seventh (1975), which won a BAFTA, starring Timothy West as Edward VII, and the music for the British television science-fiction series Sapphire & Steel (1979). He also conducted music with the London Symphony Orchestra for The Strauss Family, by the eponymous composers,

Daan Manneke

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Daan Manneke (born 7 November 1939) is a Dutch composer and organist. Manneke was born in Kruiningen. He studied organ and composition from 1963 to 1967 at the Brabant Conservatory in Tilburg, under Huub Houët and Louis Toebosch (organ) and Jan van Dijk (composition). Manneke then studied organ with Belgian organist Kamiel d’Hooghe in Brussels, followed by composition with Ton de Leeuw in Amsterdam. References

Dafydd Llywelyn (composer)

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Dafydd Llywelyn (10 January 1939, in South Wales – 25 March 2013, in Munich) was a Welsh composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. Biography Llywelyn, born in South Wales, received his first piano lessons from his father and later from priests in a monastic boarding school in the Midlands. His other teachers include the British pianist Tom Bromley, Johann Trygvasson (father-in-law of Vladimir Ashkenazy) and Peter Feuchtwanger (nephew of the writer Lion Feuchtwanger). He received an important musical influence from the pianist and later close friend Shura Cherkassky, who showed him the tradition of the old masters’ polyphonic piano playing. He was later significantly inspired by Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and . In Birmingham and then London he studied music, medicine, criminology and theology, after which he moved to Cologne. He moved to Munich in 1971, and in 1984 until his death lived with his life-partner Hedy Schmitt in the Haidhausen district. When he was three years old, his mother died from leukemia. Later he began to translate and write his thoughts into music. The deep religiosity of his work, which he was already composing in a meditative state since his youth, w

Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe

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Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe (10 December 1926 – 1 February 2013) was a Norwegian musicologist, composer, music critic and biographer. He was a lecturer at the University of Oslo for thirty years, from 1973 with the title of professor. His research mainly centered on the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Life and career Schjelderup-Ebbe was born in Oslo as the son of zoologist Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe and Torbjørg Brekke. He graduated in musicology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1950, and started teaching at the University of Oslo the same year. In 1953 he published the work A Study of Grieg’s Harmony, and in 1964 the work Edvard Grieg 1858–1867, which was also the basis for his doctorate thesis. In addition to his university assignment he also worked as a music critic for the newspaper Vårt Land from 1957 to 1963, and for Verdens Gang from 1963 to 1973. He was appointed professor at the University of Oslo from 1973 to 1980. He co-wrote the biography Edvard Grieg – mennesket og kunstneren in 1980, together with Finn Benestad. It has also been translated into German and Russian language. References

Daisuke Inoue (singer)

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Daisuke Inoue (; 13 September 1941 - 30 May 2000), the stage name of Tadao Inoue () was a Japanese singer, composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Life and career Born in Tokyo, Inoue started his musical career in 1960 as a member of the group Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets, serving as multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and often also as composer. Among other works, he penned the group’s major hit “Blue Chateau” (ブルー・シャトウ, “Burū shatō”), which won a Japan Record Award and sold over one million copies. After the group disbanded, Inoue started a career as a solo singer and as a composer for other artists, notably Finger 5 and Hiromi Go. In 1981, he adopted the stage name Daisuke Inoue to mark a fresh start to his career. Among his major hits is “Ai Senshi”, the theme song of the Mobile Suit Gundam film trilogy. References External links * * *

Dale Warland

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Dale Warland (born April 14, 1932, Fort Dodge, Iowa ) is an American conductor, composer, founder of the Grammy-nominated Dale Warland Singers, scholar, teacher, choral consultant, and renowned champion of contemporary choral composers. Warland is one of only two choral conductors (along with Robert Shaw) inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Professional biography (in brief) While enrolled at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, Warland began rehearsing and performing with choirs. After graduating, he spent two years in the U.S. Air Force where he started a choir of servicemen. The choir was invited to perform for then-Vice President Richard Nixon. Warland continues to function as a choral composer, editor of choral publications, consultant to publishing companies, scholar, teacher, and guest conductor. The Dale Warland Singers In 1972, while on the faculty at Macalester College, Warland was asked by the Walker Art Center (in Minneapolis) to form a choir for a special project. This group of 40 singers became the Dale Warland Singers. Under his direction, the Singers toured Europe and were awarded the ASCAP Margaret Hillis Achievement Award, ASCAP awards fo

Dallas Harms

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dallas Harms (July 18, 1935 – October 12, 2019) was a Canadian country music singer-songwriter. Twenty of Harms’ singles made the RPM Country Tracks charts, including the number one single “Honky Tonkin’ (All Night Long)”. Harms was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989. Harms was born in Jansen, Saskatchewan, but was raised in Hamilton, Ontario, and was awarded the Hamilton Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016. He died in Hamilton on October 12, 2019. Discography Albums Singles References External links * * Entry at 45cat.com * 45cat.com as The Nashville Sounds Of Dallas Harms And The Spartons *

Dalmazio Santini

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Dalmazio Santini (September 11, 1923 – October 4, 2001) was an Italian-born American composer. Early life Santini was born in Capestrano in the Abruzzo province of Italy. He immigrated to the United States at age 14. He attended public schools in White Plains, New York. He was inducted into the US Armed Forces and served in World War II, eventually settling in Valhalla, New York. Following the war, the G.I. Bill allowed him the opportunity to study composition at Manhattanville College and the Mannes College of Music. Santini studied composition with Felix Salzer and Tadeusz Kassern, and conducting with Milton Forstat. Musical career Santini developed a system of composition using 21-tone rows. This system is similar to the more familiar 12-tone system of serial composition, but the rows Santini used as the basis of his 21-tone compositions also include all alternative enharmonic spellings for each note in the chromatic scale (except the notes D, G, and A, which have no enharmonic spellings). Thus, the available tones for a 21-tone row would include B-sharp, C, C-sharp, D-flat, D, D-sharp, E-flat, E, F-flat, E-sharp, F, F-sharp, G-flat, G, G-sharp, A-flat, A, A-sharp, B-flat, B, an

Dalto (composer)

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Dalto Roberto Medeiros, stage name Dalto (born in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (state), 22 June 1949) is a Brazilian composer and singer. Biography In the beginning of the 1970s, Dalto has actuated as vocalist of the Niterói’s rock band Os Lobos, recording the compact Fanny by the label Top Tape. After this beginning of career, he quit the group to study to be a doctor, until graduating. In 1974, he started his solo career recording a compact for Odeon. The success however only would appear in the 1980s, precisely in 1981, with the song Bem-te-vi, in partnership with Cláudio Rabelo but sung by Renato Terra, which sold 250 thousand copies. In the next year, he already composing and singing, had his biggest hit, Muito Estranho, released in compact and LP record by EMI-Odeon. Another big hit of the composer is the song “Anjo”, recorded in 1983 by the group Roupa Nova, composed in partnership with Cláudio Rabello and Renato Correa. Recently Dalto composed to the sound track of the soap opera Viver a Vida with the song “Faça um Pedido”. Discography * 1974 — Leila Ly/Flash back, Odeon (Compact) * 1982 — Muito estranho, EMI-Odeon (LP) * 1983 — Pessoa, Dalto, EMI-Music Brasil(LP) * 1985 — Kama

Dan Lacksman

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Dan Lacksman (born 19 May 1950) is a Belgian composer and sound engineer, artist and member of Telex, director of numerous acoustic albums, pop or jazz. He released the album Electric Dreams on 17 May 2013. Biography Dan Lacksman was born in Werl. He started learning music and piano when he was 12 years old. A year later, he received a tape recorder and a guitar for Christmas; he formed a band with school friends. They were playing songs of the Shadows, and some early compositions. He then discovered the music of the Beatles with their huge hit “She Loves You”, and started composing more intensely, recording demo songs in his parents’ dining room, which gradually became his first home studio, with the purchase of a second tape recorder and more instruments like a drumkit and a second-hand Fender Jazz Bass. In those days he composed the music of a song which would become later “Laat me nu toch niet alleen”, made successful by Belgian artist Johan Verminnen, and more recently by the group Clouseau. In 1968, after high school, he decided to become a professional recording engineer. After a few months in a specialised school, frustrated by the slowness of the studies and the lack of pr

Dan Locklair

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Dan Locklair (born 1949) is an American composer. He holds the position of Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music, Emeritus, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His output includes symphonic works, a ballet, an opera and numerous solo, vocal and choral compositions. He is often noted for his sacred music, but has also composed many secular works. Early life Locklair was born on August 7, 1949 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Locklair was a professional organist by age 14. Career Locklair is a composer, organist, conductor, and Professor of Music. He has been based at Wake Forest University as Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music since 1982. Prior to Wake Forest, Locklair was Organist/Choirmaster at First Presbyterian Church in Binghamton, NY and Instructor of Music at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. His works are performed in the United States and throughout the world, including in England, Canada, Germany, France, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Korea, Japan, South Africa, Finland and Russia. “Locklair’s music has been premiered and/or performed by such ensembles as the Helsinki (Finland) and Buffalo Philharmonics, the Saint Louis, North

Dan-Alexandru Voiculescu

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Dan Voiculescu (born 20 July 1940 in Saschiz, died 29 August 2009, in Bucharest) was a Romanian composer, doctor of musicology (1983), professor of counterpoint and composition at the Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca (since 1963) and the National Music University of Bucharest (since 2000), and a member of the Union of Romanian Composers and Musicologists (since 1965). His musicological studies fill a niche in the Romanian bibliography; they are significant contributions towards understanding the polyphony of 20th-century classical music. His compositions are performed frequently, both in Romania and abroad. Published works Compositions * The Bald Prima Donna, comical chamber opera, after Eugène Ionesco, 1992–1993 * Cantata for baritone, choir and orchestra, 1977 * Simfonia ostinato, 1963 * Visions cosmiques, 1968 * Music for strings, 1971 * Pieces for orchestra, 1975 * Suite from Codex Caioni for strings, 1996 * Inflorescences for strings, 2001 * Works for piano solo ** Fables ** Dialogs ** Sonata ** Croquis ** Sonantes ** Spirals ** Toccata piano ** Toccata armonica ** Toccata robotica ** Toccata for a hand * Book without end — 3 volumes of piano pieces for children * Sonata brava for

Đặng Hữu Phúc

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Đặng Hữu Phúc (born June 4, 1953) is a Vietnamese pianist and composer best known for his film scores. A graduate of the Hanoi Conservatory, he has penned over 60 works, primarily for film and theatre. In 2001 he won the Vietnam National Film Award Best Music for The Season of Guavas. Then he subsequently won the Best Music prize in 2005 at the 8th Shanghai International Film Festival for his work on Hồ Quang Minh’s film Thời xa vắng (“A Far Time Past”) based on the novel of the same name by Lê Lựu. Đặng is best known as a composer of symphonies and orchestral music, combining this traditional European style of music with elements of traditional Vietnamese music, such as Nhạc dân tộc cải biên. He is also noted in Vietnam for his instrumental music such as piano sonatas. Works Vocal works Đặng Hữu Phúc has written several works for choir and orchestra. His choral symphony to poems of Nguyễn Đình Thi (1973) was performed at the Hanoi Opera House when the composer was only 20 years old. In 2004 10 pieces for a cappella choir (“10 bài cho hợp xướng không nhạc đệm”) premiered, again at the Hanoi Opera House. Phúc is also known for classical songs. In 1974 he wrote Ba bức tranh (“Three P

Daniel Asia

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Asia (born June 27, 1953) is an American composer. He was born in Seattle, Washington, in the United States of America. Biography He received a B.A. degree from Hampshire College and a M.M. from the Yale School of Music. His major teachers include Jacob Druckman, Stephen Albert, Gunther Schuller, and Isang Yun in composition, and Arthur Weisberg in conducting. Asia’s works ranges from solo pieces to large-scale multi-movement works for orchestra, including five symphonies. He served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Contemporary Music and Wind Ensemble from 1981 to 1986. In 1986–88, a UK Fulbright Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship enabled him to work in London as a visiting lecturer at City University. Since 1988, he has been Professor of Composition and head of the composition department at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He conducts the New York-based contemporary chamber ensemble The Musical Elements, which he co-founded in 1977. Asia founded and directs the American Culture and Ideas Initiative. As a blogger, Asia contributes articles on music and culture to The Huffington Post. In 2013, he gained notoriety after

Daniel E. Gawthrop

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel E. Gawthrop (born 1949 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American composer, primarily of choral music. His output also includes a substantial body of works for the organ as well as orchestral and instrumental works. He has been the recipient of over one hundred commissions to write original music. His works have been published by Warner Brothers, Theodore Presser, Sacred Music Press, and others. Biography Gawthrop attended Michigan State University, and Brigham Young University. He served for three years as Composer-in-Residence to the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (of Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.) beginning in 1990, and has been the recipient of four grants from the Barlow Endowment for Musical Composition. He has been commissioned by various institutions including the American Choral Directors Association through their Brock Commission, and has had works première in the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Salt Lake City Mormon Tabernacle, and Washington National Cathedral. His choral pieces have been performed and recorded by such eminent ensembles as the United States Air Force Singing Sergeants, the Gregg Smith Singers, the

Daniel Goode

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Goode (born January 24, 1936) is an American composer and clarinetist. Daniel Goode was born in New York City. After graduating in 1957 from Oberlin College, he studied composition at Columbia University with Henry Cowell and Otto Luening, receiving an MA 1962. He pursued further studies at the University of San Diego with Pauline Oliveros and Kenneth Gaburo (Benary and Sandow 2001). Goode’s works show influence from several sources, including bird song, Cape Breton fiddling, drone, Indonesian gamelan music, and minimal music (specifically music as a gradual process). Often two or more of these elements are combined in a single composition. Goode created and served as Director of the Electronic Music Studio of Livingston College, Rutgers University from 1971 to 1998 and is co-director of the DownTown Ensemble which he co-founded in New York in 1983 (Benary and Sandow 2001). As a clarinetist he is proficient in the technique of circular breathing, which he uses frequently in performances with the group. Since 1976, Goode has been a member of Gamelan Son of Lion, a Javanese-style iron gamelan ensemble dedicated to new music, for which he has composed many works. He has develop

Daniel Lentz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Lentz (March 10, 1942 – July 25, 2025) was an American classical composer, musician and artist whose works focused on minimalist and electronic music. Life and career Lentz was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on March 10, 1942. He achieved notability as a musician while a student at St. Vincent College and at Brandeis University, when he was awarded a fellowship in composition at Tanglewood in the summer of 1966. This was followed by a Fulbright Fellowship in Electronic Music in 1967–68, which was completed in Stockholm, Sweden. He then became a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1968 to 1970. In 1970 he focused more on composing and performing. At this time he also formed a music ensemble, the California Time Machine, which toured North America and Europe. In 1972, Lentz was the first American to win the Gaudeamus International Composers Award. Later, he won a number of other awards and grants. and released several recordings in Europe. Returning to California, Lentz formed the Daniel Lentz Group in Los Angeles. This ensemble has toured much of the world and has released a number of recordings. His 1987 album The Crack in the Bell was the fi

Daniel Moe

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Troen Moe (November 2, 1926 – May 24, 2012) was an American choral conductor, composer, and pedagogue. He was director of choral organizations for the University of Iowa, professor of choral conducting at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and founding music director of Key Chorale in Sarasota, Florida. He was a published composer and author. He was once hailed by The New Yorker music critic Andrew Porter as “that dean of choral conductors.” Early years and education Moe was born in 1926 in Minot, North Dakota the grandson of Norwegian immigrants and the son of a Lutheran pastor. Moe began his musical training at age five. He studied piano and clarinet, and sang in the children’s choir at Olivet Lutheran Church in Fargo, North Dakota, his father’s parish. In junior high and high school, he participated in school bands, orchestras, and choirs. As a senior in high school, Moe took up the tenor saxophone so he could play jazz, a form of music he had a growing interest in, and which would affect future compositions such as the three-movement Psalm Concertato. In 1944, after graduating high school, Moe entered the V-5 Aviation Cadet Training Program (USN) (NavCad) program. He

Daniel Pinkham

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Rogers Pinkham Jr. (June 5, 1923 – December 18, 2006) was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist. Early life and education Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, into a prominent family engaged in the manufacture of patent medicines (his great-grandmother was Lydia E. Pinkham), he studied organ performance and music theory at Phillips Academy with Carl F. Pfatteicher. “The single event that changed my life was a concert at Andover by the Trapp Family Singers in 1939, right after they had escaped from Germany,” Pinkham once recalled. “Here, suddenly, I was hearing clarity, simplicity. It shaped my whole outlook,” he said in a 1981 interview with The Boston Globe. At Harvard University, he studied with Walter Piston; Aaron Copland, Archibald T. Davison, and Arthur Tillman Merritt were also among his teachers. There he completed a bachelor’s degree in 1942 and a master’s in 1944. He also studied harpsichord with Putnam Aldrich and Wanda Landowska, and organ with E. Power Biggs. At Tanglewood, he studied composition with Samuel Barber and Arthur Honegger, and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger. Career Pinkham taught at the Boston Conservatory beginning in 1946, and at the New E

Daniel Roth (organist)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

François Daniel Roth (born 31 October 1942) is a French organist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue. He was titular organist of the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, from 1985 to 2023, and is currently the emeritus titular organist. Early life and education Roth was born in Mulhouse to René Roth and his wife Angèle (née Higelin). He began his musical training at the conservatoire in his hometown with Joseph Victor Meyer. In 1960, he entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he graduated with five first prizes—in organ and improvisation (1963, class of Rolande Falcinelli), harmony (1962, class of Maurice Duruflé), counterpoint and fugue (1963, class of Marcel Bitsch), and piano accompaniment (1970, class of Henriette Puig-Roget). He later continued his organ studies with Marie-Claire Alain after graduating from Falcinelli’s class. Career Organist In 1963 Roth became Falcinelli’s deputy at the great organ at Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in Paris. He succeeded her as titular organist in 1973, and held this position until 1985, when he was appointed titular organist at the Church of Saint-Sulpice. Roth retired from St. Sulpice in 2023 and was succeeded by Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Chopl

Daniel Steven Crafts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Steven Crafts (born September 22, 1949) is an American composer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, but has spent most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to New Mexico. Composition style Daniel Steven Crafts has chosen to oppose what he considers unjustifiably dissonant formalism prevalent in late 20th-century classical music. Instead, he emphasizes tonality in a dialectic between form and content. Known for his strong sense of melody, the composer has written a variety of styles including operas, orchestral works, chamber music, concertos, and satirical pieces. Among Crafts’ most well-known works is The Song & the Slogan, a collaboration with legendary opera star Jerry Hadley. Written for voice and orchestra, the piece is based on the poetry of Carl Sandburg. The work was made into a TV program for the PBS network and was aired nationally in 2004 with host David Hartman. The Song & the Slogan was awarded an Emmy Award in 2003 for Best Music by the Mid-America Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Crafts also created the first comic-strip opera called Too Much Coffee Man in collaboration with Shannon Wheeler and Damian Willcox. He

Daniele Lombardi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniele Lombardi (Florence, August 12, 1946 - Florence, March 11, 2018) was a composer, pianist and visual artist. Biography He is an exponent and main promoter of the group of Florentine artists, operating from the end of the Second World War to today including Sylvano Bussotti, Giuseppe Chiari, Giancarlo Cardini, Albert Mayr, Pietro Grossi, Marcello Aitiani e Sergio Maltagliati. These musicians have experimented the interaction among sound, sign and vision, a synaesthetics of art derived from historical avant-gardes, from Kandinskij to futurism, to Scrjabin and Schoenberg, all the way to Bauhaus. He worked extensively on the music of the twentieth-century avant-garde movements, including first modern performances of a large number of compositions of Futurism music. In his work he has incorporate sign, gesture, and sound into a unitary concept of multiple perception, through analogies, contrasts, stratifications, and associations. He has produced from 1969 on, since 1990, drawings, paintings, computer graphics and videos. In 1998 the performance of the Two Symphonies for 21 pianos at the Uffizi Courtyard. Exhibitions Among his exhibitions, in Italy and abroad, we recall here: * Co

Daniele Zanettovich

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daniele Zanettovich (born 1950 in Trieste) is an Italian composer and conductor. Biography Zanettovich started out his career as a pianist, winning the Fourth National Festival of Student Pianists in La Spezia. Since the late 1960s, however, he has focused more on composing. His career as a composer began when he was admitted to the final reading at the GB Viotti International Composition Competition for three straight years (1967, 1968, and 1969). Zanettovich wrote a two-volume textbook called Appunti per il corso di armonia principale which is widely used by composition schools in Italy. As a conductor, he has appeared with the Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the orchestra of the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the orchestra of AIDEM in Florence, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, the orchestra of Ente Lirico dell’Arena di Verona as well as various chamber ensembles. Successful as an academic as well as a professional composer, Zanettovich was a professor of composition at the conservatory Jacopo Tomadini in Udine until retiring in 2009. Compositions *1971 Celine, work that is performed at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo in October of the same year *1972 E & FFlauto-Conce

Danilo Avilés

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Danilo Avilés Suárez (born 1948) is a Cuban composer and clarinetist. Career Suárez worked as a clarinetist in the Orquesta de Teatro y Danza in Havana. He participated as a composer in numerous concerts organized by the Brigada Hermanos Saiz and other cultural institutions in his country. He also received awards from local Symphonic and Chamber Music competitions and participated as a guest in the Warsaw Autumn Festival as well as the Spring Festival in Berlin, Germany. In 1980,he moved to Madrid, Spain where he taught musical composition and chamber music. Later he settled in the US and continued teaching and composing. Music work Suárez has written numerous pieces for soprano and piano, clarinet, string quartet, and brass quintet, as well as music for children, choral works, and incidental music. His works have been performed by renowned artists as Cuban pianist Marianela Santurio and conducted by Cuban composer Flores Chaviano in important events such as I Foro de Música Contemporánea in Mexico. The compositions of Suárez have also been premiered in many other concerts in Russia, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Spain and the United States. Compositions A list of relevant works from D

Darcy Hepner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Darcy Rolston Hepner (born December 22, 1954) is a Canadian saxophonist, composer, and arranger. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, he is the son of professional musicians (conductor Dr. Lee Hepner and pianist Patricia Rolston). His professional career began as a cellist at the age of 15 and transitioned to flute, clarinet, and saxophone during his studies at McMaster University (BMus 1978). While pursuing jazz studies at the University of Miami he performed with Henry Mancini, B. B. King, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Mel Tormé and many others (MMUS 1980). Moving to New York City in 1983 he studied composition and saxophone at New York University with Lee Konitz and Bob Mintzer. During his second residency in New York from 1996 to 2005, Hepner toured with Blood, Sweat and Tears, played in Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and in clubs with such artists as Buster Poindexter and Tom Wopat. Since 2008, he has recorded and performed with Tom Wilson and LeE HARVeY OsMOND as both a woodwind player and conductor/arranger for his symphony shows, which have included performances with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. He arra

Daria Semegen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Daria Semegen (born June 27, 1946) is a contemporary American composer of classical music. While she has composed pieces for traditional instruments – her Jeux des quatres (1970), for example, is scored for clarinet, trombone, cello, and piano – she is best known as a “respected electronic composer.” She is a figure on the academic side of the electronic music genre, connected with the conservatory and the university (like her older contemporary Karlheinz Stockhausen), rather than the more popular expression of the genre that followed upon the widespread availability of synthesizers and personal computers in the 1970s and after. Her writing covers a range of topics related to musical composition and has been the subject of studies by other scholars. Biography Born in Bamberg, West Germany of Ukrainian heritage, Semegen pursued an academic career in music, earning her MA from Yale University in 1971; she has studied at the Eastman School of Music and the Rochester Institute of Technology. She taught at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (1971–75). She studied composition under Bülent Arel and Alexander Goehr, and in turn has taught other composers, including Joseph DiPon

Dario Baldan Bembo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dario Baldan Bembo (born 15 May 1948) is an Italian composer, singer-songwriter, music arranger and musician, best known for the songs “Aria” and “Amico è”. Background Born in Milan, Baldan Bembo started his music career as a keyboardist for, among others, Lucio Battisti and Adriano Celentano. and became an international success. the song was later covered by Guys ’n’ Dolls as “Broken Dreams” and by Sarah Brightman under the title “Just Show Me How to Love You”. He came back in Sanremo in 1985, with the song “Da quando non ci sei”. ending theme song of the Mike Bongiorno’s quiz show SuperFlash, which later became a widely spread football chant. Discography Singles * 1975 - Aria * 1975 - Crescendo * 1977 - Non mi lasciare * 1978 - Piccolina * 1979 - Giuro * 1981 - Tu cosa fai stasera? * 1983 - Amico è (with Caterina Caselli) * 1983 - Voci di città * 1984 - Flashback (as “Space Philharmonic”) * 1985 - Da quando non ci sei (una volta ancora) Studio albums * 1975 - Aria * 1975 - Crescendo * 1977 - Migrazione * 1979 - Dario Baldan Bembo * 1981 - Voglia d’azzurro * 1982 - Etereo (as “Bembo’s Orchestra”) * 1982 - Spirito della Terra * 1985 - Spazi uniti * 1991 - Un po’ per vivere, un po'

Darwin Vargas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Darwin Vargas (March 8, 1925 – April 8, 1988) was a Chilean composer and choral conductor. His compositional style was influenced by Chilean folk music and he often used modal tonalities within his works. His own beliefs in Christian mysticism influenced his compositional style as well; particularly in his sacred choral works which exhibit a reflective lyrical sensibility. Vargas won several prizes for his music compositions at festivals in his native country. He wrote several journal articles which were published in Revista musical chilena and La libertad. Partial list of works Art songs *Cantos del hombre, baritone and orchestra (1960; uses poems by César Vallejo) *Canciones para Georgeanne, mezzo-soprano and piano (1972; uses poems by Hugo Montes) Choral *Cantata de cámara, soprano and alto soloists, SATB chorus, and orchestra (1954) *Ecce sacerdos magnus, TTBB chorus and organ (1961) *Stabat mater, soprano and alto soloists, treble chorus, and organ (1961) *3 coros sacros (Three Sacred Choruses), SATB chorus (1961) *En el país de los dos rios, tenor, baritone, and bass soloists; TTBB chorus; orchestra (1967) Orchestral *Obertura para tiempos de adviento (1958) *Meditation Symph

Dary John Mizelle

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dary John Mizelle (born June 14, 1940) is an American composer of avant-garde classical and jazz music. Life and career Mizelle studied trombone (B.A. California State University, Sacramento) as well as composition (M.A. University of California, Davis, Ph.D. University of California, San Diego) and while at U.C. Davis participated in the New Music Ensemble (a pioneering free improvisation group that dispensed with scores). He was an original member of the group that founded Source: Music of the Avant Garde magazine. His mentors include: Larry Austin, Richard Swift, Jerome Rosen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, David Tudor, Roger Reynolds, Robert Erickson, Pauline Oliveros, and Kenneth Gaburo. His music involves mastery of instrumental, electronic and vocal resources as well as his own performance on several different instruments and voice. He works in many different genres and media. His SPANDA project consists of thirteen days of music with a coherent macrostructure, which includes music theater, opera, orchestra works, choral works, electronic music, chamber music, solo instrumental and vocal music as well as combinations and integrations of all these. A prolific composer with works in a

Dave Hewson (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Graham Hewson (born 25 November 1953 in Wandsworth, London, England) is a British composer of scores for television and films. His work includes a collaboration to develop scores for ITV News. Hewson works from his composing studio in East Sussex. At Trinity College of Music, Hewson was a pupil of Richard Arnell. They worked together on films including Dilemma (1981), Doctor in the Sky (1984), Toulouse-Lautrec (1986), and The Light of the World (1989). Hewson has written several works with Brian Sibley. Background and education Hewson began composing at the age of 11, influenced by his primary school music education, which had been based entirely on the Schulwerk. This influence stayed with David and shaped a lot of his much later music. During his time in primary school, he also started to receive piano lessons from the renowned classical concert pianist and teacher Christine Gough. In his late teens he studied composition with Professor Richard Arnell, a former pupil of John Ireland at Trinity College of Music, London, and enrolled in a part-time courses on electronic music with Tristram Cary at the Royal College of Music. After gaining his BEd (Hon) he taught music for six

Dave Newhouse

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Newhouse (born 1953) is an American progressive rock and avant-garde jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer. He was one on the founding members of the Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz band, the Muffins, and has recorded nine solo albums, five of them as Manna/Mirage, a solo project he created in 2015. Biography Newhouse was born in Hawaii in 1953, but moved with his family to Maryland the same year. He began playing clarinet at school when he was nine years old, then took up tenor saxophone in junior high school. His father had played alto saxophone in his own high school band. Newhouse taught himself keyboards on his parents’ upright piano. Newhouse played in two bands, Sledge and Tunc before forming the Muffins in Maryland with guitarist Michael Zentner and bassist Billy Swann in 1973. Saxophonist Thomas Scott and drummer Paul Sears joined the Muffins a few years later. The Muffins recorded their first album, Manna/Mirage in 1978, which attracted the attention of Fred Frith and Chris Cutler of the English experimental rock group, Henry Cow. When Henry Cow disbanded later in 1978, Frith moved to New York City and performed with the Muffins in Washington, D.C. He a

Dave Smith (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dave Smith (born August 19, 1949) is an English composer, arranger and musical performer. Since 1971 he has been associated with the English school of experimental music. Life and career Smith was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. After attending Solihull School, he read music at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In the 1970s, Smith was a member of the Scratch Orchestra and a participant in several composer/performer ensembles. The first of these was a keyboard duo with John Lewis which played minimalist and systemic works by British and American composers (notably including early works by Philip Glass) as well as by themselves. Several concerts with Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton featured at this time, as did a short-lived five-piano group (with Lewis, Michael Nyman, Orlando Gough and Benedict Mason) and an involvement with the People’s Liberation Music group of Laurie Scott Baker, Cornelius Cardew and others. From 1977 he played in John White’s Garden Furniture Music Ensemble alongside Mason and Gavin Bryars: his close association with the music of White, Bryars and Cardew has continued ever since. In the 1980s he was a founder-member of the English Gamelan Orchestra and Li

David Amram

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Werner Amram III (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of orchestral, chamber, and choral works, many with jazz flavorings. He plays piano, French horn, Spanish guitar, and pennywhistle, and sings. Early life and education Amram was born in Philadelphia, the son of legal scholar Philip Werner Amram. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1948–1949, and earned a bachelor’s degree in European history from George Washington University in 1952. Under Schuller he studied French horn. He has also worked with a wide range of folk, pop, and country figures, such as Bob Dylan, the Roche sisters, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Willie Nelson, Oscar Brand, Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Josh White, Patti Smith, Arlo Guthrie, Jerry Jeff Walker and others. In 1956, producer Joseph Papp hired Amram to compose scores for the New York Shakespeare Festival. Over the years, Amram composed scores for 25 of Papp’s productions, including a number of Shakespeare in the Park presentations. In 1957, Amram, along with Jack Kerouac and poets Howard Hart and Philip Lamantia, staged one of the first poetry readings with jazz at the Brata Art Galle

David Avshalomov

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Avshalomov (born 6 May 1946 ) is a third generation classical composer, singer, and conductor. David is the son of Jacob Avshalomov and grandson of Aaron Avshalomov who were both distinguished classical musicians. As a composer, he has been commissioned by several orchestras such as the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Mission Chamber Orchestra, Oddysea Chorus of Lisbon, and the Anglican Chorale of Southern California. He is also a vocalist - having served in the United States Air Force as a Singing Sergeant - and conductor. Life Son of composer Jacob Avshalomov and his wife Doris, David Avshalomov was born on May 6, 1946, in New York City, New York. He grew up in Oregon where his father, Jacob, served as the music director for the Portland Junior Symphony. Avshalomov enjoyed music from a young age, claiming that he “learned the joys of madrigal singing at home”. He studied music theory and composition throughout grade school, and eventually continued these studies at both Harvard University and the University of Washington. He later graduated from Harvard in 1967 with a baccalaureate in Music. Avshalomov was one of ninety-nine seniors to receive honors from the Phi Beta Kappa cha

David B. Doty

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David B. Doty (born 1950) is an American composer and authority on just intonation. He is the author of The Just Intonation Primer (1993, 1994, 2002). Inspired in part by the work of Harry Partch, Doty began composing in 1970 and in 1975 co-founded the San Francisco-based ensemble Other Music with Henry S. Rosenthal and Dale S. Soules. After Doty studied intonation with Lou Harrison, members of Other Music built an American gamelan based on a 14-tone-per-octave just tuning designed by Doty and Soules (see Systêma Ametabolon for comparison). Other Music performed extensively in Northern California using these instruments during the years 1977–1981. Three of Doty’s compositions from this period were featured on Other Music’s 1980 LP Prime Numbers. Other Music ceased performing publicly in 1981, but in 1983 recorded and released a studio album, Incidents Out of Context, featuring compositions combining gamelan with synthesizers and other acoustic and electro-acoustic instruments. After the dissolution of Other Music in 1983, Doty began composing for MIDI instruments and sequencers, which he has continued to do into the 21st century. Seven of these compositions in just intonation are i

David Baker (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Nathaniel Baker Jr. (December 21, 1931 – March 26, 2016) was an American jazz composer, conductor, and musician from Indianapolis, as well as a professor of jazz studies at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Baker is best known as an educator and founder of the jazz studies program. From 1991 to 2012, he was conductor and musical and artistic director for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. He has more than 65 recordings, 70 books, and 400 articles to his credit. He received the James Smithson Medal from the Smithsonian Institution, an American Jazz Masters Award, a National Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award, a Sagamore of the Wabash award, and a Governor’s Arts Award from the State of Indiana. Baker also held leadership positions in several arts and music associations. The Indiana Historical Society named Baker an Indiana Living Legend in 2001. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named him a Living Jazz Legend in 2007. Early life and education David Nathaniel Baker Jr. was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 21, 1931, to Patress Lasley Baker and David N. Baker Sr., a postal carrier. His siblings included two sisters, S

David Bedford

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Vickerman Bedford (4 August 1937 – 1 October 2011) was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter and author Herbert Bedford and the composer Liza Lehmann, and the son of Leslie Bedford, an inventor, and Lesley Duff, a soprano opera singer. From 1969 to 1981, Bedford was Composer in Residence at Queen’s College, London. From 1968 to 1980, he taught music in a number of London secondary schools. In 1996 he was appointed Composer in Association with the English Sinfonia. In 2001 he was appointed Chairman of the Performing Right Society, having previously been Deputy chairman. Early life and career Bedford was born in Hendon, London to Leslie Bedford, the director of engineering for the guided weapons division of the British Aircraft Corporation, and Lesley Duff, a soprano singer who worked with the English Opera Group. He was educated at Lancing College in West Sussex. During this time he worked as a porter at Guy’s Hospital, London. In the mid-60s, he was a music teacher at Whitefield school in Hendon, before joining Queen’s College in London

David Behrman

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Behrman (born August 16, 1937) is an American composer and a pioneer of computer music. In 1966, Behrman co-founded Sonic Arts Union with fellow composers Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma. He was also the producer of Columbia Records’ late 1960s Music of Our Time series, which introduced recordings by Terry Riley, John Cage, Steve Reich, and Pauline Oliveros to a wider audience. Behrman wrote the music for Merce Cunningham’s dances Walkaround Time (1968), Rebus (1975), Pictures (1984) and Eyespace 40 (2007). In 1978, he released his debut album On the Other Ocean, a pioneering work combining computer music with live performance. Biography Early life and education Behrman’s father, S. N. Behrman, was a successful playwright and Hollywood screenplay writer. His mother Elza Heifetz Behrman was the sister of violinist Jascha Heifetz. Behrman attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where his classmates included Carl Andre, Hollis Frampton and Frank Stella. There he also developed a lifelong friendship with composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski. While attending summer camp at Indian Hill in 1953 he was taught modern music by Wallingford Riegger. He rece

David Blake (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Blake (born 2 September 1936) is an English composer and founder member of the Department of Music at the University of York. Early life and education Blake was born in London. Following national service, he learnt Mandarin Chinese and spent one year in Hong Kong. He went on to read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where his teachers were Patrick Hadley, Peter Tranchell and Raymond Leppard. He was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship for Composition in 1960, and, uniquely for a British composer of his generation, he went to East Berlin to study with Arnold Schoenberg’s pupil, the Marxist composer Hanns Eisler, as a Meisterschüler of the GDR Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts, Berlin). During this time, he composed the first of his acknowledged compositions – the Variations for Piano and the String Quartet No. 1. Career In 1963, he was awarded the Granada Arts Fellowship at the newly opened University of York, and the following year, with Wilfrid Mellers and Peter Aston, he founded the Department of Music there. He was Lecturer in Music in the Department until 1976 and then succeeded Wilfrid Mellers as Professor. His first important commission came in 1966, fro

David Borden

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David Russell Borden (born December 25, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American composer and keyboard player of minimalist music. David Borden was educated at the Eastman School of Music and Harvard University. At Harvard he studied with Leon Kirchner and Randall Thompson, and at Eastman with Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. He was also a Fulbright student in Berlin Germany, where he studied at the Hochschule für Musik. His first composition teachers were jazz musicians Jimmy Giuffre and Jaki Byard. He collaborates and performs with his son, Gabriel Borden and stepson, Sam Godin. Borden resides in Ithaca, NY with his wife, Rebecca Godin. He is the retired founder and Director of the Digital Music Program (now the Cornell Electroacoustic Music Center) at Cornell University. In addition to his work with electronics and the Mother Mallard ensemble, Borden has written music for various chamber and vocal ensembles. He is also an accomplished jazz pianist. Borden’s compositions are similar to the repetitive minimalist style of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. Borden is also very interested in counterpoint, best demonstrated in his large scale series of works The Contin

David C. Johnson

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David C. Johnson (January 30, 1940, in Batavia, New York – October 28, 2021, in Basel) was an American composer, flautist, and performer of live electronic music. Life and career Johnson studied, among other places, at Harvard University (M.A. in composition 1964), with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and at the Cologne Courses for New Music in 1964–1965, 1965–1966, and 1966–1967. In 1966–1967, he was an independent collaborator at the Electronic Studio of the WDR, where he assisted Karlheinz Stockhausen with the production of his electronic work Hymnen. He also operated the live-electronics in the first performances of the chamber-orchestra version of Stockhausen’s Mixtur (1967), and in the Darmstadt collaborative works directed by Stockhausen, Ensemble in 1967 and Musik für ein Haus in 1968. In 1968, Johnson was instructor of electronic music at the Cologne Courses for New Music. From its formation in Cologne in 1968, he collaborated with the experimental beat group, later known as Can, formed by bass guitarist Holger Schüring (later known as Holger Czukay), keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, guitarist Michael Karoli and drummer Jaki Liebezeit. He left in 1969, disappointed at their growing ro

David Campbell (composer)

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David Richard Campbell (born 7 February 1948) is a Canadian-American arranger, composer, musician, and conductor. He has composed and arranged music for many films, including North Country (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), August: Osage County (2013), Annie (2014), Foxcatcher (2014), Rock of Ages (2012), Dreamgirls (2006), and Joy (2015). He has also worked on over 450 gold and platinum albums by artists of a wide range of genres, including The Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond, Metallica, Radiohead, Evanescence, Rush, Beyoncé, Muse, Michael Jackson, Aaliyah, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Aerosmith, Juanes, Garth Brooks, Green Day, and various albums by his son Beck. Early life and education Campbell was born in Toronto, Ontario. His father, D. Warren Campbell, was from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was attending seminary in Toronto in order to become a Presbyterian minister. Campbell subsequently was assigned to a church in Pittsburgh, taking his family with him, before settling in Seattle. Campbell took up the violin at age 9. At age 12, he began venturing into orchestration, studying the works of Bartók, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. In the late 1960s, after studying at Manhattan School of Mu

David Cope

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David Howell Cope (May 17, 1941 – May 4, 2025) was an American author, composer, scientist and Dickerson Professor of Music at UC Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involved artificial intelligence and music; he wrote programs and algorithms that can analyze existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. He taught the groundbreaking summer workshop in Workshop in Algorithmic Computer Music (WACM) that was open to the public as well as a general education course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Music for enrolled UCSC students. Cope was also co-founder and CTO Emeritus of Recombinant Inc., a music technology company. He died of congestive heart failure on May 4, 2025, at the age of 83. Composition EMI His EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence, pronounced “Emmy” ) software has produced works in the style of various composers, some of which have been commercially recorded—ranging from short pieces to full-length operas. In 1981, he received a commission to compose an opera, but had a “composer’s block”, so he began writing EMI (on an Apple desktop computer) to understand and modify his own style, and 8 years after receiving the commis

David Cornwall

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David Randolph Cornwall (May 18, 1937 – November 7, 2006) was an American composer and systems engineer. He wrote music for piano, horns, woodwinds and orchestra, composing more than 40 works in a span of less than five years leading up to the time of his death in November 2006. Biography Cornwall was born in Denver, Colorado. Trained as a trombonist, Cornwall performed professionally with the New York City Opera and D’Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Central City Opera, where he performed in the world premiere of The Ballad of Baby Doe by Douglas Moore. After studying math and physics at Harvard College for one and a half years, he dropped out in 1957. Returning to Denver, he worked a systems engineer for United Airlines while performing for the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra (then known as the Denver Businessmen’s Orchestra) and studying under its conductor, Antonia Brico. He was drafted by the US Army in 1961 and contributed to developing large systems for the Pentagon’s National Military Command and Control Center, where he was named Chief Programmer for global nuclear war-game exercises. After receiving an honorable discharge from the army, Cornwall returned to the airline indus

David Darling (musician)

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David Darling (March 4, 1941 – January 8, 2021) Music career Darling was born on March 4, 1941, in Elkhart, Indiana. He was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano when he was four, cello at ten, and string bass in high school. He studied classical cello at Indiana State University and after graduating remained there another four years as a teacher. He worked as a studio musician in Nashville, Tennessee and was a member of the Paul Winter Consort until 1978. During the following year, he was part of the chamber jazz group Gallery with Ralph Towner and released his first solo album, Journal October. In 2007 he recorded The Darling Conversations, with Julie Weber discussing his music philosophy. It was issued by Manifest Spirit Records. In January 2009, Darling released the Grammy-winning Prayer for Compassion, a follow-up of his earlier 8-String Religion, both on the Curve Blue label. Other activities In 1986, Darling joined Young Audiences, an organization that seeks to educate children about music and the arts through school programs. In the same year, he founded Music for People, which seeks to encourage self-expression through musical improvisation. His teaching m

David DeBoor Canfield

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David DeBoor Canfield (born September 23, 1950) is an American composer of classical music. Early life and education David DeBoor Canfield (birth name, David Ellis Canfield) was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on September 23, 1950. Early musical studies were with his father, John Canfield, who taught his son piano, violin and music theory beginning when he was six years old. Canfield’s first juvenile compositions date from 1957 when he was seven, but throughout high school and the first two and a half years of college, he pursued studies in chemistry, only changing his major to music halfway through his junior year. Graduate studies in composition were undertaken at Indiana University, where Canfield studied primarily with John Eaton, as well as with Frederick Fox and Bernhard Heiden. He received his Master of Music in 1977 and Doctor of Music in 1983. Not wishing to pursue a career in academia, he instead began in 1978 a business, Ars Antiqua, selling classical LP records around the world, becoming the largest such dealer for several decades. All the while, however, he continued to compose, building up a catalog of around 200 mature works. It was in graduate school that he repl

David Del Tredici

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David Walter Del Tredici (March 16, 1937 – November 18, 2023) was an American composer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Music and was a Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson fellow. Del Tredici is considered a pioneer of the neo-romantic movement. He was also described by the Los Angeles Times as “one of our most flamboyant outsider composers”. He came from a non-musical family and began his musical life as an aspiring concert pianist at the age of twelve, taking piano lessons with German concert pianist Bernhard Abramovitch. If he had not been a pianist, he said, he would have become a florist. Abramovitsch encouraged him to be “very creative” in his playing, which he later cited as prepared him for composing. “I was only interested in playing … great sprawling things like the Schumann Fantasy, that the performer had to mold and shape”, he reflected. Thus he learned how to “sustain a musical thread so that it was never broken”. He debuted with the San Francisco Symphony at age 16 and later performed Liszt and Tchaikovsky concertos under Arthur Fiedler. Then he attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he continued studying piano. He played primarily Romantic works. He also play

David Dubery

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NOTOC David Dubery (Durban, 1948) is a South-African born British composer, pianist, vocal coach and academic. Dubery has been a music staff tutor at Long Millgate, Elizabeth Gaskell and Didsbury Colleges, Manchester Polytechnic, Metropolitan University, and Manchester School of Music for fourteen years (1972–1986), at the Manchester branch of The Actor’s Centre, Northern Actor’s Centre, and was vocal tutor/staff pianist & musical director for the Northern Ballet School for seventeen years (1986–2003). He also coached tenor Russell Watson. Recordings *David Dubery: Songs & Chamber Music - “Sonatina for Oboe and Piano”. Three Songs to Poems by Robert Graves. Four Songs. Suite from ‘Degrees of Evidence’. “Remember”. Two Stopfordian Impressions. Sonata for Cello and Piano Escapades. Walking Cimbrone. Harlequinade. “Mrs Harris in Paris”. Adrienne Murray (mezzo-soprano with David Dubery piano), John Turner, Paul Janes, Craig Ogden, Peter Dixon, Richard Simpson, Graham Salvage, Richard Williamson. Metier MSV28523 (2011) *David Dubery; Observations. Seventeen songs and a string quartet. Three songs to poems by Douglas Gibson. Full fathom five. Time will not wait. Night Songs. Observat

David Earl (composer)

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David Earl (born 1951) is a South African composer and pianist. He was educated at Rondebosch Boys’ High School. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen when he broadcast Bach, Chopin and Chabrier on the SABC. In 1968, he performed Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No 1 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. In 1971, he moved to London where he studied at Trinity College of Music. He studied under Jacob Kaletsky and Richard Arnell. After a live début broadcast recital on BBC Radio 3 in 1974, his first recital at Wigmore Hall was reported as “stylish and powerful” by The Times. In 1975, he was selected as one of the Young Musicians of the Year by the Greater London Arts Association. He also won first prize in the 1976 SABC Piano Competition. He was described by The Daily Telegraph as having “remarkable gifts of style, technical mastery and artistry”. He made his début as a composer in the 1977 when he premiered his own Piano Suite No 1 Mosaics at Wigmore Hall. His concerto repertoire includes the Viennese classics, many from the nineteenth century, and amongst those from the 20th, the piano concertos of Arthur Bliss and John Joubert, both of which he studied with the c

David Ellis (composer)

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David Ellis (10 March 1933 – 20 April 2023) was an English composer, arranger and music producer at the BBC. Career Ellis was born in Liverpool, attending the Liverpool Institute (where he first met fellow composer John McCabe), and then the Royal Manchester College of Music (1953–57) where his composition teacher was Thomas Pitfield. His contemporaries in Manchester were Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. From 1964 Ellis worked as a producer at the BBC, becoming Head of Music for BBC North in 1977. In 1986 he took up the position of artistic director, Northern Chamber Orchestra where he was also composer-in-residence. From the mid-1990s Ellis took up composition full-time. Composition His works include symphonies, concertos (for violin, cello, piano), works for strings (such as the Vale Royal Suite), three string quartets (1980, 1996, 2002) and much other chamber music. Ellis also had a particular interest in composing and arranging works for brass band. His catalogue stretches to 91 opus numbers. In 2004 the Camerata also premiered the String Quartet No 3, op. 70. David Ellis had a wide circle of musical friends, including Ma

David Evan Jones (composer)

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David Evan Jones (born 1946) is an American pianist and composer of chamber music, opera, and computer music. Jones was a student of composers Roger Reynolds and Pauline Oliveros at University of California, San Diego. After serving as Composer-in-Residence at York University (England), he joined the faculty at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire in the 1980s before becoming professor of music at University of California, Santa Cruz. Jones has composed in residence at IRCAM in Paris, Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm, and at Bregman Electronic Music Studio at Dartmouth College where he co-founded, with Jon Appleton, the Dartmouth graduate program in Electro-Acoustic Music. Works Jones has written articles and created compositions that explore structural relationships between music and phonetics. These include compositions such as Pashanti—The Nine Billion Names of God, Scritto, Still Life in Wood and Metal, Still Life Dancing, and the five pieces featured on Centaur Records CRC3500 entitled News from Afar. He has also written libretti and music for two chamber operas. Bardos, the most prominent of these, had its professional premier in 2004 in Hoam Hall, Seoul, Korea. Jones also

David Fanshawe

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David Arthur Fanshawe (19 April 1942 – 5 July 2010) was an English composer and self-styled explorer with a fervent interest in world music. His best-known composition is the 1972 choral work African Sanctus. Life Fanshawe was born in Paignton, Devon in 1942. His father was an officer in the Royal Artillery who played a central role in the planning of D-Day. His father’s stories of military service in India fired Fanshawe’s enthusiasm for travel and adventure. His first ambition was to be an explorer, but when he attended St George’s School, Windsor Castle and Stowe School he discovered a love of music. His severe dyslexia, however, prevented him from reading a musical score and becoming a chorister. including films such as Tarka the Otter (1979) and Dirty Weekend (1993), and TV productions such as the BBC’s Softly, Softly: Taskforce and When the Boat Comes In and also ITV’s The Feathered Serpent, Flambards and The Good Companions. His ethnic field recordings have featured in countless TV documentaries, including Musical Mariner and Tropical Beat, as well as various feature films including Mountains of the Moon, How to Make an American Quilt, Seven Years in Tibet and Gangs of New Y

David First

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David First (born David Hirsch, August 20, 1953) is an American composer and guitarist. His music most often deals with drones and interference beats, the latter aligning his music with that of Alvin Lucier. He has led the World Casio Quartet, Joy Buzzers, and The Notekillers which originally existed from 1977–81 and reformed in 2004. He is also a member of Matter Waves, which includes Kid Millions on drums and Bernard Gann on bass, and the music collective New Party Systems. Career David First played with Cecil Taylor at Carnegie Hall. He studied guitar & jazz theory with Dennis Sandole. He also audited analog & computer synthesis classes at Princeton University. He befriended a grad-student there who allowed him unlimited access to the largely abandoned electronic music studio. He composed his first works in the medium there in after-hours sessions. His albums include 1991’s Resolver, instrumental pieces influenced by minimalism and 2002’s relatively pop-oriented Universary, which consists of “songs and drones”. More recent releases include 2010’s We’re Here to Help (Prophase Records) by The Notekillers and Privacy Issues, a 3-CD set of droneworks on the XI label. In 1995 First,

David Garner (composer)

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David Ross Garner (born August 4, 1954) is an American composer of opera and vocal, instrumental, and chamber music. He is also an educator, on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Early life, education, and personal life David Garner was born in South Side, Chicago. He spent most of his childhood in Lincoln, Nebraska and Lake Oswego, Oregon upon his parents’ relocations for academic positions. He was given piano and cello lessons throughout his childhood and performed in recitals and with youth orchestras. Garner attended UCLA as a Classics major for two years before deciding that music was a better match. He left in 1974 and returned home to Oregon where he pursued music privately, playing blues, rock fusion, and classical piano while he prepared to audition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for the piano performance program. He was originally rejected from the program and spent six months as an adult extension student before auditioning again and being accepted in 1976. He remained in that position until 2000, when he elected to take a position in the Composition Department. He has remained in that position since and currently teaches composition to a sel

David Gillingham

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David R. Gillingham (born October 20, 1947) is an American contemporary composer, who is known for his works for concert band and percussion ensemble. Biography He attended the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh for his undergraduate degree in Music Education, after which he went to Vietnam where he served in the army, playing in various army bands. After returning to America, he became a band teacher for a few years, before going to Michigan State University for his PhD in Music Composition/Music Theory, after which he pursued a career as a composer while also serving as a university professor. In 1990, his concert band piece Heroes Lost and Fallen, a piece about the Vietnam War, won the International Barlow Composition Contest. He retired as professor of music theory and composition at Central Michigan University in 2016. Selected works Some of his recent works which have become very popular in the concert band and percussion repertoire include: *Paschal Dances (1988) *Heroes Lost and Fallen (1990) *Serenade for Winds and Percussion (1990) *Stained Glass (1992) *Sacrificial Rite (1993) *Apocalyptic Dreams (1995) *Prophecy of the Earth (1995) *Waking Angels (1996) *Concertino for Fou

David Gow (composer)

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NOTOC David Godfrey Gow (6 April 1924 – 23 February 1993) was an English composer (of Scottish descent) and teacher. Life Gow was born in London. His ancestors included the 18th Century Scottish fiddler Niel Gow and his son Nathaniel (a connection he acknowledged in his Six Diversions on an Ancestral Theme). Music Gow described the style of his music as “serialism tempered by tonality”, but he was always careful not to make unreasonable demands on performers. He composed nine string quartets (spanning the years 1946 to 1990) and from 1984 (starting at the String Quartet No 4) established a close association with the Maggini Quartet. His Quartet for flute, oboe, violoncello and harpsichord, Op. 28, won the Hans Oppenheimer Prize of the Saltire Society in 1967. He wrote many concertos, including the Piano Concerto for Philip Martin in 1980, the Cello Concerto for Timothy Hugh, and a Marimba Concerto for Evelyn Glennie, completed just before his death. His solo piano works include Twelve Preludes and a Postlude (1979) and two piano sonatas (1984 for Philip Martin and 1990 for Eric Parkin). and choral works such as Ave Maris Stella, which has been recorded. Gow worked closely with

David Griffiths (composer)

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David Griffiths (born 1950, Auckland, New Zealand) is a composer, baritone and former Senior Lecturer and Convenor of Music at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Waikato. Griffiths has gained national and international recognition as a composer, opera singer and recital soloist. His choral compositions are popular in the United States of America and have been recorded by several choirs, while many works have been included on various record labels including Naxos Records, Kiwi Pacific and Atoll. Griffiths has performed as a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, all major choral societies in New Zealand and regularly with NBR New Zealand Opera. He has also performed as a recital soloist, representing New Zealand in Taiwan, the US, the United Kingdom and Europe. Griffiths works as a freelance composer and is represented by SouNZ Aotearoa, the Centre for New Zealand Music. He has held positions of Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Voice at universities throughout New Zealand and as such has trained singers who have gone on to perform with the Cologne Opera and the Bayreuth Chorus. Biography David Griffiths was born 1950 in Aucklan

David Hegarty

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David Howard Hegarty (born March 1, 1945, in Mount Clemens, Michigan) is an American organist and composer. He has served as organist at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco since 1978. Career Hegarty’s interest in music was inspired at an early age by his father, who was a trombonist. He began playing the accordion at age 7, but was soon introduced to the organ at the church where his mother did cleaning. In an interview Hegarty recounted that when his mother went to the church to clean in the evenings, “I wouldn’t miss it. I’d go there with her so I could play the organ.” Hegarty taught himself how to play the organ, and by the time he reached high school he had a job as a church organist. He continued his study of music and the organ in college, receiving a B.A. in music from Loma Linda University in 1968, and going on to earn a master’s degree in organ performance from Andrews University in 1970 where he studied organ with C. Warren Becker. He also published articles on organ performance technique. In 1993 he founded Hegarty Music Press to develop and publish instructional material for organ performance, and to publish his original compositions. He also published works by the le

David Hogan (composer)

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H. David Hogan (July 1, 1949 – July 17, 1996 off East Moriches, New York) was an American composer and musical director of CIGAP (Le Choeur Int’l Gai de Paris), Hogan and CIGAP baritone Jean-Paul Galland were killed when TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 passengers and crew on board. Career A native of Virginia, Hogan graduated from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor’s degree in 1971, Prior to his work in France, Hogan helped develop the choir at San Francisco’s St. Francis Lutheran Church. When the previous musical director of CIGAP resigned three weeks before its auditions, Hogan was tapped to fill in the position. During his career, Hogan had also been tenor soloist with the Washington National Cathedral (Episcopal) in Washington, DC. Personal life Hogan was married to East Bay singer and choir conductor Terry Hogan Johnson. The couple had a daughter named Hilary, who also attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Choral works *Magnificat and Nunc dimittis “Washington”, unison treble or SATB/organ (written for the Choir Washington National Cathedral and Douglas Major) *O Gracious Light, unison choi

David Holsinger

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David Rex Holsinger is an American composer and conductor writing primarily for concert band. Holsinger is a graduate of Hardin-Central High School in Hardin, Missouri, Central Methodist University, the University of Central Missouri, and the University of Kansas. Conducting positions In February 1992, Holsinger guest conducted the District VI Symphonic Band in Virginia. In 1999, following 15 years of service as music minister, worship leader, and composer in residence to Shady Grove Church in Grand Prairie, Texas, he joined the School of Music faculty at Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee, creating the Lee University Wind Ensemble, which he conducted until 2023. Holsinger’s duties included teaching advanced instrumental conducting and composition. In 1999, Holsinger conducted the Kentucky All-State Symphonic Band. Some of his works that were played and recorded included To Tame The Perilous Skies, Consider the Uncommon Man, and On An American Spiritual. In the spring of 2000, Holsinger conducted the Georgia Southern Symphonic Band and the Georgia Southern Symphonic Wind Ensemble in Statesboro, GA. Over the past several years, Holsinger has been named a National Patron of Delta O

David Jisse

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David Jisse (12 April 1946 – 18 July 2020) was a French composer and radio producer. He also worked as an arranger, guitarist, singer, and pianist. Biography Jisse wrote the scores for numerous theatrical productions and films. He formed the duo David et Dominique alongside Dominique Marge. They performed the French version of the Idir album A Vava Inouva. In a conference with composer Luc Ferrari, Jisse discovered the world of experimental music. Jisse produced multiple programs for France Musique, such as Le Grand Bécarre, Libre-Cour, and Un poco agitato. He also produced the program Fins de mois difficiles for France Culture. From 1998 to 2013, he directed , founded by Luc Ferrari. David Jisse died in Paris on 18 July 2020 due to cancer at the age of 74. References

David Johnson (Scottish composer)

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Dr David Charles Johnson (27 October 1942 in Edinburgh – 30 March 2009 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish composer and a scholar of 18th century Scottish music. Johnson was “an internationally recognised scholar”, whose work did much to rediscover and reinvent 18th century Scottish music, and set it in its historical context. Johnson’s work concentrated on the music and wider social life of 18th century lowland Scotland, its influences and tastes, and the key musical figures within it. Early life Johnson was born in Edinburgh in October 1942, the eldest of three sons. His father, Sir Ronald Johnson, was a senior civil servant at the Scottish Home and Health Department and organist of the episcopal church of St. Columba’s-By-the-Castle. His mother, Lady Elizabeth, was the Director of the Holst Singers (of Edinburgh) and was organist at Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian. This remains a seminal work in its field and “brought to light the synergy between ‘folk’ and ‘art’ music which existed in Baroque and Classical music of Scotland”. The book also examined music’s position in 18th century Scottish society, and the work of Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie, and other notable composers of the per

David Liptak

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David Liptak (born December 18, 1949) is an American composer and music educator who is a professor of composition and the current chair of the Composition Department at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. Formative years and family Liptak was born on December 18, 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has been a resident of Rochester, New York for more than thirty years. Music career Since 1987, Liptak has been a member of the composition faculty of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, where he holds the positions of professor of composition and chair of the Composition Department. From 1976 to 1980, Liptak was a member of the composition and theory faculty of Michigan State University, where he initiated and taught courses in Schenker analysis and conducted the student New Music Ensemble. In 1980 he joined the faculty of the University of Illinois, where his duties included directing the Contemporary Chamber Players, a professional new music ensemble, with which he presented a number of premiere performances. Residencies have included the Seal Bay Music Festival in the summer of 1999 and the Brevard Music Festiv

David Loeb (composer)

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David Loeb (born May 11, 1939) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Born in New York City, he has written extensively for early music instruments such as the viol, as well as instruments from China and Japan. He teaches at the Mannes College The New School for Music, and has additionally served as a member of the composition faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. His notable students include Jennifer Higdon, Jeremy Beck, and Craig Walsh. Works * Ancient Legends * Andorran Fantasy * Balinese Fantasies (Published by ALRY Publications) * Between Sea and Sky * Cantata for Oboe and String Orchestra * Caprices for Solo Mandolin Vol. 1-2 * Chanson Malagache * A Distant Land Unfurled * Fantasia on a Theme of Yuize * Fantasia on Pyong-si-jo No. 1-2 * Fantasia sobre “Una Hiji Tiene del Rey” * Fantasias for the Japanese Consort * Ganya * Imagined Landscapes * Keisho for Theorbo Solo * The Meeting of Sea and Clouds * Nocturne for Mandolin and Guitar * Prelude for Two Consorts * Quartet for flute, guitar, violin, and cello * Riddles * Rivermist in Summer * Sonata No. 1-6 for Cello Solo * Sonata for Trombone and Piano No. 1 (1998) * Sonata for Trombone and Piano No. 2 (200

David Lord (producer)

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David Lord (born 1944 ) is an English composer and record producer, known for his work with Peter Gabriel, the Korgis and XTC. Career Lord was born in 1944 in Oxford, England under Richard Rodney Bennett. He worked as a producer for BBC Radio early in his career. for which it was commissioned; the other recorded in 1982 by children from St. Catherine’s British Embassy School, Athens, Greece. He also wrote a piece for Julian Bream and a test piece for a London Symphony Orchestra conductors’ competition. and “I’ll Stand by You” by the Pretenders. He played a Prophet 5 synthesiser on one track, “Just Good Friends”, on the 1983 Peter Hammill album Patience, for which he was also recording engineer. Since around 1970, Lord has lived in Bath, where he formerly operated Crescent Studios, initially in his top-floor flat in Camden Crescent, and subsequently in a building dating from around 1700, at 144 Walcot Street. He closed the studio when a new road was built next to it. Lord has appeared on The South Bank Show, discussing his work producing Peter Gabriel’s fourth, eponymously titled solo album. Conviction In 2015, Lord was convicted of keeping a brothel after admitting making bookings

David Lucas (composer)

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David Lucas (born David Helfman April 21, 1937) is an American rock and roll composer, singer, and music producer. He has written thousands of commercial jingles, such as AT&T’s “Reach Out and Touch Someone.” In 1981, he received a Clio Award for composing the music to Pepsi’s “Catch That Pepsi Spirit.” As a record producer, he worked with many new artists such as Blue Öyster Cult. On the 1976 Blue Öyster Cult song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” which he co-produced, Lucas sang backup vocals and came up with the idea for using a cowbell, parodied by Christopher Walken in the “More cowbell” skit on Saturday Night Live. In June 2011, Lucas was inducted into Buffalo’s Music Hall of Fame. Biography Early years (1940s–1960s) Lucas was born David Helfman on April 21, 1937, in Buffalo, New York. By the age of four, he was singing with his parents in the Buffalo area, both at venues and on local radio. At the age of nineteen, Lucas started promoting records, choosing artists such as the young Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Sam Cooke, and The Everly Brothers, and encouraging local DJs to play their music. He was the top record promotion man in the northeastern United States until he was drafted into

David Lumsdaine

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David Newton Lumsdaine (31 October 1931 – 12 January 2024) was an Australian composer. Biography David Newton Lumsdaine was born on 31 October 1931. He studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (as it was then known). He moved to England in 1953 and for a while shared a flat with fellow expatriate, the poet Peter Porter, with whom he collaborated on several projects including the cantata Annotations of Auschwitz (1964). In London he first studied composition with Mátyás Seiber and then at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley. In 1970 he took a lecturing position at Durham University. In 1981 he took a post as senior lecturer at King’s College London. He is published by The University of York Music Press and Universal Edition. In 1979 he married the composer Nicola LeFanu. David Lumsdaine died on 12 January 2024 at the age of 92. Works Lumsdaine disowned all works he composed before Annotations of Auschwitz (1964). His first acknowledged works were composed using a variety of pitch and rhythm techniques associated with serialism – techniques such as pitch rotation or permutation, and isorhythmic structures linking pitch and duration together. Central to all o

David MacIntyre (composer)

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David MacIntyre (born 1952) is a Canadian composer of opera, music theatre, choral, orchestral and chamber music, and site-specific works in dance and theatre, based in Vancouver. He is a professor of Music Composition at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His music has been performed in more than thirty countries. Early life and education MacIntyre was born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan; as a child, he studied brass instruments, theatre arts, voice and piano. In 1969, he attended the Banff School for Fine Arts. He attended the University of Saskatchewan (1970–72), where he studied composition with Murray Adaskin, voice with Dorothy Howard, and University of Victoria (73-75 B.Mus and 77-79 M.Mus), where he studied composition with Rudolf Komorous, conducting with George Corwin, voice with Selena James. In 1977, he wrote his first opera Humulus the Mute on a libretto by Jean Anouilh, translation by Michael Benedickt. Humulus the Mute was premiered in 1979 in a production conducted by George Corwin, directed by the composer and featuring Erika Kurth and Richard Margison. 9 Career In 1979, MacIntyre was invited to join the faculty at Simon Fraser University where he co-founded the Conte

David Maslanka

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David Maslanka (August 30, 1943 – August 7, 2017) was an American composer of Polish descent who wrote for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music, and symphony orchestra. Best known for his wind ensemble compositions, Maslanka published over 150 pieces, including ten symphonies, eight of them for concert band, over 15 concerti, and a full Mass. His compositional style is rhythmically intense and complex, highly tonal and melodically oriented. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan. His Tenth Symphony was orchestrated by his son, Matthew Maslanka, as it was incomplete at the composer’s death. Life Maslanka received his Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory (1961–1965) and went on to earn a Master of Music and Doctor of Philosophy from Michigan State University (1965–71). During his undergraduate work, Maslanka also spent one year studying abroad at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria (1963–64). He served on the faculty of the State University of New York at Geneseo from 1970 to 1974; of Sarah Lawrence College from 1975 to 1980; of New York University from 1980 to 1981; and

David Matthews (composer)

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David Matthews (born 9 March 1943) is an English composer of mainly orchestral, chamber, vocal and piano works. Life Matthews was born in London into a family that was musical, though not formally trained; the desire to compose did not manifest itself until he was sixteen, and for a time he and his younger brother Colin Matthews, also a composer, were each other’s only teachers. The start of the ‘Mahler boom’ in the early 1960s, when the works of Gustav Mahler began to enter the regular British repertoire for the first time, provided a tremendous creative impetus for both of them; but although they have sometimes since collaborated as arrangers (in orchestrating seven early Mahler songs, for instance) and as editors (in the published version of Deryck Cooke’s ‘performing version’ of the draft of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony), as composers they have very much gone their separate ways. David Matthews read Classics at Nottingham University and afterwards, feeling himself still too much self-taught, studied composition with Anthony Milner; he was also much helped by the advice and encouragement of fellow British composer Nicholas Maw. Then, for three years, he was associated with Benjamin B

David Newman (composer)

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David Louis Newman (born March 11, 1954) is an American composer and conductor known particularly for his film scores. In a career spanning more than thirty years, he has composed music for nearly 100 feature films, as well as the 1997 and 1998 versions of the 20th Century Fox fanfare. He received an Academy Award nomination for writing the score to the 1997 film Anastasia, contributing to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories. Life and career Newman was born on March 11, 1954, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Mississippi-born Martha Louis (née Montgomery) and Hollywood composer Alfred Newman. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. He is the older brother of Thomas Newman, Maria Newman and the cousin of Randy Newman, all of whom are also composers. He is also the nephew of composers Lionel Newman and Emil Newman, and first cousin, once removed, of musician Joey Newman. An accomplished violinist, and successful concert conductor, Newman was educated at the University of Southern California. From the late 1970s until the early 1980s he played violin on most of John Will

David Noon

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David Noon (born 23 July 1946) is a contemporary classical composer and educator. He has written over 200 works from opera to chamber music. Noon’s composition teachers have included Karl Kohn, Darius Milhaud, Charles Jones, Yehudi Wyner, Mario Davidovsky, and Wlodzimierz Kotonski. He was a distinguished member of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music for 30 years. Biography David Noon was born on 23 July 1946 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He is of Pennsylvania Dutch, Welsh, and American Indian heritage. His formal musical education began at the age of 8 when he learned to play the clarinet. Subsequently, he took bassoon, flute, piccolo, and piano lessons. Throughout his childhood, he frequently performed in choirs, bands, orchestras, and chamber music ensembles. During his collegiate years at Pomona College, he continued to sing and play bassoon and piano. He also began the systematic study of composition. Following his undergraduate education, he attended New York University to study Medieval music with Gustave Reese. After receiving an MA in musicology at NYU, he attended Yale University, where he received an MMA and a DMA in composition. In 1972–73, he was a Fulbright Fell

David Padrós

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David Padrós (1942–2016) was a Catalan composer. Biography He was born in Igualada, Spain in 1942. He studied with Jordi Albareda (piano) and Jordi Torra (harmony and composition). Afterwards he travelled to Germany and Switzerland where he studied with Paul Baumgartner, Sava Savoff (piano), Hans Ulrich Lehman, Klaus Huber (Composition) and Jürg Wyttenbach (contemporary music performance). In 1969 he won the Hanz Lenz prize for the artistic merit (Germany) and the composition prize of the Landis & Gyr Foundation (1976). He lived in Basel until 1982, where he developed an intens task as a composer, pianist and pedagogue. He moved to Barcelona, where he continues with the same professional activities. In 1971 his work “Styx” was performed for the first time in the Barcelona Music Festival. From that date on, his works have been performed in many European International festivals: In Luzern (Switzerland), the “Gaudeamus Muziekweek” (the Netherlands), “Europalia-85” (Belgium) and Barcelona (1987) where his work “Confluències (Música per a Santa Maria del Mar)” was performed for the first time with a great success. Important to be mentioned are the performances of his works: “Metamorfosi

David Porcelijn

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David Porcelijn (born 7 January 1947 in Achtkarspelen) is a Dutch composer and conductor. David Porcelijn studied flute, composition and conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in The Hague. He also studied the baroque flute, specialising in authentic performance practice of the baroque and classical periods, which has informed his interpretations as a conductor in that repertoire ever since. He won a scholarship to study conducting and composition in Geneva. He has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden Baden und Freiburg, Orquesta Filharmónica de Gran Canaria, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others. In 2002 he conducted the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in an all-Stravinsky concert at the Prague Spring Festival. In 2004 he made his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra in their series “Music of Today”, and also took the orchestra on tour. As well as conducting the core repertoire, he also has an interest in new music. With musical director Ton Hartsuiker, he founded Ensemble M (1974–1978) for the

David Reeves (composer)

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David Reeves (born 1943) is an Australian composer, conductor and organist. He began his professional career as a concert organist in the early 1960s, turning to conducting and composition some ten years later. He is the composer of original modern music that bridges commercial and classical styles. ‘An original Australian Musical Trailblazer’ - Tommy Tycho OBE AM - Channel 9 - Star-Sound Recording Studios 1992 (Interview - Rod Henshaw Radio 4BC). Education and career Reeves was born in Sydney and educated at Shore School, where his musical promise was recognised early by George Faunce Allman who, with his wife Dora, taught him piano and organ as well as placing him in the choir of St James’ Church, Sydney, as a chorister. Reeves’ first organ appointment was as organist for Sydney Hospital Chapel, followed by his first professional engagement as Director of Music at the Garrison Church, Miller’s Point, both while he was still at school. Reeves studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Alexander Sverjensky (piano), George Faunce Allman (organ) and Norman Johnston (organ). He was awarded both of the overseas music scholarships available in the early sixties: the Alice Bryan

David Rosenboom

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David Rosenboom (born 1947 in Fairfield, Iowa) is a composer, performer, interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator known for his work in American experimental music. Rosenboom has explored various forms of music, languages for improvisation, new techniques in scoring for ensembles, multi-disciplinary composition and performance, cross-cultural collaborations, performance art and literature, interactive multi-media, new instrument technologies, generative algorithmic systems, art-science research and philosophy, and extended musical interface with the human nervous system. He is a pioneer in the use of neurofeedback and compositional algorithms. An active teacher, he was Faculty at The Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts from 1990 to 2023, and before that taught at other institutions such as Mills College, York University, and the Center for Creative and Performing Arts at the State University of New York in Buffalo. His students include Jin Hi Kim and Gino Robair. As a young student, he studied (never finishing an undergraduate degree) composition, performance, and electronic music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Salvatore Mar

David Snow (composer)

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David Jason Snow (born 1954 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American composer. Snow studied composition with Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, and Joseph Schwantner at the Eastman School of Music, Jacob Druckman at the Yale School of Music, and Arthur Berger and Martin Boykan at Brandeis University. At the Eastman School, Snow was awarded the Sernoffsky, McCurdy, and Howard Hanson prizes in composition; Yale awarded him a Bradley-Keeler Memorial Scholarship and the Frances E. Osborne Kellogg Prize in composition. Snow has been the recipient of awards, fellowships, residencies and commissions from BMI, the National Association of Composers/USA, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Annapolis Fine Arts Foundation, the ASCAP Foundation, the College Band Directors Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, Res Musica Baltimore, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Renée B. Fisher Foundation, Trio Indiana, SoundMoves, Pastiche, the Arts Council of Montgomery County (Maryland), Yaddo, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. Music Snow’s music has been performed in concert by the Ensemble InterContemporain, the American Brass Quintet, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Eastman Pe

David Stoll (composer)

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David Michael Stoll (born December 1948) is an English composer and educator. Life and career David Stoll was born in London, and studied composition at Worcester College, Oxford University, and at the Royal Academy of Music. After completing his education, he has worked as a freelance composer for concert, theatrical, and TV/film music. Stoll is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He served as chairman of the Association of Professional Composers. In 1999 he was elected co-chair of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and has also served on the boards of several other music organizations. Stoll has run several school and corporate training programs in creative thinking based on music, and founded the In Tune In Europe seminar and Building Music program for primary schools. Works Stoll is best known for concert and theater work, but composes production music for film, television, and radio, as well. Selected works include: *Cello Concerto, 2000 *The Bowl of Nous, cantata, 1998 *Who, If Not I?, cantata, 1998 *String Quartet, 1998 *Motet in Memoriam for choir *Midwinter Spring for orchestra *False Relations, opera, 1997 *Teller of Tales, musical, 1994 *If I W

David Torn

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David M. Torn (born May 26, 1953) is an American guitarist, composer, and producer. He is known for combining electronic and acoustic instruments and for his use of looping. Background Torn has contributed to recordings by artists as diverse as David Bowie, k.d. lang, John Legend, Madonna, Tori Amos, Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, Mick Karn, David Sylvian, Chocolate Genius, Michael Shrieve, Steve Roach, Patrick O’Hearn, Andy Rinehart, Matt Chamberlain, Meshell Ndegeocello, Tim Berne, and Don Cherry. In addition to his composition work, Torn’s music has been featured in a wide variety of films, including Friday Night Lights, Velvet Goldmine, Adaptation, The Big Lebowski, The Departed, Fur, The Hoax, Kalifornia, Traffic, Reversal of Fortune, Tibet, and Three Kings. He studied with Leonard Bernstein (within the “Music for Young Composers” series), as well as with guitarists John Abercrombie, Pat Martino, Paul Weiss, and Arthur Basile. Torn works out of his personal studios, known as Cell Labs; occasionally, he uses the pseudonym “splattercell.” The New York Times described Torn’s 2015 solo release, Only Sky, as " an abstract landscape that is both immersive and deftly disorienting." Biogra

David Tudor

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David Eugene Tudor (January 20, 1926 – August 13, 1996) was an American pianist and composer of experimental music. After playing the U.S. premiere of the Piano Sonata No. 2 by Pierre Boulez in 1950, he premiered works by New York School composers including Morton Feldman and especially John Cage written for him; Karlheinz Stockhausen dedicated a work to him, reflecting his similar degree of integration with the Darmstadt School. He turned to composing, including many projects for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. After Cage’s death in 1992, he succeeded him as music director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Life and career Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 20, 1926. Tudor began his career as an organist, The two worked closely together on many of Cage’s works for piano and electroacoustic works, including for the Smithsonian Folkways album Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music (1959). Tudor also performs on several recordings of Cage’s music, including the Mainstream record of Cartridge Music, the recording on Columbia Records of Variations II, and the two Everest records of Variations IV. Tudor taught at the Darmstäd

David Tukhmanov

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David Fyodorovich Tukhmanov PAR (, was born July 20, 1940) is a Soviet and Russian composer. People’s Artist of Russia (2000), State Prize of Russian Federation (2003, 2019). Biography Tukhmanov is a son of an Armenian engineer Fyodor Davidovich Tukhmanov and a Russian music teacher Vera Anatolyevna Karasyova. The Tukhmanovs are the descendants of the Armenian princely house of Tumanyans, the offspring of the princes Mamikonians, Lords of Dsegh. David began to learn music under the direction of his mother at an early age and wrote his first piece of music (Lezginka), when he was four years old. Then he finished Gnesins musical school (1958) and composer’s branch of Gnesins Musical College (1963). His degree’s work was the oratorio for soloists, chorus and an orchestra Distance After Distance, which is based on fragments of the epic poem of the same name by Alexander Tvardovsky. In 1973 Tukhmanov wrote songs and music for a TV film This Merry Planet. In the following year he released soundtrack album, which also included several additional songs. In 1972 Tukhmanov released his first personally authored album How Beautiful the World is (Russian: Как прекрасен мир, lit. ‘Kak prekrasen

David W. Music

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David Wayne Music (born January 28, 1949) is an American composer, writer and former professor of church music. He served on the faculties of both his alma maters, California Baptist College and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, before spending 18 years at Baylor University. His publications have included edited collections of primary sources, monographs on the history of American hymnody, and works on the hymnwriter Isaac Watts. He has also composed works for choirs, recorder, organ and piano. In 2010, he was named a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. Early life and education David Wayne Music was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on January 28, 1949. His father, Joseph Hopwood Musick, was a pastor with degrees from Baylor University and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). His mother, Menita Corine Cullins Music, was a school teacher, who had also studied at SWBTS, where she and Joseph met. David Music grew up sharing his parents’ Christian faith, and he sang in the youth choir of the church his father pastored in Huntington Park, California. His interest in pursuing a vocation in church music was stimulated during a conference he

David Ward-Steinman

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David Ward-Steinman (November 6, 1936 – April 14, 2015) was an American composer and professor. He was the author of Toward a Comparative Structural Theory of the Arts, and co-authored Comparative Anthology of Musical Forms. Ward-Steinman spent his remaining days dividing his time between San Diego State University and Indiana University in Bloomington. He was formerly Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at San Diego State, and then became Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus there, and also an adjunct professor of Music at Indiana, where he taught in the spring. Biography Ward-Steinman studied at Florida State University and the University of Illinois, where he received the Kinley Memorial Fellowship for foreign study. After receiving his doctorate, he was a fellow at Princeton University from 1970. His teachers included John Boda, Burrill Phillips, Darius Milhaud (at Aspen, Colorado), Milton Babbitt (at Tanglewood) and Nadia Boulanger. He studied piano under Edward Kilenyi, and in 1995 attended a course at IRCAM. From 1970 to 1972, Ward-Steinman was the Ford Foundation composer-in-residence for the Tampa Bay area of Florida and he spent 1989–90 in Australia under a

Dean Drummond

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Dean Drummond (January 22, 1949 – April 13, 2013) was an American composer, arranger, conductor and musician. His music featured microtonality, electronics, and a variety of percussion. He invented a 31-tone instrument called the zoomoozophone in 1978. From 1990 to his death he was the conservator of the Harry Partch instrumentarium. Biography Born in Los Angeles, Drummond studied trumpet and composition at the University of Southern California and California Institute of the Arts. He studied trumpet with Don Ellis and John Clyman, and studied composition with Leonard Stein. Drummond then worked as a musician for and assistant to the maverick composer and instrument builder Harry Partch. He performed in the premieres of Partch’s large-scale works Daphne of the Dunes, And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma, and Delusion of the Fury. Drummond also participated in recordings made by Partch for the Columbia Masterworks label in the late 1960s. In 1976, Drummond moved to New York City. A year later he co-founded (with flutist Stefani Starin) the contemporary music ensemble Newband. Newband recorded works by Partch, John Zorn, Joan LaBarbara, John Cage, Anne LeBaron, James Puglie

Dejan Despić

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Dejan Despić (, ; 11 May 1930 – 16 November 2024) was a Serbian classical composer, author, music theoretician and pedagogue. Biography Despić studied composition with Marko Tajčević and conducting with Mihajlo Vukdragović between 1950 and 1955 at the Music Academy in Belgrade. After his studies, he devoted himself to composing and teaching. From 1956 to 1965 he was teacher at “Mokranjac” music school in Belgrade and from 1956 to 1995 he worked as a Professor at the Belgrade Music Academy (FMU). Despić was a full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU). Despić was the author of more than 240 compositions - with a special penchant for concertante genres and chamber music – and an opera, in addition to several scientific and theoretical studies, and numerous textbooks (music theory, harmony, harmony analysis, orchestration) for both school and university level. Despić died on 16 November 2024, at the age of 94. Music Despić won many awards for his music; his “Manchester Trio for flute, violoncello, and piano, Op. 93” (1987) – composed specifically for a Manchester performance – and “Diptih, Op. 166, for English horn and chamber orchestra” (2005) – for which he won t

Delaney Bramlett

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Delaine Alvin “Delaney” Bramlett (July 1, 1939 – December 27, 2008) was an American singer and guitarist. He was best known for his musical partnership with his wife Bonnie Bramlett in the band Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, which included a wide variety of other musicians, many of whom were successful in other contexts. Early life Bramlett was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi. He began playing guitar when he was 8 years old, but did not get serious about the instrument until he was a teenager. He started singing in school and at twelve he had a quartet. Bramlett joined the United States Navy before he was 17, serving for two and a half to three years. He took boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes, spending over half his hitch there. After his discharge, he moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, where he worked as a bartender before he started performing in clubs. Career Bramlett was performing at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood when he was asked to appear in a pilot for a new television show, Shindig!. During this time, he worked with J.J. Cale and Leon Russell and released some unsuccessful solo singles. Bramlett was the first artist signed to Independence Records, headed by

Delores Dufner

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Delores Dufner is an American sacred music composer, librettist, and organist whose works have been included in Catholic hymnals in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Dufner is a nun of the Order of Saint Benedict at Saint Benedict’s Monastery in Saint Joseph, Minnesota. She is on the faculty of Saint Benedict’s College and Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota. “One of the best-known hymn writers in the church today. More than twenty different publishers have included her texts in their hymnals and hymn collections. In 2017 Dufner received the Christus Rex (“Christ the King”) award from the Lutheran Valparaiso University. References External links *WPL Biography *Delores Dufner profile at Allmusic *Books of hymn texts

Demetrio Stratos

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Efstratios Dimitriou (; 22 April 1945 – 13 June 1979), known professionally as Demetrio Stratos, was a Greek-Italian vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and music researcher, best known as the co-founder, frontman and lead singer of the Italian progressive rock band Area – International POPular Group. Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, of Greek parents, he studied piano and accordion at the “National Conservatoire”. In 1957 he was sent to Nicosia, Cyprus, and, at the age of 17, moved to Milan, Italy, to attend the Politecnico di Milano University at the Architecture Faculty, where he formed his first musical group. In 1967, Demetrio Stratos joined the Italian beat band I Ribelli, and in 1972, founded Area. Stratos recorded many records, and toured festivals in Italy, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Netherlands, Cuba, and the United States with Area, as well as a solo artist and in collaboration with other artists. He worked with Mogol, Lucio Battisti, Gianni Sassi, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti, John Cage, Tran Quang Hai, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Grete Sultan, Paul Zukofsky, Nanni Balestrini, Claude Royet-Journoud, and Antonio

Denis Bédard

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Denis Bédard (born 13 January 1950) is a Canadian composer of organ works (solo, duet, and with other instruments) and choral pieces (a cappella, with organ, and with piano). He founded Éditions Cheldar, which publishes his works. His compositions are performed internationally. Early life and education Bédard was born in Quebec City, Quebec. He was trained at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec where he obtained a deuxième prix harmony in 1966, a premier prix counterpoint in 1970, a premier prix for fugue in 1971, premier prix for organ in 1972, and a premier prix for harpsichord and premier prix chamber music in 1973. Among his teachers at the conservatoire were Tania Krieger (piano), Claude Lavoie (organ), André Mérineau (harmony), Magdeleine Martin (counterpoint and fugue), and Donald Thomson (harpsichord). A series of grants from the Canada Council enabled him to pursue studies in Paris with André Isoir (organ) and Laurence Boulay (harpsichord and figured bass realization) and in Montreal with Bernard Lagacé (organ and harpsichord) between 1973 and 1975. After winning the Prix d’Europe in 1975 for his harpsichord performance, he studied piano, harpsichord, and organ

Denis Dufour

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Denis Dufour (born 9 October 1953) is a composer of art music. Works Discography References External links * * Contemporary music portal * Who’s Who in France * Larousse encyclopedia * Society of authors, composers and editors of music * Maison ONA

Denis Gougeon

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Denis Gougeon (born November 16, 1951) is a Canadian composer and music educator. His more than 80 compositions encompass a wide variety of genres, including orchestral works, chamber music, opera, ballet, and pieces for solo instruments and voice. Notable ensembles to have included his compositions in their performance repertoire include the Bavarian State Ballet, the Canadian Opera Company, the I Musici de Montréal Chamber Orchestra, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, New Music America, the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, the Quebec Contemporary Music Society, and the Vancouver New Music Society. Early life and education Born in Granby, Quebec, Gougeon began his career as a primarily self-taught composer. He later entered the Université de Montréal (UdeM) where he studied music composition with Serge Garant and André Prévost. Career From 1984 to 1988 Gougeon taught music composition at McGill University. In 1989 he became the first composer-in-residence of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, holding that post until 1992. In 2000 he won the Opus Prize for Composer of the Year from the Conseil québécois de la musique. In 2001 Gougeon joined the music faculty at the Université de Montréa

Denis King

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Denis Andrew King (born 25 July 1939) is an English composer and singer. He is best remembered as a member of a family ensemble, The King Brothers. Early career: the King Brothers King was born in Hornchurch, Essex, England. — considered to be Britain’s first boy band. Denis played the piano, Mike the guitar, and Tony the double bass. To date, he has created themes and incidental music for over two hundred television series including Within These Walls, If It Moves File It, Dick Turpin, Two’s Company, Minder on the Orient-Express, Lovejoy, We’ll Meet Again and Hannay, where in 2012 he staged an amateur version of his own musical, Wind in the Willows. In 2025, Denis King released a thirteen-part podcast of his memoirs – Key Changes – from child star in the King Brothers to composer for stage and screen, featuring his own music (often with King on the piano), old recordings and archive material. References External links * * Denis King at the Internet Off Broadway Database

Denis Smalley

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Denis Arthur Smalley (born 1946 in Nelson, New Zealand) is a composer of electroacoustic music, with a special interest in acousmatic music. Biography Denis Smalley studied at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University in his native New Zealand, and later at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen, with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), and at the University of York. He initially composed onto tape, but as early as the 1980s realised his works using computer software. His composition Pentes (1974) is regarded as one of the classics of electroacoustic music. featuring the development of sounds in time. A lecturer at the University of East Anglia, England, from 1976 to 1994, he was professor of music at City University, London from 1994 until his retirement. His music has been performed around the world and most of his major works appear on commercially released CDs. Recordings * Impacts intérieurs (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 0409, 2004) * Sources/scènes (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 0054, 2000) * Névé (Effects Input, EI 03, 1994) * Tides (Ode Records (New Zealand), MANU 1433, 1993) * Impacts intérieurs (empreintes DIGITALes, IMED 9209, 1992) List of works * Bas

Denise Boucher

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Denise Boucher (December 12, 1935 – March 18, 2025) was a Canadian writer from Quebec. Life and career The daughter of Alexandre Boucher, police chief, and Justine Bélair, she was born in Victoriaville, Quebec. She received a teaching certificate from the École normale Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Sherbrooke in 1953. She taught school in Victoriaville until 1961 when she began a career in journalism and broadcasting, moving to Montreal. She contributed to various newspapers and was a freelance journalist for Radio Canada. In 1978, she published the feminist work Cyprine: essai collage pour être une femme, which incorporates prose, poetry and quotations. In 1978, her noted feminist play was presented at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in Montreal. The play was met with strong opposition from the Catholic Church for its portrayal of the Virgin Mary. An English translation The Fairies are Thirsty was prepared by Alan Brown. Her play Les Divines was presented at the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in 1996. Her collections of poetry include Paris Polaroïd (1990) and Grandeur nature (1993). She participated in numerous poetry festivals around the globe. Boucher also wrote a rock opera Rose Ross (1983) and

Denise Roger

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Denise Isabelle Roger (21 January 1924 – 15 November 2005) was an award-winning French composer who wrote both instrumental and vocal works. Roger was born in Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine in the northwest suburbs of Paris. She entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1933 at age nine to study composition, piano and voice. Her teachers included Jean Batella, Henri Busser, Jeanne Chapard, the brothers Jean Gallon and Noel Gallon, Yvonne Lefebure, Marguerite Long and Mme Massart. Roger received several first prizes in music: *1934 Paris Conservatoire; *1942 Paris Conservatoire; *1948 Paris Conservatoire; and *1952 Concours International in Geneva. Roger set works by the following writers to music for solo and ensemble voices: Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean-Antoine de Baif, Robert Brasillach, Paul Claudel, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Hoelderlin, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Andre Maurel, Gerard de Nerval, Rainer Maria Rilke, Arthur Rimbaud, Pierre de Ronsard, Alain Suied, Georg Trakl, and Paul Verlaine. Roger’s compositions were published by Southern Music. *Sonatine (flute and piano) Orchestra *Concertino (oboe and orchestra) *Concerto (piano and orchestra) *Symphony for Strings Piano *Five Pi

Dennis Báthory-Kitsz

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Dennis Báthory-Kitsz (born March 14, 1949, in Plainfield, New Jersey) (pseudonyms: Dennis Bathory, Dennis Kitsz, Dennis J. Kitsz, Dennis Bathory Kitsz, Kalvos Gesamte, Grey Shadé, D.B. Cowell, Brady Kynans, Kalvos Zondrios, Báthory Dénes, Orra Maussade, Don Johnson, Kerry Merritt, Calvin Dion, Enimtu Bemanyna) is a Hungarian-American author and composer. Aside from music, he was an author during the first generation of personal computers (1979–85), and interviewed Bill Gates. His career in technology is evident in over 600 articles and books on the subject. He was involved in the post-Fluxus art movement (1973–78), and was also director of Vermont’s Alliance of Independent Country Stores (2001–2010). Since 2010 he has been adjunct professor composition, theory, and music technology at Johnson State College. Báthory lives in Northfield, Vermont. He claims to be a descendant of the Báthory family, a prominent central European clan during the Middle Ages but no proof of this can be found. Music and works A prolific composer, Báthory-Kitsz has more than 1,100 compositions, sound installations, and electronic works for all manner of vocal and instrumental combinations. His compositions

Dennis Berry

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Dennis Alfred Berry (21 August 1921 – 21 June 1994) was an English musician, composer, arranger, and producer. His work has been used in film-making and television productions. Early life Born in London, England, Berry was involved in music from the age of fourteen. He played bass, guitar, and saxophone. He also taught himself French, Dutch, Afrikaans, and German. Marriage and family In 1949 he married Netherlands-born Aaltje Wolschryn, and they had one child. He had lived in London until his marriage. Then he and his wife moved to the new town of Stevenage, before building a house on a plot of land (which they bought from Peter Sellers) in the centre of Welwyn Garden City. Career In 1939 Berry joined Francis, Day, and Hunter as a copyist before going on to Boosey & Hawkes as a staff arranger, then to Lawrence Wright and Paxton Music, and finally Peer-Southern. He arranged for Carroll Gibbons, The Squadronaires, and Ted Heath. As Paxton’s representative he was based in Amsterdam, and became staff arranger for the Skymasters Dance Orchestra and freelanced for The Ramblers and the Metropole. He was a correspondent for Variety and Melody Maker. In 1949 he returned to Paxton’s offices

Dennis Eberhard

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Dennis Eberhard (1943-2005 ) was an American composer. In his youth he was crippled by polio, which contributed to respiratory problems that contributed to his death in 2005. Eberhard was an active composer for more than 30 years and was a member of the Cleveland Composers Guild and Vox Novus. Education He was educated at Cleveland Institute of Music, Kent State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland. His teachers included: Marie Martin, Frederic Coulter, Salvatore Martirano, Wlodzimierz Kotonski, Gordon Mumma and Herbert Brün. Career Composing both concert music and music for film and theater, Mr. Eberhard also worked with John Cage and Lejaren Hiller, participating in the realization of their compositions Music Circus and HPSCHD. He taught at the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, the University of Nebraska, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Cleveland State University, while lecturing widely on his own music at such institutions as the Cleveland Institute of Music, Cornell University, Penn State, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, the University of New Mexico, and the São Paulo State University i

Dennis Johnson (composer)

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Dennis Lee Johnson (November 19, 1938 – December 20, 2018) was a mathematician and minimal composer. He is the namesake of the Johnson homomorphism in the study of mapping class groups of surfaces. which was written for solo piano in 1959 and later revised. The creation of November was inspired by Johnson’s UCLA college friend La Monte Young’s Trio for Strings, written in 1958. November is a pensive piano piece that runs for nearly six hours and predates all other known minimalist works in its use of additive process and diatonic tonality. Part of it was recorded by Johnson in 1962 on audio cassette. November was in return an inspiration for Young’s later 1964 The Well-Tuned Piano work. Young gave, from his archive, a cassette copy of November to composer, musicologist and writer Kyle Gann. From it Gann made a new recording of it, as well as producing six pages of the original score. Gann first performed a four-and-a-half-hour version in 2009 with Sarah Cahill and he has produced a new performance score based on the original material that R. Andrew Lee recorded in a five hour version released in 2013 by Irritable Hedgehog Music, after receiving good reviews. In 2017 the Dutch piani

Dennis McCarthy (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dennis McCarthy (born July 3, 1945) is an American composer of television and film scores. His soundtrack credits include several entries in the Star Trek franchise, including underscores for The Next Generation, His other television credits include Dynasty, V, MacGyver, Sliders, Dawson’s Creek, and Project Greenlight. McCarthy has won 18 ASCAP awards and a Primetime Emmy Award for his theme on Deep Space Nine, in addition to nine Emmy nominations for his various Star Trek-related work. He also shares one Emmy for his music direction for the 63rd Academy Awards. Filmography Feature films Television Other media References External links *

Derek Bell (musician)

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George Derek Fleetwood Bell, MBE (21 October 1935 – 17 October 2002) was a Northern Irish harpist, pianist, oboist, musicologist and composer who was best known for his accompaniment work on various instruments with The Chieftains. As classical composer and virtuoso Bell was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Because he had been misdiagnosed at an early age as having a disease that would lead to blindness, his parents gave him a musical upbringing. He was something of a child prodigy, composing his first concerto at the age of 12. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in 1957. While studying there, he became friends with the flute player James Galway. From 1958 to 1990 he composed several classical works, including three piano sonatas, two symphonies, Three Images of Ireland in Druid Times (in 1993) for harp, strings and timpani, Nocturne on an Icelandic Melody (1997) for oboe d’amore and piano and Three Transcendental Concert Studies (2000) for oboe and piano. He had mastered and held a notable collection of instruments, including various harps, harpsichord, piano, cymbalom, and all the members of the oboe family of instruments (musette, oboe, cor anglais, bass oboe) and th

Derek Bourgeois

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Derek David Bourgeois (16 October 1941 – 6 September 2017) was an English composer. Career Derek Bourgeois was born in Kingston upon Thames in 1941. After receiving his university education at Magdalene College, Cambridge (honours degree and doctorate), Bourgeois spent two years at the Royal College of Music, studying composition with Herbert Howells and conducting with Sir Adrian Boult. In 1980 he began conducting the Sun Life Band (now the Stanshawe Band of Bristol), which was his introduction to brass bands. In 1994 Bourgeois was appointed director of music at St Paul’s Girls School, London, a position previously held by a number of noted composers, including Gustav Holst and Herbert Howells. After retiring from this post in 2002 he and his wife settled in Mallorca. Following her death in 2006, he remarried in 2008 and moved to New York City, but returned to the United Kingdom in 2009. For his Symphony of Winds, the First International Conference for Conductors, Publishers and Composers awarded him with their main commission in 1981. He also chaired Composer’s Guild of Great Britain and served as the artistic director of Bristol Philharmonic Orchestra. He founded the National Yo

Derek Healey

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Derek Edward Healey (born 2 May 1936) is an English composer whose compositions include an opera, a Requiem, orchestral, chamber, choral and organ works. Music is published in the UK, USA, Canada and Germany. Life and career Healey was born in Wargrave, England and studied composition under Herbert Howells and organ under Harold Darke at the Royal College of Music, London from 1952 to 1956. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Durham in 1961, followed by four years of further study at the graduate summer school of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena (1961-1963, 1966) with Vito Frazzi, Francesco Lavagnino, and Goffredo Petrassi; and in 1962-1963 studied privately with Boris Porena in Rome. In 1969, he moved to Canada and lived there for the next nine years. He completed his Doctor of Music at the University of Toronto in 1974 and also taught there as well as the University of Victoria, the Waterloo Lutheran University, and the University of Guelph before joining the music faculty of the University of Oregon in 1978. Healey returned to England in 1988 when he became academic professor of music at the RAF School of Music. He retired from teaching in 1996

Derek Holman

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Derek Holman, (16 May 1931 – 20 May 2019) was a choral conductor, organist and composer. Life and work Born at Illogan, Cornwall, UK, Holman attended the Royal Academy of Music from 1948 to 1952 and studied with Sir William McKie, Eric Thiman and York Bowen. He held the degree of Doctor of Music from the University of London and was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal School of Church Music and the Royal College of Organists. He was an instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps with the British Army of the Rhine from 1952 to 1954, master at Westminster Abbey Choir School from 1954 to 1956, assistant organist at St Paul’s Cathedral from 1956 to 1958, then an organist at Croydon Parish Church from 1958 to 1965. In 1960 he founded the Croydon Bach Society. He also held positions at the Royal School of Church Music from 1956 to 1965. Holman moved to Canada in 1965, working as choirmaster at Bishop Strachan School until 1970 and organist and choirmaster at Toronto’s Grace Church on-the-Hill until 1979. He began teaching music at the University of Toronto in 1966. He directed the Concord Singers of Toronto from 1973 to 1975 and the Canadian Children’s Opera Company (the

Derek Watson (actor and musicologist)

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Derek Watson (6 November 1948 – 17 September 2018) was a Scottish musicologist, actor, musician and bookseller. He has been described as a Scottish cultural icon. Acting career Watson began work at the Citizens Theatre in 1972. He was initially brought into the company as the musical director of the 1972 Christmas panto. It was a position he would hold until his retirement in the process becoming affectionately known “Uncle Derek”. After appearing on the Citz stage in non-speaking roles, his first speaking role was in Bertolt Brecht’s Puntila and his Servant Matti. He went on to appear in more than 60 shows. Music and writings Watson composed his first piece, a symphonic poem entitled The Battle of Bannockburn at the age of eight. He was sent to piano lessons, and by the time he was 11 had composed his second symphonic poem, The Romans in Britain. He was a music graduate of Edinburgh University and the Royal Academy of Music, London. Watson contributed two volumes to the Master Musicians series of books. These were tomes on Anton Bruckner in 1975, and Franz Liszt in 1989. In 1979 he also wrote a major biography of Richard Wagner. To mark the 2003 Scottish Opera production of Der Ri

Derek Williams (musician)

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Derek Leslie Williams (born 20 September 1952) is a New Zealand-born Scottish composer, record producer, conductor, and orchestrator known for his scores for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Bodysurfer, Children of the Dragon, Come in Spinner, The Crossing, Crush, Frauds, The Other Side of Paradise, Ring of Scorpio, Seven Deadly Sins, Thank God He Met Lizzie, Visionaries, and for Frank Bennett, Stella Cole, Glenfiddich, Sir Robert Helpmann, Grace Knight, Debbie Newsome, Caroline O’Connor, Mikkel Rønnow and Torvill and Dean. He is currently serving his 9th term as Chair of the Wagner Society of Scotland, a member of the International Association of Wagner Societies (RWVI) and at the 2024 Assembly of Delegates at Deutsche Oper Berlin, he was elected to serve a 5-year term as board member of the RWVI Presidium. Williams was awarded a doctorate by the University of Edinburgh under Nigel Osborne and Peter Nelson for composition of his eponymous opera Wilde. He is a Fellow of Trinity College London, and an Honorary Member of the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia. Williams is a civil rights activist known for his ‘Save Sibelius’ campaign in the United Kingdom (2012–2013)

Detlev Jöcker

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Detlev Jöcker (born 5 October 1951) is a German composer, singer and songwriter, focused on songs with movement for small children. He has sold more than 13 million albums. He founded the publishing house Menschenkinder Verlag. Life and work Born in Münster, Jöcker studied music in his home town from age 15, as a highly gifted young musician (hochbegabter Nachwuchsmusiker): classical guitar, flute and piano. He has toured internationally as “Botschafter des deutschen Kinderliedes” (ambassador of German children’s songs) by the Goethe Institute. * “Wo einer dem andern neu vertraut” (melody 1986, Evangelisches Gesangbuch Württemberg EG 551) * “Gott, dein guter Segen” (melody 2009) References External links * * * Menschenkinder Verlag (in German) * Musik für Kinder / Exklusiv-Interview mit Liedermacher Detlev Jöcker (interview, in German) pinolino.de 2017 * Das Glitzerlied (English translation) lyricstranslate.com

Detto Mariano

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Detto Mariano (27 July 1937 – 25 March 2020) was an Italian composer, arranger, lyricist, pianist, record producer and music publisher. Life and career Born Mariano Detto in Monte Urano, Mariano started his career in 1958 but was launched by entering Adriano Celentano’s Clan Celentano, becoming keyboardist in his accompanying group “I Ribelli”, sporadic lyricist and official arranger of all the songs of the Clan between 1962 and 1967. He also collaborated with Lucio Battisti, Mina, Milva, Equipe 84. References External links * * Detto Mariano at Discogs

Deva (composer)

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Devanesan Chokkalingam, more popularly known as Deva, is an Indian composer and singer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He has composed songs and provided background music for Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam films in a career closing in on four decades. He has composed music for more than 400 films. Career Born in 1950 in Mylapore, Chennai, Deva grew up in a financially constrained household and did not receive formal musical training in his early years. He developed an interest in music through exposure to public performances and later taught himself the harmonium while working in the Tamil theatre circuit. He was associated with stage musicians such as Kamesh and Rajamani, initially working in a non-musical capacity before becoming a performer. In 1973, he co-founded a musical troupe with composer Chandrabose. After an early, partial involvement in film projects, Deva briefly stepped away from cinema. During this period, Deva worked in Doordarshan Podhigai channel and composed songs for the show Vayalum Vaazhvum. He learned piano under Dhanraj Master—who also taught Illayaraja—and studied Indian classical music on the harmonium under J. B. Krishna. By the 1980s, he

Dhora Leka

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Dhora Leka (Korçë, 23 February 1923 - Tirana, 27 December 2006) was an Albanian composer and political prisoner. Biography In 1942 she graduated from the Pedagogical Institute for Women Nëna Mbretëreshë in Tirana. After graduating, she was given a teaching job at a school in the village of Plasë near Korçë, but gave up this job and joined the Albanian resistance. In 1942 she joined the Communist Party of Albania. At that time she took up composing guerrilla songs. Most of the songs sung by Albanian partisans during World War II were compositions by Dhora Leka, including “Kushtrimi” (Call), “Rini-Rini” (Youth-youth) and “March of the 1st Division”. At that time she was promoted to the rank of captain in the National Liberation Army. In 1948 she went to study composition at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. During her studies, she composed The overture with folk motifs for symphony orchestra was performed for the first time by the Moscow radio orchestra, and Cantata for Albania, my homeland performed in Tirana, on the 10th anniversary of the country’s liberation from occupation. After graduating she was appointed professor at the Jordan Misja Artistic Lyceum in Tirana and wa

Dianaruthe Wharton

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Dianaruthe Wharton (born May 7, 1951) is an American musician. A 1990 Guggenheim Fellow, she was a pianist and singer for Sweet Honey in the Rock joining as the 5th member of the group in 1974 until leaving the group in 1978. and released the album African Pop from the New World. Biography Dianaruthe Wharton was born in Baltimore on May 7, 1951. She also worked at RCA Records as an editor and proofreader. In 1983, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Jazz Composers, which she then used for her work Fulani Me. Mike Joyce of The Washington Post said that her 1989 Baird Auditorium concert, where she was pianist and vocalist, “bore witness to the inspiration she draws from the music, dance and culture of her ancestral home, Africa”. In 1990, Wharton was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition. As part of her work with the Fellowship, she and her family spent time in Senegal. In 2015, she was composer for Mai Sennaar’s play The Fall of the Kings. Wharton worked for the Howard County Public School System as a music teacher. Wharton and her husband have two children, In 1991, she lived in the western area of Baltimore. Discography * African Pop fro

Diane Juster

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Diane Juster, née Rivet (born March 15, 1946) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and composer from Montreal, Quebec. Although she had some success as a performer in her own right, she has been most prominent as a songwriter for other artists, including Julie Arel, Ginette Reno, Robert Charlebois, Johanne Blouin and Céline Dion. After studying piano at the Université de Montréal, she began writing songs in 1971. and in 2023 she was named a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. In 2024 she was named as a recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards. Discography * 1974 - Mélancolie * 1975 - M’aimeras-tu demain * 1976 - Mes plus belles chansons * 1977 - Regarde en moi * 1981 - Tu as laissé passer l’amour * 1984 - Rien qu’amoureuse * 1987 - J’ai besoin de parler * 1993 - Diane Juster * 2002 - Je suis venue vous dire… * 2004 - Ma musique et mes chansons References

Diane Thome

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Diane Thome (January 25, 1942 - January 12, 2025) was an American composer. She studied piano with Dorothy Taubman and Orazio Frugoni and composition with Robert Strassburg, Roy Harris, Darius Milhaud, A.U. Boscovich, and Milton Babbitt. Life and work Thome graduated with two undergraduate degrees from Eastman School of Music with distinction in piano and composition, a Master of Arts in theory and composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Fine Arts and Ph.D in composition from Princeton University. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in music from Princeton University. After completing her studies, Thome became a professor and then chair of the Composition Program at the University of Washington School of Music. Thome’s compositions have been performed in Europe, China, Australia, Canada, Israel and the United States. She has been composer-in-residence at the University of Sussex and the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East (Bennington, Vermont). Her compositions have been featured on French radio. Thome has received commissions from organizations including the Bremerton Symphony Association, Seattle Symphony, New Jersey Symphony O

Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee

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Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee (born February 9, 1938) is an Armenian-American contemporary classical composer and pedagogue. Biography Rahbee was born in Somerville, Massachusetts and raised in Waltham, Massachusetts. Her father, Peter Aharon Goolkasian, was a survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Rahbee began her early musical training as a pianist with Antoine Louis Moeldner, and continued study at Juilliard School as a piano major. She continued her work at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg in Salzburg, Austria. She later studied piano with David Saperton in New York and Lily Dumont, Russell Sherman, and Veronica Jochum in Boston. At age 40, Rahbee began concentrating on composing and produced a large body of works. Her music has been described as “postserial in persuasion”, and marries influences of Armenian folk music, neo-tonal musicality and rhythmic drive. Maurice Hinson in Guide To The Pianist’s Repertoire commented that Goolkasian-Rahbee’s pedagogical works for piano are among the finest such works. Rahbee traces her lineage of piano study directly to Ludwig van Beethoven through Antoine Louis Moeldner. Moeldner studied with Helen Hopekirk and Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who b

Dick Farney

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Farnésio Dutra e Silva (14 November 1921 – 4 August 1987), better known as Dick Farney, was a Brazilian jazz pianist, composer, and singer who was popular in Brazil from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s and 1980s. Biography He began playing piano as a child, as his father Eduardo Dutra taught him classical music and his mother taught him how to sing. In 1937, he debuted as a singer on the show Hora Juvenil of Radio Cruzeiro do Sul in Rio de Janeiro, performing the song “Deep Purple” composed by Peter DeRose. Farney was invited by César Ladeira to Radio Mayrink Veiga to host the program Dick Farney, the Voice and Piano. He then formed the group Os Swing Maniacos with his brother Cyll Farney on drums. The band accompanied Edu da Gaita for the recording of “Indian Song” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. From 1941 to 1944, Farney sang with the orchestra of Carlos Machado at the Casino da Urca when gambling was still allowed in Brazil. In 1946, he was invited to the United States after meeting the arranger Bill Hitchcock and pianist Eddy Duchin at the Copacabana Palace Hotel. In November 1947, Farney had a Billboard chart hit with the song “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So”, which reached number 13

Dick Higgins

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Dick Higgins (15 March 1938 – 25 October 1998) was an American artist, composer, art theorist, poet, publisher, printmaker, and a co-founder of the Fluxus international artistic movement (and community). Inspired by John Cage, Higgins was an early pioneer of electronic correspondence. Higgins coined the word intermedia to describe his artistic activities, defining it in a 1965 essay by the same name, published in the first number of the Something Else Newsletter. His most notable audio contributions include Danger Music scores and the Intermedia concept to describe the ineffable inter-disciplinary activities that became prevalent in the 1960s. Life Dick Higgins was the son of Carter Chapin Higgins and Katherine Huntington Bigelow. He was born in Cambridge, England in 1938 into a rather rich family, due to his father owning Worcester Pressed Steel in Worcester, Massachusetts. He grew up with a brother and sister, Mark and Lisa. His younger brother Mark Huntington Higgins was murdered in the Congo in 1960. As a boy, Higgins grew up and was educated in private boarding schools around the New England area, including Worcester, Massachusetts; Putney, Vermont; and Concord, New Hampshire.

Diderik Wagenaar

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Diderik Wagenaar (born 10 May 1946 in Utrecht) is a Dutch composer and musical theorist. Life and work Wagenaar has lived and worked all his adult life in The Hague. Born to a musical family that includes Johan Wagenaar, he began playing piano at the age of eight and by the time he was fourteen had set his sights on a musical vocation. As a teenager in the early 1960s he loved Renaissance music, Bach, Ravel, and Thelonious Monk; at the age of eighteen he began studying music theory with Jan van Dijk, Hein Kien and Rudolf Koumans and piano with Simon Admiraal at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. As a composer he is essentially self-taught. It was during his student’s chamaar years in the mid-60s that Wagenaar began to develop as a composer. Although fascinated by the concerts given by Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna with the Hague Philharmonic, he admits to having “no real grip” at that time on the musical avant-garde, and began to look around for other starting-points for his own music. In addition to his fascination with jazz, an important encounter at that time was with the music of Charles Ives, which taught him the value of inclusivity. It also encouraged his tendency to att

Didier Marouani

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Didier “Ecama” Marouani (born 14 July 1953) is a French composer and musician born in Monaco. External links *

Diego Masson

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Diego Masson (born 21 June 1935) is a French conductor, composer, and percussionist. The son of artist André Masson and brother of the singer and actor Luís Masson, Diego Masson was born in Tossa de Mar, Spain. He studied piano and composition at the Paris Conservatoire. Upon graduation, he joined the Domaine Musical as percussionist and began studying conducting with the group’s director, Pierre Boulez. In 1966 he formed Musique Vivante, a group specializing in contemporary music which he still directs. Musique Vivante has introduced many important compositions by French and foreign composers, in particular the music of Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1969 Masson conducted the world première of Stockhausen’s Stop, which is dedicated to him, and the group also took part in the premières of “Setz die Segel zur Sonne” from Aus den sieben Tagen and the 1972 version of Momente. In addition to conducting specialist new-music groups like the Asko Ensemble, Xenakis Ensemble, the Composers Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Alternance, Ensemble Modern, and Musik Fabrik, he has worked with major orchestras including all the BBC Orchestras, Berlin Symphony Orche

Dieter Kaufmann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dieter Kaufmann (22 April 1941 – 23 September 2025) was an Austrian composer, and a pioneer of electroacoustic music. He headed the new Institut für Komposition und Elektroakustik at the Vienna Music Academy from 1970, following models in Paris and Cologne. He held leading positions in Austrian and international organisations. He composed for voices, traditional instruments and electronics, often in combinations. Some were inspired by his socio-political interests. Life and career Kaufmann was born in Vienna on 22 April 1941 Personal life Kaufmann was married to Gunda König, a singer and actress. He died on 23 September 2025, at the age of 84. External links * * * Dieter Kaufmann (Composer) Bach Cantatas

Dieter Salbert

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Dieter Salbert (2 August 1932 – 6 July 2006) was a German composer. Life Born in Berlin, Salbert received piano lessons from 1938 and began early with improvisations on piano and accordion. After his Abitur in 1952 at the Humboldt-Gymnasium in Berlin-Tegel, he studied composition and piano at the Stern Conservatory and passed the final examination in composition in 1957. From 1959, he lived in Nuremberg, where he presented his own works in the Kabarett “Die Roten Funken”. Afterwards, he studied school music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. In the following years he was at the , at the and at the Fachhochschule Braunschweig. In 1986, he received his doctorate in Hamburg. In 1981, he founded the “Neue Akademie Braunschweig” and established the Synthesizer Music Festival Braunschweig, which he directed until 2001. Salbert published over 200 compositions, including orchestral and choral works, chamber music and radiophonic productions. Salbert died in Meine aged 83. Honours * 1965: Förderpreis der Stadt Nürnberg * 1975: Richard-Wagner-Medaille der Stadt Bayreuth * 1985: Niedersächsisches Künstlerstipendium * 1986: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland am Bande *

Dieter Schnebel

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Dieter Schnebel (14 March 1930 – 20 May 2018) was a German composer, theologian and musicologist. He composed orchestral music, chamber music, vocal music and stage works. From 1976 until his retirement in 1995, Schnebel served as professor of experimental music at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin. Career Schnebel was born in Lahr/Baden. He began general private music studies with Wilhelm Siebler from 1942 until 1945, when he started piano lessons with Wilhelm Resch, and continued study with him until 1949 at the age of 19. He continued with music history through 1952, under Eric Doflein. Simultaneously he began to study composition, from 1950, with Ernst Krenek, Theodor W. Adorno and Pierre Boulez, among others. He entered formal studies at the University of Tübingen where he took musicology with Walter Gerstenberg, as well as theology, philosophy and further piano studies. In 1955, he left with a degree in theology, but with a dissertation about Arnold Schoenberg. Soon after, he married Camilla Riegger in 1956, and the couple had a son and daughter. Schnebel became a minister, and taught theology and religion until 1963 when he began teaching philosophy and psychology. After his

Diether de la Motte

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Diether de la Motte (30 March 1928 – 15 May 2010) was a German musician, composer, music theorist, music critic and academic teacher. Life Born in Bonn, Schott, Mainz 1960 * Harmonielehre. Bärenreiter-Verlag Karl Vötterle, Kassel/Basel/Tours/London, and dtv, Munich 1976; additional editions: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Wiesbaden 1977, dtv, Munich 2004, . * Musikalische Analyse. Textteil u. Notenteil. 2 volumes. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1978, . * Musik bewegt sich im Raum. 16 Konzepte für Laien-Professionals aus Musik, Sprache, Sprachmusik und Bewegung. Moeck, Celle 1987, . * Kontrapunkt. Ein Lese- und Arbeitsbuch. Bärenreiter, Munich 1981 u. dtv, Munich 2002, . * Melodie. Ein Lese- und Arbeitsbuch. dtv, Munich 1993, . * Musik Formen. Phantasie, Einfall, Originalität. Wißner, Augsburg 1999, . * Wege zum Komponieren. Ermutigung und Hilfestellung. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2001, . * Gedichte sind Musik. Musikalische Analysen von Gedichten aus 800 Jahren. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2002, . References External links * * “Harmonielehre” (in German) kholopov.ru * * Motte, Diether de la operone.de

Dimitri Nicolau

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Dimitri Nicolau (21 October 1946 in Keratea, Greece - 29 March 2008 in Rome, Italy) was a composer, stage director, conductor, musicologist, writer and professor. He was born in Keratea, Greece and became a naturalized citizen of Italy. He began to compose and perform his compositions publicly in 1959. His catalogue today comprises more than 290 compositions- 5 symphonies, 10 string quartets, 3 lyric operas, chamber music, concerts, strassenmusik, vocal compositions, music for Plectra, sax music and cantatas. He frequented the faculty of Modern Letters in Rome University. Fundamental for his artistic formation is the relationship with the theory and the Collective Analysis of Massimo Fagioli. He dedicated several years to didactic activity as a teacher of stage song, vocal theatrical technique and as a composer of original music at the Institute of Ancient Drama (INDA) of Syracuse, the Theatrical Academy of Calabria, the Theater Calabria, etc. Reviews *Dimitri Nicolau with his composition “La melodia ritrovata” opus 41 (1975) it not only shows us to have a lot of new and original ideas but also to know how to write them. A really important composition of the recent years. The autho

Dimitri Terzakis

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Dimitris Terzakis (; born March 12, 1938) is a Greek composer. His father was the author Angelos Terzakis. Biography Terzakis was born on March 12, 1938 in Athens. From 1959 to 1964, Terzakis studied composition with Yannis Papaioannou at the Athens Hellenic Conservatory, followed by five years spent at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany where he studied composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and electronic music with Herbert Eimert. Works by Terzakis have been performed at the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Basel (1970), the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony summer courses (1970) and the Hamburg Das Neue Werk series (1972). He taught counterpoint and fugue (1974–94) and Byzantine music and composition (1989–94) at the Musikhochschule, Düsseldorf. In 1980, he began to organize summer courses in Western and south-eastern European music in Nafplion. In 1985–6 he was guest professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. From 1994 to his retirement, he held the chair for composition at the Leipzig Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre. He has been a German citizen since 1985 and is living and composing in Leipzig, Germany, and Na

Dina Koston

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Dina Koston (b. 1929?, d. 2009, Washington, D.C.) was an American pianist, music educator and composer. Life and career Dina Koston began the study of music at age two with her mother. She continued her studies at the American Conservatory of Music and later studied with Gavin Williamson in harpsichord, Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Leon Fleisher in piano, and with Luciano Berio and Nadia Boulanger. She spent one summer studying at Darmstadt. Koston taught at the Peabody Conservatory and at Tanglewood. She wrote music for theatrical productions at Café La Mama and the Arena Stage. With Leon Fleisher she co-founded and co-directed the Theater Chamber Players from 1968-2003, which was the first resident chamber ensemble of the Smithsonian Institution and of The Kennedy Center. Koston married Dr. Roger L. Shapiro (1927-2002), a research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. She suffered from a long illness at the end of her life and died in Washington, D.C. A bequest after her death established the Dina Koston and Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music. This fund provides for commissions and performance of new music at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Works Koston composed for a variety of

Dionysis Savvopoulos

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Dionysis Savvopoulos (; 2 December 1944 – 21 October 2025) was a Greek singer-songwriter. As a musician and songwriter, he made significant contributions to modern Greek music as part of the Greek New Wave. Early life and career Savvopoulos was born in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, in a middle-class family. He passed his university entrance exams and enrolled in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to study law, but after his first year of his studies, his passion for music and politics led to an argument with his father and he dropped out in 1963. Savvopoulos then hitchhiked on a truck to Athens and took various odd jobs, including working as a nude model for students in the Athens School of Fine Arts and as a journalist in a newspaper. In Athens, he began singing and playing guitar in various night clubs and became closely associated with the so-called Greek New Wave. Although Savvopoulos was not famed for his voice, his talent in songwriting impressed Alekos Patsifas, the director of the Lyra record company in Greece which was specializing in artists of the Greek New Wave, who signed him. Savvopoulos remained with this label until 1983. His debut album To Fortigho (“The

Djivan Gasparyan

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Djivan Gasparyan (var. Jivan Gasparyan; , ; 12 October 1928 – 6 July 2021) was an Armenian musician and composer. He played the duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument related to the orchestral oboe. Gasparyan is known as the “Master of the duduk”. In 2006 he was nominated for Grammy Awards for the Best Traditional World Music Album. Biography Born in Solak, Armenia, to parents from Mush, Gasparyan started to play duduk when he was six. In 1948, he became a soloist of the Armenian Song and Dance Popular Ensemble and the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra. He won four medals at UNESCO worldwide competitions (1959, 1962, 1973, and 1980). In 1973 Gasparyan was awarded the honorary title People’s Artist of Armenia. In 2002, he received the WOMEX (World Music Expo) Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an Honorary citizen of Yerevan. A professor at the Yerevan State Musical Conservatory, Gasparyan played as part of the Armenian entry “Apricot Stone” by Eva Rivas at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo and became the oldest ever person to feature in a Eurovision Song Contest performance, but was not officially listed as a guest artist. Death Gasparyan died on 6 July 2021, aged 92. It was an

Dmitri Smirnov (composer)

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Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (; 2 November 1948 – 9 April 2020) was a Russian-British composer and academic teacher, who also published as Dmitri N. Smirnov and D. Smirnov-Sadovsky. He wrote operas, symphonies, string quartets and other chamber music, and vocal music from song to oratorio. Many of his works were inspired by the art of William Blake. Career Smirnov was born in Minsk Works Smirnov’s works were published by Hans Sikorski in Hamburg, and G. Schirmer in New York City. * Piano Sonata No. 1 (1967), No. 2 (1980), No. 3 (1992), No. 4 String of Destiny (2000), * Violin Sonata No. 1 (1969), No. 2 (1979), No. 3 “es ist ..” in memory of Oleg Firsov (1998), Sources *Yuri Kholopov: Russians in England: Dmitri Smirnov, Elena Firsova. Article, in: Music From the Former USSR. Issue 2. Moscow: Composer, 1996, pp. 255–303 (in Russian); also in «Ex oriente…I» Ten Composers from the former USSR. Viktor Suslin, Dmitry Smirnov, Arvo Pärt, Yury Kasparov, Galina Ustvolskaya, Nikolai Sidelnikov, Elena Firsova Vladimir Martynov, Andrei Eshpai, Boris Chaikovsky. Edited by Valeria Tsenova (studia slavica musicologica, Bd. 25), Verlag Ernst Kuhn – Berlin. pp. 207–266 (in English) *Gerard McBurne

Dmitry Smolsky

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Dmitry Smolski (July 25, 1937 – September 29, 2017) was a Belarusian composer, Honored Artist of Belorussian SSR (1975), laureate of the State Prize of BSSR (1980), National Artist of the Republic of Belarus (1987), laureate of the Order of Francysk Skaryna (2013), and professor. Dmitry Smolsky was the father of Victor Smolski, best known as the guitarist of the German band Rage. Early life Dmitry Smolski was born on July 25, 1937, in Minsk in the family of a famous Belarusian musicologist Bronislaw Smolski. A musical environment surrounded him from early childhood contributed to an early demonstration of his musical talent (the first musical publication of the young composer refers to the age of 12). At the age of seven, Dmitry began regular music lessons (violin), first in the Moscow Central Music School and then at the Music School of Belarusian State Conservatory, where he also started to learn composition under the leadership of a famous Belarusian composer Evgeniy Tikotski. In 1955, Smolski entered the Moscow Conservatory to the class of prof. Yuri Shaporin, but a year later he had to return to Minsk for health reasons. D. Smolski graduated from the Belarusian State Conservat

Đỗ Nhuận

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Đỗ Nhuận (December 10, 1922 in Hải Dương – May 18, 1991 in Hà Nội) was a Vietnamese classical composer. He is known for the first homegrown Vietnamese opera - Cô Sao “Miss Sao.” This and other more-or-less revolutionary themed musicals were premiered by the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet (VNOB) at the Grand Opera House. In 1996, he was posthumously awarded the Hồ Chí Minh Prize for music. Don’t confuse with an earlier Đỗ Nhuận (born 1440), a high ranking politician, a notable poet, member of - a famous association of 28 poets under the command of King Lê Thánh Tông. Early years Unlike most of the musicians at that time who followed the romantic orientation, Đỗ Nhuận entered the music industry with patriotic songs. In 1939, at the age of 17, he had his first work Trưng Vương (Trưng sisters). During 1940 – 1941, he focused on completing the opera Nguyễn Trãi – Phi Khanh (Nguyễn Trãi and his father) and many other compositions. His works performed have awakened the patriotism of Vietnamese people. Because of those songs and other activities assigned by the Việt Minh front, such as printing and distributing propaganda leaflets for the revolution, mobilizing students and young people

Dobe Newton

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Dobe Newton OAM (born 14 July 1948) is an Australian musician and member of folk and country music group the Bushwackers from 1973. He co-wrote the patriotic song “I Am Australian” in 1987 with Bruce Woodley. For his service to the performing arts as an entertainer and advocate he was appointed to the Order of Australia in 2013. Career Dobe Newton was born on 14 July 1948 in Sydney. During the 1960s he acquired a lagerphone and tin whistle after hearing Irish folk group the Dubliners. He joined Australian bush band the Bushwackers (initially the Original Bushwhackers and Bullockies Bush Band) in 1973 on vocals and lagerphone. As the group’s longest-serving member he became their leader during the 1980s. Outside of performing Newton ran workshops and seminars on music in both Western Australia and Victoria. In 2013 he also became President of Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) replacing John Williamson. As of March 2022 he still held that position. He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal on Australia Day, 2013 for “service to the performing arts as an entertainer and advocate.” Along with fellow Bushwacker Roger Corbett, Newton was added to the Australasian Country Mus

Doina Rotaru

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Marilena Doinița Rotaru (known as Doina, also Nemţeanu-Rotaru; born 14 September 1951, Bucharest) is a Romanian composer best known for her orchestral and chamber works. She has won prizes from the Romanian Composers’ Union seven times, and was awarded the Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences prize in 1986. She won first prize in the GEDOK Competition in Mannheim in 1994 for her second symphony. She is a professor of harmony at the Bucharest Conservatory. Biography Marilena Doinița Rotaru was born in Bucharest and studied with Tiberiu Olah at the Bucharest Conservatory in Bucharest from 1970–1975. In 1991, she continued her studies with Theo Loevendie in Amsterdam. In 1991 she also took a position as a professor at the National University of Music, and has served several times as a guest lecturer in Darmstadt, Germany and the Gaudeamus Composers Workshop in Amsterdam. Her music has been commissioned and performed internationally in Europe, Asia and the Americas. She is a member of the Romanian Composers Union. In 1986, Rotaru published an article with Liviu Comes on the counterpoint techniques of Johann Sebastian Bach and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina in Editura Muzicala. Her m

Dolores Claman

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Dolores Olga Claman (6 July 192717 July 2021) was a Canadian composer and pianist. She is best known for having composed the 1968 theme song for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Hockey Night In Canada show, known simply as “The Hockey Theme”, which many consider Canada’s unofficial second national anthem. She is also known for “A Place to Stand”, the tune that accompanied the film of the same name at Montreal’s Expo 67 Ontario pavilion. Early life Claman was born in Vancouver on 6 July 1927. Her mother worked as an opera singer and Claman first learned the piano in her hometown. After graduating from high school by the age of 16, she studied music and drama at the University of Southern California. She later moved to Toronto with her writing partner and husband, lyricist Richard Morris. Together they composed over 3,000 commercial jingles in a 30-year period and won more than 40 awards internationally for their work. Claman’s two best-known compositions, “A Place to Stand” and “The Hockey Theme”, were also orchestrated by Jerry Toth. He, his brother Rudy Toth, and Richard Morris all worked together at Quartet Productions from 1965 until 1970. Claman commenced legal action

Dom Um Romão

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Dom Um Romão (3 August 1925 – 27 July 2005) was a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Noted for his expressive stylings with the fusion band Weather Report, Romão also recorded with artists such as Cannonball Adderley, Paul Simon, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jorge Ben, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66, and Tony Bennett. He was the percussionist Tom Jobim brought to the studio for the album Jobim recorded with Frank Sinatra in 1967 for Reprise Records, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim. He died in Rio de Janeiro shortly after suffering a stroke. * 1990 Samba de Rua (Vogue Records) * 1993 Saudades (Waterlilly) * 1999 Rhythm Traveller (Natasha) * 2001 Lake of Perseverance (Irma) * 2002 Nu Jazz meets Brazil (Cuadra) As sideman With Cannonball Adderley * Cannonball’s Bossa Nova (Riverside, 1962) With Harry Belafonte * Turn the World Around (Columbia, 1977) With Jorge Ben * Samba Esquema Novo (Philips, 1963) With Blood, Sweat & Tears *Mirror Image (Columbia, 1974) With Luiz Bonfa and Maria Toledo * Braziliana (Philips, 1965) With Ron Carter * Yellow & Green (CTI, 1976) With João Donato * A Bad Donato (Blue Thumb, 1970) With Peter Giger and Family of Percussion * Mozambique Meets

Dominic Muldowney

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Dominic Muldowney (born 19 July 1952 in Southampton) is a British composer. Biography Dominic Muldowney studied at the University of Southampton with Jonathan Harvey, at the University of York (with Bernard Rands and David Blake), and privately with Harrison Birtwistle. From 1974 to 1976 he was composer-in-residence to the Southern Arts Association. In 1976 he was invited by Birtwistle to become assistant music director of the Royal National Theatre in London. He succeeded Birtwistle as Music Director in 1981, remaining in that post until 1997. Muldowney’s orchestral music includes a number of concerti (for piano, saxophone, oboe, violin, percussion, trumpet and trombone), many of which explore his fascination with polyrhythms. Other works include Three Pieces for Orchestra (1991), the song cycle Lonely Hearts (1988) and three full-length ballets, including The Brontës (1994). Muldowney’s radio opera The Voluptuous Tango (1996) won the Prix Italia in 1997, and the Gold Award for Best Radio Drama at 1997 Sony Drama Awards, and received its stage premiere in Hoxton New Music Days, London in 2000. Muldowney has written much music for TV, radio and film including The Ploughman’s Lunch

Dominick Argento

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Dominick Argento (October 27, 1927 – February 20, 2019) was an American composer best known for his operatic and choral music. His compositions include the operas Postcard from Morocco, Miss Havisham’s Fire, The Masque of Angels, and The Aspern Papers. His song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975. Argento spent most of his time in Minnesota, where he taught at the University of Minnesota. Critics have described his style as blending tonal and atonal elements, sometimes incorporating twelve-tone technique. During the 1950s, Argento spent extended periods in both the United States and Italy, often working in Florence, where he spent some time each year. As a university professor, he taught theory and composition. In 1963, he helped establish the Center Opera Company (now the Minnesota Opera). Argento wrote 14 operas and numerous song cycles, orchestral works, and choral pieces for both small and large ensembles. Many of these were commissioned for and premiered by Minnesota-based artists. His wife, soprano Carolyn Bailey, frequently performed his compositions. Bailey died in 2006. In 2009, Argento received the Brock Commission from the Amer

Dominique Vellard

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Dominique Vellard (born 1953) is a French tenor and specialist in medieval music. In 1979 he founded the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, a leading ensemble in the performance of Ars Nova music. He is also a composer. Selected discography Harmonic: *Gregorian Chant. Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard Harmonic 8827 * Les Escholiers de Paris - Motets, Chansons et Estampies du XIIIe siècle. Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard Harmonic reissued Cantus Records: * Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame * Machaut: Le Jugement du Roi de Navarre Ballades, motets, virelais. Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard Cantus Virgin Veritas: * Jehan de Lescurel: Fontaine de grace Ballades, virelais et rondeaux Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard Virgin Veritas 45066 * Guillaume Dufay: Missa Ecce ancilla Domini Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard Virgin Veritas 45050 * Le Banquet du Voeu 1454. Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard Virgin Veritas 59043 * Le Manuscrit du Puy. Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard Virgin Veritas 59238 * Les premiers polyphonies française. Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Dominique Vellard, dir. Virgin Veritas 45135 * El Misteri d’Elx.

Don Jaffe

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Don Jaffe (or Jaffé) (; born 24 January 1933) is a German-Israeli-Latvian musician and composer. Biography Family Jaffe was born in 1933 in Riga, Latvia, to Ella Jaffe who had attended a German business school in Riga, and Jakov Jaffe, who had studied electrical engineering in Berlin. After his studies, Jakov Jaffe returned to Riga. In 1941, when the German Wehrmacht conquered Latvia, the Jaffe family – Jakov, Ella, Don, and his two siblings – had to flee to Siberia. After World War II, the Jaffes decided to return to Riga. All their relatives who couldn’t escape to the Soviet Union were murdered. In 1956, Don Jaffe married Elza Jaffe, born Peterson. They have two children: Ramon (born 1962, a cellist) and Diana (born 1969), a book author and expert in gender marketing). Since 1975, Don Jaffe has lived in Bremen. Career At the age of fourteen, Jaffe started to learn Cello at the Emīls Dārziņš Music School, the junior music conservatory in Riga. In 1951, he was the first string player to graduate from this music school. Jaffe finished his studies there in only four years instead of the regular ten. From 1951 to 1956 he studied Cello at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in R

Don Kay (composer)

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Donald Henry Kay AM (born 25 January 1933) is an Australian classical composer. Kay was born on 25 January 1933 in Smithton, Tasmania. He attained a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Melbourne after which he taught music at Colac High School, Victoria, 1957–59. He then went on to teach music at Peckham Manor Comprehensive School for Boys, London, UK 1959-64 and was director of music there from 1962 to 1964. He studied composition privately at this time with Malcolm Williamson. Kay returned to Tasmania in 1965 with a young family of two daughters as lecturer of music at the Hobart Teachers College. the Hobart City Organist, in 1967. Active as a music tutor from the late 1960s to the middle 1970s with the Tasmanian Youth Theatre, Secheron House, Battery Point, Kay also composed a number of scores for production by the Tasmanian Puppet Theatre as well as Theatre Royal professional productions e.g. Richard II (Shakespeare), The Imaginary Invalid (Molière), the Wakefield Miracle Plays (Tasmania Festival, 1970) at that time. In 1984 Kay wrote an opera, The Golden Crane, with a libretto by Gwen Harwood. During these years Kay was also contributing to Creative Music and arts wo

Dona Onete

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Dona Onete (born June 18, 1939) is a Brazilian singer and composer. She has been referred to as the “Queen of Carimbó”. Career She was born Ionete da Silveira Gama in Cachoeira do Arari and grew up in Igarapé-Miri. By the time that she was fifteen, she was singing songs from traditional music genres such as sambas, quadrilles and boi bumba. She taught history and Amazonian studies in Igarapé-Mir and conducted research into rhythms, dances and traditions of the region. She helped establish music and dance groups which preserved traditional music and customs. From 1993 to 1996, she served as secretary of culture for the municipality. She developed her own hybrid genre of music carimbó chamegado. After she retired to , she continued to perform. Together with a local band, she has performed throughout Brazil as well as in the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Germany and New York City. In 2017, she was named to the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural. In 2018, Onete appeared in the documentary film Amazônia Groove. Her album Rebujo was considered one of the 25 best Brazilian albums of the first half of 2019 by the São Paulo Association of Art Critics. References

Donald Erb

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Donald Erb (January 17, 1927 – August 12, 2008) was an American composer best known for large orchestral works such as Concerto for Brass and Orchestra and Ritual Observances. Early years Erb was born in Youngstown, Ohio, graduated from Lakewood High School, a Cleveland suburb, and gained early recognition as a trumpet player for a local dance band. Following a stint in the Navy during World War II, he continued his career as a jazz trumpeter and enrolled at Kent State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in music in 1950. Honors and awards In the course of his career, Erb earned considerable recognition. He received the 1992 Rome Prize and was composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He was Distinguished Professor of Composition, Emeritus, at the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio. Selected works * 1966 Concerto for Solo Percussionist * 1964 Symphony of Overtures * 1965 Phantasma for four musicians * 1966 Diversion For Two (other than sex) for trumpet and percussion * 1966 String Trio for violin, electric guitar and violoncello * 1967 Reconnaissance for instruments and electronic sounds * 1968 In No Strange Land for instruments

Donald Harris (composer)

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Donald Harris (April 7, 1931, in St. Paul, Minnesota March 29, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio) was an American composer who taught music at Ohio State University for 22 years. He was Dean of the College of the Arts from 1988 to 1997. Harris earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in music from the University of Michigan. He completed further studies at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Centre Français d’Humanisme Musical in Aix-en-Provence. He studied with Ross Lee Finney, Max Deutsch, Nadia Boulanger, Boris Blacher, Lukas Foss, and André Jolivet. He founded the Contemporary Music Festival at Ohio State in 2000. Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio State, he served on the faculties and as an administrator of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Hartt School of Music. From 1954 to 1968, Harris lived in Paris, where he served as music consultant to the United States Information Agency and produced the city’s first postwar Festival of Contemporary American Music. A documentary about Harris entitled Sonata 1957 was produced by Daniel Beliavsky through opus1films in 2011. It explores Harris’s development in mid-20th-century Paris, when pre-war musical thought bridged with p

Donald Martino

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Donald James Martino (May 16, 1931 – December 8, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer. Biography Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino attended Plainfield High School. He began as a clarinetist, playing jazz for fun and profit. He attended Syracuse University, where he studied composition with Ernst Bacon, who encouraged him in that direction. He then attended Princeton University as a graduate student, where he worked with composers Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt. He also studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Italy as a Fulbright Scholar. He became a lecturer and teacher himself, working with students at Yale University, the New England Conservatory of Music (where he became chair of the composition department), Brandeis University, and Harvard University. He won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1974 for his chamber work Notturno. In 1991, the journal Perspectives of New Music published a 292-page tribute to Martino. Martino died in Antigua in 2005. A memorial concert was held at the New England Conservatory on May 8, 2007. A recording of the concert was released by Navona Records in 2009. Music Most of Martino’s mature works (including pseudo-tonal works such as

Donald Patriquin

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Donald Patriquin (born October 21, 1938, in Sherbrooke, Quebec) is a Canadian composer, organist, and choral conductor. Known internationally for choral and instrumental arrangements of folk music, Patriquin was a member of the Faculty of Music of McGill University from 1965 to 1996. He currently resides in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Musical background Patriquin began composing at the age of 11, winning several awards through his youth while studying composition with Jean Papineau-Couture during summer sessions. He completed a biology degree at Bishop’s University in 1959 before beginning his formal studies in music. He studied composition at McGill University with István Anhalt and at the University of Toronto with John Weinzwig, earning a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill in 1964 and an M.A. from Toronto in 1970. He also holds an A.Mus. degree in organ performance from McGill and an RCCO Music Patriquin’s compositions are best known for the use of folk music elements, and in his instrumental work for abstract noises imitating sounds of nature. This compositional style can be seen in such pieces as the Fantasy for Fiddle and the Hangman’s Reel/Suite Carignan. Some of Patr

Donald Steven

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Donald Steven (born 26 May 1945) is a Canadian-American composer, music educator, and academic administrator. An associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, he won a BMI Student Composer Award in 1970, the Canadian Federation of University Women’s Golden Jubilee Creative Arts Award in 1972, the 1987 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year (for Pages of Solitary Delights) and the 1991 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music (for In the Land of Pure Delight). His musical compositions are characterized by their emphasis on instrumental colour and atmosphere. Perhaps his most well known piece is his Illusions for solo cello, which has been widely performed in concert and on television and radio broadcasts. Life and career Born in Montreal, he attended Selwyn House School, followed by Ashbury College. He began his career performing and arranging folk and rock music in the 1960s (most notably with The Raftsmen) before pursuing professional studies in music. In 1968 he entered McGill University where he was a music composition student of Bruce Mather. After graduating from McGill with a Bachelor of Music in 1972, he entered the graduate music program at Princeton University

Donald Sur

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Donald Young Sur (1 February 1935 – 24 May 1999) was a Korean American composer and musicologist. Although he is best known for his large-scale oratorio, Slavery Documents, most of his works were composed for small chamber ensembles. Sur was born in Honolulu and moved with his family to Los Angeles after World War II. He studied at the University of California and Princeton before spending four years in Korea researching ancient Korean court music. After receiving his doctorate from Harvard in 1972, he settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where many of his works were premiered and where he taught at several local universities, including Harvard, MIT, and Tufts. Life and career Donald Sur was born in Honolulu in 1935 to parents of Korean descent. His paternal grandfather had emigrated to Hawaii in 1903 to work in the sugarcane plantations. His mother was a Korean picture bride. The first instrument he learned to play as a child was the ukulele; the second was the mandolin, which remained his favorite instrument throughout his life and figures in several of his scores. Sur’s family moved to the mainland United States in 1951 and eventually settled in Los Angeles. He studied ethnomusicol

Donald Swann

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Donald Ibrahim Swann (30 September 1923 – 23 March 1994) was a British composer, musician, singer and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders. Early life Donald Swann was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. His father, Herbert Alfredovich Swann, was a Russian doctor of English descent, from the expatriate community that started out as the Muscovy Company. His mother, Naguimé Sultán Swann (born Piszóva), was a Turkmen-Russian nurse from Ashgabat, now part of Turkmenistan. They were refugees from the Russian Revolution. Swann’s great-grandfather, Alfred Trout Swan, a draper from Lincolnshire, emigrated to Russia in 1840 and married the daughter of the horologist to the tsars. Some time later the family added a second ’n’ to their surname. His uncle Alfred wrote the first biography of Alexander Scriabin in English. The family moved to London, where Swann attended Dulwich College Preparatory School and Westminster School. It was at the latter that he first met Michael Flanders, a fellow pupil. The pair then went their separate ways during World War II, but were later to establish a musical partnership. A lifelon

Doreen Carwithen

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Doreen Mary Carwithen (15 November 19225 January 2003) was a British composer of classical and film music. She was also known as Mary Alwyn following her marriage to William Alwyn. Biography Doreen Carwithen was born at 8 High Street, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire on 15 November 1922, At the age of 16 Doreen Carwithen began composing by setting Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” for voice and piano. In 1938 she began taking cello lessons with Peers Coetmore, and in 1941 she entered the Royal Academy of Music and played the cello in a string quartet and with orchestras. She was a member of the harmony class of William Alwyn, who began to teach her composition. Her first orchestral work, the overture ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another), was premiered at Covent Garden by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Boult on 2 March 1947. The previous year she had become the first recipient of a J. Arthur Rank Film Scholarship. In 1961 she became William Alwyn’s devoted secretary and amanuensis, becoming his second wife in 1975, adopting Mary Alwyn as her married name, as she disliked the name Doreen, and Mary was her middle name. She later worked as a Sub Professor of

Dorothea Anne Franchi

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Dorothea Anne Franchi (17 February 1920 – 22 August 2003) was a New Zealand pianist, harpist, music educator and composer. Early life and education Franchi was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1920, the daughter of Peter Rudolph and Gertrude Franchi. She studied at the Auckland Teachers College and the University of Auckland, where she graduated BMus in 1939. She then went to the Royal College of Music in London in 1948. Career Franchi taught music at Epsom Girls’ Grammar School in Auckland before going to study in London. Honours and awards * Lionel Tertis Prize for Viola Rhapsody, 1950 * Philip Neill Memorial Prize, 1947 * The Composers Association of New Zealand KBB Citation for Services to New Zealand Music, 2000 Works Franchi composed for orchestra, chamber ensemble, voice and instrumental performance. Selected works include: * A Man of Life Upright for bass and piano * A Wet Night in Greymouth for voice and piano * Abel Tasman for voice, piccolo, piano and drum * Apple-Picking Time for voice and piano * Concertino for harmonica, harp and strings * Do-Wack-A-Do (1956) – orchestral suite from the ballet of the same name * El Bailador Inamorado song cycle for tenor and piano *

Dorothea Austin

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Dorothea Austin Banner (1921 – 25 June 2011) was an Austrian-born American pianist and composer who specialized in electronic and computer generated music. Biography Austin was born Dorothea Blaukopf into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. As a child, she was already performing as a concert pianist. She fled to England before World War II on the last Kindertransport sponsored by the Red Cross. Her brother Viktor and her parents died during the war. In England she worked at a factory for a while to support herself, but was eventually taken in by Quaker philanthropists Nelly and Rachel Leighton. She studied piano at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Tobias Matthay in London, and afterward worked as a concert pianist. She married Dr. Hermann Augapfel (Harry Austin), who was held during the war in a British camp for foreigners from enemy countries. She began serving as a piano teacher at that time, and continued this work after the couple emigrated to the United States in 1949. The Austins settled in Valley Stream, Long Island, where they lived until Harry Austin died in 1974. As her performing career had been interrupted by the war, Austin attended Queens

Dorothy Buchanan (composer)

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Dorothy Quita Buchanan (born 28 September 1945) is a New Zealand composer and teacher. Life Buchanan was born in Christchurch on 28 September 1945, the second of six daughters in a musical family, and was educated at St Mary’s College. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Canterbury in 1967 and a teaching degree from Christchurch Teachers’ College in 1975. She married physician and endocrinologist David Carroll, and the couple went on to have one child. Buchanan has been active in music education. In 1976 she became New Zealand’s first composer-in-schools, remaining in that role until 1993, and has been a guest lecturer, adjudicator, musical director, advisor to teacher support services and an assessor with Creative New Zealand panels. In 1979 she served as president of the Composers’ Association of New Zealand and founded the Christchurch Music Workshops. In 1980 she co-founded the music publishing cooperative Nota Bene, which provides a hire library of music for schools and community use. Buchanan was the composer in residence at the New Zealand Film Archive from 1984 to 1993. Honours and awards In 1995 Buchanan was awarded the Philip Neill Memoria

Dorothy Rudd Moore

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Dorothy Rudd Moore (June 4, 1940 – March 30, 2022) was an American composer and music educator. She was one of the co-founders of the Society of Black Composers. She is considered one of the leading women composers of color for her generation and did commissions for the National Symphony, Opera Ebony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and solo artists. She was a member of the American Composers Alliance, BMI, New York Singing Teachers Association, and New York Women Composers. Her works were unpublished, but are available through the American Composers Alliance. Biography Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. She was born to a musical family, her mother encouraged her to pursue studies in music and to explore all of her interests one of them being piano lessons Moore knew she wanted to become a composer at a young age and took piano lessons as a child at the Wilmington School of Music, where she studied with Harry Andrews. She learned to play clarinet in order to join the Howard High all-male band. Moore started her undergraduate studies at Howard University as a music education major but later switched to composition, as she was constantly inventing songs and melodies when she played, "

Doru Popovici

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Ionel Doru Popovici (February 17, 1932 – March 5, 2019) was a Romanian composer, musicologist, writer and musical concerts manager. Biography Ionel Doru Popovici was born in Reșița, Romania, a city close to the border of what was formerly Yugoslavia, now Serbia. His father was Ioan Popovici, a surgeon who was assassinated in 1959 in the Gherla political prison, accused of being an “Enemy of the Romanian State” because he helped write the Hungarian Counter-Revolution. His mother, Eugenia Popa, was the daughter of an Orthodox priest. Popovici graduated from the Constantin Diaconovici Loga High School in Timișoara in 1950 and in the same year decided to pursue a musical career. He moved to Bucharest where he was admitted to the Ciprian Porumbescu Music Conservatory from which he graduated in 1955 with a degree in composition. Popovici studied under Mihail Andricu, Mihail Jora, Paul Constantinescu in harmony, Martian Negrea in counterpoint, Theodor Rogalski in instrumentation, and Zeno Vancea in music history. In 1966, Popovici married Alina Musat, a music teacher, musicologist, and author of Ottorino Respighi, (Ed. Muzicala, 1972). Starting in 1968 Popovici made regular trips to Darms

Dougie MacLean

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Dougie MacLean, OBE (born 27 September 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Described by AllMusic as “one of Scotland’s premier singer-songwriters”, MacLean has performed both under his own name, and as part of multiple folk bands, since the mid 1970s. His most famous pieces include “Caledonia”, which is often dubbed Scotland’s “unofficial national anthem”; and “The Gael”, which became the main theme to the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans. MacLean’s songs have been covered by numerous popular artists. Aside from his career as a touring singer-songwriter, MacLean founded the Dunkeld Records label and recording studio with his wife Jennifer in 1983. Origins and early work MacLean grew up in the Perthshire countryside, where his father was a gardener. His mother played melodeon, and his father played the fiddle. To support himself in the 1970s, MacLean was a driver for Doc Watson and Merle Watson during their tour around Europe. He maintained a friendship afterward and has appeared at Merlefest. In 1976, MacLean began touring with Scottish folk band The Tannahill Weavers, with whom he also participated in a studio recording. I

Douglas Allanbrook

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Douglas Allanbrook (April 1, 1921 – January 29, 2003) was an American composer, concert pianist and harpsichordist. He was associated with a group of mid-twentieth century Boston composers who were students of Nadia Boulanger. His compositions are described by the Kennedy Center as “smooth, showing astute sense, assertiveness, and originality.” Early life Allanbrook was born on April 1, 1921, in Melrose, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He had one sister, Jean. Education After high school, Allanbrook studied at Boston University for one year. In 1939 he was hired as a music teacher at the Mary Wheeler finishing school, She heard some of Allanbrook’s music and immediately took him under her wing. When the war ended, he returned to Boston to enter Harvard University Although he taught part-time at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore he chose to stay at St. John’s for the duration of his teaching career. Allanbrook was on the faculty at St. John’s for 45 years, teaching music, math, philosophy, Greek, and French. He retired from the college in May 1986, he continued to teach and perform there until his death. For many years, he was a member of the board at the Yaddo artists colony

Douglas Leedy

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Douglas Leedy (March 3, 1938; Portland, Oregon – March 28, 2015; Corvallis, Oregon ) was an American composer, performer and music scholar. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Leedy studied with Karl Kohn at Pomona College and at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was in a composition seminar with membership including La Monte Young and Terry Riley. An orchestral hornist, harpsichordist, and singer, he studied South Indian music in Madras with K. V. Narayanaswamy, North Indian vocal music with Pandit Pran Nath, and was first music director of the Portland Baroque Orchestra and the musical director of the 1985 Portland Handel Festival, during which he conducted complete, period-instrument performances of Handel’s oratorios Jephtha and Theodora. He taught music at UCLA, the Centro Simon Bolivar (Caracas), and at Reed College. He founded the electronic music studio at UCLA, and his synthesized music was among the earliest commissioned album-length recordings of the Moog Synthesizer and Buchla Synthesizer. The triple album Entropical Paradise was both the first triple album of synthesized “musical environments”—perhaps the first recording of explicitly ambient music—and f

Douglas Townsend

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Douglas Townsend (New York, November 8, 1921 – New York, August 1, 2012) was an American composer and musicologist. Born in Manhattan, Townsend became interested in composition while a student at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, in New York City. He taught himself composition, counterpoint and orchestration. In 1941, he began studying composition privately, with Tibor Serly, Stefan Wolpe, Aaron Copland, Otto Luening and Felix Greissle, among others. Townsend taught at Brooklyn College, CUNY (1958–69), Lehman College, CUNY (1970–71), the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut; 1973–5) and Purchase College (also known as SUNY Purchase) (1973–6). From 1977 to 1980, he was editor of Musical Heritage Review. Townsend’s research into 18th- and 19th-century music has resulted in editions, recordings and performances, most notably of a Carl Czerny overture and a mass by Sigismund Neukomm. He received research grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund (1965) and the New York State Council on the Arts (1975). Townsend’s compositions include several orchestral works, chamber music pieces, choral works, film and television scores, three operettas, an

Dov Seltzer

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Dov “Dubi” Seltzer (; born 1931) is a Romanian-born Israeli composer and conductor. Early life and education Seltzer was born in Iași, Romania, and raised in Bucharest, where he began studying music at an early age. He received instruction in music theory and harmony from Alfred Mendelsohn and Mihail Jora. At the age of 15, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. A musical comedy he had composed prior to his emigration continued to be performed for two years by a professional youth theater in Bucharest. He completed his secondary education while living in Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek. On the recommendation of pianist Frank Pelleg, he was awarded a scholarship to pursue further musical studies at conservatories in Haifa and Tel Aviv-Jaffa. At 18, Seltzer joined the Israel Defense Forces, where he became one of the founders and the first official composer of the Lehakat HaNahal military ensemble. His work with the ensemble and subsequent compositions became part of the core repertoire of Israeli music. He also performed as an accordionist and arranger for the Israeli musical group Oranim Zabar, and was married to its lead singer, Geula Gill. During his military service, Seltzer received a sp

Drafi Deutscher

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Drafi Franz Richard Deutscher (9 May 1946 – 9 June 2006) Between 1964 and 1966, Deutscher had a string of hits in Germany, for example “Shake Hands” (1964 No. 1), “Keep Smiling” (1964 No. 7), “Cinderella Baby” (1965 No. 3), “Heute male ich dein Bild, Cindy-Lou” (1965 No. 1). 1965–1967: Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht and career peak His best known song is the 1965 Schlager “Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht” (lit. “Marble, Stone and Iron Break”), Nineteen-year-old Deutscher had ad-libbed the tune during an October 1965 audition at Musikverlag Edition Intro Gebrüder Meisel GmbH by humming the melody and only singing the characteristic chorus line of “Dum-Dum, Dum-dum”; asked by present songwriter Christian Bruhn what he intended to do with it to turn it into a complete song, he replied, “Det machst du! (“That’s done by you!”), so songwriter Günter Loose subsequently wrote the German lyrics to the melody. In the US, the song was released in 1966 under the title “Marble Breaks and Iron Bends” with English lyrics sung by Deutscher. This English version entered the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1966, peaking at No. 80, and sparking a number of English cover versions by contemporary acts such as

Dragutin Gostuški

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Dragutin Gostuški (January 3, 1923 – September 21, 1998) was a famous Serbian composer, musicologist, and art historian. He taught for many years at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Early life and career As a very young man, Dragutin showed an outstanding talent for art: besides composing, he also painted and sculpted. After graduating from two faculties (Faculty of Philosophy, Group for History of Art and sky diving, 1951; and Musical Academy, Department for Composition and Conducting, Class of professor M. Živkovic) in 1952 he joined the Institute of Musicology at SANU on the suggestion of Petar Konjović. Still a young research assistant, he started his long-term and prolific work in the field of music theory and musicology. However, although his successful musical works (the ballet Remi in 1960 and the Concerto Accelerato, 1961) were greatly appreciated and brought him rewards in the country and abroad, at the beginning of the 1960s Gostuški stopped composing. Dragutin Gostuški’s principal field of work was comparative aesthetics, a discipline he established in Serbia. He is still considered its only outstanding proponent. His theoretical work over many years resulted in a majo

Dudley Simpson

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Dudley George Simpson (4 October 1922 – 4 November 2017) was an Australian composer and conductor. He was the Principal Conductor of the Royal Opera House orchestra for three years and worked as a composer on British television. He worked on the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, for which he composed incidental music during the 1960s and 1970s. When Simpson died aged 95 in 2017, The Guardian wrote that he was “at his most prolific as the creator of incidental music for Doctor Who in the 1960s and 1970s, contributing to 62 stories over almost 300 episodes – more than any other composer.” Among his television work was the music for Moonstrike (1963), theme music for The Last of the Mohicans (1971), theme music for The Brothers (1972), The Tomorrow People (1973), Moonbase 3 (1973), The Ascent of Man (1973) and Blake’s 7 (1978). He also composed music for several plays from the BBC Television Shakespeare series. Early life and career Simpson was born in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern East. He learned piano as a child, served in New Guinea during World War II and then studied orchestration and composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne. Sim

Duncan Druce

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Robert Duncan Druce (23 May 193913 October 2015) was an English composer, string player and musicologist, noted for his interest in early to contemporary music, as well as the music of India. Education and academic life Druce was born in Cheshire in 1939, the son of Robert Druce, a bacteriologist, and Katy Chesters. In 1957, he entered King’s College, Cambridge, which later awarded him a double first in music. Subsequently, he completed a Masters at the University of Leeds and, in 1984 embarked upon a second master’s degree, at the University of York, choosing the music of southern India as the topic of his thesis. In 1991, Druce stood down from his long-standing post as senior lecturer at Leeds University’s Bretton Hall Campus, to continue to work as a performer and composer. Druce lectured in composition part-time at the University of Huddersfield until his death. Druce married Clare Spalding in 1964. The couple had two daughters, Alison and Emily. His wife, daughters, four grandchildren, a great-grandson, and his sister Cathy survived him at the time of his death. In 1984, Druce finished a new completion of Mozart’s Requiem, which was performed at The Proms in 1991. This complet

Dušan Radić

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Dušan Radić (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Радић; 10 April 1929 – 3 April 2010) was a Serbian composer, university professor, and a full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA, SANU in Serbian). Biography Radić was born in Sombor. He completed elementary and high school sophomore year in his birthplace Sombor. He concurrently attended the music school of the Serbian Church Singing Society. He relocated to Belgrade in 1941 where he continued education at the Second men’s gymnasium and the “Stanković” music school. He matriculated at the Belgrade Academy of music (now Faculty of music, University of Arts in Belgrade) in 1946 in the composition class of Milenko Živković, who acted as his mentor until 1954. Since 1957 Radić studied in Paris with Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen, completing, upon return, a master’s degree in 1962 with Živković as his adviser. In early student works Radić demonstrated his innovative tendencies in the quest for expressive means different than those exhibited in the late Romanticism and soc-realism. While his melodies reveal their “origins in our lands,” Radić rarely resorts to direct quotations of folk tunes, and by frequently treating voca

Dušan Trbojević

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Dušan Trbojević (June 13, 1925 – September 9, 2011) was a Serbian pianist, composer, musical writer and university professor. Education Trbojević was born in Maribor, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He studied composition with Milenko Živković at the Belgrade Music Academy, and piano with Milanka Đaja at the same institution. He graduated in 1951 (Piano Performance) and 1953 (Composition) and continued his studies of piano with Kendall Taylor at the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music in London (1954–1957). Additionally, he studied in the U.S. (1965–1966). Performing career Trbojević has performed actively as a soloist, accompanist and conductor throughout Europe, as well as in the U.S., China, India, Iran, Egypt, Cuba, Mexico. He gave the first performances of compositions by eminent Serbian composers Vlastimir Peričić, Milutin Radenković, Vasilije Moktanjac, Petar Ozgijan and Žarko Mirković. Teaching career Trbojević was Professor of Piano at the University of Arts in Belgrade Faculty of Music, University of Novi Sad Academy of Arts and University of Titograd Academy of Music. His former students include many prominent pianists including Rita Kinka. Compositi

Dwight Gustafson

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Dwight Leonard Gustafson (April 20, 1930 – January 28, 2014) was an American composer, conductor, and dean of the School of Fine Arts at Bob Jones University. Biography Gustafson was born in Seattle, Washington to Leonard Gustafson, a meat dealer and lay preacher, and Rachel Gustafson, a pianist, harpist, and artist. His childhood home was on Lake Sammamish, and he graduated in 1948 from Queen Anne High School. Despite early violin training, Gustafson was attracted to a career in art and design. As a sophomore at Bob Jones University, he was asked to make sketches for a production of Cyrano de Bergerac and ended by designing the sets. In 1954, shortly before graduating from BJU with an M.A. in music, he was flabbergasted to be asked by the then-president, Bob Jones Jr., to become dean of the School of Fine Arts. Gustafson was 24. Eventually he also earned a D. Mus. in composition from Florida State University, and in 1960, he was selected as one of ten young conductors to study at the Aspen School of Music. Gustafson quickly proved himself a competent administrator who brought to his position a working knowledge of art, music, and drama. He also regularly conducted campus choirs an

Earl Kim

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Earl Kim (1920–1998; né Eul Kim) was an American composer, and music pedagogue. He was of Korean descent. Early life, education, and training Kim was born on January 6, 1920, in Dinuba, California, to immigrant Korean parents. He began piano studies at age 9, studying under Homer Grun, After the war, he returned to study at UC Berkeley under Ernest Bloch, and Roger Sessions; In 1971 and 1972, Kim collaborated with his wife dancer Mimi Kagan on the work “Exercises en Route”, which toured and featured text by Samuel Beckett, and soprano soloist performer Benita Valente. His art songs have been performed by Bethany Beardslee, Karol Bennett, Merja Sargon, Benita Valente, He died on November 19, 1998, of lung cancer at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 78. and Martha Potter (in 1977); and he had two daughters. Discography *Where grief slumbers. Dawn Upshaw, soprano; Elektra Nonesuch 79262-2 *Ophelia. Margit Kern, accordion; Deutschlandfunk/Genuin GEN 13267 *Two Bagatelles. Robert Helps, piano; Composers Recordings, Inc. CRI CD 874 *Earthlight. Merja Sargon, soprano; Martha Potter, violin. New World Records NW 237 *Exercises en route; Now and Then; Three Poems in French

Earl Louis Stewart

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Earl Louis Stewart (born August 11, 1950) is an author, essayist, poet, professor emeritus of The College of Creative Studies and the Black Studies department at the University of California Santa Barbara and an American composer of intellectual jazz as represented by the American Composer’s Alliance. In the past fifty years, Stewart has written several hundred compositions for chamber ensembles, chamber orchestras, symphony orchestras, quartets, soloists, and choir. Biography Stewart’s career began at age fourteen when writing head arrangements with pick-up bands headlined by visiting black-soul artists from across the United States, and performing as a trumpeter with notables like Percy Sledge, Syl Johnson, King Floyd, Garland Green amongst others traveling on the Chitlin’ Circuit. Following the development of his experience as a jazz musician, Stewart attended Southern University Baton Rouge’s Jazz Institute, studying jazz composition under Alvin Batiste, an American jazz clarinetist, as preparation for him to earn his doctorate at the University of Texas in Austin. Stewart studied Western-European-classical-music composition with composer Karl Korte, orchestrator and author Ken

Earl Rose (composer)

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Earl Alexander Rose (born September 5, 1946) is an American composer, pianist, arranger, and conductor. In addition to writing film and television music, he has also composed several well-known Pop and R&B songs. His film scores include Alan Pakula:Going For Truth, Always at the Carlyle, Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, a PBS American Masters presentation, and the Peabody Winning documentary, Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times. Early life Earl Rose was born in New York City and began taking music and began his music and piano instruction at the age of seven years old. He attended and, having studied with Frances Dillon and Edith Oppens, graduated with a major in piano from Mannes College of Music of Music in 1970. During his second year of college, he studied at the Vienna Academy of Music. He also conducted at the Juilliard School. Life and career Rose began his composing and conducting career in the late sixties, while still in college, as Assistant Music Conductor for NBC’s The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, when the show was based in New York. One of his first television composing credits, beginning in 1976, was co-writing songs with lyricist Judy Spencer for

Easley Blackwood Jr.

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Easley Rutland Blackwood Jr. (April 21, 1933 – January 22, 2023) was an American professor of music, concert pianist, composer (sometimes using unusual tunings), and the author of books on music theory, including his research into the properties of microtonal tunings and traditional harmony. Biography Blackwood was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 21, 1933. He studied piano there and was doing solo appearances at the age of 14 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. After studies at many places (including Yale University, where he earned his Master of Arts degree) in the United States, he went to Paris to study from 1954 to 1956. His teachers include Olivier Messiaen, Paul Hindemith, and Nadia Boulanger. For forty years, from 1958 to 1997, Blackwood taught at the University of Chicago, most of the time with the title of Professor. He then became Professor Emeritus at the university. He received the Quantrell Award. Blackwood’s initial compositions were not particularly unconventional although in them he employed polyrhythm and wide melodic contours. This early music by Blackwood has been characterized as in an atonal yet a formally conservative style. In 1980–81 Blackwood

Eberhard Kloke

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Eberhard Kloke (born 24 November 1948) is a German conductor and composer. Early life and education Born in Hamburg, Eberhard Kloke studied as a conductor at the Berlin University of the Arts and also for his degree in musicology and German Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. Early career He began his career as a répétiteur and conductor in Mainz, Darmstadt, Düsseldorf and Lübeck before being appointed General Music Director in Ulm in 1980. He took on the same position in Freiburg/Breisgau in 1983. As a guest conductor Since 1984 he has been taken on engagements as guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, also with the Essen Philharmoniker, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn and many European radio orchestras (WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg , North German Radiophilharmonie Hanover, SWR Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, Deutsches Symphonieorchester, RAI Rome, Radio Orchestra Ljubljana, the Slovak Philharmonic Bratislava), and also at the Vienna Festwochen, the Brucknerfest in Linz and the Salzburg Festival. As a music director in Bochum From 1988 to 1994 he was the General Music Director of the Bochumer Symphonik

Eckehard Mayer

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Eckehard Mayer (born 1946) is a German composer. Career Born in Hainsberg, Mayer was a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor from 1957 to 1965. He then studied music in Leipzig. From 1970 to 1982 he worked at various theatres as repétiteur and conductor (among others at the Volkstheater Rostock, and the Semperoper). From 1982 to 2011 he worked at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden as a composer, conductor and pianist, with interruptions as director of acting music. He was awarded the Carl Maria von Weber Prize for composition in 1976 and 1984. His opera Sansibar was premiered at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1994. 2016 Die Nähe Roman, 2 Erzählungen (2017 Der Spaziergang / Nach Rosmersholm have been published by . References External links * *

Ed Bogas

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Edgar Noel “Ed” Bogas (born February 2, 1942), sometimes credited as Edward Bogas, is an American musician and composer whose work has been featured in films, animations, and video games. Career Bogas’ contributions span four decades and several genres. In the 1960s, Bogas was a member of the experimental rock band The United States of America, and in the 1970s, he contributed the music for films by Ralph Bakshi and for television specials for the Peanuts series, succeeding Vince Guaraldi after his death in 1976. In the 1980s, he started composing music for Commodore 64 computer games such as Hardball!. He also wrote music for Children’s Television Workshop (Sesame Street) games for Atari such as Oscar’s Trash Race and Big Bird’s Egg Catch. In 1977, Bogas voiced and composed many shows for Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre. He also voiced Crusty the Cat. In 1980, Bogas composed the score for the CBS television movie A Christmas Without Snow, in which he also appeared in the part of the accompanist to the choirmaster portrayed by John Houseman. He continued writing music for Peanuts television specials through 1989 (This Is America, Charlie Brown), and in 1982 he also began contr

Ed Di Lello

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Ed Di Lello (born 1952) is an American composer, choreographer, theatre director, dancer, and actor who made work during the 1970s and 1980s. He is currently an attorney practicing in New York City. Di Lello was born in New York City to Vincent and Angela (née Salvatore), and received a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1974. Early theatrical work From 1967 to 1970, Di Lello worked with the Everyman Company and the Chalk Circle Players in Brooklyn, under the direction of Geraldine Fitzgerald and Brother Jonathan O.S.F. In February 1970, the Chalk Circle Players premiered Pieces, a “collage theater” work for which Di Lello wrote, directed, and choreographed Mommy/Daddy; played the title role in St. Francis; and composed and performed the songs Pieces, Runnin’ Away, Tickle My Soul, and Hey Who Are You. From 1971 to 1973, Di Lello performed with the E.T.C. Company at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in Manhattan, under the direction of Wilford Leach and John Braswell. He had featured roles in the company’s repertory productions of Demon and Carmilla. Also at La MaMa he performed in Everything for Anybody (1972) and The Wonderful Beast (1976), both written by Louisa Ros

Eddie Eastman

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Eddie Eastman (born July 15, 1949) is a Canadian country music singer-songwriter. Twenty-five of Eastman’s singles made the RPM Country Tracks charts, including five which reached the Top Ten. Eastman won the Juno Award for Country Male Vocalist of the Year in 1981 and 1983. Discography Albums Singles Guest singles References External links * Eddie Eastmen – Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, v. 1, p. 665 * Eddie Eastman – Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador *

Eddie Vartan

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Edmond Vartan (born Edmond Vartanian; 10 August 1937 – 19 June 2001) was a French musician, bandleader, arranger, and record producer of Armenian descent. Life and career Vartan was born to Armenian parents in Sofia, Bulgaria, and moved to France with his parents and younger sister Sylvie in 1952. He worked as a trumpet player in Paris jazz clubs, including the Blue Note, and in 1961 gave up his law studies to work as a full-time musician and A&R man for Decca Records. He worked with jazz enthusiast Daniel Filipacchi on the radio programme Pour ceux qui aiment le jazz (“For those who love jazz”). They also wrote songs together, including “Le transistor”, a 1961 hit in France for Frankie Jordan, and then worked on the popular radio show Salut les copains. After Jordan recorded “Panne d’essence” (a version of Floyd Robinson’s “Out of Gas”) as a duet with Sylvie Vartan, her brother Eddie continued to work with both artists in the early 1960s. He also released records under his own name as a bandleader, and worked with many French singers, notably as the musical director and producer of Johnny Hallyday, who became Sylvie’s husband. Among the musicians regularly used by Vartan was Engli

Eddy Marnay

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Edmond Bacri (18 December 1920 – 3 January 2003), known professionally as Eddy Marnay, was a French songwriter. In his career, he wrote more than 4000 songs, including works for Édith Piaf, Frida Boccara and Céline Dion. He was joint winner, as lyricist, of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 for “Un Jour, Un Enfant”, sung by Frida Boccara. He also wrote the title song for Charlie Chaplin’s 1957 film A King in New York. Céline Dion named one of her twin sons after him in 2010, as Marnay produced and helped write Dion’s first five records. References Further reading * *

Edgar Hovhannisyan

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Edgar Hovhannisyan, Hovhannisian or Oganesian (,; January 14, 1930 – December 28, 1998) was an Armenian composer, Professor of Composition at the Yerevan State Conservatory, People’s Artist of the USSR (1986). He graduated from the Yerevan State Conservatory in 1953, then pursued post-graduate work at the Moscow Conservatory, where he worked under famed Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. He was the director of the State Opera and Ballet Theater in Yerevan from 1962–1968, and Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Union of Composers of the Armenian SSR from 1956–1973. He was the rector of the Yerevan State Conservatory from 1986 to 1991. Hovhannisyan is widely considered among the most influential Armenian composers of the 20th century. He is the author of ballets, including Joan of Arc, Sulamif (Shulamith) and Marmar. He experimented with various musical styles, including neo-classical, folk-based styles, and even jazz — such as in the Concert Variations for Saxophone and Jazz Orchestra — opera (Journey to Arzrum), various vocal-orchestral works (e.g. the oratorio Grigor Narekatsi, the hymn of Yerevan), and numerous film scores. Awards *State Prize of the USSR (1979) *State Prize of

Edgar Warren Williams

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Edgar Warren Williams (born June 12, 1949) is an American composer, conductor, and music theorist. Williams obtained a bachelor’s degree in composition from Duke University in 1971, then obtained a master’s degree at Columbia University in 1973, studying with Charles Wuorinen, Mario Davidovsky, and Harvey Sollberger. He then matriculated at Princeton, where he received a Master’s in Fine Arts in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1982 and studied with Milton Babbitt and James K. Randall. He was a faculty member and orchestral conductor at the College of William & Mary from 1979. Williams’s compositional work is noted for its orchestrational and timbral complexity, and its use of pitch collections as melodic and thematic elements. Compositions Orchestral * 1969 Of Orphalese * 1984 Landscapes with figure * 1998 Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror * 1999 Suite on “Nosferatu” For concert band * 1968 “To my Father” Prologue * 1978 Across a Bridge of Dreams * 1991 Into the dark * 1993 Now showing! * 2002 Music from behind the Moon * Prologue Musicals * 1970 Music for In the Dark of the Moon * 1982 Music for The Merry Wives of Windsor – text by William Shakespeare * 1985 Music for Richard II – text by Willi

Edino Krieger

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Edino Krieger (17 March 1928 – 6 December 2022) was a Brazilian avant-garde composer, conductor, record producer and musical critic. Life and career Born in Brusque, Santa Catarina, the son of the composer and band leader Aldo Krieger, he studied at the in Rio de Janeiro. During his career Krieger composed over 150 pieces, as well as songs (notably Vinicius de Moraes’ “Fuga e antifuga”), incidental music and film scores. Krieger died on 6 December 2022, at the age of 94. References Further reading * * External links *Edino Krieger at Gran Enciclopèdia de la Música *Edino Krieger at Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural * *

Edison Denisov

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Edison Vasilievich Denisov (, 6 April 1929 – 24 November 1996) was a Russian composer in the so-called “Underground”, “alternative” or “nonconformist” division of Soviet music. Biography Denisov was born in Tomsk, Siberia. He studied mathematics before deciding to spend his life composing. This decision was enthusiastically supported by Dmitri Shostakovich, who gave him lessons in composition. In 1951–56 Denisov studied at the Moscow Conservatory: composition with Vissarion Shebalin, orchestration with Nikolai Rakov, analysis with Viktor Tsukkerman and piano with Vladimir Belov. In 1956–59 he composed the opera Ivan-Soldat (Soldier Ivan) in three acts based on Russian folk fairy tales. He began his own study of scores that were difficult to obtain in the USSR at that time, including music by composers ranging from Mahler and Debussy to Boulez and Stockhausen. He wrote a series of articles giving a detailed analysis of different aspects of contemporary compositional techniques and at same time actively experimented as a composer, trying to find his own way. After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory, he taught orchestration and later composition there. His pupils included the com

Edith Borroff

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Edith Borroff (August 2, 1925 – March 10, 2019) was an American musicologist and composer. Her compositions include over 60 commissioned works, including pieces for the stage; for her primary instrument—the organ; choral, vocal, and orchestral music; and several critical editions of works by previous composers such as Jubilate by J.-J. Cassanéa de Mondonville (Pittsburgh, 1961). She also wrote at least 7 books, including the textbook Music in Europe and the United States: a History (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1971/R), as well as various peer-reviewed articles and publications. Life and career Borroff was born in New York City, the daughter of professional musicians Marie Bergerson and (Albert) Ramon Borroff, Her dissertation was titled The instrumental works of Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville. In a 2011 interview with the American Composers Alliance, Borroff shared that she had always considered herself a composer. She started composing at a very young age. According to her, she was not allowed to pursue a degree in composition and settled for a degree in historical musicology but continued to compose and had over 60 commissions as a composer. An extensive, yet selective, list of he

Édith Canat de Chizy

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Edith Canat de Chizy (born 26 March 1950) is a French composer, born in Lyon and now based in Paris. She was the first female composer to be elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Life and career Edith Canat de Chizy was born in Lyon, and studied art, archeology and philosophy at the Sorbonne University in parallel with music at the Paris Conservatoire with Maurice Ohana - an important influence - and Ivo Malec. She continued her studies at the Paris Conservatoire, where she obtained first prizes in harmony, fugue, counterpoint, analysis, orchestration and composition. She also studied electroacoustics and worked with Guy Reibel at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Her instrument is the violin, and she has written extensively for string instruments. After completing her studies, Canat de Chizy worked as a music educator, becoming the director of the Erik Satie conservatory in the 7th arrondissement of Paris until 2006 when she joined the staff of the Regional Conservatory of Paris (CRR de Paris) where she teaches composition. She was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of Paris in 2005. Many of her works are state commissions, written for ensembles including

Édith Lejet

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Édith Lejet (19 July 1941 – 15 July 2024) was a French composer and music educator. Biography Born in Paris, Lejet was the youngest of three children in a family with an engineer father. Lejet studied with Marcel Beaufils (aesthetics), Henri Challan (harmony), Marcel Bitsch (counterpoint and fugue), Jean Rivier and Andre Jolivet (composition) at the Paris Conservatory. She was in residence at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid from 1968 to 1970. Lejet taught harmony at the Sorbonne from 1970 to 1972, and subsequently became professor at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris. In 2004, Lejet was appointed professor of composition at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot. Lejet died on 15 July 2024, at the age of 82. Works Solo instrument * Cinq pièces brèves, for piano (1965), unpublished, 7’ * Trois eaux-fortes, for piano (1990–1992), Amphion, 10’ * Fleurs d’opale, for piano (1997), Lemoine, 6’ * Triptyque, for organ (1979), Lemoine, 18’ * Ave Maria, for organ (1988), J.M. Fuzeau, 3'21 * Métamorphoses, for harp (1981), Transatlantiques, 4’ * De lumière et de cieux embrasés, for harp (2010), Lemoine, 5’ * Deux soliloques, for horn (1991), Amphion, 6’ * Volu

Eduard Hayrapetyan

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Eduard Hayrapetyan (; born September 5, 1949) is an Armenian composer of contemporary classical music and educator. Biography He was born in Yerevan, Armenia, on September 5, 1949. He first studied composition at the Melikian Music College under Grigor Akhinian (1966–68) and then under Grigor Yeghiazarian at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory (1968–73). He joined the Armenian Composers Union in 1976. Hayrapetyan’s musical style is characterized by a blend of traditional Armenian motifs and modern compositional techniques. His works often incorporate elements of Armenian folk musice. Despite this traditional influence, Hayrapetyan’s compositions are noted for their innovative approach to harmony, rhythm, and orchestration. Throughout his career, Hayrapetyan has been a prolific composer, producing a wide range of works across various genres. In addition to his concertos, he has composed symphonies, chamber music, and vocal works. In addition to his work as a composer, Hayrapetyan is also an educator, having taught composition at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan for many years. He has mentored numerous young composers, passing on his knowledge and passion for music to the

Eduard Lazarev

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Eduard Leonidovich Lazarev (; 19 December 1935 – 10 January 2008) was a Moldovan composer of Russian descent. Lazarev arranged the State Anthem of the Moldavian SSR in 1980, with authorization of The First Secretary of the Moldavian Communist Party Ivan Bodiul. In April 1979, Lazarev received a premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow when he combined music with excerpts from speeches of Vladimir Lenin in the opera “Chemarea Revoluţiei” (The Call of the Revolution; also known as Leniniana), which lasted only nine performances. Between 1974 and 1983 he wrote Master and Margarita, a ballet in 8 acts. His second Piano Trio (1992) has been recorded by the Moscow Piano Trio. Eduard Lazarev died on 10 January 2008, at the age of 72. Works * 1973 Acuzaţii de omor (Allegations of murder) * 1973 Dimitrie Cantemir (Dimitrie Cantemir) * 1976 Nimeni în locul tău (Nobody in your place) * 1976 Pe urmele fire (On the trail of the beast) External links * * Filme Istorice References

Eduard Sadoyan

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Eduard Sadoyan (, 22 August 1932 — 21 February 2018) was an Armenian composer. Honored Art Worker of Armenia (2013). Biography Eduard Sadoyan was born on 22 August 1932 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR. Between 1968 and 1971, he attended the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory as an auditor, studying under Aram Khachaturian and Sergey Balasanian. He graduated in 1976 from the composition faculty at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, under the tutelage of Alexander Arutiunian. He became a member of the Armenian Composers’ Union in 1979. Compositions His works encompass a wide array of genres—operas, ballets, symphonies, concertos, string quartets, choral and vocal-instrumental music. Notable compositions include: * Symphony «Goyamart» («Struggle for Existence») * Symphonietta «Three Words about Armenia» * Mono-Opera «The Tree of Life» * Children’s Pieces for Piano (1961-1978) * Chamber Opera «Memoirs of Princess Maria Volkonskaya» (1978) * Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (1981) * Chamber Opera «Hey, Who’s Here?» (1982) * Chamber Music with Pantomime: «Bidsstrup’s Caricatures» (1984) * «Hayrens of Love» for Soprano and Piano (or Ensemble) * Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1

Eduardo Diazmuñoz

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Eduardo Diazmuñoz is a highly prolific Mexican-Spanish-American conductor, composer and arranger, performer and educator. He studied piano, cello, percussion, and conducting at the National Conservatory of Music (Mexico). In 1978, 1979 he became associate conductor of the newly founded the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra. Bernstein invited him to Tanglewood in 1979. He assisted in preparation for concertos of Leonard Bernstein and Eduardo Mata. In 1980-1982 assisted Léon Barzin in Paris. Diazmuñoz made his debut at Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City at 22. Diazmuñoz considers Barzin, Bernstein, and Francisco Savín were his principal mentors in conducting, in Paris, Tanglewood and Mexico City respectively. Diazmuñoz has conducted orchestras worldwide. He has received numerous awards and prizes. While still a student he was awarded the Youth Value 1975 Award given by the President of Mexico. He was awarded the Mexican Union of Theatre and Music Chronicles Award an unprecedented four times, (1978, 1987, 1997, and 2002). In 2003 he was also presented with the 2003 International Musician of the Year, awarded by the International Biographical Centre based in Cambridge, England. He

Eduardo Gilardoni

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Eduardo Gilardoni (9 November 1935 – 28 March 2022) was a Uruguayan composer, pianist, harpsichordist and vocal coach. Life and career Born in Conchillas, Uruguay, Gilardoni started his piano studies at the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Montevideo with Esther Giucci, composition with Carlos Giucci and Héctor Tosar and continued his piano studies with Santiago Baranda Reyes, Sara Bourdillion, Hugo Balzo and Armano Bascans. In 1964 he moved to Barcelona on a scholarship from the Institute of Hispanic Culture and studied with the singer Conchita Badia, the pianist Alicia de Larrocha and composers Joaquin Nin and Federico Mompou. When he returned to Uruguay in 1966 he became a harpsichord professor at the Anglo Institute, a position he held for eighteen years. Since then he became a much sought after collaborative pianist with the top singers of Uruguay. From 1995 to 2005 he was a visiting artist at the College of Charleston. In 2006 he represented Uruguay in the Song Festival at the University of Central Arkansas. He has performed and presented his works in concerts and festivals in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Spain, the United States and Bolivia. Three compact discs with his works have be

Edvard Fliflet Bræin

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Edvard Fliflet Bræin (23 August 1924 – 30 April 1976) was a Norwegian composer and conductor. He is best remembered for the composition Ut mot havet and the opera Anne Pedersdotter. Personal life Bræin was born in Kristiansund as the son of composer, conductor and organist Edvard Bræin (1887–1957) and his wife Magnhild Fliflet. He married Karen Torjusen in 1946. His debut as conductor was in Bergen in 1947, with Musikselskabet Harmoniens orkester. His first symphony was finished in 1950, his second in 1954, and his third in 1968. His best-known composition is Ut mot havet from 1964, originally a song melody (with lyrics by Henrik Straumsheim), and later versions include an arrangement for orchestra, a piano version, and several choir versions. He has further composed melodies for songs with lyrics by Einar Skjæraasen, Jakob Sande, Hartvig Kiran and Johan Herman Wessel. He composed two operas. The opera Anne Pedersdotter was first performed at Den Norske Opera in 1971. It has a libretto by Hans Kristiansen based on a play by Hans Wiers-Jenssen, which was inspired by the witch trial in 1590 against Anne Pedersdotter, the widow of priest Absalon Pederssøn Beyer. The comic opera Den St

Edvard Hagerup Bull (composer)

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Edvard Hagerup Bull (10 June 1922 – 15 March 2012 ) was a Norwegian composer. He was born in Bergen. He grew up in Jar outside Oslo in a musical and politically active family, the son of Sverre Hagerup Bull and his wife Aldis Jebsen. His paternal grandfather was politician and judge Edvard Hagerup Bull, who was a cousin of the composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg. During September 1955 he married Anna Kvarme. Bull studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and at the Conservatoire de Paris where he won the 1952 . He was awarded the prize for musical composition from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. He had additional training with the Austrian-born musicologist, Josef Rufer. Other teachers include Jean Rivier and Olivier Messiaen. His teacher Darius Milhaud described him as “a musician with a solid technique and a truly very enthralling, vigorous and highly imaginative personality”. Edvard Hagerup Bull became a notable composer. He wrote two operas and thirty orchestral works and chamber music. Selected works *Den standhaftige tindsoldat, 1948–49 *Sinfonia di Teatro 1950 *Concerto N°1 pour trompette et orchestre, 1950 *Escapades, orkestersuite, 1952 *Marione

Edward Cowie

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Edward Cowie (born 17 August 1943) is an Australian composer, author, natural scientist, and painter. Life Edward Cowie was born in England in 1943, and spent most of his early life in the rural countryside of Suffolk and then the Cotswolds. This first-hand experience of nature was to have a profound influence on his life and work. In 1964, he began composition studies with Alexander Goehr and in 1971 he won a Chopin Fellowship to study with Witold Lutosławski in Poland. He also came under the influence of Michael Tippett, who remained a close friend and mentor. Early recognition came with the 1975 BBC Proms commission Leviathan for large orchestra, and this was followed by a string of festival commissions and recordings. Major works from this period include Gesangbuch (1975-6), the Piano Concerto (1976-7) and Concerto for Orchestra (1982), as well as the opera Commedia (1976-7). In 1983, Cowie was awarded the first Granada Composer Fellowship with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He remained with the orchestra for three years and worked with them as both composer and conductor. He subsequently worked as a conductor with several major orchestras and ensembles in Britain

Edward Gold

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Edward Gold (July 25, 1936 – March 2, 2022) was an American pianist and composer. Early life and education Gold was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and lived most of his adult life in Manhattan. Gold attended public schools and majored in music at CCNY (today part of the City University of New York). He received his masters from Yale University School of Music where he studied with Ellsworth Grumman, Mel Powell and H. Leroy Baumgartner. Edward also studied with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music. Career After completing his studies, Gold worked as a pianist and toured internationally. The recording of Gottschalk Piano Music (1973) on which he performed was named a “Recording of Special Merit” by Stereo Review. His recordings were also noted by The American Record Guide and The Musical Quarterly. Early on, Edward’s music was in the style of atonality (mostly Schoenberg), but with a traditional structural style using atonal and twelve-tone techniques crossed with some Stravinsky. But he largely turned away from these styles after leaving Yale. Over the course of his career, Gold’s work was both eclectic and independent. He composed most often for orchestra, piano,

Edward Harper (composer)

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Edward (James) Harper (17 March 1941 – 12 April 2009) was an English composer who worked mostly in Scotland. Among his important compositions for orchestra were Bartok Games 1972, Symphony, Symphony No 2 2006, and Concerto for Clarinet 1982. His chamber music includes his two string quartets and his brass quintet. The first of his five operas was Fanny Robin, based on the Thomas Hardy character from Far From the Madding Crowd and written for the soprano Jane Manning. His largest opera was Hedda Gabler, commissioned by Scottish Opera in 1985, based on the 1891 play of the same name by Henryk Ibsen. Harper spent many years as Lecturer and later Reader in music at the Edinburgh University Music Faculty. References

Edward Higginbottom

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Edward Higginbottom (born 16 November 1946, Kendal) is a music scholar, organist, choirmaster and conductor. Most of his career has been as organist at New College, Oxford, where he led their choir for more than 35 years and produced a large number of choral recordings. Musical biography Before moving on to St Mary’s Church in Warwick, Edward was a chorister at his local parish church where he started playing the organ. and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. He toured regularly in France at that time as director of the Cambridge University Purcell Society. He was appointed as the Organist and Director of Music at New College, Oxford in 1976. While the main role of the choir is to provide liturgical music for worship, Edward went further, organizing economically viable choir tours and a broad set of musical recordings. By doing so, he “has helped the cause of such institutions through a period when financial constraints and changes in social attitudes have threatened choral foundations”. Retiring from New College in 2014, he continues his musical career as a freelancer. In spite of his retirement, however, he was named in March 2019 as the Director of Chapel Music at

Edward Lambert

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Edward Lambert (born 1951) is an English composer who has written chamber music, vocal and choral works, and chamber operas. He is also a conductor and pianist. Study Edward Lambert was educated at Christ’s Hospital and read music at Merton College, Oxford (1970–1973) where he was the college’s Choirmaster and conductor of the Kodály Choir. Lambert then trained as an opera repetiteur at the London Opera Centre (1973–74) while studying piano with Paul Hamburger. He went on to study composition under John Lambert (no relation) at the Royal College of Music (1976–1977). In 1976 he attended Darmstadt composers’ course when György Ligeti was lecturing there: Epitaph was selected for performance. The Park Lane Players gave performances of the Fantasy Trio (1977) and the Canzonetta (Sonatina) for Clarinet & Piano. As a result of attending the Gulbenkian course for composers and choreographers in 1977, led by Robert Cohan, he wrote Ephialtes (1978) for Scottish Ballet, Invention (1978) and Maxims, Hymn, Riddle (1982) for Jonathan Burrows and the Spiral Dance Company. While serving his apprenticeship in Germany, he also worked at the Wexford Festival Ireland (1974–1976); in 1977 he joined t

Edward Laufer

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Edward Constantin Laufer (25 November 1938 – 7 May 2014 ) was a Canadian music theorist, composer and teacher. Laufer was born in Zürich. His family emigrated to Canada in 1939, settling in Halifax. (He became a naturalized citizen in 1953.) Laufer obtained his bachelor of music degree from the University of Toronto in 1957 and his Masters of Music degree from the same institution in 1960. He studied composition with John Weinzweig, John Beckwith, Oskar Morawetz, and Tālivaldis Ķeniņš. Some time after 1960 he temporarily settled in the New York area, attending the Juilliard School where he studied piano with Eduard Steuermann and composition with Vincent Persichetti. At Princeton University, he studied composition with Milton Babbitt, Earl Kim, and Roger Sessions. While in the New York area, he studied Schenkerian analysis privately with Ernst Oster. Laufer obtained a Masters of Fine Arts from Princeton University in 1964. Before returning to Canada, he taught at Smith College from 1969 to 1971, the State University of New York at Purchase from 1972 to 1974, and the Mannes College of Music from 1973 to 1974. Moving back to Toronto, he was composer-in-residence from 1974 to 1975 at

Edward McGuire (composer)

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Edward (“Eddie”) McGuire (born 1948) is a Scottish composer whose work ranges from compositions for solo instruments and voice to large-scale orchestral and operatic works. McGuire studied composition with James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1966 to 1970 and then with Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm in 1971. Early life McGuire was born and brought up in Possilpark in Glasgow. His father played folk violin and was a member of a male voice choir which sang arrangements of Scottish Gaelic and Irish songs at charity concerts. Career As a student at the Royal Academy of Music McGuire won the Hecht Prize (1968) and the National Young Composers Competition (held in Liverpool University in 1969). A competition organised by the Society for the Promotion of New Music to find a modern test piece for the 1978 Carl Flesch International Violin Competition was won by McGuire with a solo violin piece, Rant. This piece was recently performed for a 65th birthday concert for McGuire organised by the BBC Scottish Symphony Club which was followed by another concert at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Another early success was when String Quartet was selected for the 40th anniversary Barb

Edward Salim Michael

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Edward Salim Michael (1921 – November 2006) was a composer of symphonic music and an author of books on spirituality and meditation. It was to Buddhism that he felt closest, but as his teaching was based on his direct experience, he did not hesitate to quote Christian, Hindu, or Sufi mystics. Biography Edward Salim Michael was born in Manchester, England, but spent his childhood in Iraq, which was then under British rule. He experienced poverty and insecurity. He was approximately twelve years old when his parents left Baghdad for Syria, which was under French rule, then for Egypt and for Palestine, which was not yet Israel and still at that time under British rule. His family returned to London just before World War II. As a British subject, he was enrolled into the Royal Air Force as an airman on the ground, which is how he spent the entire war. Michael was just nineteen years old when he enlisted. He had never been to school, could not read or write and barely spoke English. The Anglican chaplain from his camp took an interest in him and taught him to read and write. The chaplain’s wife, a violist in a string quartet, was surprised at Michael’s ability to memorise music. She dec

Edward Vesala

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Edward Vesala (15 February 1945 – 4 December 1999), Career Born in Mäntyharju, he began playing jazz and rock in the 1960s, in such bands as Blues Section and Apollo. In the 1970s, he led his own jazz groups, a quartet with Polish trumpet player Tomasz Stańko and sax player Tomasz Szukalski, played with Toto Blanke’s Electric Circus, and recorded with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. In the 1980s and 1990s, Vesala recorded several albums of his own compositions that combined jazz, classical music, tango, and folk music with his own group Sound & Fury, an ensemble of about ten players made up mostly of Vesala’s students. Prominent players in Sound and Fury included saxophonists Jorma Tapio and Pepa Päivinen, guitarists Raoul Björkenheim and Jimi Sumén, and harpist and keyboardist Iro Haarla, who was Vesala’s wife. Vesala died from congestive heart failure in Yläne, Finland at the age of 54. Discography As leader or co-leader * Nan Madol (ECM, 1974) * Satu (ECM, 1977) * Open (FMP, 1979) with Gerd Dudek and Buschi Niebergall * Heavy Life (Leo, 1980) * Lumi (ECM, 1986) * Ode to the Death of Jazz (ECM, 1989) * Invisible Storm (ECM, 1991) * Nordic Gallery (ECM, 1994) As sideman With J

Edwin Carr (composer)

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Edwin James Nairn Carr (10 August 1926 – 27 March 2003) was a composer of classical music from New Zealand. Biography Edwin Carr was born in Auckland and was educated at Otago Boys’ High School from 1940 to 1943. He studied music at Otago University from 1944–5 and Auckland University College from 1946, then left with his degree unfinished. In 1946 he attended the first Cambridge Summer Music School with Douglas Lilburn as his composition tutor. In 1948 he travelled to England on a New Zealand Government Bursary, to study composition at the Guildhall with Benjamin Frankel. During this time he did much freelance work, travelled widely and met Geoffrey Grey. In 1954 a British Council scholarship enabled him to study under Petrassi in Rome. He also worked in Italy as the musical director of an independent ballet company. In 1957 a further British Council scholarship enabled him to study with Carl Orff in Munich. In 1958 he returned to New Zealand, staying there until 1960 teaching and composing. During the 1960s he spent time in both Australia and England, composing, teaching and studying as well as several trips to New Zealand. In 1973–74 he was awarded the Mozart Fellowship at the U

Edwin Penhorwood

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Edwin Penhorwood (born 1939) is an American composer who is an assistant professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Biography Penhorwood is a native of Toledo, Ohio, and studied music at the University of Iowa. He has taught at the International School of Zurich, Switzerland, at the Church Music Conservatory in Berlin, the University of Missouri, and Indiana University, and has accompanied singers and instrumentalists in North America and in Europe for many years. Penhorwood joined the faculty of Indiana University in 1993. He is the musical director of the Graduate Opera Workshop and has taught Accompanying. Penhorwood is the composer of many choral and vocal compositions. Penhorwood’s songs have been broadcast by NPR, the Paris and Berlin radio networks and have been featured at Glimmerglass Opera, The Chautauqua Opera, the National NATS Convention, and Marilyn Horne’s 70th Birthday Celebration. In 1999, the Indianapolis Symphonic Chorus, through the Lilly Foundation, presented Penhorwood with a commission for a choral work, The Christmas Story. Penhorwood’s compositions have been published by Carl Fischer, Abingdon, Hinshaw Music, and T.I.S. Publications. In

Edwin Roxburgh

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NOTOC Edwin Roxburgh (born 6 November 1937) is an English composer, conductor and oboist. Roxburgh was born in Liverpool. After playing oboe in the National Youth Orchestra, he won a double scholarship to study composition with Herbert Howells and oboe with Terence MacDonagh at the Royal College of Music. He also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence. Boulanger once described him as “the new Stravinsky”. After his studies he became principal oboist of the Sadler’s Wells Opera, and as a virtuoso soloist he gave the UK premieres of Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VII and Heinz Holliger’s Cardiophonie. Together with Léon Goossens he wrote the Menuhin Music Guide for the oboe in 1977. He also played with the Menuhin Festival Orchestra. Roxburgh taught composition and conducting at the Royal College of Music, where he founded the RCM’s Twentieth Century Ensemble. In 2004 he became the acting Head of Composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire and from 2005 has acted as visiting tutor in composition and conducting, as well as workshop leader. Among his students are Luke Bedford, Dai Fujikura, Daniel Giorgetti, Helen Grime, Kenneth Hesketh, Rolf

Egberto Gismonti

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Egberto Amin Gismonti (born 5 December 1947) is a Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist. He studied with Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), after acceptance as a student by the composer Jean Barraqué, Gismonti is a self-taught guitarist. After returning to Brazil, he designed guitars with more than six strings, expanding the possibilities of the instrument. Approaching the fretboard as if it were a keyboard, Gismonti gives the impression that there is more than a single guitar player. Gismonti’s sojourn in the Xingu region of the Amazon basin made a lasting impression. This is documented musically in tunes such as “Yualapeti” and “Sapain” (Yualapeti shaman, Sapain) and in the recordings Dança das Cabeças (“Dance of the Heads”, 1977), Sol do Meio-Dia (“Noon Sun”, 1978), which he dedicated to the Xingu, and Duas Vozes (“Two Voices”, 1984). The musical career of Gismonti spans five decades. The major phases are distinguished by record company, the ensemble format, and the musical collaborators. The most important ensembles are his Brazilian group Academia de Danças, including Mauro Senise (saxophone and flutes), Zeca Assumpção (bass) and Nenê (Realcino Lima Filho, drums and percussion),

Egil Hovland

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Egil Hovland (October 18, 1924 – February 5, 2013) was a Norwegian composer. Hovland was born in Råde. He studied at the Oslo conservatory with Arild Sandvold and Bjarne Brustad, in Copenhagen with Vagn Holmboe, at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland, and in Florence with Luigi Dallapiccola. He was the organist and choir leader in Fredrikstad from 1949 until his death. His many works include two symphonies, a concerto for trumpet and strings, Music for Ten Instruments, a set of variations for two pianos, and a lament for orchestra. His sacred works include a Norwegian Te Deum, a Gloria, a Magnificat, and numerous works for organ, and he was one of Norway’s most noted church composers. He wrote in diverse styles, including Norwegian-Romantic, Gregorian, neo-classical, twelve-tone, aleatoric, and serial. In honor of his work as a composer and organist, 1983 he was knighted into the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. In 1992, he received the Fritt Ord Honorary Award. He was one of the most productive contemporary Norwegian composers. Compositions Works for orchestra * 1951 Festival Ouverture opus 18 * 1952–1953 Symphony No. 1—Symphonia Veris opus 20 * 1954–1955 Symphony No. 2, opus 24 * 195

Egisto Macchi

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Egisto Macchi (4 August 1928 – 8 August 1992) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Grosseto, Macchi moved to Rome to study composition, piano, violin and singing with Roman Vlad (1946–51) and Hermann Scherchen (1949–54), among others. It was around this period that he also studied literature and human physiology at La Sapienza University. From the late fifties, he began his collaboration with a group of musicians (Franco Evangelisti, Domenico Guaccero and Daniele Paris), to whom he was bound by intense friendship. Together with Domenico Guaccero, Daniele Paris and Antonino Titone, he was one of the editors of the magazine Orders, which first appeared in 1959. With Bertoncini, Bortolotti, Clementi, De Blasio, Evangelisti, Guaccero, Paris, Pennisi, and Franco Norris, he founded the Association of New Consonance in 1960. He made a frequent hand at directing the association, and he held the office of President from 1980 to 1982, and also in 1989. From the day of its conception, he followed the activity of the International Week of New Music in Palermo. After creating the Musical Theatre of Rome with Guaccero, he founded Studio R7, an experimental, electronic music laboratory born

Eibhlis Farrell

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Eibhlis Farrell (born 27 July 1953) is a Northern Irish composer. Life Eibhlis Farrell was born in Rostrevor in County Down, Northern Ireland. She began writing music at an early age and studied at Queen’s University, Belfast, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music, and with Raymond Warren at Bristol University, graduating with a Masters in composition. She also studied with Charles Wuorinen and Robert Moevs, and graduated from Rutgers University, New Jersey, with a doctorate. After completing her studies, Farrell worked as a composer and became Head of Music Creative Media at the Dundalk Institute of Technology. Her works have been performed and broadcast internationally. She received the Arts Council of Northern Ireland artist’s residency in the Banff Centre, Canada, in 2007. She is a member of Aosdána, and has served as a member of the Toscaireacht. Selected works ;Orchestral *A Day at the Races (1976) *Popcorn Overture (1977) *Threnody (1979) *Kilbroney Set for traditional Irish instruments and orchestra (1995) ;Band *Fanfare for President Robinson for brass band and timpani (1991) *Soundshock (1992) *Fanfare for brass band and timpani (1993) ;Concertante *Romanza for flu

Eino Tamberg

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Eino Tamberg (27 May 1930 – 24 December 2010) was an Estonian composer whose works are performed internationally. He composed operas such as Cyrano de Bergerac, four symphonies, and several concertos. He taught composition for decades at the Estonian Academy of Music. Life Tamberg was born in Tallinn. He studied composition with Eugen Kapp at the Tallinn Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1953.

Einojuhani Rautavaara

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Einojuhani Rautavaara (; 9 October 1928 – 27 July 2016) was a Finnish composer of classical music. Among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Rautavaara attended the University of Helsinki to study piano and musicology, and eventually studied composition at the Sibelius Academy under Aarre Merikanto from 1948 to 1952. He first came to international attention when he won the Thor Johnson Contest for his composition A Requiem in Our Time in 1954, despite having, according to Rautavaara, “…absolutely no experience of writing for brass band and a composition technique that was immature at the time…” The work caught the attention of then-famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, prompting him to recommend Rautavaara for a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School in New York City. There he was taught by Vincent Persichetti, and he also took lessons from Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. Reflecting on his time enrolled in Juilliard, Rautavaara later said that living in Manhattan was, “Maybe the most important experience, and taught much more about life to me than all those teachers about music.” He then returned to Helsinki and graduated f

Eitan Avitsur

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Eitan Avitsur (; 5 September 1941 Jerusalem – 24 February 2018 ) was an Israeli composer and conductor. Avitsur’s formal education commenced with study for a teaching certificate in music theory (1967) and a degree in music composition and conducting (1972) at the Rubin Academy of Music. His studies were concluded in 1976 at the Rubin Academy, directed by Igor Markevitch and Salzburg’s Mozarteum where he specialized in conducting. Commencing a professional involvement with Bar-Ilan University in 1972, he was appointed in 1987 as conductor of the Jerusalem Youth Orchestra. In 2003, he created the foundations of the electro-acoustic music program which was developed under his tutelage, also establishing there a computer-music laboratory. In 2016 Avitsur won the Jerusalem Award for his life work in music educating thousands of students. In 1972 Avitsur was a founding member of the Music Department at Bar-Ilan University. He has created or composed more than three hundred works, including oratorios, cantatas, symphonies, chamber music and background music for more than two hundred movies and television programs. References External links * Bar-Ilan University webpage list of conducting

Ekaterina Kozhevnikova

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Ekaterina Kozhevnikova (Russian: Екатерина Кожевникова) is a Russian classical music composer. She was born in Moscow on August 2, 1954. At the Moscow Conservatory, she studied composition with Dmitry Kabalevsky and Tikhon Khrennikov and piano with L. N. Naumov, graduating in 1977. In that year she was awarded the 1st Prize for Symphony at the All-Union Competition for Young Composers. In 1979, Kozhevnikova became a member of the Union of Composers of the USSR. Since 2001, she has been a member of the selection and organizing committees of the Moscow Autumn contemporary music festival, where many of her orchestral and chamber works received their premieres. From 2002 to the present, Kozhevnikova has been a member of the Board of the Union of Moscow Composers. Her works in various genres are often unconventional in structure and instrumentation. She has cited Olivier Messiaen and Krzystof Penderecki as influences. Symphonies and works for large symphony orchestra :::*Symphony No. 1 (1977) :::*Symphony No. 2, “Sinfonia da Requiem.” Dedicated to the memory of my mother. (1979) :::*Symphony No. 3 (2003. Second edition 2018) :::*Chant(1988) :::*Plea(1991) :::*Vision Dedicated to Constan

Elaine Barkin

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Elaine “Ray” Barkin (née Radoff, December 15, 1932 – February 22, 2023) was an American composer, writer, and educator. Early life Elaine Radoff was born in The Bronx, New York City, lived in the Amalgamated Houses, attended Bronx High School of Science, Third Street Music School Settlement, and Queens College (BA in 1954), where she studied composition and theory with Karol Rathaus, Sol Berkowitz, Leo Kraft, and Saul Novack. At Brandeis University (MFA in 1956, PhD in 1971), her mentors in composition and theory were Irving Fine, Harold Shapero, Arthur Berger, and Seymour Shifrin. In the summer of 1955 she worked with Boris Blacher at Tanglewood and then in 1956 and 1957 at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik on a Fulbright fellowship. In 1963, Barkin was asked by Benjamin Boretz, founding editor of the composers’ journal Perspectives of New Music, to join as editor, a post she held until 1985. Barkin published books and professional articles in journals including Perspectives of New Music. Personal life and death In 1957 she married writer, editor, and computer programmer George J. Barkin (1928–2020). They had three sons: Victor, Jesse, and Gabriel. Works Principal compositions *Four

Elaine Bearer

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Elaine L. Bearer is an American brain scientist, neuropathologist, and composer of classical music. Education Bearer received her Bachelor’s of Music from The Manhattan School of Music in Theory, in June 1970. She received the Masters of Art from New York University, where her thesis was entitled Structural Innovation in the String Quartets of Haydn. Prior to studies at The Manhattan School, Bearer was a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, first at the Ecole Americaine des Beaux Arts of the Fontainebleau Schools and continuing in Boulanger’s home on Rue Ballu in Paris. After several years as a tenure-track professor in music at a small liberal arts college in San Francisco, Lone Mountain College, she studied Human Biology at Stanford, was Donald Kennedy’s teaching assistant, worked as a graduate research assistant in Neurobiology with John G. Nicholls and proceeded to be admitted to the combined MD-PhD Medical Scientist Training Program funded by NIH at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) ,where she graduated with the combined degree in a record 6 years. Career After a one-year post-doctoral fellowship with Lelio Orci in Geneva, at the Centre medical universitaire (CMU), Bearer ret

Elaine Hugh-Jones

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elaine Hugh-Jones (14 June 1927 – 29 March 2021) was a Welsh pianist, music educator and composer. She was born in London and studied piano with Harold Craxton, Julian Isserlis and with Lennox Berkeley. After completing her studies, she took a position as an accompanist with the BBC, where she worked for 37 years. She also taught music at Malvern Girls’ College. Works Selected works include: *A back view (in Eight Cornford Songs) (Text: Frances Cornford) *Bicker’s Cottage (in Eight Cornford Songs) (Text: Frances Cornford) *Echo (in Six de la Mare Songs) (Text: Walter de la Mare) *Ghosts (in Six de la Mare Songs) (Text: Walter de la Mare) *Night song (in Eight Cornford Songs) (Text: Frances Cornford) *Silver (in Six de la Mare Songs) (Text: Walter de la Mare) *The hare (in Six de la Mare Songs) (Text: Walter de la Mare) *The madman and the child (in Eight Cornford Songs) (Text: Frances Cornford) *The old woman at the flower show (in Eight Cornford Songs) (Text: Frances Cornford) *The ride‑by‑nights (in Six de la Mare Songs) (Text: Walter de la Mare) *The road to Coursegoules (in Eight Cornford Songs) (Text: Frances Cornford) *The watch (in Eight Cornford Songs) (Text: Frances Cornfo

Eleanor Alberga

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Eleanor Deanne Therese Alberga (born 30 September 1949) is a Jamaican contemporary music composer who lives and works in the United Kingdom. Her most recent compositions include two Violin Concertos, a Trumpet Concerto and a Symphony. Career Eleanor Alberga was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She decided at the age of five to be a concert pianist and began composing short pieces. While still at school, she played the guitar with the Jamaican Folk Singers. She studied music at Jamaica School of Music and in 1970 she won the biennial West Indian Associated Board Scholarship, which allowed her to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, where one of her teachers was Richard Stoker. Alberga works as a guest lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She has been pianist and music director for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and played with Nanquindo (four players on two pianos). She married the violinist Thomas Bowes in 1992. They live in Herefordshire and perform together as a duo called Double Exposure. Bowes was the premiere soloist for both of her Violin Concertos (2001 and 2019). Alberga was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2

Eleanor Hovda

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Eleanor Hovda (March 27, 1940 – November 12, 2009) was a composer and dancer from the United States of America. She was born in Duluth, Minnesota and died in Springdale, Arkansas. She received her Bachelor of Arts in music at American University in Washington, D.C., and her MFA in dance at Sarah Lawrence College. Her music has been performed extensively in the U.S. and abroad by ensembles including the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, KlangForum (Vienna), the Cassatt and Kronos Quartets, Zeitgeist, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Boston Musica Viva, The California Ear Unit, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet and the St. Louis Symphony. Performance venues have included Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood), Alice Tully, Carnegie Hall Weill, Miller, Walter Reade and Merkin Concert Halls; The Kitchen, Bang on a Can Festival and The Alternative Museum (NYC) the Purcell Room (London), The American Academy (Rome), the American Center (Paris), the WDR (Cologne), Cervantino Festival (Mexico), New Music Forum (Mexico City), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, Tokyo and Asahikawa (Japan); colleges and universities including Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Co

Elena Firsova

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Elena Olegovna Firsova (; also Yelena or Jelena Firssowa; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian composer living in the UK. Life Firsova was born in Leningrad into the family of physicists Oleg Firsov and Viktoria Lichko. * For Alissa Op. 102 (2002) in: RUSSIAN ÉMIGRÉS: Rachmaninov, Smirnov, E. Firsova, A. Firsova: Alissa Firsova, piano: Vivat 109 DDD ** Homage to Canisy, Op.129 for Cello & Piano ** Lost Vision, Op. 137 for Piano Solo ** A Triple Portrait, Op.132, commissioned by Marsyas Trio (2011) ** Night Songs, Op.125 for Mezzo-Soprano, Flute & Cello ** Spring Sonata, Op.27 for Flute & Piano ** For Slava, Op.120 for Solo Cello ** Meditation in the Japanese Garden, Op.54 for Flute, Cello & Piano ** Three Poems of Osip Mandelstam, Op.23 for Soprano & Piano ** Tender is the Sorrow, Op.130 for Flute, String Trio and Piano in: A Triple Portrait. Chamber Music by Elena Firsova – Marsyas Trio, Meridian: CDE84635 Bibliography * Elena Firsova: On Music; in Sowjetische Musik im Licht der Perestroika, pp. 337–8, Laaber-Verlag, Germany, (German translation by Hannelore Gerlach and Jürgen Köchel) 1990 References Sources *Yuri Kholopov: Russians in England: Dmitri Smirnov, Elena Firsova. Article,

Elena Petrová

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Elena Petrová, née Krupková (9 November 1929 – 10 April 2002) was a Czech composer. She was born in Modrý Kameň, and studied piano with Karel Hoffmeister and composition with Jan Kapr and Miloslav Istvan at the Janáček Academy of Music. After completing her studies, she taught music theory at the Charles University in Prague. Works Petrová composed for orchestra, chamber ensemble, stage and opera performance, choral and vocal works, and incidental music for ballets, television and radio. Selected works include: ;Stage * Slavík a růže (The Nightingale and the Rose), Ballet after Oscar Wilde (1969) * Podivuhodná raketa (The Remarkable Rocket), Ballet after Oscar Wilde (1970) * Slunečnice (Sunflower), Ballet after Ovid (1973) * Kdyby se slunce nevrátilo (Should the Sun Not Return), a six-act opera after Si le soleil ne revenait pas… by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1982–1983) ;Orchestral * Symphony No. 1 (1968) * Slavnostní předehra (Festive Ouverture) (1975) * Symphony No. 2 (1976) * Smutecní hudba (Mourning Music; Trauermusik) (1981) * Passacaglia (1982) * Slavnostní hudba (Festive Music) (1982) * Symphony No. 3 (1990) * Longing Odysseus ;Chamber music * Eklogy (Eclogues) for bass clar

Eleni Karaindrou

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Eleni Karaindrou (; born 25 November 1939) is a Greek composer. She is best known for scoring the films of the Greek director Theo Angelopoulos. Biography Karaindrou moved with her family to Athens when she was eight years old, and she studied piano and theory at the Hellenikon Odeion (Hellenic Conservatory). She also attended history and archaeology classes at the university. During the time of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 she lived in Paris, where she studied ethnomusicology and orchestration, and improvised with jazz musicians. Then she began to compose popular songs. In 1974 she returned to Athens where she established a laboratory for traditional instruments and broadcast a series on ethnomusicology on Radio 3 of the Greek national broadcasting company. In 1976 she started collaborating with ECM Records. This was a period of high productivity for her, during which she worked extensively on music for the theater and the cinema. Karaindrou has stated that her style emerged in working on soundtracks and that the relationship between images and movements created a new space for her to express emotions. Her first soundtrack album was released in 1979 for the movie Periplan

Elia Cmíral

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Elia David Cmíral (; born October 1, 1950) is a Czech composer for film, television, ballet, and video games. He has worked on numerous projects across multiple genres, though he is arguably best known for his work in the thriller and horror cinema, and has collaborated with filmmakers like Wes Craven, John Frankenheimer, John Travolta, and Ernest Dickerson. Early life and career Cmíral was born in Czechoslovakia, to an actress and a stage director, and was the grandson of one of Antonín Dvořák’s pupils. Cmiral attended the Prague Conservatory, where he studied composition and double bass. His first scoring opportunity came with his father’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac. He also composed music for the award-winning adventure game The Last Express and the third-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line. As well as working in Hollywood, he has also composed numerous scores for films made in Sweden and the Czech Republic. Personal life Cmíral currently resides in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. Filmography Feature films *2019 - Safe Inside *2016 - Doubles *2015 - Any Day *2014 - Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? *2014 - Cam2Cam *2012 - Piranha 3DD *2012 - Rites of Passage *2011 - Atla

Elias Davidsson

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Elias Davidsson (Icelandic spelling Elías Davíðsson; born Elias Kahn, 23 January 1941 - 7 April 2022) was an Icelandic composer, 9/11 truther and conspiracy theorist author. Biography Elias Davidsson was born in Palestine to German Jewish parents who had emigrated from Germany in 1931 and 1935 respectively (he later replaced his original surname with the patronym Davidsson, in accordance with Icelandic naming conventions). Davidsson grew up in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Temporarily, he lived in France until he finally moved to Iceland in 1962 and became an Icelandic citizen. He studied piano and composition in Cologne, Freiburg and Basel. He worked as a programmer for 22 years. Davidsson lived in Germany since 2008. In 2022 he lived in Kirchen (Sieg). He died on 7 April 2022 in Germany. Music While living in Iceland, Davidsson began composing avant-garde computer-assisted music. In 1976, his Piano Trio (with percussion) was performed at the Nordic Music Days in Reykjavík. This was followed by Landslög, a Fantasy based on Icelandic folk tunes. With Cheetahs, Impotent he presented a work for musical theatre. Subsequently, Elias Davidsson devoted himself increasingly to studying pieces f

Elinor Armer

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Elinor Armer (born October 6, 1939) is an American pianist, music educator and composer. Biography Elinor Armer was born in Oakland, California but at the age of 2 months moved to Davis, California with her family where she would spend most of her childhood. Armer’s father worked as an engineer and worked for the Agricultural Engineering Department for the University in Davis, which prompted the family’s move. Her father was an acoustical engineer and used to set up speakers in the family’s living room, exposing Elinor to acoustics at a young age. Elinor first began sight-reading music and enjoying four-part harmony because of many hymnals found in the Armer home, due to her father’s Methodist Evangelist background. Armer comes from a family of California artists, her grandfather was a commercial artist and her grandmother was an author. Her mother was a writer as well and who sang and played the piano. Elinor shared her love of piano with her mother; they frequently sang and played together throughout her childhood. Armer was eight years old when she began playing the piano Though her mother played the piano also, Elinor was taught to play by a neighbor, Fritz Berens, who happened

Elisabet Wentz-Janacek

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Elisabet Wentz-Janacek (20 August 1923 – 2014) was a Swedish author, composer, musicologist, organist, and teacher, who is best known for mapping 20,000 melody variants for Swedish hymns and helping to create the Swedish Choral Registrar. She was born in Stockholm and received a certificate, and later an honorary doctorate, from Lund University. Wentz-Janacek wrote a biography of musician John Enninger, articles for music journals, and contributed to a book on Swedish clergyman and Nobel Prize winner Nathan Soderblom, who was a personal acquaintance of her father. Her published writing includes: *Folk Variants and New Songs: a Small Study from Southern Sweden 1820–1900 in Yearbook for Liturgy and Hymnology - Volume 36 - p. 273 * John Enninger: Spelman, Kongl., Kammarmusikus, Klockare (available only in Swedish) *Northern European Countries in Workbook for the Evangelical Hymnbook, vol. 4, Songs from Other Countries and Languages, ed. Wolfgang Fischer pp. 27–39. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000 *Swedish Choral Registrar (a collection of 20,000 different melody variants for Swedish hymns) *Swedish Choral Registrar: Facts and Reflections in Hymnology: Nordisk Tidskrift XXXV pp.

Elisabetta Brusa

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Elisabetta Olga Laura Brusa (born 3 April 1954) is an Italian/British composer. Biography Early life and education Elisabetta Brusa was born in Milan in 1954. She began composing pieces for piano at age five, and during her childhood wrote 32 works, including a string quartet. She graduated from the Milan Conservatory in 1980, where she studied with Bruno Bettinelli and Azio Corghi. She took summer courses in Dartington, England with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies from 1978-1985 and studied privately with Hans Keller in London. Brusa married conductor Gilberto Serembe in 1997. Her music has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, RSNO Royal Scottish National Orchestra, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, State Hermitage Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, The Women’s Philharmonic http://www.wophil.org/wphilrep/ of San Francisco, to name just a few. Submissions must be tonal in nature, and applicants must be under the age of thirty. Awardees * 2024: Güray Kapucu, Bird in a Cage * 2025: Asadbek Turgunov, Maqom Simfoniya

Elizabeth Bell (composer)

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Elizabeth Bell (December 1, 1928 – December 19, 2016) was an American composer. Life and education Elizabeth Bell was born in Cincinnati in 1928. She was awarded her Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Wellesley College in 1950, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Music in composition from Juilliard in 1953. Elizabeth Bell died on December 19, 2016, in Tarrytown, New York. Awards and commissions * 1986 First prize for Perne in a Gyre * 1996 Grand prize for Spectra, Utah composers competition * 1994 Delius prize for Duovarios, Jacksonville, Florida Bell has had numerous commissions including * The New York State Council on the Arts * The Bradshaw/Buono duo * The Inoue Chamber Ensemble * The North/South Consonance * The Putnam Valley Orchestra * The Vienna Modern Masters * Max Lifchitz Of an Eleanor Elkins recital Bell said: “My piece, Night music, was something of a revelation. Max Lifchitz (who commissioned it) has played it numerous times, and recorded it on the Vienna Modern Masters label. His interpretation is brilliant and satisfying. Eleanor’s was entirely different: also brilliant, but more sombre and angry, more suggestive of ’night music.’ I like them both, and am delighted

Elizabeth Brown (musician)

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Elizabeth Brown (born 1953) is an American contemporary composer and performer, known for music described as otherworldly, which employs microtonal expression, unique instrumentation and a morphing, freewheeling language. Her work is frequently commissioned for specific ensembles (e.g., Newband, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra) and has been performed internationally in solo, chamber and orchestral contexts at venues including Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Hanoi National Conservatory of Music. She has written extensively for flute, unconventional instruments such as the Partch complement and theremin, and the traditional Asian shakuhachi and đàn bầu; she combines them in original ways that mix Western and Eastern, ancient and modern, and experimental and conventionally melodic sensibilities. Composer and critic Robert Carl calls Brown a “gentle maverick” whose avant-gardism bends and subverts traditional tropes with an unironic, unpretentious manner “that is fresh and imaginative, but never afraid of beauty, nor of humane warmth.” As a multi-instrumentalist, Brown is best known for flute, shakuhachi and theremin. She has performed at Lincoln C

Elizabeth Hayden Pizer

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Elizabeth Faw Hayden Pizer (born September 1, 1954) is an American composer, music journalist, archivist and broadcast producer. She was born in Watertown, New York, and studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Hayden married musician and composer Charles Pizer. She was awarded the First Prize in the 1982 Delius Composition Contest. Works Selected works include: * Elegy for Strings for string orchestra (or string quartet) (1977/79) * Fanfare Overture for symphonic band (1977/79) * Look Down, Fair Moon for voice & piano (1976) * Quilisoly for flute & piano, or violin & piano (1976) * String Quartet (1981) * Five Haiku for soprano & chamber ensemble (or soprano & piano reduction) (1978) * Five Haiku, II for mezzo-soprano & piano (1979) * Ten Haiku for saxophone & piano (1978/79; arr. 1983) * Nightsongs for medium voice & piano (texts by Milton Drake) (1986) * Shakespeare Set for unaccompanied voice (1978–87) * Sunken Flutes (electronic tape) (1979) * Arlington (electronic tape) (1989) * Embryonic Climactus (electronic tape) (1989) * The Infinite Sea for electronic tape, or electronic tape & narrator (1990) * Aquasphere (electronic tape) (1990) Her work ha

Elizabeth Parker (composer)

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Elizabeth Parker is a British film and television composer who worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from 1978 until the workshop’s closure. Biography Parker graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in music, after which she completed a master’s degree in electronic music. When she first started working at the BBC she was training to become a studio manager. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop became redundant in the 1990s as electronic music equipment became cheaper, and the workshop was ultimately shut down in 1998. Parker worked at the workshop “right until the very end”. In the final years, the BBC could not justify the expense of upgrading the workshop’s equipment, leading Parker to describe the obsolete workshop in its final days as “horrendous” and “horrible”. * The David Attenborough documentary series The Living Planet. Parker continued to work on various television productions as a freelance composer. She wrote music for the BBC One documentary The Human Body and was commissioned to write new music for the soundtrack of a re-release of the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. References External links * *

Elizabeth R. Austin

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Elizabeth R. Austin (born 1938) is an American composer. Life Born in Baltimore, Elizabeth R. Austin received her early musical training at The Peabody Conservatory. When Nadia Boulanger visited Goucher College (Towson, MD), she awarded the composer a scholarship to study at the Conservatoire Americaine in Fontainebleau, France, after hearing Austin’s song cycle Drei Rilke Lieder. Her association with the Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford), where she earned a Master’s in Music while on the faculty, included the establishment of a faculty/student exchange with the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Heidelberg-Mannheim. While studying for her Ph.D. at The University of Connecticut, Elizabeth Austin won First Prize in the Lipscomb Electronic Music Competition (with her Klavier Double for piano and tape). Her awards have included a Connecticut Commission on the Arts grant, selection by GEDOK (Society of Women Artists in Germany/Austria) to represent the Mannheim region in its 70th anniversary exhibition, and First Prize in IAWM’s 1998 Miriam Gideon Competition (for Homage for Hildegard von Bingen, and a Rockefeller Foundation residency at Bellagio, Italy (2001). Performed in

Elizabeth Raum

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Elizabeth Raum (born 13 January 1945) is a Canadian oboist and composer. Biography Elizabeth Raum was born in Berlin, New Hampshire in 1945, but became a Canadian citizen in 1985. She studied oboe performance with Robert Sprenkle at the Eastman School of Music, graduating in 1966. In 1985, she received a master’s degree in composition from the University of Regina after studies with Thomas Schudel. She played principal oboe for the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 1968 to 1975, when she moved to Saskatchewan and began playing for the Regina Symphony Orchestra, eventually becoming their principal oboist. In 2010, she received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit for her work as a musician and composer. Selected works Elizabeth Raum’s works have been performed internationally and broadcast on national media. She has produced operas, chamber pieces, choral works, solo vocal works, and ballets. She has also written for film and video. Film *Saskatchewan River *Like Mother, Like Daughter *Sparkle *Evolution: A Theme with Variations *Prelude to Parting *The Green Man Ballet *Symphony of Youth Opera *Sortilegio *The Garden of Alice *Romance of the Gods Recordings *Prai

Elizabeth Swados

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Elizabeth Swados (February 5, 1951 – January 5, 2016) was an American writer, composer, musician, choreographer, and theatre director. Swados received Tony Award nominations for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Choreography. Life Swados was born on February 5, 1951, in Buffalo, New York. Her father, Robert O. Swados, was a successful attorney who helped Seymour H. Knox III establish the National Hockey League Buffalo Sabres. He was a first cousin of Harvey Swados, a prominent social critic and writer. His autobiography, Counsel in the Crease: A Big League Player in the Hockey Wars, was published by Prometheus Books in 2005. Swados’ mother, an actress and poet, struggled with depression, and committed suicide in 1974; Swados’ elder brother and only sibling, Lincoln, had schizophrenia, and died in 1989. Swados also had depression, which she discussed in her book, My Depression: A Picture Book, which was published by Seven Stories Press in 2014. Swados died on January 5, 2016, from complications following surgery early the previous year for esophageal cancer. Swados’ musical compositions for Fragments of a Greek Trilogy (

Elizabeth Walton Vercoe

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Elizabeth Vercoe (born April 23, 1941) is an American musician, music educator and composer. Biography Born in Washington, D.C., Elizabeth Vercoe grew up in a musical family and studied the classical piano and the violin while attending the National Cathedral School. From 1958 to 1962, she studied music theory at Wellesley College where she was awarded the Hubert Weldon Lamb Prize in Composition. Following college, Vercoe began graduate school at the University of Michigan where she pursued a Masters of Music degree in composition, studying under George Wilson, Ross Lee Finney and Leslie Bassett. In 1974, Vercoe entered the doctoral program in music composition at Boston University where she was mentored by the composer, Gardner Read and was awarded First Prize in Music Theory and Composition and was elected to Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honor society. Her teaching posts have included a position in music theory on the faculty at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, a year at Framingham State College in Massachusetts, and her current job since 1997 as an adjunct professor at Regis College. Vercoe has won a number of national and international composition comp

Ella Milch-Sheriff

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Ella Milch-Sheriff (Hebrew: אלה מילך-שריף) is an Israeli composer, winner of ACUM award for lifetime achievement (2022). Born in Haifa, Israel on September 1, 1954, Milch-Sheriff began her career as a composer at the age of 12. During her military service she composed, performed and interpreted her own songs after which she returned to classical music studying composition under the direction of Professor Tzvi Avni and graduating in composition from the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. Milch-Sheriff, who is based in Tel Aviv, has composed operas, chamber, orchestral and vocal music as well as popular music and solo works. Selected works * Clarinet Quartet, Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Cello, 2022, Intonations festival. Berlin, Germany. Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival. * Abschied (Farewell Eng.), Soprano and Orchestra, 2021, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Germany. * “The Eternal Stranger” (Der ewige Fremde), Actor and symphony orchestra, 2020, Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, Leipzig, Palermo, London. * “The Banality of Love” (Die Banalitaet der Liebe), Opera, 2018, Staatstheater Regensburg, Germany. * “Baruch’s Silence” (Baruchs Schweigen), A chamber opera, 2010, Staatstheat

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

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Ellen Taaffe Zwilich ( ; born April 30, 1939) is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, neoromantic style. She was a 1994 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Zwilich has served as the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor at Florida State University. Biography Ellen Taaffe was born in Miami, Florida. Some of her work during this period was written for her husband, violinist Joseph Zwilich, who played in the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera. while there, she created the “Making Music” concert series, which focuses on performances and lectures by living composers, a series that is still in existence. She has received a number of other honors, including the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Music Critics Award, the Ernst von Dohnányi Citation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and four Grammy nominations. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1

Elliot Goldenthal

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Elliot Goldenthal (born May 2, 1954) is an American composer of contemporary classical music and film and theatrical scores. He studied formally with John Corigliano and was deeply influenced and mentored by Aaron Copland, developing a distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways. He is known for wide-ranging body of work spanning film, opera, ballet, theater and concert music, including Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2002 for his score to the motion picture Frida, directed by his longtime partner Julie Taymor. Early life and education Goldenthal was born on May 2, 1954, the youngest son of a Jewish housepainter father and a Catholic seamstress mother in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was influenced from an early age by music from all cultures and genres. Goldenthal’s maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Poland. Goldenthal lived in a multi-cultural part of town, and this is reflected in his works. He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn where, at the age of 14, he had his very first ballet Variations on Early Glimpses performed; he continued to display his eclectic musical range

Ellsworth Snyder

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Ellsworth Snyder (May 13, 1931 – August 11, 2005) was an American abstract painter, professional pianist, conductor and scholar. He was known as a champion of avant-garde art and music and is associated with composer John Cage and the Fluxus art movement. He preferred that his name be spelled ellsworth snyder, using all lower-case letters. As pianist and music scholar Snyder’s interest in the avant-garde art movement developed out his formal training in classical music. A native of Springfield, Ohio, Snyder attended The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (now the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati) where he studied with noted pianist Robert Goldsand and the Austro-Hungarian pianist and composer Jenő Takács while earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He also took several classes in Cincinnati with the American musicologist and composer Charles Hamm, who subsequently wrote several piano pieces for Snyder. In 1960 Snyder accepted a position as music instructor at Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans where he began an experimental new music series titled “You’ve never heard anything like it”. The programs ranged from the twelve-tone c

Elodie Lauten

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Elodie Lauten (October 20, 1950 – June 3, 2014) was a French-born American composer described as postminimalist or a microtonalist. Biography Born in Paris, France as Genevieve Schecroun, and educated in Paris at the Lycée Claude Monet, the Conservatoire (piano) and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques. Her father was Errol Parker (né Raphaël Schecroun), an Algerian-born jazz musician; her mother was a classical pianist. Lauten was classically trained as a pianist since age 7. She contributed to the early punk-rock scene in Paris in 1975 and 1976. After relocating to New York City, she received a Master’s in composition from New York University where she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo, and Indian classical music with Ahkmal Parwez. She became an American citizen in 1984. She received awards from the NEA, ASCAP, MTC, and the American Music Center, as well as chamber and orchestral commissions. A writer of operas, theater pieces, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, she was recognized in North America and Europe as a pioneer of postminimalism and a force on the new music scene with over 20 releases on a number of labels including Lovely Music, Point/Polygram, 4-Tay,

Elsa Justel

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Elsa Justel is an Argentine composer of instrumental and electroacoustic music, and video-artist. Biography Justel was born on February 19, 1944, in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Justel begins her musical education in the conservatory of that city, where she had the degree of Professor of Music Education and Choral Conducting in 1969. During the 1970s and 1980s, she studied composition in Buenos Aires with Virtú Maragno and Electroacoustic music with José Maranzano. At this period she traveled to Spain and Germany, where she studied with Carmelo Bernaola and Jan Vriend. She moved to live and work in France long-term in 1988. She received a master’s degree in electroacoustic music from the University of Paris in 1991. She has also taught at the Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, electroacoustic music at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and provided lectures at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She moved to live and work in France long-term in 1988. and has been the organizer of the Destellos Electroacoustic Music Composition Contest since 2008. Over her career her music was performed in Hong Kong, Canada, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Justel uses both real sou

Else Marie Pade

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Else Marie Pade (2 December 1924 – 18 January 2016) was a Danish composer of electronic music. She was educated as a pianist at the Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium (Royal Danish Academy of Music) in Copenhagen. She studied composition first with Vagn Holmboe, and later with Jan Maegaard, from whom she learned twelve-tone technique. In 1954, she became the first Danish composer of electronic and concrete music. She worked with Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as Pierre Boulez. Pade was active in the resistance during the Second World War, and was interned at the Frøslev prison camp from 1944 until the end of the war. Early life Pade was born in Aarhus. In her childhood, she was often bedridden with pyelonephritis. She listened to the outside world and created “aural pictures” out of the sounds. These sounds, real sounds, became the basis of her actual musical works. As a protected child, she came with her mother outside of town and went to the theatre. The first music lessons took place in the home where the mother tried to teach her piano playing, but when she did not bother practising scales, she got her mother’s piano teacher, Miss Moller. Later she had mu

Elvira de Freitas

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Elvira de Freitas (1927 – 2015) was a composer, a pianist, and one of the first female orchestral conductors in Portugal. Early life and training Elvira Manuela Fernanda de Freitas was born in Lisbon on 8 June 1927. She was the daughter of the composer and conductor, Frederico de Freitas. At the age of 17 she entered the National Conservatory of Lisbon, studying piano with Lourenço Varela Cid and composition with Jorge Croner de Vasconcelos and with António Eduardo de Costa Ferreira, who had also been her father’s teacher. She later studied for four years with Fernando Lopes-Graça. Granted a scholarship from the French government in 1958 and from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 1959, she continued her studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris with Nadia Boulanger and at the Conservatoire de Paris with Olivier Messiaen. Career From 1957, De Freitas taught at the Camões Secondary School, one of the most-prestigious schools in Lisbon. Between 1974 and 1978 she taught at the music school of the National Conservatory and from 1978 she taught at the Gregorian Institute of Lisbon. As well as pieces of light music, De Freitas composed songs based on poems by renowned Portugues

Elżbieta Sikora

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Elżbieta Sikora (born 20 October 1943 ) is a Polish composer who has been resident in France since 1981. She has composed stage, orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal, and electroacoustic works as well as film scores. Sikora studied under Pierre Schaeffer, François Bayle, the Prix de la Partition Pédagogique and the Prix Stéphane Chapelier-Clergue-Gabriel-Marie, both from SACEM (both 1994) and the SACD Prix Nouveau Talent Musique (1996). Her operas are Ariadna (1977), Derrière son Double (1983), Waste Land (1983), La Clef De Verre (1986). References External links * * Elżbieta Sikora at PWMEdition *Taming the Machine: An Interview with Elżbieta Sikora

Ema Elena Valdelamar

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Ema Elena Valdelamar Casarín (May 27, 1925 – December 23, 2012) was a Mexican composer who specialized in love songs and boleros. Early life and education Ema Elena was born in Mexico City to Victoria Casarín, a housewife, and Darío Valdelamar, who worked for the National Railway. She began to write short stories and compose melodies at the young age of seven years old, and wrote her first song at twelve. Her mother, however, did not support Valdelamar’s musical interests, and attempted to forbid her from engaging in artistic pursuits. Darío, on the other hand, was much more encouraging and even gave Ema Elena advice on how to copyright and register her songs, as well as instruction in accounting and business matters. Career Over time, Valdelamar began composing boleros and, in the 1950s, won radio contests for her songs. * Mucho Corazón (1997) * 15 Éxitos (1997) Selected songs and compositions * “Mucho Corazón” * “Mil Besos” * “Cheque en Blanco” * “Por Que no Fuiste Tu” References External links * “Mucho Corazón,” recorded by Luis Miguel (1991) on YouTube * “Cheque en Blanco,” recorded by Yuri and Paquita del Barrio on YouTube

Emil Cadkin

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Emil Milton Cadkin (August 26, 1920 – December 16, 2020) was an American TV and film composer who worked mainly as a production music composer. He worked with William Loose (1910–1991) and Harry Bluestone (1907–1992). Some of his music was also featured on APM Music. Cadkin composed music for 1940s, 1950s and 1960s TV series, films and cartoons including Gumby and Hanna-Barbera’s Augie Doggie. Early life He was born in August 1920 in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of three children to Isadore and Sarah Cadkin, who had emigrated from the Russian Empire in 1905. His father was a cabinet maker in Los Angeles by 1936. Cadkin attended Yale University, where he majored in music, with special emphasis in Music Composition and Music Theory. He was in Los Angeles writing and teaching music by the time he enlisted in the Air Force in 1942. His song I Have Everything I Want But You was copyrighted in 1938. Career After being discharged from the Air Force, he scored films like “The Big Fix” for bottom-of-the-barrel studio PRC. Cadkin was an associate editor of ASCAP’s ‘The Score’ when it was created in 1948, and got a job in 1958 as musical director at Ritco Productions, a low-budget company th

Emil Dimitrov

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Emil Dimitrov Dimitrov (; 23 December 1940 – 30 March 2005) was a Bulgarian singer, musician and composer. He is considered to be a legend of Bulgarian pop music, and one of the greatest Bulgarian singers of all time. He was popular for his songs “Ако си дал” (‘If You Have Given’), “Моя страна, моя България” (‘My Country, My Bulgaria’), “Нашият сигнал” (‘Our Signal’), “Само един живот” (‘Only One Lifetime’), “Джулия” (‘Julia’), “Арлекино” (‘Arlequine’), “Писмо до мама” (‘Letter to My Mother’) and others. Dimitrov was an extremely prolific artist, with 400 songs in his repertoire, and 280 of them being of his own composition; he released 30 albums in his lifetime. He was born the son of the Bulgarian illusionist and his French assistant. and turned him into a star overnight. His song Monica (known in Bulgarian as “Моя страна, моя България” (‘My country, my Bulgaria’) sold out with a circulation of over 500,000 copies in Germany and 100,000 copies in Belgium, although, it was initially banned by Bulgarian communist censors for “bourgeois influence”. In the modern day, it is considered to be an unofficial national hymn in Bulgaria. He was married twice, and his son Emil was born from

Emil Platen

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Emil Platen (born 16 September 1925) is a German musicologist and conductor. Life Born in Düsseldorf, Platen received his first music lessons at the Jugendmusikschule Düsseldorf in the disciplines violin and music theory/composition (with Reger’s student Otto Leonhardt). After work and military service (1943–45) he enrolled in 1946 at the University of Cologne in the subject musicology, changed in 1947 to the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, where he studied composition with , viola with Hermann Hirschfelder and choral conducting with Kurt Thomas. After his examination as a choral conductor, he resumed his musicological studies at the University of Bonn in 1951, which he completed in 1957 with a dissertation on the “Chorische Choralbearungen von Joh. Bach” which won him his doctorate. During his studies he worked as a violist in various ensembles in Bonn and at Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln. Further stages in his professional career were: 1959 research assistant at the Beethoven-Archiv Bonn, 1963 academic music director and 1971 honorary professor for musicology at the University of Bonn. In 1969 he founded the North Rhine-Westphalia Youth Symphony Orchestra together with Hans-Josef Men

Emilio Kauderer

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Emilio Kauderer is an Argentine composer, orchestrator and songwriter residing in Los Angeles. He is best known for his scores for films including “Metegol (Underdogs)”, “Secret in Their Eyes”, and “A Place In the World”. Kauderer won a Latin Grammy for his work on Bajofondo’s 2002 album “Bajofondo Tango Club”. Early life and education Kauderer was born in Argentina. He studied composition with Jacobo Ficher, and conducting with Jaques Bodmer. He performed as a classical pianist and trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Kyiv in piano playing, music composition and conducting with Sagaidachni and Kanershtein. Kauderer continued studies at Gnesina College of Music in Moscow and obtained a postgraduate degree at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory on a full merit scholarship with Naumov. Career Works in Argentina Upon his return to Argentina, his chamber compositions were performed by the Camerata Bariloche. Keuderer’s Wind Quintet “Danzón” won the Yamaha-Promusica Award in 1987. Orchestral work He received a fellowship to The Sundance Institute’s Composer’s Lab and was honored by being selected as the composer of the music for New York’s Jewish Heritage Museum main exhibit piece

Emin Sabitoglu

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Emin Sabitoglu (, real name Emin Sabit oghlu Mahmudov (); 2 November 1937 – 18 November 2000) was a Soviet Azerbaijani composer, author of a lot of well-known Azerbaijani songs and music for films. People’s Artist of Azerbaijan. Biography Emin Sabitoglu was born on 2 November 1937, in the family of Azerbaijani writer Sabit Rahman. After graduating from musical school in Baku, he entered Gara Garayev’s class at Baku Conservatoire, in 1954. Two years later he was transferred to the Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky (Yuri Shaporin’s class). In 1961, he began to work as a music editor in the film studio “Azerbaijanfilm". In consecutive years he worked as the art director of the State Philarmony, and also taught at State Conservatory named after Uzeyir Hajibeyov. He wrote poems for several pieces of music. However, several music genres have been the major part of his works. He composed more than 600 songs, 9 musical comedies, and pieces of music for nearly 40 films. He has numerous compositions written for plays. The composer himself does not know exactly. Along with theaters in Baku, he composed music for theaters in Sumgayit, Ganja, Lankaran, Mingachevir, and Nakchivan

Emma Lou Diemer

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Emma Lou Diemer (November 24, 1927 – June 2, 2024) She wrote many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, keyboard, voice, chorus, and electronic media. Diemer was a keyboard performer and gave concerts of her own organ works at Washington National Cathedral, The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Grace Cathedral and St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, and others. Works include many collections and single pieces for organ as well as many for solo piano, piano 4 hands, and two pianos. Her major chamber works include a piano quartet, string quartet, two piano trios, and sonatas and suites for flute, violin, cello, and piano as well as settings of the psalms for organ with other instruments. Diemer wrote many choral works as well. She wrote numerous hymns, several of which appear in church hymnals. Her songs number in the dozens, using texts by many contemporary and early poets including Walt Whitman, Amy Lowell, Sara Teasdale, Alice Meynell, Thomas Campion, Shakespeare, John Donne, her sister Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Emily Dickinson, Robert Lowell, and many others. Diemer’s compositional style over the years varied from tonal to atonal, from traditional to experiment

Emmanuel Nunes

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Emmanuel Nunes (31 August 1941 – 2 September 2012) was a Portuguese composer who lived and worked in Paris from 1964. Biography Nunes was born in Lisbon, where he studied composition, first from 1959 to 1963 at the Academia de Amadores de Música with Francine Benoit, and then with Fernando Lopes-Graça at the university (1962–64). He then attended courses at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (1963–65), and in 1964 moved to Paris. A year later he moved to Cologne and enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, and studied composition with Henri Pousseur, electronic music with Jaap Spek, and phonetics with Georg Heike, while also taking courses with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the third and fourth Cologne Courses for New Music in 1965–66 and 1966–67. In 1971 he was awarded the Premier Prix d´Esthetique Musicale in the class of Marcel Beaufils at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, in 1999 won the UNESCO Composition Prize, and in 2000 was the winner of the Pessoa Prize. From the 1980s he took on teaching roles, amongst other places at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Harvard University in the US, at the Paris Conservatoire, and at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. From 1986

Enid Luff

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Enid Luff (21 February 1935 – 19 February 2022) was a Welsh musician, music educator, and composer. Biography Luff was born in Ebbw Vale, Wales, and trained as a pianist. She was educated at the University of Wales and Cambridge and graduated with a Master of Arts degree. She took time out from her career for a family, and then studied piano at Royal Northern College. A Welsh Arts Council Bursary allowed her to study with Elisabeth Lutyens, Anthony Payne and Franco Donatoni. After ending her musical studies, Luff lived and worked for many years in London, Manchester and Birmingham, where she taught at the University School of Continuing Studies. She founded a music publishing firm with composer Julia Usher called Primavera. Luff resided in Cardiff. She died on 19th February 2022, two days short of her 87th birthday. Works Luff composed a large number of works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, voice, choir and piano orchestra. Selected works include: *1971: Tapestries (for clarinet, viola, cello, piano) *1972: Thanksgiving At Morning Prayer (for choir) *1973: The Bird (for choir) *1973: String Quartet No. 2 *1973: Four Pieces (for piano) *1973: Mixed Feelings (five short mood

Ennio Morricone

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Ennio Morricone (10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven , two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and the Polar Music Prize. His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films, all of Sergio Leone’s films from A Fistful of Dollars on, all of Giuseppe Tornatore’s films since Cinema Paradiso, Dario Argento’s Animal Trilogy, as well as The Battle of Algiers (1966), 1900 (1976), La Cage aux Folles (1978), Le Professionnel (1981), The Thing (1982), The Key (1983) by Tinto Brass and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989). He received the Academy Award for Best Original Score nominations for Days of Heaven (1978), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Bugsy (1991), Malèna (2000) and The Hateful Eight (2015), winning for the last.

Enrico Intra

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Enrico Intra (born 3 July 1935) is an Italian jazz pianist, composer, conductor. During his long career, Intra has collaborated with such notable musicians as Gerry Mulligan, Franco Cerri, Lee Konitz, Milton Jackson, Severino Gazzelloni, Pino Presti, Tullio De Piscopo, David Liebman and others. Works * La Messa d’Oggi Ri-Fi RFL ST 14043, 1971 * Archetipo (Suite for Sextet with Violoncello and Oboe) * Contro la seduzione * Dissonanza-Consonanza * The Blues * Nosferatu * Bach-Cage-Intra * Nuova Civiltà *Nicole Discography * To the Victims of Vietnam, Ri-Fi, 1974 * Gerry Mulligan meets Enrico Intra, with Pino Presti and Tullio De Piscopo, Produttori Associati, 1976 * The Blues, CD, Album, Dire, 1991 * Wach im Dunklen Garten. Instrumentalmusik nach Gregorianischen Gesängen Kreuz, CD, 1999 * Bernstein/Gershwin/Rodgers, with the Civica Jazz Band and Franco Cerri, Soul Note, CD, 2000 * Live!, Distr. IRD, CD, 2005 * Le case di Berio, Audio CD, Album, Rai Trade, Alfa Music, 2005 * Like Monk, Alfa Music, Audio CD, 2006 * Franco Cerri & Enrico Intra Jazz Italiano Live 2007, MAG 2007 * David Liebman/Enrico Intra Liebman meets Intra Contenuto Alfa Music, CD, 2008 * Franco Ambrosetti/Enrico Intr

Enrico Simonetti

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Enrico Simonetti (29 January 1924 – 28 May 1978) was an Italian pianist, composer, conductor, and television and radio presenter. Life and career Born in Alassio, a Province of Savona, Simonetti studied piano at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. A lover of jazz, in the early 1950s he founded a jazz band with Piero Piccioni and Bruno Martino, with whom he performed in the most important nightclubs of the time. In 1953 he moved, with his family, to Brazil, where he found immediate success as musician, composer and entertainer, hosting a long running television program, Simonetti Show, which lasted for 147 episodes; thanks to his popularity he was made an honorary citizen of Brazil and was introduced into the “Candido Randon da Silva” order. In 1964 he came back to Italy, where he joined RAI television, making his debut in the show Chitarra, amore mio. He was active as a television and radio host (often paired with Isabella Biagini), as a film composer, and even an occasional actor. Simonetti died at age 54 from complications following a major surgical operation to remove a tumor in his throat. He was the father of composer and musician Claudio Simonetti. Selected filmography *

Enriko Josif

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Enriko Josif (; 1 May 1924 – 13 March 2003) was a Serbian composer, pedagogue and musical writer, and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Biography He was born on 1 May 1924, in Belgrade into a Sephardic Jewish family. His father, Mosha Josif was a merchant representative of Italian and German industries and an amateur dramatist. His mother Sofia (born Fahri), was from a rich family from Zemun. With good knowledge of foreign languages (she was educated in a Swiss institute), she worked as a translator (she translated verses by Serbian poets to German language) and a member of the international PEN Club. Intelligentsia, such as Jovan Dučić and Miloš Đurić were collaborators and friends of her. In the Josif family music had an important place. Josif’s mother played the piano, while father was especially favourable about opera. Mosha and Sofia Josif wanted their both sons, Enriko and Albert, to study music, but it was Enriko’s talent that was recognized properly. Very soon he got his first, private music teacher, composer and conductor Vladislav Grinski. In that period, Enriko Josif wrote his first compositions. After father’s death (1937) started a hard period for Enr

Enrique Gimeno

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Enrique Gimeno Teixidó (July 28, 1929 - November 3, 2007) was a Spanish-Mexican conductor, music professor, composer, pianist, manager of festivals and cultural activities and Equestrian athlete- who developed his musical work mainly in Mexico. Early life He born in Barcelona in 1929, son of Luis Gimeno V. and grandson of conductor M. Teixidó. He studied music from an early age. Assisted by the musician Luis G. Jorda, he entered the Liceu Conservatory of Music where he studied for a degree in music education, graduating cum laude in 1949. He studied the specialties of concert pianist Guillermo Garganta and conducting an orchestra with violinist and conductor Eduardo Toldrá. Among many other exalted teachers; debuting at fifteen years as director at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in front of the opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. He also studied in Germany and France where he was received with honors. In Mexico, he studied dodecafonismo with Carlos Jiménez Mabarak. Career In 1949, he arrived in Mexico, as master of music and choral director. He was also accompanying pianist of the nascent TV as well as director and arranger on radio and television. He was for some time, a film and televi

Enrique Llácer Soler

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Enrique Llácer Soler (Alcoy, Alicante Province, 20 June 1934 – Madrid, 11 April 2024), also known as Regolí, was a Spanish jazz and classical percussionist and composer. Life and career Llácer Soler started his jazz career in 1952 in Barcelona’s Jam Sessions while expanding his Valencia and Madrid conservatories studies under Kenny Clarke in Paris and Philly Joe Jones in New York. In 1966 he wrote a drum set method, La batería: técnica, independencia y ritmo. In 1972 he became the Spanish National Orchestra percussion soloist and he subsequently started teaching percussion in the Madrid Royal Conservatory. From then on he focused in the classical side of his career as both performer and composer, but he still was active in the Spanish jazz scene through the 1980s in bands such as Canal Street Jazz Band. In 2015 he received the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts. Llácer Soler died on 11 April 2024, at the age of 89. Compositions * Soloist and Orchestra: Percussion Concerto No. 1 — Percussion Concerto No. 2 — Castanets Concerto op.24 — Coloratura Soprano Concertino op.28 — Violin Concerto op.29 — Drum Set Concerto No. 2 * Orchestra: Welleriana op.25 — Celebration for Robinne op.26

Enzo Gragnaniello

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Enzo Gragnaniello (born 20 October 1954) is an Italian singer-songwriter and composer. Life and career Born in Quartieri Spagnoli, Naples, Gragnaniello began playing the guitar at the age of 12 and began composing his first songs at 18 years old. In 1977 he formed the group “Banchi nuovi”, named after the Committee of unemployed people to which he belonged. Gragnaniello made his solo debut in 1983, with the eponymous album Enzo Gragnaniello. In 1991 his song “Cu’mmè”, recorded by Roberto Murolo and Mia Martini, obtained a great commercial success and became instant classics in Italy; in 1997 with the same song Gragnaniello won the music festival “Viva Napoli”. Gragnaniello composed songs for Andrea Bocelli, Adriano Celentano, Gerardina Trovato among others. He is also active as a composer of musical scores for stage plays and films. Discography Album * 1983 - Enzo Gragnaniello * 1985 - Salita Trinità degli Spagnoli * 1990 - Fujente * 1991 - Veleno mare e ammore * 1993 - Un mondo che non c’è * 1994 - Cercando il sole * 1996 - Posteggiatore abusivo * 1996 - Continuerò * 1998 - Neapolis mantra * 1998 - Canzoni di rabbia canzoni d’amore * 1999 - Oltre gli alberi * 1999 - Dai Quartieri

Eric Ewazen

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Eric Ewazen (; born March 1, 1954, Cleveland, Ohio) is an American composer and teacher. Biography Ewazen studied composition under Samuel Adler, Milton Babbitt, Gunther Schuller, Joseph Schwantner, Warren Benson, and Eugene Kurtz at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School (where he received numerous composition awards, prizes, and fellowships). He has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1980, and has been a lecturer for the New York Philharmonic’s Musical Encounters Series. He has also served on the faculties of the Hebrew Arts School and the Lincoln Center Institute. He served as Vice President of the League of Composers – International Society for Contemporary Music from 1982–1989, and was also composer-in-residence for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Music Ewazen’s compositions have been performed by numerous ensembles and orchestras around the world, such as the Cleveland Orchestra, and at festivals such as Woodstock, Tanglewood, Aspen, Caramoor, Tidewater, and the Music Academy of the West, among others. In recent years, he has increasingly written for brass instruments. Many of these works are performed regularly. His works have been commissioned and

Eric Funk

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Eric Funk (born 1949) is an American contemporary classical composer and conductor. Originally from Deer Lodge, Montana, he currently resides in Bozeman, Montana, where he taught music courses at Montana State University. He is also the Artistic Director and Host for Montana PBS’s 11th & Grant with Eric Funk, an Emmy Award-winning show broadcast on Montana PBS featuring local musicians. Career From 1994 to 2002, Eric was conductor of the Helena Symphony Orchestra in Helena, Montana. From 1994 to 1999, he was also the conductor of the Gallatin Chamber Orchestra in Bozeman, Montana. Dr. Funk was featured on the Charles Osgood CBS Sunday Morning show in October 1998, which in turn followed on the heels of a front-page story in the New York Times “Arts & Leisure” section (April 14, 1998). More recently, Dr. Funk was featured on the nationally syndicated NPR radio show, “Theme & Variations” (August 23–30, 2002). Funk has taught music in Oregon, Texas and Montana, and spent 20 years as an adjunct professor in the School of Music at Montana State University. Numerous compositions of Dr. Funk have been recorded commercially. These include three releases on the MMC label, featuring three of

Eric Gross

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Eric Gross AM (16 September 192617 April 2011) was an Austrian–Australian pianist, composer and teacher. Biography Gross was born in Vienna and emigrated to England in 1938. From the age of fourteen, he worked as a pianist in bands and orchestras. He studied at Trinity College of Music, with Wilfrid Dunwell (piano), and the University of Aberdeen, with (among others) Reginald Barrett-Ayres, and where he received an MA in 1957 (; ). Following professional engagements in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and New Caledonia, he settled in Sydney in 1958. Initially teaching at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, he joined the staff of the department of music at the University of Sydney in 1960 and remained there until retiring in 1991 as associate professor of music. In 1989 he was visiting professor at the University of Guyana. He was president of the Fellowship of Australian Composers, and from 1981 to 1984 he was also treasurer and executive board member of the Asian Composers’ League. Apart from teaching, Gross was active as composer, arranger and conductor. He received numerous commissions for film scores for Film Australia and TV scores for Screen Gems Columbia, as well as numerous commis

Eric Moe (composer)

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Eric Moe (born October 24, 1954) is an American composer and pianist. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moe was born in Durham, NC. He studied musical composition at Princeton University (BA) and at the University of California at Berkeley (MA, PhD). Currently, he is the Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh where he co-directs the Music on the Edge new music concert series. At the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, he has held visiting professorships. Moe is also active as a concert pianist, having performed works by hundreds of composers, from John Cage and Anthony Davis to Stefan Wolpe. In 2003 Moe completed a 45-minute work for mezzo-soprano and ten players, setting a text of David Foster Wallace. Moe wrote about setting Wallace for Fiction Writers Review. Selected compositions * Spirit Mountain for five players (2010) * Strenuous Pleasures for six players (2010) * Frozen Hours Melt Melodiously Into The Past for six players (2009) * Jozaphine Freedom an entertainment on text of Denise Duhamel, for soprano, clarinet/bcl, piano/keyboard

Eric Ozario

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Eric Alexander Ozario (18 May 1949 – 29 August 2025) was an Indian Konkani music composer, cultural activist, trade unionist and the founder of Mandd Sobhann, a leading Konkani cultural organization. He also founded Kalaangann, a Konkani heritage centre. Ozario was instrumental in Konkani being approved as an optional language in school education in the state of Karnataka. He had also been the secretary general of the Jagotik Konknni Songhotton (JKS – Global Konkani Organisation) for many years. Early life Ozario was born in 1949 in Mangalore. He developed an early interest in Konkani music and cultural identity, which later influenced his life’s work. His legacy as a composer and cultural activist began with the foundation of Mandd Sobhann, through which he promoted Konkani music locally and internationally. Career In 2009, Ozario participated in a movement to protest a plan to cut trees in Mangalore. Ozario’s biography, The Indefatigable Crusader was released in 2014. Death Ozario died from kidney disease on 29 August 2025, at the age of 76, in Mangaluru. * Konkani Ratna * 1993 State Rajyotsava Prashasti References Further reading * External links * * Mandd Sobhann – The Birth

Éric Pénicaud

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Éric Pénicaud (born 14 June 1952) is a French classical composer, classical guitarist and improviser. Training Born in Casablanca, from the age of seven, Pénicaud received “customized” and non-institutional musical training, first with his father (a good amateur guitarist who had learned from his mother, who herself had learned from his father; it would be necessary to go back in time to the ancient family history, to Ricardo Viñes, Pablo Casals, as well as to Ravel, Fauré, and even to the old Brahms), then with friends of his music-loving family, teachers and concert performers (for example between the ages of eleven and thirteen, it was Narciso Yepes who gave him his precious advice). At the same time, he studied all the of flamenco. He also began to learn about jazz and improvisation from the age of thirteen. Pénicaud first gave many classical - and flamenco - performances in private circles, but now he will play in public, in other musical genres (for example in jazz alongside Laurent Petitgirard at the organ of the ). Guitarist At the age of nineteen, he left the capital for Provence (advanced training - instrument and writing - teaching). He perfected his skills with René Bar

Eric Robertson (composer)

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Eric Nathan Robertson (born 6 April 1948) is a Scottish composer, organist, pianist, and record producer who has been primarily active in Canada. A two time Gemini Award winner, he has composed more than 60 film scores and written music for a number of television series in Canada and the United States. He has also written a considerable amount of choral and organ music, sometimes with instrumental or symphonic accompaniment. His works display a strong influence of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Wood, and William O. Minay, the latter of whom he studied with for over 30 years. He has also produced and played on numerous commercial albums by a variety of artists and released several of his own albums of popular songs and film themes under the name Magic Melodies. Life and career Born in Edinburgh, Robertson began his musical training in organ, piano, and music theory in his native city where he was a pupil of E. Francis Thomas, Eric Reid, and William O. Minay. In 1963, at the age of 15, he entered The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in Toronto, Canada, where he was a student of Charles Peaker (organ) and Samuel Dolin (music composition). He graduated with an associate degree from t

Eric Salzman

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Eric Salzman (September 8, 1933 – November 12, 2017) was an American composer, scholar, author, impresario, music critic, and record producer. He is best known for his contributions to ‘New Music Theater,’ a concept he advanced through both his compositions and writings. He established it as an independent art form, distinct from grand opera and popular musicals, both aesthetically and economically. He co-founded the American Music Theater Festival and was, at the time of his death in 2017, Composer-in-Residence at the Center for Contemporary Opera. Performers of his works include the New York Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic; conductors Pierre Boulez, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Dennis Russell Davies and Lukas Foss; ensembles Western Wind and Kronos Quartet; soloists Philip Langridge, Mary Thomas, Elise Ross, Stanley Silverman, Alan Titus, Rinde Eckert, Igor Kipnis, Paul Zukofsky, Theo Bleckmann, Thomas Young; actors Stacy Keach, John O’Hurley and Paul Hecht. Early life Salzman was born September 8, 1933, in New York City and attended Forest Hills High School (1946–1950). After studying composition privately (1949–51) with Morris Lawner

Eric Sweeney (composer)

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Eric Sweeney (15 July 1948 – 21 July 2020) was an Irish composer. He was a member of Aosdána, an elite association of Irish artists. Early life Eric Sweeney was born in Dublin in 1948. He studied in Ireland, England, Belgium and Italy, including at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia. Career Sweeney composed in a minimalist style influenced by Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, Andrzej Panufnik, John Adams and Steve Reich. Over his career, he composed two symphonies, five concertos, three operas and choral works, including the cantata Deirdre. He was influenced by traditional Irish music and airs. Personal life Sweeney married Sally Johnston in 1972; they had three children. They lived in Waterford from 1981 until his death in 2020. References External links * *

Eric Tingstad

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Eric Tingstad (born December 16, 1954) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter and composer. He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. Best known as a fingerstyle guitarist, Tingstad has performed, recorded, and produced alternative country, blues, americana, rock, smooth jazz, ambient, and New-age music. Tingstad frequently collaborates with woodwinds player Nancy Rumbel as Tingstad and Rumbel. Background Eric Tingstad cites early rock and roll influences such as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and King Crimson. Other influences include The Kingston Trio, Flatt and Scruggs, pianist and composer Martin Denny, sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, Mason Williams’s “Classical Gas” and the Hawaiian slack-key guitar. In the mid 1970s, while playing lead guitar and bass with Seattle-based rock band Pegasus, Tingstad began studies under masters of techniques pioneered by Spanish classical guitarist and innovator Andrés Segovia. Those techniques, combined with innovations of his own, have shaped Tingstad’s stylings and the instrumental compositions for which he is known. His innovative work inspired Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records, to create the Windham Hill Guitar Samp

Erich Hartmann (musician)

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Erich Hartmann (January 26, 1920, in Leipzig – July 6, 2020) was a German double bass player and composer. He was part of the contrabass section of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Life Erich Hartmann was born on January 26, 1920, in Leipzig and lived in Berlin. The son of a piano maker, he grew up between the Conservatory of Music and St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Hartmann studied double bass at the conservatory, now the Leipzig University of Music. There, he studied with Theodor Albin Findeisen, being his last student, and Max Schulz. At the same time he devoted himself to studying composition with Hermann Grabner. As a young music student he studied the compositions of Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. His studies were interrupted due to labor service and military service in the Second World War. His military service ended due to an injury on September 4, 1942. In October 1942 he resumed studying music. After a successful audition with the Berliner Philharmoniker, he became a member of this orchestra on November 1, 1943. The heavy bombing raids on Berlin also destroyed the Berlin Philharmonic on Bernburger Strasse on January 30, 1944. Hartmann witnessed the e

Erik Freitag

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Erik Freitag (born 1 February 1940) is an Austrian composer and violinist. Life Born in Vienna, Freitag studied violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, with, among others, Eduard Melkus and composition with Karl-Birger Blomdahl at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. From 1964 to 1967, he was violinist in the Sveriges Radio Symfoniorchester and from 1967 to 1970 in the Stockholms Filharmoniska Orchester. He then directed the Vienna-Ottakring Music School until 2003. In 1987, together with and René Staar, he founded the “Ensemble Wiener Collage”, which is dedicated to the interpretation of contemporary works, especially by Austrian composers. Awards * 1975: Förderungspreis des Bundesministeriums für Unterricht und Kunst * 1979: Förderungspreis der Stadt Wien * 1988: Theodor Körner Prize * 1996: Composer in Residence der Northwestern University of Michigan Work * Hymnus – cantata for speaker, tenor, mixed choir, alto flute, harp, vibraphone and violin, 1970 * Kleine Suite für Streicher und Klavier, 1972 * Moving Studies – Szenen für Tänzer, 1973 * Drei Stücke für Streichquartett, 1976 * Drei Miniaturen für Klavier zu vier Händen, 1977 * Divertimento für Bläserqui

Erika Fox

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Erika Fox (born 3 October 1936) is a British composer and teacher. Born in Vienna, she grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home. In 1939 at the age of three, Fox emigrated to England as a refugee. There she went on to study composition at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Stevens, and later with Jeremy Dale Roberts and Harrison Birtwistle. Fox was active in modern music circles from the 1970s, working with the Fires of London, the Nash Ensemble, Dartington and the Society for the Promotion of New Music. For two decades she enjoyed considerable success, with works such the Kaleidoscope quartet (for flute, harp, vibraphone and cello, 1983) and her puppet music drama The Bet (1990), which was performed at the Purcell Room, the Almeida Theatre, the Huddersfield Festival and the Norwich Puppet Theatre. Her orchestral work Osen Shomaat was recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2020. David Spielt Vor Saul a new concerto for piano and large ensemble, was commissioned by the BBC and first performed by Julian Jacobson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Geoffrey Paterson, at City Halls, Glasgow, on 13 January 2022. Her musical style shows the influence of Eastern Europe

Erika Radermacher

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Erika Radermacher (born 16 April 1936) is a Swiss pianist, soprano and composer. She won prizes in Germany and Austria for her piano performances, including the Mozart Prize, the Austrian State Prize and the Beethoven Competition prize, and played throughout Europe. She taught at the Conservatory of Music in Bern, and at the Bern University of Arts, and sang with the Ensemble Neue Horizonte. Some of her works have been recorded by Swiss radio. Radermacher has also taught in Bulgaria. Biography Erika Radermacher was born in Eschweiler, near Aachen, in Germany on 16 April 1936. She studied music with Else Schmitz-Gohr in Cologne, Bruno Seidlhofer in Vienna and voice with Sylvia Gähwiller in Zurich. After completing her studies, she won major prizes in Germany and Austria for her piano performance, and went on to perform as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe. After 1970 she became more interested in composition. Some of her works have been recorded by Swiss radio. In 1983 Radermacher and Schneider won the Bernese music prize. Honors and awards *Two prizes, BAT competition for new chamber music, 1982 *Music Prize of the Canton of Bern, 1983 (with Schneider) *Prize of the German C

Erkki Salmenhaara

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Erkki Olavi Salmenhaara (March 12, 1941 – March 19, 2002) was a Finnish composer and musicologist. Personal life Salmenhaara was born in Helsinki, Finland, and married Anja Kosonen in 1961. They had two sons, but divorced in 1978. Salmenhaara died in Helsinki on March 19, 2002. Career Salmenhaara studied composition with Joonas Kokkonen at the Sibelius Academy until 1963, and then continued his studies with György Ligeti in Vienna. Salmenhaara then studied musicology, aesthetics and theoretical philosophy at the University of Helsinki, and earned his PhD in 1970 with a doctoral thesis about the works of the composer Ligeti. He served as lecturer (1966–1975) and associate professor (1975–2002) of musicology at the University of Helsinki and was also the leading writer on classical music in Finland. In addition, he served as chairman of the Society of Finnish Composers (1974–1976) and of the Association of Finnish Symphony Orchestras (1974–1978). Works Prior to studying with Kokkonen, Salmenhaara had already written several tonal pieces, including the 17 Small Pieces for Piano (1957–1960). In the early 1960s, he was associated with the modernist Finnish Musical Youth. Beginning in th

Ernani Aguiar

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Ernani Henrique Chaves Aguiar (born 30 August 1950) is a Brazilian composer, conductor, and musicologist. Life and career A scholarship winner to the Argentine Mozarteum, Aguiar studied under various composers and conductors in South America and later in Europe, including Sergiu Celibidache. As a musicologist, he has specialized in the revising, editing, and revival of works by composers of the 18th century Minas Gerais School. He has written a number of instrumental pieces, but his most famous works are his choral pieces, such as the fiery Salmo 150, composed in 1975 and published in 1993, which features rhythmic backgrounds with very rapid articulations. Salmo 150 has proved a very popular piece among choral conductors worldwide, particularly within the American Choral Directors Association. He is currently a professor of music at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, a fellow of the Villa-Lobos Institute, and a member of the Academia Brasileira de Música. Choral works * Cantilena, para coro “a capella” * Danças, para barítono e cordas, 1993 * Falai de Deus, para coro “a capella” * Missa Brevis * Missa Brevis II in honorem S. Francisci Assisiensis, para coro “a capella” * Mis

Ernest Gold

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Ernst Sigmund Goldner (July 13, 1921 – March 17, 1999), known professionally as Ernest Gold, was an Austrian-American composer of film and television scores. He won an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards for his work on the film Exodus (1960), and a Golden Globe for On the Beach (1959). He received an additional three Oscar nominations throughout his career, and was the first composer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Gold was born in 1921 in Vienna, the son of Elisabeth (Stransky) and Gustav Goldner. Gold’s father’s mother (Jaiteles) ancestry from Szeged, Hungary and mother’s mother (Therese Sprung) from Temesvár (at the time part of Hungary and now in Romania) and Budapest (Spitzer). Ernest Gold came from a musical family. His father played the violin and his mother sang. His father also studied under Richard Heuberger. Ernest Gold said he learned to read music before he learned to read words. Gold went to movie theaters as a teenager, not only to watch the films but to listen to the musical score. Among prominent film composers of the time, he admired Max Steiner. In New York City, he earned money by working as an accompanist and writing popular songs.

Ernest Tomlinson

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Ernest Tomlinson MBE (19 September 1924 – 12 June 2015) was an English composer, particularly noted for his light music compositions. He was sometimes credited as ‘Alan Perry’. Tomlinson wrote over 100 pieces of library music, thirteen orchestral suites, symphonic works (including symphonic jazz) and music for brass band. At the age of nine he became a chorister at Manchester Cathedral, where he was eventually appointed as Head Boy in 1939. He later attended Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School and at sixteen won a scholarship to Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music. He spent the next two years studying composition until in 1943 he left to join the Royal Air Force, where, although colour-blind, he became a wireless mechanic and saw service in France during 1944 and 1945. He returned to England in 1945 to resume his studies (with Humphrey Procter-Gregg) and graduated in 1947, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Music for composition as well as being made a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and an Associate of the Royal Manchester College of Music. Tomlinson left northern England for London, where he worked as a staff arranger for Arcadia and Mills M

Ernesto Massimo Verardi

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Ernesto Massimo Verardi (born 1 March 1936), is an Italian guitarist and composer. Biography Also known as Massimo Verardi or Ernesto Verardi, he began his career in the late 50s, collaborating in the decades that followed in studio and tour, with numerous, renowned performers and arrangers/conductors. He is credited in productions that have seen him play with Mina, as well as in many recordings, in several live concerts as lead guitarist; with Mia Martini, with whom in addition to 4 album, he played, at the singer’s express request, in the TV show “Recital de Mia Martini”, broadcast in France. Verardi also composed, with lyrics by Luigi Albertelli, the song Un altro giorno con me which gave the title to the homonym album. Studio collaborations continued with Ornella Vanoni, Shirley Bassey (after the recording in Italy of This Is My Life he participated, once again as lead guitarist, in a mini-tour, culminating with the New Year’s Eve ‘68 concert at La Bussola Versilia by Sergio Bernardini; also, still on electric, acoustic or 12-string guitar, albums with Fabrizio De André, Milva, Mango, Gianni Bella, Pino Donaggio, Massimo Bubola, Iva Zanicchi, Pierangelo Bertoli, Nino D’Angelo,

Ernesto Rubin de Cervin

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Ernesto Rubin de Cervin Albrizzi (5 July 1936 – 29 March 2013) was an Italian composer, musicologist and teacher. Biography He was born in Venice in 1936. As a child he studied violin with Gian Francesco Malipiero at the Venice Conservatory, who suggested that he should start composition classes. He studied solfege with Bruno Maderna. After high school, he studied composition at the Florence Conservatory under Roberto Lupi and on a private basis with Luigi Dallapiccola. From 1965 to 1985 he taught, first solfege at the Liceo musicale in Udine, then didactic, analysis and composition at the Venice Conservatory. His teachings there established the New Venice School. Whilst at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, he taught harmony and counterpoint to Giuseppe Sinopoli. References External links *Article by Rubin de Cervin prefaced by Joachim Noller

Ernie Stires

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Ernest Stires (December 17, 1925 – May 4, 2008) was an American composer, musician, and mentor. His jazz-based classical music has been performed both throughout the United States and abroad. Stires was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to a family of musicians. His maternal grandparents were the mezzo-soprano Louise Homer and the American art song composer Sidney Homer, while his cousin was the composer Samuel Barber. His paternal grandparents were Bishop Ernest Milmore Stires and Sarah Stires. He was educated first at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria and then at Harvard and Dartmouth, finally graduating from Trinity College in Connecticut. After service as a U.S. Navy pilot in World War II, Stires worked as a television advertising executive, first for NBC in California and then later for CBS in Boston. Although he had begun improvising jazz on the piano while still a small child, he did not devote himself to music as a career until 1962 when he studied composition with Nicolas Slonimsky and Francis Judd Cooke. Ernie has three children: Sarah Stires, Ernie Stires, and Elizabeth Stires. He moved to Vermont in 1967 where he was an administrator for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

Ernst Ludwig Leitner

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Ernst Ludwig Leitner (born 14 October 1943) is an Austrian composer, organist and academic teacher. Education Born in Wels, Leitner studied music education, organ and composition at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and finally musicology at the University of Innsbruck from 1963 until 1968. Work His artistic output is documented in the music collection of the Austrian National Library and covers several genres, including four symphonies, eight instrumental concertos, a requiem and three operas. Leitner’s works have received numerous awards and have been performed by renowned orchestras and ensembles at renowned venues and festivals. The artist has an extensive discography. Operas * So weiß wie Schnee, so rot wie Blut (1999) * Fadinger (2014) Awards * 1981 Kulturmedaille der Stadt Wels * 1983 1. Preis beim Internationalen Kompositionswettbewerb München * 2012 Heinrich Gleißner Prize * 2013 References Further reading * Christoph Wigelbeyer: Ernst Ludwig Leitner. Ein Portrait. Diplomarbeit aus Musikgeschichte, Universität für Musik Wien, 1998. * Christoph Wigelbeyer: Ernst Ludwig Leitner: „So weiß wie Schnee, so rot wie Blut.“ In Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, vol. 54, fascicules 7

Ernstalbrecht Stiebler

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Ernstalbrecht Stiebler (29 March 1934 – 7 June 2024) was a German composer of mostly chamber, choral, piano, and organ works in minimalist or reductionist style. His work has “three principal concerns: sonority, rhythm, and duration” leading “to a large and varied body of work”. Biography Stiebler was born in Berlin on 29 March 1934. He studied composition with Ernst Klussmann and piano at the Musikhochschule Hamburg, but had more important lessons at Darmstadt between 1958 and 1961, where he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in 1959 and where he first encountered the music of LaMonte Young. From Young he took on sustained sounds and gradually unfolding forms, developing a style based on minimalist structures and repetitions. His other primary influences are indicated by the music of other composers he promoted while a music producer at broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk, where he stayed for 25 years: Morton Feldman, John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Giacinto Scelsi, Earle Brown and Christian Wolff. Steibler’s form of minimalism comes more from visual art than from mainstream minimalist music. He famously said: “Music is too important to burden it with emotions.” His music ranges from solo in

Ertuğrul Oğuz Fırat

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Ertuğrul Oğuz Fırat (1 February 1923 in Malatya – 16 October 2014 in Ankara) was a Turkish composer, painter and poet. Fırat graduated from Istanbul University with a degree in law in 1948 and held a career as a judge until his retirement in 1979. All through his life, Fırat was involved in the arts: music, writing, painting. He began to compose music and write his first poems and stories in the early 1940s, and took up painting in 1960. Selected works Several Fırat scores are published by Seesaw Music. ;Stage * Cambot Ardışı, Ballet Suite for chamber ensemble, Op. 7 (1956) * Anadolu’da Çırakman Ateşleri, Ballet Suite No. 1 for orchestra, Op. 41 (1970–1975) * Anadolu’da Çırakman Ateşleri, Ballet Suite No. 2 for mixed chorus and orchestra, Op. 47 (1979) * Gerçek Simge Oyun (Reality, Symbol, Genre), Multimedia Ballet for narrator, chorus, instrumental ensemble (flute, 2 cellos, 2 pianos), and dancers, Op. 53 (1977–1978) ;Orchestra * Orkestra Konçertosu No. 1 (Concerto for Orchestra No. 1), Op. 16 (1962–1963) * Anısal Kaynaklar No. 1 (Memorial Sources No. 1), Concerto Grosso, Op. 19 (1964) * Üç Dans (3 Dances), Op. 20 (1947–1965, revised 1986) * Karpuz Yiyen Eşek, Op. 21 (1965, revise

Erzsébet Szőnyi

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Erzsébet Szőnyi (25 April 1924 – 28 December 2019), also Erzsébet Szilágyi, was a Hungarian composer and music teacher. Her works encompass symphonic compositions, chamber music works, art songs, and oratorios. She also wrote numerous stage works including eight operas. Biography Born in Budapest on 25 April 1924, Erzsébet Szőnyi studied composition and piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with János Viski. She received a secondary school music teaching diploma. In Paris, she attended courses by Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris, obtained a prize for composition, and worked in private with Nadia Boulanger in 1947 and 1948. She was also a pupil of Zoltán Kodály, with whom she worked in close collaboration. Later, she taught at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, providing classes in musical education and directing choirs. From 1964 onwards, Szőnyi was a member directing the International Society for Music Education (ISME). She was vice-president of ISME from 1970 to 1974. She died on 28 December 2019 in Budapest. Prizes * 1947: Liszt-Preis * 1959: Erkel Ferenc-díj * 1995 and 2004: Bartók-Pásztory prize (Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta-díj) * 200

Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh

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Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh (; born 15 March 1941 in Tehran) is an Iranian pioneer film composer, songwriter, and filmmaker. He is recognized for his contribution to film and pop music in Iran. His major works include Qeysar, Toughi, Dash Akol, Tangna, The Deers (Gavaznhā). Career Early years He started his career early in his teens as percussionist and accordionist in the National Iranian Radio Children’s Program. In 1958, he joined the Youth Orchestra of National Iranian Radio as contrabassist where shortly after he would be trusted with all the music arrangement and the conductor duties. Cinema From his early ages, he was fascinated by cinema and filmmaking. This was the dream which he and his lifelong friend Masoud Kimiai (Iranian film director, screenwriter, and producer) shared. Finally, in 1967, when Masoud Kimiai got a chance to direct his first film (Come Stranger, 196, Monfaredzadeh composed the score. However, it was their second collaboration (Qeysar, 1969) that made history. Months before Qeysar was released, he had left Iran to continue his studies in Germany where he had the opportunity to be acquainted with the Confederation of Iranian Students which helped him to resha

Eskil Hemberg

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Eskil Hemberg ( – ) was a Swedish composer and conductor. He held positions including CEO and artistic director of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, as well as president of the International Federation for Choral Music. Life and career Hemberg studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm where he received a Music Teacher’s degree in 1961, a higher cantor’s degree in 1961, and a higher organist’s degree in 1964. Together with Herbert Blomstedt he also conducted the orchestra at the Royal College of Music during this period. Hemberg became an executive producer for the Swedish Radio’s choir, from 1963 until 1970. From 1970 to 1983 he was the planning manager and director of foreign relation at the National Institute of Concerts, and from 1984 to 1987 the general manager and artistic director of the Gothenburg Opera. During this period, he was also the director of the Stockholm University Chorus (1959–84). In 1968-78 Hemberg wrote Messa d’oggi, a choral piece with texts by Quasimodo and Dag Hammarskjöld. Furthermore, in 1970 he wrote a choreographic choral suite, which Hemberg described as “an opera in four acts” based on poems by Robert Graves. Hemberg served as general man

Esteban Servellón

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Esteban Servellón Torres (16 October 1921 – 12 August 2003) was a Salvadoran musician, composer, and pedagogue. He composed, among other works, a Requiem Mass, a sonata for guitar, and several serenades and quartets. Early life and career The son of Pedro Servellón and Lucía Torres, from a young age he played the viola, cello and violin. At age 16, he moved with his mother and siblings to Ciudad Delgado, near the capital of San Salvador. He studied at the Rafael Olmedo National School of Music in that city, and in 1941, joined the Banda de los Supremos Poderes, the State Symphony Orchestra. Later life and career In 1952, Servellón received a government scholarship to study composition and conducting at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he remained for four years. In the same year, he created the ballet Rina. In 1956, he returned to El Salvador where he assumed the position of director of the National Conservatory of Music. By 1960, he was the Assistant Director of the Salvadoran Army Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfónica del Ejército de El Salvador). Renamed the El Salvador Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfónica de El Salvador; OSES) in 1960, Servellón went o

Estelle White

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Elizabeth Estelle White (4 December 1925 – 9 February 2011) was a British composer who wrote over 160 hymns, several Masses, and music for theatre. White grew up in a musical family on Tyneside, where she learned to play the piano, guitar, clarinet and tenor saxophone. Her musical influences included Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and musical theatre. White’s first works were composed during her years as a nun; some were published or copyrighted under the name Sister Estelle, though most were published under the name Estelle White She is best remembered for her school assembly favourite, the hymn Autumn Days. World War II White joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II, when she was 17, and played saxophone with a British army band on many ceremonial occasions, including the 1946 Victory Parade. She also travelled to entertain troops in the Central Mediterranean Force in Palestine and Egypt. After World War II After the war, White trained as a physiotherapist at Newcastle on Tyneside, and worked with children who had cerebral palsy. She acted, directed, painted scenery and composed music for productions at the People’s Theatre in Newcastle before moving to Ontario,

Ester Mägi

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Ester Mägi (10 January 1922 – 14 May 2021) was an Estonian composer. She has been called the “first lady of Estonian music.” Education She trained under Mart Saar at the Tallinn Conservatoire, then from 1951 to 1954 at the Moscow Conservatory under Vissarion Shebalin. Much of her work was inspired by Estonian folk music. References External links * Ester Mägi at the Estonian Music Information Centre *

Esther Scliar

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Esther Scliar (28 September 1926 – 18 March 1978) was a Brazilian pianist and composer. Biography Esther Scliar was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil to Isaac and Rosa Scliar. Scliar worked as a pianist and taught harmony, music theory, analysis, and composition at the Instituto Villa-Lobos and Seminários de Música Pró-Arte. In 1952 she studied choral conducting with Nilda Müller in Montevideo and founded and was the first conductor of the Choir of the Musical Youth Association of Porto Alegre. In 1966 she wrote the music for the movie The Loss of Mario Fiorani and received an award for “Best Song” at the Brazilian Film Week II. In 1952 she found she had contracted tuberculosis and in 1968 had a stroke, after which she left her position at Villa-Lobos Institute. Her father died in 1975, and she died by suicide at age 51 in 1978. Works Scliar’s compositions were often inspired by folk music. She composed about ninety works. Selected compositions include: *1950 Ao sair da Lua for chorus *1952 A pedrinha vai for chorus *1953 Vira a Moenda for chorus *1953 Dorme-Dorme for chorus *1953 Beira Mar *1953 Maracatu Elefante (after a melody by Capiba) *1953 Papagaio louro (text:

Eugen Brixel

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Eugen Brixel (27 March 1939 – 16 October 2000) was an Austrian composer, musician and musicologist. The focus of his work was international wind music research. Life Brixel was born in 1939 in Šumperk. After the World War II, driven out by the Czechs, his family finally arrived in Vienna, where he completed his compulsory schooling with the school brothers. At first, Eugen Brixel learned the profession of druggist, in accordance with his parents’ wishes. On 12 June 1956 he passed the druggist’s examination, but his passion belonged to playing the clarinet. From the age of sixteen he studied the clarinet with Leopold Wlach and Karl Österreicher at the Vienna Music Academy (today the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) and graduated with distinction in 1962. After passing the Externistenmatura on 11 October 1960, he also studied theatre studies, musicology and psychology at the University of Vienna, where he obtained a doctorate in Dr. phil. on 16 July 1967. In 1964, Brixel married his wife Eva Leeb, in 1965 his daughter Constanze Viola was born and in 1973 his daughter Regine Cosima. He served in the military from 1967 to 1969 with the Gardemusik Vienna and the Militärmu

Eugene Kurtz

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Eugene Allen Kurtz (December 27, 1923 – July 7, 2006) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He received an M.A. in music from the Eastman School of Music in 1949. His instructors included Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Max Deutsch. He served as a guest professor of composition at the University of Michigan, the Eastman School of Music, and several other universities. His notable students include John Burke, Roger Briggs, John S. Hilliard, and Robert Morris. His best-known composition is The Last Contrabass in Las Vegas (1974), for double bass and female narrator, which was composed for Bertram Turetzky and his wife Nancy Turetzky, who have performed it frequently. He was also commissioned by Radio France. Kurtz was born in Atlanta and served in the U.S. Army during World War II; he first arrived in France in 1944. He settled in Paris in 1952, living there until his death there of a lung infection at the age of 82. References External links *Eugene Kurtz entry from International Who’s Who in Music *Eugene Kurtz biography *Obituary (French) *Eugene Kurtz remembrance *Audio sample of The Last Contrabass in Las Vegas

Eugene O'Brien (composer)

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Eugene O’Brien (born April 24, 1945) is an American composer who has been a member of the faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 1987. He was chair of the Composition Department from 1994 to 1999, and is currently executive associate dean. He has been a member of the composition faculties at Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, and Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Early life and education O’Brien was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He attended the University of Nebraska, where he received his undergraduate and graduate degree and undertook post-graduate studies at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Köln, Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Cleveland Institute of Music / Case Western Reserve University. He studied composition with Robert Beadell, John Eaton, Donald Erb, Iannis Xenakis, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Career O’Brien’s music has been heard in concerts by the Cleveland Orchestra, the Italian Radio (RAI) Orchestras of Rome and Turin, the Omaha Symphony, as part of the Saint Louis Symphony Discovery series, the Louisville Orchestra New Dimensions series, and in numerous other co

Eugénie Rocherolle

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Eugénie Ricau Rocherolle (August 24, 1936 – March 4, 2025) was an American composer, pianist, lyricist, and teacher who began her composing career with choral and band music. Biography Rocherolle was born and raised in New Orleans. She graduated from St. Martin’s Episcopal School and graduated with a BA in music from the Newcomb College of Tulane University. Tidings of Joy (1996), Romancing the Piano (1998), and Touch of Blue (2008). For many years she maintained a private music studio where she taught piano and composition. She and her husband, Didier Rocherolle, whom she met while returning home from her Junior Year in Paris, were long-time residents of Connecticut. They had four children. Rocherolle died on March 4, 2025, at the age of 88. Works The following works are published at Neil A. Kjos Music Company and are succeeded by their edition number: Piano solo *A Creative Christmas (GP359) *American Sampler (GP322) *Bayou Reflections (GP338) *Blockbuster (GP346) *Boogie Bonanaza (GP373) *Christmas Anew (GP367) *Christmas Around the Piano (GP337) *Christmas Joy (GP404) *Classical Theme and Variations (GP370) *Cuatro Rumores Hispanicos (GP418) *Discoveries (GP361) *Extravaganza (

Eugeniusz Knapik

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Eugeniusz Knapik (born July 9, 1951, in Ruda Śląska) is a Polish pianist and composer of classical music best known for his 1980 chamber piece String Quartet No. 1. Knapik studied composition and piano with Henryk Górecki (1933–2010) and Czesław Stańczyk at the University of Music in Katowice. As a pianist, he has recorded widely, mainly in 20th-century music. He has won numerous prizes for his compositions, including at the Festival of Polish Piano Interpretation in Słupsk, and the International Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Along with Andrzej Krzanowski and Aleksander Lasoń, Knapik is generally seen as a leading member of the composers who emerged in Poland during the mid-1970s. This group was collectively named Stalowa Wola after the city at which they stated their manifesto at a 1975 festival of music sub-titled “From young composers to a young City”. Their statement read, “The work of the composers who entered their artistic lives at the festivals in Stalowa Wola was a kind of opposition to the 1950s and 60s avant-garde: opposition towards novelty for novelty’s sake, and towards total destruction. This opposition was a spontaneous, intuitive, deep-rooted reaction, which

Eumir Deodato

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Eumir Deodato de Almeida (; born 22 June 1942) is a Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger and record producer, primarily in jazz but who has been known for his eclectic melding of genres, such as pop, rock, disco, rhythm and blues, classical, Latin and bossa nova. Deodato has arranged and produced more than 500 records for acts such as Frank Sinatra, Roberta Flack, Björk and Christophe. He also produced Kool & the Gang’s hits “Celebration”, “Ladies’ Night” and “Too Hot”. Deodato was nominated for three Grammy Awards and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1974 for “Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001).” The song peaked at number 2 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 in March 1973. It reached number 3 in Canada and number 7 on the British charts. Career Recording career Deodato often plays the Fender Rhodes electric piano. He became successful as a keyboard player in the 1970s. Since then, he has produced and arranged music on more than 500 albums for artists such as Kool & the Gang, Con Funk Shun, Björk, Christophe, Ithamara Koorax and k.d. lang. Guitarist John Tropea and flautist Hubert Laws appeared on his early albums. Prelude, his first album in the U.S., was re

Eva Schorr

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Eva Schorr (28 September 1927 – 20 January 2016) was a German painter and composer. Biography Eva Weiler was born in Crailsheim, Württemberg. Her father was a music and art teacher and gave her lessons in both. At the age of eight she began composing, and at the age of 15 won prizes for composition and organ. She studied music in Stuttgart with Johann Nepomuk David and Anton Nowakowski. She also studied with Olivier Messiaen in Darmstadt. She married Dieter Schorr, music editor of the Stuttgarter Nachrichten and had two sons and a daughter. She died at the age of 88 in 2016. Honors and awards *1961 GEDOK Prize *Prize Composition Competition in Mannheim *Prizes for 4 International Competitions in Buenos Aires Works Schorr has composed chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and music for the stage and film. *Septuarchie violin concerto *Ritornell (Meditation) for violin and organ *Pas de Trois *In der Welt ihr Angst Habte, cantata with violin and organ *Fantasie, Choral und Fuge for organ and oboe *Wir sind ein Teil der Erde choral *Kyrie choral *Psalm 98 for organ Her work has been recorded and issued on CD including: *Initialen F-G-H-SKammerensemble Niggemann, Hans-Ulrich Ni

Ewa Michnik

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Ewa Barbara Michnik-Szynalska (born 15 February 1943) is a Polish conductor and artistic administrator. From 1995 until 2016 she was the chief director and artistic director for the Wroclaw Opera. Career Michnik was born in Bochnia, a small town in the southern part of Poland in February 15, 1943. She graduated from the State Higher School of Music in 1972, and then studied under Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. From 1972-1978 she was the conductor for the Zielona Góra Philharmonic. From 1981 until 1995 she was the general and artistic director of the Krakow Opera. From 1995 until 2016 Michnik was the director of the Wrorclaw Opera in Poland. In 1997, Ewa started working on opera super-performances with the team of the Wroclaw Opera. She conducted all the parts of Richard Wagner’s Tetralogy, Ring of the Nibelung, Valkyrie, Siegfried, and Twilight of the Gods, she is the second woman in the world to have conducted the whole tetralogy. As of 2022, Michnik was the only female conductor who was older than 55 to hold a permanent position as an orchestral conductor. Awards and honors Michnik was award the title of honorary professor in musical art in 2000. In 2007 she was awarded the Cross of M

Eyþór Þorláksson

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Eyþór Þorláksson (22 March 1930 – 14 December 2018) was an Icelandic guitarist and composer. Life and work Eyþór was born at Krosseyrarvegur in Hafnarfjörður. His parents where María Jakobsdóttir, from Aðalvík and Þorlákur Guðlaugsson from Biskupstungur. In the years 1950–1952 he studied guitar in England, Denmark and Sweden and in 1953 in Madrid with Daniel Fortea and Quintin Esquembre. In the years 1954–1957 he studied harmony and counterpoint with Victor Urbancic and in 1958–1961 he completed his guitar studies with Graciano Tarragó in Barcelona. Since then he has been the principal guitar teacher at the music school in Hafnarfjordur and has arranged and written a lot of tutorial material for the classical guitar. In his retirement he continued to arrange and compose for the guitar. Eyþór was singer Elly Vilhjálms’ first husband. Musical works Guitar Methods 1037 The first guitar lessons. Method for beginners with accompaniment. (Icelandic text). 1038 Guitar Method I. 1. grade. 1032 Guitar Method II. 2. grade. Collections 1004 Guitar Tunes. Folk songs from all over, easy arrangements for the beginner. 76 tunes. (Icelandic text). 1005 Guitar Moment I. Collection and arrangements

Ezra Laderman

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Ezra Laderman (29 June 1924 – 28 February 2015) was an American composer of classical music. He was born in Brooklyn. Biography Laderman was of Jewish heritage. His parents, Isidor and Leah, both emigrated to the United States from Poland. Though poor, the family had a piano. He wrote, “At four, I was improvising at the piano; at seven, I began to compose music, writing it down. I hardly knew it then, but I had at a very early age made a giant step to becoming a composer.” He attended New York City’s High School of Music and Art. On April 25, 1943, Laderman was inducted into the United States Army and served as a radio operator with the 69th Infantry Division during World War II. He wrote: We were in Caversham, England poised to enter the war. It was here that I learned that my brother Jack had been shot down and killed in Germany. The Battle of the Bulge, crossing the Rhine at Remagen, liberating Leipzig, meeting the Russians at Torgau on the bank of the Elbe were the points in this constellation that was filled with tension and waiting, victory and grief. We became aware of the horror, and what we now call the ‘holocaust,’ while freeing Leipzig. During the weeks after the war was

Ezra Sims

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Ezra Sims (January 16, 1928 in Birmingham, Alabama — January 30, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts) was one of the pioneers in the field of microtonal composition. He invented a system of notation that was adopted by many microtonal composers after him, including Joseph Maneri. His professional debut (12 note ET music) occurred on a Composers Forum program in New York, 1959. In 1960, compelled by his ear, he began writing microtonal music, and continued to do so for the rest of his life, with the occasional exception being taped music for dancers. His last composition in quarter tones (his sixth microtonal one) was his Third Quartet (1962). Since 1971, whatever music he has composed that is not purely electronic has employed a system of asymmetrical modes of 18 pitches per octave, drawn from a 72-note division of the octave. I seem finally to have identified and made transcribable what my ear was after all along: a set of pitches ordered in an asymmetrical scale of 18 (or 19) notes, some of them acoustically more important than others, transposable through a chromatic of 72 pitches in the octave. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Koussevitsky commission, and an American Academ

F. R. C. Clarke

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Frederick Robert Charles Clarke, known largely by his initials F. R. C. Clarke (August 7, 1931 – November 18, 2009) was a Canadian musician and composer who spent most of his musical career in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Clarke was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1931. He earned the University of Toronto degrees of Bachelor of Music in 1951 and Doctor of Music in 1954. A distinguished Canadian organist, he earned the Royal Canadian College of Organists’ prestigious diplomas of Associate and Fellowship by examination. Among his teachers were George Laughlin, Eric Rollinson, Kenneth Ross, Healey Willan, and S. Drummond Wolff. He served as organist-choirmaster for several Toronto-area churches during his time in the city. From 1957–58, he conducted the St. Catharines Civic Orchestra (now the Niagara Symphony Orchestra), before moving to Kingston and taking up the role of organist-choirmaster at Sydenham Street United Church, a role he served from 1958 until his retirement, after which he served as Organist Emeritus. He began teaching music at Queen’s University in 1964, and was head of the Music Department (which became the School of Music during his tenure) from 1981–1991. Clar

Fabio Frizzi

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Fabio Frizzi (born 2 July 1951) is an Italian musician and composer. Born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, he is best known for his scores for horror films. Career Prior to his work in film, he was a member of several classical music groups and a pop rock band. He was a frequent collaborator with horror film director Lucio Fulci. Fabio is the older brother of the late television presenter Fabrizio Frizzi. Influences and style Fabio Frizzi’s scores draw from electronic, classical and rock music. He often uses the mellotron and Moog synthesizer in his compositions, owing to his love of progressive rock. Selected filmography Solo Finnish singer Taiska used the melody of Frizzi’s composition “Ibo lele” for her song, “Mombasa”. With Bixio - Frizzi - Tempera References External links * *Fabio Frizzi interviewed by Lionel Grenier for luciofulci.fr (in French) *Fabio Frizzi interviewed by Tim Fife for Cinema Suicide (in English) *Fabio Frizzi interview by Fangoria

Fabio Vacchi

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Fabio Vacchi (; born 19 February 1949) is an Italian composer. Biography Training and debut Fabio Vacchi studied at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini of Bologna with Giacomo Manzoni and Tito Gotti. In 1974 he participated in the courses of the Tanglewood Festival in the United States, where he was awarded the Koussevitzky Prize in Composition. In 1976 he won first prize at the Gaudeamus Composition Competition in the Netherlands, with the work Les soupirs de Geneviève for 11 string soloists. In the same year, he wrote Sinfonia in quattro tempi, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli for the Venice Biennale Festival, which thereafter dedicated to him two monographic concerts in 1979 From the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino to the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berliner, the Gewandhaus and the Carnegie Hall Vacchi made his debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival in 1982 with Girotondo, an opera whose libretto was adapted from Arthur Schnitzler. Following this opera came Il Viaggio (Teatro Comunale di Bologna, text by Tonino Guerra), – in the same year, 1990, when he attended the New York Festival of Contemporary Music with L’usgnol in vatta a un fil - then La station thermale, with a

Faraj Garayev

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Faraj Gara oglu Garayev (); December 19, 1943 in Baku) is an Azerbaijani composer, music instructor, professor, son of the prominent Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev and one of the leading composers of post-Soviet period. In 1966, Garayev graduated from the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire, specialising in music composition, taught by his father Gara Garayev. In 1971, he finished his post-graduate studies. From 1966 to 2003, he taught composition, instrumentation and polyphony at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire and from 1994 he has been a professor there. From 1991, he has been living in Baku and Moscow. In 1991, he became professor of the faculty of music theory at the Moscow State Conservatoire. In 2003, he became professor of composition, in the faculty of the Kazan State Conservatoire. From 1994 to 1996, Faraj Garayev was vice-president of the Moscow Association of Modern Music and from 1995, he has been the president of the Yeni Musiqi Union of Modern Music established in Baku. Faraj Garayev was art director of BaKaRa-ENSEMBLE (Baku) in 1980-1994. In 1991-1992, he was scholar of A.Krupp cultural Foundation (Essen, Germany). Creativity Compositions by Garayev are performed at

Farid Allawerdi

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Farid Allawerdi (1923–2007, , ), also transliterated as Farid Allahwerdi or Farid Allah Werdi, was an Iraqi composer, violist, musicologist, and teacher, and is considered one of Iraq’s most innovative and influential composers. As a composer, he was the first and only one to be internationally recognized and as a member of the International Society for Contemporary Music he appeared on their International Rostrum of Composers. His compositions have been performed in concerts and on radio and television, in the United States, France, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, Syria, Egypt and many far-Eastern countries. He won many awards and honours, including Prix D’Honneur de ‘L’Ecole Nationale de Musique de Saint-Brieuc, Paris, and a Diploma of Appreciation for his leading role in furthering Arab Music 1970–1995 by the Arab League, Arab Academy of Music. He explored contemporary musical idioms to find his own unique language where two completely different musical traditions – that of the Middle East and of the contemporary classical – could merge seamlessly. In his Quartet No.1, the richness of the scale and rhythms used in Iraqi Maqam (Saba) are deeply rooted in the soil of his nation’s folk

Faye-Ellen Silverman

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Faye-Ellen Silverman (born October 2, 1947) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She is also an author and an educator. Life and education Born in New York, New York, Silverman began studying music at the Dalcroze School of Music shortly before her fourth birthday. At thirteen she won the Parents’ League Competition, judged by Leopold Stokowski, In the summer of 2004 Silverman participated in the Center for World Music’s workshop held in Bali. In 2013, she was chosen for the ASDP China Field Seminar “China’s Encounter with the West: Past, Present, and Future”. In addition to memberships in ASCAP, CMS, IAWM, and NYWC, she is a Founding Board Member of the International Women’s Brass Conference (for which she has served as composer-in-residence), a founding member of Music Under Construction, a composers’ collective, and a founding member of the International Women’s Review Board (ABI). Composing Silverman became a published composer in her mid-twenties when Seesaw Music Corporation accepted Three Movements for Saxophone Alone. She became a member of ASCAP that same year. Seesaw Music published all of her subsequent compositions until the death of its owner, Raoul

Federico Ruiz (composer)

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Federico Ruiz Hurtado (born February 8, 1948) is a Venezuelan composer, arranger, and arts administrator. He has composed in diverse genres including symphonic, chamber, and electroacoustic music. Ruiz was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He was a student at the , where he studied composition with Primo Casale, Vicente Emilio Sojo and Evencio Castellanos; as well as contemporary compositional techniques with and Eduardo Kusnir. Ruiz graduated in 1974. In 1976, Ruiz founded the Quinteto Cantaclaro, which consisted of members Carola Marcano, Inés Feo La Cruz, Efraín Arteaga, Gonzalo Peña, and Felipe Izcaray. His music for film has earned wide popularity in Venezuela and many of his works are part of the repertoire of ensembles in El Sistema. Pianist Clara Rodríguez has championed and recorded Ruiz’s music. References External links *Federico Ruiz’s blog

Federico Smith

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Federico Smith, born as Frederick Anthony Smith (1929–1977) was a Cuban composer born in the United States. Biography Composer and professor Federico Smith was born in Manhattan, New York City, on March 2, 1929. Smith began his musical studies in his country, and in 1950 travelled to Mexico where he lived for the next 12 years. There, Smith continued his studies and contributed as a music critic to the Política magazine, an important leftist Mexican publication. That participation suggests an ideological tendency that had already manifested in his involvement with American communist organizations and his studies of Marxist philosophy. In 1962, Smith travelled to Havana, Cuba, invited by renowned Mexican artist and director Alfonso Arau with the purpose of collaborating in the reorganization project of the “Teatro Musical de La Habana”, and in Cuba he stayed until his death in 1977. His interest for the utilization of mathematical models in analysis and musical composition exerted an important influence in the development of composition techniques such as aleatorism, stochastic and electro-acoustic music in Cuba. * Matanzas 281 – Homage to the 281th anniversary of the City of Matanz

Felicia Donceanu

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Felicia Donceanu (28 January 1931 – 21 January 2022) was a Romanian painter, sculptor, pianist and composer. She composed works that were performed internationally, and was particularly noted for her harp compositions and choral works. Donceanu was awarded the Romanian Academy George Enescu Prize in 1984. Life and career Donceanu was born in Bacău on 28 January 1931. Donceanu died in Drăgoești on 21 January 2022, at the age of 90. Honors and awards * Honorable mention, International Composition Competition in Mannheim, 1961 * Romanian Union of Composers’ prize in 1984, 1984?, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1996, and 1997 * Order of Cultural Merit, 1981 * Romanian Academy George Enescu prize, 1984 Works Donceanu composed for stage plays and instrumental ensemble, but focused mostly on chamber works. Her music is influenced by Romanian folk music, sometimes featuring traditional folk instruments. Selected works include: * Arie de Concert (1973) for baritone and orchestra * Măiastra (1973) for soprano, chorus, and string orchestra * Picolicomando (1984) for tenor, children’s chorus, organ, violin, and percussion * Yolanda (1993) for soprano and orchestra * Rugăciunea Domnească (1992) for voice, st

Félix Ibarrondo

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Félix Ibarrondo (born 12 June 1943) is a French composer of Basque origin. Life Ibarrondo was born in Oñati in the Gipuzkoa province of the Basque country in Spain. Coming from a musical family, he learned music theory with his father, Antonino. He then studied music at the San Sebastián and Bilbao conservatories, plus theology and philosophy. In 1969, he moved to Paris where he studied with Max Deutsch, Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ohana, Works ; Chamber music: * Et la vie était là… for string quartet (1973) * Brisas for 9 instruments (1980) * Phalène for string trio (1983) ; Orchestra: * Vague de fond, for large orchestra (1972) * Sous l’emprise d’une ombre (1976) * Izengabekoa (1978) * Amairuk, for 12 strings and guitar (1979) * Abyssal for 2 guitars and orchestra (1982) * Eris for orchestra (1986) * Irrintz for orchestra (1988) * Naretzko Aiak, cello concerto (1991) ; Vocal: * Aitaren Extea, for tenor, 2 pianos, violin and percussion (1971) * Musique pour la messe (1977) * Trois chœurs Basques a capella ** Odolez (1979) ** Zoro dantzak (1981) ** Argiruntz (1983) * Cibillak, for soprano, tenor, baritone, 2 clarinets and 3 cellos (1981) * Oroïpen (1993) * Ode à Martin for choir, s

Felix Werder

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Felix Werder AM (24 February 19223 May 2012 ) was a German-born Australian composer of classical and electronic music, and also a noted critic and educator. The son of a distinguished liturgical composer, he composed all his life. His published and recorded music includes symphonies, chamber music for all combinations, solo concerti, choral works and operas. Biography Werder was born in Berlin, Germany, as Felix Bischofswerder, the son of the composer Boaz Bischofswerder, who was a member of Arnold Schoenberg’s circle. He studied Fine Arts and Architecture in London before arriving in Australia in 1940 on the HMT Dunera, along with his father, leaving Germany because of their Jewish heritage. They were interned at a camp in Tatura, Victoria for the duration of World War II. In 1943, he wrote his first symphony. In 1946 his father died. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Werder wrote seven operas, which were popularly received. His opera Private was commissioned for television by the ABC and was broadcast in 1969. He also wrote works for Deutsche Oper Berlin and Opera Australia among others. Werder lived in Melbourne and his teaching included influential courses in electronic music a

Ferdinand Richard

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Hervé Richard (born 25 June 1950 Once based in la Friche de la Belle-de-Mai in Marseille, A.M.I. became a Centre for the Development of Popular Music, and, as an urban development platform, launched various training workshops, artists residences, festivals, an incubator for cultural micro-businesses, and a consistent program of international extensions. * 1997–2007 : Board member of the European Certificate in Cultural Management Orientation Board, Marcel Hicter Foundation, Bruxelles. President 2001 to 2004. * 1997– : Lecturer for various cultural management training institutions (Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Grenoble, Lyon 2, Senghor University, Alexandria, Egypt, UniSavoie, Chambéry, Ecume European Master, Dijon, Sciences Po, Bordeaux, ARSEC, Lyon, University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Eigabigaku Uni, Tokyo, etc…). * 1997–1998 : Steering Committee Member of the National Committee for Popular Music, commissioned by Catherine Trautmann, Minister of Culture and Communication, France. * 1998–2005 : Founder member and Secretary of “Fanfare,” an international network dedicated to urban arts emerging initiatives. * 1998–1999 : President of Medinma, first Mediterranean music market hel

Fernando Brant

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Fernando Rocha Brant (October 9, 1946 – June 12, 2015) was a Brazilian poet, lyricist and journalist, born in Caldas, Minas Gerais. Brant’s interest in music and literature began to increase while he studied law at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. At the beginning of the 1960s, Brant made friends with Milton Nascimento who soon became his creative partner and encouraged him to write his first lyrics, “Travessia”. The song won the second place in the II Festival International da Canção (International Song Festival) in Rio de Janeiro in 1967. In the same year, “Travessia” was included in Nascimento’s first album and became one of the better known songs in his repertoire. In 1969 Brant got a job as a journalist in O Cruzeiro magazine affiliate in Belo Horizonte. That same year, in Belo Horizonte, Brant and friends began articulating a project that would become Clube da Esquina, an influential Brazilian music artists collective. Among Milton-Brant most famous compositions are “Travessia”, “Maria Maria”, “Canção da América”, “Encontros e Despedidas”, “Ponta de Areia”, and “Nos Bailes da Vida”. Brant composed more than 300 songs with multiple partners. He also wrote scripts and lyri

Fernando García (composer)

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Fernando García (born July 4, 1930) is a Chilean composer. Active since 1956 he has done orchestral music, chamber music, etc. He studied with Juan Orrego-Salas and Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt, among others. His style is influenced by serialism and aleatoric procedures. He also played a role in the beginnings of electroacoustic music in Chile, after a trip he made to France in the early 1950s where he heard musique concrete. He was born in Santiago, Chile. He worked for the Instituto de Extensión Musical of the University of Chile, and in 1962 he premiered the cantata América Insurrecta, which won an award at the Chilean Music Festival. After the Chilean coup-d’état, he was forced into exile, first in Perú (1973-1979), and then in Cuba (1979-1990). He returned to his country in 1989 and joined the Faculty of Arts of the University of Chile where he taught musicology until 2009. In 2002, he received the National Prize for Musical Arts. In 2013 he was recognized by the Sociedad Chilena del Derecho de Autor (SCD) as one of the Fundamental figures of Chilean music. Selected works *Variaciones for orchestra, 1959 *Sinfonía, 1960 *América Insurrecta, for speaker, chorus and orchestra, text b

Fernando González Casellas

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Fernando González Casellas (October 15, 1925 – October 12, 1998) was an Argentine composer of classical music. A student of Jaume Pahissa, his early music was predominantly atonal, although his later compositions explored other musical forms and genres. He was the winner of several composition prizes in his native country and abroad for his vocal and instrumental music which included an opera, Saverio el cruel, and many works with religious or spiritual themes. Fernando González Casellas was born in Buenos Aires, where he studied composition with the exiled Catalan composer, Jaime Pahissa and classics at the University of Buenos Aires. He died in Buenos Aires at the age of 73 while working on his second opera. González Casellas was married to the Argentine critic and author Ruth Mehl (1932 – 2010). The couple had two children, Fernando and Ximena. Works Fernando González Casellas composed 73 works, including: ;Vocal – Instrumental *Vocalise – premiered December 10, 1957, LRA Radio Nacional Argentina *Vidrieras del silencio (text by Juan Carlos Pellegrini) – premiered December 10, 1957, LRA Radio Nacional Argentina *Río – premiered December 10, 1957, LRA Radio Nacional Argentina *Ag

Fernando Mencherini

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Fernando Mencherini (1949 in Fermignano – 1997 in Cagli) was an Italian composer of chamber works who reached musical prominence before his early death. Biography He attended the Conservatory “G. Rossini” in Pesaro, studying electronic music with Walter Branchi. His career as a composer began in 1977 and he soon gained much respect in avant-garde circles. His works have been performed at major contemporary music festivals throughout Europe and in America, by leading musicians including the Arditti Quartet, Fausto Bongelli, Lucia Bova, Francesco Dillon, Claudio Jacomucci, Massimo Mazzoni, Annamaria Morini, Enzo Porta, Ciro Scarponi, Stefano Scodanibbio and the poet Edoardo Sanguineti. He was an eclectic musician, refusing to be bound by a single harmonic language, with an amazing ability to renew himself. His scores are worked very finely, but always driven by human impulses expressed with a vital energy and frenetic tension that transmit immediately to the listener. The Concorso Internazionale di Interpretazione di Musica Contemporanea “Fernando Mencherini” is an international music competition that awards prizes for the performance of the composer’s works. Selected works *Notturno

Finn Mortensen

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Finn Einar Mortensen (January 6, 1922 – May 23, 1983) was a Norwegian composer, critic and educator. Mortensen was born in Oslo. His parents were publisher Ernst Gustav Mortensen (1887–1966) and Anna Marie Damnæs (1886–1960). Mortensen grew up in a publishing environment and it was at first expected that he would go into his father’s publishing firm, Ernst G. Mortensens Forlag A/S. He studied harmony with Thorleif Eken (1900–1955), composition with Klaus Egge and with Niels Viggo Bentzon at The Royal Danish Academy, as well as the piano and double bass at the Oslo Conservatory of Music. He also participated in the Darmstadt summer school and in the classes conducted by Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Studio für Elektronische Musik in Cologne. The first public presentation of one of Mortensen’s compositions was the Trio for Strings, Op. 3, which was played at the Young Nordic Music Festival in Oslo in 1950. In April 1954 he had his debut as a composer, along with Øistein Sommerfeldt. He was the leader of the group Ny Musikk, a Norwegian advocacy group for contemporary music, between 1961 and 1964, and between 1966 and 1967. From 1963-73, he was a music critic in Dagbladet, and he was a

Fiorenzo Fiorentini

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Fiorenzo Fiorentini (10 April 1920 – 27 March 2003) was an Italian actor, author, composer, screenwriter and radio personality. Life and career Born in Rome, Fiorentini began his career as an author and radio actor, creating many successful macchiette (i.e. comic monologues caricaturing stock characters). He made his stage debut in 1954, in the revue Tutto fa Broadway. Partial filmography * Maracatumba… ma non è una rumba! (1949) - sor du fodere’, l’intrattenitore * Anthony of Padua (1949, writer) * Viva il cinema! (1952) - Tonino * A Mother Returns (1952, writer) * Giovinezza (1952, writer) * Good Folk’s Sunday (1953) - Vincenzo * Ci troviamo in galleria (1953) - Pippo * Café chantant (1953) - Se stesso / Himself * Cento serenate (1954) - Don Alfonso detto Fofò * Le vacanze del sor Clemente (1955) - Mr. Cheri * I pinguini ci guardano (1956) * The Traffic Policeman (1960) - Padre di Otello (voice, uncredited) * Paris, My Love (1962) - Claudio Nesti * Carmen di Trastevere (1962) - Carmen’s Guitar Player * Canzoni a tempo di twist (1962) * The Monk of Monza (1963) - Smilzo, un bravo * Gli onorevoli (1963) - Professore * I ragazzi dell’hully-gully (1964) * Lo scippo (1965) * How We

Fisher Tull

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Fisher Aubrey Tull, Jr. (September 23, 1934 – August 23, 1994), known professionally as Fisher A. Tull, Mickey Tull, was an American composer, arranger, educator, administrator, and trumpeter. Life and career Tull was born in Waco, Texas, where he attended public schools. He eventually earned three degrees from the University of North Texas: a B.M. in music education (1956), a M.M. in music theory (1957), and a Ph.D. in music composition (1965). He studied trumpet with John Haynie and composition with Samuel Adler. While an undergraduate, he played trumpet in and arranged for various jazz and dance bands, including the University of North Texas Lab Bands. In 1957 Tull became a faculty member at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, serving as Chairman of the Department of Music since 1965. Tull entered into serious composition beginning in the early 1960s. His works are generally tonal but harmonically adventurous and rhythmically vigorous, and show a strong influence of Medieval and Renaissance music. His catalog of compositions include over 80 published works for orchestra, band, chorus, and chamber ensemble, although he is known particularly for his works for concer

Flavio Testi

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Flavio Testi (4 January 1923 in Florence – 14 January 2014 in Milan ) was an Italian composer of contemporary classical music and musicologist. Biography He studied with Giulio Cesare Gedda and Luigi Perrachio at the Turin Conservatory, and took an arts degree at Milan University (1951). He then worked for Suvini Zerboni and Ricordi while also composing, pursuing his interest in music history and working on various radio projects for the RAI. From 1972 he devoted himself to educational activities, teaching music history at the Padua Conservatory and then taking up teaching posts at the Milan Conservatory and Florence Conservatory. Musical style and influence As a composer, Testi’s music has been strongly influenced by the works of Stravinsky along with his own dramatic sensibility. This is particularly evident in his earlier orchestral works such as Concerto (1954) and Divertimento (1956). His La crocifissione premièred at La Scala in 1954 to great acclaim. The expressiveness of work was particularly admired and the composer followed similar style in his Stabat mater (1957) and New York oficina y denuncia (1964), the latter of which denounced the dehumanizing environment of the mod

Flor Roffé de Estévez

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Flor Roffé de Estévez (October 24, 1921 in Caracas – October 21, 2004 in Caracas) was a composer, writer, and professor of Venezuelan music. She came from a Jewish family, which migrated to the country at the beginning of the 20th century. Biography In 1937, she learnt to teach music at the School of Music José Angel Lick, where she learned piano from Moses Moleiro, musical theory from Eduardo Square, harmony from Antonio Estévez, and music history from Juan Bautista Square. In 1944, she studied music pedagogy at the New York Teacher’s College of the University of Columbia, and in 1945 at the Juilliard School of Music, and finally, at the New York Dalcroze School. She taught Dalcroze Eurhythmics (developed by Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950)) at both the Normal School Gran Colombia and the High School of Music (now called the School of Music Juan Manuel Olivares). In 1958 she developed, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, seminars and workshops on the implementation of the music education program of the Ministry. From 1959 to 1963 she acted as National Minister of Education Supervisor. After a stay of several years in Paris, she founded in 1972, with the support of the Nationa

Florentín Giménez

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Florentín Giménez (14 March 1925 – 11 March 2021) was a Paraguayan pianist and composer. Biography Giménez was born in Ybycuí, Paraguarí Department. In his teens, he learned to play the drums and became a member of the Orchestra of Popular Music, directed by Severo Rodas. In 1945, at the age of 20, he learned to play the piano and became a pianist in Ramón Reyes’ Orchestra, where he stayed until 1947, when the Paraguayan Civil War forced him to leave the country and settle in Argentina. After the war, he returned to Paraguay and formed his first orchestra, “Ritmos de América” (America’s Rhythms). In 1950, he formed the 14-member orchestra “Florentín Giménez y su típica Moderna”, which featured singers Oscar Escobar, Juan Carlos Miranda, Carlos Centurión, and Jorge Alonso. The group toured extensively in Argentina. During this same period, he formed an orchestra dedicated solely to folk music. Because of his protests against the government, Giménez was labeled a communist and arrested in 1953. He was jailed for several months. Upon his release, he signed a contract to play with his orchestra in more than 80 Brazilian cities, but the government refused to allow him to leave the count

Florian Fricke

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Florian Fricke (23 February 1944 – 29 December 2001) was a German musician who started his professional career with electronic music, using the Moog synthesizer, and was a founding member of the Krautrock band Popol Vuh. Early life Born on 23 February 1944, to an affluent Bavarian family, on the Lindau island of Lake Constance, Germany, situated where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet, Fricke started playing the piano as a child. He studied piano, composition, and conducting at Conservatories in Freiburg and Munich. While in Munich, at 18, he began exploring avant-garde music such as free jazz. Garry Scott related that the two young men “shared similar ideas and beliefs” and “dreamed of changing the world.” Fricke appeared in the small part of an unnamed pianist in the 1968 movie Signs of Life, Herzog’s first, which was shot in Greece. Fricke subsequently edited the soundtracks of several Herzog’s movies, among which were Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night, starring Klaus Kinski and Bruno Ganz; Aguirre, the Wrath of God; and, Heart of Glass. In Herzog’s 1974 film The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Fricke made a cameo appearance as a blind pianist named “Florian.” Popol Vuh One day, in

Florica Racovitză-Flondor

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Florica Racovitză-Flondor (also Racoviță; 13 November 1897 - 7 February 1983) was a Romanian composer and pianist who composed vocal and instrumental works, including at least five operettas. Some of her works were inspired by Romanian folklore. Racovitză-Flondor was born in Rogojești, in Austria-Hungary’s Duchy of Bukovina. to Maria Ciuntu and Tudor Flondor. Her father was a politician, composer and conductor. She married Brigadier General Aurel Racovitză in 1924 Later, she studied composition in Bucharest. Her teachers included Mihail Jora, Eusebius Mandyczewski, Joseph Marx, Emil Sauer, and Richard Stöhr. Racovitză-Flondor belonged to the American Society of Composer, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Her compositions were published by Editions Musicales and included: Operettas *Lita the Fish Eater *Santa Claus *Peasant Wedding (libretto by Vasile Alecsandri) *Pentecost *Remnant Organ *Chorale *Prelude Piano *Burlesque *Caprice *Dance *From Children’s Life (Suite) *Fugues in f minor and G Major *Improvisation *Noveletta *Prelude and Fugue in c minor *Sonata in f minor *Song Without Words *Source in the Woods *Three Intermezzi *Three Preludes *Three Romanian Dances *Three Studies

Folke Rabe

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Folke Rabe (28 October 1935 – 25 September 2017 ) was a Swedish composer. He was born in Stockholm and studied at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, where his teachers included Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Ingvar Lidholm, György Ligeti and others. He died in Stockholm, aged 81. His works include the electronic drone pieces What?? (also translated as “Was??”) (1968), Basta for solo trombone (1982), Escalations for brass quintet (1988), Concerto for trombone: “All the Lonely People” (1989) featuring quotes from The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”, and With Love No. 1 and 2 for piano (1988). A more extensive list is given below. Works Orchestral music *Hep-Hep for symphony orchestra (1966) *All the Lonely People…, concert for trombone and chamber orchestra (1989) *Naturen, flocken och släkten (”Nature, Herd and Relatives”), concert for French horn and string orchestra (1991) *Sardine Sarcophagus, concert for trumpet and sinfonietta (1995) *Så att denna sång inte dör (”So That this Song Will Not Die”) for symphony orchestra (1998) *L’Assiuolo caprese, concert for brass quintet and orchestra (2002) Works for band *Henry IV (1964) *Altiplano (1982) Works for radio *ISNOT, music dramatic work for

Francesco d'Avalos

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Francesco d’Avalos (11 April 1930 in Naples – 26 May 2014 in Naples) was an Italian conductor and composer. Holder of the aristocratic titles of Prince d’Avalos and Marquis of Vasto and Pescara, d’Avalos was also a descendant of the uncle of Maria d’Avalos, the murdered first wife of Carlo Gesualdo. d’Avalos acknowledged that the Italian composer Antonio Favasta convinced his parents to allow him to study music. He began music studies at age 12, including piano studies with Marta De Conciliis, and later with Vincenzo Vitale. He subsequently studied composition with Renato Parodi. He considered Psiche, written at seventeen, as his first composition. He graduated with honours from the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples, with a degree in composition. He also studied philosophy at the University of Naples. He studied conducting at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and his conducting mentors included Paul van Kempen, Franco Ferrara and Sergiu Celibidache. From 1951 to 1954, he was a music critic for Il Quotidiano. In 1972, Nino Rota recruited d’Avalos as a composition teacher to the Conservatory in Bari, where he remained until 1979. d’Avalos then accepted a faculty post at t

Francesco De Masi

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Francesco De Masi (11 January 1930 – 6 November 2005) was an Italian conductor and film score composer. Biography He studied composition at the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory in Naples under the guidance of Achille Longo, his uncle. De Masi became interested in film music when Longo was asked to compose a soundtrack for a film, and he asked De Masi to be his assistant. De Masi’s filmography includes scores for over 200 films and TV series, ranging from Spaghetti Westerns and sword and sandal epics to gialli and horror films, such as Lucio Fulci’s Lo squartatore di New York (The New York Ripper). De Masi also scored several action films, such as Enzo G. Castellari’s Quel maledetto treno blindato (The Inglorious Bastards), but he is best remembered for his work on Spaghetti Westerns. Unlike most other composers, De Masi started writing western scores slightly earlier than the genre’s most influential musician, Ennio Morricone. As De Masi’s music was less influenced by Morricone, his style had a distinctive sound. Many of his songs were performed by the low-voiced member of the I Cantori Moderni choir, Ettore “Raoul” Lovecchio. De Masi was also very interested in classical music. H

Francine Aubin

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Francine Aubin (6 February 1938 – 14 August 2016) was a French composer, educator, conductor, and painter. She is most remembered for her variety of music for wind instruments. Life Francine Aubin was born on 6 February 1938, in Paris to Richard Tremblot de la Croix and Marie-Thérèse Mauchauffée, the youngest of their five children. Her birth name was Francine Agnès Gisèle Marie-Thérèse Tremblot de la Croix. In 1958, Francine earned the conservatory’s first prize in composition. She continued on to win both the Grand Prize in composition at the Divonne-les-Bains International Competition and the first prize for piano improvisation at the Lyon International Competition. In 1969, she became the first woman to earn a Certificat d’aptitude aux fonctions de directeur de conservatoire from the conservatory. Between 1970 and 1973, she took a pause from composing music to focus on her painting, which was often in a pointillist style. Aubin exhibited under the name “Tremblot de la Croix” or sometimes even just “Tremblot.” Solo and chamber music * 12 Études-caprices pour clarinette * Ainsi racontent les nuages: saxophone alto mi bémol et piano * Amulettes et grigris: percussion et piano * Aq

Francis Bayer

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Francis Bayer (c. 11 July 1938 – 2 January 2004) was a French composer and musicologist. Life Born in Villerville (Calvados), it was only after having undertaken postgraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Paris, studies that led him to a doctorate, that Bayer decided to devote himself to musical composition. He was then a student of Henri Dutilleux at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and obtained a degree in composition in his class in 1970. Among his main works are Perspectives for solo cello (1991), the Prélude à la nuit for orchestra (1992–96), as well as the Propositions series, a cycle of eight pieces for different audiences, each composed between 1972 and 1989, each illustrating in its own way what can be called a “poetic timbre”. In addition to his activity as a composer, Bayer has been teaching aesthetics and musical analysis as well as instrumentation and orchestration since 1971 in the Music Department of the Paris 8 University where he had as students future composers as different in their aesthetic orientations as Bernard Cavanna, Pascal Dusapin, Jean-Louis Florentz, Régis Renouard-Larivière, Bernard de Vienne and Patrick Andrey, for example. He is als

Francis Burt (composer)

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Francis Burt (28 April 1926 – 3 October 2012) was a British composer and academic teacher who spent most of his life in Austria. He was professor of composition at the Musikhochschule Wien, and organised the 1 Long Night of New Sounds concert series at the Vienna Konzerthaus. He composed the ballet Der Golem, operas, orchestral works, and music for ensembles and for voices. Life Born in London, Burt attended St Edward’s School in Oxford in 1944 and 1945 as part of an officer’s training. He completed a course as an engineer at Cambridge University and served as a first lieutenant in Nigeria from 1946 to 1947. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1948 to 1951, where he became a composition pupil of Howard Ferguson. He also attended the Summer School of Music at Bryanston and Dartington. Subsequently, he was a student at the Musikhochschule Berlin, studying composition with Boris Blacher. Burt moved to Vienna in 1956 and was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery. Awards * 1981: * 1992: Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria. Work Burt’s compositions were inspired by African traditions, such as the drumming of Nigerian Ibo people. It was performed at the

Francis Dhomont

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Francis Dhomont (2 November 1926 – 28 December 2023) was a French composer, a pioneer of electroacoustic and acousmatic music who worked and taught both in France and in Québec. Biography Born in Paris on 2 November 1926, Further reading * Gayou, Évelyne (Ed.). 2006. Francis Dhomont. Paris: INA, 2006. * Mountain, Rosemary. “From Wire to Computer. Francis Dhomont at 80.” Computer Music Journal 30/3 (Fall 2006), pp. 10–21. * Paes, Rui Eduardo. “Entretien avec Francis Dhomont”. eContact! 11.2 — Figures canadiennes (2) / Canadian Figures (2) (July 2009). Montréal: CEC. * Paland, Ralph. 2008. “Dhomont, Francis.” Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2nd edition. Supplementary volume, edited by Ludwig Finscher. Kassel, Stuttgart: Bärenreiter, Metzler. . * _____. “In akusmatischer Nacht: Elektroakustische Proust-Bilder franko-kanadischer Komponisten im poetologischen Kontext der Musique acousmatique.” Marcel Proust und die Musik: Beiträge des Symposions der Marcel Proust Gesellschaft in Wien im November 2009. edited by Albert Gier. Berlin: Insel Verlag, 2012. pp. 233–284. * _____. “Mythen der elektroakustischen ‘Revolution’: Aktuelle Geschichtskonstruktionen einer Musik ohne Vergangenhei

Francis Lai

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Francis Albert Lai (; 26 April 19327 November 2018) was a French composer, noted for his film scores. He won the 1970 Oscar for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film Love Story. The soundtrack album went to No. 2 in the Billboard album charts and the film’s theme, “Where Do I Begin”, was a hit single for Andy Williams. He also composed the music of A Man and a Woman, an international success that won the Palme d’Or, a few Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Life and career Lai was born on 26 April 1932, in Nice, France, the son of market gardeners of Italian origin. From a very early age, Lai was fascinated by music and he played first in his local regional orchestras. In Marseille he discovered jazz and met Claude Goaty, a singer of popular songs in the 1950s. While in his twenties, Lai left home and followed Goaty to Paris, where he became part of the Montmartre music scene. At the “Taverne d’Attilio” on the Place du Tertre in Montmartre, Lai met with whom Lai composed his first song, the start of a partnership which would produce over one hundred songs. After a short period with the orchestra of Michel Magne, Lai became an accom

Francis Routh

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Francis John Routh (5 January 1927 – 27 November 2021) was an English composer and author. Education Born in Kidderminster, Routh attended Malvern College and Harrow School before serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (1945–48). He read Classics at King’s College, Cambridge (where he also learned the organ) and from 1951 studied at the Royal Academy of Music for two years with William Alwyn (for piano) and Wesley Roberts (organ). After that he took private composition lessons with Mátyás Seiber. Composer, teacher, author Routh first came to notice as a composer in the early 1960s with the song cycles A Woman Young and Old (Yeats, 1962) and Four Shakespeare Songs (1963), using a chromatic, but still tonal style. Instrumental (especially organ music) and orchestral works followed, including the massive Sacred Tetralogy for organ, composed between 1959 and 1974, as well as numerous concertos, such as the Violin Concerto (1965), Double Concerto (1970) and Cello Concerto (1973). In all there are some 85 published works spanning 60 years, including three symphonies, chamber music, large scale solo piano and organ works and several song cycles. Late works included The Well Tempered

Francis Thorne

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Francis Thorne (June 23, 1922 – March 7, 2017) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and grandson of the writer Gustav Kobbé. Life Francis Burritt Thorne, Jr. was born in Bay Shore, New York. His father was a ragtime pianist. His grandfather, Gustav Kobbé, author of The Complete Opera Book, was a musical critic, particularly of the Wagnerian canon. Thorne was a student of Paul Hindemith at Yale University, before entering the U.S. Navy in 1942 where he served during World War II. After the war, he pursued a career on Wall Street and later, as a jazz pianist, after Duke Ellington heard him play the piano, and arranged an engagement for him at a New York jazz club. From 1959 to 1961, he studied composition in Florence, Italy with David Diamond, who encouraged Thorne to incorporate his jazz sensitivities into his symphonic compositions. In December 1961, Thorne’s first opera, Fortuna, premiered in New York City. In 1964 Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered his Elegy for Orchestra. In 1968, he was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He spent much of his career championing the works of emerging composers. He served

Francisco Cristancho Hernández

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Francisco Cristancho Hernández (1941–2023) was a Colombian musician and composer. He directed several orchestras including the Orquesta Colombiana, and taught music at various conservatories and universities in Colombia. Biography Early life and education Cristancho was born on 18 February 1941 in Bogotá, to Francisco Cristancho Camargo and Sofía Hernández. His father was a composer, trombonist, and guitarist, who led his own orchestra. When Francisco Jr. was 7 years old, his father took the family on a musical tour of South America that included Brazil, Venezuela, Curaçao, and Trinidad. Cristancho went to school in Bogotá, learned to play cello from Ludwig Matzenauer, and was taught piano by Lucia Pérez at the music conservatory of the National University of Colombia. He also learned trumpet, which he later played in his father’s orchestra for nine years. Music career In 1958 Cristancho had his debut performance as a part of his father’s orchestra for RCN Radio. For eight years, he was a cellist with the Colombian Symphony Orchestra, where his brother Mauricio Cristancho Hernández was a violinist. Cristancho was a member of the orchestra of Luis Biava, and he directed the Boyacá S

Francisco Guerrero Marín

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Francisco Guerrero Marín (July 7, 1951 – October 19, 1997) was a Spanish composer. He was born in Linares and died in Madrid. During his lifetime, he completed several compositions, among which there are five major works for orchestra: Antar Atman (1980), Ariadna (1984), Sahara (1991), Oleada (1993) and Coma Berenices (1997). In 1981, he started working on the cycle Zayin on request by the Arditti Quartet. Another project was an orchestration of the piano cycle Iberia of the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. However, this work was still unfinished on his death. The main aspect in Guerrero’s work was the search for musical elements to match natural phenomena. In the scope of his musical work, he studied physical and mathematical principles, most notably the fractal geometry of Benoît Mandelbrot. Works Entire list of works: http://www.centrodedocumentacionmusicaldeandalucia.es/export/sites/default/publicaciones/pdfs/catalogo-guerrero.pdf *Facturas (1969) for ensemble *Da tagte es (1970) for organ *Lo menos importante (1971) for harpsichord and three tape recorders *Xénias Pacatas (1971–1972) for 18 strings *Diapsalmata (1972) for electronics *Oda (1973) for 9 instruments *Noa (1973) fo

Francisco Kröpfl

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Francisco Kröpfl (26 February 1931 – 15 December 2021) was an Argentine composer and music theorist. Biography Kröpfl was born in Timișoara, Romania into a family of Danube Swabians. He studied with Juan Carlos Paz. In the decade of the 1950s he was one of the pioneers of the methods of electroacoustic music in Latin America. With the technical collaboration of Fausto Maranca, in 1958 he founded the Estudio de Fonología Musical at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the first institutional studio of electronic music in the continent. He was the director of the Laboratorio de Música Electrónica del Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) of the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella between 1967 and 1971. In 1977 he received a Guggenheim fellowship for music composition. He received the Konex Award in 2009. Among his many pupils were Susana Anton, Oscar Edelstein and Marta Varela. He died in Buenos Aires on 15 December 2021, at the age of 90. References External links * *

Franco Donatoni

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Franco Donatoni (9 June 1927 – 17 August 2000) was an Italian composer. Biography Born in Verona, Donatoni started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local music academy. Later, he studied at the Milan Conservatory and, from 1948, at the Bologna Conservatory. At least three generations of composers studied with Donatoni. Among his Italian pupils were Sandro Gorli, Roberto Carnevale, Giulio Castagnoli, Ivan Fedele, Luca Mosca, Riccardo Piacentini, Fausto Romitelli, Luc Brewaeys, Pietro Borradori, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Alessandro Solbiati, and Piero Niro; his foreign pupils include Michael Dellaira, Pascal Dusapin, Sylvie Bodorová, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Magnus Lindberg, Katia Tiutiunnik, Javier Torres Maldonado, and Juan Trigos. Donatoni died in Milan in 2000. His music appears on the CD labels Stradivarius, Kairos, and Neos. Works References Works cited * Further reading *Barkl, Michael. 2018. Etwas ruhiger im Ausdruck: Franco Donatoni’s Crisis. Beau Bassin: Lambert Academic Publishing. . *Luppi, Guillermo. 2016. “Shedding Some Light on Donatoni’s Lumen”. Perspectives of New Music 54, no. 1 (Winter): 179–195. External links *Obituary in The Musical Times *A reminiscen

Franco Evangelisti (composer)

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Franco Evangelisti (January 21, 1926 – January 28, 1980) was an Italian composer specifically interested in the scientific theories behind sound. Biography Born in Rome, Evangelisti abandoned engineering studies in order to dedicate himself to musical composition. In 1948 he became a composition student of Daniele Paris in Rome, where he also studied piano with Erich Arndt. In 1952 he moved to Germany, where he pursued advanced composition studies with Harald Genzmer at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. Starting in 1952 he took part in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, where he had the opportunity of meeting Werner Meyer-Eppler of the University of Bonn, thanks to which he began to be interested in electronic music. At the invitation of Herbert Eimert, in 1956–57 he worked in the electronic studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne. In 1957, the orchestral conductor Hermann Scherchen invited him to work in the Studio of Experimental Electroacoustics of UNESCO in Gravesano, where he became involved with biophysics and explored the possibility of directly translating brain impulses into sonic vibrations. In 1960, together with other musicians such as Francisco Pennisi and Aldo Clem

Franco Godi

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Franco Godi (born 10 June 1940) is an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and record producer. Born in Milan, Godi grew up in Prato, where he started his musical activity as a member of a band. After working in a local radio station, in 1962 he composed his first jingle for the Bertolli oil, and from then he became the most active composer in the field of commercials and Caroselli in Italy, as to be called “Mr. Jingle”. Discography Filmography References External links * * * Franco Godi at Discogs

Franco Mannino

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Franco Mannino (25 April 1924 – 1 February 2005) was an Italian film composer, pianist, opera director, playwright and novelist. Biography Mannino was born in Palermo. He was married with Uberta Visconti di Modrone, a sister to the film and stage director Luchino Visconti (see below). He died in Rome in 2005. Music career He made his debut as pianist at the age of 16. He conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada between 1982 and 1986, among the others. In all he wrote more than 440 compositions including opera, ballet, oratorios, symphonies, chamber music and music for the theatre. In addition there was his music for more than a hundred films by some of the best-known directors of his day, including Luchino Visconti with whom he collaborated several times, including such films as Death in Venice (conductor) and Ludwig (piano and arrangements for orchestra of music by Richard Wagner: mainly “Porazzi-theme” and excerpts from Tristan and Isolde), Conversation Piece and L’Innocente, both conducting original composed material. His 1963 opera Il diavolo in giardino, from a libretto by Visconti (and collaborators) based on a Thomas Mann short story, was presented at the Teatr

Franco Micalizzi

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Franco Micalizzi (born 21 December 1939 in Rome) is an Italian composer and conductor, best known for his scores in Poliziotteschi films. His first success was for the musical score of the Spaghetti Western They Call Me Trinity, in 1970. He had previously collaborated on composing with Roberto Pregadio the famous whistled western score for the 1969 film The Forgotten Pistolero (original: Il Pistolero dell’Ave Maria). His main theme for the 1976 poliziottesco film A Special Cop in Action was used in the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. His other scores include The Last Snows of Spring, Beyond the Door and The Last Hunter. He often worked with Umberto Lenzi, scoring his movies Syndicate Sadists, Rome Armed to the Teeth, Violent Naples, The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist, Brothers Till We Die, The Greatest Battle, From Corleone to Brooklyn, Black Demons and Mean Tricks. In 1984 he founded the group “The Micalizzi Family” with his sons Cristiano and Alessandro. His piece “The Puzzle” appears in the soundtrack of Curb Your Enthusiasm and a slow tempo excerpt of it, rearranged for clarinet and bassoon, is often used in the series as the “stare” theme. Selected filmography Refe

Franco Simone

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Francesco Luigi “Franco” Simone (born 21 July 1949) is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer and television host, known as il poeta con la chitarra (“the poet with the guitar”) for the poetical value of his lyrics. Background Born in Acquarica del Capo in the province of Lecce, Apulia, Simone started his career winning the Castrocaro Music Festival in 1972. In 1974 he entered the competition at the Sanremo Music Festival with the song “Fiume grande”, obtaining his first success in the Italian hit parade. In 1977 he released the LP Respiro, whose title track remains among Simone’s most popular songs on streaming. The following year (1978) he released the album Paesaggio (Landscape), which reached the top of the hit charts in Argentina. The song Paisaje became one of the most popular songs in the Spanish language, with dozens of covers like those of Gilda and Vicentico. In 1993 his LP La Ley del Alma (y de la piel), containing the Spanish versions of his songs, reached the 13th position in the USA Billboard Hit Parade, first LP of the parade not sung in English 4 . From 2008 to 2011 he gave singing lessons at “Star Rose Academy” in Rome where he taught to sister Cristina Scuccia, th

François Bayle

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François Bayle (born 27 April 1932 in Toamasina, Madagascar) is a composer of Electronic Music, Musique concrète. He coined the term Acousmatic Music. Career In the 1950s he studied with Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1960 he joined the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, and in 1966 was put in charge of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). In 1975, the GRM was integrated with the new Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA) with Bayle as its head, which post he held until 1997. During these years he organized concerts, radio broadcasts, seminars and events celebrating individual composers, supported technological developments (Syter, GRM Tools, Midi Formers, Acousmographe) and was behind innovations such as the Acousmonium and the INA-GRM recordings label. In 1991, he founded his own electronic music studio, the Studio Magison, where he has devoted himself to research, writing and composition. In the world of electronic art music, Bayle is regarded as one of the most distinguished composers; his influence is widespread (particularly in France, Europe and French-speaking Canada) and his music has earned some of the most prestigious

François Dompierre

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François Dompierre C.M. (born July 1, 1943) is a Canadian musician, songwriter and composer, best known as a composer of film scores. Early life and education Dompierre was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and grew up in Hull, Quebec (now Gatineau, Quebec). His mother played piano and his father was a choir director. He studied music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. Career Dompierre first became known as a performer of jazz-inspired chansonnier pop. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2014. Dompierre composed 24 Preludes, in remembrance of Bob Alain, a jazz pianist who influenced his early career. In 2018 the Sutton Museum mounted an exhibition of Dompierre’s work, including a presentation of his composition, “Petit Concerto de Saint-Irénée”. In 2019 Dompierre published a biography of his longtime friend and collaborator Monique Leyrac. References External links *

François Morel (composer)

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François Morel (14 March 1926 – 14 January 2018 ) was a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and music educator. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 1994 and was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier in 1996. He has had his works premiered by the CBC Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Life and career Born in Montreal, Morel studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal from 1944 to 1953. His teachers included Claude Champagne (composition), Isabelle Delorme (harmony, counterpoint, fugue), Gérald Gagnier (conducting), Arthur Letondal (piano), Germaine Malépart, Jean Papineau-Couture (acoustics), and Edmond Trudel (piano). He was a founding member of the Canadian League of Composers in 1951. From 1956 to 1979 he worked for CBC Radio as a composer of incidental music, music consultant, and researcher. Morel taught music analysis and composition at the Institut Nazareth from 1959 to 1961. In 1972 he was appointed director of the Académie de musique du Québec, a position he held through 1978. From 1976 to 1979 he taught at the Bourgchemin Cegep in Drummondville a

François Pantillon

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François Pantillon (15 January 1928 – 14 February 2025) was a Swiss conductor, composer and violinist. He is particularly known as choral conductor and has directed the city choirs of Neuchâtel, Bern, and Bienne. From 1986 to 2011 he was the musical director of the City Orchestra of Thun. He was also a regular guest conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande’s summer concerts. His compositions include the opera Die Richterin and the oratorio Clameurs du monde. Life and career Pantillon was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds to a musical family. His great-grandfather Zacharie was a violinist who had studied in Berlin under Joseph Joachim and was active in the musical life of La Chaux-de-Fonds, organizing concerts which brought Saint-Saëns, Massenet, and other prominent musicians to the city. His grandfather Georges-Albert was the author of a textbook on solfège which was widely used in the French-speaking schools of Switzerland. His father Georges-Louis (1896-1992), also a violinist and composer, was one of the founders of the Collège musical de La Chaux-de-Fonds (originally known as the Société Suisse de Pédagogie Musicale) and served as its director from 1947 to 1978. Taught by his fa

François Polgár

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François Polgár (born 19 October 1946) is a contemporary French choral conductor, organist, composer and musicologist. Biography Family Polgár was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of André Polgár, an engineer, CEO and Catherine Gauthier, an artist painter. On 25 April 1970, he married Kinga Bonay. Together they have a child. he obtained a master’s degree in musicology and the Certificat d’aptitude au professorat de l’enseignement du second degré (CAPES) of music. His students included Martin Picandet, who made himself known under the name Martin Solveig. Career He was organist and Kapellmeister of the churches of Saint-Cloud from 1964 to 1980 At the head of this internationally renowned choir, he was able to work in collaboration with the most prestigious conductors (James Conlon, Seiji Ozawa, Georges Prêtre…), and perform most of the major choral works in the lyrical and symphonic repertoire from the 18th to the present day. From his training as an organist and musicologist (taking into account his work for his thesis on musicology), Polgár was confronted with the problems of interpretation of 17th century music, which he often conducted at the head of early music ensembles

François-Bernard Mâche

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François-Bernard Mâche (born 4 April 1935, Clermont-Ferrand) is a French composer of contemporary music. Biography Born into a family of musicians, he is a former student of Émile Passani and Olivier Messiaen and has also received a diploma in Greek archaeology (1957) and a teaching certificate (Agrégation de Lettres classiques, 1958). He was a member of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris from 1958–63. He has composed electroacoustic, orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal and piano works. He has been a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts since 2002 and occupies the chair of the late Iannis Xenakis. Mâche’s Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion (Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d’Arion) (1983, 1992 ), which as a whole argues for a return in composition to mythic thought, includes a study of “ornitho-musicology” using a technique of Nicolas Ruwet’s Langage , musique, poésie (1972) paradigmatic segmentation analysis, shows that birdsongs are organized according to a repetition-transformation principle. One purpose of the book was to “begin to speak of animal musics other than with the quotation marks”, and he is credited by Dario Martinelli with the creation

Françoise Barrière

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Françoise Barrière (12 June 1944 Barrière worked at the Service de la Recherche, ORTF, and in 1970 became co-founder and director of the International Institute of Electroacoustic Music of Bourges with Christian Clozier. Barrière was instrumental in organizing the Bourges International Competitions at the Synthese Festival. She managed the magazine Faire and the Mnémosyne Musique Media company which published the annual works of the International Academy of Electroacoustic Music and the Cultures Electroniques and Chrysopée Electronique CDs. Barrière was a founder of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music (ICEM) and served as its president beginning in 2005. Her works have been played internationally at concerts and festivals and through radio broadcasts. Barriere died in 2019 at the age of 74. Discography Barrière composed electroacoustic music and blended electroacoustic and instrumental music. Selected works include: *Françoise Barrière / Christian Clozier - Cordes-Ci, Cordes-Ça / La Discordatura (LP, Album) Pathé Marconi EMI 1972 *Christian Clozier / Françoise Barrière - Ritratto Di Giovane / Symphonie Pour Un Enfant Seul (3xLP) Not On Label 1976 *Par Temps Cal

Françoys Bernier

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Françoys Joseph Arthur Maurice Bernier (12 July 19273 February 1993) was a Canadian pianist, conductor, radio producer, arts administrator, and music educator. He served as the music director of the Montreal Festivals from 1956 to 1960 and was an active conductor and a producer for CBC Radio during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the General Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec from 1960 to 1966 and then the orchestra’s Music Director from 1966 to 1968. He was also active as a teacher of conducting at a number of universities, notably serving as the first director of the Music Department at the University of Ottawa. Family background and education Bernier was born into a prominent family of musicians in Quebec City. He was the son of cellist and music critic Maurice Bernier, the brother of cellist Pierre Bernier and pianist Gabrielle Bernier, and the nephew of pianist Gabrielle Bernier and of keyboardist and composer Conrad Bernier. His earliest musical education was with his grandfather, keyboardist and composer Joseph-Arthur Bernier. Bernier received his general education from the Séminaire de Québec, where he also studied music from 1939 to 1947. From 1945 to 1950 h

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

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Franghiz Ali Aga Kïzï Ali-Zadeh (born 28 May 1947) is an Azerbaijani composer and pianist of contemporary classical music, and chairperson of the Composers Union of Azerbaijan. Music She is best known for her works that combine the musical tradition of the Azerbaijani mugham and 20th century Western compositional techniques, especially those of Arnold Schoenberg and Gara Garayev. This synthesis-style began in the 1970s, before which she primarily engaged with soly Western European modernism. Among her compositions is the opera Karabakhname (2007). Ali-Zadeh’s works were long published by Hans Sikorski, now a part of Boosey & Hawkes. List of compositions Selective list Selected recordings References Notes Citations Sources : Books * * : Articles * * * * * * : Online * * * * Further reading * Neil Edmunds: Soviet Music and Society Under Lenin and Stalin (2004) * Inna Naroditskaya: Song From the Land of Fire: Azerbaijanian Mugam in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Periods, Routledge (2003) External links * Profile for Franghiz Ali-Zadeh at Boosey & Hawkes * *

Frank Comstock

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Frank G. Comstock (September 20, 1922 – May 21, 2013) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, and trombonist. For television, Comstock wrote and arranged music for major situation comedies and variety shows. His theme and incidental music for Rocky and His Friends (1959–1964) are probably his best-remembered works. Additionally, his music for Adam-12 earned him a 1971 Emmy nomination. Comstock’s recording credits include eight Hi-Lo’s albums and backing arrangements for major recording stars. His 1962 instrumental album, Project: Comstock - Music from Outer Space became a classic and was released on CD in 2004. Recently, Comstock wrote new big-band arrangements for Brian Setzer’s Wolfgang’s Big Night Out (2007) and Songs from Lonely Avenue (2009) CDs. He started his arranging career in the dance bands of Sonny Dunham and Benny Carter, and with Les Brown from 1943 to 1955. When dance bands fell out of favor after World War II, Comstock and Doris Day left the Les Brown band. Comstock’s backing arrangements for Doris Day’s Warner Brothers screen tests impressed studio executives and resulted in a staff arranger position at Warner where he demonstrated his ability to write for l

Frank Corcoran

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Frank Corcoran ( ; born 1 May 1944) is an Irish composer. His output includes chamber, symphonic, choral and electro-acoustic music, through which he often explores Irish mythology and history. Life “I came late to art music; childhood soundscapes live on. The best work with imagination/intellect must be exorcistic-laudatory-excavatory. I am a passionate believer in “Irish” dream-landscape, two languages, polyphony of history, not ideology or programme. No Irish composer has yet dealt adequately with our past. The way forward – newest forms and technique (for me especially macro-counterpoint) – is the way back to deepest human experience.” Born in Borrisokane, County Tipperary, Corcoran studied at Dublin, Maynooth (1961–4), Rome (1967–9) and Berlin (1969–71), where he was a pupil of Boris Blacher. He was a music inspector for the Irish government Department of Education from 1971 to 1979, after which he took up a composer fellowship from the Berlin Künstlerprogramm (1980–1). He has taught in Berlin (1981), Stuttgart (1982) and Hamburg, where he has been professor of composition and theory in the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst (1983–2008). He was a visiting p

Frank Davies (music producer)

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Francis William Harding Davies (born November 22, 1946) is a British-born Canadian record producer, music publisher, and founder of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (Panthéon des Auteurs et Compositeurs Canadiens). Davies has contributed to the growth of Canada’s music industry and its creative community for more than four decades. He is credited with discovering, producing, publishing, and developing the careers of many artists and songwriters, and has advocated for their status. Davies received the Juno Awards 2014 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award, recognizing individuals who have made a significant impact on the Canadian music industry. Family and early life Born in Northampton, England, to British politician John Davies and Vera Georgina Harding-Davies, the young Davies was educated at Windlesham House School near Brighton, Pangbourne College, and Strasbourg University, in north-east France. On June 1, 1972, he married the Canadian pop singer Lynda Squires, daughter of Ruth Mullen Squires. The marriage produced three children: Meghan Mae Harding Davies, now Ehrensperger; Emily Gwyneth Emerson Davies-Cohen; and Kate Theresa Georgina Davies. Boards Served in Canada *Ch

Frank Denyer

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Frank Denyer (born April 12, 1943, in London) is a composer. His music uses a combination of conventional instruments and new, unusual, and structurally modified instruments. Partly due to his studies of non-Western music, much of Denyer’s music is microtonal. Biography Denyer was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral and later studied at the Guildhall in London. In 1966 he co-founded, and was director of, the Society of Hermes, an arts club for new music, painting, poetry and theatre in Shepherds Bush, London. He formed and directed Mouth of Hermes. a professional instrumental ensemble devoted to new and experimental forms of music. He toured widely with the ensemble in Europe, Scandinavia and the U.K. in the years up to 1974, presenting new compositions. During this time he was lecturer in Composition and 20th Century Studies at Hornsey College of Art. This early period culminated in his being a featured composer/performer at the Festival d’Orleans, France, in 1973. Denyer left the UK for a time in 1974 to begin what he calls his “musical travels”, and to undertake his first attempts at ethnomusicological fieldwork (in west Asia and the Kulu Valley in north India). In the summer of

Frank Ferko

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Frank Ferko (born June 18, 1950) is an American composer. Born in Barberton, Ohio, Ferko played piano from childhood, and worked as an organist and conductor in his teens. His first compositions were primarily liturgical in nature, with Lutheran composer Richard Wienhorst being an early influence. He attended Valparaiso University as an undergraduate, where he studied composition and counterpoint under Wienhorst and organ under Philip Gehring. Ferko took particular interest in early music and the compositional and theoretical output of Olivier Messiaen. He received a bachelor’s from Valparaiso in 1972 in piano and organ performance, and then took his master’s at Syracuse University in music theory. There he studied theory under Howard Boatright and organ under Will Headlee, and wrote his thesis on one of the extended piano works of Messiaen. Following this, Ferko served as Director of Music at various midwestern churches before entering Northwestern University. At Northwestern he first pursued a Ph.D. in music theory but shifted his attention to music composition which he studied under Alan Stout. During his time at Northwestern he worked as a teaching assistant in the School of Mu

Frank Lazarus (composer)

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Frank Lazarus (4 May 1939 – 14 September 2025) was a British and South African actor, composer and lyricist. He was best known as the composer of the musical A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine, for which he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 1980. Lazarus also performed in the show, playing Carlo in both the 1979 London production and the subsequent Broadway run. Early life Lazarus was born and brought up in Muizenberg, a suburb of Cape Town. His father, Louis, was a wine and brandy merchant and his mother, Doffie (nee Hart) was a teacher and an amateur actress. He studied law at the University of Cape Town and worked for a short time in an attorney’s office. His family were Jewish and as a child he sang in the choir of the Muizenberg Shul. He emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1970 where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life. He also appeared in film and television productions and his credits include the feature film Superman (1978), in which he played an Air Force One pilot, and the television serial Pennies from Heaven (1978). He also appeared in two episodes of EastEnders, among other roles. A Day in Hollywood/ A Night in th

Frank Lewin

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Frank Lewin (March 27, 1925 – January 18, 2008) was an American composer and teacher. Biography Frank Lewin was born March 27, 1925, in Breslau, Germany. He and his family escaped from Germany in 1939, spent a year in Cuba, and came to the United States in 1940. Lewin studied composition with Felix Deyo at the Baldwin Conservatory (Long Island, New York); Jack Frederick Kilpatrick and Hans David at Southern Methodist University; Roy Harris in Logan, Utah; and Richard Donovan and Paul Hindemith at the Yale School of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1951. Lewin composed and edited music for feature, documentary, and television films, including dozens of original scores for The Defenders and The Nurses. He wrote incidental music for plays from William Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, and composed scores for historical outdoor dramas by Paul Green and others, in various parts of the country. He also wrote a number of concert compositions including two operas, several orchestral works, concertos for viola and harmonica, song cycles, and choral music. Lewin was a professor at the Yale School of Music from 1971 to 1992, teaching composition for film; and at the C

Frank Petzold

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Frank Petzold (born 1951) is a German composer, conductor and jazz pianist. A composer of operas and other stage works, he has worked at theatres, from 1994 as Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Cottbus. He has lectured music theory and jazz piano at the Brandenburgische Technische Universität in Cottbus from 2001. Life Petzold was born in Zwickau in 1951. Further reading * Frank Petzold. In Sigrid Neef (with Hermann Neef): Deutsche Oper im 20. Jahrhundert. DDR 1949–1989. Lang, Berlin 1992, , . * External links * *

Frank William Erickson

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Frank William Erickson (September 1, 1923 – October 21, 1996) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, writer, and trumpet player. Growing up The son of Frank O.. Myrtle Erickson, Frank Erickson was born and raised in Spokane, Washington. He began his instrumental career at the age of eight, playing piano, and at age ten, playing trumpet. In high school, he wrote his first composition for the band, The Fall of Evening. ; World War II World War II began when Erickson was 16. He served with the United States Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1946, working as a weather forecaster and arranging music for several army bands. ; Post World War II After the war, Erickson worked as a jazz arranger, namely for Earle Spencer and His Orchestra (1946); and he played trumpet. He also studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco during this time period. As he wrote the music and studied composition, Frank Erickson developed an interest in getting a degree and eventually enrolled at University of Southern California to further his studies in composition. While there, he began arranging half-time shows for the USC marching band. By the time he graduated, he had many published band compositio

Frank Zappa

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Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, conductor, actor, satirist, filmmaker, and activist. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he additionally produced nearly all the 60-plus albums he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. His discography is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation, sonic experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop music. He began writing classical music in high school, while simultaneously playing drums in rhythm-and-blues bands, later switching to electric guitar. His debut studio album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! (1966), combined satirical but seemingly conventional rock-and-roll songs with extended sound collages. He continued this eclectic and experimen

Frans Geysen

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Frans Geysen (born 29 July 1936) is a Belgian composer and a writer on music topics. Biography Frans Geysen was born in Oostham, and studied music at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen, and at the conservatories of Antwerp and Ghent. In 1962 he became professor of harmony and analysis at the Lemmens Institute, and since 1975 has taught at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. Musical style In 1962 he started using serial techniques, but in 1967 turned against the rhythmic aperiodicity and discontinuity characteristic of that technique. Instead, he began to use repetitive rhythmic structures similar to those of American minimalists such as Glass, Reich, Riley, and Young, though he developed these rhythmic ideas independently and retained the constructivism of serial thinking. He also continued to use twelve-tone rows often in his music, utilizing rows lacking thirds, perfect fifths, and semitones, in order to avoid suggestions of tonality and mutual attraction between pitches. His music is abstract, excluding emotion as either expression or goal. He explores a purposeful monotony, inspired by the monotony of the landscape of Flanders—and especially its easternmost province, Limburg, wh

František Gregor Emmert

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František Gregor Emmert (19 May 1940 – 17 April 2015) was a Czech composer of classical and incidental music. Biography Emmert’s ancestors came from the north of Bavaria, in the area around Weiden, Waldmünchen, and Ippesheim. Their history is documented in the local books until the beginning of the 17th century. Gregor Emmert, father of the composer, was born in Bavaria, and the Emmert family moved to Bohemia after World War I. Emmert was born in Mstišov, today a part of Dubí near Teplice in North Bohemia. In 1954, he went to study in Prague. He graduated from High School of Music Education and went on to take classes at the Prague Conservatory in piano, under Lev Esch, and composition, privately under Jan Zdeněk Bartoš. Later he continued his composition studies at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno, under Jan Kapr and Miloslav Ištvan. After his graduation in 1975, he started to teach composition at JAMU himself. As a Catholic, Emmert was never a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He represented an alternative to the “Compositional School of Brno” (rationally and numerically composed music by Miloslav Ištvan and Alois Piňos), and many lat

Franz Cibulka

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Franz Peter Cibulka (23 December 1946 – 27 June 2016) was an Austrian composer. Career Cibulka was born in Fohnsdorf, Austria. Having completed his musical studies in Clarinet, composition and orchestral conducting at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Graz, he served as Professor of Clarinet, Chamber Music and Music Theory at the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory in Graz until July 2002. Cibulka achieved an international reputation following the performance in 1997 of several of his works at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) held in Schladming, Austria. He was later invited to Australia, America, Russia, and many European countries as a composer, conductor, performer, juror, and lecturer. He died on 27 June 2016. Work His list of works includes more than 300 compositions of the most diverse instrumentation and styles resulting from his artistic collaboration with various performers. Cibulka mainly arranged compositions on demand, respecting the artists’ wishes and ideas. However, he also wrote music that reflected his own creativity and visions. This can be thoroughly felt in pieces such as Aquarius, in which he transformed his despair about hu

Franz Fleckenstein

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Franz Fleckenstein (8 June 1922 – 5 January 1996) was a German church musician, priest and composer. Life Born in Würzburg, Fleckenstein studied church music in Regensburg and after the war additionally theology. In 1950 he was ordained a catholic priest. Later he was chaplain in Miltenberg. From 1953 he was music prefect in Würzburg. From 1960 he was cathedral vicar at Würzburg Cathedral and from 1961 to 1971 at the Würzburg Cathedral. During this time he founded the and in 1967 he and his choirs organized the reopening of the Würzburg Cathedral. From 1970 he directed the renowned church music school in Regensburg, which since 2001 has been called . From 1974 to 1984 Fleckenstein was state president of the choir association Allgemeiner Cäcilien-Verband für Deutschland and member of various church commissions. In 1987 he retired, returned to Würzburg and took over a teaching position for church music at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. Fleckstein died in Würzburg at the age of 73. Awards * 1973: Monsignore-Titel des Vatikans * 1983: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland der Bundesrepublik Deutschland * 1987: of the city of Regensburg * 1988: Order of Merit of the Federal

Franz Lambert

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Franz Lambert (born 11 March 1948) is a German composer and organist. He is an avid Hammond organ player; however, he is more noted in later years for playing the Wersi range of electronic organs. During his career he has released over 100 albums. Born in Heppenheim, Germany, his first notable public appearance was in 1969 in the German TV show , after which he received his first publishing contract. He has played for several celebrities, including King Charles III and Helmut Schmidt. One of his works is the “FIFA Anthem”, which was first played at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. It continues to be played at all FIFA-organized games and tournaments when the teams enter the pitch. Franz Lambert lives with his wife and two children in Heppenheim-, Hesse, Germany. Discography 1969-1980 1981–1990 1991–2000 since 2001 See also *FIFA Anthem External links *www.franzlambert.de (English) *

Fred Bongusto

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Alfredo Antonio Carlo “Fred” Buongusto (6 April 1935 – 8 November 2019) was an Italian light music singer, songwriter and composer who was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Career history Bongusto was born in Campobasso in 1935. He made his recording debut with the song “Bella Bellissima”, a song written by Ghigo Agosti and produced by the Milan-based label Primary. It was released on phonographic record in 1960. Some of his most successful songs include “Amore fermati”, “Una rotonda sul mare”, “Spaghetti a Detroit” and “Prima c’eri tu”, which won the 1966 edition of Un disco per l’estate. Bongusto’s proclivity for exploring Latin American rhythms and American Big Band swing made him very popular in South America, especially in Brazil. He had collaborated with Toquinho, Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto, who successfully covered Bongusto’s song “Malaga” in his 1991 album João. In the 1990s, he was elected as a PSI town councillor in Bari. On 18 March 2005, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi presented him with a silver plate to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his musical debut. On 2 June 2005, he was awarded the title of Commendatore by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Personal

Fred Frith

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Jeremy Webster “Fred” Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Best known for his guitar playing, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He was also a member of the groups Art Bears, Massacre, and Skeleton Crew. He has collaborated with numerous musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, the Residents, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, Brian Eno, Mike Patton, Lars Hollmer, Bill Laswell, Iva Bittová, Jad Fair, Kramer, the ARTE Quartett, and Bob Ostertag. He has also composed several long works, including Traffic Continues (1996, performed 1998 by Frith and Ensemble Modern) and Freedom in Fragments (1993, performed 1999 by Rova Saxophone Quartet). Frith produces most of his own music, and has also produced many albums by other musicians, including Curlew, the Muffins, Etron Fou Leloublan, and Orthotonics. He is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel’s 1990 documentary Step Across the Border. Frith also appears in the Canadian documentary Act of God, which is about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. He has contributed to a number of music publications, i

Fred Lerdahl

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Alfred Whitford (Fred) Lerdahl (born March 10, 1943) is an American music theorist and composer. Best known for his work on musical grammar, cognition, rhythmic theory, and pitch space, he and the linguist Ray Jackendoff developed the Chomsky-inspired generative theory of tonal music. Lerdahl has written numerous orchestral and chamber works, three of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music: Time after Time in 2001, String Quartet No. 3 in 2010, and Arches in 2011. He is a Professor Emeritus of Musical Composition at Columbia University. Life Alfred Whitford “Fred” Lerdahl was born on March 10, 1943, in Madison, Wisconsin. His maternal uncle was the astronomer Albert Whitford. Lerdahl studied with James Ming at Lawrence University, where he earned his BMus in 1965, and with Milton Babbitt, Edward T. Cone, and Earl Kim at Princeton University, where he earned his MFA in 1967. At Tanglewood he studied with Arthur Berger in 1964 and Roger Sessions in 1966. He then studied with Wolfgang Fortner at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg/Breisgau in 1968–69, on a Fulbright Scholarship. From 1991 to 2018 Lerdahl was Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at Columbia Uni

Fred Myrow

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Fredric Myrow (July 16, 1939 – January 14, 1999) was an American composer. He composed the soundtracks for Soylent Green, Scarecrow, and Phantasm. He was composer in residence of the Los Angeles Theatre Center in the mid-1980s, and before that at the New York Philharmonic. By the time of his death in 1999, he had scored dozens of films, collaborated on numerous theater projects, and released albums. Early life and musical beginnings Myrow was the son of renowned composer Josef Myrow and grandson of equally renowned music publisher and promoter Irving Mills. He moved with his family to Hollywood when he was six, began composing at age nine, and in 1956 studied with Darius Milhaud in Aspen. Two years later he attended the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. In his freshman year, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich called Myrow one of the most inventive young composers he had seen during his tour of the United States. He encouraged the Young Musicians Foundation to commission a major work from Myrow, whose “Symphonic Variations” was played by the Debut Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl when he was 21. It was subsequently performed by the Los Angeles Philharmon

Fred Werner (American composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Frederick Henry Werner Jr. (June 11, 1934 – June 11, 2024) was an American musician and composer who wrote and arranged music for television, cinema, and Broadway musicals. He started his career in New York in the early 1960s working with Frank Loesser, Noël Coward, and Bob Fosse. Later, he moved to California to work in television and movies, eventually returning to Broadway. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1964 for Best Conductor and Musical Director for the musical High Spirits. He is also known for his work on Les Crane’s 1971 album Desiderata. Theater works Werner’s first credited work was as the dance music arranger for The Conquering Hero in 1961, which ran on Broadway for eight performances. Later that same year, he worked as the vocal music arranger on Sail Away. He additionally served as the dance music arranger for Little Me in 1962 and 1964, and Sweet Charity on Broadway in 1966 and on the West End in 1967. Fred was the musical director for High Spirits in 1964 and Sweet Charity both during its 1966 debut, He is credited as the orchestrator on Skyscraper in 1965 and Sweet Charity in 1986, He arranged the music for Liza Minnelli’s 1974 Broadway special Liza (see Liv

Frédéric Devreese

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Frédéric Devreese (2 June 1929 – 28 September 2020) was a Belgian composer of mostly orchestral, chamber and piano works that have been performed throughout the world; he was also active as a conductor. Devreese is known for his film scores, including Benvenuta by André Delvaux and The Cruel Embrace by Marion Hänsel. Career Born in Amsterdam, Devreese received his first musical training from his father, the composer-conductor (1893–1972). He died of cancer. Awards Devreese received the following prizes: * Prijs Oostende Piano Competition (1949, for Concerto No. 1) * Prix Italia (1964, for Willem van Saefthingen, together with Mark Liebrecht) * Joseph Plateau Award (1990, for Het Sacrament) * Georges Delerue Award (1994, for La partie d’échecs) Honours * Knight of the Order of the Crown * Knight of the Order of Leopold II He was knighted by Albert II of Belgium in 1996. His motto is Tenuto. Works Stage * Willem van Saefthinge, TV opera (1962–63), libretto by Jean Francis * Le Cavalier bizarre, opera (1976), libretto by Michel de Ghelderode Orchestral * Concerto No. 1, piano, orchestra (1949) * Concerto, violin, orchestra (1951) * Concerto No. 2, piano, orchestra (1952) * Symphony (1

Frederic Rzewski

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Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. which has been called “a modern classic”. Early life and education Rzewski was born on April 13, 1938, in Westfield, Massachusetts, to parents of Polish descent, and raised Catholic. He began playing piano at age 5 and attended Phillips Academy, Harvard, and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, and Milton Babbitt. In 1960, he went to Italy on a Fulbright grant, a trip which was formative in his future musical development. In addition to studying with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence on a Fulbright scholarship he began a career as a performer of new piano music, often with an improvisatory element. In 1977, Rzewski became Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège, Belgium, then directed by Henri Pousseur. Occasionally, he taught for short periods at schools and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe, including Yale University, the University of Cincinnati, the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California

Frederick A. Fox

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Frederick A. Fox (January 17, 1931 – August 24, 2011) was an American composer and former music educator specializing in contemporary classical music. Early years Frederick Alfred Fox Jr. was born January 17, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan. His early musical training in his native Detroit encompassed the saxophone (with Laurence “Larry” Teal) and music theory and arranging (with Ray McConnell). He subsequently studied composition with Ruth Shaw Wylie and received the B.Mus. degree from Wayne State University in 1953. He worked for a year with Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan, but took a leave from his studies to tour as a jazz saxophonist (tenor and baritone), a career he gave up in 1956–57 to return to serious composing. Fox then went to Indiana University School of Music (now the Jacobs School of Music) in Bloomington, where he studied composition with Bernhard Heiden, and from which he was graduated with the Masters of Music (1957) and Doctor of Music (1959). Composer, teacher After serving in various faculty and foundation posts in the United States, Fox returned to the Indiana University School of Music in 1974 as professor of composition. One of his first undertaking

Fredric Kroll

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Fredric Joseph Kroll (7 February 1945 – 12 February 2026) was an American-German composer and writer. Life and career Kroll was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 7 February 1945, as the only child of the piano teacher and schoolteacher Alexander Kroll, born in New York City as the fourth child of White Russian Jewish immigrants, and the elementary school teacher Sarah Kroll, née Mahler, born in Warsaw. At the age of eleven, he began to compose a cycle of 30 piano pieces in all tonalities, including the enharmonic relationships, to explore the potentials of each tonality to express different emotions. He called them “Episodes,” in order to distinguish them from Chopin’s “Préludes.” Although of uneven quality, they represent a quarry of thematic material (partially with Russian Jewish flavor) from which Kroll was later to draw in his magnum opus, his four-act opera The Scarlet Letter. He had written but five of the “Episodes” when, shortly after his twelfth birthday, he composed his Piano Sonata in B Minor which, albeit still brief, is a harbinger of his later ability to create in large forms. His Symphony in G Minor, written from 1957 to 1959, has a performance duration of about half a

Fredrick Kaufman

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Fredrick Kaufman (born March 24, 1936) is an American composer. Before Fame Kaufman was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied trumpet, composition and jazz at the Manhattan School of Music (BMus 1959, MMus 1960). In addition, he studied composition with Vincent Persichetti and Vittorio Giannini at the Juilliard School. Career He played trumpet with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, taught at Yankton College and later became professor of composition at the University of Wisconsin. After serving as dean of the Philadelphia College for the Performing Arts from 1982 to 1985, and Professor of Music until 1993, he became the director of the School of Music at Florida International University in 1993 until 2008. Kaufman is a former Fulbright Scholar and author of The African Roots of Jazz, a groundbreaking study that drew heavily on his early musical life as a jazz trumpet player with the Woody Herman Band. He is the recipient of the Darius Milhaud Award in Composition from the Aspen Music Festival, and honors and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller, Guggenheim and Ford Foundations, the California, Montana and Pennsylvania Arts Councils as well as the

Friedbert Streller

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Friedbert Streller (21 December 1931 – 24 December 2017) was a German musicologist and composer. Life Born in Hohburg near Wurzen, Streller studied music education, musicology and composition with Fred Lohse at the University of Leipzig from 1950 to 1956. From 1959, he also worked as a composer, writing symphonies, the first of which is dedicated to Shostakovich, string quartets, concertos, suites and motets. Streller was a formative member in the German Shostakovich Society. at the age of 86. Streller’s estate is preserved in the Saxon State and University Library Dresden. Work Publications * Sergej Prokofjew. VEB Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1960. * Aram Chatschaturjan. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1968. * Dmitri Schostakowitsch. Für Sie porträtiert. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1982. * Revolte und Aufbruch. Musikhistorische Studien zum Expressionismus in Deutschland. Universität Halle, 1988. * Paul Hindemith. Für Sie porträtiert. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1985. * Erwin Schulhoffs Beziehungen zu Berlin. In Traude Ebert-Obermeier: Studien zur Berliner Musikgeschichte. Vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Henschel, Berlin 1989, . * Sergej Prokofjew und sein

Friedhelm Döhl

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Friedhelm Döhl (7 July 1936 – 25 September 2018) was a German composer and professor of music. Döhl studied composition with Wolfgang Fortner and piano with Carl Seemann at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and also musicology, German philology, art history, and philosophy concurrently at the Universities of Freiburg and Göttingen. In 1966 he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Anton Webern. From 1964 to 1967 he was a lecturer at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf. There he founded the Studio for New Music. From 1969 to 1974 he was a professor at the Musicology Institute of the Free University of Berlin, where he was a member of New Music Berlin. In 1974 he was appointed director of the Music Academy of Basel, and worked there until 1982. This period saw the founding of the studios there for electronic music, non-European music, music and theater. In the years from 1980 to 1983 he was president of the German section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. During his tenure came the founding of the Ensemble Modern. Since 1982 he has been professor of composition at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, and he became its director in 1991. At Lübeck he introduced a n

Friedrich Goldmann

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Friedrich Goldmann (27 April 1941 – 24 July 2009) was a German composer and conductor. Early life and education Born on 27 April 1941 in Siegmar-Schönau (today a part of Chemnitz), Goldmann’s music education began in 1951 when he joined the Dresdner Kreuzchor. At age 18, he received a scholarship by the city of Darmstadt to study composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in 1959, who further encouraged him over the following years. He moved on to study composition at the Dresden Conservatory from 1959, taking his exam two years early in 1962. From 1962 until 1964 he attended a master class at the Academy of Arts, Berlin with Rudolph Wagner-Régeny. Around this time, he worked as a freelance music assistant at the Berliner Ensemble where he befriended other composers and writers, including Heiner Müller, Luigi Nono and Luca Lombardi. He also met Paul Dessau, who became a close friend and mentor. From 1964 until 1968 he studied musicology at Humboldt University of Berlin, after which he worked as a freelance composer and conductor. Career Major commissions include works for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Semperoper Dresden, the Berlin

Friedrich Zehm

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Friedrich Zehm (22 January 1923 – 4 December 2007) was a German classical composer. Life Zehm was born in Neusalz in Lower Silesia. External links * * Friedrich Zehm website * Friedrich Zehm Schott Music * Friedrich Zehm (1923 - 2007) komponisten.at

Frigyes Hidas

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Frigyes Hidas (; 25 May 1928 – 7 March 2007) was a Hungarian composer. Hidas was born and died in Budapest, where he studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with János Visky. After his studies, he was the musical director of the National Theater in Budapest from 1951 to 1966 and also held the same role at the city’s Operetta Theater from 1974 to 1979. Following this, Hidas was a freelance composer. His oeuvre covered almost every genre, including operas, ballets, concertos, other orchestral works, chamber music, and vocal and choral music. He was one of the foremost names in the world of contemporary chamber and concert band music for wind instruments. In addition, he enjoyed various commissions from opera houses, radio stations, universities, ballet companies, and musical association and federations. He received many prizes and other forms of recognition for his musical services. Partial list of works *Concerto per oboe e orchestra (1951) concerto *1. VONÓSNÉGYES (1954) chamber music *SONATA for oboe and piano (1955) chamber music *Trumpet Concerto No. 1 (1956) concerto *SONATA for organ (1956) solo *Missa brevis (1956) choir and solo instrument(s) *Violin Concerto

Fritz Geißler

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Fritz Geißler (or Geissler, 16 September 1921 – 11 January 1984) was a composer in the German Democratic Republic who wrote around 140 works, including four operas and eleven symphonies. Life and career Geißler was born in Wurzen, Saxony, on 16 September 1921 Works The compositional legacy of Fritz Geißler involves about 140 pieces, including eleven symphonies, concertos for violin, flute, cello, piano, and organ, four operas – Der Zerbrochene Krug (The Smashed Jug), Der Schatten (The Shadow), Der verrückte Jourdain (The Crazy Jourdain), and Das Chagrinleder (Shagreen), ballets, cantatas, oratorios, and chamber music of widely varying types and settings. His works were performed by noted artists, and by important orchestras and opera houses of both East and West Germany and elsewhere. Further reading * Kneipel, Eberhard: Fritz Geißler. In: Dietrich Brennecke, Hannelore Gerlach, Mathias Hansen (eds.): Musiker in unserer Zeit. Mitglieder der Sektion Musik der Akademie der Künste der DDR. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1979, p. 253 ff. * Geißler, Fritz. In: * Geißler, Fritz. In: External links *Official web site, featuring a full works-list and discography *Interview with Arila

Gabor Lenđel

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Gabor Lenđel (; ; born 11 April 1951) is a Serbian and Yugoslav musician, composer and music producer and former athlete of Hungarian descent, known as the leader of the rock band Teška Industrija, as well as for his work as composer of popular and theatre music. Biography Early career (1964–1974) Gabor Lenđel was born in Subotica on 11 April 1951. He started his musical career as a teenager, forming the band Suze Mladih Krokodila (Young Crocodiles’ Tears) in 1964, in which he played guitar. The rest of the group continued to perform together, but did not see large commercial and critical success and disbanded at the end of 1978. In an interview following the album release, Lenđel stated that, although he formed the band, he never legally registered the name Teška Industrija, but that he considers only first three studio albums as the real Teška Industrija releases, and that Hadžiavdić and Propadalo continued to use the name Teška Industrija after the group’s 2005 reunion out of “nostalgic reasons”. Solo works (1978–present) After his army service ended, Lenđel moved to Novi Sad, where he got a job at Radio Novi Sad as a music producer and arranger. Lenđel wrote the rock opera Zöld

Gabriela Moyseowicz

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Gabriela Maria Moyseowicz (born 4 May 1944 in Lwów) is a Polish composer and pianist. Biography Gabriela Moyseowicz played piano skillfully at the age of three. She was recognized as a musical prodigy at music schools in Gdańsk, Bytom and Gliwice. At the age of 13, Gabriela composed a 25-minute concerto for two pianos. She performed it before a group of respected professors-musicians in Kraków and was instantly admitted to the prestigious Academy of Music in Kraków. The concerto was both classical & romantic in style. The work and a number of superb fugues she composed as school-exercises were the first indicators of the scope of the composer’s talent. A renowned musical critic in Kraków 1 highly praised the first atonal composition of Gabriela - “The Piano Sonata No. 1” (1960). Also, the atonal chamber work “Media Vita” (1961) was met with a warm reaction by both the public and musical critics. From 1962 Moyseowicz attended composition classes at the Academy of Music in Kraków and the State Conservatory in Katowice, and graduated from the latter in 1967. She was awarded the degree of Master of Arts after submitting her second piano concerto. A stormy discussion resulted, among the

Gabriella Cecchi

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Gabriella Cecchi (born 3 November 1944) is an Italian pianist, music educator and composer. Cecchi taught music at the Italian State School and performed in a piano duo. She also worked as a music critic for the daily newspaper La Nazione and contributed to monthly magazines. Cicchi’s music has been performed internationally and has been broadcast on Radio RaiTre. Cecchi was awarded the Athena prize in 1988. Cecchi is a co-founder of the Italian Composers Foundation. Life Gabriella Cecchi was born on 3 November 1944 in Ricco del Golfo, La Spezia. She is an Italian pianist, music educator and composer. She began her study of music at the age of 16. She studied in Lucca, and learned composition with Franco Donatoni at the Chigiana Music Academy in Siena, where she also took courses in Renaissance music and music education. Selected works Cecchi composes solo pieces, chamber music and works for orchestra, often with experimental, multimedia and complex structures. Selected works include: * Intersezioni for piano (1982) * Assonanze for harpsichord (1984) * Imagenes de la Argentina theater music (2005) * Sères for string quartet (1984) * Favoletta, instrumental References

Gaetano Giani Luporini

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Gaetano Giani Luporini (28 May 1936 – 27 February 2022) was an Italian composer and academic. Life and career Born in Lucca, the grandson of the composer Gaetano Luporini, after studying violin he enrolled at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence, graduating in composition under Roberto Lupi. Luporini died from complications of COVID-19 in Barga, Province of Lucca, on 27 February 2022, at the age of 85. References Further reading * * External links * *

Galib Mammadov

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Galib Mammadov (born April 19, 1946) is an Azerbaijani-Norwegian composer. He is influenced by both Western and Eastern music traditions and composed a wide range of musical pieces for various instruments and orchestras. Biography Galib Mammadov was born in Ganja, Azerbaijan which, at that time, belonged to the Soviet Union. He completed his secondary education at the music grammar school in Baku, Azerbaijan, and took at the same time lessons from the Azerbaijanian composer Fikret Amirov. Mammadov then moved to Baku and went to the music college Asaf Zeynally, where he attended classes in music theory, composition and music literature, held by the composer Khayyam Mirzazade, the music historian R. Farhadova, and Z. Stelnic. In 1969, Mammadov enrolled at the Azerbaijanian Republic Music Conservatory (Uzeir Hajibeyov). There he attended the composition class of the composer Gara Garayev. While studying at the conservatory he composed preludes, variations, and sonata for piano, Sonatina for oboe and piano, scherzo for flute and piano and a string quartet. He graduated in 1975 with Bayaties, a vocal cycle for soprano, bass and symphony orchestra, based on the text of the Azerbaijanian

Gamal Abdel-Rahim

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Gamal Abdel-Rahim ( ) (November 25, 1924 – November 23, 1988) was a distinguished Egyptian classical music composer and composition professor. Life and career Abdel-Rahim was born in Cairo to a musical father, and began playing the piano at an early age. His early musical studies were supported by the Music Society of the Faculty of Arts of Cairo University (then called Fuad I University), graduating with a degree in history. In 1950 he began university studies in musicology at the Musikhochschule of Heidelberg in West Germany, deciding on a career as a composer. From 1952 to 1957 he studied composition with Harald Genzmer (a pupil of Paul Hindemith) at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. In 1959, Abdel-Rahim was appointed to teach theory and harmony at the newly opened Cairo Conservatory of Music. He was later appointed head of the composition department there (the first of its kind in the Arab world), which he founded in 1971. Abdel-Rahim was quite influential among Egyptian composers of the next generation, as the majority of them studied with him during his time at the Cairo Conservatory. Abdel-Rahim’s style fuses traditional Egyptian musical elements with contemporary European

Gandalf (musician)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gandalf (born Heinz Strobl, born 1952) is an Austrian New Age composer. He plays a wide variety of instruments, including guitar, keyboard, synthesizers and sitars. He includes electronic sounds in his music. He released his first album Journey to an Imaginary Land on 17 March 1981, and his second, Visions, almost one year later on 16 March 1982. He has become one of Austria’s most accomplished international musicians. Discography Studio albums *1981 - Journey to an Imaginary Land *1982 - Visions *1983 - To Another Horizon *1983 - More Than Just a Seagull *1984 - Magic Theatre *1985 - Tale from a Long Forgotten Kingdom *1987 - The Universal Play *1987 - Fantasia *1987 - From Source to Sea *1989 - Invisible Power *1990 - Labyrinth (Soundtrack) *1990 - Symphonic Landscapes *1992 - Gallery of Dreams (feat. Steve Hackett) *1992 - The Stones of Wisdom *1994 - To Our Children’s Children *1994 - Colours of the Earth *1995 - Echoes from Ancient Dreams *1996 - The Shining (with Galadriel) *1996 - Gates to Secret Realities *1997 - Barakaya: Trees Water Life *1999 - Into the Light *1999 - Samsara *2000 - Visions 2001 (CD1: inspired by Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. CD2: a compilation “20 Years G

Garbis Aprikian

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Garbis Aprikian (1926 – 15 October 2024) was a musician from the Armenian diaspora who was born in Egypt and moved to Paris in 1953, where he studied, inspired especially by Olivier Messiaen. He conducted the Armenian mixed chorus Sipan-Komitas for around 50 years, composing many works especially for the group and also arranging Armenian folk music and works of others. He combined melodies from Armenia with Western musical techniques such as harmonies and counterpoint. Aprikian is regarded as a pioneer of bringing Armenian music to France. Biography Aprikian was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1926. Recordings * 2003: Aprikian: Oeuvres Vocales et Instrumentales is a collection of vocal and instrumental pieces, including Aprikian’s “Lamento”, Petite suite nuptiale in both a trio and an orchestral version, “Moutn er” and Divertimento. External links * * * Accueil (in French) Chorale Sipan-Komitas (Choeur Mixte Arménien de Paris) * Mayrig (Lamento) highresaudio.com

Gareth Loy

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Gareth Loy is an American author, composer, musician and mathematician. He is the author of the two volume series about the intersection of music and mathematics titled Musimathics. The series received generally favourable ratings. He was an early practitioner of music synthesis at Stanford, and wrote the first software compiler for the Systems Concepts Digital Synthesizer (Samson Box). More recently, he has published the freeware music programming language Musimat, designed specifically for subjects covered in Musimathics, available as a free download. Although Musimathics was first published in 2006 and 2007, the series continues to evolve with updates by the author and publishers. The texts are being used in numerous mathematics and music classes at both the graduate and undergraduate level, with more current reviews noting that the originally targeted academic distribution is now reaching a much wider audience. Biographical background Loy was born in Los Angeles in 1945. He was an early employee at Apple Computer, and is the brother of the late Tom Loy, a molecular archaeologist, and member of the team that researched Oetzi the Iceman. In the 1960s and 1970s, CCRMA – the Center

Gareth Wood (composer)

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Gareth Wood (19502023) was a Welsh double-bassist and composer. Early life and education Gareth Wood was born in Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, Wales on 7 June 1950. He attended Pontypridd Boys’ Grammar School and began playing the double bass. When aged just 12 he was performing in Rhondda clubs, playing the guitar with a pop band. He joined the Glamorgan Youth Orchestra as a double-bassist in 1967, and also played in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He then went on to study double bass with John Walton and composition with Dr Frederick T Durrant and Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music. He won there the Lucas Medal for composition and the Eugene Cruft Prize for double bass. He first achieved recognition as a composer in 1975 when his overture Tombstone, Arizona was performed at the Royal Albert Hall during the National Brass Band Festival. He was commissioned to write numerous other pieces for brass band, including Culloden Moor, for the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland, Introduction and Allegro, (used in the Scandinavian Championship in 1978), Hinemoa (by the New Zealand Band Association for their Centenary Championship in 1980), and The Margam Stone (by West Glamorga

Garrett List

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Garrett List (September 10, 1943 – December 27, 2019) was an American trombonist, vocalist, and composer. List was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He studied at California State University, Long Beach, and the Juilliard School. He was a member of Italian band Musica Elettronica Viva from 1971. In 1980, he began teaching at the Royal Conservatory of Liège. List died in Liège, Belgium, aged 76. Discography As leader * Your Own Self (Opus One, 1972) * American Images (Horo, 1978) * Fire & Ice (Lovely Music, 1982) * The Real Live Orchestra (Igloo, 1986) * The Unbearably Light (Music for Treesasbl, 1995) * The Voyage (Carbon 7, 1998) * The New York Takes (Carbon 7, 1998) As sideman With Anthony Braxton * Creative Orchestra Music 1976 (Arista, 1976) * Four Compositions (Solo, Duo & Trio) 1982/1988 (hatART, 1989) With Willem Breuker * Driebergen Zeist (BV Haast, 1983) * To Remain (BV Haast, 1989) * The Parrot (BV Haast, 1996) * Kurt Weill (BV Haast, 1998) With Johnny Copeland * Copeland Special (Demon, 1981) * Texas Party (Orbis, 1995) With Arthur Russell * First Thought Best Thought (Audika, 2006) * Love Is Overtaking Me (Audika, 2008) With others * Morton Feldman, Morton Feldman (Edition, 199

Garry Schyman

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Garry Schyman is an American film, television, and video game music composer. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in music composition in 1978, and began work in the television industry, writing music for television series such as Magnum, P.I. and The A-Team. By 1986, he was composing for movies such as Judgement and Hit List. At the request of a friend in 1993, he composed the music for the video game Voyeur, but after creating the music for two more games he left the industry, citing the low budgets and poor quality of video game music at the time. He continued to compose for film and television, only to return to video games for 2005’s Destroy All Humans!. Finding that in his absence the quality and perceived importance of video game music had risen substantially, he has since composed for several games, writing the scores to BioShock and Dante’s Inferno among others. He still composes for film however, his latest being Brush with Danger directed by young Indonesian director Livi Zheng. He has won numerous awards for his video game scores, including several “soundtrack of the year” awards. During his career, he has worked on over 25 television s

Gary Bertini

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Gary Bertini (; May 1, 1927 – March 17, 2005) was one of the most important Israeli musicians and conductors. In 1978 he was awarded the Israel Prize for Music. Biography Gary Bertini was born Shloyme Golergant in Bricheva, Bessarabia, then in Romania, now in Donduşeni District, Moldova. His father, K. A. Bertini (Aron Golergant), was a poet and translator of the Russian (Leonid Andereyev) and Yiddish (A.Sutzkever, H. Leivick) literature into Hebrew, and of the Hebrew works into Yiddish. His mother Berta Golergant was a physician and biologist. They immigrated to Palestine in 1946. Gary studied music at the Music Teachers’ College in Tel Aviv and then in Milan, Italy, and at the Paris Conservatoire. Upon returning to Israel, Bertini established Rinat (the Israel Chamber Choir) in 1955. He was musical advisor to the Batsheva Dance Company and composed original music for numerous productions of Habima, the Israel national theater, and the Cameri Theatre. He founded the Israel Chamber Orchestra in 1965 and was its conductor until 1975. In 1971 he conducted the world premiere of Josef Tal’s Ashmedai at the Hamburg State Opera. Bertini was conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra f

Gary Carpenter (composer)

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Gary Carpenter (born 1951) is a British composer, of concert music and film scores, and also operas and musicals. He is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. He was Associate Music Director for the film The Wicker Man, putting together the ensemble Magnet for the occasion. Until 2021, he was a Director of the Ivors Academy. During the 2018-19 season, he was Composer in Association with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Works Orchestra *Satie Variations (1993) *Dadaville (2015) Ensemble *Da Capo (1981) *Die Flimmerkiste (1983) *Ein Musikalisches Snookerspiel (1991) for wind octet *Pantomime (1995) for woodwind orchestra *Distanza (2004) *After Braque (2006) Instrumental * Clarinet Sonata (1991) *Van Assendelft’s Vermeer (2004) for clavichord Dance *Children’s Games (1978) for Jiří Kylián, electronic score, work includes also music from the Kindertotenlieder by Mahler *Interactions (1980) for Christopher Bruce Musical *The Streets of London (1980), libretto by Ian Barnett Opera *The Lost Domain (1984), three acts, libretto by Ian Barnett based on Le Grand Meaulnes *Doggone (1990), one act, libretto by Simon Nicholson *Nyanyu

Gary Daverne

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Gary Michiel Daverne (born 1939) is a New Zealand musical arranger, composer, conductor, director and producer. He was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1996. He held the position of Music Director/Conductor of the Auckland Symphony Orchestra from its formation in 1975 until 2010 when, on retiring, he was appointed Music Director Emeritus. Daverne has also composed music for symphony orchestras, brass and military bands, children’s songs and musicals with more than 500 television and radio advertising jingles, film soundtracks and pop songs. Daverne is New Zealand’s most prolific composer and arranger of music for the accordion. As a music producer Daverne has released over forty albums achieving one Platinum and two Gold records. Since his retirement from the Auckland Symphony directorship position, he has gone back to his pop and rock ’n’ roll roots as a record producer, digitally re-mastering, mainly for internet re-release on his Viscount label, archive recordings that he produced in his earlier years, along with producing new recording projects. He is still actively involved as a guest conductor with orchestras and as a musical arranger and composer. Du

Gary Geld

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Gary Geld (October 18, 1935 – June 17, 2015) was an American composer known for his work creating musicals and popular songs with his lyricist partner Peter Udell. Life and career Geld was born on October 18, 1935. Raised in Clifton, New Jersey, he graduated from Clifton High School, where he won a songwriting competition. Gary Geld is an American composer, songwriter, author, publisher, and producer. He studied composition at New York University and business at the Juilliard School. In 1959, he co-founded the Geld-Udell Music Corporation with longtime collaborator Peter Udell, followed by the formation of Geld-Udell Productions in 1962. He joined ASCAP in 1961. Throughout the 1960s, Geld wrote and produced music for popular artists including Connie Francis, Brian Hyland, Jackie Wilson, Gene Pitney, and Skeeter Davis. He is best known for co-writing the hit song “Sealed With a Kiss.” Other notable compositions include “Ginny Come Lately” and “Let Me Belong to You.” Geld and Udell co-created the Broadway musicals Purlie (1970, a nominee for the Tony Award for Best Musical), Shenandoah (1975), and Angel (1978). His music for Shenandoah was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Origin

Gary Kulesha

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Gary Alan Kulesha (born 22 August 1954) is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (1988–1992) and the Canadian Opera Company (1993–1995). He was awarded the National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award in 2002. He currently teaches on the music faculty at the University of Toronto, where his notable students have included Vincent Ho, Anna Höstman, Abigail Richardson-Schulte, Bekah Simms, and Andrew Staniland. He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023. Education Born in Toronto, Kulesha received his musical training at The Royal Conservatory of Music where he earned an associate diploma in piano (1973), a licentiate diploma in music theory (1976), and associate and fellowship diplomas in music composition in 1978. At the conservatory he was a pupil of William G. Andrews and Samuel Dolin. He also studied composition in England from 1978–1981 with John McCabe and in New York City in 1982 with John Corigliano. Selected works Opera * Red Emma (1986–1995); libretto by Carol Bolt * The Last Duel (1999–2000); l

Gary Lee Nelson

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Gary Lee Nelson (born Albion, Michigan, 1940) is a composer and media artist who taught at Oberlin College in the TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) department. He specializes in algorithmic composition, real-time interactive sound and video along with digital film making. Biography In 1964, Nelson attended Utrecht University’s Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands. He earned his composition doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied with Paul Pisk and Robert Wykes. He has taught at Purdue University and Bowling Green State University. He was a faculty member at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1974 until his retirement in 2007. Research Nelson has worked at Bell Laboratories, the Swedish Radio Electronic Music Studios in Stockholm and at the Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music (IRCAM) in Paris. He has been composer in residence and guest researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung and Soochow Universities, Hong Kong Baptist University, the National University of Singapore, Moscow Conservatory of Music and Yunan State University in the People’s Republic of China. Teaching Ne

Gavin Bryars

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Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early life and career Born on 16 January 1943 in Goole, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, Bryars attended Goole Grammar School. He studied philosophy at Sheffield University but became a jazz bassist during his three years as a philosophy student. The first musical work for which he is remembered was his role as bassist in the trio Joseph Holbrooke, alongside guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley. The trio began by playing relatively traditional jazz, touring with saxophonist Lee Konitz in 1966, before moving into free improvisation. Bryars became dissatisfied with this when he saw a young bassist (later revealed to be Johnny Dyani) play in a manner that seemed to him to be artificial, and he abandoned improvisation, becoming interested in composition instead. In 1998, the trio reformed briefly, giving two live performances and making recordings. Bryars’s first compositions owe much to the New York School of John Cage (with whom he briefly studied), Morton Feldman, Earle Brow

Gayle Young

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Gayle Young (born 22 Mar 1950) is a Canadian composer and author. Young is an adherent of microtonality who has invented a number of musical instruments and notational systems. Early life and education Young was born in St Catharines, Ontario. She graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977. Career Young began writing for Musicworks magazine in 1978, becoming its managing editor in 1987. In 1980 Young designed a 24-stringed musical instrument, the amaranth, which she played in many of her performances and later released an album of music performed on it. Young lectured about the musical creations of Canadian physicist, composer, and instrument builder Hugh Le Caine at the McGill Contemporary Music Festival in 1985, and in 1989 she published a book about him. In 2012 Young’s recorded soundscape, “Avalon Shorelines”, was part of a New York concert by cellist Madeleine Shapiro. She continued to act as editor of the magazine MusicWorks. In 2016 Young performed with her amaranth as part of a deep listening concert in Ottawa organized by composer and accordionist Pauline Oliveros. References * Canadian Music Centre biography External links *Official website

Gaziza Zhubanova

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Gaziza Akhmetkyzy Zhubanova (, Ǵazıza Ahmetqyzy Jubanova; with middle name “Akhmetovna”; 2 December 1927 – 13 December 1993) was a Soviet and Kazakh composer and pedagogue. She was named People’s Artist of the USSR in 1981. Life Gaziza Zhubanova was born 2 December 1927, in a village in the Jurun District, Aktyubinsk. Zhubanova attended school in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, and graduated with honors. She was the daughter of Akhmet Zhubanov, a university educated musician and composer who was remembered as the first Kazakh composer to embrace Western music, and grew up in a musical environment. In 1945 Gaziza Zhubanova began studying at Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow, where she learned composition with M. Gnesin and L. Shtreiher. Selected works Gaziza Zhubanova uses subjects and images from the Kazakh history and folklore. She has composed in different forms, including piano, violin, voice, chorus, string quartet and popular songs. A ‘significant part’ of her output is large-scale works including opera and ballet, orchestral and choral works. *Aksak Kulan (1953–1954), symphonic poem *Booming in the night (1916), opera *Violin Concerto (1957) *Melody (Мелодия) in C minor for viola

Ge Gan-ru

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Ge Gan-ru (; born July 8, 1954) is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Ge Gan-ru was born in Shanghai, China. His early years were spent in the Chongming Island during the Cultural Revolution. In 1974, he was originally enrolled by the Shanghai Conservatory, majoring in violin. In the third year, he switched to composition major. Ge Gan-ru’s personal composing style was developed during the years back in Shanghai. In 1983, his first representable work Yi Feng (The Lost Style) came out being commissioned by Frank Huang, who was still a student major in cello that year. Yi Feng, though arranged for solo cellist, has a chamber-like character. The strings are retuned a tri-tone lower than regular pitch and the body of cello is considered as four separated parts. The composer requires the soloist to play on those four parts in order to create percussive timbres. The premiere took place in the same year by Huang. Its avant-generation aesthetic caused a burst of discussion nationwide. Also in 1983, Ge Gan-ru was recommended by Chou Wen-chung to Columbia University for his doctorate in composition. His work has been performed by The New York Philharmonic, BBC Orch

Geghuni Chitchyan

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Geghuni Chitchyan or Chitchian (; ; born 30 August 1929) is an Armenian composer, pianist, and pedagogue. Her parents were veteran teachers; her brother, Henrikh, an established violinist. Biography Chitchyan was born on 30 August 1929 in Leninakan (now Gyumri). While attending the Tigranian Elementary School of Music, she began composing. At the age of ten she had already a published song. In 1940, she entered the Tchaikovsky Music School in Yerevan to study piano and composition. She continued her studies in composition with Grigor Yeghiazaryan from 1947 to 1953 at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. After graduating, Chitchyan became the founding director of the composition department at the Konstantin Sarajev Music School in Yerevan. In 1971 she joined the faculty of the Yerevan Conservatory. In 1982 she was appointed assistant professor, and in 1990 she became a tenured professor. Chitchyan has been active in various musical and social organizations. She joined the Armenian Composers Union in 1955; was an associate of the Women’s Council of Armenia; and a member of the Artistic Forum of State Radio. She is the author of training manuals for music institutes and the co-auth

Gene Tyranny

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Robert Nathan Sheff (January 1, 1945 – December 12, 2020 ), known professionally as “Blue” Gene Tyranny, was an American avant-garde composer and pianist. “His memorable pseudonym, coined during his brief stint with Iggy and the Stooges, was derived partly from Jean, his adoptive mother’s middle name,” wrote Steve Smith, in his New York Times obituary for Tyranny. “It also referred to what he called ’the tyranny of the genes’ — a predisposition to being ‘strongly overcome by emotion,’ he said in Just for the Record: Conversations With and About ‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny, a documentary film.” Early life Tyranny was born Joseph Gantic in San Antonio on January 1, 1945, to William and Eleanor Gantic. Later that year, after his birth father, an Army paratrooper, went missing in the Asian theater of World War II, his mother put him up for adoption. He was adopted by Dorothy and Meyer Sheff of San Antonio, who changed his name to Robert Nathan Sheff. Tyranny was raised in the Lutheran church. He studied piano with Meta Hertwig and Rodney Hoare, and composition with Otto Wick and Frank Hughes. Career Tyranny began his performance career in high school, playing pieces by major composers (such as

Geneviève Calame

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Geneviève Calame (30 December 1946 – 8 October 1993) was a Swiss pianist, music educator and composer. Life Geneviève Calame was born in Geneva of Greco-Italian ancestry, and studied the piano in Geneva with Lottie Morel and then in Rome with Guido Agosti. She continued her education in Geneva with Louis Hiltbrand and Jacques Guyonnet. She took further courses in composition in London with Pierre Boulez, in Liège with Henri Pousseur and in Paris with Jean-Claude Eloy. She appeared as a piano soloist many times in the Studio de Musique Contenporaine from 1972 to 1983. She studied electronic and electro-acoustic technology in New York City with Hubert Howe and visual artist Bill Etra. After completing her education, Geneviève Calame worked as a composer through contemporary music studios in Geneva. In 1971 she and Jacques Guyonnet founded a studio for electronic music, video and information technology under the name A.R.T (Artistic Research Team), and she began to produce audio visual installations, among other works. In 1972 Calame married Jacques Guyonnet and had two children. Geneviève Calame developed a method for teaching electronic music to children and taught from 1975–1993 at

Gennady Gladkov

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Gennady Igorevich Gladkov (; 18 February 1935 – 16 October 2023) was a Soviet and Russian composer. He composed music for some of the most famous Soviet movies and cartoons, most notably The Bremen Town Musicians. Biography Gladkov was born in Moscow. He was a People’s Artist of Russia (2002). Commander of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” 4th class. From 2019, he had been reissuing his catalogue — for example, he had released soundtracks for the “Til’” performance, for “Separated” cartoon, the An Ordinary Miracle, as well as symphonic pieces, music for theater and cinema, etc. Gladkov died on 16 October 2023, at the age of 88. Personal life He supported the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, even expressing desire to go to the fronts. Filmography Soundtrack Voice acting *On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians – The King *Formula of Love – Semyon Farada’s singing voice *The New Bremen Town Musicians – The Cat, the robbers References External links * * Геннадий Гладков — Official Site *

Geoff Muldaur

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Geoff Muldaur (born August 12, 1943) is an American singer, guitarist and composer, who was a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and a member of Paul Butterfield’s Better Days. Career Having established a reputation with the Kweskin Jug Band during the 1960s, Geoff and his then-wife Maria Muldaur recorded their first album, Pottery Pie, for Warner Bros. Records in 1968. This album contained his version of “Brazil” (“Aquarela do Brasil”), which became the theme for the film Brazil (1985) directed by Terry Gilliam. After recording the album, the Muldaurs moved to Woodstock, New York. and Geoff Muldaur and the Nite Lites for Hannibal Records. He wrote scores for film and television, won an Emmy Award, and produced albums for Lenny Pickett and Richard Greene. In 2003, Deutsche Grammophon released his album, Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke. After the Kweskin group broke up, the couple produced two albums. Maria Muldaur began her solo career when their marriage ended in 1972 and retained her married name. His sister is actress Diana Muldaur. His daughters Jenni and Clare are also musicians. Discography As leader * Sleepy Man Blues (Prestige, 1964) * P

Geoffrey Burgon

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Geoffrey Alan Burgon (15 July 1941 – 21 September 2010) was an English composer best known for his television and film scores. Among his most recognisable works are Monty Python’s Life of Brian for film, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Brideshead Revisited for television, the latter two earning Ivor Novello Awards in 1979 and 1981 respectively. He also won BAFTAs for his themes for the remake of The Forsyte Saga and Longitude. Burgon also achieved success and a serious following with vocal, orchestral, concert and stage works. son of Alan Wybert Burgon (died 1983) and Ada Vera, née Isom. He had Huguenot ancestry. He taught himself the trumpet in order to join a jazz band at school (Pewley Grammar School, Guildford). He entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with the intention of becoming a professional trumpet player. However, under the direction of his mentor, composer Peter Wishart, he found that he was more interested in composition. Burgon initially supported himself and his family as a freelance jazz trumpeter. At the age of 30 he sold his instruments, except one, and devoted himself to composition. He lived through a lengthy period of poverty before critical succes

Geoffrey Bush

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Geoffrey Bush (23 March 1920 – 24 February 1998) was a British composer, teacher and music scholar. Largely without formal training in composition, he produced a wide range of compositions across different genres, including many songs and works for choirs. He also edited and arranged the works of other composers. Most of his teaching was within the framework of the Extramural Departments at Oxford University and London University. He was a popular broadcaster on BBC music programmes, and the author of several books. Life Early life Bush was born in Kilburn, London, on 23 March 1920, the son of Christopher Bush, a schoolmaster and writer, and his wife Winifred, née Chart (John Warrack’s ODNB biography gives the father’s forenames as “Charles Christmas”). Bush’s parents separated at around the time of his birth, and he never knew his father. He began piano lessons at the age of seven, and the following year became a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral choir school, where he remained until 1933, studying under Walter Alcock and acquiring a lasting love of traditional English church music. He began composing at the age of ten. In 1933 he went to Lancing College, where his early compositio

Geoffrey Grey

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Geoffrey Grey (26 September 1934 – 2023) was a British classical composer. Biography Geoffrey Grey was born in Gipsy Hill and lived on the edge of Dartmoor until the onset of the second world war, when he was sent to Scotland to live with his paternal grandparents. A career as a concert violinist had been envisaged and encouraged by his parents as he had shown a precocious interest in the violin at a very early age. Edinburgh, however, was markedly unfriendly to the English in those days, and its indigenous juvenile population openly hostile to any child with artistic pretensions. In spite of this he eventually went to the Royal Academy of Music and studied violin, composition, piano and conducting. His composition teachers were William Alwyn, Benjamin Frankel and later, in Paris, Nadia Boulanger. In 1959 he went to New Zealand where he freelanced as a violinist for a time until he was appointed Tour Musical Director of the NZ Opera Company. He had a number of early pieces broadcast by the NZBS and returned to England in 1960. He now had a family to provide for and took the job of Director of the Suffolk Rural Music School. This only lasted for a year and then he moved to London wh

Geoffrey Poole

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Geoffrey Richard Poole (born 9 February 1949 in Ipswich, Suffolk) is a contemporary classical composer and educator. His scores range from Western orchestral, choral, vocal, chamber, theatre and contemporary dance genres, to intercultural conceptions featuring Ghanean Drummer, Javanese Gamelan, or Korean traditional performers. Career Poole’s London debut for The King’s Singers, Wymondham Chants, was an immediate hit in March 1971 and has since been toured to almost every country and widely distributed by recordings. Demonstrating the composer’s early assuredness with the English Choral Tradition (enriched by his study of medieval music and the ethos of Benjamin Britten at the University of East Anglia), it led to requests for similar works. However Poole had, by then, undertaken studies with Alexander Goehr and Jonathan Harvey whose modernist influences were handled with increasing assuredness in the instrumental works of the 1970s, notably the Clements Prize-winning piano trio Algol Of Perseus (1973). His first orchestral work, Visions for Orchestra (1974-5) - was considered by Paul Griffiths as “strikingly true to its age … so individual a work that it held its own alongside D

Georg Friedrich Haas

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Georg Friedrich Haas (born 16 August 1953) is an Austrian composer. In a 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, pieces by Haas received the most votes (49), and his composition in vain (2000) topped the list. Education and career Georg Friedrich Haas was born in Graz. He grew up in Tschagguns, Vorarlberg, and studied composition with Gösta Neuwirth and Iván Erőd and piano with Doris Wolf at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria. Since 1978, he has been teaching at the Hochschule as an instructor, and since 1989 as an associate professor in counterpoint, contemporary composition techniques, analysis, and introduction to microtonal music. Haas is a founding member of the Graz composers’ collective Die andere Seite. Haas completed two years of postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Friedrich Cerha, participated in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (1980, 1988 and 1990), and the computer music course at IRCAM (1991). He received a fellowship from the Salzburg Festival (1992–93), was awarded the Sandoz Prize (1992) and a music grant from the National Ministry of Science, Research, and Culture (1995).

Georg Katzer

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Georg Katzer (; 10 January 1935 – 7 May 2019) was a German composer and teacher. The last master student of Hanns Eisler, he composed music in many genres, including works for the stage. Katzer was one of the pioneers of electronic new music in the German Democratic Republic and the founder of the first electronic-music studio in the GDR. He held leading positions in music organisations, first in the East (Akademie der Künste der DDR), then in the united Germany (Academy of Arts, Berlin, and Deutscher Musikrat), and received many awards, including the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic, the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German Music Authors’ Prize. Biography Katzer was born in Habelschwerdt, Lower Silesia (now Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Poland), on 10 January 1935. From 1954 to 1960 he studied piano, music theory, and composition with (amongst others) Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and Ruth Zechlin at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in East Berlin, then from 1957 to 1958 he studied in Prague with . From 1961 to 1963 he was a postgraduate student of Hanns Eisler and Leo Spies at the German Academy of the

George Balch Wilson

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George Balch Wilson (January 28, 1927 – October 12, 2021) was an American composer who is known for his contributions to electronic music. In 1955 he won the Prix de Rome for composition. He taught for more than 30 years on the faculty of the University of Michigan where he founded and directed the school’s electronic music studio. Upon his retirement he was made a professor emeritus. Early life Born in Grand Island, Nebraska, Wilson grew up in Lincoln. His father was an amateur flutist and clarinetist and his mother was a pianist who had earned money for his family accompanying silent films during the Great Depression. His parents often played duets together at home and took Wilson to local concerts by ensembles like the Lincoln Symphony. He also received music lessons from them. Although this exposure instilled a love for music within Wilson, the nervousness of public performance led to his eventual refusal to pursue further musical studies in his childhood. He later took piano lessons intermittently during his teenage years. His grandfather was a doctor in the small town of Rushville, Nebraska located near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and thus the family had opportunities d

George Brunner (composer)

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George Brunner is an American composer and performer born in Philadelphia. He has founded the International Electroacoustic Music Festival at Brooklyn College in 1995 where he has produced renowned composers such as Pauline Oliveros and Noah Creshevsky. He is also the founder of the Brooklyn College Electroacoustic Music Ensemble. Currently, he is the Director of the Music Technology Program for the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and on the faculty of the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music (BC-CCM). George Brunner has presented his lecture, “Text Sound: Interlingua, Intermedia, Electronica”, at the Spark festival. His works have been performed around the world festivals and concerts including the Spark Festival, the Electronic Music Midwest Festival (EMM), Experimental Intermedia, Compendium International - Bourges (2003), and the 60x60 project in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. George Brunner is also a sound engineer who has recorded well known composers such as Morton Feldman Joan La Barbara. and Richard Kostelanetz Reviews and articles *“Ingenuity and madness?”, Malcolm Miller, “Music & Vision Daily”, December 24, 2005 *“Bass Works of Good Humor”, John Rockwell, "

George Cacioppo

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George Cacioppo (1926–1984) was an American avant-garde composer known as one of the founding members of the ONCE Group, which held the ONCE Festival in Ann Arbor, MI from 1961-1968. Biography Cacioppo was born in Monroe, MI on September 24, 1924, and studied chemistry, then composition with Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan. He completed his bachelor’s degree in music in 1951 and a master’s degree in composition in 1952. Cacioppo worked at the Tanglewood Institute, where he was awarded the Serge Koussevitsky grant in 1959 to study with Leon Kirchner. He was a visiting lecturer in composition at the University of Michigan from 1961–68 and 1979–80, where he produced and hosted the “New Music” program on Michigan Public radio (WUOM/WVGR). In 1961, Cacioppo co-founded, along with Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, Roger Reynolds, and Donald Scavarda, the ONCE group and was an active organizer of and participant in all of the ONCE Festivals, establishing Ann Arbor as an international center of experimental music in the 1960s. His interests in the sciences, astronomy, mathematics, and poetry greatly impacted his musical output, and his later works dealt with pitch relationships an

George Crumb

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George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical language which “range s in mood from peaceful to nightmarish”. Crumb’s compositions are known for pushing the limits of technical prowess by way of frequent use of extended techniques. The unusual timbres he employs evoke a surrealist atmosphere which portray emotions of considerable intensity with vast and sometimes haunting soundscapes. His few large-scale works include Echoes of Time and the River (1967), which won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and Star-Child (1977), which won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition; however, his output consists of mostly music for chamber ensembles or solo instrumentalists. Among his best known compositions are Black Angels (1970), a striking commentary on the Vietnam War for electric string quartet; Ancient Voices of Children (1970) for a mixed chamber ensemble; and Vox Balaenae (1971), a musical evocation of the humpback whale, for electric flute, electric cello, and amplifie

George Dreyfus

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George Dreyfus AM (born 22 July 1928) is an Australian contemporary classical, film and television composer. Early life and orchestral career Dreyfus was born to a Jewish family in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany. He was the younger of two sons born to Alfred Dreyfus and Hilde Ransenberg. Growing up, his family had what he described as “pots of money, cars, Kindermädchen nannies and holidays in Switzerland and Czechoslovakia”. However, due to the Nazi persecution of Jews, the family was forced to move to Berlin in 1935 and then left Germany entirely. He and his brother arrived in Melbourne in July 1939 and began attending boarding school; his parents followed in December. At Melbourne High School, Dreyfus conducted the school choir and played clarinet in the school orchestra. He enrolled in the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music as a bassoonist, and then in 1948 toured for a year playing Italian opera with the J. C. Williamson touring orchestra. Dreyfus subsequently played for several years in the house orchestra of His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. He was reputedly fired from the orchestra by the Australian conductor and composer Clive Douglas. A grant enabled him in 1955 to continue his

George E. Lewis

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George Emanuel Lewis (born July 14, 1952) is an American composer, trombonist, and musicologist. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization at the age of 19. His music spans genres including avant-garde jazz, contemporary classical and experimental music. He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music, which he began pursuing in the late 1970s; in the 1980s he created Voyager, an improvising software that he has used in interactive performances. and the American Book Award Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University. Early life George E. Lewis was born on July 14, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois. His father, George Thomas Lewis, was a postal worker who studied electronics under the GI Bill and had a deep love of jazz music; his mother, Cornelia Griffith Lewis, liked blues, soul, and R&B singers. An African-American teacher convinced Lewis’s parents to enroll him at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, where he started classes at the age of nine. Lewis attended the Lab

George Martin

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Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the “fifth Beatle” due to his extensive involvement in each of the Beatles’ original albums. Martin’s formal musical expertise and interest in novel recording practices facilitated the group’s rudimentary musical education and desire for new musical sounds to record. Most of their orchestral and string arrangements were written by Martin, and he played piano or keyboards on a number of their records. Their collaborations resulted in popular, highly acclaimed records with innovative sounds, such as the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Martin’s career spanned more than sixty years in music, film, television and live performance. Before working with the Beatles and other pop musicians, he produced comedy and novelty records in the 1950s and early 1960s as the head of EMI’s Parlophone label, working with Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Bernard Cribbins, among others. In 1965, he left EMI and formed his own production company, Associated Independent Recording. AllMusic has described Martin as the “world’s m

George Newson

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George Newson (27 July 1932 – 8 March 2024) was an English composer and pianist who made important contributions to British electronic and avant garde music during the 1960s and 1970s. He subsequently composed large and small-scale works in many musical forms and styles, from songs and chamber music to choral works and opera. As a photographer, Newson took portraits of many of his composer contemporaries. His first publicly performed work was the Octet for wind of 1951, which shows the influence of the modern jazz bands the composer was playing with at the time. From 1959 he worked as a music teacher in London, at Twickenham Technical College and Peckham Manor School. Composition Electronic compositions followed in the 1960s, first with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where he worked with Delia Derbyshire and produced the music for an experimental drama, The Man Who Collected Sounds, with radio producer Douglas Cleverdon. Derbyshire became a lifelong friend. Back in the UK he produced his tape composition Silent Spring, inspired by Rachel Carson’s book and using birdsong recorded at London Zoo. It was premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Redcliffe Concert on 15 January 1968 - one of

George Palmer (composer)

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George Alfred Palmer (born 1947) is an Australian classical music composer and a former Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Early life and education Palmer was born in a British military hospital in Egypt in 1947 while his parents, recently demobilised from the British Army, were awaiting a ship to take them to a new life in Australia. Palmer’s family arrived in Sydney when he was three months old and he has lived there ever since. He received a Jesuit education at Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview, with particular emphasis on the Classics, languages and history. He graduated in Arts and Law from University of Sydney in 1970. Palmer studied piano from the age of 10. His most influential teachers were pianists Frank Warbrick and Neta Maughan. Palmer’s interests always lay in composition rather than performance, and he began writing music at an early age. Law career After graduating, Palmer joined a city law firm where he specialised in commercial law. He developed expertise in oil and mineral exploration law at a time when the resources boom was just beginning in Australia. Within two years of graduation, he became a partner of his law firm. He became a barrister in 19

George Russell (composer)

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George Allen Russell (June 23, 1923 – July 27, 2009) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger and theorist. He is considered one of the first jazz musicians to contribute to general music theory with a theory of harmony based on jazz rather than European music, in his book Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (1953). Early life Russell was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 23, 1923, He was adopted by a nurse and a chef on the B & O Railroad, Bessie and Joseph Russell. He made his stage debut at age seven, singing “Moon Over Miami” with Fats Waller. Surrounded by the music of the black church and the big bands which played on the Ohio Riverboats, and with a father who was a music educator at Oberlin College, he began playing drums with the Boy Scouts and Bugle Corps, receiving a scholarship to Wilberforce University, where he joined the Collegians, a band noted as a breeding ground for jazz musicians including Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Charles Freeman Lee, Frank Foster, and Benny Carter. Russell served in that band at the same time as another noted jazz composer, Ernie Wilkins. When called up for the draft at the beginning of World War II, he was hospitalized w

George Secor

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George Secor (November 8, 1943 – March 2, 2020 ) was an American musician, composer and music-theorist from Chicago. He was the discoverer of miracle temperament and eponym of the secor. As an inventor, Secor and Hermann Pedtke’s Motorola Scalatron (1974) is an example of a Bosanquet generalized keyboard featuring a multicolored arrangement of 240 tunable oval keys, about which Secor said: “There is not much point in using this alternative keyboard for systems below 31 tones in the octave.” However, “even if it were completely impractical musically, it would make a wonderful prop for a futuristic movie.” It is approximated in 31 , 41 , and 72 equal temperament . ;s is a secor, q is the difference between 10 secors and 1 octave, and r is the difference between s and q. If the Miracle scale is: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 s s s s s s s s s s +q q +r q +r q +r q +r q +r q +r q +r q +r q +r q +r +q ;then the Blackjack scale is: 0 >0 1 >1 2 >2 3 >3 4 >4 5 >5 6 >6 7 >7 8 >8 9 >9 0 >1 >2 >3 >4 >5 >6 >7 >8 >9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 <0 s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s References Further reading *Secor, George (1975). “A New Look at the Partch Monophonic Fabric” Xenharmonikon 3. Frog Peak, N.H

George Tibbits (composer)

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George Richard Tibbits (7 November 19336 July 2008) was an Australian composer and architect. Tibbits was born in Boulder, Western Australia, to a family of mining prospectors, and when his father returned wounded from the First World War, the family moved to Colac, Victoria, to take up dairying. He studied architecture at the University of Melbourne, and eventually taught urban studies and architectural history there and established the urban studies program. He initiated the first heritage conservation study, the Beechworth Historical Reconstruction Project. He was also prominent in opposing the former Housing Commission’s slum reclamation project in inner Melbourne. He was not formally trained in music and worked outside of the main channels of art music production in Australia. At age 16 he wrote his first major work, Otway Ranges Symphony. His early works show the influence of his interest in the music of Indonesia, as well as American modernists such as Milton Babbitt and John Cage. He would often jot down pieces of tunes while travelling on public transport. Late in the 1950s, he concentrated on works depicting what he referred to as the ‘brutalist’ aspects of urban civiliza

George Tsontakis

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George Tsontakis (born Astoria, Queens, New York City, October 24, 1951) is an American composer and conductor. Early life and education Tsontakis was born in New York City, and is of Greek descent. He studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1978, and later with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Career His music has been performed and broadcast by major orchestras, chamber ensembles, and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe, and Japan. Tsontakis was honored with the “Academy Award” in 1995 from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was the fourth recipient of the Ives Living Fellowship, in 2007. Pianist Stephen Hough’s recording of Tsontakis’s “Ghost Variations” on Hyperion Records was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and was the only classical recording among Time magazine’s 1998 Top Ten Recordings. Tsontakis received the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin in 2002, and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his Violin Concerto No. 2 in 2005. A proficient conductor of orchestral and c

George Walker (composer)

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George Theophilus Walker (June 27, 1922 – August 23, 2018) was an American composer, pianist, and organist, and the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, which he received for his work Lilacs in 1996. Biography Walker was first exposed to music at the age of five when he began to play the piano. A graduate of Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.), he was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory at fourteen, and later to the Curtis Institute of Music to study piano with Rudolf Serkin, chamber music with William Primrose and Gregor Piatigorsky, and composition with Rosario Scalero, teacher of Samuel Barber. He received his doctorate from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. Walker taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey for several years, retiring in 1992. Walker’s first major orchestral work was the Address for Orchestra. His Lyric for Strings is his most performed orchestral work. He composed many works including five sonatas for piano, a mass, cantata, many songs, choral works, organ pieces, sonatas for cello and piano, violin and piano and viola and piano, a brass quintet and a woodwind quintet. He published over 90 works and received c

George Whyte

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George R. Whyte (born 11 July 1933 in Budapest; died 31 August 2012 in London) was an author, composer, dramatist and art collector. His early education was at Highgate Junior School. A British national of Hungarian Jewish extraction, the Holocaust and the loss of many members of his family in Auschwitz have influenced his creative works which have increasingly focused on the struggle against social injustices especially racism. Career A world authority on the Dreyfus Affair, his Dreyfus Trilogy, created for the Dreyfus Centenary in 1994 has been widely performed and televised. Making extensive use of archival material, he has evolved a powerful dramatic style defined by Götz Friedrich as a ‘Protokol für das Musiktheater’ wherein the drama is heightened by opposing texts, repeatedly sung and declaimed, which confront the listener with an escalation of the moral conflict. His literary work ‘The Dreyfus Affair – A Chronological History’ (publ. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) is recognized as the major reference book on the subject. His latest creation ‘Golem 13’ was the cultural highlight of the Czech Presidency of the European Union (June 2009). It was premiered at the National Theatre of

Georges Aperghis

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Georges Aperghis (; born 23 December 1945) is a Greek-French composer working primarily in the field of experimental music theater but has also composed a large amount of non-programmatic chamber music. Career Aperghis worked with Pierre Schaeffer and Iannis Xenakis and founded the music and theater company ATEM (Atelier Théâtre et Musique). He was a “composer in residence” in Strasbourg, France. In 2011 he was the first recipient of the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize. Aperghis is honored with the 2015 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Contemporary Music for his reinvention of music theater, using sound, gesture, space and technology and involving performers in the compositional process. Selected works * Il gigante Golia (1975/1990) for voice and orchestra * Histoire de loups (1976), opera * Récitations (1977–78) for solo voice * Le Corps à Corps (1978) for solo percussion (voice with Zarb) * En un tournemain (1987) for viola solo * Cinq Couplets (1988) for voice and bass clarinet * Triangle carré (1989) for string quartet and three percussionists * Simulacre (1991–95), series of four pieces for voice and small chamber groupings * Sextuor: L’Origine des espèces (1992), op

Georges Barboteu

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Georges Yves Barboteu (1 April 1924 – 30 September 2006) was a French horn player and composer. Biography He was the son of a horn teacher at the Conservatoire d’Alger. He himself started playing the horn at the age of nine, and won First Prize at eleven. He joined the Algiers Radio Symphony Orchestra at the age of fourteen and then the Orchestre national de France in 1948. Barboteu entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1950, where he received the honorary prize that same year. In 1951 he won first prize in the Geneva International Music Competition. He was the main horn player of the Orchestre Lamoureux and from 1969 onwards, of the Orchestre de Paris. He taught his instrument at the Conservatoire from 1969 to 1989. He left an important discography, recording many pages of chamber music and concertante music, from the 17th century to the contemporary era. Among his landmark recordings are Michael Haydn’s horn concerto, Joseph Haydn’s double horn concerto and Telemann’s D concerto, all recorded with the Jean-François Paillard chamber orchestra. Worth mentioning is Weber’s Concertino for Horn and Orchestra, which combines all the technical difficulties for the horn, recorded with Th

Georges Bœuf

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Georges Bœuf (21 December 1937 – 25 August 2020) was a French composer, musician, and saxophonist. He composed operas and film scores, among others. Life Born in Marseille, Bœuf studied at the (CRRM). of which he became president in 1974. In 1988, he founded the composition class at the CRRM, which was first directed by Pierre Barbizet. He composed La Chant de la Nature for the permanent exhibition in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Bœuf composed an opera titled Verlaine Paul, based on the work of poet Franck Venaille. It was shown at the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy on 29 October 1996, with the baritone François Le Roux in a lead role. It was given a reprise in 2003 at in Marseille with a new staging by . Further reading * Michel Chion (et al.), “Georges Bœuf”, in La musique électroacoustique, Presses universitaires de France, 1982, * Golo Föllmer, Roland Frank, Folkmar Hein, Dokumentation elektroakustischer Musik in Europa, Inventionen ‘92, Berlin, 1992 * Maurice Hinson et Wesley Roberts, “Georges Bœuf”, in Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, Indiana University Press, 2013 (4th ed. revised), Sources * Encyclopédie Larousse de la Musique, Georges Bœuf * L’Ex

Georges Delerue

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Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992; ʒɔʁʒ dɛlʁy ) was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film music awards, including an Academy Award for A Little Romance (1979), three César Awards (1979, 1980, 1981), two ASCAP Awards (1988, 1990), and one Gemini Award for Sword of Gideon (1986). He was also nominated for four additional Academy Awards for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), The Day of the Dolphin (1973), Julia (1977), and Agnes of God (1985), four additional César Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and one Genie Award for Black Robe (1991). The French newspaper Le Figaro named him “the Mozart of cinema.” Delerue was the first composer to win three consecutive César Awards for Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978), Love on the Run (1979), and The Last Metro (1980). Georges Delerue was named Commander of Arts and Letters, one of France’s highest honours. Early life and education Delerue was born 12 March 1925 in Roubaix, France, to Georges Delerue and Marie Lhoest. He was raised in a musical household; his grandfather led an amateur chorale group and his mother sang and played piano at family gatherings. By

Georges Garvarentz

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Georges Diran Garvarentz (, 1 April 1932 - 19 March 1993) was an Armenian-French composer, noted for his music for films and Charles Aznavour’s songs. Biography Georges Garvarentz was born in Athens, Greece, to a family of Armenian immigrants. His father, literature professor and poet Kevork Garvarentz, was the author of the Armenian military anthem. In 1942 Garvarentz’s family moved to Paris, France, where Georges attended Conservatoire de Paris. Career In 1956 Georges met Charles Aznavour and started writing music for his songs. Together they wrote over a hundred songs, including “Prends garde à toi” (1956), “Et pourtant” (1962), “Il faut saisir sa chance” (1962), “Retiens la nuit” (1962), “La plus belle pour aller danser” (1964), “Hier encore” (1964), “Paris au mois d’août” (“Paris in August”, 1966), “Désormais” (1969), and “Une vie d’amour” (1980). The period from the latter half of the 1980s until Garvarentz’s death in 1993 represented one of the most productive and enduring periods of his collaboration with Aznavour. Despite the performer then approaching 60 years of age and having already long been an established star with a repertoire of recognisable classics and hits, Garv

Georgi Minchev (composer)

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Georgi Minchev () is a Bulgarian composer born on January 29, 1939, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Education Minchev is a graduate of the Bulgarian State Conservatoire in Prof. Marin Goleminov’s composition class. Between 1968 and 1970 he majored under Rodion Shchedrin in Moscow and for several months he studied simultaneously under Aram Khachaturian. In 1972 he received a UNESCO music fellowship to further his education in the USA, Great Britain and France. At the Conservatoire de Paris he attended the composition class of Olivier Messiaen. Career and awards He has worked as editor-in-chief of music production at the Bulgarian National Radio, as Deputy Chairman and Secretary General of the Union of Bulgarian Composers, and as artistic director at the Bulgarian National Radio. He has been on the jury of many international competitions: Let the Peoples Sing (London); International Composition Competition (Terni, Italy); Premio Vittorio Gui (Florence, Italy); Premio Ancona (Ancona, Italy); International Composition Competition (Berlin, Germany); Olympia International Composition Competition (Athens, Greece); S. Prokofiev International Composition Competition (Moscow). Georgi Minchev has been aw

Georgi Movsesyan

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Georgi Viktorovich Movsesyan (; 2 August 1945 – 7 November 2011) was a Russian composer of Armenian descent. Biography Movsesyan was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, into a family of artists. He graduated from the Gnessin State Musical College in 1964. Movsesyan is Merited Artist of the Russian Federation (1995) and People’s Artist of Russia (2001). The first song, “Roads”, was written in 1965. In 1969, he was an actor of the Mosconcert association, soloist and concertmaster of the music studio. He is mostly known for his songs “Beryoza”, “Moi goda”, “Olympiada”, “Nachalo” performed by Iosif Kobzon, Lev Leshchenko, Anna German, Vakhtang Kikabidze and others. He died at the age of 67 on November 7, 2011 in Moscow, as a result of a heart attack. References External links * Biography

Georgs Pelēcis

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Georgs Pelēcis (also Georges Pélétsis; born 18 June 1947) is a Latvian composer and musicologist. He is currently a professor at the Latvian Academy of Music. Academic and compositional career Pelēcis was born in Riga. He studied under Aram Khachaturian at the Moscow Conservatory, He has worked in a creative capacity at Oxford University and Cambridge University. His style has been described as post-avant-garde, or as “new consonant music”, with an “amazingly clear positive spirit”. The Concertina Bianca for piano and strings, for instance, is described as “in the key of C major” and restricted to the white keys only, with no accidentals. This approach has its critics. Gramophone called the piece as “so mild in its manner that it seems to be aspiring to the status of a backing track to an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest”. His 45 minute orchestral score for Roald Dahl’s Jack and the Beanstalk was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1996 with Simon Callow, Danny DeVito and Joanna Lumley as co-narrators. More recently, recordings and live performances by (among others) pianists Tamara-Anna Cislowska, Alexei Lubimov and Polina Osetinskaya, and by violinist Gidon Kremer

Gerald Barry (composer)

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Gerald Barry (born 28 April 1952) is an Irish composer. Life Gerald Barry was born in Clarehill, Clarecastle, County Clare, in the Republic of Ireland. He was educated at St. Flannan’s College, Ennis, County Clare. He went on to study music at University College Dublin, in Amsterdam with Peter Schat, in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel, and in Vienna with Friedrich Cerha. Barry taught at University College Cork from 1982 to 1986. Growing up in rural Clare, he had little exposure to music except through the radio: “The thing that was the lightning flash for me, in terms of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus, would have been an aria from a Handel opera, from Xerxes maybe, that I heard on the radio. I heard this woman singing this, and bang – my head went. And that was how I discovered music.” “Barry’s is a world of sharp edges, of precisely defined yet utterly unpredictable musical objects. His music sounds like no one else’s in its diamond-like hardness, its humour, and sometimes, its violence.” He often conceives of material independently of its instrumental medium, recycling ideas from piece to piece, as in the reworking of Triorchic Blues from a violin to a p

Gerald Busby

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Gerald Busby (born December 16, 1935) is an American composer. Biography Busby was born in Tyler, Texas, United States. He studied piano as a child, playing with the Houston Symphony when he was 15 years old. He attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he studied music in college, but once graduated, began working as a traveling salesman. At the age of 40, he had an “epiphany” and began to compose, a direction that surprised him. In 1977, with the assistance of composer Virgil Thomson, Busby moved to the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, where he has written most of his work. Living at the Hotel Chelsea brought him into contact with numerous cultural figures. One of them was dancer Rudolf Nureyev and his then-partner Wallace Potts. Potts gave choreographer Paul Taylor a recording of Busby’s music, which led to Busby writing the score for Taylor’s dance Runes. Regarding his scores for Paul Taylor’s dance Runes and Robert Altman’s film 3 Women, Busby said: “Those two pieces are acknowledged as masterpieces, so that I know they’ll last beyond me. … Not because what I did was a masterpiece, but I was part of it.” In 1985, Busby was diagnosed with HIV, as was his partne

Gerald Fried

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Gerald Fried (February 13, 1928 – February 17, 2023) was an American composer, conductor, and oboist known for his film and television scores. He composed music for well-known television series of the 1960s and 1970s, including Mission: Impossible, Gilligan’s Island, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Shotgun Slade, Roots, and Star Trek. Early in his career, he collaborated with Stanley Kubrick, scoring several of his earliest films. Fried was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, winning once in 1977 for Roots, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for the documentary Birds Do It, Bees Do It (1974). Life and career Born and raised in The Bronx, New York City, Fried attended The Juilliard School of Music. He attended High School of Music & Art, graduating in 1945, and entered the world of film soundtracks when he composed the scores for five of Stanley Kubrick’s earliest films. After moving to Los Angeles he began composing and arranging music for several films such as Terror in a Texas Town and television shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., working with Robert Drasnin, and also the original Star Trek, for which he composed the famous musical underscore “The R

Gérald Gagnier

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Gérald Gagnier (14 October 1926 – 14 January 1961) was a Canadian bandmaster, composer, and trumpeter. His compositional output includes the symphonic poem Polyphème, a Prélude for piano, a Suite romantique for strings, and Rolandineries for piano. Life and career Born in Montreal, Gagnier was the son of musician René Gagnier and received his earliest musical training in the trumpet, piano, and music theory from him. His grandfather Joseph Gagnier had 26 children, many of whom also became professional musicians of note; including Armand Gagnier, Ernest Gagnier, Guillaume Gagnier, J.-J. Gagnier, Lucien Gagnier, Réal Gagnier, and René Gagnier. Several of his cousins became notable musicians, including Claire Gagnier, Ève Gagnier, and Roland Gagnier. He attended the Séminaire Saint-Joseph de Trois-Rivières from 1939 to 1945 where he received his general education. In 1945 Gagnier entered the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal where he studied through 1951. During that time he also spent three summers studying under Pierre Monteux. He also spent some time mentoring François Morel in conducting. In 1954 he earned a diploma from the Royal Military School of Music after passing

Gerald Hendrie

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Gerald Mills Hendrie (born 28 October 1935; at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex) is an English scholar, composer, organist, pianist and harpsichordist. Education * Framlingham College, Suffolk, 1949–52, Foundation Scholar * Royal College of Music (RCM), 1952–54, Foundation Scholar, Piano (ARCM in Organ Performing 1953, Piano Teaching 1953, Piano Performing 1954); Gained Sir Walter Parratt prize. * Selwyn College, Cambridge 1954–61, Organ Scholar. (BA 1957, MusB with distinction 1958, MA 1961, Ph.D. 1962); * Royal College of Organists (RCO), FRCO (1956) * Studied at the RCM with Geoffrey Tankard, Harold Darke, William Harris, Herbert Howells; at Cambridge with Thurston Dart and Patrick Hadley; privately with Geraint Jones, John Dykes Bower, Ralph Downes, and André Marchal Locums * Christmas 1955, Acting Assistant Organist, Canterbury Cathedral including first-ever Eurovision Broadcast, ‘Carols from Canterbury’. * 1960-61 Acting Organist and Choirmaster, Norwich Cathedral * During 1962, Acting Assistant Organist, Ely Cathedral Academic posts * Director of Music, Homerton College, Cambridge 1962–3 * Lecturer in Music, University of Manchester 1963–7 * Founding Professor of Music, University of

Gerald Levinson

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Gerald Charles Levinson (born June 22, 1951 in Westport, Connecticut) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Life At university, he studied with George Crumb, Richard Wernick, and George Rochberg. He received his doctorate in 1977 from the University of Chicago. After college, Levinson went to study composition with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory. He was inspired by Messiaen’s use of birdsong and his unique harmonic ideas, as well as the musics of Bali and India. Levinson has also worked with Simon Rattle, Ralph Shapey, and Seiji Ozawa. His notable works include Anahata, Symphony No. 2, and Black Magic/White Magic (1981), a collaboration with his wife, poet Nanine Valen. Numerous CDs of his music have been released, and his scores are published by Theodore Presser. He has taught music at Swarthmore College since 1977. His works have previously been performed by orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A new work for organ and orchestra by Levinson was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in its 2005–2006 season. He has two children, Adam Valen Levinson, and Ari Valen Levinson. Awards *Guggenheim Fellowship (198

Gerald Shapiro (composer)

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Gerald M. Shapiro (born 1942 in Philadelphia) is an American composer of acoustic and electronic music. He has been a longtime faculty member at Brown University, where he served as Professor of Music and multiple terms as chair of the Department of Music. His compositions span orchestral, chamber, choral, electronic, and interdisciplinary works, and he is recognized as an early pioneer in audience-participation performance and live electronic music. Education Shapiro studied first at the Eastman School of Music, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction in 1964. He continued graduate study at Mills College, where he studied composition with Darius Milhaud and received a Master of Arts in 1967. His training also included study at the San Francisco Tape Music Center with Morton Subotnick; at the Conservatoire National in Paris with Olivier Messiaen; at the École Normale Supérieure de Musique in Paris with Nadia Boulanger; and at the University of California, Davis, where he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Compositions (selective list) * Antiphonies I, for piano and tape (1965) * Winter Birch, for interactive audience participation and live electronics (1972)

Geraldine Connor

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Geraldine Connor, PhD, MMus, LRSM, DipEd (22 March 1952 – 21 October 2011), was a British ethnomusicologist, theatre director, composer and performer, who spent significant periods of her life in Trinidad and Tobago, from where her parents had migrated to Britain in the 1940s. Her father was actor, singer and folklorist Edric Connor and her mother was theatrical agent and cultural activist Pearl Connor. Geraldine Connor is best known for having written, composed and directed Carnival Messiah, a spectacular work that “married the European classical tradition of oratorio with masquerade and musical inspiration from the African diaspora”. Early years Geraldine Roxanne Connor was born in Paddington, London, into an artistic Trinidadian family and was the elder child of her parents Edric and Pearl Connor. Spending her early childhood with her grandparents, who were both teachers in Trinidad, Geraldine was schooled at Tranquillity Primary (1960–63) and Diego Martin Government Secondary (1963–68). She then attended Camden School for Girls in London, from 1968 to 1971. She went on to graduate from London’s Royal College of Music in 1974, subsequently returning to Trinidad to continue her s

Gérard Calvi

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Gérard Calvi (born Grégoire Krettly; 26 July 1922 – 20 February 2015) was a French composer. Interested in music from an early age, Calvi’s first composing work was for the French production The Patron in 1949. From here he provided music for various French films, most notably Gangster Boss, as well as the show La Plume de Ma Tante, which was nominated for Best Musical at the 13th Tony Awards. He composed music for three Asterix films: Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and Cleopatra and The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. He also composed the memorable Asterix theme for the first film, which was dispensed with by the time the music for The Twelve Tasks of Asterix was composed in 1976. His last work was for the feature film The Crab Revolution in 2004. He died in 2015, aged 92. Shows * Ah! Les belles bacchantes (1954) * La Plume de Ma Tante (1958) * La Grosse Valise (1965) * Le Saint prend l’affût (1966) Selected filmography * Branquignol (1949) * The Patron (1950) * Bernard and the Lion (1951) * The Big Chief (1959) * Monsieur Robinson Crusoe (1960) * The Fenouillard Family (1960) * The Black Tulip (1964) * Champagne for Savages (1964) *The Saint Lies in Wait (1966) References External links * *

Gérard Condé

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Gérard Condé (born 26 January 1947) is a French composer and music critic. Life Born in Nancy, Condé was first self-taught until 1965 then studied harmony at the before following the teaching of Max Deutsch (composition) in Paris between 1969 and 1972. He joined the daily Le Monde in 1975. He also contributes to various publications, such as Opéra and Opéra international and produces programmes on France Musique. As a composer, he writes in a technique derived from serial music. Work Compositions * Mémorial, for baritone and string quintet (1972; 1980) * Fêtes galantes, recitation with piano, poems by Verlaine (1973) (éd. Éditions Henry Lemoine) * Mélodie, scene for soprano, clarinet and piano (1974) * Darjeeling, ritual for a singer preparing tea (1976) * Il était une fois, pour violoncelliste raconteur/se (1977) * Dans la résonance du cri, for piano (1978) * Rondo varié, pour tubiste lecteur (1978) * Lovely Madeline, ballad for a guitarist (1979) * Rhapsodie, mimodrama for a bassoonist (1979) * Scherzando un poco, for flute quartet (1979) * Trio à cordes No 1 (1980) * Rêve d’amour, action musicale d’après Franz Liszt pour contrebassiste narrateur, soprano, clarinet basse, chœur d

Gérard Frémy

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Gérard Fernand Marcel Marc Frémy (12 March 1935 in Bois-Colombes - 20 January 2014 in Haguenau) was a French pianist and composer. Biography A student with Yves Nat at the Conservatoire de Paris, Frémy ended his studies by winning First prize at sixteen. He was designated by Marcel Dupré and the Association française d’action artistique (Culturesfrance) as a Soviet government scholarship holder. For three years, he studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow with Heinrich Neuhaus and then rubbed shoulders with Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, etc. Forty concerts in the USSR and recordings for the state radio punctuated his stay in Russia. He then performed with equal success in most European countries, the United States and Japan, and participated in some of the most important festivals. He was soloist in ensembles such as Ensemble Ars Nova, Ensemble 2e2m and Musique Vivante, and played as part of Stockhausen’s group at Expo ‘70 in Osaka (1970). His extensive repertoire extended from J.S. Bach to Morton Feldman. Gérard Frémy was perhaps the closest French performer to John Cage’s universe, known, in particular, for his interpretation of the Sonatas and Interludes and Music of

Gérard Grisey

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Gérard Henri Grisey (; ; 17 June 1946 – 11 November 1998) was a twentieth-century French composer of contemporary classical music. His work is often associated with spectral music, of which he was a major pioneer. Biography Grisey was born in Belfort, France, on 17 June 1946. From a very young age, Grisey demonstrated enormous interest and talent in music composition and study, writing his first essay on music when he was 9 years old. His first instrument was the accordion, which he received as a Christmas present aged 5. He was very proficient on the instrument, twice winning first prize at the French national championship and competing in the accordion World Cup. He studied at the in Trossingen, West Germany, from 1963 to 1965. There he took classes in accordion, as well as harmony, fugue, and counterpoint, before going on to the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied with Olivier Messiaen from 1965 to 1967 and again from 1968 to 1972, while also working with Henri Dutilleux at the École normale de musique in 1968. He won prizes for piano accompaniment, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and composition at the Conservatoire under Messiaen’s guidance. He also studied electroacoustics

Gérard Jouannest

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Gérard Jouannest (2 May 1933 – 16 May 2018) was a French pianist and composer. He was best known for his collaborations with Jacques Brel, both as a performer and composer, and later with Juliette Gréco, whom he married in 1988. Early life Jouannest was born on 2 May 1933 in Vanves near Paris. His father was a piano manufacturer. It was Brel who introduced Jouannest to his future wife, singer Juliette Gréco in 1968, and Jouannest played the piano for Greco during the rest of his career. Jouannest composed more than 250 songs over the course of his life. Jouannest died on 16 May 2018 in Ramatuelle, in the South of France. He was 85. References

Gérard Masson

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Gérard Masson (born 12 August, 1936, in Paris) is a French composer. Biography Gérard Masson grew up listening to jazz, played jazz trumpet, and began studying the piano in 1945, but had no formal training in composition until, after military service in Algeria, he returned to France in 1962. He approached Max Deutsch, who sent Masson to one of his students for lessons in counterpoint. At about this same time, he made the acquaintance of Pierre Souvtchinsky, who introduced him to Igor Stravinsky. Masson brought to his meeting with Stravinsky his first orchestral score, Dans le deuil des vagues, in which Stravinsky showed considerable interest. When, upon returning to the United States, Stravinsky was asked by a reporter whether he had heard any young musicians, Stravinsky replied, “none at all, except Gérard Masson”. It was Souvtchinsky who suggested that Masson go to Cologne to study with Karlheinz Stockhausen, which he did in 1965–66 and again in 1966–67. He was particularly impressed by Momente, about which Stockhausen lectured at the Cologne Courses for New Music in those years. Style and technique Though an admirer of Stockhausen’s music, Masson’s attitude toward serialism is

Gerard Victory

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Thomas Joseph Gerard Victory (24 December 1921 – 14 March 1995) was a prolific Irish composer. He wrote over two hundred works across many genres and styles, including tonal, serial, aleatoric and electroacoustic music. Biography Victory was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1921 the son of a shopkeeper Thomas Victory and his wife, Delia (née Irwin). After schooling, he read Celtic Studies at University College Dublin and Music at Trinity College Dublin, earning a doctorate in 1972. In April 1948 Victory married Geraldine Herity, and they had five children: Alma, Fiona, Isolde, Raymond, and Alan. this was performed by the Abbey Experimental Theatre Company in the Peacock Theatre, Dublin. His work was also part of the music event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Victory’s career was primarily in music administration, serving as director of music for Ireland’s national broadcasting station RTÉ from 1967 to 1982. He was a president of UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers, a fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music and a recipient of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the German Bundesverdienstkreuz. Selected works Orchestral Ensemble Solo piano Vocal Op

Gerardo Gandini

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Gerardo Gandini (Buenos Aires (Argentina), October 16, 1936 – Buenos Aires, March 22, 2013) was a pianist, composer, and music director, who became one of the most relevant figures of Argentine New Music of the second half of the 20th century. He studied composition with Goffredo Petrassi and Alberto Ginastera, and piano with Roberto Caamaño, Pía Sebastiani, and Yvonne Loriod. He was Astor Piazzolla’s pianist in the Sexteto Nuevo Tango formed in 1989. Biography Gandini was a professor at the Instituto Di Tella (Buenos Aires), Juilliard School (New York), Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, Gilardo Gilardi Conservatory of Music (La Plata, Argentina), and National University of La Plata. He was also in charge of contemporary music courses at the Fundación San Telmo/Goethe-Institut in Buenos Aires and was in charge of one of the composition workshops at the Fundación Antorchas (Argentina). Gandini has been the musical director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, musical director of the Teatro Colón, and director-founder of the Opera and Ballet Experimentation Center of the same theatre. During 2003, he was composer in residence at Teatro Colón. He was the pianist in Sexteto Nue

Gerd Domhardt

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Gerd Domhardt (19 February 1945 in Wolmirstedt – 18 February 1997 in Halle) was a German composer. Domhardt grew up in Schleusingerneundorf. He studied music education, German studies and musicology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1963 to 1968. From 1973 to 1976 he was a master student for composition with Ruth Zechlin at the Academy of the Arts, Berlin. Until 1969 he worked at the Staatskapelle Halle under Olaf Koch. From 1969 to 1973 he worked as an editor at the Deutscher Verlag für Musik in Leipzig. He was a teacher of the Halle composers class and from 1987 an honorary lecturer at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. Until 1995 he directed the Society of Composers of Saxony-Anhalt and the contemporary music festival Hallische Musiktage. He was also founder and artistic director of the concert series approximation. In 1979 he composed the Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra in One Movement as the opening concert at the Handel Festival, Halle. Last lived and worked as a freelance composer in Halle. Awards * 1978 Hans Stieber Prize * 1982 Hanns Eisler Prize Selected works ;Stage * Weiberkomödie, Opera after Heiner Müller ;Orchestra * Symphony No.1 * Symphony No.2 (19

Gerd Kühr

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Gerd Kühr, also Gerd Kuhr (born 28 December 1952), is an Austrian conductor, composer of classical music and academic teacher. He is known for operas, such as Stallerhof on a libretto by the author of the play, Franz Xaver Kroetz, and film music including Schlöndorff’s Eine Liebe von Swann. Career Born in Maria Luggau, Kühr studied history, conducting and composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and took master classes in conducting with Gerhard Wimberger, Hans Swarowsky and Sergiu Celibidache. He continued his studies of composition with Josef Friedrich Doppelbauer and Hans Werner Henze. In 1983 he collaborated with Henze, David Graham and Marcel Wengler to compose the film music for Volker Schlöndorff’s Eine Liebe von Swann after Marcel Proust. His opera Stallerhof, to a libretto of Franz Xaver Kroetz based on his own play, was premiered at the first Munich Biennale in 1988, as a co-production with the Staatstheater Wiesbaden. Ulf Schirmer conducted the premiere at the Kongresssaal of Deutsches Museum. The play Stallerhof, a dialect play on a taboo subject matter, was premiered in 1972. A review of the opera in a production of the Theater Luzern remarks: Kroetz’s Stallerhof is a

Gerd Zacher

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Gerd Zacher (6 July 1929 – 9 June 2014) was a German composer, organist, and writer on music. He specialized in contemporary compositions, many of which feature extended techniques, and are written in graphic or verbal scores. He interpreted the scores of numerous contemporary composers, including John Cage, Juan Allende-Blin, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, Hans Otte, Luis de Pablo, and Isang Yun. He is also known as an interpreter of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Zacher was born in Meppen and lived in Essen, Germany. Writings On music * Analyse der Orgel – ein Interpretationskurs. In: Internationale Ferienkurse für neue Musik. 26. 1972. – Mainz u.a. : Schott, 1973. (Darmstädter Beiträge zur neuen Musik; 13) * Bach gegen seine Interpreten verteidigt : Aufsätze 1987–1992. München : Edition Text u. Kritik, 1993. – 170 pages – (Musik-Konzepte; 79/80) * Beobachtungen an Erik Saties «Messe des pauvres». In: Erik Satie. – 2., erw. Aufl. – München : Edition Text u. Kritik, 1988. – pp. 48–63. – (Musik-Konzepte; 11) * Canonische Veränderungen, BWV 769 und 769 a. In: Bach Johann Sebastian – Das spekulative Spätwerk. – 2., unveränd. Aufl. – München : Edition Text u. Kritik, 1999. – pp.

Gerda Herrmann

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Gerda Herrmann (June 30, 1931 in Cannstatt – April 15, 2021 ) was a German composer and poet. She had been living in Botnang since the 1960s and wrote more than 400 songs, setting to music both her own and other authors’ lyrics. Life and work Gerda Herrmann received piano lessons for almost three years from 1941 to 1943, until her school was evacuated to Metzingen due to aerial bombings. From then on, she played the piano without receiving further lessons. In 1972, Herrmann wrote her first poem, when she was asked to write one for a service held at Friendenskirche Stuttgart in support of Amnesty International. Herrmann herself described her style as “not modern”, but “most likely to be classified as belonging to the romantic period”. Additionally, her style became more simple in her old age, which she attributed to Angelus Silesius’ quote “Human, focus on the essence”. and was additionally screened in competition at Berlin Independent Film Festival. Encouraging creative writing by young people From 2003, until her death, Gerda Herrman was a founding member as well as deputy chairwoman of the Förderkreis Kreatives Schreiben und Musik, which publishes anthologies featuring texts by y

Gerhard Gruber

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Gerhard Gruber (born 6 May 1951 in Aigen im Mühlkreis) is an Austrian composer and piano player. As accompanist for silent films, he has become the leading authority in Austria since 1988. He has performed for about 600 different films (Istanbul 2018, Paris, Krasnoyarsk /Siberia, Mexico, Kyiv, Odesa 2017, Los Angeles 2012, Mumbai-Pune 2012, Washington-Los Angeles 2011, Delhi-Pune-Goa/India 2011, Tokyo 2006/2007/2008, Hobart/Australia 2007–09, Rotorua/New Zealand 2008/2010, Padova, Motovun Film Festival 2007, Cineconcerts Bordeaux 2005, Filmfestival Pisek/CZ 2008/2011, Filmfestival Uherske Hradiste 2009/2011, Viennale 1999-2004/2012, Munich, Hamburg, Diagonale). He composed the music for Café Elektric. From 1983 until 2011 Gerhard Gruber was working and performing as a composer and musician for theatre. He was featured in Ilse Aichinger’s Subtexte as “the one who first makes each film possible and, at the same time, unnecessary. Those who have seen his hands move on the illuminated keys might even risk forgetting Chaplin” Awards Gruber was awarded the Nestroy Theatre Prize in 2006 and the Bühnenkunstpreis des Landes Oberösterreich in 2008. Performances for silent movies (out of 600)

Gerhard Rosenfeld

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Gerhard Rosenfeld (10 February 1931 – 5 March 2003) was a German composer. He became known for his film music and opera works, among other things. Life Born in Königsberg, Rosenfeld studied musicology from 1952 to 1954 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as well as music theory and musical composition at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin from 1954 to 57 with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny. From 1958 to 1961 he was master student of Hanns Eisler and Leo Spies at the Akademie der Künste der DDR, from 1961 to 1964 lecturer at the Berlin and lecturer for music theory at the Deutsche Hochschule für Musik Berlin and for film music at the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg. After successes with classical music (Violin Concerto, 1963), Rosenfeld became one of the most prominent and busiest film composers of the DEFA in the 1960s. From 1964 he worked as a freelance composer and lived in Bergholz-Rehbrücke. He wrote the music for cinema, documentary, short films, children’s and animated films. Among them are classics like The Rabbit Is Me (1965), Alfons Zitterbacke (1966) and The Banner of Krivoi Rog (1968). One project that he supervised from 1966 until his death, even after the

Gerhard Wimberger

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Gerhard Wimberger (30 August 1923 – 12 October 2016) was an Austrian composer and conductor. Career Wimberger studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His teachers were Cesar Bresgen and Johann Nepomuk David for composition, and Clemens Krauss and Bernhard Paumgartner for conducting. After World War II, in which he served in the army, he worked as vocal coach at the Vienna Volksoper, then as conductor at the Landestheater in Salzburg, before becoming a teacher for conducting and composition at the Mozarteum. Among his many pupils were Klaus Ager, Sergio Cárdenas, Dieter Lehnhoff, and Gerd Kühr. Wimberger also served as member of the directory of the Salzburg Festival, and as president of the Austrian Composers’ Association AKM. He died in October 2016 at the age of 93. A memorial concert was held in his honor at the Mozarteum in January 2017. Scenic works *Heinrich und Kleist, Scenes for Music Theatre (2004), chamber opera (2011 ) *Wolf Dietrich Prince of Salzburg (1985/87), scenic chronicles *Paradou (1981/58), opera after Émile Zola *The Golden Shoes (1983), ballet music for television *Jedermann (1983), incidental music *Rules of Life (1970/73), scenic music *Helen the Victim (1967

Germain Gauthier

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German Gauthier (1950 – 28 August 2025) was a Québécois guitarist, songwriter and composer. Biography Gauthier was born in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada in 1950. He then started composing music for other authors. He wrote Le mur derrière la grange for Donald Lautrec, Un gars comme toi for Renée Claude and Tous les jours de la semaine for Pierre Létourneau. He published his first album in 1974, and continued collaborating with other authors; notably, Pierre Létourneau and Luc Plamondon. He died on 28 August 2025. By his death, his discography totalled over 325 songs, 35 of which had reached number one in Quebec. Discography References

German Okunev

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German Grigoryevich Okunev (; 12 June 1931, in Leningrad – 12 June 1973, in Leningrad) was a Soviet Russian composer, pianist and teacher. Life Okunev’s father was an engineer; his mother was a dressmaker. From the age of 8 he attended a musical school in Leningrad. He graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Leningrad, where he studied with O. Yevlakov and Boris Klyuzner, in 1956. From 1957 to 1960 Okunev taught music at Frunze, (now Bishkek), in Kirghiz SSR. In 1964 he returned to the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory to study with Dmitri Shostakovich as a post-graduate pupil. Shostakovich had a high opinion of Okunev and later assisted him in obtaining performances for his works. In 1968 Okunev narrowly escaped from drowning in an accident on Lake Ladoga. On 27 May 1973 Okunev and his wife were involved in a serious traffic accident from which Okunev died 17 days later, on his 42nd birthday. After his death, an asteroid was named for him (‘10990 Okunev’) by its discoverer, N. S. Chernykh. Music Okunev developed an individual style which became strongly, if indirectly, influenced by the music he became acquainted with in Kirghizia. His early three-act ballet ‘Kuiruchuk’ (196

Gertrud Maria Mell

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Gertrud Maria Mell (15 August 1947 – 30 June 2016), as a singer sometimes simply Maria Mell, was a Swedish composer, musician and sea captain. She worked as a music teacher, served as a church organist and cantor, and directed four choirs. Mell began composing in 1961, creating four symphonies, various classical pieces as well as pop music. Biography Born on 15 August 1947 in Ed, Dalsland, in south-western Sweden, Gertrud Maria Mell was the daughter of Torsten Mell, a station inspector, and Iris Olofson. Between 1965 and 1967, she studied instrumentation and conducting at the Lund Musik Conservatory, graduating as an organist and cantor in 1967 and as a church choir director in 1968. In addition to music, she studied seafaring, qualifying as a skipper (1971), ship’s mechanic (1979) and sea captain (1981). Gertrud Maria Mell died on 30 June 2016. References External links *Mell’s EP Mermaid, streamed on Deezer

Gertrude Rivers Robinson

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Gertrude Eloise Rivers Robinson (June 30, 1927 – March 12, 1995) was an American educator, musician, ethnomusicologist, and composer. She was a professor at Loyola Marymount University from 1970 to 1995. She studied, wrote, recorded, performed, and taught music for gamelan ensemble. Early life and education Rivers was born in Camden, South Carolina, After moving to California, she worked as an accompanist and collaborator with choreographer Lester Horton. She studied and performed gamelan music at UCLA, and traveled to Bali several times for further research. She lectured on dance at UCLA and UC Riverside in 1966, in programs with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, Her collected recordings were released as Bali South: Compositions of Wajan Gandera, Teacher, Composer, Gamelan Master, Peliatan, Bali (1973). Other projects took her to India, Trinidad, and Ghana. She served two terms as president of the Southern California chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology. She was named Woman of the Year by LMU’s chapter of California Women in Higher Education in 1993. Compositions * “Child”, “Cry”, “Sooth Song”, “The Heart”, “The Unfound Door”, and “American Dance Story” (1948, for Cornell Dance

Giampaolo Coral

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Giampaolo Coral (22 January 1944 – 17 February 2011) was an Italian composer. Life Coral was born on 22 January 1944 in Trieste. He began his musical career at age 14 as an organist in his native city of Trieste. After graduating in piano at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, he began his career as a substitute teacher at the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste (1967–1973) and as a music consultant to the Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto Teatro (1977–1985). He was also active as a choir director and as a teacher of “choral exercises” at the Giuseppe Tartini Conservatory of Music in Trieste (1971–2001). From 1982 he was a member of the Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE). Giampaolo Coral was essentially self-taught, but his spiritual teachers were Arnold Schoenberg and Franco Donatoni, with whom he had a long friendship. He was the Artistic Director of the City of Trieste Music Prize, an international competition of musical composition and a member of the Federation of International Music Competitions of Geneva. In 1987 he founded an association in Trieste (Chromas – the Association of Con

Gian Paolo Chiti

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Gian Paolo Chiti (21 January 1939 – 27 March 2026 ) was an Italian composer and pianist. His teachers included Carlo Zecchi, Arturo Bonucci, and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. In 1960, Chiti won prizes in the Treviso and the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. Chiti has had a dual career as a composer and concert pianist. He often performed alongside his late wife, mezzo-soprano Patricia Adkins Chiti. He composed works for film and television as well as concerts and festivals in Italy and abroad. His compositions have featured at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Venice Biennale, the Edinburgh International Festival, and the Lutosławski Festival. Since 1984, Chiti has served as the Director of the Composition Department at the Conservatorio of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He is also a member of the Italian National Committee for Dance and serves on the faculty boards of several universities. Chronological works list This list includes all serious concert music composed by Gian Paolo Chiti, including works for young musicians. It does not include transcriptions and arrangements, film and television scores or popular works. * Zoological Garden (solo piano – young performers

Gian Pieretti

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Dante Luca Pieretti (born 12 May 1940), better known as Gian Pieretti, is an Italian singer-songwriter and composer, mainly successful in the second half of the 1960s. Life and career Born in Ponte Buggianese, in 1963 Pieretti released his first single “Perduto Amor” as Perry, before adopting the name Gian Pieretti for his second single “Ciao”, released the same year. In 1964, he started performing accompanied by I Grifoni, a band consisting of future Premiata Forneria Marconi members Franco Mussida, Giorgio Piazza and Franz Di Cioccio. Discography ;Album * 1967 - Se vuoi un consiglio * 1969 - Il viaggio celeste di Gian Pieretti * 1973 - Il vestito rosa del mio amico Piero * 1975 - Cianfrusaglie * 1989 - Don Chisciotte * 1992 - Bang * 1993 - Il vento dell’Est * 1997 - Caro Bob Dylan… * 2011 - Tatanka Yotanka * 2013 - Cinquant’anni da poeta * 2019 - Nobel References External links * * *

Gian Piero Reverberi

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Gian Piero Reverberi (; born 29 July 1939) is an Italian pianist, composer, arranger, conductor, and entrepreneur. Biography After obtaining Diplomas in piano and composition from the Paganini Conservatory in Genoa, Reverberi worked in a wide range of media, including TV themes, spaghetti Western soundtracks to pop and rock records, where, with Robert Mellin, he composed the memorable music to the children’s TV series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in 1964. He created the Rondò Veneziano ensemble. He also worked with his brother Gian Franco on the song “Last Men Standing” (or “Nel cimitero di Tucson”) from the soundtrack of Django, Prepare a Coffin (Preparati la bara!), which was sampled in Gnarls Barkley’s hit “Crazy”. As a producer, Reverberi worked for New Trolls and Le Orme progressive rock bands, being also listed as one of the official members of the latter for a short stint. In the 1960s-1970s he was also the producer of several albums of singer-songwriters such as Lucio Battisti, Fabrizio De André, Luigi Tenco and Gino Paoli. In 1979, he founded the Rondò Veneziano chamber orchestra, which he has led ever since, having been the main composer, arranger, and conductor of t

Giancarlo Bigazzi

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Giancarlo Bigazzi (5 September 1940 – 19 January 2012) was an Italian music producer and composer. He was a former member of comedy music group Squallor. Life and career Born in Florence, he was one of the best known Italian songwriters and lyricists of the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote some of the most successful Italian pop records, many of which became international hits, such as “Gloria”, “Self Control”, “No Me Ames”, “Tu”, “Take the Heat off Me”, and “Ti amo”. He was also a film score composer; among his soundtracks are Forever Mary, Boys on the Outside and the Academy Award-winning Mediterraneo. He began his career at a very young age, writing major hits for Riccardo Del Turco (“Luglio”), Caterina Caselli (“Il carnevale”), Mario Tessuto (“Lisa dagli occhi blu”), and Renato dei Profeti (“Lady Barbara”). Throughout the 1970s, Bigazzi established himself as a prolific lyricist and composer, often collaborating with Totò Savio on songs for Massimo Ranieri (“Vent’anni”, “Erba di casa mia”), and with Gianni and Antonio Bella on hits for Marcella Bella (“Montagne verdi”, “Io domani”, “Nessuno mai”, “Un sorriso e poi perdonami”) and Gianni Bella (“Non si può morire dentro”, “No”, “Più ci

Gianluigi Gelmetti

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Gianluigi Gelmetti OMRI, (11 September 1945 – 11 August 2021) was an Italian-Monégasque conductor and composer. Early life Gianluigi Gelmetti was born on 11 September 1945 in Rome, Italy. When 16 years old, Sergiu Celibidache let him conduct an orchestra, then took him as a pupil. He subsequently studied with Franco Ferrara and Hans Swarowsky. In 1967 he won the “Firenze” prize. Career Following his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Gelmetti regularly performed as a conductor at international opera houses, concert halls, and festivals. From 1989 to 1998 he was the Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as the Schwetzingen Festival; and from 2000 to 2009, Musical and artistic director of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. From 2004 to 2008 he was the Principal Conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, a post that he held until 2016. He was then named Chef Honoraire for life and was awarded the Monaco citizenship by H.S.H. Prince Albert II. While at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma he led some lesser-known or rediscovered lyric works; t

Gianluigi Trovesi

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Gianluigi Trovesi (born 1944) is an Italian jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He has won various Italian jazz awards. He also teaches in Italy. Early life Trovesi was born in Nembro near Bergamo in Lombardy in 1944. Later life and career In 1978 Trovesi won the “RAI TV National Competition for Saxophone and Clarinet” in 1978, and the Critics’ National Prize for his debut album, Baghet. He won Best Italian Disc for the albums Dances (1985), From G to G (1992) and Les Hommes Armés (1996). Trovesi has toured, recorded and performed with Anthony Braxton, Misha Mengelberg, Horace Tapscott, Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Kenny Wheeler, Mark Dresser, Han Bennink, Tony Oxley and Günter Sommer. Trovesi is a member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra and performs in a duo with accordionist Gianni Coscia. He teaches in Italy. Discography As leader * * * * * * * * w/ Gianni Coscia * * * w/ Gianni Coscia * * * * w/ Gianni Coscia * * * w/ Gianni Coscia * w/ Anat Fort As contributor * * * * * * * *Marche jazz orchestra, year =1989 “Dies Irae”, Philology * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Filmography * Il cortile della musica (The Music Court), (2010) References

Gianni Bedori

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Gianni Bedori (25 November 1930 – 21 January 2005), also known as Johnny Sax, was an Italian jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, flautist and composer. Career Born in Mantua, Bedori graduated in clarinet at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna and started his career with singer . He became first known in 1963, when he started a twenty years-long collaboration with composer Giorgio Gaslini. and was a guest on his 1974 album Clic released on the Island Records label. Discography ;Albums * 1969 – Johnny Sax incontro con Bob Mitchell (PDU) * 1971 – Sortilege (Sun Records, SUld 13004) * 1973 – International hits collection – Vol. I (PDU, Pld.A 5055) * 1973 – International hits collection – Vol. II (PDU, Pld.M 5086) * 1973 – Hit parade – Vol. I (Produttori Associati, PAF/LP/3005) * 1973 – Successi sempreverdi – Vol. II (Produttori Associati, PAF/LP/3006) * 1973 – Liscio parade – Vol. III (Produttori Associati, PAF/LP/3007) * 1974 – Johnny Sax – Vol. IV (Produttori Associati, PAF/LP/3009) * 1974 – Dedicated to Picasso – A solo Album (PDU, Pld.A 5074) * 1975 – Johnny Sax – Vol. V (Produttori Associati, PAF/LP/3014) * 1976 – Non stop 1 (Produttori Associati, SAX/1715) * 1976 –

Gianni Bella

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Giovanni “Gianni” Bella (born 14 March 1947) is an Italian composer and singer-songwriter, the brother of singer Marcella Bella. Background Born in Catania, Bella started his career as composer for his sister, singer Marcella Bella authoring several hits with lyricist Giancarlo Bigazzi. In the seventies he debuted as a singer himself, scoring his first major success in 1974 with the song “Più ci penso”, which ranked second in the Italian hit parade. In 1976 he topped the hit parade In 1981 he entered the competition at the Sanremo Music Festival with the song “Questo amore non si tocca”; he returned in Sanremo five more times between 1986 and 2007, three times in couple with his sister Marcella. Discography Studio albums * 1974 - Guarda che ti amo (Derby) * 1976 - Sogni di un robot (Derby) * 1977 - Io canto e tu (Derby) * 1978 - Toc toc (CGD) * 1980 - Dolce uragano (CGD) * 1981 - Questo amore… (CGD) * 1983 - G.b.1 - Nuova gente (Avventura) * 1984 - G.b.2 (Avventura) * 1986 - Una luce (RCA Italiana) * 1988 - Due cuori rossi di vergogna (Polydor) * 1991 - La fila degli oleandri (Fonit Cetra) * 1994 - Vocalist (Fonit Cetra) * 1998 - Finalmente insieme (with Marcella Bella) (Pull/Fue

Gianni Ferrio

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Gianni Ferrio (16 November 1924 – 21 October 2013) was an Italian composer, conductor and music arranger. Life and career Born in Vicenza, Ferrio studied at the conservatories of Vicenza and Venice. Starting in the late 1950s, he was active as a composer of film scores. He composed some 120 soundtracks, mostly for Spaghetti Westerns and commedie sexy all’italiana films. Ferrio is also well known for his work in pop music, particularly for his collaboration with Mina, for whom he composed hit songs such as “Parole parole” and wrote arrangements and orchestrations for many songs and albums. The last collaboration with Mina was on her 2012 album 12 (American Song Book), for which Ferrio provided the string arrangements. Ferrio served as conductor for the Sanremo Music Festival in 1959 and 1962, for the Eurovision Song Contest 1965, and for several Italian TV shows. He died on October 21, 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. Selected filmography *Who Hesitates Is Lost (1960) *Toto, Fabrizi and the Young People Today (1960) *A Dollar Of Fear (1960) *Gentlemen Are Born (1960) *Hercules in the Valley of Woe (1961) *5 marines per 100 ragazze (1961) *Appuntamento in Riviera (1962) *The Two Colonels

Gianni Marchetti

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Gianni Marchetti (Rome, 7 September 1933 – Rome, 10 April 2012) was an Italian composer and songwriter. He collaborated with Piero Ciampi, lyricist Mogol, singer Bobby Solo and others. Early life Gianni Marchetti was born on 7 September 1933, Rome, Italy. He enrolled in the musical institution Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in his early life to study piano in Rome. As a composer and conductor, he began his career in 1956. Career Gianni Marchetti contributed to the soundtracks of around forty films. He also composed a number of solo albums including solstitium and equinox. At the Sanremo Music Festival in 1965, the winning song was “Se piangi, se ridi”. Gianni Marchetti was involved in its composition, and collaborated with Bobby Solo and Mogol. In some of his work, he has also used the alias’s Joe Dynamo and John Servus. Of the latter, through the distribution of the RCA, he produced the work Evening in 1977 which has been used in multiple productions, such as a commercial for the deoderant Bac, the films love duro e violento, Le notti porno nel mondo n 2, and for the anime Attack No. 1’s Italian opening theme. Selected filmography Bibliography * See also * Piero Ciampi * Bob

Gianni Meccia

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Giovanni “Gianni” Meccia (2 June 1931 – 9 April 2024) was an Italian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. He was often associated with Jimmy Fontana. Life and career Born in Ferrara, in 1950 Meccia moved to Rome to pursue an acting career, eventually only getting some bit roles in some RAI TV series. An autodidact guitarist specialized in composing black humorous and nonsense songs, he was first noted by lyricist Franco Migliacci and later by Mario Riva, and had his breakout in 1959 with the song “Odio tutte le vecchie signore”, which he launched in the Riva’s popular music show Il Musichiere. In 1961 he took part in the eleventh edition of the Sanremo Music Festival with “Patatina”, and had a good success with “Cha-cha dell’impiccato”, a duet with his friend and frequent collaborator Jimmy Fontana. Filmography Actor * Moana, Virgin of the Amazon (1955) * Ragazzi del Juke-Box (1959) as Gianni * Nel blu dipinto di blu (1959) as Plainclothesman * Howlers in the Dock (1960) as Gianni aka Satana * Io bacio… tu baci (1961) as The Singer with a grey Pullover * Eighteen in the Sun (1962) * Canzoni in… bikini (1963) as Himself * Djurado (1969) as Ricky - Guitar Playe

Gil Trythall

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Harry Gilbert Trythall (October 28, 1930 – February 17, 2023) was an American composer, electronic music pioneer, keyboardist, pianist of jazz and contemporary classical music, a lifelong educator, and a multimedia enthusiast. He often collaborated with artists (notably Prof. Don Evans (Vanderbilt-Nashville) to create engrossing public experiences. Dr. Trythall founded the Electronic Music Plus Festival in the late 1960s and hosted events at universities across the United States. As a musician, Trythall is best known for his experiments and compositions in electronic music. For instance, “Planet” by Four Tet and “myriad.industries” by Oneohtrix Point Never sample his 1980 compositions “Echospace” and “Luxicon II”. As a twentieth century composer of both traditional and electronic works, Gilbert Trythall combined the large scale sonorities reminiscent of Paul Hindemith and Wallingford Riegger with the expanded capabilities of both electronic and conventional instruments. His Symphony No. 1 (1958) is a demanding work for large orchestra, and his Hecuba and Polyxena of the same period is a severe, brilliant twelve-tone work. Beginning with the Moog synthesizer in the early 1960s, Tryt

Gilbert Amy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gilbert Claude Adolphe Amy (born 29 August 1936) is a French composer and conductor. Career Born in Paris, Amy entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1954, where he was taught and influenced by Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud and studied piano with Yvonne Loriod and fugue with Simone Plé-Caussade. His first composition (Œil de fumée) dates from 1955. In 1957 he met Pierre Boulez, under whose direction he composed his Piano Sonata. A year later Boulez commissioned from him a work called Mouvements, which was performed in Darmstadt by the Orchestre du Domaine musical. From 1958 to 1961 he attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse given by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and developed a style highly influenced by the trend of serialism. In 1962 Jean-Louis Barrault named him adjunct music director of the Odéon Theater in Paris. At the same time he undertook a career as conductor in Europe and Argentina. Between 1967 and 1973 he was the director of the Domaine Musical, succeeding Pierre Boulez. From 1973 to 1975 he was music advisor to ORTF and worked to “reform” the music heard on the radio. From 1976 to 1981, he was music director of the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France. In 1984,

Gilbert Biberian

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Gilbert Emanuel Biberian (19 February 1944 – 27 January 2023) was a British guitarist and composer. Born in Istanbul, Turkey of Greek-Armenian heritage. Biberian’s ethnic roots was integral to his compositions. He studied at Trinity College of Music, graduating in 1968. In 1965 a French Government grant took him to France to study with Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya. He studied composition with James Patten, Elisabeth Lutyens and Hans Keller, as well as widening and enriching his musical knowledge by working with non-guitarists Anthony Kinsella (piano) and Vic Bennett (clarinet). Biberian has played at the Proms, at Covent Garden and has performed concertos and given solo recitals worldwide. He has always enthusiastically encouraged and championed the creation of new compositions for guitar. New works have been written for and/or dedicated to him (for solo and ensemble) by James Patten, Elisabeth Lutyens, Reginald Smith Brindle, Alfred Nieman, Charles Camilleri, David Bedford, Roger Williams, Glen Morgan, Robert Keeley, Jeffrey Joseph, Kenneth Paige, Daniel Sturm, Vojislav Ivanovic, Betty Roe, Ivor Mairants, Geoffrey Burgon, Aurelio Peruzzi, Judith Bingham, Monique Cecconi-Botella

Gilberto Mendes

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Gilberto Mendes (13 October 1922 – 1 January 2016) was a 20th-century Brazilian avant-garde composer, and one of the pioneering fathers of the company New Consonant Music. Biography Gilberto Mendes was born in Santos, Brazil, in 1922. He studied piano with Antonieta Rudge and harmony with Sabino de Benedictis. The influence of Villa-Lobos is evident in his early works, in some way preceding the advent of bossa nova in his early songs. His contact with the poets of the Noigandres group gave him the ideological inspiration to feed his talent. Mendes’s compositions include cantatas, motets, orchestral music, incidental music, solo and chamber pieces, and some avant-garde works. Most of them are published by Alain Van Kerckhoven Editeur. In 1965, he founded the Santos New Music Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s, he taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and the University of Texas, then was a professor of music at the University of São Paulo (USP). Discography * Francisco Mignone, Almeida Prado, Gilberto Mendes - I Bienal De Música Contemporânea Brasileira - Disco 3 (LP) Not On Label SCM1003 1975 * Fernando Cerqueira (2), Gilberto Mendes, Lindemberque R. Cardoso, Radamés Gnatta

Giles Swayne

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Giles Oliver Cairnes Swayne (born 30 June 1946 in Hertfordshire) is a British composer. Biography Swayne spent much of his childhood in Liverpool, and began composing at a young age. He was educated at Ampleforth College and at Cambridge University, where he worked with Raymond Leppard and Nicholas Maw before spending three years at the Royal Academy of Music as a student of Harrison Birtwistle, Alan Bush and, once again, Maw. During the years 1976 to 1977 he attended several of Olivier Messiaen’s classes at the Paris Conservatoire and from 1981 to 1982 made a study visit to the Gambia and southern Senegal – a formative experience he put to creative use as composer-in-residence to the London borough of Hounslow, 1980–83. Together with his second wife, the Ghanaian, Naaotwa Codjoe, he lived in a village near Accra, Ghana, from 1990 to 1996. Swayne is a cousin of Elizabeth Maconchy and Nicola LeFanu. He married violinist Malu Lin in 2002. Selected compositions * CRY, opus 27 for 28 solo voices and electronics, commissioned by the BBC and premiered in 1980 (recorded on the label NMC by the BBC Singers conducted by John Poole) * Magnificat, 1982 * String Quartets 1 – 3 (1971 to 1993) *

Gilles Bellemare (composer)

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Gilles Bellemare (born 29 March 1952, Shawinigan) is a Canadian composer, conductor, and music educator. He has been commissioned to write music for more than 30 professional ensembles internationally, many of which have been recorded or performed on CBC Radio under his baton. He has also written a number of film scores and is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre. In 1977 he was awarded the William St Clair Low Award by the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada. In 1978 he assumed the post of principal conductor and artistic director of the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières, a post he held until 2004. Under his leadership, the orchestra produced several commercial recordings and premiered works by such contemporary Canadian composers as Timothy Brady, Jacques Faubert, Anne Lauber, and Myke Roy. Bellerme studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Trois-Rivières from 1968 to 1978, where he earned premier prizes in harmony (1972), percussion (1974), and music composition (1978). Among his most influential teachers at the school were percussionist Thomas Cavanagh and music theorist Armando Santiago. In the summer of 1977 he studied composition with

Gilles Gobeil

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Gilles Gobeil (born September 27, 1954) is an electroacoustic music composer from Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, Canada, and currently living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Gobeil received his musical education at the Université de Montréal (Mmus in Composition). Gobeil is professor for music theory at the Cégep de Drummondville and was guest professor for electro-acoustics at the Université de Montréal and at the Conservatoire de Montréal. His works have been performed in concerts throughout Canada and abroad. Gobeil is a member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC), Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC) and co-founder of the concert organization Réseaux des Arts Médiatiques, an organization for the production of media arts events. Gobeil is known for his industrial soundscapes and the incorporation of live instruments (in particular the ondes martenot) deep within the electroacoustic medium. Gobeil has received numerous scholarships and commissions from institutes and festivals including ZKM Karlsruhe, GRM Paris, Ars Electronica Linz, ICMC Beijing, and the Banff Center, and his works have won many awards. His approach is similar to the “cinema pour l’oreille” (cinem

Gilles Tremblay (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gilles Tremblay, (September 6, 1932 – July 27, 2017) was a Canadian composer and teacher. Early life and education Born in Arvida, Quebec, Tremblay studied at the conservatories of Québec in Montréal and Paris (1954–61), where his teachers included Olivier Messiaen (analysis), Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger (counterpoint), Yvonne Loriod (piano), and Maurice Martenot (inventor of the ondes Martenot). He also attended Karlheinz Stockhausen’s summer courses at Darmstadt, where he became interested in electro-acoustic techniques. Career Tremblay returned to Quebec in 1961. He taught musical analysis at the and at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Quebec City. Beginning in 1962, and for many years, he taught composition at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. Among his pupils are , Raynald Arseneault, Yves Daoust, François Dompierre, Marc Hyland, Ramon Lazkano, Robin Minard, Éric Morin, Silvio Palmieri, Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, , André Villeneuve, Claude Vivier, and Wolf Edwards. Early in his career he performed as a specialist on the ondes Martenot. A central figure in Quebec’s contemporary classical music scene, Tremblay was active in many capacities includi

Gillian Bibby

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Gillian Margaret Bibby (31 August 1945 – 7 August 2023) was a New Zealand composer, pianist, writer and teacher. Bibby was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand on 31 August 1945, the daughter of the Reverend Lawrence Vincent Bibby and Margaret Valerie Bibby (née Davidson). She studied at the University of Otago and Victoria University of Wellington with Douglas Lilburn. She continued her studies in Berlin and Cologne with Aloys Kontarsky, Mauricio Kagel and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1976, Bibby returned to New Zealand to take up a two year Mozart Fellowship at the University of Otago in Dunedin. Bibby relocated to Wellington in 1978 and worked as a pianist, composer, music teacher and university lecturer. Bibby was active in several music-related organisations, serving as president and chair, and founded the CHAMPS Trust to offer opportunities for youth in music. She was awarded the Philip Neill prize in composition, the Kranichsteiner prize in composition and the Darmstadt prize for new music. In the 2020 New Year Honours, Bibby was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music and music education. Bibby died in Wellington on 7 August 2023, at the age of 7

Gillian Whitehead

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Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead (born 23 April 1941) is a New Zealand composer. She is of Māori Ngāi Te Rangi descent. Her Māori heritage has been an important influence on her composing. Early life Whitehead was born in Hamilton in 1941. The daughter of Ivan and Marjorie Whitehead, she is of Ngāi Te Rangi descent. Her father was a music teacher and conductor of the Waipu Choral Society and her mother played the piano. Education She studied at the University of Auckland from 1959 to 1962, and Victoria University of Wellington in 1963, graduating BMus(Hons) in 1964. She then studied composition at the University of Sydney with Peter Sculthorpe from 1964–65, graduating MMus in 1966. That same year she attended a composition course given by Peter Maxwell Davies and in 1967 travelled to England to continue studying with him. She took up the Mozart Fellowship at the University of Otago in 1992. From 1998 to 2003 she was president of the Composers Association of New Zealand. In 2005–2006 she was the Composer in Residence at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University. She was the first Composer in Residence to stay at the Lilburn Residence. In 2009 Whitehead was one of the 2009

Ginette Keller

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Ginette Keller (16 May 1925 - 27 June 2010) was a French composer. Biography Keller was born in Asnières-sur-Seine. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Nadia Boulanger, Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen. In 1951 she won the Second Prix de Rome with her cantata Et l’Homme vit se rouvrir les portes and in 1957 won second prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition. She taught aural training at the “Conservatoire” and analysis and counterpoint at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. She has composed for solo instruments, chamber and orchestral music. She has also written two operas with librettos by Alain Germain. Selected works *Six chants de Lumière et d’Ombre for winds quartet, 1965 *Variables, premiered in 1966 *Chant de Parthénope for flute & piano, 1968 *Girations for percussion & piano, 1970 *Graphiques for soprano and ensemble, premiered at Festival International du Son 1971 *Ebauches for bassoon & piano, 1973 *Les Vieilles Dames d’Osnabrück, Opera, premiered in 1983 *Les adieux d’une cantatrice sans mémoire, Opera, premiered in 1986 *Vibrations pour harpe celtique, 1990 *Dialogues for clarinet & piano, 1992 *Sept mouvements incantatoires for four percussions, drums, c

Giorgio Battistelli

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Giorgio Battistelli is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. Early life and education Giorgio Battistelli was born in Albano Laziale, Italy. He studied at the conservatory in L’Aquila, and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel. Career By 2009, Battistelli had written nearly 20 operas, on subjects ranging from Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopaedia to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In November 2009 he was artistic director of the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme hosted by Aldeburgh Music in England. Battistelli’s opera Wake was premiered by the Birmingham Opera Company in March 2018 and is inspired by the story of Lazarus being brought back from the dead. He was artistic director of the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano, the Orchestra Regionale Toscana. He has been director of the music section of the Venice Biennale. His music is published by Ricordi and recordings available on Stradivarius. Recognition and awards In 1990 Battistelli won the SIAE award for an opera, and in 1993 the Cervo Prize for contemporary music. He was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 27 December 2020. Stage works References

Giorgio Nottoli

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Giorgio Nottoli (born 1945) is an Italian composer, musician and academic. Born in Cesena in 1945 he completed his musical studies at the Conservatory “G. Rossini” in Pesaro. He studied composition with Domenico Guaccero and Mario Bertoncini, guitar with Carmen Lenzi Mozzani and electronic music with Walter Branchi. Self-taught as a designer and researcher, has completed his apprenticeship in science, collaborating with various researchers, including Giuseppe di Giugno, Guido Guiducci and Silvio Santoboni. From 1968 he worked as a performer (lute and guitar) until 1975 and as a composer and researcher so far. Since 1975, conducts research in the field of science and technology, in the field of acoustics and computer music. Teaching activities He was professor of electronic music at the Conservatory of Frosinone “L.Refice” from 1974 until 2003. He was Professor of Electronic Music at the Conservatory of Rome “Santa Cecilia” from 2004 until 2013. At this Institute from 2006 to 2013, he served continuously in charge of coordinating the Department’s “New Technologies and Music”. Always at the Conservatory in Rome, he was a member of the Academic Council from 2010 to 2013. From 1999 to

Giorgio Pacchioni

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Giorgio Pacchioni (born 16 July 1947) is an Italian performer, professor, and composer. Life He has held the chair of recorder at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna (Italy) from 1977 to 2006, when he retired and moved to Ubatuba (Brazil). Pacchioni is a musicologist specializing in the revival of Baroque composition in the modern era, and has gained a following over the Internet for his Neo-Baroque compositions and fugues. Giorgio Pacchioni has promoted the music of Francesco Antonio Vallotti through both his performances and compositions. He actively collaborated with the musical association “Antiqua” on the transcription of Girolamo Dalla Casa’s Secondo libro de Madrigali a cinque voci con i passaggi (Venice 1590): in fact, he recomposed the whole Tenore partbook, which is missing from the only extant copy of the original print. The CD based on this opus, performed by “Il terzo suono” conducted by G.P.Fagotto, has won the “Speciale raccomandazione della giuria del premio discografico internazionale A.Vivaldi”. Pacchioni is also a well known ocarina maker. Works Works published by Ut Orpheus Edizioni 28 Preludi per Flauto Dolce solo in forma di progressione mus

Giorgos Hatzinasios

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Giorgos Hatzinasios (also spelled Hadjinasios; , ; born 19 January 1942) is a Greek songwriter and composer. Early life Hatzinasios was born in Thessaloniki. His father was Agapios Hatzinasios, a native of Nigrita, Serres and a music professor of Thessaloniki’s State Conservatory and a renowned saxophonist. His mother was Anna Zografou, a native of Galatista in Chalkidiki. His paternal grandfather, also Georgios Hatzinasios and a graduate from the Phanar Greek Orthodox College, was a merchant and visited the Holy Land at a young age with his father, Athanassios. This is the source of the surname (‘Χατζής’ - Hajj and Αθανάσιος - Athanasios combined). His maternal grandfather, Themistoklis Zografos, was a hagiographer from Mount Athos. Giorgos Hatzinasios began piano lessons at the age of six at the Macedonian Conservatoire and later moved on to the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki and then the Athens Conservatoire. He later studied in Paris where he studied composition, orchestration and conducting. Career By the age of fourteen, he had already achieved notability as a pianist, with a particular interest in jazz and Greek music. Since 1972, he has achieved much recognition in Gree

Giovanni Lindo Ferretti

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Giovanni Lindo Ferretti (born 9 September 1953) is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer, and author. He is considered to be one of the founders of Italian punk rock music. Biography Lindo Ferretti was born in Cerreto Alpi (frazione of Collagna), in the province of Reggio Emilia, in the western part of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. After completing his studies and working as a psychiatric nurse for five years, Ferretti traveled around Europe. CCCP In East Berlin, he met , with whom, in 1982, he founded the band CCCP - Fedeli alla linea (“CCCP - Loyal to the line”). CCCP soon became a benchmark of the so-called “alternative music” in Italy. The band dissolved in 1990. CSI In 1992, again with Massimo Zamboni and with an original core member of the Italian band Litfiba, Gianni Maroccolo, he founded a new band called Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti (“Consortium of Independent Players”), also known as CSI. This band continued until 2000, when Zamboni departed. The bands’ names followed the naming of the political entities of the Soviet Union and its dissolution in the late 20th century. “CCCP” is the Cyrillic lettering for SSSR (i.e. USSR), and “CSI” mimics the Italian acronym

Giselher Klebe

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Giselher Wolfgang Klebe (28 June 19255 October 2009) was a German composer, and an academic teacher. He composed more than 140 works, among them 14 operas, all based on literary works, eight symphonies, 15 solo concerts, chamber music, piano works, and sacred music. Biography Giselher Klebe was born in Mannheim, Germany. He received musical tuition early in his life from his mother, the violinist Gertrud Klebe. The family relocated in 1932 to Munich, where his mother’s sister, Melanie Michaelis, continued the training. His father’s profession required a further relocation in 1936 to Rostock. His first opera, based on Friedrich Schiller’s play Die Räuber (The Robbers), was produced in 1957. Works References Notes Sources *Erik Levi, “Klebe, Giselher”, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) * External links * Giselher-Klebe-Archiv, Archive of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin * “Giselher Klebe (1925–2009)”, Klassika * “Giselher Klebe_100, Festival zum 100. Geburtstag von Giselher Klebe in Detmold, vom 24.10. bis zum 14.12.2025”, program notes for the commemoration of Klebe’s 100th birthday, Christian Köhn, Detmold

Gitta Steiner

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Gitta Hana Steiner (April 17, 1932 – January 1, 1990) was a Czech-American composer and pianist who is best known for her works for percussion instruments. Steiner was born in Prague to Erna Bondy and Erhard (Eric) Steiner. The family moved to New York in 1940, Steiner earned a B. Mus. and M.S. from the Juilliard School, where she received the Abraham Ellstein Scholarship. She was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1967. Her teachers included Elliott Carter, Vincent Persichetti, and Gunther Schuller. She taught piano and theory privately and at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Steiner received awards and honors which included the 1972 American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) Award, the Donell Library Composer’s Forum Honor, the Gretchaninoff Memorial Prize, and the Marion Freschl Award. Her music was published by Seesaw Music Corporation (today Subito Music Corporation). References

Giya Kancheli

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Gia Kancheli (; 10 August 1935 – 2 October 2019) was a Georgian composer. He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and resided in Belgium in later life. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kancheli lived first in Berlin, and from 1995 in Antwerp, where he became composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. He died in Tbilisi at age 84. Life In his symphonies, Kancheli’s musical language typically consists of slow scraps of minor-mode melody against long, subdued, anguished string discords. Rodion Shchedrin called Kancheli “an ascetic with the temperament of a maximalist; a restrained Vesuvius”. Kancheli wrote seven symphonies, and what he termed a liturgy for viola and orchestra, Mourned by the Wind. The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov gave the American premiere of his Fourth Symphony in 1978, not long before the cultural freeze in the United States against Soviet culture. Glasnost allowed Kancheli to regain exposure, and he began to receive frequent commissions, as well as performances in Europe and North America. Championed internationally by Lera Auerbach, Dennis Russell Davies, Jansug Kakhidze, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian, Mstisl

Gladys Nordenstrom

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Gladys Mercedes Nordenstrom (May 23, 1924 – July 5, 2016) was an American composer. Life Gladys Nordenstrom was born in Mora, Minnesota. She studied music at the Institute of Fine Arts at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She studied under Austrian composer Ernst Krenek there and married him in 1950. After completing her studies, Nordenstrom worked as an elementary school teacher until she moved with Krenek to California. In the following years, she accompanied Krenek to visiting professorships in various locations and sometimes collaborated on musical works. After Krenek died in 1991, Nordenstrom was instrumental in founding the Ernst Krenek Institute in 1998 and the private foundation Krems die Ernst Krenek in 2004 in Vienna, Austria. She expended much effort to find ways to promote performances and recordings of Krenek’s music. Nordenstrom died on July 5, 2016, in Palm Springs, California, aged 92. At the time of her death, she was at work on a project to record the complete Krenek piano concertos. Works Selected works include: *Theme and Variations for piano (1944) *No Leaf Is Left for soprano and piano (1945, text

Gladys Smuckler Moskowitz

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Gladys Smuckler Moskowitz (January 25, 1928 – May 24, 2024) was an American singer, composer and teacher. She graduated from Brooklyn College with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and worked as a teacher, choir director and composer. As Gladys Young she performed in the United States and Europe as a folk singer. In 2003 her chamber opera The Fountain of Youth, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment,” won a special commendation at the Nancy Van de Vate International Opera Competition for Women. Her music is performed internationally. Moskowitz died on May 24, 2024, at the age of 96. Works Moskowitz is known for songs and chamber opera. Selected works include: *Grass, on a poem by Carl Sandburg *Chicken Little, The Sky Is Falling! A Satirical Chamber Opera, performed by Bluegrass Chamber Orchestra and Opera, Lexington, Kentucky, 2009. *More than a Voice *The Fountain of Youth, chamber opera *Three Love Songs on Poems of Sara Teasdale: “Joy”; “Advice to a Girl”; “Gifts.” Premiere in New York City, 2008. *Psalm 23, for piano, oboe, cello and voice *The Masque of the Red Death, music drama in two acts after Poe *The Buried Life, for mezzo-soprano and piano *Three Son

Glen Adams

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Glen Adams ( 27 November 1945 – 17 December 2010) was a Jamaican musician, composer, arranger, engineer, producer, based since the mid-1970s in Brooklyn, New York City. Career 1950s to 1960s Adams’ mother was from Kingston and his father from St. Vincent; the two met while working in Curaçao. Adams’ first break in the music business came as a teenager, when he appeared as a singer in a vocal group on Radio Jamaica’s Opportunity Knocks show hosted by Vere Johns. Later performing on the same show as a solo singer which led to appearances on cabaret shows and performances in Kingston and St. Andrews at weekends. Adams’ older sister Yvonne was also a popular singer and he was spotted by Clement “Coxsone” Dodd while rehearsing a song that she had written called “Wonder Thirst”. Coxsone took him into the Federal Recording Studio to record the track in 1960. 1970s Perry and The Upsetters toured the United Kingdom to capitalise on the success of Perry’s hit “Return of Django” (and the less successful follow-up, “Live Injection”); returning to Jamaica in 1970. As part of The Upsetters, Adams backed The Wailers during their spell with Perry and Adams did much of the arranging and composed th

Glen Vecchione

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Glen Vecchione (born 12 July 1951) is an American composer, lyricist, poet, and writer. Working with the director David Dusing he wrote the music and lyrics to the musical The Legend of Frankie and Johnny. He is the author and illustrator of several non-fiction books for children and young adults; many of them written on science related topics or on children’s games. He has also published poetry for adults in several literary journals. Life and career Glen Vecchione was born in Manhattan on 12 July 1951. An Italian-American, He spent his childhood in New York City, He was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles. With David Dusing he co-authored the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical The Legend of Frankie and Johnny which was staged as a limited run in New York City by the Nat Horne Musical Theatre. It opened on April 10, 1981 and closed after 38 performances. The production was directed by Albert Reyes and choreographed by Nat Horne. It toured the United States after the end of its New York run. As an actor he portrayed Felix White in the world premiere of John Twomey’s Teachers’ Lounge at the Laguna Playhouse in 1994. He penned the play Cowboy BO and the Train

Glenn Branca

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Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was an American avant-garde composer, guitarist, and luthier. Known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series, he was a driving force behind the genres of no wave, totalism and noise rock. Branca received a 2009 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. Life and work Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Branca started playing the guitar at age 15. He also created a number of tape sound art collage pieces for his own amusement. After attending York College in 1966–1967, he started the short-lived cover band The Crystal Ship with Al Whiteside and Dave Speece in the summer of 1967. In the early 1970s, Branca studied theater at Emerson College in Boston. In 1973, he moved from Boston to London with his then girlfriend Meg English. After moving back to Boston in 1974, he met John Rehberger. While there, he began experimenting with sound as the founder of an experimental theater group called Bastard Theatre in 1975. Working out of a loft on Massachusetts Avenue they wrote and produced the music/theater piece Anthropophagoi for a two-week run.

Glenn Gould

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Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian pianist and broadcaster. Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, he was renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach’s music. Gould rejected most of the Romantic piano literature—Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others—in favour of Bach and Beethoven mainly, along with some late-Romantic and modernist composers. Gould also recorded pre-Baroque composers such as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons; Classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart, and Brahms; and 20th-century composers including Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Scriabin, and Richard Strauss. He championed Gibbons, whom he called his favorite composer. Gould was also a writer and broadcaster, and dabbled in composition and conducting. He produced television programmes about classical music, in which he spoke, performed, and interacted with interviewers in a scripted manner. He made three musique concrète radio documentaries, the Solitude Trilogy, about isolated areas

Gloria Coates

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Gloria Coates (née Kannenberg; October 10, 1933 – August 19, 2023) was an American composer who lived in Munich from 1969 until her death. She trained and worked also as actress, stage director, singer, author and painter. She is known for her many symphonies, and also wrote chamber music, and vocal music for large and small ensembles. Her compositions have been performed internationally and recorded by notable orchestras. She ran a concert series for new music in Munich. Her First Symphony “Music on Open Strings” was played at the 1978 Warsaw Autumn and was the first composition by a woman in the musica viva series of Bayerischer Rundfunk. Life and career Gloria Kannenberg was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, on October 10, 1933; Music Coates composed symphonies, chamber music for different ensembles, vocal music and multimedia works. She experimented with vocal works for many voices. Instrumental music Works with orchestra * Symphony No. 1 “Music on Open Strings” (1972-1974) * Symphony No. 2 “Music on Abstract Lines / Illuminatio in Tenebris” (1973/74) * Symphony No. 3 “Symphony for Strings” / “Symphony Nocturne” (1974) * Symphony No. 3, second version (Violin Concerto) (2006) * Sympho

Gloria Roe

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Gloria Ann Kliewer Roe Robertson (5 January 1935 – 20 January 2017) was an American composer, pianist and singer who was best known for her compositions and performances of sacred music. She published and performed as Gloria Roe. Roe was born in Bakersfield, California, to Peter and Sarah Bartel Kliewer. and attended the Hollywood School of Music, Pasadena College (today Point Loma Nazarene University), the Screen Guild School of Music, and Trinity College London. She later married Mr. Robertson and had two more children. Her compositions have been performed by Anita Bryant, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Billy Joel. Roe’s LP records were produced by RCA Victor and Word Records. Her compositions (words and music) were published by Rodeheaver, Hall Mack Company and Word Publications, Inc. and included: Cantata *In the Fullness of Time Hymns *Abiding Love *Be Calm My Soul *Coming Home *Does It Make Any Difference to You *He is Love *His Grace is Sufficient *How Can I Tell You Father *I Am Unworthy of the Price He Paid for Me *Loved Me, Bought Me, Saved Me, Cleansed Me *So Great Salvation Has Won My Heart *Surrender *That’s What He Did for Me *The Greatest of These is Love *Unworthy *Why C

Gloria Wilson Swisher

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Gloria Wilson Swisher (March 12, 1935 – July 23, 2023) was an American composer, music educator and pianist. Biography Gloria Wilson Swisher was born in Seattle, Washington. She graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle where she received a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, Mills College in Oakland, California, where she earned a Master of Music in composition, and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1960. She studied composition under John Verrall, Darius Milhaud, Bernard Rogers, and Howard Hanson. She was a member of The International Association of Women in Music, the Darius Milhaud Society and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Swisher was awarded the Sigma Alpha Iota Inter-American prize for her composition Salutations for oboe and piano. Swisher was the subject of a 2009 University of Washington dissertation, The choral music of Gloria Wilson Swisher, by Robert Bigley. Swisher taught at Washington State University in Pullman, Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Shoreline Community College (1969–1998) in Seattle, and the University of Washington in Seattle. She was a Professor Emerita

Goff Richards

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Goff Richards (18 August 1944 – 25 June 2011), sometimes credited as Godfrey Richards, was a prominent Cornish brass band arranger and composer. He was born in Cornwall, He was also a prolific arranger for brass bands, and his works included “Hymns of Praise”, “Shepherd’s Song”, “Over the Rainbow”, “Mack the Knife”, “New York, New York”, “Chanson d’Amour”, “I’ll Walk with God”, and “That’s a Plenty”. He also arranged and composed light orchestral and choral works, and his works have been performed by the King’s Singers, Huddersfield Choral Society, London Brass, Evelyn Glennie and various BBC orchestras. He is also credited to have written the solo piece Demelza (also known as The Maid of the Mist) under the pen name Hugh Nash, originally for E flat tenor horn then later for the soprano cornet. He died on 25 June 2011 in Cheshire, following an illness, at the age of 66. References External links *Publisher’s profile Editions Marc Reift *Biography * Compositions and arrangements by Goff Richards at Obrasso-Verlag * https://cornishnationalmusicarchive.co.uk/content/demelza-by-goff-richards/

Gonzalo de Olavide

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Gonzalo de Olavide y Casenave (28 March 1934 – 4 November 2005) was a Spanish composer born in Madrid. Olavide studied composition initially with Victorino Echevarría at the Conservatorio Superior de Madrid, then in Belgium at the conservatories of Antwerp and Brussels. He attended the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik where he worked with Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio, and later studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Henri Pousseur at the Second, Third, and Fourth Cologne Courses for New Music in 1964–65, 1965–66, and 1966–67. For twenty years he lived and worked in Geneva, returning to Spain in 1991. Olavide composed orchestral, chamber, solo, and electronic music. In 1986 he received the Premio Nacional de Música, and in 2001 the Premio Reina Sofia. Compositions *Triludio (1963) *Índices, for chamber orchestra (1964) *Henri à quatre, composed jointly with Holger Schüring Czukay , Attilio Filieri, and Ivan Tcherepnin (1965) *Quartet (1971) *Sine die, for orchestra (1972) *Quasi una cadenza, for chamber ensemble (1973) *Clamor I, electronic music (1974) *Clamor II, for tape and large orchestra (1974) *Clamor III, for voice, two pianos, and percussion (1974) *Sy

Gordon Langford

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Gordon Langford (11 May 1930 – 18 April 2017) was an English composer, arranger and performer. He is well known for his brass band compositions and arrangements. He was also a composer of choral and orchestral music, winning an Ivor Novello award for best light music composition for his March from the Colour Suite in 1971. Biography Langford was born in Edgware, Middlesex in May 1930 as Gordon Maris Colman. His father was a precision toolmaker. He was a prodigious child, beginning piano lessons aged five. At nine, one of his compositions received a public performance. He attended Bedford Modern School, and he went on to win a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano and composition with Norman Demuth. It was Demuth who suggested that he should change his surname or use a pseudonym. Hence, he changed his name to become Gordon Colman Langford. In 1951, during his army service with the Royal Artillery Band, he made his first BBC broadcast as a solo pianist. After leaving the army, he worked with seaside orchestras, a touring opera company and as a ship’s musician, but it was during the 1960s he came to prominence as a pianist, arranger and composer on BBC progr

Gordon Mumma

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Gordon Mumma (born March 30, 1935, in Framingham, Massachusetts) is an American composer. He is known most for his work with electronics, many devices of which he builds himself, and for his performances on horn. Biography Mumma entered the University of Michigan in 1952 at age 17, after dropping out of high school. He dropped out of Michigan after a year, but the connections he made in Ann Arbor were the foundation of much of his musical career. His early work was in piano, and his musical development drew on traditional composers such as Bach and Haydn, as well as modern composers such as Bartók, Schoenberg, Webern, and Ives. Mumma’s performances on piano were often in the context of piano ensembles, partnered with John Cage, David Tudor, and other performers. He toured internationally in the 1960s in a two-piano performance collaboration with Robert Ashley. He cofounded Ann Arbor’s Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music with Ashley in 1958–66, was a cofounder of the ONCE Festival in 1961–66 in Ann Arbor, was a resident composer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company alongside Cage and Tudor from 1966–74, and was a member of the Sonic Arts Union with Ashley, Alvin Lucier, and D

Gordon Sherwood

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Gordon Sherwood (August 25, 1929 – May 2, 2013) was an American classical composer. Known in Germany as the “Beggar-Composer”, his works exhibit various early 20th-century European and American classical music styles, as well as showing influences from blues, Arabic, Indian and Asian music. The New York Philharmonic under Dimitri Mitropoulos gave his career a promising start as a prize-winning young composer at Carnegie Hall in 1957. Aaron Copland said he was “his most gifted student”. He studied with famous teachers and won more awards and stipends in academia, but drifted into virtual anonymity until the mid-1990s. He began begging on the streets of Paris and two stipends from the financed composition studies with Philipp Jarnach at the , Germany. During a break from his fellowship studies in Hamburg in 1960, Sherwood was arrested for vandalising an Elvis poster in the New York City Subway. According to his autobiography, he worked for a New York City music publisher. Out of frustration with his job, dispatching heavy boxes of sheet music orders that were mostly Elvis Presley’s songs, he defaced a poster with red paint and profanity. This was the year in which his supporter, frie

Gösta Neuwirth

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Gösta Neuwirth (; born 6 January 1937) is an Austrian musicologist, composer and academic teacher. He studied in Vienna and Berlin, where he wrote a dissertation on harmony in Franz Schreker’s Der ferne Klang. He has taught at universities and music schools including the Musikhochschule Graz, University of Graz, Hochschule der Künste Berlin and University of Freiburg. His compositions include a string quartet and a chamber opera. Life Born in Vienna, Neuwirth comes from a musical family; the pianist Harald Neuwirth is his brother, whose daughter Olga Neuwirth is a composer. He received instruction in violin and piano starting in 1944. (1916). Vienna 1981, * Themen und Zeitstrukturen in Alban Bergs Kammerkonzert, in Alban-Berg-Symposion Wien 1980. Tagungsbericht, Vienna 1981, * Erzählung von Zahlen, in Josquin des Prés (Musik-Konzepte, volume 26/27), Munich 1982, * Bemerkungen zu einigen späteren Werken Ernst Kreneks, in Ernst Krenek (Studien zur Wertungsforschung, volume 15), Vienna 1982, . Reprint in Ernst Krenek (Musik-Konzepte, volule 39/40), Munich 1984, * Die Zwölftöner. Musik in Fremdheit und Isolation, in Das größere Österreich. Geistiges und soziales Leben von 1880 bis zur

Gottfried Glöckner

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Gottfried Glöckner (born 24 June 1937) is a German composer, choral conductor and music educator. Life Born in Chemnitz, Glöckner attended the Zwickau Conservatory. Afterwards he worked as a music teacher in Bad Liebenwerda and Frankfurt (Oder). From 1970 to 1974 he studied composition with Manfred Weiss at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. He worked as a freelance composer and choral conductor in Frankfurt (Oder). Glöckner’s compositions were published by bellmannmusik, Edition Choris Mundi and . His Concerto for Orchestra was first performed in Havana in 1984. He was married to the writer Helga Glöckner-Neubert until her death in 2017. Awards * 1986: Hanns Eisler Prize Compositions * Alle Kinder können sich verstehen for children’ choir and piano * Bratschenstücke (Viola pieces) for viola and piano (2011) * Concertino for accordion and wind quintet * Erste Liebe for medium voice and piano * Flötentrio for flutes * Fünf Intermezzi for clarinet and piano * Kleine Suite for accordion solo * Konzert für Orchester * Musik zur Weihnachtszeit for small ensemble * Philosophen und die Liebe for medium voice and piano * Präludium und Passacaglia * Sieben Stücke for

Gottfried Michael Koenig

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Gottfried Michael Koenig (5 October 1926 – 30 December 2021) was a German-Dutch composer. Biography Born in Magdeburg, Koenig studied church music in Braunschweig at the , followed by musical composition, piano, analysis, and acoustics at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. He continued his studies in music representation techniques at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and computer technique at the University of Bonn. Koenig attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Darmstadt music summer schools) and later served there as a lecturer. From 1954 to 1964, Koenig worked in the electronic studio of West German Radio (WDR), where he produced his electronic compositions Klangfiguren, Essay and Terminus 1, and wrote chamber and orchestral music. During this period, he also assisted other composers, including Mauricio Kagel, Franco Evangelisti, György Ligeti (with Artikulation), Herbert Brün and Karlheinz Stockhausen (with the realization of Gesang der Jünglinge and Kontakte). From 1961 to 1965, Koenig taught at the Gaudeamus Foundation in Bilthoven, and from 1962 to 1964 at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. In 1964 he moved to the Netherlands, where he taught at Utrecht University and was, until 1986,

Graciane Finzi

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Graciane Finzi (born 10 July 1945) is a Morocco-born French composer. Life Graciane Finzi was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and studied music at the Casablanca Conservatory, then managed by Georges Friboulet, where her parents were teachers. She entered the Paris Conservatory at age ten, where she studied piano with Joseph Benvenuti and developed an interest in composition. After completing her studies, she worked as a composer. She served as music director of the Festival de la Défense from 1975 to 1979, and began teaching at the Paris Conservatory in 1979. She served as vice-president of the International Society for Contemporary Music (SIMC) and of Société Nationale and as official representative to the Association Française d’Action Artistique (AFAA). She was composer-in-residence with the Lille National Orchestra from 2001 to 2003. Honours and awards * SACEM Grand Prix de la Promotion Symphonique * Georges Enesco Prize * SACEM Grand Prix * SACD Prize for her opera “Pauvre Assassin”, (premiered in Strasbourg, at Opéra du Rhin) Works Finzi’s compositions often mix difference genres and folk styles. She composes for music theater, voice, solo instruments, chamber ensemble and orch

Graciela Agudelo

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Graciela Agudelo (December 7, 1945 – April 19, 2018) was a Mexican pianist and composer. Life and career Graciela Agudelo studied piano at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and composition at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música with Héctor Quintanar and Mario Lavista. She received a scholarship from the Internationales Musikinstitu Darmstadt in Germany. Agudelo is the founder of the chamber ensemble group Onix Ensamble and was a founding member of the Mexican Society of New Music. Agudelo has published a number of articles and essays and headed the official journal of the National School of Music of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She is the author of the Musical Initiation GAM Method for Children (ENM / UNAM, 1998) and Man and Music (Patria, 1998). In 2002 she received the Xochipilli award for outstanding creativity in the field of music in Mexico. Though some of her music is didactic in nature (she wrote instructional books and music for students), she is best known for her “solo, chamber and orchestral works in an avant-garde style enlivened by an individualistic approach to national identity that avoids folkloristic clichés”. Works and discography Agudel

Graciela Castillo

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Graciela Castillo (born 1940) is an Argentine electroacoustic composer. Life and career Graciela Castillo was born in Córdoba, Argentina. She was educated in her native city at the Conservsatorio de Musica Juan Sebastian Bach and the National University of Córdoba. Her teachers included composers César Franchisena and Francisco Kröpfl; violinist and conductor Zlatko Topolsky; and composer and pianist Nicolás Alfredo Alessio. She alo studied with Alfredo Luis Nihoul, and Ornella Ballestreri de Devoto. In the mid-1960s, she was among a group of composers that created the Experimental Music Center (Centro de Música Experimental) at the National University of Córdoba. She composed music at the center, and later took a position as Professor of Composition and Music Analysis at the National University. Works Selected works include: *Concreción 65, concrete music on tape, 1965 *Y así era, for tape, 1982 *Diálogos for two voices, typewriters, radios, and percussion *Homenaje a Eliot, open work for voices, concrète sounds and music theatre actions, both in 1965 *Colores y masas, concrète music for paintings by José De Monte, in 1966 *Estudio sobre mi voz for tape, 1967 *Estudio sobre mi voz

Graciela Paraskevaidis

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Graciela Paraskevaidis (1 April 1940 – 21 February 2017) was an Argentine writer and composer of Greek ancestry who lived and worked in Uruguay. Life Graciela Paraskevaidis was born in Buenos Aires. She studied composition at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires with Roberto García Morillo and at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella with Gerardo Gandini and Iannis Xenakis from 1965 to 1966 with a scholarship from the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM). She continued her studies at the Musikhochschule Freiburg/Breisgau with Wolfgang Fortner from 1968 to 1971 with a grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. She studied at Darmstadt in 1972. After completing her studies, Parakevaidis took a position at the Universidad Nacional in Montevideo where she taught from 1985 to 1992 and also worked as a composer. Her works have been performed internationally in Europe, Asia and the Americas. She has written two books La obra sinfónica de Eduardo Fabini published in 1992 and Luis Campodónico, compositor published in 1999, and a number of articles on 20th-century Latin-American music published in the journals Pauta, Mexico, and MusikTexte, Germany. She publi

Grant Foster

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Grant Foster (born 1945) is an Australian composer, pianist, teacher and novelist. He was the co-founder and inaugural artistic director of the Southern Highlands International Piano Competition. His musical is lyrical and well crafted, and he is well-known in Russia, despite being relatively unknown in his own country. Grant Foster was born in Sydney in 1945 and studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Alexander Sverjensky, then in Paris under Marcel Ciampi, to whom he was recommended by Yehudi Menuhin after hearing him play, and under Denise Rivière. The musical Peter Pan, directed by Sir Robert Helpmann, with music by Foster, ran in London for seven consecutive Christmas seasons. He was its artistic director until 2013, when he was succeeded by Gerard Willems. He is better known in Russia than in Australia. His works have been recorded by the Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, by the Serbian-born pianist Mira Yevtich, among others. - Notes

Grayston Ives

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Charles John Grayston Ives (born 1948), also known as Bill Ives, is a British composer, singer and choral director. Education and career Ives was a chorister at Ely Cathedral and later studied music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he held a choral scholarship. He began his career as a music teacher, before joining the King’s Singers from 1978 to 1985. His voice can be heard on a number of recordings from that period, including Paul McCartney’s Frog Chorus. From 1991 to 2009 he was the organist and choir director at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was also a Fellow and tutor in music. As well as being responsible for the daily musical life of the college chapel, he directed the choir in recordings on the Harmonia Mundi label. The album With a Merrie Noyse, made with the viol consort Fretwork and featuring the works of the English composer Orlando Gibbons, was nominated for a Grammy in 2004. Paul McCartney’s Ecce Cor Meum was written especially for the college choir, and the subsequent EMI recording won the Classical BRIT Award for album of the year in 2007. Other recordings with Magdalen College Choir include Listen Sweet Dove, a selection of Ives’s liturgical works, and Duru

Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil

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Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil (born 16 July 1947) is a Polish composer and music educator. Life Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil was born in Wrocław, Poland. She studied composition at the State School of Music in Wrocław with Stefan Bolesław Poradowski and Tadeusz Natanson, and in France under Pierre Boulez and Olivier Messiaen. She took courses at the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique in Paris and studied Iannis Xenakis’s music in Aix-en-Provence. After completing her studies, Pstrokońska-Nawratil took a position in 1971 at the State School of Music in Wrocław, becoming a professor in 1993 and later Chair of Composition and Music Theory. Beginning in 1998, she also taught at the Poznan Academy of Music. Her works have been performed internationally. Honors and awards *The Tadeusz Baird Young Competition of the Polish Composers’ Union in 1968 and 1973 *Grzegorz Fitelberg Competition in 1972 *International Competition for Women Composers in Mannheim in 1975 *3rd place at the UNESCO International Composers’ Tribune in Paris in 1987 *Wrocław City Award *Chairman of the Council of Ministers Award for work for children and teenagers in 1997 *Brother Albert Award in

Gréco Casadesus

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Gréco Casadesus (born 13 August 1951) is a French composer who composes film scores. Born in Paris to a large family of artists (musicians, conductors, performers, actors, composers, painters, and writers), he has composed over a hundred musical creations for television, cinema, performances, and theatre. In his early years, he started out as an artistic director for EMI Classics, then set out to create music for the stage (1983–1997). From 1984 on, he started writing music for TV and cinema with a style combining orchestral music and electronics (synthesizers and computer music). Casadesus composed soundtracks for a diverse range of productions, such as Divertimento, with Kellan Lutz, Torrey DeVitto, Ola Rapace, Götz Otto by Keyvan Sheikhalishahi, The Climb, a fiction movie by the American director Bob Swaim, the animated film Babar: King of the Elephants, adapted from the classic French comic by Jean de Brunhof, or the TV series Jesus by Serge Moati. He also wrote seven hours of music for the restored version of the 1921 film Les Trois Mousquetaires, by Henri Diamant-Berger. Fascinated by the genius of Étienne-Jules Marey (1830–1904), inventor of the first moving images, he wrote

Greg Schiemer

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Gregory Marcellus Schiemer (born 16 January 1949 in Dunedoo) is an Australian electronic music composer, instrument builder and teacher. His artistic preoccupations include creative engagement with technology, music created for non-expert performance and intercultural-interfaith dialogue. Background and training Greg Schiemer was born on 16 January 1949 in Dunedoo, New South Wales. He attended Holy Cross College, Ryde (1961 to 1963), and finished high school in the Passionist minor seminary (from 1964) at St Ives and at the Sydney Technical College, Ultimo in 1968. He completed a B.Mus at Sydney University in 1972 where he studied composition with Peter Sculthorpe who introduced him to the music of Asia and the instruments of Harry Partch. Through David Ahern, he discovered experimental music and the work of Cornelius Cardew and John Cage. and Arthur Spring. Between 1972 and 1975, together they built some of the earliest electronic music systems that respond to dance movement. Between 1976 and 1981, Schiemer worked for Digital Equipment Australia, a division of Digital Equipment Corporation, initially in computer field service and later as senior design technician. In 1999 he compl

Gregoria Karides Suchy

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Gregoria Karides Suchy (November 14, 1923 – October 3, 2018) was an American composer and educator. Her music uses electroacoustic and Greek musical elements. Biography Karides Suchy was the daughter of Greek immigrants and was born on November 14, 1923 in Milwaukee. In 1945, she graduated from the Milwaukee State Teachers College, later University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, (UWM) and began teaching soon after. Karides Suchy died on October 3, 2018. UWM offers a scholarship in her name for Music students. Work Karides Suchy began to create electroacoustic music in the 1960s. She also incorporated non-traditional items, like beer bottles and spliced tape, in her compositions. She called her experimental compositions “soundscaping.” Karides Suchy’s work has been performed both in the United States and internationally. References External links * Greek Rhapsody (video)

Gregory Rose (musician)

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Peter Gregory Rose (born 18 April 1948) is a conductor, composer, arranger, and music director. He has conducted orchestral, choral and ensemble premieres throughout Europe and the Far East. Musical education and training Gregory Rose studied violin, piano and singing as a young child and was a pupil of Hanns Jelinek (Vienna Academy) and Egon Wellesz (Oxford University), both former students of Arnold Schoenberg, and of his father, Bernard Rose. Conductor Choral Rose’s conducting repertoire ranges from Pérotin (of the Notre Dame school) to premieres which have included his own works. He began conducting choirs whilst a student at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was an ‘Academical Clerk’ (Choral scholar) under the direction of his father, the conductor, composer, scholar and teacher, Bernard Rose. Since then, his choral conducting has included concerts and recordings with Europe’s finest choirs, including the Groupe Vocal de France, the BBC Singers, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the Netherlands Kamerkoor, the Westdeutscher Rundfunkchor (West German Radio Chorus) and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. He has conducted many a cappella programmes, including all-Russian works fo

Gregory Short

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Gregory Norman Short (August 14, 1938 – April 1, 1999) was a composer, educator, and performer. He was born in Toppenish, Washington, the largest city in the Yakima Indian Reservation. Later, he attended the Juilliard School and University of Washington. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Oregon. Biography In 1961, Short began teaching piano students in performance and music theory. He created new music that blended classical European–American styles with American–Indian melodies that earned recognition beyond the Northwest. He combined Native–American influences with European–American music for a sound that was compelling rather than being a cliche. He used ethnic themes in many of the 300 compositions he created over 35 years. Short was named the 1989 Washington State Centennial Artist. He taught at the college and university level for decades. As a member of the Washington State Teachers Association, Short served as an adjudicator. In 1989, WTA selected him as Composer of the Year and commissioned him to write a piece. The prominent American folklorist Stacy I. Morgan points out that he crosses musical categories, “the boundaries between f

Grietje Terburg Rowley

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Elizabeth Grietje Terburg Rowley (1927–2015) was a Latter-day Saint hymnwriter. Born in Florida, she later moved to Hawaii, to teach, and then to Salt Lake City, Utah. She wrote several hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), among which is “Be Thou Humble”. Life Rowley was born Elizabeth Grietje Terburg in Homestead, Florida to a family of Dutch background. where she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Afterward, she moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and spent most of her remaining life there. She married Grant Rowley in 1953. Rowley composed many hymns and is most well known for “Be Thou Humble”, included in her church’s 1985 hymnal. The text, based on two verses of scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 112:10 and Ether 12:27, teaches that as one humbles oneself, their prayers are answered and they will ultimately return to the presence of their Heavenly Father. Other hymns of hers are included in the Primary’s Children’s Songbook, including “I Want To Be a Missionary Now” and “Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus. She served on the LDS General Music Committee. Songs composed Below is a concise list of the songs composed by Rowley. *A Smile

Grigoriy Korchmar

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Grigoriy Korchmar (, Grigorij Ovšievič Korčmar; alternately translated Grigori or Grigory) (1947 – 17 November 2025) was a Russian composer and pianist. Although little-known outside his native Russia, Korchmar was a prominent figure in the musical life of Saint Petersburg. He began to study piano and composition in 1958 at the Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Leningrad (now St Petersburg). In 1996, he was made an “Honoured Art Worker of Russia”. Notable works by Korchmar include the operas Newlyweds (1970), A Story about Boris and Gleb (1981) and Fedra (1984), Dialogues for cello and piano (1976), Tango macabre for violin and piano (1985), White Nights Serenades (1991) for solo guitar and four symphonies, the latest of which was completed in 2003. Korchmar’s brother, Leonid Korchmar is a conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre and a notable conducting pedagogue. Korchmar died on 17 November 2025, at the age of 77. Works * 4 symphonies * Sonata dolorosa for cello and piano * Concerto for trumpet and string orchestra * Dear Sergei Sergeich! Concerto-message to S. S. Prokofiev. For violin with orchestra * “… Whom my soul loves…”. Poem for piano * Goodbye, dear friend. Fantasy o

Gu Jianfen

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Gu Jianfen (; born 21 March 1935) is a Chinese composer. She is best known for writing “The Kiss from Mother”, “Young Friends Come Together,” and “The Affection of Green Leaves to the Roots”. Early life and education Gu was born in Osaka, Japan in 1935, but her family was originally from Weihai, China. She and her family moved back to China and settled in Dalian in 1942. She studied at the Luda Art Troupe, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts and the Shenyang Conservatory of Music. She graduated from the latter in 1955. Gu is also politically active. She was a council member for several organizations, such as the China International Culture Exchange Center, China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, and Beijing Municipal Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. She also served as the vice president of the Chinese Musician’s Association in 1999. She has been a member of the Zhi Gong party since 1982, and served as a member of their 9th and 10th central committees. She was a member of the 6th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the 8th, 9th and 10th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. References Further reading * “Wings”

Gui Mallon

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Guilherme A.B. Mallon (Gui Mallon) is a Brazilian composer, guitarist and writer. Mallon was born in Rio de Janeiro, and studied music theory and harmony at the CBM-Brazilian Conservatory of Music in Rio de Janeiro. He also studied composition and conducting with Alceu Bochino and Guerra Peixe, at the Villa-Lobos School of Music in Rio de Janeiro. In 1983 he moved to the United States, where he lived in New York from 1983 to 1989. In 1990 he moved to Europe, settling down in Madrid, Spain and then finally in Sweden (1992). In Europe he formed different groups to perform his compositions and arrangements in various styles: contemporary, world, folk music, jazz and classical. Attempting to expand the chamber music and classical guitar repertoires, Gui Mallon has written extensively for a trio formed by his guitar, a bass instrument (usually violoncello or bass) and a solo instrument (flute, violin, sax, oboe, etc.). His Gui Mallon Ensemble, a band formed of a string quintet, 3 percussionists, sax, flute and guitar, performed two concerts at Montreux Jazz Festival. These concerts were recorded live and released in the US and Canada by the American record company Adventure Music (Live

Günter Bust

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Günter Bust (12 July 1930 – 27 May 2005) was a German music educator and composer. Life Born in , today Magdeburg, Bust first attended the 23rd Magdeburg Community School, then the from 1941 to 1945. After the Bombing of Leipzig, the school was evacuated to Nossen in 1943/44. At the end of the war, he stayed in Zschopau. After the Abitur at the , he studied school music with Fritz Reuter and Slavic studies at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1949 to 1953. On the occasion of the in East Berlin in 1950, he founded the “Central Choir” which is considered the forerunner of the “Johann Friedrich Reichardt” in Halle. Bust then worked as a teacher in Halberstadt and Dessau. From 1956 to 1963, he was head of the music department at the in Weißenfels. Afterwards, he taught at the Käthe Kollwitz secondary school in Schönebeck. From 1967 to 1995 he was head of the , where he taught music theory, practical school play and viola. He also presided over the youth symphony orchestra there. At the music school, he set up a secretariat for the “Georg Philipp Telemann” working group. This became the centre of Telemann care and research in 1985. Bust also installed a musical pre-s

Günter Kochan

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Günter Kochan (2 October 1930 – 22 February 2009) was a German composer. He studied with Boris Blacher and was a master student for composition with Hanns Eisler. From 1967 until his retirement in 1991, he worked as professor for musical composition at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”. He taught master classes in composition at the Academy of Music and the Academy of Arts, Berlin. He was also secretary of the Music Section of the Academy of Arts from 1972 to 1974 and vice-president of the from 1977 to 1982. Kochan is one of eleven laureates to have been awarded the National Prize of the GDR four times. In addition, he received composition prizes in the US and Eastern Europe. He became internationally known in particular for his Symphonies as well as the cantata Die Asche von Birkenau (1965) and his Music for Orchestra No. 2 (1987). His versatile oeuvre included orchestral works, chamber music, choral works, mass songs and film music and is situated between socialist realism and avant-garde. Life Origin and studies Kochan was born in 1930 into a family of white-collar workers in Luckau, Lower Lusatia. He received his first piano lessons at the age of seven from the local pian

Gunter Waldek

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Gunter Waldek (born 26 July 1953) is an Austrian composer, conductor and music educator. Life and career Waldek was born in Linz. Already in his youth he received piano, organ and music theory lessons at the Anton Bruckner Private University. After the Matura in 1971, he studied music education, musicology and Romance studies at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the University of Salzburg. In 1977, he graduated with Staatsexamen and Magister degree and from then on taught at grammar schools in Linz and Salzburg. He completed his further studies (conducting), choir conducting and composition with Helmut Eder with the Magister artrium. Work Particularly successful were the church opera Das Hohe Lied (1993) and Ein etwas seltsames Abendessen, musical music theatre (1994). His extensive output (more than 150 compositions since 1980) includes various genres: * 13 Ways of Looking at Blackbird (song cycle, 1984). * …meins trarens is … (violin Concerto, 1986) * Up & Down (Sinfonietta for string orchestra, 1989) * Lacrimosa (for large orchestra, 1989) * Dream Songs (after Indian texts for choir, 1990) * Domklang (spatial installation, 1990) * Et l’enfant dit: … (scenic cantata for

Gunther Schuller

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Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925 – June 21, 2015) He studied at the Saint Thomas Choir School and became an accomplished French horn player and flute player. At age 15, he was already playing horn professionally with the American Ballet Theatre (1943) followed by an appointment as principal hornist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1943–45), and then the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York, where he stayed until 1959. During his youth, he attended the Precollege Division at the Manhattan School of Music, later going on to teach at the school. But, already a high school dropout because he wanted to play professionally, Schuller never obtained a degree from any institution. He began his career in jazz by recording as a horn player with Miles Davis (1949–50). Performance and growth In 1955, Schuller and jazz pianist John Lewis founded the Modern Jazz Society, Concertino (1959, for jazz quartet and orchestra), Abstraction (1959, for nine instruments), and Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (1960, for 13 instruments) utilizing Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman. He also orchestrated Scott Joplin’s only known surviving opera Treemonisha for the Houston Grand Opera’s

Gustav Ciamaga

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Gustav Ciamaga (April 10, 1930 – June 11, 2011) was a Canadian composer, music educator, and writer. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers, he was best known for his compositions of electronic music, although he produced several non-electronic works. His compositions have been performed throughout North America and Europe. His work Curtain Raiser was commissioned for the opening of the National Arts Centre in 1969. An honorary member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, he invented a number of electronic music apparatuses, including the Serial Sound Structure Generator. As a writer he contributed articles to numerous music journals, magazines, and other publications. Biography Born in London, Ontario, Ciamaga studied at the University of Western Ontario from 1951 to 1954 while simultaneously receiving private instruction from Gordon Delamont. He entered the music program at the University of Toronto where he studied music composition with John Weinzweig and John Beckwith from 1954–1956. He then pursued graduate studies in musicology and composition at Brandeis University where he earned an MFA in 1958. His teachers at Brand

Gustav Gunsenheimer

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Gustav Gunsenheimer (; 10 March 1934 – 3 March 2026) was a German director of church music and a composer of mostly sacred music and chamber music, including the Evangelienmotette . First an elementary school teacher, he worked for decades as the church musician at St. Lukas in Schweinfurt, where he held annual festivals. He conducted notable choirs, was responsible in the Bavarian organization of chorale conductors, and was a lecturer at the Musikhochschule Würzburg. Life and career Born in Kunzendorf, External links * * Gustav Gunsenheimer / 1934 at Carus-Verlag

Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt

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Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt (August 26, 1925 – January 3, 2010) was a Chilean composer. Biography and career Becerra-Schmidt was born in Temuco, Chile. He studied at The Chilean National Conservatory, and was taught by Pedro Humberto Allende. During this time and after, Becerra-Schmidt was a teacher in the Chilean National Conservatory, he held this position until 1971 when he became a Cultural attaché between Chile and Bonn. 2 years later, Becerra-Schmidt moved to Germany due to the 1973 Chilean coup d’état, in Germany, Becerra-Schmidt taught at the University of Oldenburg beginning in 1974. Becerra was also an important teacher. Some of his pupils are among the most important composers of Chile, these include Luis Advis, Sergio Ortega, Fernando García and Cirilo Vila. Becerra-Schmidt died on January 3, 2010, at his home in Oldenburg. Compositions Becerra was a prolific Chilean composer, his catalogue includes hundreds of compositions that goes from traditional to avant-garde to Aleatoric music, and from popular songs to large-scale cantatas, symphonies and oratorios. However, a large part of his musical career was politically involved, some of his cantatas included verses that were r

Gustavo Santaolalla

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Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla (; born 19 August 1951) is an Argentine composer, record producer and musician. He is the recipient of numerous accolades for his works, including two Academy Awards for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, two Grammy Awards and 17 Latin Grammy Awards. He is known for his minimalist approach to composing and for his influence in the Latin rock music genre. Involved in music from a young age, he began a professional career in 1967 founding the band Arco Iris, who were influential to the rock nacional genre. Fleeing the rule of the Argentine military junta and the dictatorship of the National Reorganization Process, Santaolalla moved to Los Angeles in 1978. After returning to Argentina in the 1980s and taking a musical sabbatical, he became a leading figure in the rock en español movement, establishing the record label Surco Records within Universal Music and producing records for over 100 artists. Notable records he produced were several from Café Tacuba, including their acclaimed 1994 album Re, Julieta Venegas’s 2000 album Bueninvento, and Juanes’s 2005 hit single “La Camisa Negra”. Santaolalla established the neotango group Bajofondo in 2001. Music from

Guy Lacour

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(Guillaume) Guy Lacour (8 June 1932 in Soissons, Aisne – 15 May 2013) was a French composer of classical music, and a tenor saxophonist. Education Lacour started musical studies at 10 years old in his home city of Soissons. He joined local orchestras and earned his diploma from the Confédération Musicale de France. He then attended the conservatory in Versailles where he studied with Marcel Josse. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris in 1950 and studied saxophone with Marcel Mule and chamber music with Fernand Oubradous. Career After finishing his studies, he became a pop saxophonist and played in four leading groups of that time, performing in leading music halls, cabarets and variety shows (Lido, Moulin-Rouge, Folies Bergère, etc.). He remained a classical saxophonist, however, performing in symphony orchestras in concerts, on the radio, and in the opera. In 1961 he joined the famous Marcel Mule Saxophone Quartet as its tenor saxophonist. This led to concerts and recording sessions with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan, the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim as a soloist. After leaving the Marcel Mule Quartet, he was a member

Guy Morançon

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Guy Morançon (5 December 1927 – 25 November 2025) was a French composer and organist. He was titular organist of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Paris, founder and conductor of the Chœurs Jean-Baptiste Lully, director of the Conservatoire Nadia et Lili Boulanger from 1982 to 1991, and inspector of music for the City pf Paris. He is remembered for the first recording of Mendelssohn’s complete organ works in 1970 at the Cavaillé-Coll organ of Saint-Ouen de Rouen. Olivier Messiaen once said that he was “a true musician”. * Three pieces for grand organ * Three studies for string orchestra, after Paolo Uccello * Sirventès, for guitar * 1974 Musique pour orgue et cordes, for organ and strings * 1977 Messe de Verlaine, for women’s choir (1 to 4 parts) and three instruments: piano, percussion and ondes Martenot Guy Morançon Val-de-Grâce–> * http://www.valdegrace.org/pages/page18.html External links * *

Guy Woolfenden

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Guy Anthony Woolfenden (12 July 1937 – 15 April 2016) was an English composer and conductor. He was head of music at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon for 37 years, making music an integral part of over 150 productions there. One of the first productions he was involved with there was The Wars of the Roses cycle of Shakespeare plays produced by Peter Hall and John Barton in 1964, for which he created special instruments. In 1976 he composed the score for Trevor Nunn’s musical version of The Comedy of Errors, which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in 1977. Similarly, the music composed for the 1982 productions of Henry IV Parts I and II was reused the following year as the suite for wind band Gallimaufry, the first of 15 major wind band pieces. Woolfenden was Artistic Director of the Cambridge Festival from 1986 to 1991. In 1995 he was a founder director of the English Music Festival which became the Stratford on Avon Music Festival. He was the Chairman of the Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund, a charity which supports young musicians and actors. Woolfenden conducted three productions with the Scottish Opera, as well as the first British productions of Nielsen’s Saul a

Gwyneth Van Anden Walker

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Gwyneth Van Anden Walker (born 22 March 1947) is an American music educator and composer. Biography Walker was born in New York to a Quaker family and grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. She began her first efforts at composition at an early age and went on to receive BA (1968) from Brown University, and MM (1970) and DMA (1976) degrees in Music Composition from the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford, where she studied under Arnold Franchetti. She taught music for fourteen years at Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Conservatory and the Oberlin College Conservatory, and then moved to a dairy farm in Vermont and went to work as a full-time composer. In 1988, she helped found the Consortium of Vermont Composers and later became the director of the organization. Walker currently spends time in New Canaan, Connecticut, Sarasota, Florida, and Randolph, Vermont. The Chord The original Gwyneth Walker Chord is heard in the opening bars of Gwyneth Walker’s Earth-Shaking Choral piece ‘Tell the Earth to Shake’ for SATB Chorus and Chamber Orchestra or Piano. It is made up of the notes A, Bb, D, and E: Awards *1999 Brock Commission (American Choral Directors Association) *2000 Lifet

György Cziffra

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Christian Georges Cziffra (; 5 November 192115 January 1994) was a Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer. He is considered to be one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of the twentieth century. Among his teachers was Ernő Dohnányi, a pupil of István Thoman, who was a favourite pupil of Franz Liszt. Born in Budapest, he became a French national in 1968. Cziffra is known for his recordings of works of Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann, and also for his technically demanding arrangements or paraphrases of several orchestral works for the piano, including Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee and Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube. Cziffra left a sizeable body of recordings. He lived in Senlis, a commune northeast of Paris, where he ran a foundation for young musicians and artists. Early years Cziffra was born to a poor Romani family of musicians in Budapest in 1921. In his memoirs, Cziffra describes his father, a player of the cimbalom, as “a cabaret artist”. The family lived in poverty. His father, Gyula was unemployed, and the family income was earned by Cziffra’s mother Ilona and his elder sister, Jolán. His parents had lived in Paris before Worl

György Kurtág

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György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Kurtág was an academic teacher of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1967, later also of chamber music, and taught until 1993. For decades, Kurtág and his wife Márta gave recitals on one piano of selections from his ten-volume collection Játékok and his Bach transcriptions. Life and career György Kurtág was born on 19 February 1926 in Lugoj, Romania, to Jewish Hungarian parents. He spoke Hungarian, Romanian, and German early. From the age of 14, he took piano lessons from Magda Kardos and studied composition with Max Eisikovits in Timișoara. He moved to Budapest in 1946 and became a Hungarian citizen in 1948. There, he began his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he met his wife, Márta Kinsker, as well as composer György Ligeti, who became a close friend. His piano teacher at the academy was Pál Kadosa. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Ferenc Farkas, chamber music with Leó Weiner, and theory with Lajos Bárdos, and graduated in piano and chamber music in 1951. He married Márta in 1947 and their son was born in 1954. He received his deg

György Ligeti

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Early life#

Ligeti was born in 1923 at Diciosânmartin (Dicsőszentmárton; renamed to Târnăveni in 1941) in Romania, to Dr. Sándor Ligeti and Dr. Ilona Somogyi. His family was Hungarian Jewish. He was the great-grandnephew of violinist Leopold Auer and second cousin of Hungarian philosopher Ágnes Heller. Some sources say he was Auer’s grandnephew, rather than great-grandnephew. Ligeti recalled that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation between Romanian-speaking town police. Before that, he didn’t know that other languages existed. He moved to Cluj with his family when he was six years old. He did not return to the town of his birth until the 1990s. In 1940, Northern Transylvania became part of Hungary following the Second Vienna Award, thus Cluj became part of Hungary as well. In 1941 Ligeti received his initial musical training at the conservatory in Kolozsvár (Cluj), He studied under Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas, Zoltán Kodály and Sándor Veress. He conducted 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. He secured this position with the help of Kodály and held it from 1950 to 1956. As a young teacher, Ligeti took the unusual step of regularly attending the lectures of an older colleague, the conductor, and musicologist Lajos Bárdos, a conservative Christian whose circle represented a safe haven for Ligeti. The composer acknowledged Bárdos’s help and advice in the prefaces to his two harmony textbooks (1954 and 1956). Due to the restrictions of the communist government, communications between Hungary and the West by then had become difficult, and Ligeti and other artists were effectively cut off from recent developments outside the Eastern Bloc.

György Orbán

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György Orbán (born 12 July 1947 in Târgu Mureș, Romania) is a Romanian-born Hungarian composer. Biography György Orbán was born in Târgu Mureș, Romania on July 12, 1947. He studied music composition with Sigismund Toduță and Max Eisikovits and music theory with János Jagamas at the Cluj-Napoca Academy of Music where he was a student from 1968 through 1973. After completing his studies, he joined the faculty of that school where he taught both music theory and counterpoint for six years. In 1979 Orbán emigrated from Romania to Hungary when he accepted a position as a music editor with the music publisher Editio Musica Budapest. He remained in that position through 1990. In 1982 he became a professor of music theory and composition at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. In 1989 his avant-garde music composition Triple Sextet (1979) received honors at the in Paris. While his earlier music embraced the avant-garde style, he moved away from this beginning in the mid-1980s into a neo-Romantic aesthetic. In 1991 he was awarded the Bartók-Pásztory Prize. Works, editions, recordings Recordings Monographs * Orban: Hungarian Passion. Bartók Béla Chorus and University Orchestra dir. Gábor Baross

Gyp Mills

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Gyp Mills (born David John Mills, 9 July 1946 – 18 June 2019), also known as Gypsy Dave, was an English sculptor and songwriter. He was first in the public eye as the companion to the singer-songwriter, Donovan. He was also a well-known sculptor with studios in Greece and Thailand. Early years Mills was born in Peckham Rye, London, before moving to Hertfordshire. In his early days in Hertfordshire he became friends with many art students, including Dave Richards, Julian McAllister and Donovan. In 1963 he made a pivotal journey to St. Ives, Cornwall with Donovan. He lost touch with Donovan and moved around the UK including Manchester and Nottingham. In late 1964 Donovan had been signed up to a record label and asked Mills to accompany him on his first tour with his other friends Mac MacLeod and John Lock. Donovan wrote “To Try for the Sun” and “Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)” about his time with Mills. Mills was tour manager for Donovan for many years, and appeared alongside Donovan in the TV film, A Boy Called Donovan. In 1968 they both journeyed to be with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and The Beatles in Rishikesh, India. Mills wrote a few songs which appeared on Donovan’s album, The Hurd

Hagood Hardy

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Hugh Hagood Hardy, (February 26, 1937 – January 1, 1997) was a Canadian composer, pianist, and vibraphonist. He played mainly jazz and easy listening music. He is best known for the 1975 single, “The Homecoming” from his album of the same name, and for his soundtrack to the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea films. Early life Hardy was born in Angola, Indiana. His mother was an American citizen. Hardy came to Canada as an infant settling in Brantford and grew up in Oakville, Ontario. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College, Toronto, and studied music privately in Toronto with Gordon Delamont. As a young man he participated in bebop jam sessions on Gerrard Street in Toronto. and “The Garden Path” was on the chart in 1972. Hardy’s tune “The Homecoming” was used 1972 as music to a TV commercial for Salada tea. It was later included on an album of the same name. Hardy set up an independent record label, Isis, through his Toronto company, Hagood Hardy Productions, and released “The Homecoming” as a single in 1975. It climbed the charts, rising to 14 in Canada, and in the US number 41 on the pop and number 6 on the easy listening charts, and was certified Gold in

Haig Mardirosian

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Haig Mardirosian (born 1947 in New York City) is Dean Emeritus of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Tampa, Professor Emeritus at American University in Washington, DC, a concert organist, composer, and conductor. He has performed in many of the most important concert venues throughout North America and Europe. He has over a dozen commercial recordings to his credit including well known and respected performances of the organ works of Bach, Brahms, Liszt, Petr Eben, and Jean Langlais. Performing career In 1977, Haig Mardirosian was invited to be the first American to perform in the International Organ Week in Bonn, Germany. In 1989, he was one of two Americans performing in the first (and only) Soviet-American Organ Music Festival. This broadcast work includes important broadcasts from the famed Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University. His new Requiem for choir, strings, and percussion was premiered in November, 2007 in Washington, DC. Writer For 25 years, Mardirosian served as a critic for Fanfare Magazine, the leading recording review journal in the United States, and for 26 years he has written reviews of recordings, scores, books, and New Media for The Am

Håkon Berge

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Håkon Berge (born 22 April 1954) is a Norwegian contemporary composer, conductor and arranger. Berge was born in Stavanger. He studied composition at the Music Department at the University of Stavanger and the Norwegian Academy of Music. As a composer, Berge has contributed to stage productions at institutions such as Rogaland Teater, Den Nationale Scene and Oslo’s National Theatre. He has also contributed to TV productions, including the score for the domestically broadcast opera Gagarin – a space opera in 1991. Berge has penned a number of commissioned works, including a work written for the opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the opening work for Oslo’s Nobel Peace Center and the 2008 European Brass Band Championship test piece Brass Blot. As a freelancer, Berge has held positions as musical director, composer in residence and conductor at Norway’s major theatres and has written music for more than 70 plays. In addition to his work on music for theatre productions, Berge has received commissions from the Norwegian Society of Composers, the Norwegian Authors’ Union, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, NRK and the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Berge has held a numb

Hale Smith

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Hale Smith (June 29, 1925 – November 24, 2009) was an American composer, arranger, and pianist. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he learned piano at an early age and played mellophone in the high school band. As a teenager, he played jazz piano in local nightclubs. His composition Four Songs won the first student composer award given by BMI. With Chico Hamilton he wrote music for the movie Mr. Ricco (1975). In 1948, he married Juanita Hancock. He has a daughter, Robin, who resides in Manhattan, and three sons: Michael from Freeport, Eric from York, PA, and Marcel from Harpursville, NY. Additionally, he has three grandchildren. His compositions include The Valley Wind (1952), In Memoriam, Beryl Rubinstein (1953), Sonata for Cello and Piano (1955), Contours for Orchestra (1961), Faces of Jazz (1965), Evocation (1966), Ritual and Incantation (1974), Innerflexions (1977), Toussaint L’Ouverture (1979), Solemn Music (1979), Three Patterson Lyrics (1985), and Dialogues and Commentaries (1991) * Four Songs for Medium Voice (1952) * The Valley Wind (1952) * In Memoriam – Beryl Rubinstein (1953) * Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1955) * Two Love Songs of John Donne (1958) * Feathers (196

Halim El-Dabh

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Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (, Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍabʻ; 4 March 1921 – 2 September 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had a career spanning six decades. He is particularly known as an early pioneer of electronic music. In 1944 he composed one of the earliest known works of tape music, or musique concrète. From the late 1950s to early 1960s he produced influential work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Early life El-Dabh was born and grew up in Sakakini, Cairo, Egypt, a member of a large and affluent Coptic Christian family that had earlier emigrated from Abutig in the Upper Egyptian province of Asyut. The family name means “the hyena” and is not uncommon in Egypt. In 1932 the family relocated to the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. Following his father’s profession of agriculture, he graduated from Fuad I University in 1945 with a degree in agricultural engineering, while also informally studying, performing, and composing music. Although his main income was derived from his job as an agricultural consultant, he achieved recognition in Egypt from the mid- to late 1940s for his innovative compositions and piano tec

Halina Harelava

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Halina Kanstancinaŭna Harełava, also known as Galina Gorelova (; ; born 5 March 1951), is a Belarusian contemporary composer. Biography Harełava was born in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR (now Belarus), and studied music at the National Conservatory in Minsk with Dźmitry Smolski, graduating in 1977. After completing her studies, she took at position teaching theory and composition at the Conservatory. She received the State Prize of Belarus in 1992 for Anno mundis ardentis. Works Harelava’s works incorporate elements of Belarusian folk themes, and she is noted for children’s compositions. Selected works include: *Liryčnaja kantata Lyrical Cantata (traditional Belarusian texts) for female chorus and orchestra, 1979 *Anno mundis ardentis (P. Antokol’sky, G. Appolinaire, L. Aragon, V. Bryusov, S. Kirsanov, A. Rimbault, A. Tarkovsky) for mezzo-soprano, baritone and orchestra, 1989 *Tysiača hadoŭ nadzieji A Thousand Years of Hope (poets of the 10th–20th centuries) for female voice and orchestra, 1990 *Violin Concerto, 1979 *Oboe Concerto, 1984 *Bandaroŭna, symphonic poem, 1986 *Balalaika Concerto, 1991 *Trumpet Concerto, 1992 *Guitar Concerto, 1994 *Concerto for viola, string orchestra and bel

Halvor Haug

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Halvor Haug (20 February 1952 – 3 June 2025) was a Norwegian composer whose music has been performed internationally and widely recorded. Life and career Born in Trondheim, Haug studied with Kolbjørn Ofstad at the Oslo Conservatory, and from 1973 spent a year at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he studied with Einar Englund and Erik Bergman. While in London he took lessons from Robert Simpson. He was the first Norwegian festival composer chosen for the Stavanger Chamber Music Festival in 1996. The later Symphony No. 3 (1994) is tightly organized around a simple cell of four notes, and includes at the end the song of a Nightingale played on tape. Later works, including Insignia for chamber orchestra (commissioned from the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994), the Piano Trio (1995) and the String Quartet No. 1 (1996) are more dissonant and experimental. Haug lived at Harestua. He died on 3 June 2025, at the age of 73. Selected works * Violin Sonata (1973) * Tre “Utfall” for guitar (1973/74) * Symphonic Picture (1976) * Silence for strings (1977) * Symphonic Contours (1977) * Impression for Piano Solo (1980) * Poema Sonoro (1980) * Poema Patetico (1980) * Symphony No. 1 (1981/82) * Co

Hanna Skalska-Szemioth

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Hanna Wanda Skalska-Szemioth (29 April 1921 - 10 April (or 10 May) 1964) was a Polish composer, journalist, and music educator who composed both classical and popular music, often collaborating with her husband Kazimierz Szemioth. Skalska was born in Warsaw. She married Szemioth in 1940, then studied with Kazimierz Sikorski at the State Music College in Lodz, graduating in 1953. In the early 1950s, Skalska was a music editor with Polish Radio before teaching at the Frederic Chopin Music School until 1958. She also edited the journal Praca Swietlicowa. Her compositions included: Ballet *Piosenka (Song; small orchestra) Orchestra *Czerwona Rapsodia (Red Rhapsody; also arranged for band) *“Kurkurydza Mambo” (text by Kazimierz Szemioth) *”Plamy na Suficie” (Stains on the Ceiling; text by Kazimierz Szemioth) *“Uciekam Przed Noca” (I’m Running Away from the Night; text by Kazimierz Szemioth) *“Wakacje z deszczem” (Holidays with Rain; text by Kazimierz Szemioth) *Listen to “Plamy Na Suficie” (Stains on the Ceiling) by Hanna Skalska and Kazimierz Szemioth References

Hanne Haller

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Hanne Haller (January 14, 1950 in Rendsburg, Germany - November 15, 2005 in Tegernsee, Germany; full name Hannelore Haller) was a German pop singer (genre known as “schlager” in German), composer, writer, producer, and sound engineer. Note: this entry is based on a translation of the entry in the German version of Wikipedia. Life Hanne Haller grew up in the province of Schleswig-Holstein. Her mother was an opera singer, her father a banker. While in school she played drums for “The Rooks” in the town of Ronnenberg near Hannover. After completing school in 1968, she went on to study athletics, but had to give that up due to a serious illness. In the same year she founded a gospel choir. Later in the 60s, she performed a single consisting of two songs by Siegfried Fietz (“Wir sind nur eine Minderheit”/“We are only one minority” and “Broadway”) for the Christian publishing house “Frohe Botschaft” (“Good News”) in Wetzlar. She went on to study to become a medical assistant and passed the “MTA” exam in 1970. She then worked in the X-ray and biochemistry lab of the Georg-August University/Göttingen University. In 1971 she began her musical career in earnest. She and producer Georg Moslen

Hans Abrahamsen

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Hans Abrahamsen (born 23 December 1952) is a Danish composer born in Kongens Lyngby near Copenhagen. His Let me tell you (2013), a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, was ranked by music critics at The Guardian as the finest work of the 21st-century. His opera The Snow Queen was commissioned and premiered by the Royal Danish Theatre in 2019. Biography Early life His interest in composition and piano began after hearing his father playing piano. His first attempts at “little melodies” were designed to be played with the only two fingers on his right hand that were capable of playing the instrument. After realizing that he would not be able to progress, he shifted his focus to the French horn. From 1969 to 1971, he studied horn, music theory, and music history at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. While at the conservatory, his music was inspired by his mentors Per Nørgård and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. In the 1980s, he continued his studies attending seminars with György Ligeti. Early career Abrahamsen is considered to have been part of a trend called the “New Simplicity”, which arose in the mid-1960s as a reaction against the complexity and perceived aridity of the

Hans Eugen Frischknecht

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Hans Eugen Frischknecht (born 8 May 1939) is a Swiss composer, organist, choral conductor and harpsichordist. Life Born in St. Gallen, Frischknecht graduated from the Swiss Music Pedagogic Association after his school-leaving exams as a piano teacher (SMPV). From 1959 to 1962, he studied composition with Boris Blacher, counterpoint with Ernst Pepping, organ (final examination) with Michael Schneider and twelve-tone music with Josef Rufer at the Universität der Künste Berlin. in der MusicSack-Datenbank From 1962 to 1964 he continued his training with Olivier Messiaen (courses in analysis), in organ with Gaston Litaize and in harpsichord with Robert Veyron-Lacroix at the Conservatoire de Paris. As organist and harpsichordist, he gave concerts in Europe and the USA. From 1964 to 2002, he was organist and choirmaster at the Protestant-Reformed Johanneskirche in the Breitenrain quarter of Bern. Frischknecht was President of the Bern City Association of the International Society for New Music (IGNM) from 1977 to 1988. In addition to organ, piano and harpsichord pieces, he composed mainly chamber music and choral works. They have been performed in Europe and the United States by the and t

Hans G. Helms

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Hans G Helms (8 June 1932 – 11 March 2012) was a German experimental writer, composer, and social and economic analyst and critic. Life Helms was born in Teterow into a Jewish family, who were able to escape the Holocaust by using falsified papers. He spent his childhood and youth in Teterow and Berlin. He received his first musical education whilst young, learning the piano and theory from an immigrant from Byelorussia. During the Nazi era he became acquainted with Swing and jazz from secretly listening to “enemy transmitters”. In the years immediately after World War II, Helms studied tenor saxophone with a member of the US army and appeared from 1950 until 1952 in Sweden as a jazz musician. He played with, amongst others, Charlie Parker and Gene Krupa, and also in 1953 in Vienna with Hans Koller. As well as being preoccupied with new music (Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Alban Berg and the Second Viennese School) Helms, working at the Viennese radio station (RWR), created with, amongst others, Ingeborg Bachmann, the radio genre . In Göttingen, where he lived from 1953 onwards, Helms first made the acquaintance of the philosopher and sociologist Helmuth Plessner, then later with The

Hans Haselböck

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Johann Haselböck (26 July 1928 – 20 October 2021) was an Austrian organist, composer, author and academic teacher. He was organist at the Dominican Church, Vienna, for 65 years, and was professor of organ and improvisation at the Vienna Music Academy, where he later also served as head of the faculty of church music and as deputy rector. He gave organ concerts in Europe, North America, and the Near and Far East. Haselböck is regarded as a pioneer of Catholic church music in the German language after the Second Vatican Council. Biography Haselböck was born in , now part of Bergern im Dunkelsteinerwald. He attended the gymnasium in Krems, Lower Austria, achieving the Matura in 1947. He then studied organ and church music at both the Vienna Conservatory and the Vienna Music Academy, graduating in 1952. Haselböck became organist at the Dominican Church, Vienna, and held the office for 65 years. He also taught Latin and German at the later . He achieved first prize at the , an international competition in organ improvisation at the St. Bavo church, three times in a row until 1960. Haselböck and his wife Lucia had two sons, Martin Haselböck, also an organist, and Lukas Haselböck, a compo

Hans Leygraf

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Hans Leygraf (7 September 1920 – 12 February 2011 ) was a Swedish pianist, music educator, conductor and composer. Life Born in Stockholm, Leygraf studied piano with in Stockholm and Anna Hirzel-Langenhan in Switzerland. He was one of Sweden’s most internationally renowned musicians and also a famous educator. He taught at Edsbergs musical institute outside Stockholm, in Darmstadt, Hanover, Berlin and Salzburg. In Salzburg he was professor of piano at the Mozarteum between 1972 and 1990, but continued until 2007 to give lessons for particularly talented students. He gave concerts back in 2010 (80 years after his debut) and was probably best known for his interpretations of Mozart and Schubert. As a composer, Leygraf was a member of The Monday Group, but he stopped composing as early as the 1940s. Leygrat died in Stockholm at the age of 90. Recordings * Stenhammar Piano Concerto No. 2, Gothenburg Radio Orchestra / Sixten Eckerberg. Radiotjänst 1946 * Blomdahl: Chamber Concerto. London Symphony Orchestra, Sixten Ehrling. DECCA 1965 * Mozart: Piano Concerto K.414, Fantasia K.475, Sonata K.457. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stig Westerberg. EMI 1976 * Beethoven: Piano Concerto

Hans Otte

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Hans Günther Franz Otte (3 December 1926 – 25 December 2007) was a German composer, pianist, radio promoter, and author of many pieces of musical theatre, sound installations, poems, drawings and video art. From 1959 to 1984 Otte served as music director for Radio Bremen. Beginning in the early 1960s, he frequently presented experimental American minimal music composers in his Bremen radio festival Pro Musica Nova, including John Cage, David Tudor, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young. Otte was born in Plauen. He studied in Germany, Italy, and at Yale University in the United States. His teachers included the composer Paul Hindemith and the pianist Walter Gieseking. From 1959 on, Otte lived and worked in Bremen, Germany. His catalogue of compositions contains more than 100 works. Some of Otte’s works, especially his extended suites for solo piano, are characterized by very minimal means but are nevertheless quite subtle and sophisticated in their architecture and expression. For his work, Otte drew significantly on European and Asian spirituality, integrating various prayers into the fabric of the music. Das Buch der Klänge (The Book of Sounds, 1979–82) and Stundenbuch (Book of Hours, 1

Hans Stadlmair

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Hans Stadlmair (3 May 1929 – 13 February 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer. He conducted the Münchener Kammerorchester for almost four decades. He conducted more than 6000 concerts, many in collaboration with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, including premieres. His compositions include works of all genres except opera. His Miró, an Entrada for orchestra, premiered at the Gasteig in Munich in 2011, with Christian Thielemann conducting the Münchner Philharmoniker. Career Born in Neuhofen an der Krems, Hans Stadlmair studied from 1946 to 1952 at the Vienna Academy of Music with Clemens Krauss and Alfred Uhl, and from 1952 to 1956 in Stuttgart with Johann Nepomuk David. From 1956 to 1995 he was artistic director of the Münchener Kammerorchester (MKO) and conducted several premieres. He conducted more than 6000 concerts, as well as on international tours and in collaboration with the Bayerischer Rundfunk. In 1971 Stadlmair conducted the premiere of Wilhelm Killmayer’s Fin al punto, composed for the 20th anniversary of the Münchener Kammerorchester. In 1981 he premiered Ulrich Stranz’s Contrasubjekte, a Passacaglia on B-A-C-H for fourteen strings. In 1986 he collaborated with trumpe

Hans Ulrich Engelmann

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Hans Ulrich Engelmann (8 September 1921 in Darmstadt - 8 January 2011) was a German composer. Biography Engelmann studied composition with Hermann Heiss and Wolfgang Fortner. He was a regular attendee of the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, and he was particularly affected by the twelve-tone classes of René Leibowitz (1948) and Ernst Krenek (1951), which helped him move from free atonality to serialism. Eventually, he would publish a history of the courses. In 1947, he began studying musicology with Gennrich Friedrich and Helmut Osthoff, earning a Ph.D in 1952. He also studied philosophy with Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Hans-Georg Gadamer. A brief marriage took him to Iceland from 1953-4, before returning to Darmstadt to work as the music adviser and composer for the Hessisches Landestheater for the next seven years. His next post was in the same capacity at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, where his tenure lasted from 1961-9. He also held the same position one more time at the Städtische Bühnen in Bonn from 1972-3. In 1969, he began teaching at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule, and he remained on the faculty there for seventeen years. In the early 60’s, Engelman

Hans Uwe Hielscher

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Hans Uwe Hielscher (born 1945) is a German organist and composer. He was organist and carillonneur at the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany, from 1979 to 2009, and has played internationally as a concert organist. Career Hielscher studied church music at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold (A), and carillon in Utrecht. From 1969 - 1973 he was church musician in Juist and from 1973 - 1979 in Bielefeld. He has been the organist and carillonneur at the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden since 1979. He created a series of weekly free recitals called Orgelmusik zur Marktzeit (organ music at market time) on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m., in which he or sometimes a guest organist perform seasonal music. The 2000th event is on 7 December 2019. External links * Hans Uwe Hielscher website * * Entries for Hans Uwe Hielscher on WorldCat

Hans Werner Henze

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Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Neoclassicism, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as traditional schools of German composition. In particular, his stage works reflect “his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life”. Henze was also known for his political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his leftist politics and homosexuality. Late in life he lived in the village of Marino in the central Italian region of Lazio, and in his final years still travelled extensively, in particular to Britain and Germany, as part of his work. An avowed Marxist and member of the Italian Communist Party, Henze produced compositions honoring Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. At the 1968 Hamburg premiere of his requiem for Che Guevara, titled Das Floß der Medusa (The Raft of Medusa), the placing of a red flag on the stage sparked a riot and the arrest of several people, including the librettist. Henze spent a year from 1969 to 1970 teaching in Cuba. Life and works Early years Henze was b

Hans Zender

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Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festivals. As a conductor, he worked at the Theater Freiburg, Theater Bonn, Opernhaus Kiel and Hamburg State Opera, and led the radio orchestra Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. He taught at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. His opera Stephen Climax premiered in 1986 at the Oper Frankfurt, and his third opera, Chief Joseph, premiered in 2005 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Career Born in Wiesbaden, Zender attended the Maifestspiele at age 13, listening to concerts conducted by Carl Schuricht, Karl Böhm and Günter Wand, among others. He took piano lessons and learned to play the organ. From 1949, he went each year to the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, where he got to know trends in new music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen and John Cage. * Canto I–VI for various forces ** I: for choir, flute, piano, strings and percussion (1965) ** II: for soprano, choir and orchestra on a text by Ezra Pound (1967) ** III: for soprano, teno

Hans-Christian Bartel

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Hans-Christian Bartel (born 27 November 1932 − 27 December 2014) was a German violist and composer. Life Born in Altenburg, Bartel was the son of a teacher. He got his first violin lessons at the age of six. After graduating from high school he studied violin and viola with Gerhard Bosse and music composition with Ottmar Gerster at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig from 1951 to 1956. In 1954 he changed from violin to viola. He received further impulses in piano with and music history with Ernst Hermann Meyer. From 1956 to 1958 he was a lecturer for composition, music theory, theory of forms and earning training at the . From 1958 to 1996 he was a member of the Gewandhaus orchestra and from 1959 its solo violist. In 1970 he was co-founder and until 1978 member of the Gruppe Neue Musik Hanns Eisler of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. Bartel has worked as composer among others with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Rafael Kubelík, Kurt Masur and Rolf Reuter. His Concerto for small orchestra and solo viola was premiered in 1963 by the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Václav Neumann at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In 1967 the premiere of the Concerto for Orchestra followed.

Hans-Christian von Dadelsen

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Hans-Christian von Dadelsen (born 4 December 1948) is a German composer and music writer. He is the son of the musicologist Georg von Dadelsen and journalist Dorothee von Dadelsen. Life Born in Berlin, von Dadelsen spent his childhood in Tübingen and Hamburg, where he studied at the Hamburg Musikhochschule after graduating from high school. He studied composition and music theory with Diether de la Motte and György Ligeti as well as music education with Hermann Rauhe. At the Darmstadt Holiday Courses in 1972, in a lecture entitled ‘Tendenzen zu einer neuartigen Tonalität’ (Tendencies towards a New Tonality), he suggested a thorough turnaround of modernism, also pointing to “Pop Art” and new “Romanticism”, thus also initiating a number of misunderstood and by many other composers taken up changes in the stylistics of the 1970s (“Neuromanticism”). As a composer, he himself took up influences from Pop Art and American stylistics at an early stage and distinguished himself above all in the field of polyrhythmic. Inventions and iridescent harmonic concepts. From 1980 onwards Dadelsen gradually developed a consistently polyrhythmic style (“flexible beats”) together with the composer Babe

Hans-Joachim Hespos

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Hans-Joachim Hespos (13 March 1938 – 18 July 2022) was a German composer of avant-garde music. He was trained as a teacher and worked until 1984. Self-taught as a composer, he then worked freelance and created more than 200 works in many genres. His unconventional compositions were commissioned and performed internationally. They are archived at the Bavarian State Library. Life and career Hespos was born in Emden on 13 March 1938. External links * * * * Hans-Joachim Hespos Simon Verlag * Hans-Joachim Hespos – Analysen und Kontexte EVS Musikstiftung

Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen

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Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen (born 10 February 1954) is a German recorder player and composer. Life Horseshoe was born in a hotel room in ). His mother, a travelling saleswoman from the Allgäu, had kept the pregnancy a secret. Two days after the birth, she abandoned her son; the hotelier found the infant under a bedspread. On 12 February 1954, the Youth Welfare Office took care of the foundling and brought him to a Catholic baby home in Lobberich. On Boxing Day, he was baptised Protestant with the name Hans-Jürgen; the mother had instructed a midwife to do this before she left. Hufeisen went to live with a foster mother and in 1957 to the Protestant children’s home Haus Sonneck of Neukirchen-Vluyn. There a governess discovered Hufeisen’s musical talent and taught him Christian evening songs and how to play the recorder. Hufeisen won prizes at regional competitions of “Jugend musiziert”; from 1972 to 1977 he studied recorder, music education and composition at the Folkwang University of the Arts. Meanwhile, from 1974 to 1978, he was employed as a lecturer at the International Children’s and Young People’s Book Fair in Duisburg, and from 1975 to 1977 as a lecturer at the Folkwang University

Hans-Jürgen von Bose

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Hans-Jürgen von Bose (born 24 December 1953) is a German composer. Life After an unsettled adolescence, Bose entered the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1969, where he received instruction in piano and music theory. Upon graduating from the conservatory, he studied composition (under Hans Ulrich Engelmann), piano (under Klaus Billing), and conducting at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. After attending the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1974 and the premiere of his First String Quartet, he was awarded several scholarships, among others from the Mozart Foundation and the German National Academic Foundation. In 1976, Bose dropped his studies in Frankfurt and settled in Munich as a freelance artist. The following works like Morphogenesis (1976), Das Diplom (1976), Die Nacht aus Blei (1981), 63: Dream Palace (1990), among others. He received numerous grants and awards, including: * German Academy Rome Villa Massimo (1980/1985) * German Critics Prize (1981) * Schneider-Schott Music Prize, Mainz (1988) * Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (1994) * Prize of the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Foundation for the recognition of Bose’s educational merits (1998) He received commissi

Hans-Ludwig Schilling

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Hans-Ludwig Schilling (9 March 1927 – 18 August 2012) was a German composer and music educator. Life Born in Mayen, Schilling was musically instructed from early childhood on by his grandfather Johann Stoll. At the age of 13, he had studied music theory with the Cologne professors Heinrich Lemacher and violin in Bram Eldering’s class. He studied composition with Harald Genzmer, Paul Hindemith, Nadia Boulanger, Antoine-Elisée Cherbuliez and Wolfgang Fortner. In addition to piano and bassoon, he also completed a degree in philosophy, literature and musicology. After earlier teaching positions (Freiburg im Breisgau and Karlsruhe), he has been head of the composition-theory-musicology department at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg since 1973. Work Focal points in the compositional œuvre for all musical genres except opera (360 titles) are wind music, organ music and choral music. There are also 16 solo concertos with orchestra as well as symphonic wind music among other orchestral works. * Concerto Tuba & Co Streichorchester ISMN M-2054-0523-6 * Weihnachts Partita Nr. 1 trumpet B/C, Streicher (2 violins, viola, violoncello, double bass) ISMN M-2054-0634-9 * Weihnachts Partita Nr. 1 tr

Harald Feller (organist)

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Harald Feller (born 1951 in Munich) Feller can boast international concert activity and CD and radio recordings. He recorded the organ parts for the film Brother of Sleep. Awards * Stipendium der Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes * Förderpreis für Musik des Bayerischen Staates * 1983: Improvisation prize in Haarlem (Netherlands) * 2007: Composition Prize for the 100th Anniversary of the Berlin Cathedral. Compositions ;Organ solo * Diptychon (Bärenreiter) * Danse sacrée (Verlag Böhm und Sohn) * Te Deum for Organ (Schott) * Poème funèbre for Organ (Schott) * Due pezzi per l’organo * „Gregorianische Miniaturen“ * „Suite Leonesa“ * Meditationsfantasie (Verlag Böhm und Sohn) * „Nada“ * 4 pieces about BACH * Fantasy for 2 organs * For Young Persons Guide to the Organ (Schott) ;Organ and other instruments * Fantasy about a theme by J. Brahms for trumpet and organ (Schott) * Sonate für Trompete und Orgel * “Ettaler Sonata” for flute and organ * “Panta rhei” for percussion and organ * “Danse macabre” for percussion and organ * Adagio for cello and organ ;Organ and Orchestra * Concertino festivo for organ, 8 brass instruments and percussion * Concerto for Organ and Orchestra * Symphony fo

Haralds Sīmanis

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Haralds Sīmanis (12 June 1951 – 1 December 2022) was a Latvian singer and composer. Biography Sīmanis was born in Cēsis to a mixed Latvian-Romani family. He did not receive a musical education but learned to play guitar and organ. In the 1970s, he began collaborating with poet , whose poems he used for many of his songs, such as the organ pieces Mīlestība nekad nebeidzas, Likteņa lietavas, and Par zāli, sāli un Tevi. Sīmanis gained notoriety in 1980 when he performed the ballad Ezers at that year’s Mikrofona aptauja. In 1981, the play Sieviete ārpus mīlestības un nāves was staged at the Valmiera Drama Theatre, during which his songs were played. In 1984, he joined the , organized by Arvīds Ulme, which was one of the first organizations of the Singing Revolution in Latvia. After Latvia’s independence, Sīmanis primarily composed music for organ on his own, but collaborated with , Ilze Grunte, Dr. Peacock, and others in his later years. In 2012, he performed the song Ezers alongside Agita Gabranova on the Latvijas Neatkarīgā Televīzija show Latvijas Zelta talanti. Haralds Sīmanis died on 1 December 2022, at the age of 71. Discography *Es strauta malā slāpēs eju bojā (1994) *Starp divā

Harley Gaber

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Harley Gaber (June 5, 1943 – June 16, 2011) was a visual artist and composer known for his minimalist and spectral approaches to time and sound. With his emphasis on quiet sustained sonorities and textures, Gaber is counted among the early American minimalist composers, and considered to be a forerunner of drone and spectralism. His best known recorded composition, The Winds Rise in the North, has been called by musician Keith Fullerton Whitman “one of the holy grails of minimalism in music in the 20th century.” In 1978, he stopped composing, moved from New York City to San Diego, California, and began creating photo-collages, mixed media collages, paintings, and pen-and-ink works he called graphic music. However, in 1993 he started work on Die Plage (The Plague), an art-historical narrative of Germany from the Weimar Republic to the end of World War II, completing it in 2002. It grew to become a massive work of approximately 4,200 photomontaged canvases measuring 16 by 20 . In the final three years of his life Gaber composed two works: I Saw My Mother Ascending Mt Fuji and In Memoriam 2010. The album of his last work was released two weeks before Gaber committed suicide in June 20

Harold Blumenfeld

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Murray Harold Blumenfeld (October 15, 1923 – November 1, 2014) was an American classical composer. He wrote over thirty musical compositions. He was also a conductor, a music critic, and an educator, having taught in the Washington University in St. Louis music department for almost thirty years. Biography Blumenfeld was born in Seattle, Washington, to Herman and Margaret “Peg” Blumenfeld. He was the eldest of three children. His family traveled widely, especially during the Depression, when his father sought work in retail. Near the end of his high school years, the family settled in St. Louis. Blumenfeld was educated at the Eastman School of Music (1941–43), where he studied with Bernard Rogers, but his studies there were interrupted by World War II. He later earned the Bachelor of Music degree at Yale University in 1948 and the Master of Music in 1949. His primary mentor at Yale was Paul Hindemith. He studied at the University of Zurich in 1948. During the summers of 1949-52 he attended Tanglewood Music Center, where he trained as a conductor with Robert Shaw, Leonard Bernstein, and Boris Goldovsky. Blumenfeld was director of Opera Theater in St. Louis from 1962 to 1966. He dire

Harold Boatrite

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Harold Boatrite (April 2, 1932 – April 26, 2021) was an American composer. After early studies with Stanley Hollingsworth, Harold Boatrite was awarded a fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center where he studied composition with Lukas Foss and took part in the orchestration seminars of Aaron Copland. In 1961 he was invited by Rudolf Serkin to be composer-in-residence at the Marlboro Music Festival. He received an honorary doctorate in 1967 from the Combs College of Music and was subsequently appointed to the faculty of Haverford College, where he taught theory and composition until 1980. During that time ( 1974 to 1977 ) he served on the music panel of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In honor of his fiftieth birthday in 1982, a series of concerts devoted exclusively to his music were presented by the Pennsylvania Alliance for American Music. Among the participants in the series were the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Thomas Jefferson University Choir and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. Boatrite has written in a wide variety of media ranging from solo and chamber pieces to large-scale choral and orchestral works. His music has been heard throughout the United States

Harold Budd

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Harold Montgomory Budd (May 24, 1936 – December 8, 2020) was an American composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Mojave Desert, he became a respected composer in the minimal music and avant-garde scene of Southern California in the late 1960s, and later became better known for his work with figures such as Brian Eno and Robin Guthrie. Budd developed what he called a “soft pedal” technique for playing piano, with use of slow playing and prominent sustain. Early life Budd was born on May 24, 1936, in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Victorville, on the southwestern edge of the Mojave Desert. Jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler was drafted at the same time and was also a member of the band. Budd’s experience of the Army made him determined to get an education. He switched to a course in harmony and renaissance counterpoint and his musical talent was spotted by a teacher who encouraged him to compose. Budd studied music at California State University, Northridge, under Gerald Strang (a protégé of Arnold Schoenberg) and Aurelio de la Vega. He graduated from California State University, Northridge, and then went on full scholarship to the University of Southern California,

Harold Shapero

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Harold Samuel Shapero (April 29, 1920 – May 17, 2013) was an American composer. Early years Shapero was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1920. He and his family later moved to nearby Newton. He learned to play the piano as a child, and for some years was a pianist in dance orchestras. With a friend, he founded the Hal Kenny Orchestra, a swing-era jazz band. He was more interested in classical music. In his teens some of his teachers included Nicolas Slonimsky (editor of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians) in 1936 and Ernst Krenek in 1937. At 18 he entered Harvard, where he became friends with Leonard Bernstein and studied composition with Walter Piston in 1938. Shapero was one of the first students at Tanglewood following its founding in the 1940s. When Igor Stravinsky was Norton Professor at Harvard in 1940, Shapero showed Stravinsky his Nine-Minute Overture. Shapero hoped to get the Overture played at Tanglewood that summer, but Hindemith ordered that no student compositions would be played that season. Aaron Copland hastily put together an orchestra to play student compositions, including Shapero’s Overture. Shapero was awarded the Rome Prize in 1941 for his N

Harper MacKay

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Harper MacKay (October 13, 1921 — June 2, 1995 ) was an American pianist, music director, and composer and arranger of music for television and film. He was the longtime music director of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and was also the music director for singer Ann Blyth; serving as her arranger and accompanist in concert. He was also music director and accompanist for comedienne Phyllis Diller and for lyricist Sammy Cahn; the latter of whom toured nationally in concerts singing his own music. He was the music director for The Julie Andrews Show and the NBC Follies in addition to serving as arranger and music supervisor for The Gong Show and television specials featuring celebrity entertainers. Life and career Born in Boston, MacKay earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University before earning a doctorate of music from the University of Southern California. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on June 2, 1995. References External links *Harper MacKay at IMDB

Harriet Padberg

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Harriet Padberg, RSCJ was an American mathematician, composer, music therapist, and Catholic religious sister. She was a pioneer in the music therapy field, and also held significant contributions in the field of computer-composed music. Padberg wrote Computer-Composed Canon and Free Fugue as part of her 1964 dissertation in Mathematics and Music at Saint Louis University. She was a professor for over 35 years, before retiring in her mid-70’s and working as a music therapist. Education and Vocation Padberg attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis, Missouri, and was awarded a scholarship to Maryville College, now Maryville University, where she graduated in 1943 with a Bachelor of Arts in Math and Music. Soon after, she joined the Society of the Sacred Heart, serving briefly at Schools of the Sacred Heart around the nation, including Grand Coteau, Louisiana. In 1948 she returned to serve at the Academy of the Sacred Heart of St. Charles, while simultaneously earning her master’s degree in Music and Organ from the College Conservatory of Music, in 1949. Padberg made her final profession in 1951, becoming a professed Sister of the Sacred Heart. In 1951, Padberg returned t

Harrison Birtwistle

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Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and the operas The Mask of Orpheus (1986), Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto Panic during the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms caused “national notoriety”. Much of his youth was spent roaming the countryside near his home, and his frustration with the disruption of the nature by modern technology would affect his later work profoundly. Other youthful activities included the construction of amateur theatrical sets, and the subsequent imagining of dramas taking place inside them. Birtwistle became proficient enough to play in the local military-style band and also played in the orchestra that accompanied Gilbert and Sullivan productions and the local choral society’s performance

Harry Bannink

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Harry Bannink (10 April 1929, Enschede – 19 October 1999, Bosch en Duin) was a Dutch composer, arranger and pianist. He wrote over 3,000 songs. Bannink studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, receiving his degree in 1946. He started his musical career in the late fifties, when he joined a small dance-orchestra as pianist. His compositions for the play “Het staat u vrij” (Delftsch Studenten Corps, 1958) were his first works for the theatre. Later he would write music for many songs by Wim Sonneveld, Wieteke Van Dort and especially Annie M.G. Schmidt. . He wrote music for many Dutch TV-shows, including Ja zuster, nee zuster, t Schaep met de 5 poten, Sesamstraat, and De Stratemakeropzeeshow. Since 1973 he worked with Edwin Rutten on the weekly children’s TV show De film van ome Willem (in which he appeared as head of the music-ensemble on every episode) and writer Willem Wilmink, with whom he wrote a lot of songs for the Dutch children’s education programme Het Klokhuis. Together with Annie M.G. Schmidt he wrote several Dutch musicals. Later, he would also write the music for the funeral of Schmidt. Among his last musical activities were a CD - on which he sang some of his own

Harry Freedman

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Harry Freedman, (; April 5, 1922 – September 16, 2005) was a Canadian composer, English hornist and teacher. He wrote a range of orchestral works including the scores to films such as The Bloody Brood (1959), Isabel (1968), The Act of the Heart (1970), The Pyx (1973) and The Courage of Kavik the Wolf Dog. He also wrote the music for six ballets, an opera, incidental music for the theatre, vocal art songs and choral works, and a substantial amount of chamber music. Biography He was born on April 5, 1922 in Łódź. At age three, Freedman emigrated with his family from Poland to Canada where the family settled in Medicine Hat, Alberta. His father worked in the fur trade. Freedman was nine when his family relocated to Winnipeg. He enrolled at the Winnipeg School of Art to study painting when he was 14. He also spent the summers at the Tanglewood Music Center where he was a pupil of Olivier Messiaen and Aaron Copland. In 1972–1981, he taught at the Courtenay Youth Music Centre where he was also the composer-in-residence. Among his notable pupils was Gilles Bellemare. In 1977, he was the subject of a radio documentary produced by Norma Beecroft for the CBC. In 1979–1981, he was the preside

Harry Somers

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Harry Stewart Somers, CC (September 11, 1925 – March 9, 1999) was a contemporary Canadian composer. Somers earned the unofficial title of “Darling of Canadian Composition.” He was a founding member of the Canadian League of Composers (CLC) and involved in the formation of other Canadian music organizations, including the Canada Council for the Arts and the Canadian Music Centre. He received commissions from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Somers did not become involved in formal musical study until he reached his teenage years in 1939 when he met a doctor and his wife—both pianists—who introduced him to classical works. Somers described this first encounter years later: “A spark was ignited, and he became obsessed with music. Almost from that instant, he knew music would be his life, for better or for worse.” Musical education Somers was 14 when he began his study of piano under the tutelage of Dorothy Hornfelt, the neighborhood piano teacher. Weinzweig set up a program of traditional harmony study for him to study the 12-tone techniques. (Schoenberg had enforced similarly strict lessons in traditional harmony upon his own pupils, even as

Harry Thumann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Harry Thumann (28 February 1952 – 2001) was a German electronic composer, record producer and sound engineer. He designed and built synthesizers and studio equipment. Early life and career Born Harald Thumann in Germany, he began as a drummer while training in audio engineering at German broadcasters. When he lost interest in touring, he opened his first recording studio in a bedroom at the family home. Country Lane Studios Thumann participated in the development of the SSL 4000 series of consoles and installed the first one in his studio. He found premises with live-in accommodation in Germering near Munich and opened Country Lane Studios. Thumann adopted MIDI early, using Commodore 64 computers with MIDI cards to control a system that grew to include a Fairlight II and Moog 3C modular system. With the Yamaha DMP-7 digital mixer, Thumann built a second control room housing several DMP-7s as an integrated digital console system, interfaced with a rebuilt Neve broadcast console. Country Lane moved into audio-visual production and began producing its own telefilms. Recordings Thumann produced a string of albums for Rondò Veneziano that combined acoustic instruments and synthesizers.

Haruna Miyake

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is a Japanese pianist and composer, who also uses the name Haruna Shibata. She was born in Tokyo and studied music there, making her debut as a pianist at age 14 playing Mozart with the Tokyo Symphony orchestra. She continued her studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, and afterward worked as a pianist and composer, touring in the United States. She often collaborates with pianist and composer Yuji Takahashi. Her composition Poem for String Orchestra received the Edward Benjamin Award. Works Miyake combines Japanese and Western idiom, and often uses traditional Japanese instruments in her compositions. Selected works include: *Why Not, My Baby? for soprano, piano and trumpet *Shiyoku *Piano Concerto *Fantasy for Milky Way Railroad *Phantom of a Flower References

Harvey Sollberger

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Harvey Sollberger (born May 11, 1938 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is an American composer, flutist, and conductor specializing in contemporary classical music. Life Sollberger holds an M.A. degree from Columbia University, where his composition instructors included Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. In 1962 he co-founded (with Charles Wuorinen) The Group for Contemporary Music in New York City, which he directed for 27 years. He is emeritus professor of music at the University of California, San Diego. He taught at Columbia University, the Manhattan School of Music, and Indiana University. From 1997 to 2005, he served as music director of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus. Sollberger has established a distinguished career in composition, earning two Guggenheim Fellowships and an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His work has been commissioned by a wide range of institutions, including the San Francisco Symphony, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Koussevitzky Foundation, and the New York State Council for the Arts. His music has been released on Composers Recordings, Inc. He currently lives in Strawberry Point, Iowa. Awards * 1969 Guggenheim Fellowship * Fromm commis

Hasen Qojahmetov

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Hasen Káripjanuly Qojahmetov (; born 9 August 1949) is a Kazakh political activist, composer, journalist, member of the Writers Union of Kazakhstan, and a participant in the 1986 Jeltoqsan uprising. He is known to be a critical opponent of Nursultan Nazarbayev and attempted to be a candidate in the 1991 and 2015 Kazakh presidential elections. Early life, education Qojahmetov was born in a railway station in the village of Matay in the Aksu District and was one of ten children. His father, Karmijan Qojahmetov, was a railroad engineer, machinist and a disabled World War II veteran who was from Semey and happened to leave the town before the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear bomb on 29 August 1949 there. His mother was half Polish and Ukrainian and was transferred to Zhetysu in 1910. In 1969, Qojahmetov was conscripted to the army while he was studying at the Tchaikovsky Musical College in the city of Alma-Ata. There, he faced terrible conditions at the training center which mostly had Russians, and constant physical and emotional abuse by his peers. Qojahmetov was accused of starting a nationalist sentiment and was punished by being isolated from others in a locked place for 2 ye

Hayg Boyadjian

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Hayg Boyadjian (born 1938) is an American composer of classical music whose work includes art song, chamber music and symphonies. Solo recordings of his compositions have been released by Opus One and Albany Records. Boyadjian was born in Paris to Armenian parents and grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina where the family had emigrated when he was a child. He began his musical studies at the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Buenos Aires before emigrating to the United States in 1958. He settled in Lexington, Massachusetts and continued his musical studies as a special student at the New England Conservatory and later at Brandeis University. In 1980 he received a fellowship to the MacDowell Colony. In 1991 he was the first American composer to be invited by the government of the newly independent Armenia to visit the country for rehearsals and performances of his chamber music. He has since visited the country several times for performances of his works. His piano concerto received its world premiere in 2016 in Yerevan to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Armenia’s independence. Boyadjian is an active amateur astronomer and a member of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston. Several of his

He Xuntian

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He Xuntian (; born in 1952 in Suining, Sichuan) is a composer and professor of music composition at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Biography In 1982, he graduated from the Composition Department of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. In 1981, he established Three Periods Theory and Theory of Musical Dimension; In 1982, he developed RD Composition ( Composition), the first compositional method of contemporary China; In 1993, he established the Five Nons (Non-Western, non-Eastern, non-academic, non-folk, and non-non.); In 1995, Sister Drum was launched, making him the first Chinese composer to have his record released worldwide. This album, together with a number of others including Voices from the Sky, was released in more than 80 countries with a total sales volume of several million copies; In 1996, he established SS Composition (stream of structure Composition); In 1997, he put forward Theory of Interspace; In 1998, he became director of the Composition & Conducting Department at Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2003, he composed Images in Sound, which was humanity’s first gift of primordial music to all species of the natural world; In 2008, he produced Ehe Chant, the firs

Héctor Campos Parsi

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Héctor Campos Parsi (October 1, 1922 – January 30, 1998) was a Puerto Rican composer. He studied at the New England Conservatory with Francis Judd Cooke, he also studied with Paul Hindemith. In Tanglewood he studied with Olivier Messiaen and Aaron Copland and in France with Nadia Boulanger. Early years Héctor Campos Parsi was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father was José Miguel Campos and his mother was Elisa Parsi Bernard. He only had one sibling, a sister, Mercedes Campos Parsi. He graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a bachelor’s degree in humanities. He then enrolled at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México pursuing a degree in medicine, but discontinued his training there for health reasons. Subsequently, he completed a master’s degree in humanities at the “Centro de Estudios Superiores de Puerto Rico y el Caribe”, for which he wrote a thesis titled Unos bailan y otros lloran (Some dance and others cry). Musical training In Mexico City he met composer Carlos Chávez. On a scholarship from the Puerto Rico Department of Public Instruction, Campos Parsi studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston. During the summers of 1949 and 1950 he trained with vario

Hector Zazou

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Pierre Job known professionnally as Hector Zazou (11 July 1948 – 8 September 2008) when he first came to international attention as part of ZNR, a duo with Joseph Racaille, where both played electric keyboards. Their 1976 debut album Barricade 3 was notable for its “strong Satie influence, stripped to minimal essentials, everything counts”. Zazou’s Long-time collaborators included trumpeter Mark Isham; guitarist Lone Kent; cellist and singer Caroline Lavelle; trumpeter Christian Lechevretel, who appeared on all of his albums after Sahara Blue; clarinetist and flutist Renaud Pion, who appeared on all of his albums since his record production work with Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses in 1991. He also often worked with drummer Bill Rieflin Japanese recording artist Ryuichi Sakamoto. His discography demonstrated his affinity for cross-cultural collaborations, and incorporated modern techniques and sounds in re-recordings of traditional material. His groundbreaking 1983 album Noir et blanc with Congolese singer Bony Bikaye released under the banner “Zazou/Bikaye”, garnered a lot of international attention, and is widely recognized as one of the earliest and most impressive experiments

Heidi Baader-Nobs

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Heidi Baader-Nobs (born 5 December 1940) is a Swiss composer. She was born in Delémont, and studied violin and piano at school before training as a teacher at the Ecole Normale in Delémont. She later studied composition and music theory with Robert Suter and Jacques Wildberger at the Basle Musik-Akademie. In 2018 Baader-Nobs was commissioned to compose a piece for the Festival frauenkomponiert (Women Composed) 2018. Life Heidi Baader-Nobs was born Heidi Nobs on 5 December 1940 in Delémont, Switzerland. She studied composition and music theory with Robert Suter and Jacques Wildberger, also at the Basel Music Academy. Baader-Nobs settled in Allschwil, and is married to Claudius Baader and has three children. Works Selected works by Baader-Nobs include: *Duo (1986) *Bifurcation for tuba and piano References

Heikki Suolahti

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Heikki Theodor Suolahti (2 February 1920 – 27 December 1936) was a Finnish composer. Suolahti was born and died in Helsinki, where he studied under Arvo Laitinen in Helsinki from 1929 until his death. In 1935, he composed Sinfonia piccola, which was first performed in February 1938 under Tauno Hannikainen. Hannikainen also orchestrated some of Suolahti’s songs. Sinfonia piccola was published in the United States in 1959. When the composer died at the age of 16, none of his works had been performed publicly yet. He left the opera Pärttylin yö and a few other works unfinished. Suolahti, a huge admirer of Richard Wagner, was promised a trip to the Bayreuth Festival in the summer of 1937, but he died soon after Christmas 1936. Jean Sibelius was fascinated with Sinfonia piccola and praised it to Suolahti’s mother after the composer’s untimely death. Works The following works are largely unpublished, but are archived at the Helsinki University Library. Orchestral * Symphony no.1 in b minor (sinfonia piccola h-molli) (1935) * Prélude pour petit orchestre dédié à mon père, Op.6 * Fantasia-Impromptu, Op.9 (1932) * Hades, Op.10 Symphonic poem (1932) Concerto * Piano concerto no.1, Op.15 (193

Heiner Goebbels

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Heiner Goebbels (born 17 August 1952) is a German composer, conductor and professor at Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale 2012–14. His composition Stifters Dinge (2007) received five votes in a 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, and writers for The Guardian ranked his composition Hashirigaki (2000) the ninth greatest classical composition of the same period. Biography Goebbels was born in Neustadt an der Weinstraße. He studied sociology and music in Frankfurt am Main, and has composed for ensemble and for large orchestra. He has created several prize-winning radio plays, staged concerts, and, since the early 1990s, music theatre works, which have been invited to the most important theatre and music festivals worldwide. Goebbels and Alfred Harth were musical partners in the Duo Goebbels/Harth (1975–1988) who co-founded the wind band Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester (1976–1981) and the avant-rock group Cassiber (1982–1992) with Alfred Harth, Chris Cutler and Christoph Anders. They toured extensively across Europe, Asia and North America, and made five albums. In O

Heiner Ruland

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Heiner Ruland (6 April 1934 – 25 March 2017) was a German composer and music therapist. Life Born on 6 April 1934, in Aachen, Ruland studied chemistry after a humanistic secondary school education, then school music with harpsichord as main subject with Fritz Neumeyer in Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1963 to 1974, he worked as a music teacher at the Waldorf School Benefeld, Lüneburg Heath. Based on Kathleen Schlesinger’s research and Rudolf Steiner’s suggestions, intensive musical-anthroposophical research work developed alongside teaching, as laid down in Ein Weg zur Erweiterung des Tonerlebens : musikalische Tonkunde am Monochord In the course of this musical-humanistic research, an extensive teaching and lecturing activity began. His work as a composer in an expanded tonal system became increasingly important. From 1976 to 2001, he continued to work full-time in the practice of Music therapy at the Öschelbronn Clinic, a hospital for internal diseases. Ruland died in Hamborn, on 25 March 2017, aged 82. Work Vocal music Sologesang * Lieder, Duette, Terzette * Liederzyklen auf Gedichte von Hölderlin, Morgenstern, Heimlander, Goethe, Droste-Hülshoff Choir * Die Tageszeiten * Steffen-Ch

Heinrich Gattermeyer

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Heinrich Gattermeyer (9 July 1923 – 5 July 2018 ) was an Austrian composer and music educator. Life Born in Sierning, Gattermeyer, son of the local poet Karl Gattermeyer, After the war, he studied piano with Bruno Seidlhofer, Choral conducting and conducting with Ferdinand Grossmann, as well as composition with Alfred Uhl at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from 1945 to 1950. He also completed studies in German at the University of Vienna, graduating in 1948/49 with a teaching certificate. Gattermeyer died in Vienna at the age of 94 and was buried at . Among his notable students is Lukas Ligeti. Awards * 1964: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst. * 1971: Förderungspreis der Stadt Wien für Musik. * 1980: Kulturpreis des Landes Oberösterreich für den Bereich Musik * 1981: Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria. * 1992: Großes Silbernes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich. Work Ensemble music * Sizilianisches Trinklied – Quintett für drei Pauken, zwei Klaviere und Männerchor, text (1958) * Die drei goldenen Blumen – Schattenspiel für 9 Instrumente (1966) * Der Wundergarten – Schattenspiel für 9 Instrumente

Heinz Becker (musicologist)

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Heinz Becker (26 June 1922 – 20 September 2006) was a German composer and musicologist. Career Born in Berlin, Becker began his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1945, majoring in conducting, music composition, piano and clarinet, graduating in 1949. He was also a private student of the composer and music theorist Hermann Grabner. Further studies included musicology, art history and philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin. (1948–1951). In 1951 he received his doctorate on the subject On the problems and technique of musical final composition. He then worked as a lecturer at the Volkshochschule in West Berlin and from 1952 to 1955 he directed the private music teacher seminar at the John Petersen Conservatory in Berlin-Zehlendorf. In 1956 he took over a position as a research assistant at the Institute for Musicology at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover. There he habilitated in 1961 with his thesis Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der antiken und mittelalterlichen Rohrblattinstrumente (“Studies on the developmental history of ancient and medieval reed instruments”). In 1966 he was appointed as the first full professor to the c

Heinz Holliger

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Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss composer, oboist, conductor and pianist. Known for his versatility and virtuosic technique, Grove Music Online credits him with raising the prominence of the oboe and enlarging its repertoire. A prominent figure in contemporary classical music, many leading composers have written for him, including Messiaen, Berio, Carter, Henze, Krenek, Lutosławski, Martin, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Yun. A composer himself, Holliger has contributed his own oboe compositions, alongside works such as the opera Schneewittchen (1998). Biography Holliger was born in Langenthal, Switzerland. Music Holliger studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez, and has composed many works in a variety of genres. Many of his works have been recorded for the ECM label. Walter Fink invited him to be the 17th composer featured in the 2007 Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival. There, Holliger conducted music by Claude Debussy and Robert Schumann, alongside performances of his own vocal works, setting Georg Trakl poems, and Gesänge der Frühe, combining Hölderlin texts with quotations from Schumann’s music. For New Music patron Paul Sacher’s

Heinz Kiessling

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Heinz Kiessling (March 11, 1926 – December 27, 2003) was a German musician, conductor, composer, and music producer, known mainly from his work for popular films and television programs. Kiessling’s piece Temptation Sensation (originally titled Haute Couture) is the theme song for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the longest-running live-action sitcom in American television history. The series also uses background music during its episodes from Kiessling, including On your Bike and Blue Blood (originally titled Tandem-Holiday and Pizzicata Milanese respectively). Life and career Kiessling studied piano, composition, and conducting after World War II at the Nuremberg Conservatory in 1949, and started his career in 1949 as a pianist and played in different concerts around the world. Soon after, he started working on recording music for television. In 1950, he began composing music in the jazz, dance, and light music genres. At times, he also led his own orchestra, and also worked many years for the in Berlin. Together with the pianist Werner Tautz, he established in 1964 the label “Brilliant” through which he managed numerous national and international big bands. Kiessling worked w

Heinz Kratochwil

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Heinz Kratochwil (23 February 1933 – 2 April 1995) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. Life Heinz Kratochwil was born in Mödling a short distance to the south of Vienna. He graduated with a teaching qualification in 1955 from the Faculty of German Studies at the University of Vienna and was then, till 1961, a student of composition at the city’s University of Music and Performing Arts (“Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien”) where his teachers included Alfred Uhl and Othmar Steinbauer. His compositions blended elements of late romantic, impressionist, twelve-tone and jazz styles. A highlight, published in 1987, was his first “opera” (described as a “church opera” / “Kirchenoper”), “Franziskus” (op. 161), a setting lasting approximately 75 minutes, using a libretto by Herbert Vogg, and concerned with the life of St. Francis. The first performance took place at the appropriately futuristic Wotruba Church on the western fringe of Vienna only in 1999, however, several years after the composer’s death. * 1969 First Prize in “The New Song!” (“Das neue Lied!”) competition from Austrian Radio * 1978 First Prize for Composition from the Austrian Choral Association (“Cho

Heinz Werner Zimmermann

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Heinz Werner Zimmermann (11 August 1930 – 25 January 2022) was a German composer, focused on contemporary sacred music. He was professor of composition at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, and held several honorary doctorates from the Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, U.S., and from Leipzig University. He is known for church music influenced by jazz, such as motets for choir with plucked bass. Life Zimmermann was born in Freiburg im Breisgau and had his first composition instruction from 1946 to 1948 with Julius Weismann. He studied from 1950 to 1954 at the Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg (Institute for Church Music) in Heidelberg, with Wolfgang Fortner. After passing his examinations at the Freiburg Conservatory, supervised by Harald Genzmer, he became Fortner’s successor in Heidelberg immediately. Here he maintained close contacts with the musicologist Thrasybulos Georgiades, whose rhythm and language studies influenced him the most, along with his occupation with American spirituals and jazz. From 1963 to 1976, Zimmermann was director of the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule (Spandau school of church music)

Heinz Winbeck

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Heinz Winbeck (11 February 1946 – 26 March 2019) was a German composer, conductor and academic teacher. He is known for five large-scale symphonies, which he programmatically subtitled, such as “Tu Solus” and “De Profundis”. As a composition teacher in Würzburg, he shaped a generation of students. Career Winbeck was born on 11 February 1946 was awarded the OPUS Klassik in the category “world premiere recording” in 2020; it also been nominated in the categories “symphonic recording of the 20th / 21st century” and “editorial performance of the year”. Symphonies Winbeck revived the genre of the symphony, motivated by the need for existential expression. He composed five large-scale symphonies between 1983 and 2011, comparable to the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. By giving them titles, he reflected topics such as history as a sequence of wars and cruelty, the guilt of the generation of his parents, endangered ecology, the loneliness of humanity in the cosmos, and facing near-death. Winbeck’s First Symphony was premiered in 1984 at the Donaueschinger Tage für Neue Musik and recorded by WERGO, combined with Winbeck’s second string quartet, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Rundfun

Helen Bowater

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Helen Bowater (b. 16 Nov 1952) is a New Zealand composer. She was born in Wellington into a musical family, and studied piano and violin with Gwyneth Brown. In 1982 she graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in music history and ethnomusicology from Victoria University of Wellington. She continued her studies in electroacoustic music with Ross Harris and in composition with Jack Body. Bowater played in the Gamelan Padhang Moncar at Victoria University and her composition Tembang Matjapat (1999) is scored for gamelan and western strings and percussion instruments. After completing her studies, Bowater worked as a singer, pianist and violinist with ensembles and choirs, and also worked in rock bands Extra Virgin Orchestra and pHonk and with the Victoria University Gamelan Padhang Moncar. She completed residencies at the Nelson School of Music in 1992 and at Otago University in 1993, and was composer-in-residence with the Auckland Philharmonia in 1994 and at the New Zealand School of Music, Victoria University, in 2008-09. Bowater has published professional articles in journals including Music in New Zealand. Her music has been performed internationally. Honors and awards *Auckland

Helen Camille Stanley

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Helen Camille Stanley Hartmeyer Gatlin (6 April 1930 – 16 December 2021) was an American composer, pianist, and violist who began working with electronic and microtonal music in the 1960s. She composed under the name Helen Camille Stanley. Stanley was born in Tampa, Florida, to Lucy Gage Crehore and Edward Stanley. She married John P. Hartmeyer in 1950. They had one daughter (Helen Marjorie), then divorced in early 1965. Later that year, Stanley married Richard Denby Gatlin. Stanley earned a B. Mus. from Cincinnati Conservatory in 1951; a graduate fellowship and M. Mus from Florida State University in 1954; and a B.S. from Muskingum College (Ohio) in 1961. Her teachers included Hans Barth and Ernst von Dohnányi. She died on December 16, 2021, at the age of 91 in Jacksonville, Florida. Stanley composed electronic music and also experimented with microtonal music. Her compositions include: Ballet *Birthday of the Infants Chamber *Brass Quartet *Symphony No. 1 *“The Isle” References

Helen Fisher (composer)

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Helen Wynfreda Fisher (born 1942) is a New Zealand composer and music teacher. Life Helen Fisher grew up in Māpua, Nelson, and attended secondary school in Wellington. She graduated from the University of Canterbury in 1964 with a degree in English and taught English, music and French in New Zealand and Canadian secondary schools. She married and raised three daughters, but continued her studies in music at Victoria University of Wellington with Ross Harris, David Farquhar and Jack Body. In 1987 she won first prize in the Victoria University’s Composers’ Competition with Woodwind Trio and in 1989 won second prize for Pounamu. She graduated in composition in 1991 and began working as a composer. Her compositions have been performed internationally. In 1990 and 1991, Fisher held the Arts Council residency of Composer-in-Schools in the Wellington area. In 1993, she co-founded the first New Zealand Composing Women’s Festival. Works Fisher’s compositions often blend Māori and European traditions. She composes for vocal and instrumental ensembles and also for dance theatre. Selected works include: *Te Tangi A Te Matui (1986) *Woodwind trio (1987) *Pounamu (1989) for SSAATB choir, alto so

Helen Gifford

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Helen Margaret Gifford OAM (born 5 September 1935) is an Australian composer. On Australia Day (26 January) 1996 she was appointed to the Medal of the Order of Australia, “in recognition of service to music as a composer”. At the APRA Music Awards of 2016 she won the category “Distinguished Services to Australian Music”. Biography Helen Gifford was born in Melbourne, Australia, of Scots and Cornish heritage. Gifford attended Tintern Junior School and Melbourne Girls Grammar, and then the University of Melbourne Conservatorium on a Commonwealth Scholarship. She studied with Roy Shepherd and Dorian Le Gallienne, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in 1958. She won the Dorian Le Gallienne Award in 1965, a Senior Composer’s Fellowship in 1973, and served as composer-in-residence with the Australian Opera beginning in 1974. In the 1960s and early ’70s, her music showed the influence of travel to India and Indonesia. At the Australia Day Honours in 1996 she was appointed to the Medal of the Order of Australia, with a citation, “In recognition of service to music as a composer.” At the APRA Music Awards of 2016 she won the Art Music Award category, Distinguished Services to Australian Mus

Helena Meirelles

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Helena Meirelles (August 13, 1924 – September 28, 2005) was a Brazilian guitar player, singer, and composer recognized around the world for her talent as a player of the viola caipira. She is one of the most important composers of the folk musical style of the region of Mato Grosso do Sul. Considered to be the Brazilian version of Robert Johnson, she was elected, in 1994 by Guitar Player magazine as one of the top 100 guitar players in the world. Biography Born in Bataguassu, at the time the district of Nova Andradina, Helena Pereira Meirelles grew up surrounded by entourages and guitar players. She was fascinated by violas caipiras, and her family would not allow her to learn how to play them. She ended up teaching herself in secret, and she faced strong prejudice because the viola was not appropriate for a woman to play. Little by little she was known among the cowboys of the region. She married at 17 years old at the imposition of her parents, abandoning her husband shortly after to join a Paraguayan who played violin and guitar. They also separated, and she resolved to play viola at bars and parties. In order to do so, she left her children from the two marriages with adoptive

Helene Karastoyanova

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Helene Karastoyanova (; born 1 October 1933 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian composer. Life Helene (Elena) Karastoyanova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, the daughter of composer Assen Karastoyanov. She studied at the State Academy of Music with her father and Alexander Raychev. After completing her studies, she taught music in Sofia at the National Music High School and the Institute for Music and Choreographic Specialists. She served as headmaster of the National Theatre Art High School (State Choreographic School) from 1983-88. Karastoyanov won the March Song Competition prize in 1985, 1987 and 1989. Works Karastoyanova composes music mainly for orchestra, chorus and chamber ensemble. Selected works include: *Space Guard (1985) for male choir and symphony orchestra *A Call to Arms (1987) for male choir and symphony orchestra *Suite (1968) for chamber orchestra *Sinfonietta (1969) for string orchestra *Sonata for violin and piano (1967) *Prelude and Joke for flute and piano (1979) *Allegro for trumpet and piano (1980) *Four Pieces (1964) for piano *Children’s Summer, a cycle of five easy pieces (1982) for piano *Holidays (1992) for piano *Three songs for voice and piano (1988) *To Liberty (1

Helge Hurum

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Helge Hurum (born 1 August 1936) is a Norwegian jazz musician, composer, arranger and musical director. Hurum has led several of Norway’s key big bands, including the Oslo University Big Band (1969–74), Norway’s Radio Big Band (1979–90), his own Helge Hurum Storband (1965–70), the EBU Big Band (1973), the Chateau Neuf Big Band and, in later years, the Oslo Big Band. Career Hurum studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and has practiced as an autodidact contemporary composer with his works being performed by orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (Concentus ad Libitum, 1979) and a number of marching bands. Hurum’s works Fata Morgana (1984) and Canto for Solo Piccolo and String Quartet (1985) were bestowed with NOPA Work of the Year Awards. His works Vind fer Vide and Blåsere i høyfjellet received EBU first prizes, while his Peer Gynt Suite was performed at the opening ceremony for the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. Hurum’s list of works also includes a number of chamber music pieces for woodwinds and brass. Hurum has contributed to a number of outings and released two solo albums, Opus (1982) and Fata Morgana (1987). He has also performed his own compositio

Helge Iberg

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Helge Roald Iberg (born 1954) was educated at the University of Oslo in music in music, history of ideas, and religious studies. He holds a master’s degree in composition from the Norwegian Academy of Music Iberg began playing the piano at the age of 3-4. As an adult, he has navigated between the scores of contemporary classical music and modern jazz. His music has been commissioned and performed by Norway’s leading soloists and symphony orchestras. Iberg has written instrumental concertos for pianist Christian Ihle Hadland, violinist Terje Tønnesen, trumpeter Ole Edvard Antonsen, and violinist Atle Sponberg. In 2019, he completed the work Songs from the Planet of Life, a Concerto Grosso for symphony orchestra, five soloists, and two narrators. The work is inspired by Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. His new chamber opera, Great Expectations, is based on a piece by the internationally renowned playwright Fredrik Bratberg. Regarding the work Songs From the Planet of Life (2019), Guy Richards in Klassisk Musikkmagasin: “Nevertheless, it is Iberg’s music that is so seductive, its sparkling textures a constant delight expressed in rather calm movements, but always with musical in

Helmut Braunlich

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Helmut Braunlich (born 19 May 1929 in Brünn, Moravia; d. 24 May 2013) was a German-American violinist, composer, and musicologist. Education He received his formal musical education at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he studied violin with Christa Richter-Steiner, composition with Egon Kornauth, and music history with Eberhard Preußner. After his immigration (1951) to the United States in 1951 he played with various professional symphony orchestras and became a member of the U.S. Air Force Symphony Orchestra. He studied composition at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where one of his teachers was the great organist, Prof. Conrad Bernier. After earning his master’s degree in composition with a concerto for two violins and orchestra, he pursued doctoral studies, earning his Ph.D. in Musicology. Career Here he taught numerous courses in composition, music theory, and performance practice. In 1988 he was promoted to Professor. In 1989 the state government of Bavaria, awarded him the “Sudetendeutscher Kulturpreis” in composition. He served as the chairperson of the Composition Department at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at the Catholic University of Americ

Helmut Lachenmann

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Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (; born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music, pianist and academic teacher. He taught, among others, at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and the Musikhochschule Hannover. As a private student of Luigi Nono in Venice, Lachenmann was inspired to reflect social and political contexts, and to include unconventional playing techniques and noises in his compositions. He stopped using electroacoustic music after working at the studio of the University of Ghent in 1965, but turned to what he called musique concrète instrumentale: calling for unusual and extreme sound production from traditional instruments. He created compositions of many genres. In an opera, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern based on Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” and texts by Leonardo da Vinci and Gudrun Ensslin, the performers speak, play instruments, sing and act. Instrumental works include piano pieces, string quartets such as Gran Torso and Reigen seliger Geister, ensemble works such as Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung), and music for large orchestra including Accanto which juxtaposes a solo clarinet to an “orchestra of noise

Helmut Schlegel

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Helmut Alfons Schlegel (born 15 May 1943) is a German Franciscan Catholic priest, meditation instructor, author, librettist and songwriter. He is known for writing new spiritual songs (Neues Geistliches Lied), set to music by various composers. Career Born Helmut Alfons Schlegel in Riedlingen, he grew up on his parents’ farm in Upper Swabia and attended boarding schools of the Franciscans in Riedlingen and in Rottweil. He felt a connection to Francis of Assisi and joined the Franciscan Order. Then he studied philosophy and theology in Monastery Gorheim in Sigmaringen, Monastery Frauenberg in Fulda and Munich and was ordained priest in 1969 in Fulda. An extra-occupational course for meditation and retreat accompanist as well as in meaning-oriented psychology (Logotherapy) complemented his education. Schlegel worked for ten years in Wiesbaden and in other places as chaplain and as minister for young people (Jugendpfarrer). From 1988 he directed the Franziskanisches Zentrums für Stille und Begegnung (Franciscan centre for silence and meeting) in Hofheim am Taunus. In 1998 he was elected the provincial superior of Thuringian Franciscan province. In this function, he was also for six ye

Henning Christiansen

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Henning Christiansen (28 May 1932 in Copenhagen – 10 December 2008) was a Danish composer and an active member of the Fluxus-movement. He worked with artists such as Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Bazon Brock and Wolf Vostell as well as with his wife Ursula Reuter Christiansen. Other collaborators include Bjørn Nørgaard, Carlo Quartucci, Carla Tato, Ernst Kretzer, Ben Patterson, David Moss, Ute Wassermann, Andreas Oldörp, Christophe Charles, Bernd Jasper, Henrik Kiel, Vilem Wagner, Vladimir Tarasov, Niko Tenten, and many others. His overall goal was to work collaboratively and to trespass conventional boundaries. He resented the idea of an isolated artistic genius and his entire production can be seen as a subsequent and vibrant example of praxis in a constant flux. He believed in the need to trespass conventional boundaries between artistic disciplines. This is visible from his engagement in Fluxus, over numerous collaborative performances to his position as a professor at the Art Academy in Hamburg (Hochschule für Bildende Künste – HfBK). Christiansen lived almost 40 years on the Danish Island Møn. He presented a retrospective exhibition in Copenhagen and participated in the music

Henning Sommerro

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Henning Sommerro (born 3 May 1952 in Surnadal Municipality) is a Norwegian musician, composer and professor at NTNU. Biography Sommerro grew up on the Sommerro farm at Skei in Surnadal Municipality. His name became widely known in 1977 when the folk music group Vårsøg released their recording of Hans Hyldbakk’s poem Vårsøg. Sommerro had his first lessons in organ and piano at the age of sixteen at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim. He studied organ there from 1970–1974, and from 1974–1976 he was organist in the villages of Stangvik and Todalen. From 1976–1977 he studied organ and composition at the music academy in Basel, and in 1978 he became director of music at the Teatret Vårt theatre in Molde. From 1985–1990 he was director of music at Trøndelag Teater. Additionally in the years 1986–1988 he was a music consultant for Norwegian radio (NRK P2). Since 1990 he has been a professor at the Department of Music of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (formerly the Trøndelag Musikkonservatorium). Sommerro’s performing career began in his youth as a member of the band The Tramps which later changed its name to Mad Movies. In 1977 he made his recording début with the fol

Henri Pousseur

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Henri Léon Marie-Thérèse Pousseur (; 23 June 1929 – 6 March 2009) was a Belgian composer, teacher, and music theorist. Biography Pousseur was born on 23 June 1929 in Malmedy, Liège Province, Belgium, and studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and Brussels from 1947 to 1952, where he joined the group called Variations, associated with Pierre Froidebise. It was in this group that he first became familiar with the music of Anton Webern and other 20th-century composers. During his period of military service in 1952–53 at Mechelen, he maintained close contact with André Souris. He encountered Pierre Boulez in 1951 at Royaumont, and this contact inspired his Trois chants sacrés, composed that same year. In 1953, he met Karlheinz Stockhausen, and in 1956 Luciano Berio. A less-well-known influence from his early years was the music of Anton Bruckner, and he maintained a lifelong interest in medieval and Renaissance music, as well as in non-European music. In 1954, Pousseur married Théa Schoonbrood, with whom he had four children: Isabelle (1957), Denis (1958), (1961), and Hélène (1965). Beginning in 1960, he collaborated with Michel Butor on a number of projects, most notably the opera

Henry Fourès

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Henry Fourès (born 17 May 1948) is a French historian of music and musician. Life Born in Coursan, Fourès first followed lessons of art history at the Paul Valéry University Montpellier 3 and musical studies at the Conservatoire de Paris where he won his First Prizes in music theory, music analysis, and composition. He then studied medieval musicology at the Berlin University of the Arts and the piano at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. After being an intern at the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM INA) from 1975 until 1977, he was appointed professor in charge of improvised music at the Conservatoire de Pantin from 1977 to 1980. He then taught the history of medieval music from 1980 to 1982 at the University of Toulouse le Mirail. In 1982 he was appointed Inspector General of Music responsible for teaching and then creation at the at the French Ministry of Culture. He left this position in 1990 to devote himself fully to his activities as a composer and performer. He was artistic director of the creative studio , then worked regularly in Germany (Potsdam, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt…) where he was invited to perform with various symphonic and radio ensembles. His activities cov

Henry Gwiazda

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Henry Gwiazda (born 1952, silent i, Polish for star) is a composer who specializes in virtual audio, the simulation of a three-dimensional sound space in either headphones or precisely positioned speakers. He composes what may be called musique concrète, using samples usually without “tinker ing ” with them. Gwiazda is credited with sound effects, sampler, electric guitar and voice. He also composed, published, produced and engineered. Focal Point 3D Audio by Bo Gehring. *“Gwiazda produces ‘animated’ audioscapes, oddly situating twisted and chopped real-sound samples . . . combining elements that don’t have any clear relationship into compositions of surprising unity.” - reviewed in CMJ by Robin Edgerton Douglas Wolk. Gwiazda studied at the Eastman School of Music, and at the Hartt School (University of Hartford), where he was a student of Arnold Franchetti. Recordings The CD , contains the following compositions: # (1990) # (1989) # (1992) # (1990) # (1991), Jeffrey Krieger, electronic cello # (1995), virtual audio-for headphones only, Ann LaBerge, electronic flute # Speaker Placement Instructions # (1994), virtual audio-for speakers only # Un Nuit Dystopia/Hommage Michel Foucault

Henry Mancini

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Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) he won four Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His best-known works include the theme and soundtrack for the television series Peter Gunn, as well as the music for The Pink Panther film series (“The Pink Panther Theme”) and the song “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The Music from Peter Gunn won the inaugural Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1958. “Moon River” and the title song from Days of Wine and Roses, both cowritten with lyricist Johnny Mercer, won the Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1961 and 1963 respectively. Mancini enjoyed a long collaboration in composing for film director Blake Edwards. Mancini also scored a No. 1 single on the Hot 100 in 1969 with his arrangement and recording of the “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet”. Early life Henry Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Both his parents were Italian immigrants. Originally from Scanno, Abruzzo, his father Quintiliano “Quinto” Mancini was a laborer

Henryk Górecki

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Henryk Mikołaj Górecki ( ; ; 6 December 1933 – 12 November 2010) was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. According to critic Alex Ross, no recent classical composer has had as much commercial success as Górecki. He became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw. His Anton Webern-influenced serialist works of the 1950s and 1960s were characterized by adherence to dissonant modernism and influenced by Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Kazimierz Serocki. He continued in this direction throughout the 1960s, but by the mid-1970s had changed to a less complex sacred minimalist sound, exemplified by the transitional Symphony No. 2 “Copernician” and the Symphony No. 3 “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”. This later style developed through several other distinct phases, from such works as his 1979 Beatus Vir, to the 1981 choral hymn Miserere, the 1993 Kleines Requiem für eine Polka and his requiem Good Night. Górecki was largely unknown outside Poland until the late 1980s. In 1992, 15 years after it was composed, a recording of his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs with soprano Dawn Upshaw and conductor David Zinman became

Herbert Baumann

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Herbert Baumann (31 July 1925 – 21 January 2020) was a German composer and conductor. His compositions were mainly for theatre and film, at theatres in Berlin and Munich, such as ballet music for Alice im Wunderland and Rumpelstilzchen. Life Baumann was born in Berlin and began to study architecture, as his father wished. He studied conducting at the same time with Sergiu Celibidache, who was serving his first season with the Berlin Philharmonic. Baumann turned completely to music. He composed a piece as a conducting exercise that impressed Celibidache, who showed it to Paul Höffer, a composition professor. A CD review of the Alice music, played by the NDR Radiophilharmonie conducted by the composer, described it as a neo-Romantic score with delicate instrumentation and clever story-telling ideas for his main characters Alice and Der Dichter. External links * * Profile at komponisten.net (German) * * Herbert Baumann (Composer) Bach Cantatas Website

Herbert Blendinger

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Herbert Blendinger (3 January 1936 - 15 May 2020) was an Austrian composer and viola player of German origin. Career Born in Ansbach, Blendinger studied viola and composition with Willy Horwath and Max Gebhard at the conservatory in Nuremberg, then from 1961 to 1963 at the Musikhochschule München with Georg Schmid and Franz Xaver Lehner. As a composer, he was inspired also by Paul Hindemith. He worked from 1961 as principal viola player of the Rheinisches Kammerorchester in Cologne. He was also a member of the Bamberger Symphoniker and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. He played chamber music with the Bamberger Klavierquartett and the Sinnhoffer-Quartett, among others. Blendinger taught at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich and the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. From 1981 until his retirement in 1988 he was professor for viola at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz. Blendinger was a member of the board of the Styrian Tone Arts Association. Performances Blendinger’s works were performed by the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Wolfgang Sawallisch, his concerto for string quartet and orchestra in 1976, the cantata Media in vita (In the Midst of Life) in 1980 an

Herbert Prikopa

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Herbert “Happi” Prikopa (30 November 1935 – 8 December 2015) was an Austrian television presenter, conductor, operatic tenor, actor, composer, writer, pianist and cabaret artist. Life and career Born in Vienna, in 1935, at the age of 19, Prikopa became the youngest répétiteur at the Wiener Volksoper. After a singing engagement at the Wiener Kammeroper he became a member of Gerhard Bronner’s "" in the cabaret programm Brettl vorm Klavier. In 1957 a soloist contract was signed at the Volksoper instead of the répétiteur contract. From 1988 to 2009 Prikopa belonged to the radio cabaret team “”. In the 1998/1999 to 2007/2008 seasons, Prikopa was musical director and conductor of the Johann Strauss Concert Gala in Vienna. He was the presenter of the children’s television programme on the ORF in the 1980s. Here he appeared as Herbert Happi Prikopa. On 21 March 2005, Prikopa received the professor. He died in Vienna on 8 December 2015 at age 80. Filmography * 1957: * 1957: Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress * 1960: My Niece Doesn’t Do That * 1962: No Kissing Under Water (also co-storyboard) * 1963: Kaiser Joseph und die Bahnwärterstochter (director: Axel Corti) * 1963: Our Crazy Aunts in

Herbert Rehbein

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Herbert “Herb” Rehbein (15 April 1922 – 28 July 1979) was a German songwriter, composer and arranger of light orchestral music. Together with his friend and collaborator Bert Kaempfert, he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993. Biography He was born in Hamburg, and studied classical violin and composition at the Hamburger Konservatorium. At the age of 19 he was conscripted into the German Army, but was assigned to the Music Corps and stationed in Crete. Later, he became a prisoner of war in Belgrade, where he stayed after the end of the war. There he became musical director of the Belgrade Radio Orchestra, until he left Yugoslavia in 1952. Returning to Germany, he worked as composer, arranger and violinist with radio orchestras, and met fellow musician and songwriter Bert Kaempfert. The pair became friends and songwriting partners, encouraged by Milt Gabler of Decca Records. Several of their songs together, including “Lady,” “The World We Knew (Over and Over),” and “Sweet Maria,” became international successes and were recorded by such singers as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Al Martino. He produced three albums of instrumentals with

Herman Rechberger

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Herman Rechberger (14 February 1947 – 11 January 2022) was an Austrian-born Finnish composer, conductor and musician. Life and career Born in Linz, Allied-occupied Austria, Rechberger studied classical guitar at the Bruckner-Konservatorium in his hometown and later continued his musical studies in Zürich and at the Brussels Conservatory. In 1970 he moved to Finland to attend the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, graduating in recorder, guitar and composition. Rechberger’s compositions spanned different genres, including operas, symphonies, happenings, sonic sculptures, electronic music, orchestral compositions as well as reconstructions of ancient music. He was also active as a recorder player, touring with and The Poor Knights, and as a conductor. He died on 11 January 2022, at the age of 74. References External links * * *

Hervé Roullet

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Hervé Roullet (born 7 September 1947) is a composer and French Catholic writer. Biography Roullet was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, on 7 September 1947. He is an engineer from the École supérieure d’agriculture d’Angers and he graduated from IAE Paris (also known as Sorbonne Graduate Business School). He spent his professional career in the Parisian headquarters of various banking groups. He is also a composer of piano music and liturgical chants and Christian writer. Musical works Roullet was taught by Henry Mesmin, a disciple of Vincent d’Indy and Déodat de Séverac. He is of the romantic tradition, with modern characteristics. The writer and music critic Jean Cabourg defined him as a “musical watercolor artist haunted by grace " and added “a music which smells good, to quote Claude Debussy”. His music, which is intimate and melodious, expresses a personal and original language. He pays homage to the beauty of creation, and appears to aim for an ideal which will give peace of mind and change of scenery. * Piano pieces The Pieces for piano are in two volumes : the Croquis champêtres et the Voyages oniriques. Patrick Tudoret, the 2009 Grand prix de la Critique littéraire

Hi Kyung Kim

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Hi Kyung Kim (; born 1954) is a South Korean composer. Life Hi Kyung Kim was born in South Korea. She graduated from Seoul National University with a BA and the University of California, Berkeley, with an MA and PhD, where she studied composition with Andrew Imbrie, Olly Wilson, Gérard Grisey, and Sung-Jae Lee. As a benefit of the U.C. Berkeley’s George C. Ladd Prix de Paris, she worked at Institut de Rechéreche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) and École Normale Supérieure in Paris from 1988 to 1990. After completing her studies, Kim took a position as assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She returned to Korea in 1985 and 1998 for research and study of Korean music, and also researched the music of Elliott Carter at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. Honors and awards *Eisner prize in Creative Arts and *Two Di Lorenzo Composition Prizes *U.C. Berkeley’s George C. Ladd Prix de Paris *Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Works Selected works include: *Thousand Gates (2010/2011) Korean and Western choreography, Korean ensemble (percussion, haegeum), Western ensemble (violin, cello, clar

Hifumi Shimoyama

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Hifumi Shimoyama ( Shimoyama Hifumi; born 21 June 1930 in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture) is a Japanese composer of contemporary concert music. Since the 1960s, Shimoyama’s music has been regularly featured on World Music Days festivals across Europe and Asia, and sponsored by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). Shimoyama is the founder of GROUP 20.5, the internationally recognized group of Japanese avant garde composers. Selected compositions Shimoyama’s works are published by Academia Music, Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Japan Federation of Composers, Mieroprint, Ongaku no Tomo-sha. ;Orchestral * Reflection (リフレクション) for 3 string orchestras (1968) * Zone (ゾーン) for 16 string players (1970) * Fūmon II (風紋II) for orchestra and tape (1974) * Yūgenism (ユーゲニズム) for orchestra (1988–1989) * Doubridge (だぶりっじ) for string orchestra (1995) ;Concertante * Wave (ウェーヴ) for cello, string ensemble, harp, piano and percussion (1972, revised 1998) * Concerto for cello and orchestra (1984) * Yūgenism No. 2 (ユーゲニズム第2番) for clarinet, string orchestra and percussion (1998) * Concerto for violin and orchestra (2003) * Knob (ノブ) for bass clarinet and 14 players ;Chamber music * String Quarte

Hikaru Hayashi

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was a Japanese composer, pianist and conductor. Hayashi is considered to be one of the most renowned and accomplished Japanese composers of the postwar period. In particular, Hayashi was noted for his choral suite Scenes from Hiroshima (1958–2001). In exploring the possibilities of Japanese language opera, Hayashi composed more than 30 operas. He was artistic director and resident composer of the Opera Theatre Konnyakuza. His oeuvre also includes symphonic works, works for band, chamber music, choral works, songs and more than 100 film scores. Hayashi was also the author of more than 20 books including Nihon opera no yume (日本オペラの夢 The Dream of Japanese Opera). In 1998 Hayashi won the 30th Suntory Music Award. Early life Hikaru Hayashi was born in Tokyo on October 22, 1931. He was the cousin of renowned flautist Ririko Hayashi. Hayashi’s father was a physician who had graduated from Keiō University Medical School, and had studied in Berlin before returning to Japan to take up a position as a professor at Nihon University. A musical prodigy, Hayashi began studying music under his father’s friend, the famed composer Hisatada Otaka, at the age of 10, composing numerous full-length cham

Hilda Dianda

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Hilda Fanny Dianda (born 13 April 1925) is an Argentinian composer, musicologist, music educator and conductor. Early life Hilda Dianda was born in Córdoba, Argentina on 13 April 1925. She began her musical studies in Buenos Aires from 1942-1950 under Honorio Siccardi. She was awarded a fellowship, and began studying conducting under Hermann Scherchen in Venice from 1949-1950. She later moved to France where she was influenced by the “Musical Research Group” (GRMC) of French radio, directed by Pierre Schaeffer. She was invited into a phonology research position with Radio Audizioni Italiane (RAI) along with John Cage, Henri Pousseur, Dieter Schönbach, and André Boucourechliev, where she also began to study electronic music in the Studio di Fonologia, Milan. These studies earned her a fellowship and a Medal of Cultural Merit from the Kranichstein Music Institute. From 1960 to 1962 she participated in the International Courses of New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. Career In 1966 she worked in the Electronic Music Lab at the California State University, Northridge in the United States. after which she moved to Germany until 1976. She toured Latin America and Europe as a conductor. As a

Hildegard Westerkamp

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Hildegard Westerkamp (born April 8, 1946, in Osnabrück, Germany) is a Canadian composer, radio artist, teacher, and sound ecologist. She is known for her contributions to and development of acoustic ecology, soundscape composition, and soundwalks, particularly through her work on the World Soundscape Project in the 1970s and 1980s. She has written extensively on these topics for journals and conferences, including Organised Sound. Westerkamp studied flute and piano at the Conservatory of Music in Freiburg, West Germany from 1966 to 1968, then moved to Canada to study for a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia, which she earned in 1972. During this time as a student she encountered both Barry Truax and R. Murray Schafer, and began working for Schafer as part of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 1973. She later enrolled as a student in the communications department and completed her thesis, entitled “Listening and Soundmaking: A Study of Music-As-Environment,” for a Master of Arts degree in 1988; she taught acoustic communication at Simon Fraser until 1990. Westerkamp became a naturalized citizen of Canada in 1975. In 1972, s

Hiro Fujikake

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Hiroyuki Fujikake (born 1949), also known by his pen name Hiro Fujikake, is a Japanese composer, conductor and synthesizer player. Life Hiro Fujikake was born in 1949 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. In 1964 he began his musical studies at the High School. Later he attended the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in Aichi where he studied composition for four years to complete his bachelor’s degree. He studied a further three years to get the Master of Music at the same university. Fujikake has won numerous awards for his compositions. Such as the Ongaku-no-tomo Composition Prize for “Two Poems for Chorus” in 1970. The second prize of the NHK Mainichi Music Competition for “Threnody” in 1974. The All Japan Band Association’s Test Piece Composition Prize for “Concertino Overture” in 1975. The Japan Mandolin Union Composition Prize for “Pastoral Fantasy” in 1975. The first prize at the Sasagawa competition for “Nostalgic Rhapsody” in 1975 and “Chaconne” in 1976. Japan Symphony Foundation’s Composition Prize for “The Song of Spring” in 1990. The Grand Prix at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium for the symphonic work “The Rope Crest” in 1977. His compositional a

Hiroshi Itsuki

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is a Japanese singer and composer. As of 1987, he had sold 20 million singles and 4 million LP albums. Itsuki is usually regarded as an enka singer, but he has also released a cover version of Southern All Stars’ J-pop song “Tsunami”. Career In 1965, Itsuki debuted under the stage name “Masaru Matsuyama,” but did not initially achieve commercial success. Although he changed his stage name to “Eiichi Ichijō” in 1967, and then to “Ken Mitani” in 1969, there was no improvement in his music’s commercial sales. In 1971, he changed his name to “Hiroshi Itsuki” and was given the song by Masaaki Hirao. Written by lyricist Yoko Yamaguchi, “Yokohama Tasogare” reached the top of the Oricon weekly single chart. His 2006 single “Takasebune” debuted at number 9 on the Oricon charts, becoming his first Top 10 single in 22 years, since his 1984 single “Nagaragawa Enka”. In 2008, he was featured in Morning Musume’s Cover You album. He sang “Izakaya” with Ai Takahashi. Also in 2008, he collaborated with the girl group Cute, letting them record the song “Edo no Temari Uta”, which he himself was planning to include in his end-of-year album. Cute’s producer Tsunku liked the song and thought that if per

Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson

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Hjálmar Helgi Ragnarsson (23 September 1952 – 13 March 2026) was an Icelandic composer, music theorist, and rector. He is considered among the leading Icelandic composers of his generation, Life and career Hjálmar was born in Ísafjörður in northwestern Iceland on 23 September 1952, the son of Ragnar H. Ragnar, dean of the local music school, and Sigríður Jónsdóttir. He began piano studies with his father at age six and later continued his studies at the Reykjavík College and the Reykjavík School of Music. He completed his BA degree from Brandeis University in 1974, and studied electronic music at the Institute of Sonology (Utrecht University) in 1976–1977. In 1980, he completed an MFA degree in composition and music theory from Cornell University. Following his return to Iceland, Hjálmar was an active composer and teacher. He was a teacher at the Reykjavík College of Music from 1980 to 1988, and was the first Rector of the Iceland University of the Arts, serving for three terms (1998–2013). He was Chairman of the Icelandic Society of Composers (1988–1992), and President of the Federation of Icelandic Artists (Bandalag íslenskra listamanna) from 1991 to 1998. He received various hon

Hoàng Vân (composer)

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Lê Văn Ngọ, (24 July 1930, Hanoi – 4 February 2018) known as Hoàng Vân, is a Vietnamese songwriter and composer. He was a recipient of the Hồ Chí Minh Prize in 2000. Life Born on 24 July 1930 in Hanoi, Ngọ was born into a Confucian family. Both his grandfather and father were Confucian scholars. He is best known as a composer of the two Indochina wars. He was a soldier in Dien Bien Phu before being sent to train in European classical music at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at the end of the war. After his return to Vietnam, he was the conductor of the Radio Orchestra (Voice of Vietnam), as well as lecturing at the composition faculty of the Ha Noi Conservatory of Music (now the Vietnam National Academy of Music) until 1989. He was also a member of the Vietnam Musicians Association and worked there until 1996. Hoàng Vân was known by the public through his songs, but he also composed symphonies (notably Thành Đồng Tổ quốc, The Bronze Citadel of my Fatherland), in 1960), choirs, instrumental ensemble, music for films, and plays. Works Songs Hoàng Vân is one of the most famous composers of Vietnamese songs from the 1960s, and, as of the early 21st century, his songs remai

Horacio Vaggione

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Horacio Vaggione (born 21 January 1943) is an Argentine composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music who specializes in micromontage, granular synthesis, and microsound and whose pieces are often scored for performers and computers (mixed music). Biography He studied composition at the National University of Córdoba (1958–1961) and privately in Buenos Aires with Juan Carlos Paz (1960–1963), then at the University of Illinois with Lejaren Hiller and Herbert Brün (1966) where he first gained exposure and access to computers. In 1983 he received a Doctorate in Musicology at the University of Paris VIII (thesis director: Prof. Daniel Charles). Vaggione was born in Córdoba, Argentina, but has lived in Europe since 1969. While in Argentina he was a co-founder of the Experimental Music Center (CME) of the National University of Cordoba (1965–1968), and co-organizer of the Experimental Music Meetings of the III Bienal Americana de Arte (1966). From 1969 to 1973 he lived in Madrid, Spain, and was part of the ALEA live electronics music group with Luis de Pablo, the ALEA electronic Music Studio and the Project Music and Computer at the University of Madrid. In 1978 he moved to France,

Hormoz Farhat

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Hormoz Farhat (; 9 August 1928 – 16 August 2021) was an Iranian-American composer and ethnomusicologist who spent much of his career in Dublin, Ireland. An emeritus professor of music, he was a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. Described by the Irish Times as a “gifted and distinctive composer of contemporary classical music,” his compositions include orchestral, concertante, piano and choral music, as well string quartets and chamber works. He also wrote numerous film scores, including that of Dariush Mehrjui’s 1969 film The Cow. His father Ebrahim Farat was a senior official at the Persian Ministry of Finance married to his mother Sedique. According to Farhat himself, his early exposure to Iranian music was limited to his father occasionally playing the tar. Instead, he recalls that his ““early musical outlook was mainly western”, later filtered through the country’s radio station that was established in 1939. Farhat later moved to the United States and received a BA in music from the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA (1953), an MA in composition from Mills College, California (1955), and a PhD in composition and ethnomusicology from UCLA (1965). He studied composition

Horst Irrgang

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Horst Irrgang (1929 – 1997) was a German composer, conductor and musicologist. Life and career Born in Magdeburg, Irrgang studied school music in Weimar from 1948 to 1954, German studies at Jena University and music education (with Fritz Reuter) and musicology (with Max Schneider) at Halle University. As a composer and conductor, he devoted himself to amateur music throughout his life. From 1954 to 1958, he was artistic director of the folk art ensemble of the VEB Leuna-Werke Walter Ulbricht. In 1958, the took over the choral direction of the Louis Fürnberg ensemble of the University of Leipzig, which he held until 1965. Towards the end of the 1950s, he simultaneously took over the direction of the choir at VEB Hochbauprojektierung Halle. Irrgang was a board member of the and for many years the head of the folk music section of the Halle/Magdeburg district association. As a musicologist, Irrgang had been an editor at VEB Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig since 1959 (Deutscher Verlag für Musik). He published numerous choral and song books with his own settings, which were part of the standard repertoire of numerous choirs, especially in the GDR. He also wrote instrumental sets of German

Howard Blake

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Howard David Blake (born 28 October 1938) is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works. Blake’s most successful work is his soundtrack for Channel 4’s 1982 film The Snowman, which includes the song “Walking in the Air”. He is increasingly recognised for his classical works including concertos, oratorios, ballets, operas and many instrumental pieces. Early life Howard Blake was born in London and grew up in Brighton. His mother played piano and violin, and his father sang tenor in the church choir. At Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School for Boys, from the age of 11 he sang lead roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and was recognised as a good pianist, but few were aware that he was also writing music. At the age of 18, he won the Hastings Musical Festival Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied piano with Harold Craxton and composition with Howard Ferguson, but he found himself at odds with his contemporaries in regard to musical style. He virtually stopped composing, instead becoming interested in film, and on leaving the Academy briefly worked as a film projectionist at the Nati

Howard Cable

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Howard Reid Cable (December 15, 1920 – March 30, 2016) was a conductor, arranger, music director, composer, and radio and television producer. He was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Biography Cable received an Associate diploma (ATCM) from The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in conducting and bandmastership 1939. He is also a recipient of an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts (DFA) degree from the University of Lethbridge in 2002. Cable studied piano, clarinet, and oboe, and played in the Parkdale Collegiate Institute orchestra under Leslie Bell. While leading a dance band, the Cavaliers, 1935-41 in Toronto and at southern Ontario summer resorts, he studied at the Toronto Conservatory of Music with Sir Ernest MacMillan, Ettore Mazzoleni, and Healey Willan. He also studied with John Weinzweig in 1945. Cable composed and arranged the original theme for the Hockey Night in Canada television broadcast, Saturday’s Game, which opened the broadcast from 1952 until 1968. His arrangement for solo piano of Dolores Claman’s The Hockey Theme that was the show’s theme from 1968 until the mid-2000s is one of the best selling pieces of sheet music in Canada. (Jerry Toth arranged the broadcast ver

Howard Dyck

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Howard Dyck, CM (born November 17, 1942) is a Canadian conductor, public speaker, and radio broadcaster born in Winkler, Manitoba, now living in Waterloo, Ontario. He is most well known as the longtime host of CBC Radio programmes Choral Concert and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, which he hosted from 1987 to 2007. Early life Dyck was born and raised in Winkler, Manitoba, in 1942 and later studied at Mennonite Brethren Bible College, now Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg and Goshen College in Indiana. *2002 - Awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. *2004 - Received the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors Distinguished Service Award. *2007 - City of Waterloo Legacy of Leaders. *2008 - Waterloo County Hall of Fame. *2010 - Artistic Director Emeritus, Grand Philharmonic Choir *2010 - Conductor Emeritus, Bach Elgar Choir *2011 - Waterloo Region Lifetime Achievement Arts Award *2012 - Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal References External links *The Grand Philharmonic Choir

Howard L. Quilling

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Howard Lee Quilling (December 16, 1935 – February 26, 2016) was an American composer and music teacher. He died in Bakersfield, California, on February 26, 2016, at the age of 80. Compositions Pieces for orchestra * 1979 · Music, for guitar and strings. * 1982 · Textures, four miniatures for orchestra. Pieces for wind orchestra * 1967 · Intermezzo. * 1968 · Introspections. * 1970 · Suite, for alto saxophone and wind orchestra. * 1973 · Symfonie. * No Date · Chardy, for brass ensemble and wind orchestra. * No Date · Diversions. Pieces for choir * 1973 · The Clouds of night are passed away, for mixed choir and piano. * 1983 · Two anthems, for mixed choir and piano (or organ). * 1985 · O Thou, who art the shepherd, for mixed choir and organ. * 1986 · Upon a wintery night, for mixed choir and organ. Vocal music * 1958 · Two songs of Rupert Brooke, for voice and piano. * 1967 · That holy thing, for voice and accordion. * 1980 · What will you do on Tuesday, love?, for voice and piano. * 1987 · Two love songs, for soprano, flute, clarinet, guitar, viola and double bass. * 1993 · The Earth Remembers, vocal cycle for soprano, mixed choir and piano (or orchestra). *# The Earth Remembers. *#

Howard Sandroff

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Howard Sandroff (born October 28, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois ) is an American composer, sound artist, sculptor, and music educator. Sandroff studied at the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His composition instructors included Robert Lombardo and Ben Johnston. He has received composition and research fellowships and the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of Chicago and the Yamaha Music Foundation. He founded, directed and conducted Chicago’s New Art Ensemble. In 2016, Sandroff retired from the University of Chicago where he was Director of the Computer Music Studio and Senior Lecturer in Music. He is also a professor emeritus of Audio Arts & Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago. In June 1996, Pierre Boulez invited Sandroff to attend the dedication of the new IRCAM facility at the Centre Georges Pompidou. His composition Tephillah, for clarinet and computer, was performed at the dedication by Alain Damiens, clarinetist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Sandroff has collaborated with clarinetist John Bruce Yeh, performing Boulez’s 1985 work for clarinet and electronics, Dialogue de l’ombre double. Among San

Howard Skempton

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Howard While Skempton (born 31 October 1947) is an English composer, pianist, and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped to organise the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music. Skempton’s work is characterised by stripped-down, essentials-only choice of materials, absence of formal development and a strong emphasis on melody. The musicologist Hermann-Christoph Müller has described Skempton’s music as “the emancipation of the consonance”. Life Skempton was born in Chester and studied at Birkenhead School and Ealing Technical College. He started composing before 1967, but that year he moved to London and began taking private lessons in composition from Cornelius Cardew. In 1968 Skempton joined Cardew’s experimental music class at Morley College, where in spring 1969 Cardew, Skempton and Michael Parsons organised the Scratch Orchestra. This ensemble, which had open membership, was dedicated to performing experimental contemporary music by composers such as La Monte Young, John Cage and Terry Riley, as well as by members of the orchestra itself. One of Skempton’s early works, Drum No. 1 (1969), became one of the “most useful

Howie Smith

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Howie Smith (born February 25, 1943), is a saxophonist, composer, jazz musician and educator Howie Smith was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1943. He was an instructor for the University of Illinois Division of Music Extension from 1970 to 1973 and also taught at Northern Illinois University in 1971. In 1973, under a Fulbright grant, he set up the first tertiary level jazz studies program in Australia at the New South Wales State Conservatorium (now named the Sydney Conservatorium of Music). He remained as Director of Jazz Studies through 1976, and was a member of the Australian group Jazz Co/op from 1974 through 1976. Howie Smith is a full professor at Cleveland State University, has been a frequent performer with the Cleveland Orchestra and soloist with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony since 1982, and has presented numerous concerts and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Australia. Biography Born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1943; Howie Smith graduated from Reading Senior High School in 1961. Early studies with his first music teacher, J. Carl Borelli, included clarinet and saxophone pieces from the classical and jazz repertoire. At Mr.

Hsu Tsang-Houei

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Hsu Tsang-Houei (; September 6, 1929 – January 1, 2001) was a Taiwanese musician and music educator. As an ethnomusicologist, he has been called a “pioneering collector of Taiwanese folk songs.” Early life and education Hsu was born in Hemei Village, Changhua County, Taichung, Taiwan, in the period of Japanese occupation, and went to Japan to study at the age of 12, majoring in violin. He came back to Taiwan and studied at Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School in 1946 after war, and then studied at Taiwan Provincial Normal College (now National Taiwan Normal University) department of music, serving as a violinist at Taiwan Provincial Symphony Orchestra (now National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra) after graduating. Hsu went to France to study at public expense in 1954, and attended the College of Frankfurt, after that he transferred to University of Paris, majoring in composition and studying under André Jolivet. In 1959, he chose the poem “Yesterday Someone Came from the Sea” and composed it into a soprano solo piece, which was selected for the competition of the Italian Modern Music Society, and then began his composing career. Career Hsu returned to Taiwan in 1959. Bes

Huang Zhun (composer)

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Huang Zhun (25 June 1926 – 3 December 2024) was a Chinese composer known for film scores. Life and career Huang Zhun was born in Huangyan, Zhejiang. She studied in the drama department of Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1944, and studied composition with Xian Xinghai. She performed as a mezzo-soprano from 1941 to 1942. She worked in the Dalian Art Work Group in 1946. Later, she worked in Northeast Film Studio and Beijing Film Studio, and then in 1949 took a position as a composer and later as a music director for Shanghai Film Studio where she worked until 1987. She has composed many films such as Long Live Youth and Red Detachment of Women. Her first film composition was produced in 1947 by the Northeast Film Studio for the first feature film in the Liberated Areas, “Leaving him to fight Lao Jiang”. She also completed the theme song “The Army Loves the People, The People Love the Army” in 1948. This song became very popular in the northeast region of China. After that, she moved to work in Beijing Film Studio and Shanghai Film Studio as a composer, where she later wrote the musical score for dozens of films, such as Family and Woman Basketball Player No. 5. In particula

Hubert Giraud

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Hubert Yves Adrian Giraud (; 3 March 1920 – 16 January 2016) was a French composer and lyricist. Career Giraud began his career playing the harmonica with Django Reinhardt’s jazz group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France. In 1941, he was recruited by Ray Ventura to play the guitar during Ventura’s big-band tour of South America. Six years later, he joined Jacques Hélian’s orchestra in scoring a series of post-war romantic comedy films, including Georges Combert’s 1951 feature, Musique en tête. His song “Dors, mon amour”, performed by André Claveau, won the Eurovision Song Contest 1958. Giraud (with lyricist Pierre Cour) wrote the song “Gitans” ( “Les Gitans”). It was further translated into English by B. Guilgud (a.k.a. Guilgudo) and A. Gill and recorded by Corry Brokken. Sergio Franchi recorded an English and Italian version (Italian lyrics by Leo Chiosso) on his 1965 RCA album Live at the Cocoanut Grove. Giraud also wrote the music for the songs “Sous le ciel de Paris” in 1951 and “Mamy Blue” in 1970. Selected filmography * Music in the Head (1951) * The Fighting Drummer (1953) * The Triumph of Michael Strogoff (1961) See also * List of big band musicians * List of French compos

Hugh Aitken (composer)

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Hugh Aitken (September 7, 1924 – December 24, 2012 ) was a 20th-century American composer. Biography Aitken was born in New York City to Hugh Aitken Sr. and Florence Aitken. He grew up in the Bronx and attended Evander Child High School. There were artists of all kinds in his family; his father was a musician, playing the violin and also composing, his mother danced in vaudeville in her youth, one cousin was a radio, stage, and television actress (Joan Swenson) and another danced in the Balanchine company. He studied chemistry for two years at New York University, but quit to join the Army. He served as a navigator in the Air Force in the Second World War, realized during the War that composing was his true vocation, so he used the GI Bill to enroll at Juilliard from 1946-50. He studied composition under Bernard Wagenaar, Vincent Persichetti, and Robert Ward, receiving a MS degree in 1950. He married Laura Tapia (1924-2017) in 1946. Aitken taught at Juilliard from 1960 until 1970, and was then appointed Professor of Music at William Paterson College in New Jersey. He died at home in Oakland, New Jersey on Dec. 24, 2012. He is survived by children Peter Gil Aitken and Alexandra Eliz

Hugh Davidson (composer)

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Hugh Hanson Davidson (27 May 1930 in Montreal – 14 July 2014 in Victoria) was a Canadian composer, music critic, radio producer, writer, and arts administrator. His compositional output includes works for piano, ballets, chamber music, vocal art songs, choral works, and incidental music for the theatre. Davidson graduated from The Royal Conservatory of Music where he studied from 1945 to 1948. His teachers there included George Crum in piano and Godfrey Ridout in music composition. In 1951, he went to England to pursue further studies in composition with Bernard Stevens and Humphrey Searle. After four years, he returned to Canada where he worked as a composer and studied orchestration with Neil Chotem in Montreal. He is a founder of Hugh Davidson Fund, which is currently administered by the Victoria Foundation. In 2018, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Bramwell Tovey had performed some of his works, along with the violinist Rachel Barton Pine. References

Hugh Davies (composer)

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Hugh Seymour Davies (23 April 1943 – 1 January 2005) was an English musicologist, composer, and inventor of experimental musical instruments. History Davies was born in Exmouth, Devon, England. After attending Westminster School, he studied music at Worcester College, Oxford from 1961 to 1964. Shortly after he travelled to Cologne, Germany, to work for Karlheinz Stockhausen as his personal assistant. For two years, he assembled and documented material for Stockhausen’s compositions and was a member of his live ensemble. From 1968 to 1971, Davies played in The Music Improvisation Company. The group’s guitarist Derek Bailey later wrote that “the live electronics served to extend the music both forwards and backwards (…) Davies helped to loosen what had been, until his arrival, a perhaps too rarified approach”. He was also a member of the group Gentle Fire, active from 1968 to 1975, which specialised in the realisation of indeterminate and mobile scores, as well as verbally formulated intuitive-music compositions (such as Stockhausen’s Aus den sieben Tagen) and in the performance of its own Group Compositions. Davies invented musical instruments that he constructed from household it

Hugh Shrapnel

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Hugh Shrapnel (born Birmingham, England, 1947) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Shrapnel was born in 1947 in Birmingham. From 1966 to 1969 he studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Norman Demuth and Cornelius Cardew and oboe with Margaret Eliot winning the Lady Holland Prize for composition. Shrapnel’s music is characterised by its lyricism, its wide range of musical influences including folk music, music hall, jazz and the sound of bells, a deep identification with the natural world, a liking for unorthodox instrumental line ups and a strong feeling for place and community. Musical enthusiasms/influences include: the English Renaissance composers, Schubert, Schumann, Sibelius, Mahler, Stravinsky, Satie, Webern, Ives, Terry Riley, Charles Mingus. John White and Cornelius Cardew. Shrapnel’s music has been widely performed in Britain, America, Canada and Germany. As a student Shrapnel composed serial works influenced by Webern and Boulez but through Cornelius Cardew became drawn to experimental music. He played the oboe in the first British performance of Terry Riley’s In C in 1968, in the same year joining Cardew’s experimental music

Hugo Montenegro

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Hugo Mario Montenegro (September 2, 1925 – February 6, 1981) was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best-known work is interpretations of the music from Spaghetti Westerns, especially his cover version of Ennio Morricone’s main theme from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He composed the score for the 1969 Western Charro!, which starred Elvis Presley. He also wrote for various television series, most notably the theme to “I Dream of Jeannie” Biography Montenegro was born in New York City in 1925. He served in the U.S. Navy for two years, mostly as an arranger for the Newport Naval Base band in Newport, Rhode Island. After the war he attended Manhattan College while studying composition and leading his own band for school dances. No. 3 in the Canadian RPM Magazine charts, and spending four weeks atop the UK Singles Chart in 1968. It sold over one and a quarter million copies and was awarded a gold disc. His version of the main theme from Hang ’em High reached No. 59 in Canada. In 1968, his hit “Aces High” placed at No. 11 on the Billboard Year-End Chart of the Top Hits of 1968. In the late 1970s severe emphysema forced an end to his musica

Hugo Strasser

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Hugo Strasser (April 7, 1922, Munich-Schwabing - March 17, 2016, Munich-Trudering) was a German swing and jazz musician, composer, clarinetist and big band leader of the Orchester Hugo Strasser (Hugo Strasser Orchestra) since 1955. The orchestra was famous for its dance music, in particular music for suited ballroom dancing with its strict beat and tempo, played at numerous ballroom dance / Dancesport championships in Germany and abroad. Of note is Strasser’s series of recordings “Tanzplatte des Jahres” ( “Dance Record of the Year” ). * 2002: Schwabing Art Prize * 1994: Bayerischer Poetentaler See also *Max Greger *James Last *Paul Kuhn References External links * *Hugo Strasser in the catalog of the German National Library

Hugues Dufourt

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Hugues Dufourt () is a French composer and philosopher associated with the spectral school of composition. Born in Lyon on 28 September 1943, Dufourt studied piano and composition at the Geneva Conservatory. Dufourt became co-director of the Ensemble l’Itinéraire in 1973 and founded CRISS (Collectif de Recherche Instrumentale et de Synthèse Sonore—Instrumental and Sound Synthesis Research Collective) in 1977. It was for CRISS that he composed in 1978–79 his best-known work, Saturne, for percussion, wind ensemble, and electronics—a work inspired by Erwin Panofsky’s analysis of etchings by Albrecht Dürer. His work Burning Bright (2014) also received five votes in a 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music by living composers since 2000. Many of Dufourt’s larger works have been inspired by the paintings of artists as various as Brueghel, Giorgione, Rembrandt, Poussin, Guardi, Goya, and Pollock. References Sources * * * External links *Biography, works, recordings, Editions Henry Lemoine *

Iain Burnside

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Iain Burnside is a Scottish classical pianist and accompanist, and an occasional presenter on BBC Radio 3. Following study at Merton College, Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music and the Chopin Academy, in Warsaw he became a freelance pianist, specialising particularly in song repertoire. He has collaborated with many singers, and was particularly close friends with the late soprano Susan Chilcott. Burnside is the godfather of Chilcott’s son, Hugh, and following her death in 2003 became his legal guardian. Other singers he has worked and recorded with include Dame Margaret Price, Galina Gorchakova,Lawrence Brownlee, Rosa Feola and Roderick Williams, with whom he has recorded the complete Finzi baritone songs,. After presenting the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, he became a presenter on Radio 3, for many years fronting the weekly song-orientated show Voices for which he won a Sony Radio Award. Later he began presenting the Sunday morning programme. He has also written various musical plays: A Soldier and a Maker on the life of Ivor Gurney, premiered in 2012 and later broadcast on. BBC Radio 3; Shining Armour on Clara Schumann; Why does the Queen Die? and Swansong on Franz Sc

Iain Hamilton (composer)

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Iain Ellis Hamilton (6 June 1922 – 21 July 2000) was a prolific Scottish composer of ten operas, four symphonies, four string quartets and much more. He worked in the United States for twenty years. Career Hamilton was born in Glasgow and educated in London, where he became an apprentice engineer. He remained in that profession for the next seven years, studying music in his spare time. In 1947 he won a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music for three years, studying composition with William Alwyn and piano with Harold Craxton. Simultaneously he earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of London (1950), and he was later awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Glasgow (1970). In 1951 Hamilton became a lecturer at both Morley College and the University of London, posts he held until 1960, when he moved to New York. There he was appointed Mary Duke Biddle Professor at Duke University, North Carolina. In 1971 he was also appointed to the Cramb lectureship at the University of Glasgow. He returned to London in 1981, but struggled to regain a place in the mainstream of UK musical life, although his orchestral work Commedia was performed at the

Ian Cugley

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Ian Cugley (22 June 19454 November 2010) was an Australian composer. Biography Early life He was born in Melbourne in 1945. He gained early prominence with two orchestral works, Pan, the Lake and Prelude for Orchestra, which were performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1967 and subsequently recorded on EMI. His career after then was less spectacular, and he had a propensity for hiding away and concentrating on composition without seeming overly concerned with performance. He rarely attended performances of his music unless they happened to be close at hand. Career He lectured in Music and Computing at the University of Tasmania for many years, including a period in charge of the small Music department there, and was a percussionist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. During his time in Tasmania he wrote mainly chamber music, usually on commission for bodies or performers outside Tasmania. A notable exception is the Violin Concerto commissioned by the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music for Jan Sedivka, who was soloist at the first performance in 1980 (with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Patrick Thomas). Cugley left Tasmania

Ian Keith Harris

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Ian Keith Harris (24 June 1936 – 3 April 2024) was an Australian composer of classical music, arranger, oboist, critic and music educator. Life and career Ian Keith Harris was born in Melbourne, living there for the first 26 years of his life. He started the piano at the age of five, playing cornet in his school band, then violin for a couple of years at high school, and later was a school pianist. In 1952, he began his Bachelor of Music degree at Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music, taking piano as chief study and oboe as second. Later, he changed to oboe as his chief study and studied composition with Jiři Tancibudek and Arthur Nickson. He was soon in demand as a freelance orchestral musician, arranger and copyist, working in a very eclectic mix of musical spheres from arrangement for television and various theatrical shows to playing in opera, ballet, chamber music and symphony orchestras. He was a founding member of the Glendenian Trio (flute, oboe, bassoon), which gave regular broadcasts over several years. The trio was another area in which his arrangement skills were frequently employed. He served some years as an oboist for J. C. Williamson theatres, playing musica

Ian Kellam

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

NOTOC Ian Kellam (1933 – 24 November 2014) was a British composer of church music and theatre music. Kellam was born in Sheffield and was a chorister at Sheffield Cathedral under Reginald Tustin Baker, organist. He went on to study with Herbert Sumsion at Gloucester Cathedral, and then with Howard Ferguson at the Royal Academy of Music. He taught privately, and at the London College of Music, where his students included Roger Marsh. He composed a series of nine choral orchestral cantatas (the last in 2001), many smaller choral works for the church, and settings of the morning and evening canticles. Eighteen of his hymn tunes were collected in the volume Sing Praise to God (2005). Kellam wrote theatre music for the Royal Shakespeare Company, for the Chichester Festival and for Joan Littlewood. His music was used in productions staged in Moscow, Paris and New York. The Young Visitors, a musical based on the book by Daisy Ashford with a book by Michael Ashton and music by Kellam, was produced in 1968 at the Piccadilly Theatre, where it ran for 68 performances. There were also stage works for children, including The Journey, with a libretto by David Gribble. Balaam, for children’s

Iancu Dumitrescu

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Iancu Dumitrescu (born 15 July 1944) is a Romanian avant-garde composer. Life and works Dumitrescu was born in Sibiu, Romania. He received a master’s degree in composition in Bucharest, where his teachers included Alfred Mendelsohn. Later, he studied conducting and philosophy with Sergiu Celibidache, who led Dumitrescu to engage with the philosophy of Edmund Husserl and apply the principles of phenomenology to music. He began composing his mature works in the early 1970s. In 1976 he founded the Hyperion Ensemble, which he describes as “a multimedia group dedicated to experimental music”. Several of Dumitrescu’s early works for solo contrabass were recorded by the noted avant-garde bassist Fernando Grillo. Dumitrescu has composed a large body of works for acoustic instruments and ensembles as well as works combining acoustic and electronic sounds and works composed entirely using tape or computer. In its emphasis on long tones that undergo transformations of timbre, Dumitrescu’s music can be loosely grouped with that of Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi and with the spectral music of fellow Romanian Horațiu Rădulescu and the French composers of the spectral school. Dumitrescu describ

Iannis Xenakis

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Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer. After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalised citizen of France eighteen years later. Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances. Among his most important works are Metastaseis (1953–54) for orchestra, which introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra; percussion works such as Psappha (1975) and Pléïades (1979); compositions that introduced spatialization by dispersing musicians among the audience, such as Terretektorh (1966); electronic works created using Xenakis’s UPIC system; and the massive multimedia performances Xenakis called polytopes, that were a summa of his intere

Ib Nørholm

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ib Nørholm (24 January 1931 – 10 June 2019) was a Danish composer and organist. Life and career Nørholm was born in Søborg, Gladsaxe Municipality. He studied with Vagn Holmboe at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he later taught (from 1973), becoming a professor in 1981. Among the honours Nørholm has received are the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1964, the Carl Nielsen Prize in 1971 and a knighthood in 1981. Initially, Nørholm’s music was in the tradition of Carl Nielsen, as exemplified by his first symphony (1956–8). In the 1960s, however, Nørholm began to explore the possibilities of serialism and graphic scores, having been deeply impressed by his experiences of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, and others at the ISCM in Cologne. Later still his music took on a more economical approach, often characterised by the term ’new simplicity’. Compositions by Nørholm include the opera The Young Park (1969–70), Symphony No. 3 (1973), sonatas for accordion (1967) and guitar (1976), Idylles d’Apocalypse for organ and orchestra (1980), Symphony No. 5 ‘The Elements’ (1980), Immanence for solo flute (1983), Aspects of Sand and Simplicity for string orchest

Ida Gotkovsky

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ida Rose Esther Gotkovsky (26 August 1933 – 15 October 2025) was a French composer and pianist. She was a professor of music theory at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in France. Early life Gotkovsky was born in Calais on 26 August 1933. Her father was the violinist Jacques Gotkovsky of the Loewenguth Quartet and her mother also played the violin. Both her brother Ivar (a pianist) and her sister Nell (a violinist) became accomplished musicians. Gotkovsky began composing at the age of eight. She studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where her teachers included Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger. She won six prestigious first prize music awards for her compositions, including the Prix Blumenthal (1958), Prix Pasdeloup (1959), Prix de Composition Concours International de Divonne les Bains (1961), Médaille de la Ville de Paris (1963), Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris (1966) and the Prix Lili Boulanger (1967). Compositions Gotkovsky’s output includes chamber music, symphonies, instrumental music, vocal music, ballets, and operas. Notably, she has contributed many solo and chamber pieces for the saxophone. Her Concerto for Trombone (1978) has been compared to Messiaen, and

Igo Hofstetter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Igo Hofstetter (1 June 1926, in Linz – 2 March 2002, in Linz) was an Austrian operetta composer. He became known primarily for his operettas Roulette der Herzen and Schach dem Boss and his upscale entertainment and brass music. His compositions are characterized by their distinctive rhythms. Career He studied composition with Fritz Heinrich Klein and conducted with Louis Leschetitzky at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. In addition to his composing activities, he was a music teacher until his retirement in 1986. He was a board member of the International Operetta Company and Federal Council in Brucknerbund. For many years he worked as a sound engineer and a freelancer of the ORF. The Upper Austrian Brass Band Association chose the incidental music from the operetta “Roulette der Herzen” (Arrangement for wind orchestra by Josef Hartl) in the 1995/96 season in the series of compulsory pieces level C. The main part of his work was in the field of operetta, the upscale entertainment music and brass bands. His operettas “Roulette der Herzen”, “Alles spricht von Charpillon” and “Schach dem Boss” were translated in several foreign languages and were in various theatres for several ye

Igor Kuljerić

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Igor Kuljerić (February 1, 1938 – April 20, 2006) was an important Croatian composer and conductor. His large opus followed the stylistic changes and evolutions of 20th and 21st century music. Biography Born in the coastal city of Šibenik on the Adriatic Sea, Kuljerić graduated in composition from Zagreb Academy of Music and received a grant from the Italian government to study opera repertoire at La Scala in Milan, Italy. Attracted by the new movements in contemporary music, he participated in the experiments held in the Studio di fonologia musicale (Studio for musical phonology) at RAI with Luigi Nono and in Monte Carlo with Igor Markevitch. From 1960 to 1967 he served as the rehearsal and assistant conductor of the Opera of Croatian National Theater in Zagreb and later became a member of the famed I Solisti di Zagreb ensemble as harpsichordist and assistant to the director Antonio Janigro. His conducting debut in 1967 during the Zagreb soloists’ tour in the United States, followed by positive reviews in the New York and Boston press led to his permanent appointment as conductor at Croatian Radiotelevision. From 1968 till the early ’80s he served as the conductor of Croatian Radi

Igor Wakhévitch

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Igor Wakhévitch (born 12 May 1948) is an avant-garde French composer. He released a series of studio albums in the 1970s and collaborated with Salvador Dalí in 1974. Wakhevitch was born in Gassin, a small village on the French Riviera. His father is Russian-born French art director Georges Wakhévitch; his mother is the actress Marica Wakhévitch. Wakhevitch was a musical prodigy as a child, and studied piano under French composer Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris and classical pianist Marguerite Long. His compositions are heavily influenced by avant-garde music including Igor Stravinsky and psychedelic rock bands such as Soft Machine and Pink Floyd. He was one of the first composers to use electronic keyboards. Influence Wakhévitch is one of the musicians named on the Nurse with Wound list of outsider and avant-garde music, which has come to be an important touchstone for those interested in the genre. His composition “Materia-Prima” is included on the compilation album Strain Crack & Break: Music from the Nurse With Wound List. Selected discography *Logos (1970, Warner Bros.) *Dr. Faust (1971, Parlophone) *Hathor (1973, Parlophone) *Nagual (1977, Warner Bros.) *Kshatry

Ihor Poklad

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Ihor Dmytrovych Poklad (; 10 December 1941 – 9 July 2025) was a Ukrainian composer. He wrote songs that became classics and have been performed by famous Ukrainian singers, such as “The Magic Violin” performed by Nina Matviienko. He later turned to scores for theatre and films. He was honoured as People’s Artist of Ukraine and Hero of Ukraine, among others. Life and career Born on 10 December 1941 in Frunze, Kirghiz SSR (present-day Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) in the family of a military serviceman, after World War II, Poklad with his family moved to Ternopil where he finished high school and a music school. After 1957 he continued his music studies in Kyiv, at the Glière Institute and Kyiv Conservatory, Poklad started off his career in the Academical Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Internal Troops of Ukraine. Already during his studies, between 1965 and 1968, Poklad worked as artistic director of the all-female Mriya vocal-instrumental ensemble and began to compose songs, He underwent surgery in 2014. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he and his wife lived in a basement in Vorzel for several weeks. Music Poklad’s most prominent compositions combined Ukrainian folk aesthet

Ihor Shamo

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Ihor Naumovich Shamo (, , also romanized Igor; 21 February 1925 – 17 August 1982) was a Ukrainian composer, Shevchenko National Prize laureate. Shamo was born in Kyiv to a family of Jewish origin. He graduated from the Lysenko Music School in Kyiv, where his main subjects were composition and piano, in 1941, and was evacuated in that year to Ufa, where he studied medicine for two years. From 1942 to 1946, he was in the Soviet Army as a medical assistant; when he returned to Kyiv he recommenced his musical studies, graduating from the Kyiv Conservatory in 1951 in the class of Boris Lyatoshinsky. He had joined the Union of Soviet Composers in 1948, and at his graduation played his own Concert-Ballade for piano and orchestra. His popular song Kyieve Mii (My Kyiv) - then regarded as the “unofficial anthem of the Ukrainian capital” - became the city’s official anthem in 2014, and is cited on his memorial on the building where he lived (see picture). His other works include three symphonies, and an opera Yatranskiye Igri, which is unusually scored for a cappella choir and soloists. Selected filmography * Maksimka (1953) * Malva (1957) * E.A. — Extraordinary Accident (1958) *Far from the

Ihor Sonevytsky

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ihor Sonevytsky (Ukrainian: Ігор Михайлович Соневицький) (1926–2006) was a Ukrainian-born composer, conductor, pianist and musicologist. Life Born on 2 January 1926 in Hadynkivtsi, Galicia (now in Western Ukraine), Ihor Sonevytsky was the son of Dr. Michael Sonevytsky (Ukrainian: Михайло Соневицький), a noted Ukrainian classical philologist, and Olha Sonevytsky, a journalist. He studied at the Vienna Musical Academy and completed his musical studies with a diploma in composition, conducting and piano performance from the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik, Munich (1950) and the Ukrainian Free University, Munich (1961). His family emigrated to the US short after. There he became a cofounder of the Ukrainian Music Institute of America, and served as its director from 1959 to 1961. In 1983 he established the Grazhda Music and Art Center of Greene County, New York. Sonevytsky conducted five different Ukrainian choirs, organized and directed a Ukrainian string orchestra and opera ensemble, taught private students, and lectured at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Rome. He wrote over 500 music-related articles for various newspapers and periodicals. He wrote several music books, includin

Ikuma Dan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

was a Japanese composer. Dan was born in Tokyo, the descendant of a prominent family, his grandfather Baron Dan Takuma having been President of Mitsui before being assassinated in 1932. He graduated from Aoyama Gakuin and Tokyo Music School in 1946. He studied with teachers including Kosaku Yamada, Kunihiko Hashimoto, Kan’ichi Shimofusa, Saburō Moroi, and Midori Hosokawa. During his career he completed six symphonies, all recorded and released on the Decca label in Japan, and wrote seven operas as well as a number of filmscores, and many songs. He wrote celebratory music for the Japanese imperial family, actively promoted cultural exchange with China (from 1979 until his death in Suzhou, China, in 2001), and received the commission to write an opera (Takeru) for the 1997 opening of the New National Theatre, Tokyo, Japan’s main opera house. Dan is known in Japan for his 1951 opera Yūzuru (Twilight Crane), which is regularly revived there. Honors * 19th Yomiuri Prize, 1968 * Japan Foundation Award, 1998 Works Stage * Yūzuru (Twilight Crane), opera in 1 act, text by Junji Kinoshita, (Osaka, 1952) * Kikimimizukin (The Listening Cap), opera in 3 acts, text by Junji Kinoshita (Osaka, 195

İlhan Baran

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İlhan Baran (1934, Artvin – 27 November 2016) was a Turkish composer. Baran studied double bass and was a composition student of Ahmed Adnan Saygun at Ankara State Conservatory, graduating in 1960. He continued his studies in France at École Normale de Musique de Paris with Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ohana. After returning to Turkey, he taught composition at the Ankara State Conservatory from 1964 to 2000. Selected works ;Orchestra * Töresel Çeşitlemeler (Modal Variations) (1980) ;Chamber music * Bir Bölümlü Sonatina (Sonatina in One Movement) for violin (or viola, or cello) and piano (1965) * Yaylı Çalgılar Dördülü (String Quartet) * Demet (Miracles) for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1966–1967) * Dönüşümler (Transformations) for violin, cello and piano (1975) * Uygulamalar (Applications), Volumes I & II for double bass and piano * Dört Zeybek (4 Zeybek Dances) for double bass and piano * Dört Parça (4 Pieces) for 2 flutes ;Keyboard * Çocuk Parçaları (Children’s Pieces) for piano or harpsichord (1984) * Küçük Süit (Junior Suite) for piano * Üç Soyut Dans (3 Abstract Dances) for piano * Üç Bagatel (3 Bagatelles) for piano (1974) * İki Sesli Sonatına (2 Audio Sonatinas) f

Ilija Pejovski

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Ilija Pejovski (Macedonian: Илија Пејовски) (born 1947) is a Macedonian composer, arranger and pianist. One of the Macedonian composers who began to treat jazz professionally and evolve the genre of Macedonian Jazz, he has a broad portfolio of original music. A large part of his works were reserved for the big band ensembles, but he has also written symphonic and solo piano music as well as film music. He initially studied music in Ljubljana and at the Faculty of Music in Skopje. In 1977, he graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston. His background includes performances and collaborations with jazz musicians Thad Jones, Herb Pomeroy, Stan Getz, and Milcho Leviev. He has organized lectures and workshops in harmony, arranging and orchestration for students in Greece, Switzerland, Italy and the Republic of Macedonia and is the author of The Basics of Jazz Harmony (ProArts, 2004). Pejovski was given the 2009 Trajko Prokopiev Award for lifetime achievement by the Macedonian Composers’ Association (SOKOM). References

Ilja Hurník

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Ilja Hurník (25 November 1922 – 7 September 2013) was a Czech composer and essayist. Biography Hurnik was born in Poruba, now part of Ostrava. He entered the Prague Conservatory, then went on to the Prague Academy of Arts, where he studied with Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová, daughter of Vilém Kurz. His 1952 Sonata da camera, for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord, has been recorded on Cedille Records. A 2008 Supraphon CD (SU 3944–2) contains two of Hurník’s instrumental compositions: the colorful ballet music Ondráš, written in 1951, and his Four Seasons Chamber Suite, written in 1952. Both are performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra led by Karel Ančerl. He is father of Lukáš Hurník, brother-in-law of Petr Eben and uncle of Marek Eben. Ilja Hurník died in Prague on 7 September 2013 at the age of 90. Selected works ;Stage * Ondráš, Ballet, Silesian Folk Ballad (1949) * Dáma a lupiči (The Lady and the Robbers; Die Dame und die Räuber), Comic Opera in 4 acts (1966); libretto by the composer loosely based on the film The Ladykillers * Mudrci a bloudi (Wisemen and Fools), Opera in 3 Scenes on Themes of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times (1986); libretto by the composer * Diogen

Ilza Nogueira

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Ilza Nogueira (born December 25, 1948) is a Brazilian composer, music educator and musicologist with specialty in the area of music analysis. Biography Ilza Nogueira was born in Salvador, Bahia. She studied composition under Ernst Widmer at the School of Music and Performing Arts of the Federal University of Bahia. After graduation in 1972, she won a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and continued her studies in composition at the Academy of Music in Cologne (1974–1977) with Mauricio Kagel. She also obtained Master of Arts (1983) and Doctor of Philosophy (1985) degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo (USA), where she studied under Lejaren Hiller and Morton Feldman. After completing her undergraduate studies, she took a position teaching music at the Federal University of Paraíba where she retired from the faculty in 1998. The majority of her compositions are in chamber music with a predilection for mixed groupings with voice. Her works have been included in all recognized venues of contemporary music in Brazil, such as the Biennial of Contemporary Brazilian Music, Encounters of Latin American Composers and Performers, International Encoun

Imant Raminsh

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Imant Karlis Raminsh (Latvian: Imants Kārlis Ramiņš, born 18 September 1943) is a Canadian composer of Latvian descent, best known for his choral compositions. He resides in Coldstream, British Columbia. Early life and education Born in Ventspils, Latvia, he came to Canada in 1948 and became a naturalized citizen in 1954. He completed an ARCT (Associate of The Royal Conservatory of Music) diploma in violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where he was a pupil of Albert Pratz. He then earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Elmer Iseler. He then spent two years at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, during which he studied composition, fugue, violin and conducting. Career During his studies in Salzburg, Raminsh played in the professional Camerata Academica orchestra. He established the music department at the College of New Caledonia in British Columbia and was also the founding conductor of the New Caledonia Chamber Orchestra. In 1991, Raminsh’s choral work “Magnificat” was performed by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir at Roy Thomson Hall. At that time he was the principal violinist in the Okanag

Imants Kalniņš

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Imants Kalniņš (born 26 May 1941) is a Latvian composer, musician and politician. Having studied classical and choral music, he has written seven symphonies, several operas (including the first rock opera in the USSR, ), oratorios, cantatas, choir songs, a lot of movie and theater music. However, he is generally best known for his rock songs. In 2021, Kalniņš received the Grand Music Award for lifetime achievement. Furthermore, he served as a member of the 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th sitting of the Saeima, the parliament of Latvia, from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1998 through 2010, representing the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK party. Life and career Kalniņš was born 26 May 1941 in Riga, Latvian SSR. During the 1960s, Kalniņš led the Liepāja rock band 2xBBM, which was extremely loved because of its heartfelt songs and hippy-like lifestyle. Kalniņš became the symbol of the spirituality, rebellion and worldview of the generation, and it was emphasized by the fact the band was forced to stop playing because of the pressure from official institutions. However, this did not stop the music of Kalniņš from being played by the extremely popular band , which almost exclusively plays songs wri

Inger Wikström

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Inger Wikstrom (born 11 December 1939) is a Swedish pianist, composer and conductor. Biography Inger Wikstrom began studying piano in Stockholm at the age of six, and at sixteen played as soloist with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She made successful debuts as a concert pianist in Stockholm, Berlin, London and New York City. Later concert tours included the United States, Latin America, Russia, Israel, Africa, China, Japan and Australia. Wikstrom married David Bartov and the couple moved with their three children to Österskär, where they opened the Nordic Music Conservatory in 1977, which became the Nordic Chamber Opera in 1980. Inger Wikström is a member of The Society of Swedish Composers and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Wikstrom is the sister of Gunnel Biberfeld and mother of opera director Mira Bartov. She was married to politician Jan-Erik Wikström 1980-1990. Awards *Order of Cavalliero de Rio Branco *Adelaide Ristori Prize *Bartok medal *Villa Lobos medal * Natur och Kultur Culture Award (1992) Works Inger Wikström has composed chamber music, song cycles, and a number of operas. Her recordings have been issued on more than forty albums. Selected works include:

Ingfried Hoffmann

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Ingfried Hoffmann (born January 30, 1935) is a German jazz organist, pianist, trumpeter, arranger and composer. He has recorded for Columbia, Philips, Polydor, and Verve. In the 1960s, Hoffmann worked extensively with tenor saxophonist Klaus Doldinger, earning the reputation as being one of Europe’s best jazz organists. He has also composed music for German television, including music for the German version of Sesame Street and Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt. Early life and jazz career Hoffmann was born on January 30, 1935 in Szczecin, Poland. His interest in music began when he was a baby, and as early as two years old, he was already completing a daily musical routine of over eight hours. This routine mainly consisted of him listening to his brother Ludwig Hoffmann play the piano, who was a German classical pianist. He was ten years older than Ingfried, and died in 1999. Hoffmann played at his first concert when he was twelve years old, performing The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach. Some of his favorite jazz musicians included Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane. In the same year, he won the title of “best pianist” at the Deutsches Amateur-Jazz-Festiva

Ingram Marshall

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Ingram Douglass Marshall (May 10, 1942 – May 31, 2022 ) was an American composer and a onetime student of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Morton Subotnick. Early life and education Marshall was born in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the son of Bernice Douglass and Harry Reinhard Marshall, Sr. Marshall’s early interest in music was the result of encouragement provided by his mother, herself an accomplished pianist and vocalist. As a youth, he performed as a soprano in the Boy’s Choir at the Mt. Vernon Community Church, and during his high school years was influenced early by noted music instructor Victor Laslo. After graduating from the Fox Lane High School in 1960, he pursued musical studies at Lake Forest College and Columbia University, becoming affiliated with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. In 1970 he became a graduate assistant to Morton Subotnick at Cal Arts, staying on to teach for several years after receiving his MFA in 1971. Career Though the composer used the term “expressivist” to describe his music, Marshall’s music is often associated with post-minimalism. His music often reflects an interest in world music, particularly Balinese gamelan tradition, as well as in

Ingvar Lidholm

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Ingvar Natanael Lidholm (24 February 1921 – 17 October 2017 ) was a Swedish composer. Early years: 1921–1940 Ingvar Lidholm was born in Jönköping. The actual family home was in Nässjö, some 40 kilometers to the southeast. Neither of his parents was particularly musical: his father worked for Swedish Railways and his mother was a homemaker. But the home environment was one in which music was encouraged. Ingvar was the youngest of four children, all of whom made music at home. The family owned a piano, and Lidholm began his “musical explorations” at an early age. By the age of eleven, Lidholm and his family had moved to Södertälje, which lies to the south of Stockholm. Both at school and at home, he rapidly began to develop his musical skills as a performer – and as a composer. By age twelve, he was writing songs in a tonal and romantic idiom, which led gradually to exercises of larger proportions, including music for full orchestra. This early period also included orchestration studies with Natanael Berg in Stockholm. Lidholm’s primary performance area was stringed instruments; he eventually studied and mastered all four instruments of the string family. As a gymnasium student, he p

Inna Zhvanetskaya

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Inna Abramovna Zhvanetskaya (20 January 1937 – 18 December 2024) was a Soviet composer and musical educator. Born in the Ukrainian SSR, she spent most of her career in Moscow before moving to Germany after the fall of the Soviet Union. She lived in Stuttgart since 1998. Early life Inna Zhvanetskaya was born in Vinnytsia, Ukrainian SSR, in 1937. Her family was of Jewish origin and was forced to flee their home town after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. She has been described as a holocaust survivor in various media outlets. Musical career Moving to Moscow, she taught piano at music schools in Podolsk, on the outskirts of the Soviet capital, and studied composition under Nikolay Peyko at the Gnessin Musical-Pedagogical Institute, graduating in 1964. In 1964–1965 she taught piano at a vocational school. In 1965 became a lecturer in score-reading and instrumentation at her alma mater. She was released from her position at Gnessin in 1986. Later life After the fall of the Soviet Union Zhvanetskaia moved to Germany, and since 1998 she lived in Stuttgart. During the coronavirus pandemic, Zhvanetskaya was alleged to have been pressured by German authorities into getting vaccinated.

Irina Elcheva

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Irina Mikhaylovna Elcheva (; 28 November 1926 – 8 May 2013) was a Russian composer. Biography Her mother, Nadezhda Bogolyubova, was also a composer, music theorist, and pianist, and her father, M.D. Yel’cheva, was a singer. Elcheva was a member of the USSR Union of Composers, the Znanie Society, and the Union of Theatre Workers. Selected works Publications * “On the Development of Musical Memory,” 1953 Orchestral * Simfoniya pamyati pogibshikh v blokadu Leningrada (Symphony in Memory of Those who Perished in the Siege of Leningrad), 1965 * Pechorskiye starinï (Times of Yore in Pechora), suite, 1963 * Piano Concerto, 1968 * Zavadskaya uvertyura (A Factory Overture), 1975 * Ivanovskaya uvertyura (Ivanovo Overture), 1977 Stage * Spartak (Spartacus), opera, V. Chulisov, S. Tsenina, after Giovagnoli, 1961 * Skazka o lenivom bobryonke Tale of the Lazy Beaver (operetta, Yu. Shestalov), 1980 * Riki-Tiki-Tavi (Yel′cheva, after R. Kipling), 1985 * Alen′kiy tsvetochek (The Little Scarlet Flower) (Yel′cheva, after I. Bazhov), 1996 Choral * Russkaya svad′ba (A Russian Wedding), 1966 * Khorovodnïye pesni (Round Songs), 1967 * K novoy zhizni (Towards a New Life) (oratorio, Yu. Shestakov), 1973 *

Irina Hasnaș

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Irina Olga Hasnaș (born 15 July 1954) is a Romanian composer. Life and career She was born in Bucharest, Romania, and studied at the Ciprian Porumbescu Academy of Music with Ștefan Niculescu, Aurel Stroe, , and . She continued her studies with composer , and in 2000 received a doctorate in music from the Gheorghe Dima National Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca. After completing her studies, Hasnaș worked as a composer and an editor for Romanian National Radio. Her works have been performed internationally. Works Selected works include: *Concerto for Orchestra (1978) *Evocation, lyric poem for chamber orchestra (1980) *Symphony I, for orchestra (1990) *Metamorphose, for chamber and vocal ensemble (1978) *Melismas, for piano (1979) *Voices of Mioritza, for wind quintet (1980) *Polychomie, for chamber ensemble and tape (1982) *Evolutio I, for clarinet and string quartet (1983) *Evolutio II, for trio – oboe, cello, and piano (1985) *Evolutio III, for string quartet (1988) *Monodie, for solo bassoon (1989) *Games, for solo cello (1993) *Inner Voices, for wind quintet (1994) *Endless Column, for solo flute (1996) *The Musical Box, for trio – clarinet, piano, and violin (2000) *The Rooster, Th

Irina Odagescu

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Irina Odăgescu-Țuțuianu (23 May 1937) is a Romanian music educator and composer. She was a professor at the Bucharest Conservatory, and won the Romanian Composers’ Union Prize and in 2001 the Romanian Academy’s George Enescu Prize. She was also awarded the Italian prize the Viotti-Valesia Prize, and the ‘Ciudad Ibague’ Silver Medal from Columbia, and the IGNM prize at the World Days of Music in Graz. Biography Irina Odăgescu was born on 23 May 1937 in Bucharest, and studied at the Bucharest Music Conservatoire, graduating in 1963. She studied with Alfred Mendelsohn (composition), Tudor Ciortea (musical form), Paul Constantinescu (harmony), Ioan Chirescu (theory) and Alexandru Pascanu (harmony). She also took summer courses with Miriam Marbe on counterpoint, Iannis Xenakis, György Ligeti, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. After completing her studies, she spent a year as editor of Editions Musicales de Bucharest, and from 1965 to 1967 was a teacher at Art School N0. 5 in Bucharest. From 1967 she was a professor at the Bucharest Conservatoire. Odăgescu’s works have been performed internationally in Europe, Asia, and the United States, and she has lectured at international conferences held a

Iris Sanguesa

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Iris Sanguesa de Ichasso (née Sanguesa Hinostroza) (born March 3, 1933), known as Iris Sangüesa, is a Chilean composer, pianist and percussionist defined as the first composer in electronic music in her country. Biography Sanguesa was born in Osorno, Chile. She graduated from the Chilean National Conservatory in Santiago in 1959 and received a fellowship to study at the Torcuato Di Tella Institute’s CLAEM (Centro Latinamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales) in Buenos Aires from 1967 to 1968, becoming one of the first women to study at the prestigious institution. At CLAEM, she composed several multimedia pieces and her teachers included Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt, German Berner, Jorge Canelo, Augustin Cullel, Alberto Ginastera, Flora Guerra, and Herminia Raccagni. In 2024, the Department of Music at the University of Chile paid tribute to her as “the first Chilean composer in electronic music.” *Sonata (double bass and piano) *El Pianista Chileno (for children) *Mariposas *Pieces for Children *Variations Vocal *“Hymn for Liceo Gabriela Mistral" *“Hymn for Liceo Manuel de Salas” *“Hymn for the Swiss College” References External links *Listen to works by Iris Sanguesa

Irma Ravinale

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Irma Ravinale (1 October 19377 April 2013) was an Italian composer and music educator. She taught at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome. Ravinale has received many awards for her compositions, and was awarded the Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the silver medal for merit from the School of Art and Culture in Rome, and a Gold Medal for culture and the arts. Biography Irma Ravinale was born in Naples, Italy in 1937. She studied composition at the Rome Conservatory of Santa Cecilia with Goffredo Petrassi, and continued her studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne, also studying piano, conducting and choral music. Ravinale became director of San Pietro a Maijella Conservatory in Naples where she served until 1989 and then Director of the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia where she served until 1999. She is member of the International Honour Committee of the Fondazione Donne in Musica. Her compositions have been performed by leading musicians in Italy and overseas. She was the only woman to win the composition prize at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, which she was awarded in 1966. Ravinale died in Rome, Italy, at the age o

Irma Urteaga

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Irma Urteaga (March 7, 1929 – February 14, 2022) was a composer and pianist from Argentina. Biography Irma Urteaga was born in San Nicholas, Buenos Aires. She began her studies in Paraná (Entre Ríos) and continued in Buenos Aires with Lucrecia María Madariaga Gilardi, Josefa Hernandorena and Jorge Fanelli for piano and Beatriz Gilardo Henandorena y Gilardi for harmony. She graduated in piano in 1959, and continued studying at the same school, graduating in composition in 1971. Her teachers for composition were Roberto Caamaño and Valdo Sciammarella, for instrumentation was Roberto García Morillo, and for history and aesthetics, Carlos Sufern and Alicia Terzian. After ending her studies, Urteaga performed as a concert musician and taught harmony at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música Carlos López Buchardo and operatic repertoire, vocal negotiation analysis and opera at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón. She was Columbus Theatre International Master (1974–1977) and director of an Opera Workshop in 1984. She was hired by the Opera Foundation of Ecuador to organize the lyrics for performances in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca from 1986-1988. Urteaga has been the recipient o

Irmin Schmidt

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Irmin Schmidt (born 29 May 1937) is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the Krautrock band Can and composer of numerous film scores. Following the death of Can’s second lead vocalist Damo Suzuki in February 2024, Schmidt is one of three surviving former members of the band, alongside original vocalist Malcolm Mooney and bassist Rosko Gee. Before joining Can, Schmidt studied composition with composers as György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Henri Pousseur, Earle Brown, and István Kertész. He started work mainly as a conductor performing concerts with the Bochum Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, and the Dortmund Ensemble for New Music. During this time, Schmidt conducted the West German premiere of John Cage’s “Atlas Eclipticalis” with Bochum Symphony Orchestra and performed Cage’s piano piece “Winter Music”. By 1966 Schmidt got a position as Kapellmeister at the Theater Aachen, hired as docent for musical theatre and chanson, and worked at the Schauspielschule Bochum (drama school) teaching vocal technique. Since early 1980s, Schmidt produced soundtrack compositions for such TV and films as Knife in the Head (1978) and Palermo Shooting

Irwin Bazelon

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Irwin Bazelon (June 4, 1922 in Evanston, Illinois – August 2, 1995) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Contemporary American composer Irwin Bazelon’s music is known for its interesting rhythms and its emphasis on the brass and percussion sections. In total, Bazelon composed nine symphonies and over sixty orchestral, chamber, and instrumental works. Some of his most famous works are Short Symphony, Churchill Downs, and Propulsions, which is written for 113 percussion instruments to be played by seven performers. His music is recorded on Composers Recordings, Inc. and on Albany Records. Artists who recorded his music include conductors Harold Farberman and Gianmaria Griglio, soprano Nancy Allen Lundy, pianist Scott Dunn, and percussionists William Moersch, Eliseo Rael, and William Klymus. Bazelon’s music lacks any regular pulse, instead it is characterized by unpredictable syncopation, irregular groupings, unexpected triplets, and off-beat accents. His theme music for NBC News opened the show from 1962 to 1977.Early life Irwin Bazelon was the elder of two sons born to Roy and Jeanette Bazelon. His grandparents emigrated from Russia to the US in the 1890s. Early

Iryna Kyrylina

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Iryna Yakovlevna Kyrylina (; 25 March 1953 – 4 September 2017) was a Ukrainian composer. She was born in Dresden, Germany, and studied with R.I. Vereschagin at the Kyiv Musical College, and with M.V. Dremlyuga at the Kyiv Conservatory, graduating in 1977. After completing her studies, she taught at a Kyiv Music School and directed children’s choirs. Since 1982, she has worked as a full-time composer. Honors and awards *Laureate of the Ukrainian Republican Komsomol M.Ostrovsky Prize (1988) *Honored in Arts of Ukraine (1999) *Winner of the Ukrainian President’s Prize (1999) *First Prize International Puppet-Show Competition (1988) *International Children’s Festival Prize (1993–1997) *All-Ukrainian Radio Festival Song of the Year (1998–2001) References

Iryna Vilinska

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Iryna Mykolaivna Vilinska (; 7 September 1920 – 21 or 31 August 1986) was a Soviet and Ukrainian soprano, composer, and music teacher. She was the daughter of Mykola Vilinsky. Biography Iryna Vilinska was born on 7 September 1920 in Odessa. She showed musical talent at a young age. Vilinska was a student of the Odessa Music and Theater Institute’s Department of Labor in 1933–34 and the Odessa Construction Department in 1936, graduating in 1938. In 1939 she transferred to the Odessa Music School and later, in 1941, the Odessa Conservatory. Her family took refuge in Tashkent due to the Second World War, where she maintained close ties with Kseniya Derzhynska. Vilinska moved to Kiev in 1944, where she continued her studies in the Kiev Conservatory under Dometii Yevtushenko. She graduated in 1946. The singer taught at the Glière Music College until 1948. From 1949 she taught at the Kiev Conservatory. Her students included Volodymyr Bohomaz, Anatolii Ponomarenko, Viktor Titkin, and Anatolii Manyachenko. Vilinska was also a capable pianist. She died on 21 August 1986 in Kiev. Other sources give her death date as 31 August 1986. Vilinska was buried at the Baikove Cemetery. Music Vilinska

Isabelle Aboulker

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Isabelle Aboulker (born 23 October 1938) is a French composer, particularly known for her operas and other vocal works. In 1999, she gained a prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts and in 2000 the music prize of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques for her numerous lyric pieces. Life and work Isabelle Aboulker was born in the Parisian suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. Her father was the Algerian-born film director and writer Marcel Aboulker and her maternal grandfather was the composer Henry Février. While following a course in composition and keyboard studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, she started composing for the theatre, the cinema and television. She then worked for the Conservatoire as their chief accompanist and voice teacher and authored several educational works. In 1980, she turned to composing operas and subsequently many other vocal works. Because of her work with children, Isabelle Aboulker made a particular speciality of composing pieces, which would appeal to them or in which they could participate, as they do in Les Fables enchantées (2004), based on the work of Jean de la Fontaine. Other subjects have included Beauty a

Isao Tomita

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(often known simply as Tomita) was a Japanese composer regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music as well as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements. In addition to creating note-by-note realizations, Tomita made extensive use of the sound-design capabilities of his instrument, using synthesizers to create new sounds to accompany and enhance his electronic realizations of acoustic instruments. and trance-like rhythms. Many of his albums are electronic versions and adaptations of familiar classical music pieces. He received four Grammy Award nominations for his 1974 album based on music by Claude Debussy, Snowflakes Are Dancing. 1969-1979: Electronic music In the late 1960s, Tomita turned to electronic music with the impetus of Wendy Carlos and Robert Moog’s work with synthesizers. He acquired a Moog III synthesizer and began building his home studio. He eventually realized that synthesizers could be used to create entirely new sounds in addition to mimicking other instruments. In his early albums, Tomita also made effective use of analog music sequencers, which he used for pitch, filter or effects changes and processed Mellotron

Israel Kantor

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Israel Kantor, also known as Israel Sardinas, Wilfredo Israel Sardinas, and Wilfredo Israel Sardiñas Domínguez, (16 October 1949 – 1 July 2006) was a Cuban-born musician and composer who later lived and worked in the United States. Born 1949 in a town called Alturas de Canasi with the name Wilfredo Israel Sardinas, he grew up in Havana, Cuba. He gained popularity in the 1970s as a sonero, a singer of the Son cubano style of music. Early influences included music by Beny More. He joined with Los Van Van in 1980 and toured globally with them, before leaving the group and moving to the United States in 1983. Settling in Miami, Florida, he garnered support from Cuban exiles who had moved to Miami, Florida. While in New York City in 1984 he changed his name to Kantor as a reference to cantor, Spanish for singer, at the recommendation of colleague Johnny Pacheco. He recorded albums in the 1980s alongside musicians including: Sal Cuevas, Barry Rogers, Mario Rivera, and Sonny Bravo. His song “Ya Estoy Aquí” reached the number two top spot amongst popular music on Miami radio in 2002. Kantor joined the group Tropicana All-Stars in 2003, a twenty-piece orchestra band which performed tribute

Issak Tavior

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Isaak Tavior () was a pianist, composer and conductor. He was born in Haifa , Israel on 18 September 1943 to Rosa and Avraham Vichodetz. Tavior was the recipient of the Prize for Creativity in the field of Zionism in 2012, granted him by the Israeli Minister of Culture, Limor Livnat, for his 2004 composition “Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones” named for the prophecy of the same name. Biography Tavior was born in Haifa. He began learning music at the age of seven. Throughout his musical studies, he received support from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Tavior graduated from the Dunya-Weizmann Conservatory in Haifa, where he was tutored by Rachel Katz. At the age of 14 he participated in “Tochnit Bechora”, a classical music program at Israel radio network, Kol Israel. He would later regularly participate in classical music programs of the network. At 16, Tavior was accepted as a second year student to the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, receiving a full scholarship, where he studied under the pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Alisa Hertz-Sommer. At the age of 20 he graduated from the Music Academy of Tel Aviv with Prof. Ilona Vincze-Kraus as a Master. Tavior completed his st

İstemihan Taviloğlu

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İstemihan Taviloğlu (15 April 194517 March 2006) was a Turkish composer and a music educator. He’s most known piece is the Clarinet Concerto which happens to be the first ever Clarinet Concerto composition from a Turkish composer. He is also the co-founder of the Musicology department in Ankara State Conservatory. He is also known as the teacher of all the musicians that came from conservatories in Turkey. Born in Tekirdağ, Turkey on April 15, 1945, he was the third child of Ahmet and Nuriye Taviloglu. Istemihan entered the Istanbul Conservatory at the age of eleven began violin instruction for one year, and changed his concentration to clarinet under the direction of Tevfik Çelen. In 1963 he transferred to Ankara State Conservatory and continued his clarinet education with Hayrullah Duygu. After he graduated with a music performance degree as a clarinet player he began pursuing his Master’s and DMA degrees in music composition and theory under Adnan Saygun and Erçivan Saydam. In addition he also took composition from Ilhan Usmanbaş and studied Music Theory and Solfege with Muammer Sun. Taviloğlu taught at Ankara State Conservatory and at Dokuz Eylül Conservatory in İzmir. He is kn

István Láng

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István Láng (; 1 March 1933 – 23 October 2023) was a Hungarian composer, academic teacher and member of the board for international music organisations. Besides freelance composing, he worked as an academic teacher of chamber music at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, lecturing internationally in the United States and Mexico. He was secretary general of the Association of Hungarian Musicians from 1978 to 1990, and a member of the board of the International Society for Contemporary Music and the International Music Council (UNESCO). In his compositions, Láng used serial techniques, influenced by composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and others whose music he had met at the Warsaw Autumn and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, in a synthesis with traditional Hungarian elements from Béla Bartók’s music. He was instrumental in creating a studio for electronic music in Hungary. His compositions have been described as theatrical even in concert pieces. Life Born in Budapest on 1 March 1933, Láng first took private music lessons. He studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1950 to 1958, first with János Viski and later with Ferenc Szabó. He was a freelance co

István Sárközy

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István Sárközy (26 November 1920 – 6 July 2002) was a Hungarian classical composer, music critic, editor and academic teacher. His compositions date from the 1940s to 1979, and include works for musical theatre, choral works and songs, orchestral and chamber works, and works for piano. Notable examples include the stage works Liliomfi (1950) and Szelistyei asszonyok (The Women of Szelistye; 1951), the chamber cantata Júlia énekek (Julia Songs; 1956), the overture Az ifjúsághoz (To Youth; 1957), and the Sinfonia concertante for clarinet and strings (1963). He taught at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1959. Biography Sárközy was born in the Pesterzsébet suburb of Budapest in 1920. As a youth, he studied the piano with Lula Földessy-Hermann. He trained in composition with the composers Zoltán Kodály, Ferenc Farkas and János Viski at Budapest’s Higher Music School (1938–39) and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest (from 1939). Sárközy was a confidant of the composer Endre Szervánszky, a leading composer of the post-1956 era, In a 1969 review, the British music critic Stephen Walsh describes his music as differing from that of other Hungarian composers of the time due to “it

Iván Erőd

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Iván Erőd ( ; 2 January 1936 – 24 June 2019; sometimes spelled Eröd) Kirill Petrenko, Nayden Todorov and Judit Varga. Life Erőd’s brother and grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. He fled Hungary after the events of 1956. His chamber music includes three string quartets, Opp. 18, 26 and 78, two string sextets, Opp. 45 and 68, and Bukolika for chamber ensemble, Op. 64 (1994), on Hungarian rural life. his second trio Op. 42 in 1982; he wrote a trio for clarinet, violin and piano Op. 59 – commissioned by the Verdehr Trio – in 1991, as well as a piano quartet Op. 54 in 1987; the two sonatas for violin and piano Op. 14 (1970) and Op. 74 (2000) are among the most popular of his works. He composed lieder, such as Canti di Ungaretti (1988) Some of his vocal works are more serious, such as the Vier Gesänge, Op. 44 (1983), the song cycle Schwarzerde (Black Soil) for baritone and orchestra, Op. 49 (1984/85), and the cantata Vox Lucis (Voice of the Light), Op. 56 (1988/89). * 2006: Honorary member of the (Austrian Composers Association) Further reading * , “Eröd, Iván”. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians online. External links * * Iván Eröd (in German) Steirischer Tonkü

Ivan Fedele

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Ivan Fedele (born 6 May 1953 in Lecce) is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory. Fedele’s compositions are published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, and many of his works are recorded on Stradivarius Records. Selected works ;Stage * Oltre Narciso, Cantata profana for una azione scenica Secular Cantata for a Scenic Action for mezzo-soprano, baritone, 2 dancers, male chorus and small orchestra (1982); libretto by the composer * Antigone, opera in 7 scenes (2005–2006); libretto after Sophocles by Giuliano Corti and the composer; premiere 24 April 2007, Teatro Comunale, Florence. ;Orchestra * Chiari (1981) * Epos (1989) * Carme for chamber orchestra (1992) * Carme Secondo (1993) * Allegoria dell’indaco for small orchestra (1994); original version for 11 instruments * Scena (1997–1998) * Codex for chamber orchestra (1999); arrangement of music by Johann Sebastian Bach * Accord for chamber orchestra (2003) * Ali di Cantor for 4 orchestral groups (2003) * Artéteka, Folk Dance I (2009) * Pentàlogon Quintet for string orchestra (1987, revised 2009); original version String Quartet No. 2 Pentàlogon Quartet * Syntax 0.1 (if@hay.dn) for chamber orchestra (2009) * Lexikon (2010)

Iván Fischer

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Iván Fischer (born 20 January 1951) is a Hungarian conductor and composer. Biography Born in Budapest into a musical family of Jewish heritage, Fischer initially studied piano, violin, cello and composition in Budapest. His older brother, Ádám Fischer, became a conductor in his own right. He moved later to Vienna to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the University of Music and Performing Arts, where he also studied cello and early music, studying and working as assistant to Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He also studied with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. In 1976, Fischer won the Rupert Foundation conducting competition in London. He began thereafter to guest-conduct British orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra, with whom he conducted a world tour in 1982. His US conducting debut was with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1983. Budapest Festival Orchestra Fischer returned to Hungary in 1983 to found the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO), which initially was intended for a limited number of concerts a year on a part-time basis. The BFO became a permanent institution in 1992, with a schedule of

Ivan Karabyts

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Ivan Fedorovych Karabyts (; 17 January 1945 – 20 January 2002) was a Ukrainian composer and conductor, and a People’s Artist of Ukraine. O. Beregova considered that Karabyts’ work showed the breadth and universality of creative thinking and an innovative approach to traditional musical genres and forms. Early works by Karabyts are distinguished by the expressiveness of musical language and the search for individual style and the composer’s liberal use of dodecaphony. Most of the early works were chamber works, In the 1970s and 1980s, Karabyts was attracted to large-scale musical productions. Symphonic and vocal-symphonic genres predominate (such as the oratorio “Kyiv Frescoes” and three concerts for orchestra), as well as philosophical and civic themes (including themes of the Motherland, memory, moral duty). The universality of the musical language of the works of his next period was determined by the synthesis of various elements of modern compositional techniques (such as pointillism, aleatorics, sonoristics) in combination with new tonal and new modal pitch organization, intersection of different stylistic tendencies (neoclassicism, neo-baroque, neo-impressionism, jazz). In the

Ivan Pedersen

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Ivan Pedersen (born 22 April 1950) is a Danish composer, singer, drummer, and producer who has released over 20 albums since starting his music career in 1966. He was the drummer and singer of the Danish band McKinleys from 1966 to 1980 and later formed the duo Laban with Lecia Jønsson, which lasted from 1982 to 1988. Laban achieved moderate international success with their album Caught by Surprise and the 1986 single “Love in Siberia.” After Laban’s dissolution, Pedersen, along with Helge Solberg, Svenne Wahlin, and Søren Jacobsen, formed Backseat in 1992. Pedersen won a Danish Grammy award, released multiple solo studio albums, and has written and produced for a number of other Danish artists. Pedersen has often been highlighted as one of Denmark’s best singers. Career McKinleys In 1966, Pedersen and a group of friends decided to form a pop band, and hence created the band McKinleys. Pedersen was the band’s drummer and lead vocalist, and with the band’s creation, his music career officially began. In 1972, after becoming established in Denmark, the group began serious efforts to break into the music industry, touring in European countries like Norway, Sweden, England, and Germany

Ivan Tcherepnin

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Ivan Alexandrovich Tcherepnin (Russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Черепни́н) (February 5, 1943 in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France – April 11, 1998 in Boston, USA) was an experimental, then later modernist/postmodernist, composer and a noted innovator in the field of electronics and modular synthesizers. Ivan was born into a highly musical family, his father and grandfather, Alexander and Nikolai, being distinguished Russian composers, and his mother Ming (born: Lee Hsien Ming) a well-known pianist. His elder brother, Serge is also a composer. He studied with Leon Kirchner, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Henri Pousseur, and Pierre Boulez. After teaching briefly at both the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Stanford University, he became director of the Harvard University Electronic Music Studio from 1972, remaining there until his death in 1998. The Tcherepnin legacy continues with two of Ivan’s sons, Stefan and Sergei. Ivan Tcherepnin was the winner of the 1996 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra. His other honors include awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (1963–1995) and the National Endowment for t

Ivana Loudová

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Ivana Loudová (8 March 1941 – 25 July 2017) was a Czech composer who composed over a hundred orchestral, chamber, vocal and choral works. Early life and education Ivana Loudová was born on 8 March 1941 in Chlumec nad Cidlinou. Her mother taught her piano from a young age. When she attempted to make improvements to classical pieces, her mother disapproved, telling her “What’s given in the notes has to be played according to the notes. If you want it to be different, then write it yourself, separately”. From then Loudová began to write her own short piano pieces. In 1958, Loudová entered the Creative Youth Competition in Bratislava, where she got to the middle round of the competition. She played Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique and her own composition Ten Variations on a Theme of My Own. When the jury rated her own piece higher than her piano performance, Loudová decided that she wanted to become a composer. Due to a scholarship from the French government, Loudová was able to intern at the Centre Bourdan in Paris and study under Olivier Messiaen and Andre Jolivet. In her choral works, she composed Vocal Symphony in 1965. However in her later choral works she focused on writing pieces f

Ivana Marburger Themmen

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Ivana Marburger Themmen (born April 7, 1935) is an American composer and pianist, whose Concerto for Guitar was a finalist in the 1982 Kennedy Center Friedheim Composition Competition. Career Themmen was born on April 7, 1935, in New York City, where she began studying piano at age 7. She attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where she met and married Harold B. Themmen. They had three children, Paris, Allegra, and Tania. Tania is married to voice actress Susan Blu. In addition to the New England Conservatory, Themmen studied in Europe, at the Eastman School of Music, and at the Tanglewood Music Center. Her teachers included Francis Judd Cooke, Nicolas Flagello, Lukas Foss, Carl McKinley, Jean Rosenblum, and Otto Schulhof. Themmen taught at the Hampton Conservatory and also worked as an accompanist for the American Ballet Theatre. She received grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Queens Symphony, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Her music was published by Lyra Music Company. Discography Chamber music *Circles (flute, French horn and piano) *Concept V (clarinet and viola) *Tetrachiron (piano four hands) Orchestra *Concerto for Guitar *Fasching *R

Ivana Stefanovic

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Ivana Stefanović (born 14 September 1948) is a Serbian composer. Biography Ivana Stefanović was born in Belgrade. She studied violin and composition, graduating from the Faculty of Music Arts (FMA) in Belgrade. She continued her studies at the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustics/Music IRCAM in Paris. Her compositions were first performed in 1966 and have been presented internationally. In 1968 Stefanović took a position with Radio Belgrade writing music and program leads. In 1970 she began working for Television Belgrade, preparing and maintaining cultural programs. In 1975 she was employed as a music editor, in 1985 became the first editor of the Workshops Sound Drama program, and in 1989 chief editor of Radio Belgrade. In 2000 she began teaching at the Center for Women’s Studies. From 2001–2006 she was the artistic director of the Bemus Music Festival. From 2007–2008 she served as State Secretary of Culture of Serbia. Stefanović has lived in Damascus, Ankara and currently resides in Bucharest, Romania. She has written a book titled Put za Damask (Road to Damascus), and has published professional articles on music and culture in newspapers and magazines. Works Ivana

Ivar Frounberg

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Ivar Frounberg (born 12 April 1950) is a Danish composer, organist, and professor emeritus of composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Life Ivar Frounberg was born in Søborg, and first trained as an organist, graduating in 1976 from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and later studied composition with Niels Viggo Bentzon and Ib Nørholm the same place, and with Morton Feldman in the USA and Iannis Xenakis in Italy. Ivar Frounberg is a professor emeritus at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, where he was a senior professor of composition from 2000-2012. He had previously taught as docent of composition and electroacoustic music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. In 1995 he received the Danish Arts Foundation’s three-year grant for the second time as well as the Carl Nielsen Prize. Music Frounberg has embraced Xenakis and Feldman’s interest in music as abstract structures. Starting with his 1985-work Embryo for amplified violin, string trio, piano, synthesizer, and tape the electronic resources became increasingly important in Frounberg’s work, and in 1989 he composed the first large-scale Danish work for a computer, What did the Sirens Sing as Ulysses sailed by? which i

Iver Kleive

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Iver Kleive (born 25 May 1949 in Skien, Norway) is a Norwegian composer and organist. He is known for his composing style which is a fusion of traditional church music with other musical idioms such as blues, jazz, and Norwegian folk music. He has appeared in nearly 200 recordings as a studio musician, composer and arranger. Biography Kleive was born in Skien to a musical family. His father, Kristoffer Kleive, was also an organist and his brother, Audun Kleive, is a noted jazz percussionist. He studied church music and organ at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and then served as the organist at the Frogner Church from 1976 to 1981 and the Røyken Church from 1982 to 1985. Since 1987 he has been the musical director of the Helgerud Church in Bærum. He is also director of the Oslo Bach Choir which he founded in 1988. The recording of his Blå koral (Blue Chorale) won a Spellemannprisen in 1991. Principal discography Kleive records primarily on the Kirkelig Kulturverksted label (KKV). His principal recordings include: Solo albums *1988: Max Reger – Inferno, Symphonic Fantasia and Fugue for organ, Op. 57 (KKV) *1993: Max Reger – Alle Menschen müssen sterben, Chorale fantasia, Op. 5

Ivo Malec

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Ivo Malec (30 March 1925 in Zagreb – 14 August 2019 in Paris) was a Croatian-born French composer, music educator and conductor. One of the earliest Yugoslav composers to obtain high international regard, his works have been performed by symphony orchestras throughout Europe and North America. Biography Coming from a rather ‘classical’ background, he met Pierre Schaeffer, whom he considered his ’true and only master’; Schaeffer’s teachings turned Malec into one of the most important leaders of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Since then he dedicated himself to a more radical style. He received a number of awards including the Grand Prix National de Musique in 1992. He was resident in France since 1955 and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1972 to 1990, where his students included Édith Canat de Chizy, Denis Dufour, Philippe Hurel, Philippe Leroux and Gerard Pesson. Malec’s approach to composition, similar to that of Dufour or Iannis Xenakis, emphasizes all aspects of sound, including texture, density, movement, timbre and notably sonic character and form and the use of sound objects. Works *Klaviersonate, 1949 *Sinfonie, 1951 *Cellosonate, 1956 *Mouvements en coloeurs, 1

Iwonka Bogumiła Szymańska

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Iwonka Bogumiła Szymańska (born 11 July 1943) is a Polish composer and pianist who developed a new musical form she called a “sonnet”. Szymańska was born in Warsaw. She debuted as a pianist in 1951 and began composing in 1965, also performing on the radio. She studied piano at the State Music College in Gdańsk and composition at the State Music College in Warsaw, graduating in 1972. Her teachers included K. Jastrzebska and Witold Rudzinski. Szymańka’s compositions Two Essays (1971) and Trylogia (1973) received prizes. *Second String Quartet (with flute) *Third String Quartet *Tryptyk (brass band) Orchestra *First Sonnet *Mahoniowy Koncert (violin and orchestra) *Mobil *Play of Colors *Second Play of Colors *Third Sonnet (two pianos and orchestra) *Trylogia *Wiosenny Koncert (piano and orchestra) Piano *Arabeski (two pianos) *Esej (piano and percussion) *Trzy Sonety Voice *Second Sonnet (two sopranos, choir and orchestra) References

Jaap Blonk

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Jaap Blonk (born 1953, Woerden) is a Dutch avant-garde composer and performance artist. Career Blonk is primarily self-taught both as a sound artist and as a visual/stage performer. He studied physics, mathematics, and musicology for a time, but did not complete his studies. One of his early influences was Kurt Schwitters, whose Ursonate he first heard in 1979; he memorized the entire work, and it became one of the cornerstones of his repertory; he has recited portions of the piece hundreds of times in various public places. Discography *Baba-Oemf (1989) *BRAAXTAAL (1991) *Splinks (1992) *Flux - De Bouche (1992) *Improvisors (1996) *Improvisors Vol. 2 (1996) *Speechlos (1997) *Vocalor (1998) *Consensus (1998) *First Meetings (1999) *Averschuw (2001) *Dworr Buun (2001) *Electric Solo Improvisations (2001) *Improvisors, Vol. 3 (2003) *Five Men Singing (2004) *Pre-Zoic Cellways (2005) *Sprachspuren/Traces of Speech (2012) *Das Kapital (2017) with Kommissar Hjuler & J. O. Olbrich *Geräusche (2020) with Mama Baer *Antonin Artaud’s To Have Done With the Judgment of God (2020) References

Jack Beeson

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Jack Hamilton Beeson (July 15, 1921 – June 6, 2010) was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There!, and The Sweet Bye and Bye. Early life Born in Muncie, Indiana, Beeson began with music when he started piano lessons with Luella Weimer in 1928, but it was not until 1933 that he began to compose. He decided to become an “opera-composer” after being influenced by Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. From 1936 until 1939, he switched piano teachers and was with Percival Owen during this period of time. In 1938 he received certificates with first class honors in piano and theory from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Toronto, a very well earned accomplishment at the age of 21. From 1944 to 1945 he had private studies with Béla Bartók in New York City. At this time he was also associating with the Columbia University Opera Workshop and the opera productions of Columbia Theatre Associates. This led to the first performance of his music in New York City. Throughout 1946 and 1947 Beeson was adapting Paul Goodman’s play and composing the music for Jonah as well as writing and performing the Fifth S

Jack Behrens

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Jack Behrens (25 March 1935 – 9 December 2024) was a Canadian composer, pianist, and educator of American birth. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he studied at the Juilliard School (BSc 1958, MSc 1959) and at Harvard University (PhD 1973), where his teachers included William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, Leon Kirchner, and Roger Sessions. He also studied with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music Festival and with John Cage and Stefan Wolpe at the Emma Lake Composers-Artists Workshop in Saskatchewan. Life and career Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Behrens was trained at the Juilliard School where he earned a Bachelor of Music in 1958 and a Master of Music in 1959. Among his teachers at Juilliard were William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin. In the summer of 1962 he studied at the Aspen Music Festival and School with Darius Milhaud and in the summers of 1964–1965 he studied with Stefan Wolpe and John Cage at the Emma Lake Composers-Artists Workshop in Saskatchewan. He later entered the graduate composition program at Harvard University where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in music composition in 1

Jack Kane (composer)

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Jack Kane (29 November 1924 – 27 March 1961) was a Canadian arranger, conductor, clarinetist, and composer of English birth. He lived in Toronto, Ontario with his wife Clare and their children. His 1958 recording Kane is Able was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Performance by an Orchestra or Instrumentalist with Orchestra. He was highly active as an arranger and music director for Canadian television during the 1950s. His career was cut short by his death from cancer at the age of 36. The Canadian Encyclopedia states, “At the time of his death, Kane was considered one of Canada’s leading arrangers. He later was honoured by a Canadian Talent Library Trust LP of his big band arrangements, under the direction of Bert Niosi.” Life Born John Kane in London, he was the son of British music-hall entertainer Barry Kane. In 1933 he moved with his family to Canada where he began appearing as a singer with his father in vaudeville performances in Toronto at the age of 9. A year later he won a performance contest at the Roxy Theatre. In 1939 Kane entered the Toronto Conservatory of Music where he studied the clarinet with Herbert Pye through 1942. He began performing with the High Timers

Jack Ledru

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Jack Ledru (1922 – March 2013 ) was a French song and operetta composer. Biography Jack Ledru studied at the Conservatoire de Paris where he won a prize for piano. He began his artistic career by accompanying great singing stars: Georges Guétary, Lucienne Delyle, Suzy Delair, Charles Trenet. He wrote instrumental and vocal parts and a ballet, le Baiser, created in Lille in 1967. He conducted the orchestras of radio, television and many theaters (Mogador, Chatelet Theatre in Paris and province). He began writing operettas in 1954. For Roger Nicolas he composed Mon P’tit Pote which was played more than three years on a row. For the famous entertainer, he would write Bidule (1959) and A toi de jouer (1961). In 1962, he addressed the traditional operetta by offering Farandole d’amour. But his two most successful hits were dedicated to the couple Marcel Merkès and , Michael Strogoff (1964) and Vienne chante et danse (1967). Most of his career continued essentially in the province: C’est pas l’Pérou (1976), Quadrille Viennois where he mingled tunes by Franz von Suppé and his own compositions, and La peur des coups after Courteline, played in Tours in 1977. In collaboration with Guy Lafar

Jack Marshall (composer)

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Jack Wilton Marshall (November 23, 1921 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz guitarist, composer, arranger, and record producer. He was married to Eva Katherine Pellegrini, and the father to four children: three sons, producer/director Frank Marshall, composer/arranger Phil Marshall, bassist Matt Marshall, and a daughter, Sally Marshall. Jack is also the cousin of classical guitarist Christopher Parkening. Biography Born in El Dorado, Kansas, Marshall was one of Capitol Records’ top producers in the late 1950s and 1960s. He had a varied career as a jazz, rock and classical guitarist and also as a composer, arranger and record producer. He released two solo albums with drummer Shelly Manne that featured his fingerstyle jazz guitar playing. He was a friend of Howard Roberts and Jack Sheldon and produced several of their albums for Capitol. He wrote his own arrangements, many with a big-band sound to them. He was credited with the arrangement for Peggy Lee’s “Fever”, with Joe Mondragon on bass, Shelly Manne on drums, and Howard Roberts adding the iconic finger snaps. Marshall composed the theme and incidental music for the 1960s TV series The Munsters and the 1966 tie-in film Mu

Jack White (music producer)

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Horst Nußbaum (2 September 1940 – 16 October 2025), known professionally as Jack White, was a German composer, producer and footballer. Born in Cologne, Nußbaum first played football professionally for six years during the 1960s. In music, he initially tried his hand as a singer with little success, but became one of the most successful producers of schlager music by the 1970s. As a singer, he had already used the stage name Jack White and kept it as a producer, as the name was easier for the international English-speaking stars and their managers he worked with. In his music career, White created 25 of his own records, and is credited on 2512 other records, including 870 production credits. Some of the most notable international artists he worked with were Laura Branigan (“Gloria”, “Self Control”), David Hasselhoff (“Looking for Freedom”), Paul Anka, Engelbert Humperdinck, Barry Manilow, and Jermaine Jackson (“When the Rain Begins to Fall”). On the German-language market, White worked with leading Schlager musicians such as Roland Kaiser, Roberto Blanco, Tony Marshall, Jürgen Marcus, Heino, Andrea Berg, Andrea Jürgens, and Hansi Hinterseer. It is estimated that productions by or w

Jackson Berkey

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Jackson Berkey (born May 24, 1942) is an American composer, pianist and singer, best known for his work with Mannheim Steamroller, which he co-founded with Chip Davis in 1974. Early life and education Berkey was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He began playing the piano at age 5. His mother learned to play the piano by ear, but insisted that Jackson receive the training she had not. As a result, he was quite an accomplished pianist by the time he entered high school. He received a scholarship from the Huntingdon Music Club to attend the Chautauqua Music Festival in western New York state where he displayed his very serious demeanor as a musician. While his fellow students were enjoying the great outdoors that the area provided, Berkey was daily attending orchestra rehearsals of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. After graduating from high school in 1960, Berkey briefly attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Unfortunately, because scholarships did not adequately cover all expenses, he dropped out of school and got a job as a programming director and announcer at the classical music station, WBBF-FM in Rochester. He kept up with his piano skills by keeping a k

Jacob Druckman

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Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer. Life A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, He was composer-in-residence of the New York Philharmonic from 1982 until 1985. Druckman taught at Juilliard, The Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Brooklyn College, Bard College, and Yale University, among other appointments. He was Connecticut’s State Composer Laureate. Druckman died of lung cancer at age 67 in New Haven, Connecticut. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. He is the father of percussionist Daniel Druckman. The Aspen Music Festival gives out the Jacob Druckman award in his honor each festival season. The reward is given to an up-and-coming composer, who is then commissioned to write a piece to be performed in the next festival season. Notable musicians who recorded his works include David Zinman, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Zubin Mehta, Leonard Slatkin, Dawn Upshaw, Jan DeGaetani, the Dorian Wind Quintet, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the American Brass Quintet. Notable students Major works * String Quartet No. 1 (1948) *The Seven Deadly Sins (1955), for piano *Dark Upon the Harp (1961–1962), for mezzo-soprano, brass, and percussion. S

Jacob Gilboa

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Jacob Gilboa (; May 2, 1920 – May 9, 2007) was an Israeli composer. Biography Erwin Goldberg (later Jacob Gilboa) was born in Košice, Czechoslovakia. Some years later he lived in Vienna, where he received training in playing the piano. In 1938 he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, where he initially studied in Haifa at the Institute for Technology. Starting in 1944 he studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music with Josef Tal and Paul Ben-Haim. Music career His participation in the Courses for New Music in Cologne in 1963 and 1964 under Karlheinz Stockhausen and Henri Pousseur made a strong impact on his style, which changed to include clusters, quarter tones, electronics, and unconventional instrumental combinations. His best-known work is Twelve Glass Windows of Chagall in Jerusalem, for voice and instruments (1966). In addition, he composed Thistles, for horn, percussion, piano, and cello (1967), Pastels for two pianos, the piano suite Seven Little Insects (1956), and The Grey Colours of Käthe Kollwitz for mezzo-soprano, chamber orchestra, and tape. He died in Tel Aviv, Israel. See also *Music of Israel References

Jacob TV

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Jacob ter Veldhuis (born 14 November 1951), known by the pseudonym Jacob TV, is a Dutch composer of contemporary classical music. Self-described as an “avant-pop composer”, Jacob TV’s music takes inspiration from Steve Reich, mixing classical music with elements of popular culture in a postmodernist manner. Life and career Jacob ter Veldhuis was born on 14 November 1951 in Westerlee, Netherlands. In his youth, he had a variety of classical, rock, blues and jazz influences. Music Jacob TV’s music includes elements of American popular culture and mass media, in a postmodernist manner. Commentators frequently compare this approach to the visual arts; the music critic Anne Midgette likened it to Pop art, particularly the collages of Tom Wesselmann, while the musicologist Kevin Lewis described it as Warholian. Jacob TV describes himself as an “avant-pop composer”; in light of his largely tonal style he remarks: “I pepper my music with sugar”. References External links *

Jacobus Kloppers

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Jacobus (Kobie) Kloppers (born 1937) is a Canadian composer, musicologist and organist. Biography Born in South Africa, Kloppers completed his Doctorate in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1966, Kloppers returned to South Africa to teach, compose and perform. He immigrated to Canada with his family in the mid-1970s in protest to the Apartheid policy. Kloppers settled in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and worked as a private instructor and church musician. In 1978, he was interviewed for a part-time position at a small Christian college, The King’s University (Edmonton), that was to open the next year. The college hired him full-time to develop a music program. He taught organ, music history, and musicology and was chair of the music program until his retirement in 2008. Kloppers is also an adjunct professor of organ at the University of Alberta, an honorary fellow of the RCCO, the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. Kloppers was important in Edmonton’s Winspear Centre acquiring the Davis Concert Organ, a world-renowned instrument. In 2009, Kloppers was inducted into Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame. In 2011, the University of the Free State began a project to

Jacqueline Fontyn

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Jacqueline, Baroness Fontyn (born 27 December 1930) is a contemporary Belgian composer, pianist and music educator. She was born in Antwerp, and has received the title of baroness from the King of Belgium in recognition of her many artistic contributions. Early years Jacqueline Fontyn was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and began piano studies at the age of five years with Ignace Bolotin. At nine years old, she began to compose small pieces, and at the age of 14, she decided to be a composer. She continued her piano studies with Marcel Maas and studied music theory and composition with Marcel Quinet in Brussels and with Max Deutsch in Paris. She also studied orchestra conducting in Vienna with Hans Swarovsky and graduated in 1959 from the Belgian Chapelle Musicale Elisabeth. Career Working in Antwerp, Fontyn founded a mixed choir Le Tympan and directed it for seven years. She conducted the Symphonic Orchestra of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium for two years. From 1963 to 1970 she taught counterpoint at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp. From 1970 to 1990 she was a professor at the Conservatory of Brussels where she taught first counterpoint and later compositio

Jacqueline Nova

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Jacqueline Nova Sondag (1935–1975) was a Colombian musician, author and composer. She is often cited as having initiated Colombia’s electroacoustic musical practices. Life Jacqueline Nova Sondag was born on 6 January 1935, in Ghent, Belgium. Her father was visiting Belgium from Bucaramanga, Colombia, to study to be an engineer, where he met Jacqueline’s mother. Upon his finishing his studies, Nova’s family moved back to Bucaramanga where she spent her childhood. In 1955 she moved to Bogotá. Nova’s mid-high social class in 20th-century Colombia traditionally prescribed that women learn to play either piano, guitar, or sing in order to be considered respectable ladies. Nova began learning piano when she was seven. She then traveled to Buenos Aires on a scholarship from the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella for further studies in composition at Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios. There she studied with Luigi Nono, Alberto Ginastera, Gerardo Gandini, Francisco Kröpfl, Francisco Zumaque Nova died on 13 June 1975 in Bogotá from bone cancer. Work After studying at CLAEM, Nova became interested in interdisciplinary experimentation with unaccompanied tape. Collaborations with other fields s

Jacques Berthier

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Jacques Berthier (27 June 1923 – 27 June 1994) was a French composer of liturgical music, best known for writing much of the music used at Taizé. Biography Berthier was born in Auxerre, Burgundy; both of his parents were musicians. His father Paul was the kapellmeister and organist at the Auxerre Cathedral and his mother Geneviève Parquin was a composer. Learning first from his parents, Berthier was trained in music at the École César Franck in Paris. While there, he was taught by, among others, Edouard Souberbielle and Guy de Lioncourt (whose daughter he married). It was accepted by Brother Jean-Marie (Taizé). His son is Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt. Music In more than twenty years, Berthier left an important corpus (232 songs in 20 different languages) in wide use today by other communities and around the world. He is also the author of Masses for organ, a cantata in the form of the cross and a cantata for Saint Cecilia. In total, he wrote over 1,500 pieces of work. Taizé songs The 2024-2025 edition of the song booklet used by the Taizé Community contains songs written by Jacques Berthier, as well as Joseph Gelineau and the brothers of Taizé. Berthier’s Taizé songs include; Refe

Jacques Bondon

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Jacques Bondon (full name Jacques Laurent Jules Désiré Bondon; 6 December 1927 – 2 April 2008) was a French composer. Life Bondon was born in Boulbon (Bouches-du-Rhône). He arrived in Paris aged nineteen to study music. He began studying the violin, learned harmony and counterpoint with Georges Dandelot and Charles Koechlin and composition with Darius Milhaud and Jean Rivier at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he founded the Orchestre de Chambre de Musique Contemporaine (O.C.M.C.), which became the Ensemble Moderne de Paris (E.M.P.) six years later. In 1974, he was appointed member of the National Commission for Popular Music at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Since 1981, he has been Director of the Conservatoire municipal de musique of the 20th arrondissement of Paris. He died in Coulommiers (Seine-et-Marne). on 2 April 2008 at age 80. Works Instrumental and orchestral music * Essai pour un paysage lunaire, for chamber orchestra (1951) * Sonatine d’été, for violin and piano (1953) * La Coupole, Tableaux fantastiques d’un monde étrange, for orchestra (1954) * Le Taillis ensorcelé, for double string orchestra, brass and percussion (1954) * Concerto pour Martenot (1955) * Les I

Jacques Calonne

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Jacques Calonne (10 August 1930 – 7 February 2022) was a Belgian artist, composer, singer, actor, logogramist, and writer. Life Born in Mons, Calonne studied music from 1944 until 1946 at the conservatories of Mons and Brussels, with amongst others the composer André Souris, who introduced him to the surrealist movement. He then pursued a course of art studies at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1947 to 1949, when he attended La fin et les moyens (The End and the Means), the first Belgian exhibition of the COBRA group at the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, where he met Christian Dotremont. He immediately attached himself to this movement, becoming its youngest member and taking part in its meetings in the rue de la Paille, as well as in its review and at the exposition “L’Objet à travers les âges” (The Object through the Ages). Dividing himself between music and visual arts, he continued to pursue a double career after the dissolution of COBRA. In 1954 he made his first visit to the Internationale Ferienkurse für neue Musik at Darmstadt, where he met Karlheinz Stockhausen and Bruno Maderna. In 1957, he co-signed the “Manifesto against Style” with, amongst oth

Jacques Castérède

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Jacques Castérède (10 April 1926 – 6 April 2014) was a French composer and pianist. Life Born in Paris, Castérède studied at Lycée Buffon. He earned his baccalauréat in elementary mathematics, then entered the Paris Conservatory in 1944 and began studying piano under Armand Ferté, composition under Tony Aubin, and analysis under Olivier Messiaen. While at the Conservatory, between 1948 and 1953 he received five first prizes (in piano, chamber music, analysis, composition, and harmony). He also won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1953 with his cantata La Boîte de Pandore (Pandora’s Box). The following year, he went to Rome, where he stayed at the Villa Medici until 1958. In 1960, he was appointed professor of solfège in the Paris Conservatory, then counsellor of piano studies (Conseilleur aux Études) in 1966, and analysis in 1971. In addition, he taught composition at the École Normale from 1983 to 1988, and analysis from 1988 to 1998. On an invitation from the Chinese government, he became a professor of composition at the Central Academy in Beijing. He received numerous awards as a composer, among them the Paris Civil Award in 1991, the Charles Cros Award, and the Record Academy Award i

Jacques Charpentier

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Jacques Georges Paul Charpentier (18 October 1933 – 15 June 2017) was a French composer and organist. He is unrelated to either of two other eminent French musicians with the same surname (Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Gustave Charpentier). Biography Born in Paris, he taught himself to play the piano as a child. From 1950 to 1953 he worked with Jeanine Rueff, then left for India, acquainting himself with traditional Hindu music in Bombay and Calcutta. Charpentier stayed there for 18 months, a period that would prove decisive for his musical evolution. Upon returning to France in 1954, he studied composition with Tony Aubin and the philosophy of music with Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris. He joined the Jeunesses musicales de France in 1959, then was named principal inspector of music in 1966 and general inspector of music in 1975 at the Secrétariat d’État à la Culture. In 1974 the organ of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris was named after him. The same year as his appointment as general inspector, he founded a center for Gregorian studies and traditional music, and also began teaching courses in orchestration at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1979 he succeeded Jean

Jacques Datin

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Jacques Datin (14 June 1920 – 24 August 1973) was a French composer. After his musical training he met songwriter Maurice Vidalin, and they wrote many songs for several performers. Since 1954, they wrote “On en dira” (written with Marc Lanjean) for Juliette Gréco. From 1957, the association had many musical successes such as, for example, “Zon zon zon” interpreted by Colette Renard and Michèle Arnaud (1957), “Julie” by Marcel Amont (1957), and “Les boutons dorés” by Jean-Jacques Debout, also covered by Barbara in 1959. Their greatest success arrived in 1961 when they won the Eurovision Song Contest along with Jean-Claude Pascal, who competed for Luxembourg with the song “Nous les amoureux”. The following year, they got 3rd place with “Petit bonhomme”, sung by Camillo Felgen. He wrote the music for Claude Nougaro’s Une petite fille (1962). The many performers of his songs include France Gall (“Christiansen”, “Mes premières vraies vacances”), Juliette Greco (“Jusqu’à où, jusqu’à quand” and “Les Mariés”), Françoise Hardy (“Va pas prendre un tambour”, “Le Temps des souvenirs”) Serge Lama (“Les P’tites Femmes de Pigalle”), Claude Nougaro (“Une petite fille”, “Le Jazz et la Java”, “Je su

Jacques Dudon

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Jacques Dudon () is a French just intonation composer and instrument builder. He is best known for developing a series of photosonic disk () instruments in the 1980s that produced sound from modulated light (a light source shines through painted glass discs; the resulting patterns of light are picked up by photo cells and converted into a voltage which can then be treated as a sound signal). The production of synthetic sound in this manner has been used in “optosonic” instruments since the early 20th century (for example the Optophonic Piano). However Dudon’s method is notable for the generation of tone which is produced by the overlapping of two or three discs, and the opportunities this design provides for timbral shifts by slowing one or more discs manually, thereby altering the waveform. In the 1970s, he created 150 water instruments called “aquaphones” (described in his pioneering book ), including a “flutabullum”, a system of transforming flute sounds by recording them underwater). Aquavina The aquavina was an experimental musical instrument created by Jacques Dudon. It was essentially a variant of the Appalachian dulcimer, but with a metal resonator body partially filled wit

Jacques Faubert

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Jacques Faubert (born 30 May 1952) is a Canadian composer, conductor, and music educator, known for founding the Mont-Royal Symphony Orchestra. Early life and education Faubert earned premiers prix in harmony, counterpoint, and fugue from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal (CMQM) where he studied with Jean-Louis Martinet, Gaston Arel, and Pierre Mollet from 1970 to 1976. He then went to France to study at the Paris Conservatory with Marcel Bitsch and Jacques Castérède from 1976 to 1979, earning premier prizes in fugue and music analysis. Career Faubert served as a professor of music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Trois-Rivières. In 1985 his choral work “Messe de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste”, commissioned by the Archdiocese of Montreal, was premiered by a 150 voice choir at St-Jean-Baptiste Church. That year joined the music faculty of the CMQM, where he taught harmony until 2005. He also composed two psalms for the vocal group Arioso. IN 1986 Faubert conducted the newly formed choir of the Orchestre Métropolitain. In 1987 Faubert founded the Mont-Royal Symphony Orchestra and its choir. He directed both until 1997, after which he shared some of these responsib

Jacques Hétu

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Jacques Joseph Robert Hétu (August 8, 1938 – February 9, 2010) was a prominent Canadian composer and music educator. Hétu is the most frequently performed of Canadian classical composers, both within Canada and internationally. Education Jacques Hétu was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec; he began his professional training at the University of Ottawa where he was a pupil of Father Jules Martel from 1955 to 1956. In 1956 he entered the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal and studied there for five years with Melvin Berman (oboe), Isabelle Delorme (harmony), Jean Papineau-Couture (fugue), Clermont Pépin (composition and counterpoint), and Georges Savaria (piano); he also studied at the Tanglewood Music Center during the summer of 1959 with Lukas Foss. In 1961 he won several important awards, including the first prize at the Quebec Music Festivals composition competition, a grant from the Canada Council, and the Prix d’Europe. The latter two awards enabled him to pursue studies in France at the École Normale de Musique de Paris from 1961 to 1963 with Henri Dutilleux and at the Paris Conservatory with Olivier Messiaen in 1962–1963. Teaching Hétu joined the music faculty at Laval

Jacques-Louis Monod

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Jacques-Louis Monod (25 February 1927 – 21 September 2020) was a French composer, pianist and conductor of 20th century and contemporary music, particularly in the advancement of the music of Charles Ives, Edgard Varèse, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and uptown music; and was active primarily in New York City and London during the second half of the twentieth century. Biography Paris 1940s: early years Monod was born in Asnières (now Asnières-sur-Seine), a northwestern suburb of Paris, to an affluent family of privilege and of French Protestant affiliation with ancestral roots in French-speaking Switzerland His musical prowess was detected early when he enrolled in 1933 at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique as a child prodigy at the age of six, below the official minimum age of nine. Monod attended the Paris Conservatoire intermittently but remained registered for nearly 20 years, obtaining his Doctorat in 1952. Monod’s teachers at the Conservatoire were Yves Nat and Olivier Messiaen; including master classes under the visiting conductor, Herbert von Karajan; he also studied with his godfather, Paul-Silva Hérard, the organist at Paris’s St. Ambroise Church. A d

Jahangir Jahangirov

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Jahangir Shirgasht oglu Jahangirov (Azerbaijani: ; 20 July 1921 – 25 March 1992) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani composer, conductor and choirmaster; he was named People’s Artiste of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1964. Biography Jahangir Jahangirov was born on 20 July 1921 in Balakhany township of Baku, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. He graduated from musical school named after Asaf Zeynally and then from Baku Academy of Music. From 1944 to 1960, he led the choir of Broadcasting Committee of the Azerbaijan SSR. Majority of songs, composed by him for the first time were played by the chorus, which he led. After that he was the artistic director of the Song and Dance Ensemble at Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall. In 1950, Jahangir Jahangirov was awarded the USSR State Prize, and in 1963, he received the status of People’s Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR. Compositions In 1946, Mir Mehdi Etimad wrote the words of the hymn of the Azerbaijan People’s Government, Jahangir Jahangirov composed a song to it. Jahangir Jahangirov is the author of a lot of famous musical compositions. On the other side of Araz (1949) vocal-symphonic poem, A Song about Friendship (1956), Fuzuli (1959), Nasimi (1973) suites,

Jakob Jež

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Jakob Jež (23 November 1928 – 8 March 2022) was a Slovenian composer. Life Jakob Jež was born on 23 November 1928 in Boštanj, a village in eastern Slovenia. In 1954, he graduated from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, Department of Music History. His dissertation, defended in 1959, focused on the early works of Slovenian composer Marij Kogoj. Kogoj remained a consistent influence for Jež throughout his career. Although he did not obtain a degree in composition, Jež studied composition with Marijan Lipovský and Karol Pahor. The Lexicon of Yugoslav Music describes his musical style as follows: “By adopting some modern compositional procedures, Jež creates a distinctive musical language, full of intimate expressiveness, with a developed sense of colour, lyricism and loose structures - a modern and contemporary language which is never incomprehensibly aggressive.” Jež taught throughout his career, first at a music school and a high school, and then at the Music and Ballet School in Ljubljana (1955–1970). From 1992 until his retirement, he was a full-time professor of music education at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Ljubljana. From 1960 to 1965, he was a member of the composers’ group Pro

James A. Beckel Jr.

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James Arthur Beckel Jr. (born July 16, 1948) is a contemporary American composer and musician best known for his contemporary compositions as well as his association with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, where he was principal trombonist from 1969 to 2018. His compositions have been performed and recorded by the Baltimore, Atlanta, Indianapolis Symphonies, Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, United States Air Force Band, the DC Air Force Orchestra, and many other nationally recognized orchestras throughout the United States. Beckel is married, has two children, and is a member of the Carmel Brass Choir. Beckel maintains a trombone and euphonium studio at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Works list Toccata for Orchestra In the Mind’s Eye Glass Bead Game Fantasy after Schubert Liberty for All American Dream Gardens of Stone A Christmas Fanfare Symphony for Band I Am the American Flag Waltz of the Animals Night Visions Musica Mobilis A Gospel Christmas Inaugural Fanfare Overture for a New Age Make a Joyful Noise Celebrations Portraits Musical Masque (for the Seasons) Music for Winds, Piano, and Percussion Imagination Sonata for Trumpet and Organ American Journey String Quartet No. 1

James Barnes (composer)

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James Charles Barnes (born September 9, 1949 in Hobart, Oklahoma, U.S.) is an American composer. Life and career Barnes studied composition and music theory at the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor of Music in 1974, and Master of Music in 1975. He studied conducting privately with Zuohuang Chen. In 1977 he joined the faculty at the University of Kansas as professor of music theory and composition. He retired in August 2015, but retains his emeritus status at KU. Barnes is also a tubist and has performed with numerous professional organizations in the United States. Works Works for concert band * A Solemn Prelude for Symphonic Band, Op. 114 * A Light in the Wilderness * A Very American Overture, Op. 93 * All Pleasant Things - commissioned by the Northshore Concert Band * Alvamar Overture, Op. 45 * Appalachian Overture, Op. 51 * Arioso For Symphonic Band *Autumn Soliloquy for Oboe and Concert Band * Beautiful Oregon * Breckenridge * Brookshire Suite * Caribbean Hideaway * Carnaval in São Paulo * Centennial Celebration Overture * Century Tower Overture * Chorale and Jubiloso * Chorale Prelude on a German Folk Tune, Op. 61 *Citadel (2015) *Credo (2016) * Concerto for Tuba and Wi

James Brody

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James Brody (July 13, 1941 – April 11, 2010) was an American composer, born in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Frank J. Oteri of the American Music Center’s New Music Box called Brody “an important figure in the development of electronic music in the Midwest.” He studied with Franz Kamin at the Indiana University School of Music, under the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, where he received a master’s degree. Brody wrote the liner notes for the original Nonesuch LP of Iannis Xenakis – Electroacoustic Music. He taught composition, theory and electronic music at East Texas State University and was a lecturer at York College of Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2007. He also served on the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra’s Board of Directors. Brody was a guest composer at the Electronic and Computer Music Studio of the Peabody Institute and a member and past president of the Baltimore Composers Forum. He hosted a radio program on KUNM-FM in Albuquerque, New Mexico called Other Voices, Other Sounds. He was co-founder of music organizations in Bloomington, Indiana and San Antonio, Texas, dedicated to presenting and performing works by local composers. James Brody died in a car crash in Roseville, Minnesota

James Chater

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James Chater is a British composer and musicologist born in Henley-on-Thames in 1951. He studied music at the University of Oxford, taking the BA in 1973 and the D.Phil. in 1980. His thesis, Luca Marenzio and the Italian Madrigal, 1577–1593, was published as a book (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press) in 1981. He is the author of many articles on secular music in Italy in the late 16th century; these have appeared in Early Music, the Journal of American Musicology, Journal of Musicology, Music & Letters, The Musical Times, Notes, the Rivista italiana di musicologia, Il saggiatore musicale, Studi musicali and other periodicals and Festschrifts. In his writings several previously anonymous madrigal texts are identified, and the intimate ties between poets, musicians and patrons are explored. Chater was a Fellow of the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti, Florence) from 1981–82. From 1982 to 1986 James Chater taught history of music at the University of Wales (Aberystwyth), Washington University in St. Louis (USA), the University of Victoria (BC, Canada) and the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). From 1986 to 1997 he was English-language Editor of

James Cohn

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James Cohn (February 12, 1928 – June 12, 2021) was a Newark, New Jersey-born American composer. After taking violin and piano lessons in his native town, he studied composition with Roy Harris, Wayne Barlow and Bernard Wagenaar, and majored in composition at Juilliard, graduating in 1950. He wrote solo, chamber, choral and orchestral works, among them 3 string quartets, 5 piano sonatas and 8 symphonies. He was awarded a Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Prize for his Symphony No. 2 (premiered at Brussels) and an A.I.D.E.M. prize for his Symphony No. 4 (premiered in Florence at the Maggio Musicale). The Detroit Free Press observed in the Symphony No. 3 “an economy of means . . . but no yielding of inventiveness or imaginative composition. Indeed, the work throughout is marked strongly by individuality, and comes as a refreshing experience in modern music.” Among his earlier works (1946, preceding the 1948 second symphony) is a concertino for piano and orchestra. Cohn often quoted popular tunes in many of his works, such as “Homage” (1959), based on The Star-Spangled Banner, and “A Song of the Waters,” Op. 53 (1976), a tone poem featuring variations on Shenandoah. In 1966 he composed a thre

James Dashow

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Dashow (born November 7, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer of electro-acoustic music, instrumental music and opera. Life and career Dashow was born in 1944, outside of Chicago. His musical studies began in high school with Horace Reisberg; his principal teachers at the university level were J. K. Randall, Arthur Berger and Seymour Shifrin. In 1969, Dashow went to Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship to complete his studies with Goffredo Petrassi. For many years, he studied the music of Luigi Dallapiccola independently. One of the first to compose music for digital audio synthesis (“computer music”), Dashow was invited by Graziano (Giuliano) Tisato to work at the computer center of the University of Padua, where he created the first computer music compositions in Italy. He was the first vice president of the International Computer Music Association, has taught at MIT and Princeton University, and continues to actively hold master classes, lectures and concerts in Europe and North America. In 2003 he was composer-in-residence at the 12th Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival in Gainesville, Florida. For several years he and coproduced a weekly contemporary

James Di Pasquale

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James Di Pasquale (born April 7, 1941) is an American musician and composer of contemporary classical music and music for television and films. Biography Pasquale was born on April 7, 1941, in Chicago to Hugo and Lucille (née Ciccone) Di Pasquale, James Di Pasquale is a graduate of St. Mel’s High School in Chicago. He graduated from Northwestern University and the Manhattan School of Music. His teachers included David Diamond and Ludmila Uhlela. Before turning full-time to composition, he had a varied career as a woodwinds performer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the Royal Ballet. He performed as a jazz musician with Gerry Mulligan, Ella Fitzgerald, Henry Mancini, and Barbra Streisand as well as many others. He was one of the original members of the Paul Winter Consort. In 1984, he served as the Organizing Chairman and first President of the Society of Composers and Lyricists. He also served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and on the Writer’s Advisory Committee at the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Music for television He wrote the musical scores to made-for-TV movies s

James Dillon (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Dillon (born 29 October 1950) is a Scottish composer who is often regarded as belonging to the New Complexity school. Dillon studied art and design, linguistics, piano, acoustics, Indian rhythm, mathematics and computer music, but is self-taught in composition. Dillon was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Honours include first prize in the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 1978, the Kranichsteiner music prize at Darmstadt in 1982, and an unprecedented five Royal Philharmonic Society composition awards, most recently for his chamber piece Tanz/Haus: triptych 2017. The recording of his chamber opera, Philomela, won the Grand Prix de l’Académie du Disque Lyrique 2010. Dillon taught at Darmstadt from 1982 to 1992, and has been a guest lecturer and composer at various institutions around the world. He taught at the University of Minnesota School of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 2007 to 2014. Selected works His major works include choral and vocal music, including the cycle L’évolution du vol (1993) and the opera Philomela (2004), the orchestral works helle Nacht (1987), ignis noster (1992), Via Sacra (2000), and La navette (2001), as well as a violin concerto for Thomas

James Douglas (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Douglas (4 July 1932 – 1 February 2022) was a Scottish composer, accompanist, conductor, recording artist, and organist. Douglas was born in Dumbarton, Scotland. He was based in Edinburgh, but he moved to live in North West Scotland in 2006. Douglas has composed a wide variety of music: instrumental, choral, organ, flute, orchestral, wind, brass, and violin. Life and career Douglas was born on 4 July 1932. He was educated in Edinburgh, Paris, Munich, Salzburg and London (LRAM and ARCM), and made his debut at Wienersaal (Mozarteum), Salzburg, in 1951. Douglas worked as a solo piano and organ recitalist and as an accompanist for vocal masterclasses throughout Europe, and he was deputy organist at St. Thomas’ Church in Edinburgh from 1948 to 1950. From 1953 to 1963, he was Director of Music at Nicolson Square Church in Edinburgh, then in Mayfield Church in Edinburgh, from 1963 to 1969, at Reid Memorial Church in Edinburgh from 1969 to 1973, and at Christ Church in Edinburgh from 1986 to 1991. He was part of the music staff of the Edinburgh Academy from 1967 to 1979. Douglas was director of the Ensemble ‘The Glorious Company’ from 2004. Records were made exclusively for Caritas R

James Holland (percussionist)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Holland (12 February 1933 – January 2022) was an English orchestral and solo percussionist, principal percussionist at the BBC Symphony Orchestra from the 1970s until the 1990s. Born in Ilford, Holland first took up percussion as an Army cadet at the age of 13. He went on to study with Peter Allen (timpanist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra), Max Abrams (drum kit) and Charles Donaldson at Trinity College of Music. After three years of National Service in the RAF Central Band he joined the London Philharmonic in 1956, and then the London Symphony Orchestra in 1959. In 1962 he succeeded his teacher Charles Donaldson as principal percussionist at the LSO. He stayed with the orchestra until 1972, when he became principal percussionist at the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the recently appointed chief conductor Pierre Boulez. Holland was heavily involved in contemporary music. In the 1960s, with David Johnson, he was co-founder of the London Percussion Ensemble. He also played regularly with the London Sinfonietta from its foundation in 1969. He worked closely on percussion matters with many contemporary composers, including Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Benjamin Britten, Olive

James Horner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American film composer and conductor. He is known for the integration of choral and electronic elements alongside traditional orchestrations, and for his use of motifs associated with Celtic music. Horner worked on more than 160 films and television productions between 1978 and 2015. He won two Academy Awards for his musical composition to James Cameron’s Titanic (1997), which became the best-selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time. He also wrote the score for the highest-grossing film of all time, Cameron’s Avatar (2009). Horner’s other Oscar-nominated scores were for Aliens (1986), An American Tail (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Apollo 13 (1995), Braveheart (1995), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and House of Sand and Fog (2003). Horner’s other notable scores include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Willow (1988), The Land Before Time (1988), Glory (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994), Jumanji (1995), Casper (1995), Balto (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Deep Impact (1998), The Perfect Storm (2000), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Troy (2004), The New World (2005), The Legend of Zorro (2

James Montgomery (composer)

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James Louis Montgomery (born 6 February 1943) is a Canadian music composer, performer, and arts administrator. For about 20 years he was the artistic director of The Music Gallery. He is also a founding member of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble with whom he performs and records. As a composer he is known for incorporating electronic technology into his works. Early life and education Born in Ravenna, Ontario, Montgomery earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1966 from Baldwin–Wallace Conservatory of Music. He pursued further studies at Northwestern University with John Weinzweig and at the University of Toronto (UT) with Gustav Ciamaga. From the UT he earned a Master of Music degree in 1972. Career In 1990 Montgomery taught in the Faculty of Education at the UT as a professor of electronic media. In 1971 Montgomery co-founded the Canadian Electronic Ensemble (CEE) with David Jaeger, David Grimes, and Larry Lake. He has performed and recorded with the CEE since then, and served as the group’s managing director from 1976 to 1983. The CEE is currently the oldest continuously active live-electronic performing group in the world. In 1984 they performed at the International Society for Co

James Stevens (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Stevens (5 May 1923 – 26 June 2012) was an English composer of symphonic, operatic and avant-garde orchestral music, including film and television scores, as well as pop music of the 1960s. Career Stevens was born in London, where he studied initially with Benjamin Frankel in his exclusive class at the Guildhall School of Music. There he won several prestigious awards including the Royal Philharmonic Prize for his First Symphony; the Wainwright Scholarship for “composer of the year”; and a French Government Bursary which took him across the Channel to study with Darius Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire. There he met Nadia Boulanger, who made him one of her star pupils who received Saturday evening tuition free of charge. He also enjoyed an open invitation to Arthur Honegger’s classes. Stevens commenced his extensive film career while still a student and was acclaimed at the Ealing Studios, where he constantly devised new film music techniques which are now standard practice. Unusually, Stevens never confined himself to one particular musical genre, and took many opportunities to take part in pop music, jazz, films, television scores, and musicals. His musical Mamízelle Nitou

James Tenney

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James Tenney (August 10, 1934 – August 24, 2006) was an American composer, music theorist, and pianist. He made significant early musical contributions to plunderphonics, sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, process music, spectral music, and microtonal tuning systems including extended just intonation. His theoretical writings variously concern musical form, texture, timbre, consonance and dissonance, and harmonic perception. Biography James Tenney was born on August 10, 1934, in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School, Bennington College (B.A., 1958), and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (M.A., 1961). He studied piano with Eduard Steuermann and composition with Chou Wen-chung, Lionel Nowak, Paul Boepple, Henry Brant, Carl Ruggles, Kenneth Gaburo, John Cage, Harry Partch, and Edgard Varèse. He also studied acoustics, information theory and tape music composition under Lejaren Hiller. In 1961, Tenney completed an influential master’s thesis entitled Meta (+) Hodos that made one of the earliest applications of gestalt theory and cognitive science to music. His later writings include “Tem

James Wilson (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Wilson (27 September 1922 – 6 August 2005) was an Irish composer. Though born in England, Wilson was a resident of Ireland for over 50 years. Early life Wilson was born in Islington, London. His father, a chemist, died when James was only four days old, leaving his widowed mother to bring up three sons alone. Without any family background in music (the only real interest was his mother’s slight interest in playing the piano), Wilson began piano lessons in 1931 (at the age of nine), continuing them until 1938. While in his early teens, Wilson attended many operas which fostered his interest in music. After school, and without any formal higher education, Wilson entered the Civil Service after having passed their entrance exam. He served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, from 1942 till 1946. Having finished his military service, Wilson began attending weekly musical composition classes at the Trinity College of Music in London. It was around this time that he left the Civil Service to pursue a full-time career in music. In 1948 he moved to Ireland, where he had been stationed in the latter part of his naval service. Musical work Wilson was a largely self-taught com

James Wood (musician)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Wood (born 27 May 1953 in Barton-on-Sea, England) is a British conductor, composer of contemporary classical music and former percussionist. Wood studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1971 to 1972 before going on to study music at Cambridge University, where he was organ scholar of Sidney Sussex College from 1972 until 1975. After graduating from Cambridge he went on to study percussion and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1975 until 1976. After a further year studying percussion privately with Nicholas Cole, Wood embarked on a triple career as percussionist, composer and conductor. Career In 1977 he was appointed conductor of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford, a post which he held until 1981, and immediately following this he founded the New London Chamber Choir, of which he was principal conductor for twenty-six years until moving to Germany in 2007. New London Chamber Choir (NLCC) During his time with NLCC he pioneered a large amount of little-known choral music from a wide range of composers, including Iannis Xenakis, Tona Scherchen, Toru Takemitsu, Eric Bergman, Harrison Birtwistle, Lili Boulanger, Ruth Crawford, Luigi Dallapiccola, Fra

James Yannatos

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

James Yannatos (March 13, 1929 – October 19, 2011) was a composer, conductor, violinist and teacher. He was a senior lecturer at Harvard University until his retirement in 2009. Yannatos was born and educated in New York City. In 1943, he was invited to attend Camp Rising Sun, a tuition-free, international summer camp in upstate New York. He attended the High School of Music and Art and the Manhattan School of Music. Subsequent studies with Nadia Boulanger, Luigi Dallapiccola, Darius Milhaud, Paul Hindemith, and Philip Bezanson in composition, William Steinberg and Leonard Bernstein in conducting, and Hugo Kortschak and Ivan Galamian on violin took Yannatos to Yale University (B.M., M.M.), the University of Iowa (Ph.D.), Aspen, Tanglewood, and Paris. As a young violinist, he performed at the Casals Festival and elsewhere in various professional ensembles, including a piano trio, a string quartet, and early music groups with Hindemith and Boulanger. In 1964, he was appointed music director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and led that group on tours to Europe, Russia, South America, and Asia. He organized and co-directed the New England Composers Orchestra and the Tanglewood Youn

Jan A. P. Kaczmarek

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Jan Andrzej Paweł Kaczmarek (; 29 April 1953 – 21 May 2024) was a Polish composer. He wrote scores for more than 70 feature films and documentaries, including Finding Neverland (2004), for which he won an Oscar and a National Board of Review Award. Other notable scores were for Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, Unfaithful, Evening, The Visitor, and Washington Square. Early life and education Jan A.P. Kaczmarek was born in 1953 in Konin, Poland. Studying music from an early age, he graduated with a law degree, specializing in legal theory and philosophy of law, from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (1977). Career In the late 1970s, Kaczmarek started working with Jerzy Grotowski and his innovative Theater Laboratory. He created the Orchestra of the Eighth Day in 1977. He recorded his first album, Music for the End (1982), for the United States (US) company Flying Fish Records. In addition to his work in films, Kaczmarek was commissioned to write two symphonic and choral pieces for two important national occasions in Poland: Cantata for Freedom (2005) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement, and Oratorio 1956 (2006) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a bloody uprising

Jan Allan

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Jan Bertil Allan (born 7 November 1934) He is the winner of a Grammis Award, the Swedish equivalent of the Grammys. He began his career in 1951 as a pianist; after moving to Stockholm, he changed to the trumpet as his main instrument. At this time he played in Carl-Henrik Norin’s orchestra. From 1954 to 1955, he worked with Lars Gullin and Rolf Billberg and from 1955 to 1959 with Carl-Henrik Norin. At the same time, he earned a PhD in physics. Despite his small number of records, Allan is among the most important modern jazz musicians in Sweden. From 1960 to 1963, he led a quintet with Billberg. Over the course of the 1960s, he worked with Arne Domnérus, Georg Riedel, and Bengt Hallberg, among others. From 1968 to 1975, he was a member of the Swedish Radio Jazz Group. His album Jan Allan -70, which featured Rolf Ericson, Nils Lindberg, Bobo Stenson, Jon Christensen, and Rune Gustafsson, won a Grammis Award for Jazz of the Year in 1970. Allan played with the same group and Georg Riedel on the trio-album Sweet And Loverly. His 1998 album Software stands in strong affinity with the West Coast Jazz of Gerry Mulligan and Stan Getz. Over the course of his career, Allan recorded albums wi

Jan Bach

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Bach (December 11, 1937 – October 30, 2020) was an American composer. He taught at the University of Tampa (Florida) from 1965 to 1966 and at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois (music theory and composition) from 1966 to 2002. His primary performing instrument was the horn, and he was renowned among hornists for his horn pieces. He also played the piano. Bach died on October 30, 2020, at age 82. Early life and education Jan Bach was born on December 11, 1937, in Forrest, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1959 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition there in 1971. He studied with Aaron Copland and Roberto Gerhard at Tanglewood in 1961 and with Thea Musgrave in Aldeburgh and London in 1974. Awards In 1957 he won the BMI Student Composers first prize. He later won the Koussevitsky competition at Tanglewood, the Harvey Gaul Composition Contest, the Mannes College opera competition, the Sigma Alpha Iota choral composition award, first prize at the First International Brass Congress in Montreux, Switzerland, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, the Br

Jan Faulkner

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Jan Faulkner (1953 – 14 December 2013) was a British percussionist, composer and music teacher. She played in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, taught music at Wells Cathedral School and wrote compositions for beginners in percussion, double bass, and songs for children to sing on visiting historical places. She was an examiner for musical boards and taught international percussionists. Her music continues to be taught, in the UK and internationally. Also freelance percussionist Alun McNeil-Watson, who was the first percussionist to be awarded a gala concert whilst at Wells, and went on to win awards as an international concert performer, and is also director of Box9Drumline. She commissioned works through the National Association of Percussion Teachers, including pieces by Peter R. Barclay, who has performed in major arenas such as O2 Arena with Andrea Bocelli. He worked with fellow ex-pupil Kim Foster on a piece dedicated to Faulkner. Faulkner composed beginners pieces for percussion, which also had simple accompaniment, for teachers who were not pianists. and prepared the timpani, snare drum and tune percussion syllabus, working with Michael Skinner and colleague, Jayne Obrado

Jan Freidlin

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Jan Freidlin (Hebrew: יאן פריידלין; Ukrainian: Ян Михайлович Фрейдлін) is a Soviet (Ukrainian SSR) and Israeli composer. He is the author of works for solo instruments, ensembles and orchestras, as well as music for film and television. Biography Jan Freidlin was born on 12 August 1944 in Chita. Already in 1946, at the age of two, he moved with his family to Odesa (Ukraine) — a city that would become Freidlin’s home for the next 44 years of his life. Here he began studying piano at the Glazunov Music School No.2, in the class of Maria Isaakovna Horvits. After graduating, he enrolled in the Odesa Music College (1959–1963), where he studied piano performance, composition, and music theory. Later, under the guidance of A. Kogan, he continued his studies in composition and music theory at the Odesa State Conservatory (1965-1971). From 1974 to 1990, Freidlin was the head of the Music theory department at the School of Stolyarsky, a Special Music School in Odesa established by Pyotr Stolyarsky. He also served as the Artistic director and Principal conductor of the Odesa Philharmonic Theatre Jazz Orchestra. for flute, violin, violoncello and piano. 1982 Chamber music - Theatre of Beranger

Jan Gilbert

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Jan Gilbert (born August 6, 1946) is an American composer, cellist, and professor of music. Life and career Janet Monteith Gilbert was born in New York City, NY. She studied cello at the Naples Conservatory and was granted her bachelor of arts in music in 1969 from Douglass College. In 1972 she received a Master of Arts in composition from Villa Schifolianoia in Florence, Italy. Studying under Salvatore Martirano and Ben Johnston, she received her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois in 1979, where she specialized in electronic music. Other teachers include Piergtro Grossi, Charles Dodge and John Melby. She has taught at Middlebury College, St. Olaf College, University of Maine, and Macalester College. Music Gilbert’s works include electronic music, verbal improvisation, sacred vocal music, experimental hip-hop, chamber music and multimedia pieces with tape, theatre and dance collaboration. She has been commissioned by varying groups such as Chanticleer, the St Paul Civic Orchestra and the Dale Warland Singers. She draws material from many different cultures, including traditional stories of the Hmong People, legends from the Pacific Northwest Tlingit tribe, an

Jan Klusák

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Jan Klusák (born 18 April 1934 in Prague as Jan Porges) is a contemporary Czech composer, author of film, television and incidental music. Life Klusák was born to a Czech Jewish family, who owned a farm in Prosek, Prague. After he graduated from the gymnasium, he pursued his studies at the Prague Music Academy as a pupil of Jaroslav Řídký and Pavel Bořkovec (in 1953-57 ). Later he concentrated solely on composing. He has never worked directly with music groups or schools, Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he began to participate in public life again, and worked as a member and director of various cultural institutions in the Czech Republic. He was awarded a “Classic 1995” Award for his compositions and for his String Quartet No. 5 in particular. Since the 1960s he occasionally acted in films, such as A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966) or Valerie and Her Week of Wonder (1970). Selected works Compositions *Partita for viola solo (1954) *Concertino for flute, violin, viola and cello (1955) *Contrappunto fiorito for flute, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and piano (1955–1956) *Eight Inventions for Various Instrumental Arrangement (1961–73) - his ke

Jan Krenz

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Jan Krenz (14 July 1926 – 15 September 2020) was a Polish composer and orchestra conductor. Biography During World War II, Krenz studied piano with Zbigniew Drzewiecki and composition with Kazimierz Sikorski. From 1945 to 1947, he studied at the Academy of Music in Łódź, conducting with Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and composing with Sikorski. In 1949, Krenz began serving under Grzegorz Fitelberg as deputy conductor at the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. After Fitelberg’s death, Krenz became director of the orchestra from 1953 to 1968. In 1968, he became artistic director of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, and was General Director of Music in Bonn from 1979 to 1982. At the same time, he directed the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen. He was a guest conductor at the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in Hilversum. He also often performed with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Other orchestras he led include the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. On 26 March 1958, Krenz was the first person to conduct Musique funèbre by Witold Lutosławski. In a

Jan Novák (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Novák (8 April 1921, Nová Říše – 17 November 1984, Neu Ulm) was a Czech composer of classical music. Novák was primarily active in the 1960s and composed the music for several films of Karel Kachyňa. Novák also composed music for the films of animators Jiří Trnka and Karel Zeman, the leading figures of the Czech animated film, as well as for Wir (1982, TV film) (based on We, the 1921 Russian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin). Jan Novák was also a Contemporary Latin poet, under the pen name Ianus Novak. In 1970 he was awarded the magna laus at the Amsterdam Latin poetry competition, the . Selected works * Concerto for oboe and orchestra (1952) * Baletti a 9 for nonett (1955) * Concerto for two pianos and orchestra (1955) * Concertino for wind quintett (1957) * Capriccio for cello and orchestra (1958) * Dulces cantilenae for soprana and cello (1961) * Passer Catulli for bass and nonett (1962) * Ioci vernales for bass, octet and tape (1964) * Dido, cantata for mezzosopran, speaker, men’s choir and orchestra (1967) * Exercitia mythologica for four- to eight-part mixed choir (1968) * Ignis pro Ioanne Palach for choir and orchestra (1969) * Apicius modulatus for voice and guitar (1971) * Od

Jan Radzynski

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Radzynski (; born June 18, 1950) is a Polish-born Israeli-American composer. Early life and education Jan Radzynski was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1950 to a musical family. His mother supported and guided his early piano studies, and one of his great-grandfathers had served as an army bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian military before World War I. He was also awarded a Creative Work and Research Grant from the Rothschild Foundation in 1995, as well as various faculty grants and residencies in Israel and Switzerland. Radzynski has continued to influence contemporary music through both his compositions and his teaching at Ohio State University. Awards * Two ASCAP Standard Awards (1989, 1997) * Mellon Fellowship (1985) * Morse Fellowship * Distinguished Scholar Award, The Ohio State University (1996) * Frederick W. Hilles Publication Grant * Yale University Griswold Research Grants * Summer Residency at the Foundation Artist’s House, Boswil, Switzerland (1983) * Residency at Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Israel (1995) * Creative Work and Research Grant from the Rothschild Foundation (1995) * Individual Artist Grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and Ohio Arts Council Referenc

Jan Sandström (composer)

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Jan Sandström (born 25 January 1954) is a Swedish classical music composer. His compositions include the so-called Motorbike Concerto for trombone and orchestra and his choral setting of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen. Career Born in Vilhelmina, Västerbotten County, Sandström grew up in Stockholm. He studied at the Luleå University of Technology’s Piteå School of Music (1974–1976) and completed his music training at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, studying music theory (1978–1982) and composition with Gunnar Bucht, Brian Ferneyhough and Pär Lindgren (1980–1984). placing the familiar Praetorius setting in slow motion in an eight-part a cappella setting. In 1991 he completed Från Mörker till Ljus (From Darkness to Light) for reader, baritone and chamber orchestra, based on poems by Folke Isaksson, were inspired by an altarpiece from Antwerp in Gammelstad, with a focus on the Passion. The poems are partly spoken, partly sung, some accompanied by the orchestra; the tenth of 14 movements, Klarheten (Clarity), is purely orchestral. The work was recorded in 2002 with the singer of the premiere, Peter Mattei, speaker Sven Wollter and the Norrbotten Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Petter

Jan Swafford

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Jan Swafford (born September 10, 1946) is an American author and composer. He earned his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College and his M.M.A. and D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. His teachers included Earl Kim at Harvard, Jacob Druckman at Yale, and Betsy Jolas at Tanglewood. He has written respected musical biographies of Charles Ives, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as the Vintage Guide to Classical Music and the introduction to music “Language of the Spirit.” His books are widely translated, including editions in Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and Portuguese. He appeared in the award-winning 2018 German documentary The Unanswered Ives. Works Swafford has written columns on music and other subjects in Slate, and is heard as a commentator on NPR and the BBC. He is a regular program annotator for orchestras and venues including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera, and Carnegie Hall. He provided liner notes for two DGG collections of the complete Beethoven symphonies. His writing honors include a 2012 Deems Taylor Award for internet writing, a Mellon Fel

Jan Tausinger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Tausinger (1 November 1921 in Piatra Neamţ – 29 July 1980 in Prague) was a Romania-born ethnic Czech violist, conductor and composer. Biography Tausinger studied composition at the Bucharest Conservatory as a pupil of Dimitrie Cuclin and Mihail Jora. Later, he continued his studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Pavel Bořkovec and Alois Hába. From 1948 to 1952, he studied also conducting with Metod Doležil and Karel Ančerl. Notes References * External links *Biography and list of works at the Czech Music Information Centre * *Short biographical sketch

Jan Vriend

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Jan Vriend (born November 1938 in Benningbroek) is a Dutch classical music composer, conductor, organist and pianist. He lives in Gloucestershire, England, and has lived there since 1984. Studies and career Vriend studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1960 to 1967, with Else Krijgsman (piano), Anthon van der Horst and Jan Felderhof (music theory), and Ton de Leeuw (composition). During this period, he also studied electronic music with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the University of Utrecht. External links *Official Website of Jan Vriend *Extensive biography at Donemus, Amsterdam

Jan W. Morthenson

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Jan Wilhelm Morthenson (7 April 1940 – 22 October 2024) was a prominent Swedish composer, critic, and writer primarily known for his criticism of music in Sweden and his compositional styles of non-figurative music, music that aimed to avoid any relationship to past compositional techniques, and meta-music, which alluded to historical music genres in order to criticize them. Morthenson’s success as a composer and intellect in Sweden is reflected by the influential positions he has held throughout his career. He was on the board for the Electronic Music Studio from 1973 to 1975, he acted as chairman of the Swedish section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ICSM) from 1974 to 1975, he was vice-chairman of the ISCM council from 1975 to 1978, and he was also the chairman for Fylkingen, a Swedish chamber music society that focuses primarily on new music, from 1975 to 1976. Training Morthenson was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden in 1940 and began studying music in Stockholm in 1956 with Runar Mangs, a prominent Swedish music critic. Mangs left a lasting impression on young Morthenson, who would later refer to him in an obituary as one of the most important contemporary mus

Jan Williams

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Jan Williams (born Jan Gardner Williams, July 17, 1939) is a percussionist, arts administrator, teacher, conductor, and composer who has championed avant-garde and progressive music in the United States. He is recognized as an important proponent of percussion performance and its literature. Biography Williams was born in Utica, New York, where he first studied drums in elementary school under George Claesgens. After experience playing snare drum in marching and concert bands, he began to study timpani while in high school. At Clarkson University (Potsdam, New York), then called Clarkson College, he elected an Electrical Engineering major because his teachers discouraged music as a career. Within a year, he was out of school, and the following fall he entered the Eastman School of Music to study with William Street, who advised Williams to study the keyboard percussion instruments seriously. Sometime during that year at Eastman, Williams read a magazine article that praised the work of Paul Price, a percussion teacher at the Manhattan School of Music who was performing new music for percussion ensemble. In the Fall of 1959, Williams moved to New York City to study with Price at the

Ján Zimmer

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Ján Zimmer (16 May 1926 – 21 January 1993) was a Slovak post-romantic composer and pianist. Biography Ján Zimmer was born in Ružomberok, North Slovakia. He studied at the Bratislava Conservatory between 1941 and 1948 with (piano), Józef Weber (organ) and Eugen Suchoň (composition). Afterwards he studied composition with Ferenc Farkas at the Budapest Music Academy, and in Salzburg in 1949. From 1948 to 1952 he taught music theory and piano at the Bratislava Conservatory. He also worked for the Czechoslovak Radio. From 1952 he devoted his time exclusively to composition and performance as a concert pianist (he performed in particular the piano part of his own piano concertos). His works, in the post-romantic style, are overall expressionistic and occasionally incorporate Slovakian folk music. Some of his works, such as the cantata The Uprising (1954), the powerful symphonic poem Strečno (1958), and the vocal symphonic poem Liberation (1975) are written in a nationalist spirit. Ján Zimmer composed more than 120 works, including especially two operas (1963 and 1977), twelve symphonies (from 1955 to 1985), seven piano concertos (from 1949 to 1985), many other concertos for various instr

Jana Obrovská

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Jana Obrovská (13 September 1930 – 4 April 1987) was a Czech composer. Biography Jana Obrovská was born in Prague, the daughter of painter and sculptor Jakub Obrovský. Her early studies were piano with B. Kabeláčová-Rixová and theory with Jaroslav Řídký. At the Prague Conservatory she studied with M. Krejčí and Emil Hlobil from 1949-55. She won a prize in the 1972 Concours International de Guitarre in Paris for Passocaglia und Toccata. Her Hommage a Béla Bartók became compulsory in the same Paris competition in 1975. Obrovská also composed music for orchestra and chamber ensembles. Obrovská married guitar virtuoso Milan Zelenka and the couple had a son, guitarist Vilém Zelenka (b. 1987) who often plays in a duo with his father. Works Obrovská’s compositions have been recorded and issued on CD, including: Selective discography *Passacaglia and Toccata for guitar, A. Artzt, Helios CD CDH88026 (1989) *Due Musici and Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra, M. Zelenka and L. Brabec with Radio Symphony Orchestra Pilsen, Supraphon VT2789-2 (2018) *Homage to Béla Bartók for guitar, R. Aussel HARMONIA MUNDI CD in MAN4802 (1992) *Four images of Japan for guitar, Tribute to Hiroshige - Homage

Jane O'Leary

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Jane O’Leary (born 13 October 1946) is an American-born Irish musician and composer who has been living in Ireland since 1972. Biography Jane O’Leary (née Strong) was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She graduated summa com laude from Vassar College and studied with Milton Babbitt at Princeton University, where she received a Ph.D. in composition. She lectured at Swarthmore College for a year and moved to Ireland in 1972. O’Leary’s music has been performed internationally at concert venues including, in the U.S., the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center, Chicago Cultural Center and Carnegie Hall. She is the founder (in 1976), artistic director and pianist of the ensemble Concorde, which regularly performs contemporary music. In 1981, she was one of the founders of the organisation ‘Music for Galway’ and served as its chairperson from 1984 to 1992. Other honorary positions included membership of the board of directors of the National Concert Hall, Dublin (1986–1996), member of the Irish Arts Council (1998–2003), chairperson of the Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin, and others. Since 1981 she has been a member of Aosdána, Ireland’s academy for creative artists. Since 2006, O’Leary teache

Jane Sinclair Wells

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Jane Kathleen Sinclair Wells (born 1952) is a British composer and saxophonist. She began her studies at the junior department of the Royal College of Music, then spent five years studying music education at universities in Durham, Sussex, and Southampton. She studied composition with David Lumsdaine and Jonathan Harvey. Later, she took courses in adult education, working with the frail elderly, and making music with learning-disabled adults. Wells worked in London from 1978 to 1987, where in addition to composing, she taught adults and led music-making sessions for children for the Battersea Arts Centre and the Gemini music ensemble. Wells moved to the north Norfolk coast in 1987 for a three-year residency as a composer/musician at a small local arts center. The residency developed into Norfolk Music Works, a community organization which Wells worked with until 1994. She then became a Lincolnshire county music worker until 1998 and established a music agency for the county called “Soundlincs.” During this time, she was also a PRS Composer-in-Education. In 2003, Wells joined the Hoofbeat Streetband with Chris Balch, Dawn Loombe, Richard Hall, and Derek Paice, playing music for acco

Janet Beat

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Janet Eveline Beat (born 17 December 1937) is a Scottish composer, music educator and music writer. Life Janet Beat was born in Streetly, Staffordshire, England and studied piano privately and horn at the Birmingham Conservatoire (formerly the Birmingham School of Music) before reading music at Birmingham University, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1960. In 1968 she gained a Master of Arts from Birmingham University. After completing her studies, she took a position teaching music with the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Her music has been performed internationally. She is one of the women pioneers in electronic music composition in Great Britain for her earliest musique concrete pieces belong to the late 1950s. Daphne Oram was helpful and encouraging here. The influences on her music are diverse and include non-European music as well as the sounds of nature and industry. The use of music technology allowed her to make sonic explorations and the use of microtonality. These influences also enriched her writing for acoustic instruments as in “Study of the Object no 3” (1970) for unaccompanied voices, a graphic score she calls sound sculpture, She is an Honora

Janet Graham

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Janet Christine Graham (born 4 June 1948) is an English composer, music educator and music therapist. Life Graham was born in Consett, County Durham, and studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1966 to 1970 with James Iliff. After her time at the Royal Academy of Music, she began teaching piano at the Mid Hertfordshire Music Centre while continuing to compose and study with Elisabeth Lutyens. In 1978,two of her pieces were selected for the BBC Young Composers’ Forum. Works Selected works include: * Pieces for organ: No.1, Prelude * Pieces for organ: No.2, Lament * Pieces for organ: No.3, Toccata * North East Hauntings. 1. Snow Sky * North East Hauntings. 2. Sea Mist * North East Hauntings. 3. Lullaby for Lost Skylines * North East Hauntings. 4. Red Dust * Quartet for flute, violin, viola and cello * Evening Flights * Soliloquium * This Great and Wide Sea * Persephone * Crux * Epitaphs * Diversitas * Atque in perpetuum * Cras amet * When I Was Young * The Light * Ca’ Hawkie through the water * Cradle Song * Eighty Notes for James * Quest * Earth Cry * Tractor and Plough * From Dusk to Dawn * Two Winter Songs * Two Christmas Motets * Until the Sunset Hour * Iris * Heca

Janet Maguire

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Janet Maguire (1927–2019) was an American composer who was born in Chicago and resided in Venice, Italy. Biography Maguire is known particularly for her arrangement of the finale of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, in which she exclusively used the sketches Puccini left for it at his death. Maguire is also known for her dramatic contemporary opera in three acts, Hérésie, and has worked in a wide variety of musical expressions throughout some fifty orchestral, chamber, solo, vocal, choral and stage works. Born in Chicago and raised in New Rochelle, New York, Janet Maguire began musical studies at the age of six: on piano, French horn, and cornet. She completed a BA degree in Piano at Colorado College, then went to Paris to study composition with René Leibowitz for five years. They co-authored the book Thinking for Orchestra: Practical Exercises in Orchestration (published by G. Schirmer), and a book about the orchestration of some of Jacques Offenbach’s works, Nuits Parisiennes (RCA, Bote & Bock), as well as Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Die Drei Pintos. Several summers spent at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse influenced Maguire’s style, as did the music of György Ligeti, Luigi Nono, and Karlhe

Janez Matičič

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Janez Matičič (3 June 1926 – 18 April 2022) was a Slovenian composer and pianist. He was a regular member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts starting in 2007. Matičič was born in Ljubljana, and was the brother of writer Nada Matičič. He graduated in composition from the Ljubljana Academy of Music in 1950 and conducting in 1951. From 1959 to 1961 he studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Then, from 1959 to 1975, he collaborated with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, who were experimenting with electroacoustic music under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer. Among Matičič’s works are two concertos for piano and orchestra, a concerto for cello and orchestra, and a number of pieces created in a modernist and experimental mode. In 2007 he received the Prešeren Award for his lifetime achievement in music. He died on April 17, 2022, at the age of 95. Works (Selection) Choir and Orchestra *Vision for choir and orchestra, op. 19 (1950) *Artemis for choir and orchestra, op. 69 (2012) Orchestra *Symphony No. 1, op. 21 (1950–1953) *Suite for string orchestra, op. 24 (1951–1955) *Trans…, op. 56 (1997) *Symphony No. 2, op. 58 (1997) Solo Instrument and Orchestra *Piano Concerto No. 1,

Jani Christou

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Jani Christou (, Giánnīs Chrī́stou; 8 or 9 January 1926 – 8 January 1970) was a Greek composer. Biography There is some disagreement about Christou’s birth, the date of which is given by some authorities as 8 January; while others state 9 January. Most sources agree that he was born in Heliopolis, Egypt, though one states he was born in Alexandria, and it has recently been reported that a birth certificate has been found stating that the composer was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, though this certificate is suspected of being a forgery. His parents were Eleutherios Christou, a Greek industrialist and chocolate manufacturer, and Lilika Tavernari, of Cypriot origin. He was educated at the English School in Alexandria and he took his first piano lessons from various teachers and from the important Greek pianist Gina Bachauer. In 1948 he gained an MA in philosophy after having studied with Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell in King’s College, Cambridge. During that time he also studied music with Hans Redlich (then living at Letchworth) and in 1949 travelled to Rome to study orchestration with Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. He briefly attended lectures by Carl Jung in Zurich. In 1951 he r

Jani Golob

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Jani Golob (born 18 January 1948) is a Slovenian composer, violinist, arranger and professor. His music opus is often on the thin line of classic, pop and jazz. Golob has composed operas, ballets, orchestral works, chamber and vocal music, and music for television and for advertising purposes. His most important works are probably three operas: Krpan’s mare (1992), Medeja (1999) and Love Capital (2010); and others as Four Slovene Folk Songs (1979 and 2005), Concerto for violin and orchestra (1998) and ballet The Baptism at the Savica (1989). He is most recognized by his contribution in Slovenian popular music. His internationally best-known piece of work is the unofficially named “Planica Slow Motion Theme” (1997), an instrumental piece of music played in slow motion replays annually on worldwide broadcasting of FIS Ski Jumping/Flying World Cup events from Planica, Slovenia. Especially because of this melody Golob became famous worldwide. Each year since 1997 this piece of music is played in Planica slow motion replays live to millions of people worldwide. Other hit songs are “Prisluhni školjki/A Song In a Seashell” (1985), “Moja dežela/My Country” (1986) and “Pustite nam ta svet/L

Janice Giteck

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Janice Giteck (born June 27, 1946 in New York), is an American composer. Biography Giteck grew up in Hicksville, Long Island and moved to Arizona when she was twelve years old. She attended Mills College, completing her Master’s in 1969 and studying under Darius Milhaud. She later studied under Olivier Messiaen, and following this she studied Indonesian gamelan music with Daniel Schmidt and percussion with Obo Addy. Her works came into wide circulation in the 1970s and 1980s, with a style heavily influenced by world music and the music of American Indians. Awards for her music include the National Endowment for the Arts Composer’s award for Breathing Songs from a Turning Sky, and the Norman Fromm Composers Award for Thunder, Like a White Bear Dancing. Giteck returned to school and received a Master’s in psychology in 1986, and worked in the mental health field from 1986 to 1991. In a 1999 joint interview with composer Ann Sandifur, Giteck and Sandifur described themselves as “life-oriented, not career oriented,” noting that they sought to be “versatile rather than specialized.” Discography * New Performance Group in Music (Mode Records, 1988) * Home (Revisited) (New Albion, 1992) P

Janina Skowronska

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Janina Skowronska (8 February 1920 – 1992) was a Polish composer who is best remembered for her arrangements of folk songs, and for creating Little Chopin, a children’s musical based on the life and works of Frederic Chopin. Skowronska was born to a Polish family in Germakowka (then in the USSR, now in Ukraine). She studied music at the State Music College in Wroclaw, Poland, and with Tadeusz Szeligowski. She received a diploma in 1961. Skowronska’s compositions included: Chamber *Theme and Variations (string quartet) *Drugi Brzeg (soprano, oboe, two clarinets and horn) *Moda Pani Czepca Nie Ma (mixed chorus) *Ziemio Moja (mixed chorus) References

Janine Charbonnier

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Janine Charbonnier (8 June 1926 - 28 May 2022) was a French composer, pianist, and piano teacher. She was born in Paris and married writer Georges Charbonnier. She studied with Pierre Barbaud at the Paris Conservatoire and taught piano for several years. As an algorithmic composer, Charbonnier used mathematical principles and logic to organize the form and musical materials of her works. With Barbaud and Roger Blanchard, she co-founded the Groupe de Musique Algorithmique de Paris (GMAP). With the assistance of Bull Centre National Computing Electronics, they produced their first concert of algorithmic music, as part of an art festival at the Rodin Museum in Paris in June 1959. Works Selected works include: *La Varsovienne, electronic, 1965 (with Roger Blanchard) *Circus, a theatrical musical based on a novel by Maurice Roche, 1973 *Réseaux aériens, for actors, piano, and harpsichord, 1962 *Exercice Op. 3, for woodwind quartet *Prélude, Canon, Choral, for saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and tuba *01 Hommage à Leibniz, for chamber ensemble, 1966 *01 10 Hommage à Leibniz, for chamber ensemble, 1970 *Filtres, for chamber orchestra, 1972 *Générateur I et II (Hommage à Blaise Pascal), for

János Bródy

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János Kristóf Bródy (Hungarian: Bródy János, born 5 April 1946) is a Hungarian pop singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer and scriptwriter. Successful both with the bands Illés and Fonográf and in his solo career, writing lyrics for singers like Zsuzsa Koncz or for rock operas like István, a király, he was a major figure of the Hungarian music scene in the 60s–90s. Early years János Bródy was born on 5 April 1946 in Budapest as the child of András Bródy, Széchenyi Award-winning economist, and Márta Vajna, a teacher. After his graduation from the Puskás Tivadar Telecommunication Technical School, in 1964 he joined the beat band Illés after a recommendation from Zsuzsa Koncz. The band, which previously gained its Budapest-wide fame from small club concerts playing Italian and English hits (like ones from The Hurricanes, The Shadows and The Beatles) recorded its first albums Long Tall Sally and Little Richard/Chapel. The band was more and more often accompanied by the young Levente Szörényi, with whom Bródy began their acclaimed musical partnership. After many of the members finished university, the band went through multiple changes, but was becoming more and more famous. In 1969 Bró

Janusz Muniak

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Janusz Józef Muniak (3 June 1941 – 31 January 2016) was a Polish jazz musician, saxophonist, flutist, arranger, and composer. He was one of the pioneers of free jazz in Europe, although later in life tended towards the mainstream style. He debuted in Lublin in 1960. From the 60s to the 90s, he worked with, among others, Ronnie Burrage, George Cables, James Cammack, Don Cherry, Ted Curson, Art Farmer, Eddie Gladden, Dexter Gordon, Eddie Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Hank Jones, Rusty Jones, Nigel Kennedy, Branislav Lala Kovačev, Joe Lovano, Wynton Marsalis, Lyle Mays, Pat Metheny, Hank Mobley, Takeo Moriyama, Joe Newman, Sal Nistico, Jasper van ’t Hof, Aladár Pege, Rufus Reid, Akira Sakata, Archie Shepp, Charlie Ventura, Yōsuke Yamashita and Polish musicians such as Vladyslav Sendecki, Tomasz Stańko, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Zbigniew Seifert, Adam Makowicz, Wojciech Karolak, Krzysztof Komeda, Andrzej Kurylewicz, Andrzej Trzaskowski, Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, Jarek Śmietana, Jan Jarczyk, Włodek Pawlik, Leszek Możdżer and Michał Urbaniak. He was one of the first jazz musiciansd who performed who cooperated with rock musicians like Dżamble and Czesław Niemen. After 1976, he was the leader of

Jaques Morelenbaum

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Jaques Morelenbaum (() born 18 May 1954) is a Brazilian instrumentalist, arranger, conductor, composer and music producer. Morelenbaum was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of conductor Henrique Morelenbaum and piano teacher Sarah Morelenbaum. His siblings are Lucia Morelenbaum, clarinetist in the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, and Eduardo Morelenbaum, conductor, arranger and instrumentalist. He is married to singer Paula Morelenbaum. He started his musical career as part of the group A Barca do Sol, and participated in the Nova Banda that performed live with Antonio Carlos Jobim and in recordings that led to a Grammy win for the CD Antonio Brasileiro. As a cellist, he studied music in Brazil and later attended the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1995, with Paula Morelenbaum, Paulo Jobim and Daniel Jobim he created the Quarteto Jobim Morelenbaum. The group has toured Europe several times, including an appearance at the Expo'98 held in Lisbon. They have also toured the United States and Brazil, and have recorded a CD (Quarteto Jobim Morelenbaum). Nordeste Já (Northeast Now) Morelenbaum sang in the choir of the Brazilian equivalent of We Are the World, the hit American song that r

Jards Macalé

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Jards Anet da Silva (March 3, 1943 – November 17, 2025), known as Jards Macalé, was a Brazilian composer, singer and actor, known for his influential role in Brazil’s tropicália movement in the 1960s. Life and career Macalé was born in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Tijuca, near Morro da Formiga, surrounded by music: on the hills, the drums; in the neighborhood, Vicente Celestino and Gilda de Abreu. At home, foxes, waltzes and folk songs played on the piano by his mother, Dona Ligia (who also sang), and the accordion by his father. The family choir had his younger brother, Roberto, and Jards. On the radio, Orlando Silva, , Emilinha Borba. In 1969, Macalé participated in the 4th International Song Festival presenting the song “Gotham City”. Macalé participated as an actor and composer of the soundtrack of the films The Amulet of Ogum and Tent of Miracles, by Nelson Pereira dos Santos. In 1976, Macalé became partner of Moreira da Silva on some sambas. In 2013 he participated in Exile Songs event, which claimed to be an anarchist, and Tenda dos Milagres. In 2019, his album Besta Fera was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Best MPB Album and considered one of the 25 best

Jaroslav Krček

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Jaroslav Krček (born 22 April 1939) is a Czech radio producer, conductor, inventor of musical instruments and composer of classical and folk music. Biography Jaroslav Krček was born in Čtyři Dvory, today a part of České Budějovice in South Bohemian Region. He studied at the B. Jeremiáš School of Music in České Budějovice before studying composition with Miloslav Kabeláč and conducting with Bohumír Liška, both at Prague Conservatory. Krček was the musical director for Plzeň Radio and the music editor for the recording company Supraphon. He is the artistic leader and performer in the folklore group Chorea Bohemica (founded 1967), for which he has composed and adapted a number of songs and dances. a chamber ensemble specialising in Czech (Bohemian) Christmas songs, was created in 1975 by Krček as an offspring of Chorea Bohemica. Some of Krček’s music is inspired by early Czech music, medieval and Renaissance songs, 16th century hymn books and baroque music. Also interested in folk music of the 18th and 19th centuries, Krček has arranged several hundred folksongs and folk dances. Raab: an electronic opera Raab (aka Raab The Harlot) or Nevěstka Raab (The Prostitute Raab) is one of Krček

Jarosław Kukulski

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Jarosław Kazimierz Kukulski (25 May 1944 – 13 September 2010) was a Polish composer. He was the husband of late singer Anna Jantar and the father of singer Natalia Kukulska. Early life Kukulski was born on May 25, 1944, in Września to Maria and Kazimierz Kukulski. In 1967, Kukulski graduated from Poznań Secondary Music School and the Instrumental Department of the State Higher School of Music in Poznań, where he learned to play the oboe. At the same time he completed an internship in Poznań Opera and the philharmonic in Zielona Góra. He collaborated with a cabaret ”Nurt” in Poznań. Career For a time, he played jazz in dixieland bands. In 1968, at the II Military Song Festival in Kołobrzeg, he received an award from the Ministry of National Defense for the song Zaślubinowy pierścień (‘The Wedding Ring’). In 1968, he started a big-beat band named Waganci. In 1969, his future wife Anna Jantar joined the band as a soloist. As a result of frequent personnel changes, Kukulski disbanded the group in 1972 in order to focus on his wife’s solo career. In the 1970s, he was responsible for most of Anna Jantar’s greatest successes and wrote for her notable hits such as, Najtrudniejszy pierwszy

Jay Chattaway

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Jay Chattaway (born July 8, 1946) is an American composer of film and television scores. He is mainly known for his work as composer for several Star Trek television series: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. In 2001, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Music for a Series for the final episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Early life Chattaway was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania and studied music at West Virginia University (WVU). College career At WVU, Chattaway was also a member of many student organizations, including the Mountaineer Marching Band, Lambda Chi Alpha social fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band service fraternity, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia men’s music social fraternity. He was initiated into the Omicron chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi at WVU on December 6, 1965, and is currently an alumni brother of the fraternity. His initiation into the Epsilon Sigma chapter of Phi Mu Alpha took place on March 1, 1965. He became a regular member of a rhythm and blues band called the “Abductors” in which he played trumpet, wrote the musical scores, and was musical director. Music career Chattaway was drafted into the mi

Jay Cloidt

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Jay Cloidt (born October 5, 1949) is an American composer, performer, sound designer, and audio engineer. History Cloidt received his BA in piano performance from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and his MFA in Electronic Music and the Recording Media from Mills College Center for Contemporary Music in 1981, studying with Robert Ashley and David Behrman. As a sound designer, he has worked with many groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Kronos Quartet and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Cloidt’s work on the Paul Dresher Ensemble’s production of Slow Fire won a Bay Area Critics Circle Award, and he received an Isadora Duncan Award in 1989 with Rinde Eckert for the sound design of Eckert’s Dry Land Divine. As a composer, Cloidt has been commissioned by such organizations as the Gary Palmer Dance Company, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and the Kronos Quartet, for whom he has written three pieces. His music typically uses electronics, is technically sophisticated, and often contains humor. The San Francisco Chronicle has called Cloidt “The Spike Jones of the Bay Area new music scene.” His music has been performed at the Venice Biennale

Jay Graydon

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Jay Joseph Graydon (born October 8, 1949, Burbank, California) is an American songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, singer, keyboardist, producer, arranger, and recording engineer. He is the winner of two Grammy Awards (in the R&B category) with twelve Grammy nominations, among them the title “Producer of the Year” and “Best Engineered Recording”. He has mastered many different music styles and genres, and his recordings have been featured on record, film, television and the stage. History Graydon made his singing debut on his second birthday on the “Joe Graydon Show,” the first music/talk television show in Los Angeles, hosted by his father, Joe Graydon. During and for a brief time after his college days, Graydon played in the Don Ellis Band, whose style can be described as experimental post-bop jazz. He can be heard on the live double album Don Ellis at Fillmore and the studio albums The New Don Ellis Band Goes Underground, Connection and Soaring. L. A. session musician From the late 1960s to late 1970s Graydon was a session musician in Los Angeles, working with such artists as Gino Vannelli, Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, The Jackson Five, Alice Cooper, Cheap Tri

Jay Gruska

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Jay Gruska (; born April 23, 1952) is an American songwriter and composer best known for his film and television scoring, and for writing hit songs for a variety of artists. He has composed musical scores for dozens of TV dramas, with over 500 hours of shows played internationally. Gruska has received three Emmy Award nominations, one Genie Award nomination, and eleven ASCAP awards. Some of his best-known scores are for the TV shows Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Charmed, and Supernatural. Career Gruska started his career as a singer/songwriter. He was briefly a member of Three Dog Night in 1976, replacing Danny Hutton, until the group disbanded. He had recording contracts with ABC Records for his first solo album, and Warner Bros. Records with the band Maxus, for which he was the lead singer and songwriter. Warner Bros. Records later released his second solo album Which One of Us Is Me, which Gruska also produced. Gruska is also known for co-writing the hit duet “Tell Me I’m Not Dreamin’ (Too Good to Be True)”, for Jermaine and Michael Jackson, which was #1 on the Billboard dance charts; the Gloria Loring/Carl Anderson duet “Friends and Lovers”, which was #2 on the

Jay Reise

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Jay Reise (born February 9, 1950) is an American composer and teacher. He is known for the opera Rasputin, premiered by the New York City Opera and later performed in the United States, Moscow, and Paris. He is Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. Biography Reise spent his childhood surrounded by classical music and jazz, but began his composition studies with Jimmy Giuffre and Hugh Hartwell in 1970. After graduating at Hamilton College in 1972, he pursued composition study at McGill University (with Bengt Hambraeus and Bruce Mather), the University of Pennsylvania (AM, 1975; George Crumb and Richard Wernick), Tanglewood, and Carnatic rhythm with Adrian L’Armand. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. Reise is married to visual artist Cecilia Paredes Works written before the adoption of the rhythmic method include Symphony of Voices (1978) which was premiered at the Monadnock Festival with soprano Neva Pilgrim, and his Second Symphony (1980) premiered by the Syracuse Symphony, conducted by Christopher Keene, and performed subsequently by the Philadelphia Orchestra. His Third Symphony was premiered by Keene and the Lo

Jay Sydeman

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William Jay Sydeman (May 8, 1928 – May 27, 2021) was a prolific American composer. He was born in New York. He studied at Duke University, and received a B.S. degree in 1955 from the Mannes School of Music, having studied with Felix Salzer, Roy Travis, and Roger Sessions. He received his master’s in music from the Hartt School in 1958, studying under Arnold Franchetti and Goffredo Petrassi. In 1951 he married Hope Millholland, a pianist and fellow student at Mannes. Winning early acclaim for his avant-garde music (principally published by C. F. Peters), he felt trapped by the prevailing orthodoxies and moved to California in 1970, beginning a period of wandering during which he also studied Buddhism and Anthroposophy. He joined ASCAP in 1975. From 1980 to 1982 he taught at Rudolph Steiner College in Fair Oaks. In 1981 he settled in Sacramento and resumed composition at his former prolific rate, having newly embraced a neotonal musical language. He later moved to Mendocino. In 1966, his catalog (nearly 75 works by this date) was edited by Nancy B. Reich and published as an early exercise in machine-readable catalogs. A 2nd edition, published by NYU Department of Music Education, was

Jean Barraqué

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Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué (17 January 1928 – 17 August 1973) was a French composer and music writer. His relatively small is known for its serialism. Life Barraqué was born in Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seine. In 1931, he moved with his family to Paris. He studied in Paris with Jean Langlais and Olivier Messiaen and, through Messiaen, became interested in serialism. After completing his Piano Sonata in 1952, he suppressed or destroyed his earlier works. A book published by the French music critic André Hodeir, titled Since Debussy, created controversy around Barraqué by claiming this work as perhaps the finest piano sonata since Beethoven. As the work had still not been publicly performed, and only two other works by him had at this time, the extravagant claims made for Barraqué in this book were received with some scepticism. With hindsight, however, it is clear that Hodeir had accurately perceived the exceptional features of Barraqué’s music—notably its searing Romantic intensity, which distinguishes it from the contemporaneous works of Boulez or Stockhausen. As Paul Griffiths’ biography clarified, Boulez had in fact attempted to get the Barraqué Piano Sonata performed for some years a

Jean Bonfils (composer)

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Jean-Baptiste Marcel Éloi Bonfils (21 April 1921 – 26 November 2007) was a 20th-century French organist, music educator, musicologist and composer. Biography Born in Saint-Étienne (Loire), Bonfils commenced his musical studies at the . After the war, he resumed his studies at the conservatoire de Paris where he obtained a First Prize in organ (1949) in the class of Marcel Dupré, a 2nd Prize in composition (1948) in the class of Jean Rivier and a 1st medal in musical analysis (1950) with Olivier Messiaen. In the same year, he became Olivier Messiaen’s assistant on the organ of the église de la Trinité à Paris, and this until 1992, then the assistant of Naji Hakim until 1999. Jean Bonfils was also the organist at the Grand Synagogue of Paris from 1953 to 1997. Bonfils taught the organ at the Schola Cantorum de Paris from 1961 to 1973. With Gaston Litaize, he directed the important series L’Organiste liturgique (1953-1967) at Éditions musicales of the Schola Cantorum and la Procure générale de Musique. Bonfils died in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine department) on 26 November 2007 at the age of 86. Publications *1969–1970: The first two Livres d’orgue by Jacques Boyvin at Éditions Ouvrières *

Jean Chatillon

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Jean Chatillon (13 September 1937 – 16 January 2019 ) was a Canadian composer and music educator. Early life Jean Chatillon was born into a family of musicians on 13 September 1937 in Nicolet, Quebec. In 1951, he began to play piano and to compose. Initially self-taught, he undertook serious musical studies with the master in Montreal. Career In 1969, he founded the Music Section of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières and taught there until 1981. In 1970, he was a founding member of the “Institut de sciences musicales Conrad Letendre”, along with Michel Perrault. After his retirement from teaching in 1981, he dedicated himself fully to his art. Chatillon wrote more than 300 musical and literary works. He was an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre. In 2003, he was appointed Professor Emeritus by the University of Quebec. In January 2004, he became a founding member of the Delian Society, which is dedicated to the renaissance of tonal music. Chatillon died on 16 January 2019 in Trois-Rivières. References

Jean Constantin (songwriter)

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Jean Constantin (9 February 1923 – 30 January 1997) was a French singer, songwriter and composer. A prominent songwriter in France, he wrote several songs that became hits like Mon manège à moi sung by Édith Piaf and Mon truc en plumes sung by Zizi Jeanmaire. Despite being a notable performer of the piano and singing his own work, he was far more prominent for his songwriting for other French artists and musicians. He also wrote several movie scores, most notably the soundtrack of the film classic The 400 Blows (1959). References External links *

Jean Eichelberger Ivey

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Jean Eichelberger Ivey (July 3, 1923 – May 2, 2010) was an American composer who produced an extensive and diverse catalog of solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works as an innovator and “respected electronic composer.” Early life and education Born in 1923 to Joseph S. Eichelberger and Mary Elizabeth Pfeiffer, Jean B. Eichelberger Ivey attended high school at the Academy of Notre Dame in Washington, D.C. Though her childhood was impacted by the Great Depression and her father’s loss of his job as editor of the anti-feminist serial The Woman Patriot, Jean Eichelberger won a full-tuition scholarship at Trinity College in Washington, D.C. where she graduated magna cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in 1944. Subsequently, she earned master’s degrees in piano performance from Peabody Conservatory and composition from the Eastman School of Music where she studied under Wayne Barlow, Kent Kennan, and Bernard Rogers. In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s she taught at Trinity College (1945-1955), the Peabody Conservatory (1946), and the Catholic University of America (1952-1955), and College Misericordia (1955-1957). From 1960 to 1962 she taught at Xavier University in New Orlean

Jean Guillou

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Jean Victor Arthur Guillou (18 April 1930 – 26 January 2019) was a French composer, organist, pianist, and pedagogue. Principal Organist at Saint Eustache in Paris, from 1963 to 2015, he was widely known as a composer of instrumental and vocal music focused on the organ, as an improviser, and as an adviser to organ builders. For several decades he held regular master classes in Zurich and in Paris. Career Guillou was born in Angers. Following his first studies in piano and organ, he became the organist at the church St. Serge in Angers at the age of 12. In 1952, while still studying, Guillou played the premiere of his organ transcription of The Musical Offering by Johann Sebastian Bach at Erskine and American United Church in Montreal, Canada. In 1955, he accepted a position as professor of organ and composition at the Institute of Sacred Music in Lisbon. Due to health reasons, Guillou underwent long term medical treatment in Berlin and relocated to this city in 1958. During the following five years, he composed numerous works and made his first recordings at Lutherkirche and St. Matthias church. In 1963 he returned to Paris, having been appointed Principle Organist at Saint-Eustac

Jean Leccia

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Jean Hubert Leccia (19 February 1938 – 10 January 2023), known in the United States as Jean Lexia, was a French composer, conductor, singer, and pianist. Leccia was active in various musical genres, such as pop, jazz, ballet, electronic, and classical. He collaborated with many artists, including Charles Aznavour, Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet, and Line Renaud. He was also the composer of several film scores and television series, such as the soap opera . Biography Born in Lyon on 19 February 1938, Leccia was a child prodigy and began studying music at the age of five. When he was nine years-old, he enrolled in the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon, where he studied music theory, piano, accompaniment, harmony, and counterpoint. He began playing in balls and galas to finance his studies. In 1952, Latin American conductor Benny Bennet gave a concert in Lyon, in which Leccia became the replacement pianist after the original had fallen ill. Although Leccia was only 14, Bennet was highly impressed and invited him to come to Paris after his studies. He came to Paris two years later and became a pianist at the Moulin Rouge. In Paris, he gained notoriety and met

Jean Perrin (composer)

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Jean Perrin (September 17, 1920 – September 24, 1989) was a Swiss composer and pianist. He composed in a neo-classical style, sometimes approaching polytonality, and his music shows the influence of Stravinsky and Poulenc. He began studying piano in Lausanne, where he was born, and later studied with Franz-Joseph Hirt in Bern and Edwin Fischer in Lucerne. Eventually he went to Paris to study piano with Yves Nat. In Paris he also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger and Darius Milhaud. After returning to Lausanne he taught piano and also edited program notes for the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra for over 20 years. He died in his sleep in Lausanne the night before the worldwide broadcast on French-speaking radio of the world premiere of his string quartet. List of selected works Perrin wrote over 50 compositions, some of which are listed here: *Concerto grosso for piano and orchestra, op. 6b (1952) *Sonatas(1953-6): ** for horn and piano, op. 7 ** for violin and piano, op. 8 ** for piano, op. 10b ** for cello and piano, op. 11 ** for flute and piano, op. 12b *Symphony No. 2, op. 15 (1959) *Mass for four soloists, chorus, and orchestra, op. 19 (unfinished) *Piano Quartet, op. 23 (196

Jean Roussel

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Jean Alain Roussel (born 1951) is a Mauritian-born musician, composer, record producer, arranger, educator and Sono-Therapist. Career He is best known for his keyboard work from the 1970s through today, playing regularly live and in studio with Cat Stevens (e.g. “Peace Train”, “Bitterblue”, “Oh Very Young”, “Tuesday’s Dead”, “Wild World”, “Where Do the Children Play?”, “Sitting”, “Catch Bull at Four”, “Teaser and the Firecat”, and “Buddha and the Chocolate Box”), and playing on and arranging “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police in 1980. He was also the Composer of Rick Ross’s Grammy-nominated (2013) “Ashamed” and Wilson Pickett’s “Shameless” (1979). Roussel has worked in various capacities with many artists, including Paul Kossoff (Producer/Composer “Back Street Crawler”), Sandy Denny, Thin Lizzy, Phil Lynott, Gary Moore, Peter Frampton, Roy Buchanan, Bob Marley and the Wailers (“Natty Dread”, “No Woman, No Cry”, “Rastaman Vibration”, “Lively Up Yourself”, etc.), Ron Wood, John Paul Jones, Frida, Celine Dion, Elkie Brooks, John Martyn, Alan White, Roger Glover, Luther Vandross, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Mitch Mitchell, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Cheryl Lynn,

Jean-Christian Michel

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Jean-Christian Michel (born 1938) is a composer and clarinetist. His compositions are influenced by jazz and by baroque music, particularly that of Johann Sebastian Bach. Before starting his musical career, Jean-Christian Michel was a doctor, as a surgeon. His first record Requiem was released in 1966. He founded the ensemble Quatuor avec Orgue. Michel has received 3 diamond discs, 7 platinum discs and 10 golden discs. With more than five million discs sold, (3 discs classified 1, 2 & 3 in the charts of CIDD-France soir in the seventies); and thousands of concerts to his credit, he today pursues a global career. Michel is a “Full Member” of the SACEM (an association of composers and music publishers to protect copyright and royalties). He received the prize for “Sciences and Culture” at Sorbonne, Paris, France, which was awarded by a jury of six Nobel Prize winners. Jean-Christian Michel is currently the godfather of the campaign Neurodon, within the Federation for Brain Research FRC Drummer Kenny Clarke played and recorded with Michel for 10 years. Michel is also a very experienced mountain climber. He was a member of the group that made the first-ever ascent of Tawesche, in the H

Jean-Claude Éloy

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Jean-Claude Éloy (15 June 1938 – 19 November 2025) was a French composer of instrumental, vocal and electroacoustic music. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and collaborated with studios of electronic music in Cologne and in Tokyo. Inspired beyond Western classical music traditions by Hindu and Japanese philosophy and music, he composed long ritual pieces. Life and career Éloy was born in Mont-Saint-Aignan near Rouen on 15 June 1938. He studied with Darius Milhaud and Maurice Martenot at the Conservatoire de Paris from the age of twelve. He was awarded four premier prix: in piano (1957), in chamber music (1958), in counterpoint (1959), and in ondes Martenot (1960). During this same period he attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1957, 1960, and 1961, where he studied with Hermann Scherchen, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was especially impressed by Henri Pousseur. Between 1961 and 1963, he also studied with Boulez at the City of Basel Music Academy. In 1966, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught until 1968. Afterwards, he moved away from serial music and turned to references to philosoph

Jean-Claude Risset

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Jean-Claude Raoul Olivier Risset (; 13 March 1938 – 21 November 2016) was a French composer, best known for his pioneering contributions to computer music. He was a former student of André Jolivet and former co-worker of Max Mathews at Bell Labs. Biography Risset was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, France. Arriving at Bell Labs, New Jersey in 1964, he used Max Mathews’ MUSIC IV software to digitally recreate the sounds of brass instruments. He made digital recordings of trumpets and studied their timbral composition using “pitch-synchronous” spectrum analysis tools, revealing that the amplitude and frequency of the harmonics (more correctly, partials) of these instruments would differ depending on frequency, duration and amplitude. He is also credited with performing the first experiments on a range of synthesis techniques including FM synthesis and waveshaping. Risset was the head of the Computer Department at IRCAM (1975–1979). At MIT Media Labs, he composed the first Duet for one pianist (1989). For his work in computer music and his 70 compositions, he received the first Golden Nica (Ars Electronica Prize, 1987), the Giga-Hertz Grand Prize 2009, and the highest French awards in both m

Jean-Claude Touche

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Jean-Claude Touche (7 August 1926 – 29 August 1944) was a French musician, organist and composer. Biography Jean-Claude Touche was born in Paris. His father, Firmin Touche (Avignon, 25 juillet 1875-1957), was concertmaster of the Concerts Colonne and academic at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1941, Jean-Claude entered the Conservatoire de Paris where Henri Rabaud had just given way to Claude Delvincourt. He attended the classes of Maurice Duruflé and Marcel Dupré. He won a first prize in organ in 1944, three months before his death. During his very short existence, he composed some quality works: Thème et variations sur Veni creator and a Pastorale pour orgue. “He had the virtuoso’s gifts, clarity, flames. His executions were at the same time thoughtful and alive. He loved improvisation and shared with his listeners his aspirations and religious ecstasy.” Thus spoke Marcel Dupré about his student. In Le Figaro dated 12 August 1999, Hélène de Felice wrote: “All those who knew Jean-Claude Touche have an extraordinary memory of him. He possessed the charisma that beauty brings to the intelligence, the beauty of the mind and the beauty of the heart. He radiated a real faith, that which

Jean-Louis Florentz

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Jean-Louis Florentz (19 December 1947 – 4 July 2004) was a French composer. Biography Born in Asnières-sur-Seine, Florentz was a student of Pierre Schaeffer and Olivier Messiaen. In 1978, he won the Lili Boulanger composition prize, followed by various prizes from the SACEM and the Institut de France. His unceasing travels in Africa allowed him to study ethnomusicology and linguistics. He was a friend of Olivier Latry, organist of Notre-Dame. He was a composer-in-residence at the Villa Médicis in Rome (1980–1981) and at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid (1983–1985) He died from cancer in 2004 in Paris. He had been a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts since 1995. Works * Ti’ndé (Op. 1, 1975–1976), for viola and small orchestra *:Commission from the Ministry of Culture * Ténéré - Incantation sur un verset coranique (Op. 2, 1977–1978), for orchestra *:Commission from the Ministry of Culture * Magnificat - Antiphone for the Visitation (Op. 3, 1979–1980), for tenor, mixed choir and orchestra *:Commission from the Festival d’arts sacrés de la Ville de Paris. * Les Marches du Soleil (Op. 4, 1981–1983), for orchestra. Commission from Radio France * Laudes - Kidân za-nageh (op. 5, 1983–198

Jean-Louis Petit (composer)

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Jean-Louis Petit (born 20 August 1937) is a French composer, conductor and organist. He studied composition with Georges Moineau and organ with Arsène Muzerelle at the Conservatoire de Reims before he studied under Simone Plé-Caussade and Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris. He joined courses in conducting with Léon Barzin at the Schola Cantorum, Franco Ferrara in Venice, Igor Markevitch in Madrid, Monaco und Santiago, Chile and Pierre Boulez in Basel. Petit won the Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in New York in 1968. He founded many orchestras in France and conducted the Orchestre de Reims, with which he traveled to Belgium and Germany. They have been recorded by radio stations many times. He was guest conductor to orchestras around the world, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Symphony New Brunswick, the Orchestre de Paris and the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. Petit signed with Decca Records in 1964 and conducted the series Collection Grand Siècle. Soloists were

Jean-Luc Darbellay

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Jean-Luc Darbellay (born 2 July 1946) is a Swiss composer, conductor, clarinetist and physician. He was chairman of the Swiss Society for New Music and board member of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Darbellay is a member of the composers group: Groupe Lacroix. He has published about 150 works. He was awarded with the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Life and work Darbellay was born in Bern. Like his father and brother, he first studied medicine at the University of Bern. In 1975 he studied the clarinet with Kurt Weber at the Bern Conservatory and musical composition with Theo Hirsbrunner, Cristobal Halffter and Dimitri Terzakis. He attended seminars with Pierre Boulez (IRCM and Collège de France) and Franco Ferrara and masterclasses with Heinz Holliger and Klaus Huber. He was assistant of Edison Denisov at the Lucerne Festival. At a festival in Perugia he met John Cage, who visited Europe the last time before his death in 1992. He studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux, Paul Theissen and Jean-Marie Auberson as well. The cellist Anssi Karttunen first premiered his Concerto for violin and cello at the Maison de Radio France in 1989. He composed Ecume for strin

Jean-Michel Damase

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Jean-Michel Damase (; 27 January 1928 – 21 April 2013) was a French pianist, conductor and composer of classical music. Career Damase was born in Bordeaux, the son of harpist Micheline Kahn. He was studying piano and solfège with Marcel Samuel-Rousseau at the age of five and composing by age nine. His first work (at the age of nine) was a setting of some poems by Colette, whom he had met at a Parisian salon. In the same year, he won the Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Et la belle se réveilla. Selected compositions ;Orchestral *Symphony (1952) *Serenade for strings (1959) *Trio for flute, viola and harp (1947) *Colombe (1958, premiered 1961 Bordeaux, libretto Jean Anouilh with Maria Murano) References Sources *Greene, David Mason (1985). . Reproducing Piano Roll Fnd. page 1512. . *

Jean-Michel Defaye

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Jean-Michel Defaye (18 September 1932 – 1 January 2025) was a French pianist, composer, arranger and conductor known for his collaboration with French poet and singer-songwriter Léo Ferré. Life and career Defaye was born in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, near Paris, on 18 September 1932. In 1952 he won second prize of the Grand Prix de Rome; * Suite Marine * Morceau de Concours I (SG 1–2) * Morceau de Concours II (SG 3–4) * Morceau de Concours III (SG 5) * Deux Danses, for trombone and piano (1954) * Quatre pièces, for trombone quartet (1954) * Sonatine for trumpet and piano (1956) * 1960: * 1961: Les Chansons d’Aragon * 1961: (live) * 1962: * 1964: * 1964: Verlaine et Rimbaud * 1966: * 1967: * 1967: Léo Ferré chante Baudelaire * 1969: L’Été 68 * 1969: Les Douze Premières Chansons de Léo Ferré * 1970: Amour Anarchie * 1972: * 2003: (recorded in 1961) References External links * * * Jean Michel Defaye Martin Musique * Jean-Michel Defaye mubi.com * Jean-Michel Defaye (films) allocine.fr * Jean-Michel Defaye music.metason.net

Jean-Michel Jarre

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Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient, and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanied by vast laser displays, large projections and fireworks. Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents and trained on the piano. From an early age, he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including street performers, jazz musicians and the artist Pierre Soulages. His musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxygène. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 18 million copies. Oxygène was followed in 1978 by Equinoxe, and in 1979, Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums followed, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale o

Jean-Philippe Goude

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Jean-Philippe Goude is a French composer and keyboardist, born in Paris on 27 July 1952. Early work * 1969: first compositions * 1975: composition and recording of the soundtrack for Frankenstein, a play by Philippe Adrien at Théâtre de la Roquette (Paris) * 1975: publication of the album Jeunes Années (Saravah) * 1976 to 1979: participation in the group Weidorje - keyboards and composition * 1979: publication of the album Drônes * 1979: artistic direction and arrangements for Dick Annegarn. * 1979 to 1983: participation in the group Odeurs- compositions, arrangements, artistic direction * 1979 to 1985: artistic direction, arrangements and orchestration on the albums by Renaud: **Marche à l’ombre **Le Retour de Gérard Lambert **Morgane de toi **Mistral gagnant **Putain de camion Creations and publications * Salve Regina for contralto, violin, cello and piano. Premiere April 1992, at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris) at the festival Musicora. Interpreted by Gérard Lesne (contralto), Johannes Leertouwer (violin), Bruno Cocset (cello) and Marie-Pierre Brun (piano) * 1992: publication of the CD De Anima * 1994: publication of the CD Ainsi de Nous * 1994: creation of the ensemble Jean-

Jean-Pierre Bourtayre

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Jean-Pierre Bourtayre (31 January 1942 – 4 March 2024) was a French composer. He worked for numerous performers, such as Jacques Dutronc, Michel Sardou, and Claude François. Biography Born in Paris on 31 January 1942, Bourtayre was the son of Henri Bourtayre, noted composer for Tino Rossi and Luis Mariano. He began his composing career in the 1960s, notably for the group Les Chats Sauvages, as well as Dick Rivers. In the late 1960s, he collaborated with , , and Hugues Aufray, the last two of whom he composed the song “Adieu monsieur le professeur” for. In 1971, his song “Un banc, un arbre, une rue” was performed by Séverine at that year’s Eurovision Song Contest, winning for Monaco. That year, he became artistic director for Claude François, for whom he wrote the songs “Le Téléphone Pleure”, “Magnolias for Ever”, and “Alexandrie Alexandra”. His song “Parce que je t’aime, mon enfant” later became a re-lyricised 1974 UK hit single for Elvis Presley under the title “My Boy”. In 1974, he wrote the song “Celui qui reste et celui qui s’en va” for Romuald Figuier. Bourtayre composed numerous theme songs for television series, such as L’Arsène (1971) and Gentleman cambrioleur (1973). In 19

Jean-Pierre Drouet

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Jean-Pierre Drouet (born 30 October 1935) is a French multi-instrumentist percussionist and composer. Born in Bordeaux, Drouet studied with René Leibowitz, Jean Barraqué and André Hodeir. In India, he deepened his knowledge of non-European instruments and music, such as the tabla and especially the tonbak (Persian drum) that he studied with Djamchid Chemirani. He is remarkable especially for the eclecticism and quantity of his musical production, as a performer and as a composer. Collaborations Drouet took part very early in the development of “new European improvised music” alongside Vinko Globokar and Michel Portal. In a more classical register, he will play, among others, on the records of Les Double Six, and accompany Line Renaud at the Casino de Paris. It is on this occasion, at the instigation of Pierre Urban, that he discovered the tonbak. But it is especially in the field of contemporary music that he will distinguish himself, in particular by his participation in the shows of the Atelier théâtre et musique (ATEM), with Georges Aperghis, Michael Lonsdale and Édith Scob, the foundation of the “Trio Le Cercle” with Willy Coquillat and Gaston Sylvestre, his collaborations with

Jean-Pierre Guézec

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Jean-Pierre Guézec (19 August 1934 – 9 March 1971) was a French composer. Life Born in Dijon, Guézec studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris with Darius Milhaud, Jean Rivier and Olivier Messiaen. He also worked with Iannis Xenakis. His very personal language is influenced by the techniques of modern painting, in particular those of Mondrian and Vasarely. His research led him to compose works in which the contrasts of sound materials and a very original sense of colour dominate, as evidenced by the title of his works. From 1969 to 1971, he held an analysis class at the Conservatoire de Paris until his early death at the age of 36 in Paris. Xenakis dedicated his 1971 composition Charisma to Guézec. Awards * Musical composition prize of the 1963 Tanglewood Music Center. * Grand Prix for the symphonic promotion of the SACEM in 1968 Principal compositions * Concert for main violin and 14 instruments (1960) * Concert en 3 parties, for percussion and 10 musicians (1961) * Trois poèmes de Henri Michaux, for voice and piano (1961) * La Loreley, on a them by Guillaume Apollinaire for soprano, baritone, narrator and orchestra (1961) * Suite pour Mondrian, 7 parts to play in any order, for

Jean-Pierre Leguay

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Jean-Pierre Leguay (born 4 July 1939 in Dijon) is a French organist, composer and improviser. On 1 January 2013, he became a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour, the most prestigious French national order of merit, Career He studied with André Marchal, Gaston Litaize, Rolande Falcinelli (organ), Simone Plé-Caussade (counterpoint), and Olivier Messiaen (composition), before serving as titular organist at Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Paris from 1961 to 1984. In 1985 he was named a titular organist at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, alongside Olivier Latry, Yves Devernay and Philippe Lefebvre. He held this position through the end of 2015, and is now titular organist emeritus. From 1968 to 1989, he taught organ, improvisation (both single and in ensemble) at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Limoges (and music history until 1986), and at the Conservatoire National de Région de Dijon from 1989 to 2003. He has also been in charge of improvisation courses in Paris at the Centre d’Action Liturgique et Musical (1985-1988) and at the Conservatoire Erik Satie du 7e arrondissement. Recognized as a concert organist, composer and improviser—not only at the organ, but also as a

Jeanine Rueff

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Jeanine Rueff (5 February 1922 – c. September 1999) was a French composer and music educator. Biography Jeanine Rueff was born in Paris and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Tony Aubin, Henri Challan, Jean and Noël Gallon, and Henri Busser. During her time at the Paris Conservatory, she was awarded first prizes in harmony, fugue, counterpoint, composition and history of music. In 1948 she won second place in the Grand Prix de Rome with Odette Gartenlaub. Rueff was a collaborative pianist at the Conservatoire de Paris beginning in 1950, accompanying students in the saxophone class of Marcel Mule and in the clarinet class of Ulysse Delécluse. She taught solfège, sight-singing, and aural skills there from 1960 to 1971. Later, Rueff also taught a harmony course, continuing until 1988. Her long tenure at the Conservatoire de Paris suggests she influenced many other musicians. Her former pupils include many conservatory directors and teachers in regional and national schools and universities. Rueff’s most famous pupil was Jean-Michel Jarre, a pioneer of French electronic music. She wrote extensively for saxophone, saxhorn, euphonium, baritone horn, clarinet and cornet. Her compo

Jeanne Colin-De Clerck

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Jeanne (Albertine) Colin-De Clerck (born 9 January 1924) is a Belgian composer who also uses the names Jeanne Colin and Albertine De Clerck. She was born in Brussels, Belgium, and studied at Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. During her time at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music she won first prize for solfeggio (1942) and a “mention for piano accompaniment”. After completing her education, she began to compose without formal instruction. Four years later, she took a position teaching at the Music Academy in Anderlecht, and taught as a professor of solfeggio at the Academy of Music Anderlecht from 1946 to 1977. She married composer Georges Colin (1921–2002), and together they had two sons and two daughters. Throughout her compositional career she also collaborated with her husband on pieces. Works Colin-De Clerck composes vocal, chamber and electronic music. Selected work include: *Matière habitée op.9, for orchestra (1968) *String Quartet (1968) *Caprice, violin & piano (1970) *Divertissement op.13, for string orchestra (1970) *Concerto for flute and orchestra (1972) *Concerto for violin & orchestra (1974) *Concertati Movimenti violin & piano (1975) *Fantaisie for Saxo

Jeanne Demessieux

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Jeanne Marie-Madeleine Demessieux (14 February 1921 – 11 November 1968) was a French organist, pianist, composer, and teacher. She was the chief organist at Saint-Esprit for 29 years and at La Madeleine in Paris starting in 1962. She performed internationally as a concert organist and was the first female organist to sign a record contract. She went on to record many organ works, including her own compositions. Biography Born in Montpellier (Hérault), Jeanne Demessieux was the second child of Marie-Madeleine Demessieux (née Mézy) and Étienne Demessieux. After taking private piano lessons with her elder sister, Yolande, Jeanne entered the Montpellier Conservatoire in 1928. Four years later, she obtained first prizes in solfège and piano. In 1933, she began her studies at the Paris Conservatoire; studying piano with Simon Riera and Magda Tagliaferro, harmony with Jean Gallon, counterpoint and fugue with Noël Gallon, and composition with Henri Büsser. The same year, she was appointed titular organist at Saint-Esprit, a post she held for 19 years. From 1936 to 1939, Demessieux studied organ privately with Marcel Dupré , whose organ class at the Conservatoire she joined in 1939. After r

Jeannie G. Pool

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Jeannie Gayle Pool (born November 6, 1951) is an American composer, musicologist, filmmaker, producer, and lecturer. An expert on and advocate for women in classical and popular music, she founded the International Congress on Women in Music (now International Alliance for Women in Music), has published books and articles, and has had compositions performed internationally. Early life and education Pool was born in Paris, Illinois. At Columbia University, she studied musicology (1977–1980). She is a consultant for film and television music productions on music rights. Through her business Music Legacy Services, she documents and appraises film and TV music archival collections. She was Executive Director of the Society for the Preservation of Film Music (now The Film Music Society) from 1990 to 2002. She was consultant and music archivist for the Paramount Pictures Music Department from 1995 until 2012. Known as “a champion of twentieth-century American women musicians,” she has written books and articles. Before publication of the biography of jazz saxophonist Peggy Gilbert (1905–2007), she produced a documentary on the artist, narrated by Lily Tomlin, which has been screened thro

Jeannine Richer

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Jeannine Paulette Albertine Richer (6 June 1924 – 18 August 2022) was a French composer and music educator who taught music theory and published four books before she began composing. Richer was born in Caudebec-en-Caux, France. She studied at the Paris Conservatory and the International Center of Music Research. Her teachers included Max Deutsch, Jean Etienne Marie, and Arnold Schoenberg. After she graduated, Richer taught music theory in Paris at the Ecole Normale de Musique until 1972. Richer’s works were published by Chappell & Co., Furore-Verlag, Henry Lemoine, They included: Books *1962 – 60 Dictées: Très Faciles et Faciles *Undecim, for brass ensemble Electronic *Le Crane (biblical text) *Oiseaux Foux Opera *Parade Cruelle Orchestra *Confrontation *Periodes, for oboe and string orchestra Organ/Piano *Delta V *Entrechoquements et Zones Silencieuses *Hantise *Miniatures *Musiquemobile *Orgue 88 Mineral Fragment I (organ) *Sonorite *Tremblements/Derapages *Triangle, for two pianos Theatre *Les Portes du Chemin Vocal *Anonymes, for large chorus and ten instruments *Vocal, for a capella chorus References External links *Listen to Histoire Revée by Jeannine Richer

Jeannine Vanier

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Marie Antoinette Jeannine Vanier (21 August 1929 – 7 March 2023) was a Canadian composer and organist who was born blind. Vanier was born in the Laval-des-Rapides neighbourhood of Laval, Quebec, to Émile and Alice Laurin Vanier. Her father was an engineer. She began her studies at the Nazareth Institute for the Blind, then earned a Bachelor of Music (1950) and a Licentiate of Music (1952) at the University of Montreal. Among her teachers were Françoise Aubut, Jean Papineau-Couture, Roger Filiatrault, Conrad Letendre, Georges Lindsay, Clermont Pépin, and Jean Vallerand. Vanier received several awards for her compositions and musical performances, including: *Second Prize, Casavat Organ Society Competition (1948) *First Prize, Royal Canadian College of Organists (1952) Her manuscripts are archived at the Bibliothèque du Quebec. Vanier’s music is published by Waterloo Music Company and Berandol Music Limited/BMI. *Fantasia for Recorder Trio *Salve Regina (chorus and orchestra) References

Jeffrey Hass

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Jeffrey Hass (born November 24, 1953, in New York) is a contemporary American classical composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. He is best known for his compositions combining electronic soundtracks with solo instruments or with large ensembles such as wind ensemble and orchestra. He currently serves the Jacobs School of Music as professor emeritus. Biography Hass studied at the Stecher and Horowitz School of Music from 1960 to 1971. He then attended Vassar College and graduated with a B.A. in music in 1975. He continued his education at Rutgers University, earning an M.A. in Music Composition and Theory in 1979. Finally, he received a D.Mus. in Composition, Theory and Electronic Music, with High Distinction, from the Indiana University School of Music in 1989. Hass was a composition faculty member at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University (retiring in 2019) where he served as Director of the School’s Center for Electronic and Computer Music from 1984 to 2019. He was also appointed adjunct professor of Dance Technology in 2007 and currently serves the Jacobs School as professor emeritus. Later in his career, he developed an interest in composing works for contempo

Jennifer Fowler

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Jennifer Joan Fowler (born 14 April 1939) is a British composer of Australian birth. She was born in Bunbury, Australia, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in music and a Bachelor of Music from the School of Music, University of Western Australia in 1960 and 1967, respectively. During her time at University of Western Australia, she won several composition prizes and received the University Convocation Awards for outstanding results. While a student, her pieces were performed in the Festival of Perth and broadcast by ABC. She spent a year working at the Electronic Music Studios of the University of Utrecht in 1968. In 1969 she settled in London and works as a free-lance composer. Fowler married computer programmer Bruce Paterson and has two sons. Honors and awards *1970 Prize from the Academy of the Arts in Berlin *1971 Joint winner of the Radcliffe Award of Great Britain *1975 1st prize in the International Competition for Women Composers in Mannheim, Germany *2001 Eat and Be Eaten won a High Commendation at the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Awards *2003 Miriam Gideon prize from the International Association of Women in Music *2006 2nd prize in the Christopher Bodman Memorial Competiti

Jenny McLeod

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Jennifer Helen McLeod (12 November 1941 – 28 November 2022) was a New Zealand composer and professor of music at Victoria University of Wellington. She composed several major works for big groups including Under the Sun for four orchestras and 450 children, and the opera Hōhepa. Biography McLeod was born in Wellington on 12 November 1941, the daughter of Lorna Bell McLeod (née Perrin) and Ronald D’Arcy McLeod, and grew up in Timaru and Levin. She was musical as a child and could read music at age five. During her professorship, she was influenced by Guru Maharaji’s Divine Light Mission, which led to her early retirement. In the 1997 Queen’s Birthday Honours, McLeod was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music. McLeod is best known for two major works, Earth and Sky and Under the Sun for large forces. She also composed many songs and hymns. She was a great admirer of, and was greatly influenced by, the music of Messiaen. Her Seven Tone Clock Pieces were first performed by the New Zealand pianist Jeffrey Grice. Before her death in Palmerston North on 28 November 2022, at the age of 81, McLeod lived in Pukerua Bay, working on music theory, especial

Jérôme Dorival

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Jérôme Dorival (born in 1952) is a French clarinetist, composer and musicologist. Biography Born in Paris, Jérôme Dorival is one of the four sons of historian and art critic, Bernard Dorival. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Norbert Dufourcq and Rémy Stricker, and at the Sorbonne with Albert Soboul, Pierre Vilar, Dominique Julia and Alphonse Dupront. His doctoral thesis in musicology deals with La Cantatille en France au XVIII, under the direction of Jacques Chailley. As a researcher, he devoted himself especially to the pianist and pedagogue Hélène de Montgeroult, professor at the brand new Conservatoire in 1795 and composer. For the reissue of the scores of Montgeroult, Dorival founded the Éditions Modulation. He is professor of music history at the Conservatoire de Lyon and in Lausanne. Work Compositions * 1993: Le son des choses dans les ténèbres, hommage to Georges Perec * 2001: La cathédrale, nocturne for piano, hommage to Nicolas de Staël. Musicological writings * * Le Concerto pour clavier : approches multiples, partition, histoire, art, with Dominique Dubreuil and Daniel Gaudet, Aléas, 2001 . * (dir.) Les concerts à Lyon au 17e siècle, Musée Gadagne, Musée his

Jérôme Naulais

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Jérôme Naulais (born 1951) is a French trombonist and composer. Life Born in 1951 into a family of musicians, he began studying music at the age of six. He obtained his first prizes of violin and double bass at the Conservatoire National de Boulogne-Billancourt before starting the study of the trombone and obtaining the first medal of solfège (1970) and a first prize for trombone (1971) at the Conservatoire de Paris. First soloist with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France (from 1974 to 1976) and the Concerts Colonne (from 1975 to 1982), he has been, since its creation in 1976, soloist of the Ensemble intercontemporain directed by Pierre Boulez. He devotes a significant part of his activity to teaching. After having taught trombone at the music schools of Antony, Fresnes, Sèvres and the École Nationale de Musique de Ville-d’Avray as well as in international academies (France, Belgium, Japan), he is now Director of the École de Musique du Club Musical de la Poste de Paris of which he was also the director of the concert band. He was also director of the Music School of Bonneuil-sur-Marne from 1980 to 1998. He has participated in numerous studio and concert recordings with major int

Jerry Bilik

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Jerry H. Bilik (born October 7, 1933 in New Rochelle, New York, United States) is an American composer, arranger, songwriter, conductor, and director of stage productions. He received a B.M.E. degree and a M.M. degree from the University of Michigan, which counts Bilik among its notable alumni. He also composed the “M Fanfare.” He has served as Vice President of creative development for Disney on Ice. References External links * *Jerry Bilik Music website - maintained by Jerry Bilik

Jerry Brubaker

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Jerry Brubaker (born 1946) is an American composer and arranger of more than 300 works of music for concert band, symphony, and chorus and a professional French horn soloist. Education and career In 1968, Brubaker received his undergraduate degree from the Eastman School of Music and later pursued a Master of Music degree from the Catholic University of America. Brubaker served for 30 years in the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C., as a French horn soloist and composer and arranger. In 1985, he became the band’s chief arranger, and held that position until his retirement from the navy in 1998. After retiring from the military, Brubaker has performed and arranged for the Village Band of Estes Park (CO), City of Fairfax (VA) Band and the Virginia Grand Military Band and is the current president of the Association of Concert Bands. He is an exclusive composer and arranger for Alfred Publishing Co. Inc., and has written commissions for musical organizations across the United States, such as the East Winds Symphonic Band in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Personal life Brubaker was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1946 and was an active musician throughout his early years. During g

Jerry Hunt

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Jerry Edward Hunt (November 30, 1943 – November 27, 1993) was an American composer who created works using live electronics partly controlled by his ritualistic performance techniques which were influenced by his interest in the occult. He was considered a pioneer of live, electronic and computer-aided audio and video. Hunt lived his entire life in Texas, living in a house he built himself on his family’s ranchland. Hunt was often described as “hyperactive” and always on the move. and a relative of his was a Freemason. As a teenager, Hunt put ads in the local newspapers, offering mail-order instructions “in the path of the infinite.” When a Dallas couple visited and asked for “Master Jerry,” his parents became very concerned about his mental health. As a young adult, Hunt worked as a pianist for various nightclub acts in Texas. Work and artistic vision Jerry Hunt briefly taught at Southern Methodist University. Hunt rarely used traditional instruments in his work. He was a self-taught inventor of electrical and computer-aided musical devices. Hunt’s live performances were considered unique and honest by art-critics. Others have referred to his work as “wonderfully disorienting” bec

Jerry Toth

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Jaroslav “Jerry” Toth (15 November 1928 – 31 March 1999) was a Canadian saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, arranger, composer, and record producer. Life and career Born in Windsor, Ontario, Toth was the son of Slovak violinist and cimbalom maker Carl Toth, the brother of musicians Rudy Toth and Tony Toth, and the brother-in-law of violinist and lyricist Josephine Toth. He studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with Frank Hiron and Herbert Pye. In 1953, he pursued further woodwind studies with Dale Eisenhuth in Los Angeles. From 1945–1953 Toth played alto saxophone in numerous dance bands in Toronto, including those led by Stan Patton, Bobby Gimby, and Trump Davidson. From 1952–1957 he co-led a seventeen-piece jazz band with trombonist Ross Culley and saxophonist Roy Smith. From 1956–1974 he studied orchestration with Phil Nimmons and was a member of Nimmons’ jazz bands. From 1970–1990 he was a member of Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, a big band which often featured him on alto saxophone. He also performed with his own jazz quartet. In the latter part of his career, he was active as a studio musician and record producer. Toth worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Co

Jerzy Milian

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Jerzy Stanisław Milian (April 10, 1935 – March 7, 2018) was a Polish jazz musician, painter, composer and vibraphonist. At sixteen he graduated from the Secondary School of Music in Poznań. His teachers were Wolfram Heicking and Bogusław Schaeffer. Career In the years 1953–1955, Milian formed a quintet with Stanisław Chwiłkowski, Ryszard Czaplicki, Jerzy Piątek and Stanisław Lisek. In the years 1956–1958, he played vibraphone in a sextet with Krzysztof Komeda, and at the turn of 1959 and 1960 in the quintet of Jan “Ptaszyn” Wróblewski. He was the director and artistic director of the Orchestra of Polish Radio and Television Services Entertainment in Katowice and lecturer at the Poznań Academy of Music. He participated in many jazz festivals, including the annual Jazz Jamboree in Warsaw. He was a jury member at the XII Song Festival of Soviet in Zielona Góra in 1976. Personal life In the years 1950–1957, he was a member of the ZMP. From 1961, he belonged to the Polish United Workers’ Party. Awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Polish, Gold Cross of Merit and badge for distinguished cultural activists. He died on March 7, 2018, at the age of 82. In 2004, he

Jessica Suchy-Pilalis

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Jessica Ray Suchy-Pilalis (born 1954) is an American harpist. She is specialist in the theory and practice of Byzantine chant. Life and career Jessica Suchy-Pilalis was born and grew up in Milwaukee. She became interested in playing the harp when she was in kindergarten. She graduated from Shorewood High School in 1972. Suchy-Pilalis went on to become an honor student at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM). Her mother, Gregoria Karides Suchy, who taught at UWM, was also a composer who has written harp music for her daughter. She received two grants to study Byzantine music and to perform in Greece between 1984 and 1985. During that year, she became a psalti, or cantor, at the Indianapolis Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. She studied Byzantine music at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Theological Seminary with Savas I. Savas and in Greece where she studied primarily with Dimitrios Sourlantzis. In 1988, she received a fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. She received diplomas with honors in Byzantine Music from two conservatories in Thessaloniki, Greece, and is recognized/certified as an Hieropsalti (Chanter) by both the Greek Orthodox

Jesús Rodríguez Picó

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Jesús Rodríguez Picó (born Barcelona, Spain, 12 July 1953) is a composer of contemporary classical music, a clarinet player and a pedagogue. He studied at the Conservatori del Liceu where he obtained a certificate as a clarinet teacher, completing his training in France. He collaborated with many ensembles specialized in the contemporary repertoire, like the Grup Instrumental Català (GIC) and Solars Vortices, as well as forming a duo with the pianist Manuel Cabero. As a performer, he has strived to promote clarinet music and contemporary music, in addition to working in musical pedagogy and in various fields relating to cultural management. Career Rodríguez Picó has written a lot of chamber music and particularly works written for the clarinet or the saxophone, and is often the result of his friendship and collaboration with different instrumentalists. Some examples are Sonata Marina, for saxophone and piano, and Volt, Preludi i Dansa and Horo, both for clarinet. He also writes extensively for orchestra, including concertos and symphonic poems, such as: La ciutat i les estrelles (Concertino for piano and orchestra, 1979), Diomira (1980), El lleó afamat (Preludes for orchestra, 1988

Jim Cotter (composer)

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Clive James Cotter (born 1948 in Geelong, Australia) is an Australian composer currently based in Canberra, Australia. His career has largely been in music for theater, film, and radio. Cotter began his career as Music Director and resident composer for the Canberra Repertory Theatre and has collaborated extensively with Australian playwright Dorothy Hewett, most notably writing the music for the musical theater piece The Man From Mukinupin and for the children’s play Golden Valley. Cotter also wrote the music for Merlinda Bobis’ radio play “Rita’s Lullaby”, which won the Prix Italia in 1998. Cotter began his musical career playing trumpet in trad-jazz bands in Melbourne as a teenager. He moved to Canberra in the late 1960s with his family and continued performing in this tradition but gradually drifted towards more modern forms of jazz and rock and roll. He performed with the Canberra bands, The Bitter Lemons, The Firing Squad, Family Portrait as well as in more experimental collectives with musicians Colin Hoorweg, Dave Kain, Mitch Burns, Christian Wojtowicz and John Tucker. In the early 1970s, Cotter’s increasing interest in contemporary music led him to studies with Larry Sitsk

Jim Hiscott

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James Michael Hiscott (born 4 December 1948) is a Canadian composer, radio producer and accordionist. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers, his compositions are characterized by their strong rhythmic base, standard harmonic language, and merger of world music with contemporary sounds and instrumentation. His 1973 work Planes was premiered by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 1986, conducted by Kazuhiro Koizumi. Life and career Born in St. Catharines, Hiscott began his professional studies in mathematics and physics at Brock University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in 1969. It was while pursuing graduate studies in the sciences at Lancaster University in England in 1970 that he decided to switch his career path to music; although he did earn a Master of Science from the University of Toronto in 1971. He studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music from 1970 to 1976 where he was a pupil of Samuel Dolin in music composition. He also studied music at York University from 1973 to 1976 where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in music in 1976. In 1977 Hiscott was awarded a composition prize by the Canadian Federation of Universi

Jim Parker (composer)

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James Mavin Parker (18 December 1934 – 28 July 2023) was a British BAFTA-winning composer. Career After graduating as a silver medallist at the Guildhall School of Music, Parker played with orchestras and chamber groups in London as well as being a key part of The Barrow Poets for whom he provided both original instrumental music and music to accompany the performance of a wide range of poetry spoken or sung by the rest of the band. This music was played on a variety of instruments including the bass cacofiddle, a homemade sort of double bass with knobs on, invented and played by William Bealby-Wright, while Parker mostly played oboe and cor anglais. Parker subsequently concentrated on composing and conducting. He had early success with a series of recordings in which he set the poems of the British Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman to music; Banana Blush, Late Flowering Love (both 1974), Sir John Betjeman’s Britain (1977) and Varsity Rag (1981). The albums, in which the poet recited his own words and the composer conducted a small group of musicians, have continued to be held in high regard by listeners and critics. These and subsequent records, including Captain Beaky and His Band,

Jim Steinman

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James Richard Steinman (November 1, 1947 – April 19, 2021) was an American composer, lyricist and record producer. He also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock, dance, pop, musical theater, and film score genres. He wrote albums for Bonnie Tyler and Meat Loaf, including Bat Out of Hell (one of the best-selling albums in history), and also wrote and produced Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and Tyler’s Faster Than the Speed of Night. His most successful chart singles include Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”, Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)”, the Sisters of Mercy’s “This Corrosion” and “More”, Barry Manilow’s “Read ‘Em and Weep”, Take That’s “Never Forget”, Celine Dion’s cover of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” (originally released by Steinman’s project Pandora’s Box) and Boyzone’s “No Matter What”. Steinman’s only solo album, Bad for Good, was released in 1981. Steinman’s work also extended to musical theater, where he began his career. He was credited with the book, music, and lyrics for Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, lyrics for Whistle

Jimmy Dale (musician)

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Jimmy Dale (23 October 1935 – 20 May 2017) was a British-born Canadian arranger, composer, conductor, organist, and pianist. He was active as a music director for both Canadian and United States television during the 1970s and 1980s. He has also composed several film and television scores and written a number of TV theme songs and jingles. He has also worked as an arranger and pianist for both performances and recordings with several notable artists. Life Born James Edwin Dale in London, Dale immigrated to Canada with his family in 1947 at the age of 11. He attended The Royal Conservatory of Music for two years where he was a pupil of pianist Alma Allen. He also studied music theory and music composition privately in Toronto with Gordon Delamont. and former professional racing car driver and racing team owner Jeremy Dale. Death Dale died on 20 May 2017 in Naples, Florida, at the age was of 81. Work as a composer and arranger As a composer, Dale has written several film and television score, including the music for B.S. I Love You, Crunch, The Execution of Raymond Graham, and Breakfast with Les and Bess. He has also written music for the theatre, including writing the orchestrations

Jimmy Fontana

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Enrico Sbriccoli (13 November 1934 – 11 September 2013), known professionally as Jimmy Fontana, was an Italian actor, composer and singer-songwriter. Two of his most famous songs are “Che sarà”, performed also by José Feliciano with Ricchi e Poveri, and “Il mondo”. Biography Enrico Sbriccoli was born in Camerino, Marche. After graduating from high school, he moved to Rome to study Economics. In his spare time, Fontana taught himself bass and attended local jazz venues. and other countries in Europe and charted in Latin America as well. After “Che sarà”, Fontana stopped writing songs, but continued to tour around Italy for another decade. In 1982 his son Luigi wrote the first part of the music for a new song and this fact brought Jimmy back to compose and create again: he completed the song “Beguine” and sang it at 1982 Sanremo Music Festival, joining the 6th place; Luigi was on stage with his father in Sanremo and from that moment on they were performing together around Italy and abroad until Jimmy died. They were joined in 1992 by Andrea (Jimmy’s 3rd son), creating some beautiful and emotional “family shows”. Fontana also continued appearing on TV shows until his old age. He died

Jin Xiang

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Jin Xiang (20 April 1935 – 23 December 2015) was a Chinese composer and conductor. He studied composition at the China Central Conservatory from 1954. In 1959, he received his Bachelor of Arts in Composition. Since being labelled a rightist in 1957, he was sent to work in Art Troupe of Aksu Prefecture after graduation, and had to labor at the same time. In 1973, he became a conductor of Orchestra of Song and Dance Ensemble of Xinjiang Song, Dance and Drama Theatre. After the Cultural Revolution he returned to Beijing and was conductor and composer in residence of the Orchestra of Beijing Song and Dance Ensemble from 1979–1984. Jin Xiang came to the United States in 1988 and was a visiting scholar at the Juilliard School in 1998 and the University of Washington and the composer-in-residence at the Washington National Opera. He died on 23 December 2015, aged 80. Selected works Operas *A Warm Breeze Outside 1980. *The Savage Land (《原野》yuanye ) 1987 after Cao Yu’s 1937 play The Wilderness *The King of Chu (《楚霸王》) 1994. *Native Fatal Woman 1996. *Beautiful Warrior 2001. Written with Barbara Zinn Krieger. *Taxiwayi — The Beloved Troubadour 2003. *Yang Guifei 2004. *Eight Women Jump Into

Jindřich Feld

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Jindřich Feld (19 February 1925 in Prague, Czechoslovakia – 8 July 2007 in Prague, Czech Republic ) was a Czech composer of classical music. Feld was born into a musical family, his father a well-known professor of violin at the Prague Conservatory which followed the tradition of Otakar Ševčík, the master of Jan Kubelík. His mother was a violinist. While he studied violin and viola with his father, he began studying composition early, studying at the Prague Conservatory and then graduating from the Academy of Music (HAMU) in 1952. In this year, he also earned his doctorate from the Charles University in Prague, with degrees in musicology, aesthetics and philosophy. In 1968 and 1969, Feld accepted an invitation to be a Guest Professor of Composition at Adelaide University in Australia. He also continued to teach at the Prague Conservatory, where he was Professor of Composition from 1972 until 1986. He was a guest lecturer at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana in 1981 and 1984. His teaching has also taken him to positions at other American universities as well as ones in Denmark, Norway, Germany, France, England, and 1991 in Japan. Among his notable students are Ivan Romanoff

Jing Jing Luo

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Jing Jing Luo (; born 1953) is a Chinese composer. Early life and training Jing was born in Beijing. She received an undergraduate degree at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she majored in piano performance and composition and studied with Chen Gang and Sang Tong. She earned postgraduate degrees from the New England Conservatory and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Teaching career Luo has taught composition at Ashland University (1991-2001), Nazareth College (2002-2003), and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (2002-2004). Selected honors and awards Luo has won the following honors and awards: * Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio Conference Center (composer residency, 2011). * Koussevitzky Music Foundation (2006) * International Composers Competition for Orchestra Works with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Canada (3rd prize, 2001). * ASCAP awards (1994-2011) * Ohio Arts Council (Individual Artist Fellowships, 1991-1998) * Music From China International Composers (Traditional Chinese Instruments Competition, 1999) * Chinese Overseas Composer Competition (3rd prize, “No Home to Return,” 1996) * American Academy of Arts and Letters, Walter Hinrichsen Award (“

Jiří Bárta

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Jiří Bárta (19 June 1935 – 4 January 2012) was a Czech pianist and composer. Biography Jiří Bárta was born in Šumice, Uherské Hradiště District. In his youth, he studied piano with organist and composer Emil Hába (1900–1982). He attended the Brno Conservatory from 1954 to 1958 studying piano with František Schäfer and music composition with František Suchý. He continued to study composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts under Vilém Petrželka and Theodor Schaefer, graduating in 1962 with his Concerto for Orchestra. Far more influential for Bárta were his post-graduate studies with Miloslav Ištvan and Ctirad Kohoutek at the Janáček Academy. These courses exposed him to the Second Viennese School, Bartók and other 20th-century classics, experimental and electronic music. Bárta was a long-time professor of music theory and composition at the Brno Conservatory. His pupils include Alexander Müller, Karel Škarka and Jaroslav Kopecký. For his compositions, Bárta received the Union of Czech Composers and Concert Artists Award (1986) for Concerto da camera for piano and string orchestra, Czech Music Fund Award (1990) for Reliéfy, and the Czech Music Fund Prize (1991) fo

Jiří Hudec (composer)

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Jiří Hudec (31 August 1923 – 28 July 1996) was a Czech composer, conductor, arranger and organist. Life Hudec was born in Brno, Moravia, where he studied organ at the State Conservatory under F. Michálek. In addition, he studied composing with Vilém Petrželka and conducting with Antonín Balatka. From 1944 to 1946, he also studied the piano privately under Ludvík Kundera. Selected compositions ;Orchestral * Drei Stilisierte Polkas im Volkston (1969) ;Wind orchestra * Fox, Polka for 4 clarinets and wind orchestra (1971) * Dupák, Czech Dance (1973) * Pestrá paleta (A Wide Variety), Overture (1973) * Lyrické intermezzo (Lyrical Intermezzo) (1982) * Česká předehra (Czech Overture) * Drei Schnapsgläser * Moravské intermezzo (Moravian Intermezzo) ;Concertante * Triangolo: Polka-Groteske for triangle and orchestra (1969) * Uspávanka pro Martinku (Lullaby for Martinek) for viola and orchestra (1980) * Burleska for double bass and orchestra (1981) * Ein Verliebter Timpanist: Polka-Groteske for timpani and orchestra ;Chamber music * 4 Duettini for oboe (or trumpet) and bassoon (or trombone) (1988) * 4 Miniatures for wind trio * Rapsodia per Quattro for 3 clarinets and bass clarinet (or bassoo

Jiří Teml

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Jiří Teml (born 24 June 1935) is a Czech composer and radio producer. Born in Vimperk, Teml studied music theory and composition with Bohumil Dušek and Jiří Jaroch during the 1960s and early 1970s while working as an economist. His first major success as a composer came with his Fantasia appassionata for organ which took third prize at the 1972 Prague Spring Festival. In 1976, he became the head of music and a radio producer at Plzeň Radio. He left in 1980 to join the staff of Czech Radio 3 in Prague, where he worked as a producer of programs of classical music for over 20 years. A prolific composer, Teml’s output includes several symphonies, concertos, song cycles, choral works, children’s operas, chamber music, art songs, and works for solo organ and piano. His writing displays an influence of Czech folk music and for many years, he has collaborated with the Plzeň Radio folk ensemble. Selected works ;Orchestral * Suita giocosa for chamber orchestra (1973) * Symphony No.1 “Lidé a prameny” (“People and Sources”) for string orchestra, harp and timpani (1976, revised 1999) * Tři promenády (3 Promenades) (1983) * Concerto Grosso “Pocta Händlovi” (“Hommage à Händel”) for chamber orches

Jō Kondō

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Jō Kondō (近藤譲; surname Kondō; born 28 October 1947 in Tokyo) is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. Kondo studied composition from 1968 to 1972 with Yoshio Hasegawa and Hiroaki Minami at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He won the third prize and made his debut in Japan-Germany Contemporary Music Festival in 1969. He serves as Professor of Music at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo and also teaches at Tokyo University of Arts and Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima. His interests include hocket, the music of Ancient Greece, and strong differences in instrumental timbre, all of which are reflected in his compositions. The chamber version of his 1975 composition Sight Rhythmics reflects the latter in its unusual instrumentation of violin, banjo, steel drum, electric piano, and tuba, for example. His opera Hagoromo, based on a Noh play and premiered in Florence in 1994, is the unique case in which his music blends western techniques with oriental traditions. In 1978, he spent a year in New York City with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. While there, he became personally acquainted with a number of avant-garde American composers, includ

Joachim Montagne

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Joachim Louis-Paul Havard de la Montagne (30 November 1927 – 1 October 2003) was a French composer, organist and choral director. Life Joachim Havard de la Montagne was the son of French parents; Charles (born 1891) and Marie-Thérèse Eugénie (born 1899, née de Payret), who settled in his birthplace of Geneva, where his father worked for an international organisation. After World War II, he moved to Paris and studied music at the École César Franck. From 1947 to his retirement in 1996, he served religious music, notably in Paris at the churches of , Sainte-Odile and the liberal synagogue Copernic. Havard de la Montagne held the position of Kapellmeister at the église de la Madeleine in Paris, assisted by his wife Elisabeth, also and organist and harpsichordist. From 1971 to 1974, he founded and worked for the Choirs and the “Ensemble Instrumental de la Madeleine”, with which he gave more than 300 concerts. Montagne died in Geneva on 1 October 2003 aged 75, following a long illness. References External links * Biographie détaillée * Mes longs chemins de musicien on musimem.com * Joachim Havard de la Montagne on Discogs

Joan Franks Williams

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Joan Franks Williams (April 1, 1930 – January 30, 2003) was an American composer. Life Joan Franks Williams was born in Brooklyn, on April 1, 1930 to her father, Harold Franks, and her mother. Both of her parents enjoyed classical music, leading Williams to absorb the world of classical music through piano and viola lessons and frequent attendance to live concerts and performances. She attended the High School of Music and the Arts in Manhattan and continued with music into her college studies. Williams earned a bachelor’s in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music in 1952, and a Bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music 1961. While still in New York, she met her future husband Irving Williams on a blind date in Manhattan; suitingly, they enjoyed a live symphonic performance followed by dinner. Joann married Irving in 1954, and moved to Seattle with her family in 1962. In Seattle, she founded New Dimensions in Music (NDM), a non-profit organization that was one of the early and most influential promoters of new music in the Pacific Northwest. As a part of NDM she also established the first electronic music studio in Seattle. In 1971, the Williams f

Joan La Barbara

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Joan Linda Lotz La Barbara (born June 8, 1947) is an American vocalist and composer known for her explorations of non-conventional or “extended” vocal techniques. Considered to be a vocal virtuoso in the field of contemporary music, she is credited with advancing a new vocabulary of vocal sounds including trills, whispers, cries, sighs, inhaled tones, and multiphonics (singing two or more pitches simultaneously). Biography An influential figure in experimental music, La Barbara was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a classically trained singer who studied with soprano Helen Boatwright at Syracuse University, Phyllis Curtin at Tanglewood/Berkshire Music School and contralto Marion Szekeley Freschl at the Juilliard School in New York. Joan La Barbara’s early creative work (early to mid 1970s) focuses on experimentation and investigation of vocal sound as raw sonic material, including works that explore varied timbres on a single pitch,“circular singing” inhaled and exhaled singing inspired by horn players’ circular breathing techniques, and multiphonic or chordal singing i.e. double-stops for the voice . In the mid 1970s, she began creating more structured compositional work

Joan Tower

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Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938) is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist, and conductor. Her work has been performed worldwide. Since gaining recognition for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981), a tone poem that structurally depicts a giant tree from trunk to needles, she has written a variety of instrumental works, including Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman—something of a response to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man—the Island Prelude, five string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was the pianist and a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works, including her widely performed Petroushskates. The New Yorker has called her “one of the most successful woman composers of all time”. Life and career Born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1938, Tower moved to Bolivia when she was nine years old, an experience she credits for making rhythm an integral part of her work. She discovered this love for rhythm in the local saint’s day celebrations. There, she learned how to play percussion and then started her musical journey. For the next dec

Joanna Brouk

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Joanna Brouk (February 20, 1949 – April 28, 2017) was an American electronic composer, author, and playwright who was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Early life Brouk grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. The name “Brouk” is an alternative spelling of the Dutch name “Broek”, a cognate with the English word “brook”. She received a B.A. in Creative Writing and Electronic Music from the University of California, Berkeley. Inspired by the cadences of poetry and the human voice, as well as the rhythms and soundings of nature, she began creating music. She went on to receive an M.A. in Electronic Music from Mills College. Career After graduating, she went into radio production, and composed music for documentaries and other programs. In 2016, a collection of archival recordings and selections from cassette releases, Hearing Music, was released by The Numero Group. Personal life In 1985, Brouk stopped composing and recording music after moving to San Diego, California, where she married and gave birth to a son, and took up the practice of transcendental meditation. Discography * Healing Music (1980) * The Space Between (1980) * Sounds Of The Sea (1981) * Golden Swan (1983) * The Heali

Jocelyne Binet

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Jocelyne Binet (27 September 1923 – 13 January 1968) was a Canadian composer, pianist, and music educator. She studied in Montreal and Paris, France, and returned to compose and teach music in Canada. Biography Binet was born in East Angus, near Sherbrooke, Quebec, and obtained two music degrees in Montreal before traveling to Paris, France, for studies in piano. She studied under Claude Champagne, Jean Dansereau and Jean-Marie Beaudet at the École Supérieure de Musique d’Outremont (École de musique Vincent-d’Indy). She continued her studies at the Paris Conservatory in 1948 and 1949 on a grant from the French government and again in 1949 and 1951 on another grant from the Quebec government, where her teachers were Tony Aubin, Noël Gallon and Olivier Messiaen. Binet died in Quebec City in 1968. Music career In 1946 Binet was awarded a CAPAC (Association des compositeurs, auteurs et éditeurs du Canada Ltée) prize for composition. After returning from Paris to Canada, she taught from 1951 to 1957 at the École Vincent-d’Indy, from 1952 to 1961 at the Centre d’arts Orford, and from 1957 to 1959 at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec. From 1952 to 1961, she taught at the Jeunesses mu

Jocy de Oliveira

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Jocy de Oliveira (formerly de Carvalho; born 11 April 1936) is a Brazilian pianist, multimedia artist and composer. Biography Jocy de Oliveira was born in Curitiba and grew up in São Paulo, Brazil. She studied in São Paulo with Joseph Kliass, in Paris with Marguerite Long, and in St. Louis with Robert Wykes. She received a Master of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis. De Oliveira became a concert pianist as a child, playing internationally with artists including Stravinsky and John Cage. She married conductor Eleazar de Carvalho but later divorced, and lived in St. Louis, New York City and Rio de Janeiro. She is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Music, and is the author of four books. Honors and awards *Rockefeller Foundation *New York Council on the Arts *Meet the Composer *Foundation of Art and Culture Vitae (Brazil) Works De Oliveira composes mainly electronic and multimedia works for video projects, stage and musical theater. Selected works include: *Polinterações I and II (1970) *Música no espaço, planetarium event (1982/83) *Fata Morgana (1987) *Liturgia Thurs Espaço (1988) *Inori à prostituta Sagrada (1993) *Illud Tempus (1994) *Canto e Raga (1995) *Cenas de una

Jody Diamond

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Jody Diamond (born Pasadena, California, April 23, 1953) is an American composer, performer, writer, publisher, editor, and educator. She specializes in traditional and new music for Indonesian gamelan and is active internationally as a scholar, performer, and publisher. Biography She received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977, and an M.A. from San Francisco State University in 1979, pursuing interdisciplinary studies in music, anthropology, and education. Diamond founded (in 1981) and directs the American Gamelan Institute and edits its journal, Balungan. She is also a co-founder and co-director, with Larry Polansky, of Frog Peak Music (a composers’ collective). She received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Regional Research Fellowship to survey contemporary music in Indonesia (1988–89), as well as two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for work on Indonesian composers (1991), and for work on the gamelan music of Lou Harrison (2007). She has created numerous works for gamelan, some based on songs from various traditions. Her works have been performed internationally. She is often a guest composer/performer with Gamelan Son of Lion, notably for the

Joe Hisaishi

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, known professionally as , is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. Hisaishi’s music has been known to explore and incorporate different genres, including minimalist, experimental electronic, Western classical, and Japanese classical. He has also worked as a music engraver and arranger. He has been associated with director and animator Hayao Miyazaki since 1984, having written scores for all but one of Miyazaki’s films. He is also recognized for his music for filmmaker ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano, including A Scene at the Sea (1991), Sonatine (1993), Kids Return (1996), Hana-bi (1997), Kikujiro (1999), Brother (2000), and Dolls (2002), and for the video game series Ni no Kuni. He composed the score for the Oscar-winning film Departures (2008). He was a student of anime composer Takeo Watanabe. Life and career Early life Hisaishi was born in Nakano, Nagano, Japan, as . He started learning the violin at the age of four using the Suzuki method, and began watching hundreds of movies each year with his father. He attended the Kunitachi College of Music in 1969, where he majored in music composition, a

Joe Maneri

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Joseph Gabriel Esther Maneri (February 9, 1927 – August 24, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. Violinist Mat Maneri is his son. He has performed with his son, Mat, Paul Bley (at the Montreal Jazz Festival), and Ted Harris, studied with Josef Schmid, and taught saxophonist Matana Roberts and pianists John Medeski, Jack Reilly and Matthew Shipp. Boston Microtonal Society In 1988, Maneri founded the Boston Microtonal Society, dedicated to microtonal music and tuning. It is currently led by James Bergin and Julia Werntz. Discography * Kalavinka (Cochlea, 1989) * Get Ready to Receive Yourself (Leo, 1995) * Three Men Walking with Mat Maneri and Joe Morris (ECM, 1996) * Dahabenzapple (hatART, 1996) * Let the Horse Go (Leo, 1996) * In Full Cry (ECM, 1997) * Coming Down the Mountain (hatOLOGY, 1997) * Paniots Nine (Avant, 1998) * Blessed with Mat Maneri (ECM, 1998) * Tales of Rohnlief with Mat Maneri and Barre Phillips (ECM, 1999) * Tenderly (hatOLOGY, 1999) * Out Right Now with Mat Maneri and Joe Morris (hatOLOGY, 2001) * Voices Lowered (Leo, 2001) * The Trio Concerts (Leo, 2001) * Going to Church (AUM Fidelity, 2002) * Angles of Repose (ECM, 2004) * Peace C

Joe Sample

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Joseph Leslie Sample (February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014) in emulation of one of the leading progressive jazz bands of the day, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Sample never took a degree from the university; instead, in 1960, he and the Jazz Crusaders made the move from Houston to Los Angeles. He was a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. The group quickly found opportunities on the West Coast, making its first recording, Freedom Sound, in 1961 and releasing up to four albums a year over much of the 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders played at first in the dominant hard bop style of the day, standing out by virtue of their unusual front-line combination of saxophone (played by Wilton Felder) and Henderson’s trombone. Another distinctive quality was the funky, rhythmically appealing acoustic piano playing of Sample, who helped steer the group’s sound into a fusion between jazz and soul in the late 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders became a strong concert draw during those years. While Sample and his bandmates continued to work together, he and the other band members pursued individual work as well. In 1969, Sample made his first recording under his own name; Fancy Dance featured the pianist as part

Joe Vannelli

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Joe Vannelli (born 28 December 1950) is a Canadian musician, composer and record producer. He is credited on most records of his brother, Gino Vannelli, and in collaboration with youngest brother Ross Vannelli, the three have won many awards. Vannelli studied music theory in Montreal, and learned to play piano. He was influenced by artists like Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck and Erroll Garner. During the seventies he developed an interest in electronic instruments; he was one of the early synthesizer players. He contributed to most of Gino’s albums as a composer, producer, arranger, programmer and engineer. Apart from his work with Gino and Ross, he has been credited by many artists like Chaka Khan, Eartha Kitt, Gary Morris, David Meece, Kudasai, Marilyn Scott, Jimmy Haslip, REO Speedwagon, Brenda Russell, Pat Thomi, Don Sebesky, Kit Chan, Bill Meyers, Gianni Bella, Glenn Jones and Tower of Power. Musical career Gino and Joe moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Desperate and broke, they waited for hours in the parking lot outside A&M Studios, hoping to get a record deal. When Herb Alpert, the co-owner of A&M Records, finally emerged, Vannelli ran towards him and gave him a demo

Joel Hoffman (composer)

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Joel Hoffman (born 1953 in Vancouver) is a Canadian/American composer of contemporary classical music and pianist living in New York, New York. Hoffman’s music draws much of its richness and variety from such diverse sources as Eastern European folk musics, Chinese traditional music and American bebop, yet these sources seem to be seamlessly woven into a unique musical language that is pervaded by a sense of lyricism and rhythmic vitality. Biography Hoffman is a son of conductor Irwin Hoffman and violinist Esther Glazer. Hoffman earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wales and a masters and doctorate from the Juilliard School. His teachers included Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt, Vincent Persichetti, Alun Hoddinott, Arnold Whittall and Easley Blackwood. For 36 years, he was a professor of composition at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music and the founder/director of the Music X festival of new music (1996–2011) which was held for the first thirteen years in Cincinnati and for the last three years at the Hindemith Music Centre in Blonay, Switzerland. He was president of Chamber Music Cincinnati (2008–2011), and has directed an annual summer cour

Joel Mandelbaum

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Mayer Joel Mandelbaum (born October 12, 1932) is an American music composer and teacher, best known for his use of microtonal tuning (notably just intonation and 19 equal temperament and the 31 equal temperament). He wrote the first Ph.D. dissertation on microtonality in 1961. He is married to stained glass artist Ellen Mandelbaum, and is the nephew of Abraham Edel. Career Born in New York City, Mandelbaum received his Ph.D. from Indiana University School of Music in music theory in 1961. He also studied at the Harvard and Brandeis universities, as well as the Berkshire Music Center and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. His composition teachers included Boris Blacher, Luigi Dallapiccola, Irving Fine, Walter Piston, and Harold Shapero. He was a teacher and chairman of the music department at Queens College, City University of New York, from 1961 to 1999. Mandelbaum became interested in microtonality after listening to a lecture by Paul Hindemith in which Hindemith inadequately debunked various alternative forms of tuning. He began a correspondence with Adriaan Fokker which led to a six-week stay in Haarlem, Netherlands, in 1963, during which he composed music using Euler’s genera und

Joel Thome

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joel Thome (born in Detroit, Michigan) is the conductor and artistic director of Orchestra of Our Time. A Grammy Award recipient, Thome has been acclaimed internationally as an accomplished conductor and composer of classical and contemporary orchestral music, as well as a strikingly effective conductor of opera and other music/theater works. His conducting credits include many prominent and international orchestras. He has worked with such noted artists as pianists Vladimir Feltsman and Lorin Hollander, violinist Jaime Laredo, Metropolitan Opera singers Florence Quivar and Roberta Alexander. His modern opera performances include the Weill/Brecht Threepenny Opera with the Opera Company of Boston and the Thomson/Stein Four Saints in Three Acts at Carnegie Hall. For thirteen years, Thome led the National Symphonic Orchestra of Mexico in concerts of classical and contemporary works. He has also conducted the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Group L’Itineraire in Paris, Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Orquestra Municipal of Caracas and the Milwaukee Symphony, and has been a regular guest conductor of the Monday Evening Concert Series in Los Angeles. A composer and conductor of many disciplines, Th

Joël-François Durand

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Joël-François Durand (born 17 September 1954) is a French composer. Biography Born in Orléans, Durand studied mathematics, music education and piano in Paris, then composition with Brian Ferneyhough in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany (1981–84), and at Stony Brook University, New York, with Arel and Semegen (1984–86) . Between 1979 and 1984 he attended masterclasses by György Ligeti and Luciano Berio at the Centre Acanthes in Aix-en-Provence, and with Luigi Nono at the Freiburg Musikhochschule. In 1981–82 he was awarded a scholarship from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) . In 1982 he received a Darmstadt Institute Scholarship for his String Trio, and in 1983 his piano piece …d’asiles déchirés… was awarded a prize at the Third International K.H. Stockhausen Composition Competition in Brescia, Italy. He left Europe in 1984 to pursue a PhD in Composition (awarded in 1988) at Stony Brook University (USA), where he studied composition with Bülent Arel and electronic music with Daria Semegen. Durand was awarded scholarships from the Fulbright Foundation (1984) and from the French Ministry of Culture (1985). He received the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the Darmstadt Internat

Joëlle Léandre

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Joëlle Léandre (born 12 September 1951) is a French double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation. In the field of contemporary music, she has performed with Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble InterContemporain, and worked with Merce Cunningham and György Szabados and John Cage. Both Cage and Giacinto Scelsi have composed works specifically for her. She gave a solo concert at Jazz em Agosto in 2007 (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal). At this same jazz festival, Léandre also performed in the Quartet Noir, a quartet which rarely performed live, with Marilyn Crispell, Urs Leimgruber and Fritz Hauser. She has also collaborated with musicians in the fields of jazz and improvised music, including Derek Bailey, Barre Phillips, Anthony Braxton, George E. Lewis, India Cooke, Evan Parker, Irène Schweizer, Steve Lacy, Maggie Nicols, Fred Frith, Vinny Golia, Carlos Zingaro, John Zorn, Susie Ibarra, J. D. Parran, Kevin Norton, Eric Watson, Ernst Reijseger, Akosh S. and Sylvie Courvoisier. In 1983 she became a member of the European Women Improvising Group (EWIG), Discography * 1981 Contrabassiste (QCA Redmark-Liben) * 1981–1982 Instant Replay with Lol C

Johan de Meij

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Johannes Abraham “Johan” de Meij (; born November 23, 1953 in Voorburg) is a Dutch conductor, trombonist, and composer, best known for his Symphony No. 1 for wind ensemble, nicknamed The Lord of the Rings symphony. Biography Johan de Meij received his musical training at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where he studied trombone and conducting. His Symphony No. 1 “The Lord of the Rings”, first performed in 1988, received the Sudler Composition Award in 1989, and has been recorded by ensembles including The London Symphony Orchestra, The North Netherlands Orchestra, The Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Amsterdam Wind Orchestra. Before turning exclusively to composing and conducting, Johan de Meij played trombone and euphonium; he performed with major ensembles in The Netherlands. He is the principal guest conductor of the New York Wind Symphony and the Kyushu Wind Orchestra in Fukuoka, Japan; he is a regular guest conductor of the Simón Bolívar Youth Wind Orchestra in Caracas, Venezuela, part of the Venezuelan educational system El Sistema. He is founder and CEO of the publishing company Amstel Music, which he established in 1989. When not traveling, de Meij divides his ti

Johann Sonnleitner

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Johann Sonnleitner (born 1941) is an Austrian music educator and expert as interpreter of early music on historical keyboard instruments. He is an organist, a harpsichordist and music historian. Life and career Born in Trofaiach, Sonnleitner studied organ at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Alois Forer, harpsichord with Eta Harich-Schneider and school music as well as history and pedagogy at the University of Vienna. He completed his education by attending master classes with Gustav Leonhardt, Anton Heiller, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Marie-Claire Alain, Cor Kee among others. He also is an international concert musician as soloist, chamber music partner and song accompanist. He began teaching improvisation and score playing at the Vienna Musikhochschule and continued with a six-year assistant to Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum Salzburg. In 1979, he came to the Zurich University of the Arts as a teacher for historical keyboard instruments. From 1983 to 2003, he taught regularly at the teaching and research institute Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. For more than two decades, Sonnleitner led the master classes for keyboard instruments within the Innsbrucker

Johannes Driessler

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Johannes Driessler (26 January 1921 – 3 May 1998) was a German composer, organist, and lecturer. He composed operas, chamber music, and especially sacred music both vocal and for organ. Life and work Driessler was born in Friedrichsthal on 26 January 1921. He also composed for harpsichord, including Akrostichon (Op. 56; 1967), which repeats the motives in an “‘acrostic-like’ technique”. His work is described by Hanspeter Krellmann in his Grove Music Online entry as traditional, tonal and contrapuntal. A contemporary reviewer for Music & Letters describes his music as containing “slightly acid dissonance”, akin to Hindemith. His work was published by Bärenreiter and Breitkopf & Härtel. He was in 1959 the first recipient of the , and was awarded the in 1962. Driessler died in Detmold on 3 May 1998, at age 77. Works Sources: * Sinfonia Sacra * Dein Reich komme, oratorio, Op. 11 (1950) * Claudia amata, lyric opera, Op. 17 (premiered 1952 Münster) * Prinzessin Hochmut, fairy-tale opera, Op. 21 (premiered 1952 Kassel) * Der Umfried, opera (premiered 1957) * Doktor Luzifer Trux, opera (premiered 1958) * Three Small Pieces for cello and piano, Op. 8 * Vier kleine Stücke für Flöte und Klavi

Johannes Fritsch

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Johannes Georg Fritsch (27 July 1941 – 29 April 2010) was a German composer. At the age of seven, Fritsch found a violin in the attic of his uncle’s house in Bensheim-Auerbach, Germany, and began lessons with a village music teacher named Knapp. When he was ten, his family moved to Cologne, and he began studying with the principal violist in the Gürzenich Orchestra. He studied music, sociology, and philosophy from 1961 to 1965 at the University and the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Cologne with, amongst others, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Gottfried Michael Koenig. In the following years he applied himself to the most varied musical activities. Amongst other things he played viola in the Stockhausen-Ensemble from 1964 to 1970, and took part in the German exhibition at Expo ‘70, the World’s Fair in Osaka in 1970. Although he had begun to compose at the age of 17, Fritsch regards as his first real composition the Duett für Bratsche (Duet for Viola), for viola and tape, which had a succès de scandale when he performed it at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1962—one newspaper review called him a kühner Kratzer (audacious scraper). In 1966 Fritsch received the Förderpreis (Monetary Award) o

John A. Ross (composer)

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John Andrew Ross (December 15, 1940 – June 12, 2006) was an African American jazz musician, composer, musical director, and choral conductor. Ross was born and raised in Roxbury, Massachusetts and remained in the Boston, Massachusetts area for his whole life. While growing up in Roxbury, Ross’s home was frequently visited by his father’s college roommate, Langston Hughes. The relationship shared between Hughes and Ross would later manifest as Ross becoming the musical director of Langston Hughes’s gospel play “Black Nativity”. Biography Early life John Ross was born to Olga Evelyn White and Melvin Everand Ross on December 15, 1940. He grew up in Roxbury, Massachusetts, with his parents and sister Paula Ann Ross. His childhood was heavily influenced by music and the presence of Langston Hughes. Hughes would come and stay with Ross’s family when he lectured in Boston, Massachusetts because of his long-standing relationship with Ross’s father, Melvin. As a child, Ross was somewhat unaware of Hughes’s celebrity status and was able to maintain an organic relationship with the Harlem Renaissance writer. Education Ross began attending Boston University to pursue a concentrated degree in C

John Anthony Lennon

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Anthony Lennon (born 1950 in Greensboro, North Carolina) is an American composer of contemporary classical music based in Georgia. Biography Early life and education John Anthony Lennon was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and raised in Mill Valley, California. He earned a B.A. degree in liberal arts from the University of San Francisco, first majoring in English and minoring in philosophy, later adding music courses. He received M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in music composition from the University of Michigan, where he studied composition with Leslie Bassett and William Bolcom. Academic career Lennon is Professor Emeritus of Music at Emory University in Atlanta. He formerly taught at the University of Tennessee (starting in 1977), and taught as a guest composer at Northwestern University in the spring of 1998. Composer Lennon is known particularly for his works for classical guitar (many of which were written for the American guitarist David Starobin), including Another’s Fandango (1981), Gigolo (1996), and the guitar concerto Zingari (1991), and for several contributions to the classical saxophone repertoire, including “Distances Within Me” (1980) for James Forger, “Symphonic R

John Arpin

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Francis Oscar Arpin (3 December 1936 – 8 November 2007) was a Canadian composer, recording artist and entertainer, best known for his work as a virtuoso ragtime pianist. Born in Port McNicoll, Ontario Arpin studied piano at The Royal Conservatory of Music, earning his ARCT diploma in 1953. He also studied at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Arpin performed frequently and toured widely during his musical career, which spanned more than four decades. He continued to perform until shortly before his death . He died of cancer on 8 November 2007 in Toronto, Ontario. Recording career Arpin recorded more than sixty albums, mostly of ragtime, but also played Broadway music, pop music, and classical music. In 2002, he recorded seven CDs of piano solo music on the April Avenue record label. These albums consisted of favorite Broadway themes and familiar pop tunes. While just two compilations are still available in CD format, most of the other tracks can still be found on iTunes. Here is a complete list: *A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square *All The Way *An Affair To Remember *Any Dream Will Do *As Time Goes By *Bewitched *Blue Moon *Brian’s Song *Cabaret *Call Me Irrespons

John Barnes Chance

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John Barnes Chance (November 20, 1932 – August 16, 1972) was an American composer. Chance studied composition with Clifton Williams at the University of Texas, Austin, and is best known for his concert band works, which include Variations on a Korean Folk Song, Incantation and Dance, and Blue Lake Overture. Biography Chance is believed to be a descendant of Robert Chance, a Mississippi gambler who settled in southeast Texas in the late 1800s. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Floyd Chance, were natives of southeast Texas. Chance’s first musical experience started when he was 9 years old and began to take private piano lessons. In high school, Chance continued to perform in ensembles and met Arnold Whedbee, a band director, who would premiere the first movement of Chance’s Symphony 1 at his graduation. In Greensboro, Chance was able to understand the limitations of high school students and was then able to compose for them. His first major wind ensemble composition, Incantation and Dance, was composed and performed during his residency with Greensboro Senior High School. Because of Chance’s obligations of working with the entire district, he had to write music for many different grad

John Barry (composer)

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John Barry Prendergast (3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011) was an English composer and conductor of film music. Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national service, he formed a band in 1957, the John Barry Seven. He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the filmmakers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Noel Rogers, the head of music at United Artists, approached Barry. This started a successful association between Barry and the Bond series that lasted for 25 years. Barry composed the scores for eleven of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, as well as arranging and performing the “James Bond Theme” for the first film in the series, 1962’s Dr. No. He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves (1990) and Out of Africa (1985), as well as the scores of The Scarlet Letter (

John Batt (solicitor and composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

NOTOC Malcolm John Batt (1 May 1929 - 26 August 2017) was a British solicitor, who under the pen name John Malcolm was also a writer and composer of library music. He composed Non Stop, a short orchestral piece that was used as the ITV News theme tune from its inception in 1955 for over thirty years. Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, he was a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral and won a scholarship to King’s College, Taunton. Legal career John Batt was articled with the Salisbury firm Whitehead, Vizard, Venn and Lush (now Whitehead Vizard). After national service, in which he acted as a court martial prosecutor for 18 months, he set up a firm of solicitors in Wimbledon - Batt Holden - staying there for 50 years. In 1964 he was also instrumental in establishing the solicitors Batt, Broadbent and Beecroft in his home town of Salisbury, to which he returned as a consultant in 2007. Using the name John Malcolm, Batt wrote his first book Let’s Make it Legal in 1966, one of a careers series about life as a solicitor. In 2000 he represented Sally Clark, another solicitor who was wrongly convicted of murdering her two sons. Batt was part of the appeal team during a re-trial which ended in he

John Beal (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Everett Beal (born January 20, 1947) is an American composer and conductor known for his work in the American film industry. He has conducted for major recording artists ranging from Olivia Newton-John to Deadmau5, movies in concert such as Star Wars, Top Gun: Maverick, Toy Story, Home Alone, Rocketman and the Harry Potter series, is the principal conductor of the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra, is considered by the New York Times as the pioneer of original scores for film trailer music, and has composed the music for numerous television series and films. Early life John Beal was born in Santa Monica, California, raised in La Cañada Flintridge, California, and graduated from John Muir High School (Pasadena, California), where he was honored for having written many of the drum cadences for the school’s internationally renowned Drum Corps, many of which are still used more than 50 years after his graduation. He was named to their Hall of Fame in 2008. He attended San Diego State University and, after being decorated for heroism and bravery in combat with the United States Marine Corps, he attended UCLA. He studied percussion with William Kraft and Bernie Mattinson, and drums with

John Beckwith (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Beckwith (March 9, 1927 – December 5, 2022) was a Canadian composer, writer, pianist, teacher, and administrator. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, he studied piano with Alberto Guerrero at the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1945. Beckwith received a Bachelor of Music (Mus.B.) in 1947 and a Master of Music (Mus.M.) in 1961 from the University of Toronto. Education In 1945, after several years of studying piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Beckwith received a Conservatory scholarship that allowed him to study piano with Alberto Guerrero at the University of Toronto where he obtained his Mus.B. he wrote for the Toronto Star from 1959 to 1965 as an arts critic and columnist, and was a writer and associate producer of documentaries and music series for CBC Radio. Beginning in 1981, he worked as a director for the Canadian Musical Heritage Society, which he had co-founded that same year. He prepared two of the society’s 25-volume series of pre-1950 Canadian-composed music. The Beckwith portrait in the Canadian Composers Portraits series was released in 2003. A collection of 25 of his music articles and talks was published by Golden Dog Press in 1997 under the title Music

John Bevan Baker

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John Stewart Bevan Baker (3 May 1926 – 24 June 1994) was a British composer, born in England, but a longtime resident of Scotland. Biography He was born in Staines, Middlesex, to an English father, Bevan Braithwaite Baker FRSE (1890-1963), a professor of mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Scottish mother, Margaret Stewart Barbour, of Edinburgh. John was the youngest of five children. He went to preparatory school at the Downs School in Herefordshire, and in 1939 he went up to Blundell’s School in Devon on an art scholarship. He fulfilled his war service from 1944 to 1946 as a Bevin Boy at a coal mine at Newbiggin in Northumberland. In 1946 he entered the Royal College of Music to study organ and composition. His tutors included Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob. In 1949 he became an assistant to the organist of Westminster Abbey. He stayed in this position for two years, and then devoted himself to giving lectures for the WEA and freelance organ playing in London. In 1958 he moved north to Aberdeen to take the position of city carillonneur at the Kirk of St Nicholas in the city centre. In Aberdeen he met June Findlay, whom he married in 1960. They woul

John Buckley (composer)

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John Buckley (born 19 December 1951) is an Irish composer and pedagogue, a co-founder of the Ennis Summer School and a member of Aosdána. Biography John Buckley was born in Templeglantine, County Limerick. He grew up in a rural environment and was introduced to traditional music, learning the button accordion from local player Liam Moloney, when he was 9 years of age. In 1969, he moved to Dublin to study for the Teacher’s Diploma at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. Here he had his first opportunity to hear live classical and modern music including contemporary and avantgarde works by Irish composers including Aloys Fleischmann, Brian Boydell, John Kinsella, and Seóirse Bodley, as well as works by international composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki. He became a student at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin (1969–74), studying the flute with Doris Keogh and composition with A.J. Potter and James Wilson. He continued his musical studies with Alun Hoddinott in Cardiff, Wales (1978–82), Aloys Fleischmann in Cork (M.A. in composition, 1980), and briefly with John Cage during a summer school for composers and choreographers at Guildford, Surrey, in 1981. Initially working as a sec

John Buller (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Buller (7 February 1927 – 12 September 2004) was a British composer. Career John Buller was born in London on 7 February 1927. His musical career began as a chorister at St Matthew’s, Westminster. Although the BBC accepted a work of his in 1946, he opted to earn his living as an architectural surveyor. Buller returned to music in his thirties, taking an external London University BMus in 1964 after private study with Anthony Milner. He gave up his surveying work in 1974 and from then was a full-time composer. Perhaps his best known work is Proença (1977) for electric guitar, mezzo-soprano and orchestra, which was selected by the 1978 International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Other works include The Mime of Mick, Nick and the Maggies (1978), The Theatre of Memory (1981), the opera Bakxai (1992), Bacchae Metres (1993) and Illusions (1997). In his obituary for John Buller in the Guardian, Martin Wainwright wrote, ‘…John’s discovery of Joyce fuelled him for most of his creative life, and I think what became fundamental to everything he composed was the Joycean notion that imagination is nothing but extended memory, that the commonplace of our musical or aural consciousness is

John Burke (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Joseph Burke (10 May 1951 – 18 January 2020) was a Canadian composer and music educator. As a composer he wrote mainly works for chamber ensembles, and his music displays an acute sensitivity to instrumental balance and timbre. In his early career he won the CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers several times, including in 1978 for both Six Regions for piano (composed 1975) and Spectre for tenor instruments (composed 1976), and in 1980 for Firewind for two pianos (composed 1978) and Diffusa est gratia for a cappella choir (composed 1979). In 1995 he won the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for his String Quartet. Many of his compositions have been recorded, including Firewind by pianists Bruce Mather and Pierrette LePage, …ascends at full moon by guitarist Michael Laucke, and À la source d’Hypocrène by the ensemble of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec among others. Burke was born in Toronto, and earned a Bachelor of Music in 1974 from McGill University, where he was a pupil of Bruce Mather and Alcides Lanza. Immediately following he entered the graduate music composition program at the University of Michigan (UM) where he obtained a Master of

John C. Williams (baritone saxophonist)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John C. Williams (8 February, 1941 – 13 May, 2025) was best known as a baritone saxophonist, though he played many other instruments, including bass saxophone and recorder. He was also a jazz composer, arranger, music educator and co-founder/ organiser of the Music at Leasowes Bank festival. Early life Born in North Kensington, London, on 8 February 1941, Williams was the oldest of three siblings. He attended the local Oxford Gardens Primary School where he first learnt the recorder, and at age 10 performed his first radio broadcast as part of the Oxford Gardens Recorder Consort on the BBC’s Children’s Hour. By the age of 14, he would be performing live at weddings. He gained a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London. Music career Aged 21, he founded the sixteen-strong John Williams Big Band, which in 1962 became the resident group at London’s Marquee Club, replacing John Dankworth’s group. Playing what was described as ‘boisterous big band jazz’, it was voted by Jazz News as one the top ten UK jazz bands of that year. The Band played the Richmond Jazz Festival in August 1963. In the mid-1960s, he worked in Cardiff, as musical director for Harlech Television. He

John Caldwell (musicologist)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Anthony Caldwell (born 6 July 1938) is an English musicologist and composer. Life Caldwell was born in Bebington, Cheshire and studied the organ at the Matthay School of Music in Liverpool, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1957. He studied at Keble College, Oxford, obtaining his B.A. in 1960, B.Mus. in 1961 and D.Phil. in 1965. For his doctorate, he transcribed and edited a manuscript of English liturgical organ music from between 1548 and 1650. He was an assistant lecturer at Bristol University from 1963 to 1966, before returning to Oxford University as a lecturer in 1966, holding this position until 1996 when he was appointed a Reader. He was a Fellow of Keble College from 1967 to 1992. He became a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford in 1999 and given the title of Professor by the University Distinctions Committee. He became an Emeritus Fellow on his retirement in 2005. His main areas of interest are medieval and Renaissance music, music theory and keyboard music. In one of his late articles dedicated to early witnesses of Western modal music and music theory he suggested to consider modality not to be bound up with 8 “standard” church tones

John Carmichael (composer)

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John Carmichael (born 5 October 1930) is an Australian pianist, composer and music therapist who has long been resident in the United Kingdom. One of his best known works is the Concierto folklorico for piano and string orchestra. His works for piano form much of his musical output, although he composes for many other instruments. His work is described as expressive and lyrical. Biography John Carmichael was born in Melbourne in 1930. He studied piano with Margaret Schofield and in 1947 won a scholarship to the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where his teacher was Raymond Lambert. He also studied composition with Dorian Le Gallienne. Moving to Europe, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Marcel Ciampi and in London with Arthur Benjamin and Anthony Milner, a pupil of Mátyás Seiber. He wrote the music for Britain’s Festival of Women during this period. He also wrote reviews and critiques for music magazines. Carmichael was a pioneer in the field of music therapy; he developed music teaching and music appreciation projects at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Netherden Mental Hospital in Surrey, and worked for the Council for Music Therapy in London. Between 1958 and 1963, he was

John Carpenter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is generally recognized as a master of the horror genre. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors’ Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award and lauded him as “a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions”. On April 3, 2025, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. founded by his wife, Sandy King, in 2013. Early life John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, on January 16, 1948, the son of Milton Jean (née Carter) and music professor Howard Ralph Carpenter. In 1953, after his father accepted a job at Western Kentucky University, the family relocated to Bowling Green, Kentucky. For much of his childhood, he and his family lived in a log cabin on the university’s campus. He was interested in films from an early age, particularly the westerns of Howard Hawks and John Ford, as well as 1950s low-budget horror films such as The Thing from Another World (which he would remake as The Thing in 1982) and high-budget sci-fi like Godzilla and Forbidden Plane

John Casken

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John Arthur Casken (born 15 July 1949) is an English composer. Casken was born in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. While at Barnsley Grammar School in the 1960s his music teacher played a recording of Berg’s Violin Concerto, which had a lasting influence. He studied composition at the University of Birmingham with John Joubert and Peter Dickinson. He attended the Warsaw Academy of Music between 1971 and 1972, where he studied with Andrzej Dobrowolski but also met and became friends with Witold Lutosławski. He has lectured at the universities of Birmingham (from 1973) and Durham (from 1981), and between 1992 and 2008 he was Professor of Music at the University of Manchester. Casken’s students include Michael Alcorn, David Jennings and James MacMillan. Casken lives in Northumberland. He has acknowledged the landscape as a significant influence on his work. Works such as the orchestral Orion Over Farne (1984), the unaccompanied choral work To Fields We Do Not Know (1985), (described as “a Northumbrian elegy”), the orchestral song-cycle Still Mine (1992), the ensemble piece Winter Reels (2010) and the choral Uncertain Sea (2014) have all drawn inspiration from Northumberlan

John Chowning

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John M. Chowning (; born August 22, 1934, in Salem, New Jersey) is an American composer, musician, discoverer, and professor best known for his work at Stanford University, the founding of CCRMA – Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics in 1975 and his development of the digital implementation of FM synthesis and the digital sound spatialization while there. Contribution Chowning is known for having developed the FM synthesis algorithm in 1967. In FM (frequency modulation) synthesis, both the carrier frequency and the modulation frequency are within the audio band. In essence, the amplitude and frequency of one waveform modulates the frequency of another waveform producing a resultant waveform that can be periodic or non-periodic depending upon the ratio of the two frequencies. Chowning’s breakthrough allowed for simple—in terms of process—yet rich sounding timbres, which synthesized ‘metal striking’ or ‘bell like’ sounds, and which seemed incredibly similar to real percussion (Chowning was also a skilled percussionist). He spent six years turning his breakthrough into a system of musical importance and eventually was able to simulate a large number of musical sounds, i

John Corigliano

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Paul Corigliano (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. With over 100 compositions, he has won accolades including a Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Academy Award. He is a former distinguished professor of music at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and part of the composition faculty at the Juilliard School. Corigliano is best known for his Symphony No. 1, a response to the AIDS epidemic, and his film score for François Girard’s The Red Violin (1997), which he adapted as his 2003 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (“The Red Violin”) for Joshua Bell. Biography Before 1964 Corigliano was born in New York City to a musical family. His Italian-American father, John Paul Corigliano Sr., was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for 23 years. Corigliano’s mother, Rose Buzen, an educator and pianist, He attended P.S. 241 and Midwood High School in Brooklyn. He studied composition at Columbia University (BA 1959) and at the Manhattan School of Music. He studied with Otto Luening, Vittorio Giannini, and Paul Creston. Before achieving success as a

John Courter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Edward Courter (June 25, 1941 – June 21, 2010) was an American composer, organist, and carillonneur who served as a professor of music at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, from 1971 until his death on June 21, 2010. A native of Lansing, Michigan, Courter earned a bachelor’s degree in choral music education from Michigan State University in 1962 and a Master’s of Music degree in organ in 1966 from the University of Michigan. He also studied at the North German Organ Academy and held diplomas from the Netherlands Carillon School. Courter was active both as a performer and composer and was considered one of the leading contemporary composers for the carillon, having won several international prizes with his original carillon compositions. Courter also served on the Keyboard Committee, an international keyboard committee, which drafted a recommendation for the technical norms for a world standard carillon keyboard that was accepted by the World Carillon Federation in 2006. Courter’s carillon works have been published in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States as well as performed on carillons throughout the world, and he has composed more than 20 pieces for the carillon, in

John Craton

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Douglas Craton (born August 6, 1953) is an American classical composer. His works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. While his compositions cover a diverse range, he is best known for his operas, ballets, and works for classical mandolin. Biography Craton was born August 6, 1953, in Anniston, Alabama. Though neither of his parents was musical, his extended family included many musicians, both amateurs and professionals, among them his cousin, concert pianist and composer Barbara Gallagher. He began his formal musical training at age 10 studying violin under retired violinist and conductor, Robert Louis Barron. After graduating from Saks High School, he studied violin and piano at Jacksonville State University before transferring to Lipscomb University, where he earned his B.A. Craton studied theory and composition under John Maltese, Gerald Moore, and Henry Fusner. His graduate degree from Indiana University Bloomington was in audiology, and Craton practiced as a clinical audiologist for several years in Indiana before returning to his musical roots and devoting his full-time to teaching and composing. Craton’s music is highly tonal and in gen

John Davison (composer)

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John H. Davison (31 May 1930 – 5 March 1999) was an American composer and pianist. Life and career Born in Istanbul, Turkey, he grew up in Upstate New York and in New York City, and studied music at the Juilliard School’s lower school, Haverford College, then received his master’s degree from Harvard University, where he focused on Renaissance music, particularly the works of Orlando Gibbons. He earned his doctorate in creative composition from the Eastman School of Music. His teachers included Alfred Swan, Randall Thompson, Walter Piston, Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson, Alan Hovhaness, and Robert Palmer. During 1964-1965, Davison was placed in the Kansas City (Missouri) Schools as part of the Music Educators National Conference’s Contemporary Music Project, where he composed numerous works for band, chorus, and orchestra. He was a friend of Aaron Copland and maintained a correspondence with him. He was also a conscientious objector. Davison’s music is generally tonal, strongly melodic, and influenced by such diverse musics as Western classical and Romantic music (particularly the music of Johannes Brahms, Renaissance and Baroque music, Irish music, English country dancing, Anglican

John Diercks

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John Diercks (1927 – April 2020) was an American composer born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1927. He held degrees from Oberlin College, the Eastman School, and the University of Rochester (PhD). His composition teachers included Howard Hanson and Alan Hovhaness. For Asian music and dance he studied with Dorothy Kahananui and Halla Huhm. Dr. Diercks taught piano at the College of Wooster (1950–54), then began a long tenure at Hollins University, teaching theory and composition. He served as department chair from 1962 until 1990. Among many grants and awards he has received are those from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon and Danforth foundations (five times), the Southern Foundation for the Humanities, and ASCAP (fifteen times). As a composer he has enjoyed residence at the MacDowell Colony, Wolf Trap Farm, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Much of Diercks’ music is influenced by exoticism, including microtonality and “unconventional” musical sounds. An early work, Cave Music for vocalise and three players on prepared piano, accompanied a dance performed in Virginia’s Dixie Caverns and broadcast on NBC-TV’s Today

John Duffy (composer)

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John Duffy (June 23, 1926 – December 22, 2015) was an American composer who created more than 300 works from symphonic music and operas to music for the concert hall, theatre, and film and television. In 1974 he founded the organization Meet The Composer under the auspices of the New York State Council on the Arts and the American Music Center. The organization helped to create platforms for contemporary composers to discuss new works with audiences; notably coordinating summer festivals of contemporary music for the New York Philharmonic and helping to fund composer-in-residence programs with 32 symphony orchestras throughout the United States among many other successful projects. Biography Born in Manhattan, Duffy was one of fourteen children born to his Irish immigrant parents, Thomas Duffy and Anna Quirk. Raised in Woodlawn, Bronx, he enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II and fought in the Battle of Okinawa. After the war he studied music composition at The New School with Henry Cowell and Solomon Rosowsky, and with Aaron Copland at the Tanglewood Music Center. Soon after completing his studies, he became music director of the Antioch Shakespeare Festival which

John Eaton (composer)

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John Charles Eaton (March 30, 1935 – December 2, 2015) was an American composer. Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Eaton attended Princeton University, where he graduated in 1957. He later lived in Rome (1957–68), returning to Princeton to earn a PhD in 1970. He subsequently held faculty appointments at Indiana University School of Music (1970–92) and the University of Chicago (1989–99). Eaton was a prominent composer of microtonal music, and worked with Paul Ketoff and Robert Moog during the 1960s in developing several types of synthesizer. Notably, he was involved in the development, use, and ultimately unsuccessful commercialization of the SynKet. He devised a compositional genre called pocket opera, operas scored for a small cast of vocalists and a chamber group, and composed such pocket opera works as Peer Gynt, Let’s Get This Show on the Road, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. His operas include The Cry of Clytaemnestra (1980), a re-telling of some of the events surrounding the Trojan War from the perspective of Agamemnon’s wife Clytaemnestra, which has been hailed as the first feminist opera. It was premièred at the Indiana University Bloomington Opera Theater, on Marc

John Elwood Price

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John Elwood Price (June 21, 1935 – May 9, 1995) was an American composer, pianist, ethnomusicologist, and music teacher. He composed approximately 600 musical works in a wide variety of genres. His works are widely performed in the United States by professional groups. Biography Elwood began to study piano when he was five years old. He was a musical prodigy. In sixth grade he wrote a piece for piano that he performed at the graduation ceremony. In high school, he learned (and composed for) orchestral instruments. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in piano and composition from Lincoln University in 1957. There he studied composition with David Baker. In 1963, he earned a Master of Music at the University of Tulsa, where he studied with Oscar Anderson Fuller and Bela Rozsa. He later studied music at Washington University in St. Louis, working with Robert Wykes and Harold Blumenfeld. From 1957 to 1959, Elwood was the staff pianist at the Karamu House, a historic Black theater in the Fairfax neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. He composed incidental music for theater and worked as a vocal coach. He taught at Florida Memorial College, where he was Chairman of Music and

John Ferritto

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John E. Ferritto (January 20, 1937 – January 7, 2010) was an American composer, conductor, and music professor. He graduated with honors in piano and violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and also holds a M.M. in composition from Yale University, where he studied piano with Ward Davenny, conducting with Gustav Meier, and composition with Mel Powell. He also studied at the American Academy in Rome and at Tanglewood, with Gunther Schuller, and Erich Leinsdorf. He made his conducting debut with the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra on tour in Germany, France, and Italy. He was associate conductor of the New Haven Symphony, Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of the North Shore in Chicago, and director/conductor of the American Federation of Musicians Congress of Strings in Cincinnati. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the Radio Television Orchestra of Bucharest, the State Orchestra of Greece, the Toledo Symphony, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (Ohio), the Charleston S.C. Symphony, the Michigan Chamber Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival, the New Haven Opera, the New Haven Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre. He has conducted the Orchestras of both the

John Fodi

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John Fodi (22 March 1944 – 2 November 2009) was a composer and music librarian. Born in Hungary, he became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1961. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, he was a founding member of ARRAYMUSIC, an organization which premiered several of his compositions. Life Born in Nagytevel, John Fodi moved to Canada with his family in 1951 at the age of 7. His father played both the accordion and concertina and John began performing music at an early age; but it was at the public library in Hamilton, Ontario, that he discovered the resources to develop his understanding of music. Finding the accordion increasingly unsatisfactory as a means of exploring classical music he decided to learn to play the piano. This was the instrument which he would use for both the study and composition of music throughout his life. During this period he composed over 40 pieces which reflected the progress of his studies, in particular his fascination with the music of the baroque period. In 1964, while working as a laboratory technician for Firestone, he began studying music privately with Lorne Betts in the city of Hamilton, Ontario. It was Betts who encouraged and mentored Joh

John Greaves (musician)

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John Greaves (born 23 February 1950) is a Welsh bass guitarist, pianist and composer who was a member of Henry Cow and has collaborated with Peter Blegvad. He was also a member of progressive rock band National Health and jazz-rock supergroup Soft Heap, and has recorded several solo albums, including Accident (1982), Parrot Fashions (1984), The Caretaker (2001) and Greaves Verlaine (2008). Biography Greaves was born in Prestatyn and grew up in Wrexham in northeast Wales. At the age of 12, he was given a bass guitar by his father, a Welsh dancehall bandleader, and within six months, he was playing in his father’s orchestra. He continued playing in the orchestra for four years, during which time its varied musical styles gave Greaves valuable musician and arranger skills. He was educated at Grove Park Grammar School in Wrexham from 1961 to 1968. In 1968 Greaves entered Pembroke College, Cambridge to study English. While at Cambridge, he met members of the burgeoning English avant-rock group Henry Cow in 1969. The band had been established the previous year by fellow Cambridge students Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson and had undergone numerous personnel changes up to that point. They we

John Harbison

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John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer and academic. Life John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harbison and Janet German Harbison. The Harbisons were a musical family; Elmore had studied composition in his youth and Janet wrote songs. Harbison’s sisters Helen and Margaret were musicians as well. He won the prestigious BMI Foundation’s Student Composer Awards for composition at the age of 16 in 1954. He studied music at Harvard University (BA 1960), where he sang with the Harvard Glee Club, and later at the Berlin Musikhochschule and at Princeton (MFA 1963). He is an Institute Professor of music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a former student of Walter Piston and Roger Sessions. His works include several symphonies, string quartets, and concerti for violin, viola, and double bass. Harbison won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1987 for The Flight into Egypt, and in 1989 he received a $305,000 MacArthur Fellowship. In 1998, he received the 4th annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities. He was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal in 2000. In 2006, a recording of his Mot

John Hawkins (Canadian composer)

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John Hawkins (26 July 1944 in Montreal – 14 January 2007 in Toronto) was a Canadian composer, conductor, music educator, and pianist. He notably won the 2nd-century Week Composition Competition in 1967 for his Eight Movements for Flute and Clarinet and received the Jules Léger Prize in 1983 for Breaking Through which was commissioned by ARRAYMUSIC. In 1971, he helped found the New Music Concerts in Toronto and was frequent performer there during his lifetime. He also frequently performed in concerts presented by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, notably appearing as a soloist on the organization’s recording of Jacques Hétu’s Cycle. Hawkins began his professional education at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec where he was a pupil of Lubka Kolessa. He transferred to McGill University in 1965 where he went on to earn a Bachelor of Music (1967), a Concert Diploma (1968), and a Master of Music (1970). At McGill he studied music composition with István Anhalt through a grant from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. He also studying conducting with Pierre Boulez in Basel in 1969. In 1970, Hawkins became a member of the faculty of the University o

John Hopkins (composer)

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John Hopkins (born in 1949, at Polegate in East Sussex) is a British composer. Education Hopkins studied at University College Cardiff. There his teachers included Alun Hoddinott and Arnold Whittall. He also took composition lessons with Peter Maxwell Davies. He graduated in 2000 from University of Sussex with a D.Phil. Career Hopkins was elected as a regional composer-in-residence by the Eastern Arts Association (now Arts Council England East) in 1979. After several teaching positions, including being co-ordinator of Practice-Based Studies at the Faculty of Music (University of Cambridge), and Director of Studies for Music at Homerton College, Cambridge, he is now Composer in Residence at Homerton College, Cambridge. Works His For the Far Journey (1981) was commissioned and premièred by the Geminii Ensemble and has been described as illustrating characteristics of Hopkin’s music, namely ‘attractive textures and effective pacing’. White Winter, Black Spring is a composition for two voices and large instrumental ensemble; Hopkins used poems by Robert Lowell for this work commissioned by the BBC. Some major pieces * For the Far Journey (1981) * The Magic Mountain (1983) * White Winte

John Kinsella (composer)

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John Kinsella (8 April 1932 – 9 November 2021) was an Irish composer and the country’s most prolific symphonist during the twentieth century. Life Kinsella was born in Dublin, Ireland, the younger brother of the poet and editor Thomas Kinsella. He studied viola at the College of Music (now the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama) in Dublin and took private composition lessons with Éamonn Ó Gallchobhair for a brief period. He developed an early interest in serialism and began to explore many of the techniques evolved by the contemporary European avant-garde. Supported by Gerard Victory and the conductor Hans Waldemar Rosen he had a number of works accepted for performance by RTÉ ensembles, including his first two string quartets (1960, 1968), a chamber concerto (1964), Montage (1965) for soprano and chamber ensemble, Two Pieces for String Orchestra (1965), and Montage II (1970) for orchestra. This group of works culminated in A Selected Life (1973), a large-scale composition based on verses written in memory of the recently deceased Seán Ó Riada by his brother Thomas. In 1968, he was appointed senior assistant in the music department of RTÉ. As he found himself growing increasingly

John La Montaine

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John Maynard La Montaine, also later LaMontaine, (March 17, 1920 – April 29, 2013) was an American pianist and composer, born in Oak Park, Illinois, who won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Piano Concerto No. 1 “In Time of War” (1958), which was premiered by Jorge Bolet. His teachers included Howard Hanson, Bernard Rogers, and Nadia Boulanger. His works have been performed by Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Adele Addison, Donald Gramm, Robert Silverman, Eleanor Steber and Jorge Bolet. In honor of the American Bicentennial celebration in 1976, he was commissioned to create a choral work for the Penn State Institute for Arts and Humanistic Studies. The opera, entitled Be Glad Then America, was performed by the University Choirs, under the direction of Sarah Caldwell. The folk singer Odetta appeared as the Muse for America. La Montaine lived in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. His publishing company, Fredonia Press, is named for the street on which he lived. His business partner was the composer and pianist Paul J. Sifler (1911–2001). Selected works ;Opera * Novellis, Novellis, a Pageant Opera for narrator, soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op. 31 (1961); libretto adapted by

John Leslie McFarland

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John Leslie McFarland (May 12, 1926 – January 14, 1971) was an American popular music composer and arranger. Career Early in his career, McFarland wrote several songs for Bill Haley and His Comets: “Rockin’ Rollin’ Rover”, “You Hit The Wrong Note Billy Goat”, co-writing “Teenager’s Mother” with Curtis R. Lewis. One of McFarland’s earliest songs, co-written with Billy Moore Jr., was “You Dyed Your Hair Chartreuse”. It was recorded by Louis Jordan in 1950. In 1959, he co-wrote “Wang Dang Taffy Apple Tango” with Aaron Schroeder, and the song was recorded by Pat Boone. In 1960, McFarland also co-wrote the hit “Dreamin’” for Johnny Burnette with Aaron Schroeder. McFarland co-wrote the song “Stuck On You” with Aaron Schroeder for Elvis Presley. The song was Presley’s first hit single after two years in the US Army, recorded March 1960. The single rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late-April of that year, and became Presley’s thirteenth hit overall. “Stuck On You” was one of six Elvis Presley songs featured in the 2002 Disney movie Lilo & Stitch. McFarland arranged the songs on Aretha Franklin’s debut album for Columbia Records Aretha: With The Ray Bryant Combo and wrot

John Lessard

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John Lessard (July 3, 1920 – January 11, 2003) was an American composer and music educator noted among peers for his eloquent and dramatic neo-classical works for piano and voice, chamber ensembles, and orchestra, as well as for his playful pieces for mixed percussion ensembles. He was also an accomplished pianist and conductor. Early life Born John Ayres Lessard in San Francisco on July 3, 1920, he was raised in Palo Alto by parents with Quebec roots, quickly becoming fluent in both French and English. He began piano lessons at the age of five, then trumpet lessons at nine, and two years later joined the San Francisco Civic Symphony Orchestra. He studied piano and theory with Elise Belenky and also worked briefly with the composer Henry Cowell. At sixteen, he was offered a scholarship to study with Arnold Schoenberg, but felt so repelled by his music and the Vienna School outlook that he refused the scholarship and went to study in France. He then spent the duration of the war back in Europe with a unit assigned to liaison between American troops and allied French fighters and personnel. Death John Lessard died in East Setauket on January 11, 2003, aged 82. Awards and grants Lessa

John Loeffler

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John Loeffler (born June 3, 1951) is an American music industry executive and executive vice president, head of New York repertoire and marketing for BMG. In 2019, Loeffler’s output included new releases from John Fogerty, The Allman Betts Band feat. Devon Allman and Duane Betts, Marc Cohn and Blind Boys of Alabama, Perry Farrell, Sophie Auster, Jesse Colin Young and Stephen Bishop. Prior to being named EVP in January 2019 he served as executive director of global development for BMG and developed joint ventures with music and media companies beyond traditional music platforms. He also represented the label’s interests to forge new relationships with iconic artists including Roger Waters, Kenny Loggins, Bad Company, John Fogerty, and Earth, Wind & Fire. In 2011, Loeffler launched FieldHouse Music in association with BMG Music Rights and Universal Distribution. The venture established to discover and market new talent through licensing in film, TV and commercials. FieldHouse Music continues as a talent incubator for new artists and songwriters looking to be developed and promoted by a team of experienced professionals. As a songwriter, record producer and entrepreneur, Loeffler’s cr

John Luther Adams

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John Luther Adams (born January 23, 1953) is an American composer. His history of environmental activism informs his music. His orchestral work Become Ocean was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Early life Born in Meridian, Mississippi, Adams began playing music as a teenager as a drummer in rock bands. He attended the California Institute of the Arts as an undergraduate in the early 1970s, studying with James Tenney and Leonard Stein, and graduated in 1973. After graduating, Adams began work in environmental protection, and through this work Adams first travelled to Alaska in 1975. Adams moved to Alaska in 1978 and lived there until 2014. He subsequently divided his time between New York and the Sonoran desert in Mexico, though his time in Alaska continues to be a prominent influence in his music. From 1982 to 1989, he performed as timpanist and principal percussionist with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra. Since January 2024, Adams and his wife now reside in Australia. Career Adams’s composition work spans many genres and media. He has composed for television, film, children’s theater, voice, acoustic instruments, orchestra, and electroni

John M. Mason (musician)

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John M. Mason, MBE (21 January 1940 – 22 January 2011) was a Scottish solicitor, musician, composer and conductor. He was the co-founder, musical director, and conductor of the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra from its creation in 1980 until his death in 2011. Early life and education John M. Mason, MBE was born in Kirkwall, Scotland in 1940 to James and Tomima (Toza) Mason. He attended Kirkwall Grammar School, before moving to Wigtown with his family after the war. He then attended Douglas Ewert High School in Newton Stewart, and graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a law degree. Both of Mason’s parents were musicians, his father played the fiddle and his mother the piano, and he took up both instruments in childhood. Upon his father’s insistence, he left his fiddle at home while attending university so he could focus entirely on his studies, but he picked it up again during the summer holidays. He joined the Mona Stewart Dance Band, and with them played at weddings and bookings all over southwest Scotland. He was soon invited to join the Kilmarnock Caledonian Strathspey and Reel Society, and in 1972, he helped in the formation of the Ayr and Prestwick Strathspey and Reel Soci

John Maxwell Geddes

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John Maxwell Geddes (26 May 1941 – 7 September 2017) He taught at schools in Glasgow, and from 1986 he worked at the Academy. He lectured at many American universities and European academies, and was composer-in-residence in Hamburg, Berlin and Bremen. He was associated with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for more than 50 years. Geddes was a strong supporter of musical education. His work Postlude for Strings was a protest against Argyll and Bute Council’s closure in 2009 of Castle Toward, where he was composer-in-residence; the building was used by youth orchestras including Glasgow Schools Symphony Orchestra, which Geddes conducted. In Postlude for Strings, the players in the orchestra leave the stage one by one (as in Haydn’s Farewell Symphony). Awards included the PRS Composer in Education Award in 1991, Fellow of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in 2002, and in 2007 the Creative Scotland Award. On 25 June 2018 Geddes received a posthumous honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow. Compositions Works include three symphonies and other orchestral music, chambers works, arrangements of folk songs, transcriptions of Renaissance music, and film music. References Ext

John McCabe (composer)

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John McCabe (21 April 1939 – 13 February 2015) was a British composer and pianist. He created works in many different forms, including symphonies, ballets, and solo works for the piano. He served as director of the London College of Music from 1983 to 1990. Guy Rickards praised him as “one of Britain’s finest composers in the past half-century” and “a pianist of formidable gifts and wide-ranging sympathies”. Early life and education McCabe was born in Huyton, Liverpool on 21 April 1939. His father was an Irish physicist and his German/Finnish mother, Elisabeth Herlitzius, was an amateur violinist. McCabe was badly burned in an accident when he was a child and was home schooled for eight years. During this time, McCabe said that there was “a lot of music in the house”, which inspired his future career. He explained “My mother was a very good amateur violinist and there were records and printed music everywhere. I thought that if all these guys – Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert – can do it, then so can I!”. By the age of 11 McCabe had composed 13 symphonies, but he later suppressed them, believing they were not good enough. He subsequently attended the Liverpool Institute. Personal life

John McGuire (composer)

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John McGuire (born June 27, 1942 in Artesia, California) is an American composer, pianist, organist, and music editor. Biography John McGuire initially studied composition with Robert Arthur Gross at Occidental College, where he earned a BA in 1964. He received a succession of three Alfred E. Hertz Traveling Scholarships from the University of California at Berkeley (1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68), and a Fulbright Traveling Scholarship (1966–67), which together enabled him to study with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen from 1966 to 1968, and at the Fourth Cologne Courses for New Music, under Karlheinz Stockhausen, in 1967. Two scholarships from the State of North Rhine–Westphalia for studies in Germany made it possible for him to participate in the composition studios given by Stockhausen at Darmstadt in 1967 and again in 1968. Returning to the United States, he continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where his composition teachers included Ingolf Dahl and Seymour Shifrin. After completing his MA there in 1970, he once again moved to Europe, at first studying computer composition with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Institute of Sonology

John Metcalf (composer)

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John Metcalf MBE (born 1946) is a Welsh-Canadian composer. He has worked in many forms, including large-scale operas, choral and orchestral works, and chamber music, both instrumental and vocal. His music is tonal, and is often rhythmically complex, with much use of polyrhythms. Biography John Metcalf was born in Swansea in 1946, and spent his childhood on the Gower Peninsula, at Reynoldston and Penmaen. When he was six, the family moved to Cardiff, where his father had taken a new job. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham. He intended to read classics at university, but he sent a composition to the composer, Alun Hoddinott, who encouraged him to instead study music at Cardiff University. Following graduation, he went on to study composition with the Australian Don Banks, and electronic music with Hugh Davies in London. In 1971 he became director of music at Atlantic College, near Llantwit Major in Glamorgan, also directing the associated St Donat’s Arts Centre as well as the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, which he founded in 1969, developing a lively policy of encouraging performances of contemporary music. In 1977-8 he spent a year in the United States on a UK-USA Bicent

John Musto

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John Musto (born 1954) is an American composer and pianist. As a composer, he is active in opera, orchestral and chamber music, song, vocal ensemble, and solo piano works. As a pianist, he performs frequently as a soloist, alone and with orchestra, as a chamber musician, and with singers. Career Born in 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, Musto studied at the Manhattan School of Music. After graduation from the conservatory with a reputation as a pianist, his compositions began to draw increasing attention and frequent performances. His long association with such institutions as the New York Festival of Song, the Wolf Trap Opera Company, the Caramoor Festival, Copland House, the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, and the Moab Festival have given him stable bases of operation and numerous commissions. He served as composer-in-residence at Caramoor for the 2005-2006 season. In 1986, he began to build a catalogue of published compositions at Peermusic Classical, which continues to grow steadily. Personal In 1984 John Musto married the soprano Amy Burton, a member of the New York City and Metropolitan Opera companies. He often appears with her as pianist in recital, cabaret and on recordin

John Oswald (composer)

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John Oswald (born May 30, 1953 in Kitchener, Ontario) is a Canadian composer, saxophonist, media artist and dancer. He is best known for coining the term “plunderphonics”, the practice of making new music out of previously existing recordings. Early life Oswald was introduced to sampling from a young age having been gifted a reel-to-reel player from his parents at age 9. He then attended Simon Fraser University in the 1970s, becoming part of World Soundscape Project while on campus. It was there that Oswald became familiar with recorded sounds from different environments and applying them to new work created. Philosophy Oswald coined the term “plunderphonics” to describe his craft in a paper called “Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative” which he presented at the Wired Society Electro-Acoustic Conference in Toronto in 1985. Inspired by William S. Burroughs’ cut-up technique, Oswald had been devising plunderphonic-style compositions since the late 1960s. In an interview with Norman Igma following the release of the Plunderphonics EP in 1988, he described the concept as follows: A plunderphone is a recognizable sonic quote, using the actual sound of something

John Purser (musician)

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John Purser (born 1942) is a Scottish composer, musicologist, music historian and playwright. Purser was born in Glasgow. He initiated the reconstruction that commenced in 1991 of the Iron Age Deskford Carnyx, producing a replica that was first played in 1993 by trombonist John Kenny. Purser’s book Scotland’s Music, published in March 1992 (new edition October 2007), was a major reference work on musical history from the Bronze Age to the present. It was followed by a thirty-programme radio series of the same title, written and presented by him, which was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland and totalled 45 hours, with recordings commissioned for the series including reconstructions of early music and works by many little-known composers. A double CD was subsequently produced with a small selection of the music. and John Thomson. ‘Consider the Story’, a privately released disc of Purser’s music, was released in 2021. It includes the song cycle Six Sea Songs (1966, setting words by the composer’s father J W R Purser), the Kalavrita string quartet (1981), and the Sonata for Trombone and Piano (2001). Purser’s plays include the radio play Carver about Robert Carver, the 16th-century Scotti

John Rea (composer)

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John Rea (born 1944) is a Montreal-based composer who won the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music in both 1981 and 1992. He obtained his bachelor’s degree at Wayne State University (1967), his Master of Music degree at the University of Toronto (1969), and his PhD at Princeton University. His children’s opera The Prisoners Play from 1972 uses serial techniques. His works have been played by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Arditti Quartet, the Esprit Orchestra and others. He is the previous dean and head of the composition department at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, from which he has finally taken his retirement. Among his notable students are composers Robin Minard and John Oliver. Music Stage: The Days/Les Jours, ballet. 1969. Ms The Prisoners Play, opera (Paul Woodruff). 1973. Ms Com-possession ‘Daemonic afterimages in the theatre of transitory states.’ 1980. 2 chamber ensemble (tape). Ms. McGill University Records 83019 (Laucke) Une Fleur du mal. 1992. Sop, clarinet, violoncello and percussion Canto di Beatrice. 1992. For two sop and two violoncelli, melodrama Alma & Oskar (melodrama from b

John Rimmer (composer)

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John Rimmer (born 5 February 1939) is a New Zealand composer. Biography John Francis Rimmer was born in Auckland. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 from the University of New Zealand in 1961, a Master of Arts in 1963 from the University of Auckland with Ronald Tremain, where he also completed post-graduate studies in musicology. He continued his studies, earning a Doctor of Music degree in 1972 from the University of Toronto in electronic music with Gustav Ciamaga and in composition with John Weinzweig. After completing his education, Rimmer worked as a lecturer at North Shores Teachers College in Auckland from 1970 to 1974 and taught at the University of Auckland from 1974 to 1999, where he was awarded a chair in music in 1995. He was awarded the Mozart Fellowship and served as composer-in-residence at the University of Otago in 1972, and composer-in-residence to the Auckland Philharmonia in 2002–03. Rimmer founded the electronic music studio at the University of Auckland in 1976 and the Karlheinz Company in 1978. His works have been performed internationally in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. Rimmer and his wife Helen reside in Tapu Bay, Kaiterit

John Robertson (composer)

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Ernest John Robertson (born 21 October 1943) is a New Zealand-born Canadian composer of concert music. He received his preliminary musical educational as part of his schooling in New Zealand. Upon emigrating to Canada in 1967 he took a position in the general insurance business, but in the mid 1970s he embarked on a course of private study in composition and counterpoint at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto with Dr Sam Dolin. In 1987, the entry in the Composer’s Competition won him a performance of his Variations for small orchestra Op 14. After his retirement, he has concentrated on getting his work heard more broadly and, since this moment, his music has been heard in Canada, Australia, Mexico, the UK, Sweden and Bulgaria. In 2014 after some orchestral pieces of his were played in Ruse, Bulgaria, the director of Ruse State Opera Nayden Todorov asked him to write an opera and the one hour long Orpheus was staged there in June 2015 and was revived in February and May 2016 and in June 2017.A companion piece for Orpheus, the dance piece with actors Lady Jane, appeared in 2017 and was seen in a new production in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, in August 2022 and repeated a month late

John Rutter

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Sir John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music. He founded the Cambridge Singers who premiered and recorded many of his works for his own label Collegium Records. His compositions, extended pieces for choir and orchestra, such as Requiem and Magnificat, and many choral works including For the beauty of the earth, Christmas Carol and A Clare Benediction, are popular, especially in the UK and the United States. He is known for Christmas carols, in both arrangements of traditional melodies and new compositions, and Carols for Choirs anthology series compiled with David Willcocks. Biography Born in London on 24 September 1945 , the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutter grew up living over the Globe pub on London’s Marylebone Road. He was educated at Highgate School, where fellow pupils included John Tavener, Howard Shelley, Brian Chapple and Nicholas Snowman. As a chorister there, Rutter took part in the first (1963) recording of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem under the composer’s baton. He then read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the choir. Rutter

John S. Hilliard

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John Stanley Hilliard (October 29, 1947 – November 15, 2019) was an American composer. Early life Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, United states, into a family of musical amateurs, John Hilliard began his musical training by studying piano at the age of 6 from his cousin, Barbara Dodson, a local piano teacher and composer. His father, Sherlon Hilliard (of Irish and English descent), possessed a fine tenor voice and was a popular gospel-style singer with their county Protestant Church of the Nazarene congregations. While his mother, Laurine H. Hilliard (of Scottish descent), was an amateur accordionist and pianist. Hilliard’s grandfather, John Milton Hilliard, had also been well known as a congregational song leader (shaped-note tradition) for the rural areas of central Arkansas in the 1930s and 1940s. By age 11 Hilliard showed an interest in composing. At the age of 8, he had begun playing trumpet in the elementary band and was taught by the same elementary music teacher as President Bill Clinton, who was a childhood friend. They later both shared another influential music teacher, Virgil Spurlin, during their years together in the Hot Springs High School Band. In 1964 Hilliard playe

John Sanders (musician)

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John Derek Sanders OBE, FRCO (23 November 1933 – 23 December 2003) was an English organist, conductor, choir trainer and composer. He was organist of Gloucester Cathedral from 1967 to 1994, and director of the Three Choirs Festival from 1968 to 1994. Education Born in Wanstead, Essex, he attended Felsted School on a music scholarship, where he had his first organ lessons. In 1950 he began two years study at the Royal College of Music leading to his ARCM diploma. This was followed by a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Cambridge where Sanders was an organ scholar at Gonville and Caius College and was influenced by Patrick Hadley. Early career National Service in the Royal Artillery followed his graduation, but even here Sanders found opportunities for orchestral conducting. Following his retirement, Gloucester Cathedral granted him the title of Organist Emeritus. Retirement gave Sanders more time to pursue composition (although he continued his work at Cheltenham until 1997). He also moved away from Gloucester – to Upton Bishop, near Ross-on-Wye – where he continued to play the organ in the parish church. Late in 2003 the Guild of Church Musicians marked his contribution

John Tavener

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Sir John Kenneth Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) was an English composer of choral religious works. Among his works are The Lamb (1982), The Protecting Veil (1988), and Song for Athene (1993). Tavener first came to prominence with his cantata The Whale, premiered in 1968. Then aged 24, he was described by The Guardian as “the musical discovery of the year”, while The Times said he was “among the very best creative talents of his generation”. During his career he became one of the best known and popular composers of his generation, most particularly for The Protecting Veil, which as recorded by cellist Steven Isserlis became a best-selling album, and Song for Athene which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana. Tavener wrote the composition A New Beginning to commemorate the Millennium celebrations on New Year’s Eve, 1999, during the opening of the Millennium Dome in London. Tavener was knighted in 2000 for his services to music and won an Ivor Novello Award, and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Sarum College in 2001. Early life and education Tavener was born on 28 January 1944 in Wembley, London. His parents ran a family building firm At the age of 12, Tavener

John Tesh

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John Frank Tesh Jr. (born July 9, 1952) is an American musician and radio and television presenter. He wrote the NBA on NBC basketball theme “Roundball Rock” and hosts the Intelligence for Your Life radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted Intelligence for Your Life TV with his wife, Connie Sellecca. Tesh has won six Emmys and has four gold albums, two Grammy nominations, and an Associated Press award for investigative journalism. Tesh has sold over eight million records. His live concerts have raised more than $7 million for PBS. He has co-hosted the television program Entertainment Tonight. He has previously worked as a sports commentator and host for the Olympic Games, Wimbledon, the US Open, the Tour de France, Ironman Triathlon, and as a news anchor and reporter. In 2018, Tesh was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Early life Tesh was born in Garden City, New York, on Long Island, the son of Mildred (Bunny), a nurse, and John Frank Tesh Sr., a textile chemist, both from North Carolina. He graduated from Garden City High School in 1970. Playing piano and trumpet from the age of six, he was named to the New York State Symphonic Orchestra in high schoo

John Thow

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Holland Thow (October 6, 1949 – March 4, 2007) was an American music composer. Thow produced an extensive and diverse body of work comprising solo, chamber, vocal, choral, operatic and orchestral repertoire. Born in Los Angeles in 1949, Thow grew up in Ventura, California. As a child he studied flute and piano, and later studied composition with Adolph Weiss, a pupil of Schoenberg’s, and conductor Frank Salazar. At University of Southern California he pursued his Bachelor of Music, studying composition with Ingolf Dahl. He continued his studies at Harvard with Earl Kim and Leon Kirchner, where he received his Ph.D. in composition in 1977. Thow received a Fulbright Fellowship, which allowed him to travel to Rome for the first time in 1973 to study composition with Luciano Berio, who would become an important mentor and influence. Thow later returned to Italy as a recipient of the prestigious Rome Prize. During that time he also studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and Franco Donatoni. After teaching at Boston University, Thow joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty in 1981, specializing in composition, orchestration, counterpoint, theory, in addition to teaching course

John Vallier

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John Vallier (1 October 1920 – 11 June 1991) was an English classical pianist and composer who was known for his thunderous technique and beautiful singing tone, and was especially admired for his interpretations and performances of Chopin and Schumann. He could trace his musical ancestry in an eminently distinguished line back to the Romantic Era of the 19th century. He was born in 1920 and was only four years old when he appeared in public for the first time, at London’s Wigmore Hall. His last solo recital at London’s Royal Festival Hall was attended by HM The Queen Mother. Musical education Vallier’s mother was the pianist Adela Verne, the finest woman pianist of her time and herself a contemporary and even rival of Paderewski, whose teacher Leschetizky was a pupil of Czerny who taught Liszt. Vallier’s aunt and principal teacher was Mathilde Verne, through whose famous piano school in London passed the young Vallier as well as the pianists Solomon and Moura Lympany, and even socialite Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother). Mathilde Verne was herself the finest pupil of Clara Schumann, from whom she inherited a direct insight into her husband Robert S

John Veale

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John Douglas Louis Veale (15 June 1922 – 16 November 2006) was an English classical composer. Early career He was born in Shortlands, Bromley, Kent; his father, the civil servant Douglas Veale, later served as Registrar of the University of Oxford (1930–1958) and received a knighthood. Discovering Sibelius and Shostakovich, and receiving encouragement from William Walton, Sir Hugh Allen and Humphrey Searle, he decided to become a composer, taking some lessons from Egon Wellesz. Veale sketched out his first symphony during the war while serving in the Army’s Education Corps. After demobilisation he returned to Corpus Christi for more composition lessons with Wellesz and counterpoint and harmony with Thomas Armstrong. While there he began composing incidental music for Oxford University Dramatic Society productions, in which Kenneth Tynan and Lindsay Anderson were involved. Between 1949 and 1951 he won a scholarship to study in California with Roger Sessions and Roy Harris (the latter’s only English pupil). The Symphony No. 1 was premiered by Sir John Barbirolli at the Cheltenham Music Festival in 1952. The Clarinet Concerto had its premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in 1954, conduc

John White (composer)

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John White (5 April 1936 – 4 January 2024) was an English experimental composer and musical performer. He invented the early British form of minimalism known as systems music, with his early Machines. Life and career John White was born in Berlin to an English father and German mother. The family moved to London at the outbreak of war. Originally a sculptor, White decided on a composition career when he heard Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music from 1955 to 1958 with Bernard Stevens and piano with Arthur Alexander and Eric Harrison. He also took analysis classes privately with Elisabeth Lutyens. Upon graduation, White became the musical director of the Western Theatre Ballet, and then professor of composition at the Royal College of Music from 1961 to 1967. He was a skilled pianist and tuba player and has written extensively for both instruments. In the 1960s and 1970s he was closely associated with English experimental composers such as Cornelius Cardew and Gavin Bryars, and a participant in the Scratch Orchestra. His Royal College of Music pupils have included Roger Smalley, Brian Dennis and William York. White’s association with

John Williams

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. Over his seven-decade career, he has composed many of the best known scores in film history. His compositional style blends romanticism, impressionism, and atonal music with complex orchestration. Best known for his collaborations with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he has received numerous accolades, including 27 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With a total of 54 Academy Award nominations, he is the second-most nominated person in the award’s history, after Walt Disney. He is also the oldest Academy Award nominee in any category, receiving a nomination at 91 years old. Williams’s early work as a film composer includes None but the Brave (1965), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Images, The Cowboys (both 1972), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He has collaborated with Spielberg since The Sugarland Express (1974), composing music for all but five of his feature films. He received five Academy Awards for Best Score/Best Score Adaptation for Fiddler on the Roof (1971; score adaptati

John Woolrich

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John Woolrich ( ; born 1954 in Cirencester) is an English composer. Biography Woolrich has founded a group (the Composers Ensemble), a festival (Hoxton New Music Days), and has been composer in association with the Orchestra of St John’s and the Britten Sinfonia. His collaborations with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group led to his appointment in 2002 as Artist-in-Association. He was guest Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival in 2004 and Associate Artistic Director of the festival from 2005 to 2010. From 2010 to 2013 Woolrich was both Artistic Director of Dartington International Summer School and Professor of Music at Brunel University. From 2013 to 2016 he was Artistic Director of Mirepoix Musique in France. He is currently an Associate Artist of the Gulbenkian Arts Centre, iCCi, University of Kent. A number of preoccupations thread through his music: the art of creative transcription —Ulysses Awakes, for instance, is a re-composition of a Monteverdi aria, and The Theatre Represents a Garden: Night is based on fragments of Mozart—and a fascination with machinery and mechanical processes, heard in many pieces including The Ghost in the Machine and The Barber’s Timepiece. T

John Wyre

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John Harvey Wyre (17 May 1941 – 31 October 2006) was a U.S.-born Canadian percussionist, composer, and music educator. He worked as percussionist with a number of important orchestras in North America, notably serving for many years as the principal timpanist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He was a founding member of the percussion ensemble Nexus, with which he performed for over 30 years. He was also artistic director of World Drums with whom he organized and directed performances at several major international events. His music compositions have been performed by ensembles throughout the world, including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the CBC Radio Orchestra, and the Japan Philharmonic among others. Biography Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wyre began studying the percussion at age 15 with Fred Hinger, a percussionist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He remained Hinger’s student until 1959 when he entered the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He studied under William Street at Eastman, earning a Bachelor of Music there in 1964. Wyre began his performance career as a percussionist with the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra in 1964-

Johnny "Guitar" Watson

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John Watson Jr. (February 3, 1935 – May 17, 1996), often known professionally as Johnny “Guitar” Watson, was an American musician. A flamboyant showman and electric guitarist in the style of T-Bone Walker, his recording career spanned 40 years, and encompassed rhythm and blues, funk and soul music. Watson recorded throughout the 1950s and 1960s with some success. His 1954 instrumental single “Space Guitar” was the first of his recordings to showcase his electric guitar playing. His creative self-reinvention in the 1970s, with funk overtones, saw Watson have hits with “Ain’t That a Bitch” and “Superman Lover”. His highest-charting single was 1977’s “A Real Mother for Ya”. Early life Watson was born in Houston, Texas. His father John Sr. was a pianist, and taught his son the instrument. Early career In his new city, Watson won several local talent shows. This led to his employment, while still a teenager, with jump blues-style bands such as Chuck Higgins’s Mellotones and Amos Milburn. Watson affected a swaggering, yet humorous personality, indulging a taste for flashy clothes and wild showmanship on stage. According to music historian Larry Birnbaum, for “Space Guitar” he “came into

Johnny Bristol

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

John William Bristol (February 3, 1939 – March 21, 2004) was an American musician, most famous as a songwriter and record producer for the Motown label in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a native of Morganton, North Carolina, about which he wrote an eponymous song. His composition “Love Me for a Reason” saw global success when covered by the Osmonds including a number one on the UK charts in 1974. The pair recorded two singles in 1959 for Anna Records, a label owned by Gwen Gordy (Berry Gordy’s sister) and Billy Davis and four 45s for Gwen Gordy and Harvey Fuqua’s Tri-Phi label, none of which was a success beyond the Midwestern United States. In the mid-1960s, Motown had absorbed Tri-Phi and Bristol began working with Fuqua as a songwriter and producer. Bristol is the male voice on the Supremes’ version of “Someday We’ll Be Together”, singing response to Diana Ross’ lead vocal. number 2 US R&B chart and number 3 UK), A deal for Ariola/Hansa saw him score with club hits “Love No Longer Has a Hold on Me” and “Take Me Down”. An accompanying album failed to consolidate his status, and it would be eight years before new product by Bristol appeared, with a 12" single “I’m Just a M

Johnny Douglas (conductor)

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John Henry Douglas (19 June 1920 – 20 April 2003) was an English composer, pianist, musical director, conductor, and string arranger primarily working with film scores and orchestras. He recorded more 500 tracks for Decca Records, over 80 albums for RCA Records, and provided music for 36 films during his career. He was nominated for a BAFTA for his soundtrack for the 1970 film The Railway Children and led RCA’S Living Strings for many years. Dungeons & Dragons, The Incredible Hulk, In Douglas’ early years, the family moved to Bermondsey, another district of London, where his mother May was a housewife and his father John was later an alderman for the West Bermondsey Council. He showed an innate talent for music at a very young age; by two and a half, he could play a song he had heard on one of his father’s records on the piano. * The Traitors (1962) * Crack in the World (1965) Bert Ambrose, June Bronhill, Max Bygraves, Susan Hampshire, Frankie Howerd, Barbara Leigh, Mantovani, Frankie Vaughan, Eric Winstone, and Jimmy Young References External links * * Dulcima Records, his record label

Johnny Mandel

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John Alfred Mandel (November 23, 1925 – June 29, 2020) was an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. The musicians he worked with include Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O’Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diane Schuur and Shirley Horn. He won five Grammy Awards, from 17 total nominations; his first nomination was for his debut film score for the multi-nominated 1958 film I Want to Live!. In 2011, he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. Among his other film accolades, Mandel also won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “The Shadow of Your Smile” from The Sandpiper (1965), and was nominated three times each for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. He received the Grammy Trustees Award for his contributions to the music industry, in 2018. His father, Alfred, was a garment manufacturer who ran Mandel & Cash; his mother, Hannah (Hart-Rubin), had aimed to be an opera singer His family was Jewish. They moved to Los Angeles in 1934, after his father’s business collapsed during the Great Depression. He subsequently resided in Los Angeles, where he played the bass trumpet for Z

Johnny Pacheco

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Juan Pablo Knipping Pacheco (25 March 1935 – 15 February 2021), known as Johnny Pacheco, was a Dominican musician, arranger, composer, bandleader, and record producer. Born in the Dominican Republic, Pacheco became a leading figure in the New York salsa scene in the 1960s and 1970s as the founder and musical director of Fania Records. Pacheco was one of the leading exponents of pachanga, a blend of Cuban rhythms and Dominican merengue in the late 1950s. He popularized the use of the term “salsa” and established the Fania All-Stars to showcase the leading artists of the genre, which propelled him to worldwide fame and had an important role in the evolution of Latin music. Pacheco was a nine-time Grammy nominee and was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2005. Early life and family Juan Pablo Pacheco Knipping was born on 25 March 1935 in Santiago de los Caballeros, a city in the Dominican Republic. He inherited his passion for music from his father, Rafael Azarías Pacheco, who was the leader and clarinetist of the Orquesta Santa Cecilia. One of the leading Dominican big bands of the 1930s, the Orquesta was the first to record Luis Alb

Joji Yuasa

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was a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. Early life and education Joji Yuasa was born in Kōriyama, Fukushima on 12 August 1929, and was a self-taught composer. He first became interested in music while a pre medical student at Keio University, and in 1952 he joined a young artists’ group Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop, 1951–1957) in Tokyo, an organization for the exploration of new directions in the arts, including multimedia. Career From 1981 to 1994 he was a music researcher and professor at the University of California, San Diego, where was later professor emeritus. He also served as a guest professor at the Tokyo College of Music from 1981, a professor at Nihon University from 1993, and an honorary member of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Yuasa is the recipient of a 1996 Suntory Music Award. Yuasa wrote a wide range of compositions, including orchestral, choral and chamber music, music for theatre, and intermedia, electronic and computer music. His style has been described as “consistent explorations of a distinctive, maverick yet elegant voice” that has elements of twelve tone, impressionism, romantic, and traditional classical compositio

Joly Braga Santos

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José Manuel Joly Braga Santos, ComSE (; May 14, 1924 – July 18, 1988) was a Portuguese composer and conductor, who was born and died in Lisbon. He wrote six symphonies. Biography José Manuel Joly Braga Santos was born in Lisbon in 1924 and died in this city in 1988, at the peak of his musical creativity. Having studied violin and composition at the National Conservatoire of Lisbon, he became a disciple of Luís de Freitas Branco (1890–1955), the leading Portuguese composer of the preceding generation. After the Second World War, he was able to go abroad, having studied conducting with Hermann Scherchen and Antonino Votto, and composition with Virgilio Mortari. In 1945 he visited England where he met Ralph Vaughan Williams, who encouraged him to use his native folksong in his symphonic music and also suggested that he should take lessons in counterpoint. He was undoubtedly the leading Portuguese symphonist of the 20th century, and perhaps of all time. Apart from an innate sense of orchestration, his musical language is based on a strong musical architecture as well as drama, with long melodic phrases and a natural instinct for structural development. In his own words, he wanted “to cont

Jolyon Brettingham Smith

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Jolyon Brettingham Smith (9 September 1949 – 17 May 2008) was a British composer, conductor, performer, author, and radio presenter, and a university teacher at the Berlin University of the Arts. Life and work Brettingham Smith was born in Southampton. His first employment, after he left school in 1966, was as a teacher at a London boarding school for children with learning difficulties. He then went on to study philosophy at the University of Cambridge as well as musicology and composition at Heidelberg and Berlin, where he was a pupil of the Korean-born composer Isang Yun. Between 1970 and 1980 he played viola in the Gruppe Neue Musik Berlin and the NO SET Improvisation Ensemble. From 1973 until 1978 Brettingham Smith was artistic assistant professor at the Free University of Berlin. The Bielefeld Opera House engaged him as guest conductor for their 1975 season. In 1976 he began teaching as a full professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. From 1978 Brettingham Smith began working as a writer and presenter for a number of public broadcasting organizations in Germany: he became well known for his presentation over many years of such radio programmes as Klassikforum on WDR, Kl

Jolyon Jackson

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Jolyon Jackson (3 September 1948 – 18 December 1985) was an Irish musician and composer. Life Jackson was born in Malaya where his father, Patrick Jackson, was Deputy Commissioner of the police and would receive the CBE. His father was from County Limerick, of a Cork family; his mother was the singer Charmian Jenkinson. They lived at Poul-na-murrish, Annamoe, County Wicklow. He was educated in Salisbury Cathedral School and Bradfield College, Reading. He studied at Trinity College Dublin in the late 1960s, where he graduated in Arts and Music. He integrated himself into the musical life of Dublin, first with the group ‘Jazz Therapy’, and later with ‘Supply, Demand and Curve.’ He played cello, recorder and keyboards–including organ, piano and synthesizer. He married Teresa Le Jeune from Delgany, County Wicklow and they had a son, Linus. Jackson died in London of Hodgkin’s lymphoma on 18 December 1985, aged 37. Music The band ‘Supply, Demand & Curve’ was formed in 1970 and initially consisted of Jackson, Brian Masterson—who had played with Jackson in ‘Jazz Therapy’ during 1968–69—and Paddy Finney. They had a weekly gig at the Project Arts Centre and later played mainly in folk clubs

Jon Appleton

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Jon Howard Appleton (January 4, 1939 – January 30, 2022) was an American composer, an educator and a pioneer in electro-acoustic music. His earliest compositions in the medium, e.g. “Chef d’Oeuvre” and “Newark Airport Rock” (1967) attracted attention because they established a new tradition some have called programmatic electronic music. In 1970, he won Guggenheim, Fulbright and American-Scandinavian Foundation fellowships. When he was twenty-eight years old, he joined the faculty of Dartmouth College where he established one of the first electronic music studios in the United States. He remained there intermittently for forty-two years. In the mid-1970s, he left Dartmouth to briefly become the head of Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) (sv) in Stockholm, Sweden. In the late 1970s, together with Sydney Alonso and Cameron Jones, he helped develop the first commercial digital synthesizer called the Synclavier. For a decade he toured around the United States and Europe performing the compositions he composed for this instrument. In the early 1990s, he helped found the Theremin Center for Electronic Music at the Moscow Conservatory of Music. He also taught at Keio University (Mita) in Tokyo, J

Jon Gibson (minimalist musician)

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Jon Gibson (March 11, 1940 – October 11, 2020) was an American flutist, saxophonist, composer and visual artist, known as one of the founding members of the Philip Glass Ensemble. He was a key player on several seminal minimalist music compositions. He was born in Los Angeles to Charles and Muriel (née Taylor) Gibson, both educators, and grew up in El Monte, a suburb. Education Gibson studied at Sacramento State University and later at San Francisco State University with Henry Onderdonk and Wayne Peterson, where he earned a BA in 1964. His earliest work as an improviser and composer also dates from around this time, when he performed in the New Music Ensemble with composers Larry Austin, Richard Swift, and Stanley Lunetta. Career Gibson used various instruments from around the world in his performances of jazz and classical music. He was a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, and his mastery of circular breathing techniques made him crucial to the development of Glass’ sound. Glass stated, “To put it bluntly, the music wouldn’t have happened without that.” Gibson performed in the premieres of In C by Terry Riley and Drumming by Steve Reich, as well as Reich’s 1967 composition

Jon Mostad

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Jon Mostad (born 21 April 1942) is a composer from Fredrikstad, Norway. He received the Norwegian state three-year scholarship for artists from 1982 until 1984. Musical style In his early compositions Mostad moves from a linear-expressionist style to a more timbre-oriented line of thinking where both modernist music and romantic music inspire his work. From around 1975 the timbre/harmonic aspect of his music is more related to the harmonic series. During the 1980s and 1990s he combined this with other types of modal and free compositional techniques, sometimes using modal techniques as well as more overtone-oriented harmonic spectra within the same composition. At the same time he was experimenting with untraditional structuring of his material, both in works of one movement and in cyclical works. Many of Mostad’s instrumental works as well as vocal music, are inspired by Judæo-Christian texts which often influence the structuring of the music. For instance, in “And the light shines in darkness”, a massive dark-sounding layer with much rhythmical unrest is gradually introduced to a lighter-sounding chord with notes from the harmonic series. Mostad has written chamber music, solo pi

Jón Nordal

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Jón Nordal (6 March 1926 – 5 December 2024) was an Icelandic composer and pianist. He was considered one of the leading Icelandic composers of his generation, and his orchestral and choral works have been widely performed. Career Nordal was born in Reykjavík, the son of the prominent Icelandic philologist and author Sigurður Nordal and his wife Ólöf Jónsdóttir. He began music studies at a young age, and eventually began studying composition at the Reykjavík College of Music with Victor Urbancic and later with Jón Þórarinsson. He completed his studies there in 1949, with a Concerto for Orchestra that was premiered by the newly-established Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 1950. He continued his studies in Zurich (1949–1951), where he studied with Willy Burkhard (composition) and Walter Frey (piano). He lived for a while in Copenhagen, where his father was the Icelandic ambassador at the time, but returned to Iceland in 1957. In 1959, he became the Dean of the Reykjavík College of Music, a position he held until 1992. In his earlier years, Nordal appeared frequently as piano soloist, giving solo recitals and performing with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Among his early key works is a S

Jonathan Harvey (composer)

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Jonathan Dean Harvey (3 May 1939 – 4 December 2012) was a British composer. He held teaching positions at universities and music conservatories in Europe and the United States. Life Harvey was born in Sutton Coldfield, and studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, eventually obtaining a PhD. He also took private lessons with Erwin Stein and Hans Keller on the advice of Benjamin Britten. In 1969, he took up a Harkness Fellowship at Princeton University. In the 1980s, Harvey produced music at IRCAM after receiving an invitation from Pierre Boulez to work there. IRCAM is known for speech analysis and in this piece, special technology was developed to allow the analysis of speech to be realized in an orchestral context, using complex algorithms which can process multiple combinations possible in an orchestra setting. The program Orchidée computed such analyses and provided orchestrations for the composer. From 2005 to 2008, Harvey held the post of Composer in Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, he was Composer in Residence at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. He died, aged 73, in Lewes, from motor neuron disease. Speakings received six votes in a 2

Jonathan Kramer

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Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City) was an American composer and music theorist. Biography Kramer received his B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University (1965) and his MA and PhD in music from the University of California, Berkeley (1967 and 1969). His composition teachers included Karlheinz Stockhausen, Roger Sessions, Leon Kirchner, Seymour Shifrin, Andrew Imbrie, Richard Felciano, Jean-Claude Éloy, Billy Jim Layton, Edwin Dugger, and Arnold Franchetti. He studied theory with David Lewin, criticism with Joseph Kerman, and computer music with John Chowning. Kramer was professor of composition and theory at Columbia University from 1988 until his death in 2004. He also taught at the Oberlin Conservatory, Yale University, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He held visiting appointments at Wesleyan University, King’s College London, the Canberra School of Music, the School of Music at the University of Western Australia, the Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio (Italy), the Center for New Music and Technology (Berkeley), May in Miami, the ISCM Summer Workshop for Composers (Poland), and the Eur

Jonathan Lloyd (composer)

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Jonathan Lloyd (30 September 1948 – 31 July 2025) was a British composer. Life and career Lloyd’s early teachers included Emile Spira. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music where he was a recipient of the Mendelssohn Scholarship. His orchestral work Cantique, which he wrote whilst at the RCM, was featured in the 30-year retrospective of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM) in 1973. He continued to study composition with John Lambert and Edwin Roxburgh as well as Henri Pousseur in Durham. In 1973, Lloyd attended the Tanglewood Music Center in the US, where he studied with György Ligeti and where he won the Koussevitsky Prize for his work Scattered Ruins. In 1978-1979, he was composer-in-residence at the Dartington College of Arts in its theatre department. In 1986 he collaborated with the music critic Michael White on a large-scale community opera, The Adjudicator, for the village of Blewbury, Oxon. Lloyd died on 31 July 2025 at the age of 76. Selected compositions Chamber ensembles * Airs and Graces * Almeida Dances * Ballad for the Evening of a Man * Ben’s Boogie * Brass Quintet * Dancing in the Ruins * Don’t mention the War * The Five Senses * ‘Go Bl

Joonas Kokkonen

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Joonas Kokkonen (; 13 November 1921 – 2 October 1996) was a Finnish composer. He was one of the most internationally famous Finnish composers of the 20th century after Sibelius; his opera The Last Temptations has received over 500 performances worldwide, and is considered by many to be Finland’s most distinguished national opera. Life Kokkonen was born in Iisalmi, Finland, but spent the latter part of his life in Järvenpää at his home, which was known as Villa Kokkonen, designed by architect Alvar Aalto and completed in 1969. He served in the Finnish army during World War II with great distinction. He received his education at the University of Helsinki, and later at the Sibelius Academy, where he afterwards taught composition; his students there included Aulis Sallinen. In addition to his activities as a composer, he made a significant and powerful impact on Finnish cultural life, serving as a chairman and organizer, heading organizations such as Society of Finnish Composers, the Board of the Concert Centre, and others. His purpose was always to improve music education, as well as the status and appreciation of classical music as well as Finnish music. In the 1960s and early 1970s

Jordi Savall

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Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol family of instruments (notably the viola da gamba) in contemporary performance and recording. As a historian of early music his repertoire features everything from medieval, Renaissance and Baroque through to the Classical and Romantic periods. He has incorporated non-western musical traditions in his work including African vernacular music for a documentary on slavery. Musical education His musical training started at age six in the school choir of his native Igualada (1947–55). After graduating from the Barcelona’s Conservatory of Music (where he studied from 1959 to 1965) he specialized in early music, collaborating with Ars Musicae de Barcelona under Enric Gispert, studying with August Wenzinger at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland (1968–70) and eventually succeeding Wenzinger in 1974 as professor of viola da gamba at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Ensembles In 1974 he formed the ensemble Hespèrion XX (known since 2000 as Hespè

Jörg Demus

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Jörg Wolfgang Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian classical pianist who appeared internationally and made many recordings. He was also a composer and a lecturer at music academies. In composition and playing, he focused on chamber music and lieder. He played with singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as a piano duo with Paul Badura-Skoda, and with string players such as Josef Suk and Antonio Janigro. Demus was instrumental in bringing the historic fortepiano to concert podiums. He was a member of the Legion of Honour, among many awards. He is regarded as one of the leading Austrian pianists of the immediate post-World War II era. Early life and education Demus was born in St. Pölten; his father was the art historian Otto Demus, and his mother was a concert violinist. His playing of Bach’s works showed their structure as well as melodic lines. He favoured Schumann’s music, revealing a high degree of playful levity besides romantic expressiveness. His playing of Debussy’s music stands out in Klangsinn, a sense for a colourful impressionist sound world. He recorded several of his own compositions with cellist Maria Kliegel, including P

Jörg Ewald Dähler

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Jörg Ewald Dähler (16 March 1933 – 3 November 2018), was a Swiss conductor, harpsichordist, fortepiano player and composer. Life Born in Bern, Dähler, son of the reformed pastor Karl Walter Dähler (1903–1986), grew up in Langnau im Emmental. He then attended the teacher training college in Hofwil. At the Hochschule für Musik in Bern, he graduated as a teacher of piano and then studied harpsichord at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg im Breisgau. He taught basso continuo, chamber music, and choral conducting at the Berne Conservatory of Music and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. His pupils included Olive Emil Wetter and Hans Eugen Frischknecht. From 1965 to 1998, he conducted concerts in Bern, at the Bätterkinden Gasthof Krone and the Hindelbank castle, and from 1974 onwards, the Bern Chamber Choir. He also practised drawing. He illustrated two collections of short stories by his father, written in the Bern dialect of German: “Momou das git’s” (Langnau im Emmental, 1983 ) and Ou das het’s ggä (idem, 1986). Works * Das Passionsgeschehen nach dem Evangelisten Lukas (The Passion event according to Luke the Evangelist). For 8-voice mixed choir, narrator, trombone quartet, and organ. 19

Jörg Herchet

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Jörg Herchet (born 20 September 1943) is a German composer. Life Born in Dresden, Herchet grew up as the son of a driver and a worker in modest circumstances. As a pupil he received recorder and cello lessons, later piano and singing lessons. Already at that time he composed his first smaller compositions. From 1962 to 1965 he studied musical composition at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden with Johannes Paul Thilman and Manfred Weiss, cello with Clemens Dillner and piano with Ilse Brähmer. The use of a Franz Kafka text in his composition Interfragmentarium zum werke von franz k. für klavier und alt led to distortions with the Hochschule, whereupon Herchet continued his composition studies at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in East-Berlin with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny from 1967 to 1969. His diploma thesis on The importance of music-theoretical writings by Schönberg and Hindemith for the development of a compositional theory was rejected on the grounds that a compositional theory “must lead to Hanns Eisler and not to Pierre Boulez”. He also studied musicology (among others with Georg Knepler) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. After Herchet first worke

Jorge Antunes (composer)

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Jorge de Freitas Antunes (born 23 April 1942) is a Brazilian avant-garde composer of electroacoustic and acousmatic music. He is known as the man who pioneered electronic music in Brazil. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Antunes entered the Escola de Música da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in 1959 where he studied violin. He went on to earn Master of Music degrees in both violin and composition from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Doctor of Music in electroacoustic music from the University of Paris (1977). Biography In 1973, Antunes became a professor at the University of Brasília. He directs the Laboratory of Electroacoustic Music and teaches Composition and Musical Acoustics. Selected works Opera * Contato (1968) * Vivaldia MCMLXXV, chamber opera buffa (1975) * Qorpo Santo, opera in three acts (1983) * O rei de uma nota só (The Single-tone King), mini-opera in four scenes (1991) * A borboleta azul (The Blue Butterfly), mini-opera in two acts (1995) * Olga (composed 1987–97, premiered 2006) Chamber music * Mascaruncho for two violas (1977) * Microformóbiles I for viola and piano (1970) * Modinha para Mindinha (Tune for Mindinha) for seven violas (1985) Discography

Jorge Arriagada

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Jorge Arriagada (20 August 1943 – 8 October 2024) was a French-Chilean composer residing in France. Specializing in film music, he is best known for his longstanding collaboration with director Raúl Ruiz. Life and career Arriagada studied composition and orchestral conducting at the National Conservatory of Music in Santiago. Later, he received a four-year scholarship from the French government, allowing him to study in Paris with Max Deutsch, a student and friend of the Austrian composer and theorist Arnold Schönberg. He also studied with Pierre Schaeffer, Olivier Messiaen, and Pierre Boulez. In 1972, the Guggenheim Foundation in New York awarded Arriagada a scholarship for his contributions to the field of electronic music at Stanford University in California, USA. During the same period, he served as a professor of music composition for French government scholarship recipients. From 1977, he worked primarily in the film industry, composing music for over 160 films for about thirty directors, including Olivier Assayas, Patricio Guzmán, Benoît Jacquot, Orson Welles, and Barbet Schroeder, as well as 46 films directed by Ruiz. His film scores often encompass symphonic music, as well

Jorge Calandrelli

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Jorge Calandrelli (December 31, 1939 – May 4, 2026) was an Argentine composer, arranger, and conductor known for his work with Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Arturo Sandoval, Yo-Yo Ma, Tony Bennett, Elton John, Lady Gaga, and John Legend. He won 6 Grammy Awards and received 28 nominations. Calandrelli was nominated twice for an Academy Award for his work on The Color Purple and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Life and career Calandrelli’s mother was a skilled pianist. Both his father and grandfather were medical doctors and expected him to follow their path. At age 4, Calandrelli started playing the piano by ear and took lessons at age 8. In his late teens, with both of his parents’ support, Calandrelli traveled to Europe to pursue a career in music. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1968 and collaborated with composer and arranger Clare Fischer. Inspired by him, Calandrelli decided to go back to Argentina and continue honing his skills. He later returned to the United States with recommendation letters from the record labels he had worked with in Argentina. He recorded Russian-American conductor Andre Kostelanetz and a 65-piece orchestra at CBS’ studio in New York. Calandrelli started

Jorge Peixinho

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Jorge Manuel Marques Peixinho Rosado (born 20 January 1940 — 30 June 1995) was a Portuguese composer, pianist and conductor. Life and career Born in Montijo, Portugal, Peixinho studied composition and piano at the Conservatory of Lisbon from 1951 through 1958. At that institution he was a pupil of Artur Santos and Jorge Croner de Vasconcelos. He then pursued graduate studies in music composition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome where he was mentored in composition by Boris Porena and Goffredo Petrassi; graduating in 1961. In 1960 he worked with Luigi Nono in Venice, and with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the City of Basel Music Academy. From 1960 through 1970 he was a participant in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, as both student and lecturer. He began teaching courses in contemporary music in 1962 at the Lisbon Conservatory, and at other institutions in Portugal and South America. In 1970, he created the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group with Clotilde Rosa, and worked at the IPEM studio in Ghent from 1972 to 1973. He died in Lisbon, Portugal on June 30, 1995. Works (selective list) *Tríptico, for voices / soli, choirs, and various instrumental ensembles

Jorge Peña Hen

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Jorge Washington Peña Hen (January 16, 1928 – October 16, 1973) was a Chilean composer and musician, founder of the first children’s symphony orchestra in Latin America. Due to his militancy in the Socialist Party, he was shot by the Chilean Army during the passage of the Caravan of Death in the Coquimbo Region. Works His children’s opera La Cenicienta was composed in 1966. It was restaged in 2004 by Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, and in 2005 by University of Chile’s Theatre in Santiago Chile. Early life He was the son of Tomás Peña Fernández, doctor, mayor, councilor, socialist social actor and politician, and Vitalia Hen Muñoz. On his paternal side, he was a descendant of Tomás Peña, a hero of the La Serena Artisan Society and of revolutionary regionalism, and of José Antonio Peña, commander of the Huasquina Legion who fought in the army of Pedro León Gallo and died in the Battle of The Parrots during 1859 revolution. He was the eldest of three brothers made up of Silvia and Rubén. From an early age he demonstrated leadership qualities, as a student leader, as well as his talent as a born composer and creator, writing his first piece of music at the age of fourteen. At the age of 1

José Antonio Bottiroli

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José Antonio Bottiroli (January 1, 1920 – March 15, 1990) was an Argentine classical music composer and poet. Biography José Antonio Bottiroli was born in Rosario, Argentina on 1 January 1920 and died in Rosario on 15 March 1990. From the time he was a young child and until the end of his life, he lived alternately in Rosario and in Los Cocos, a hill town retreat located in Córdoba Province, Argentina. He studied with Nicolás Alfredo Alessio (1919–1985). In 1948 he graduated from the School of Professors No. 2 Juan María Gutiérrez of the National University of the Littoral with a professorship degree in music and received the Rotary Club Award for the best music student. He was the director of the Vocal Women’s Sextet Juan María Gutiérrez, later Vocal Sextet Loreley, with which he conducted performances in the City of Rosario, Radio LR1 El Mundo and at the Cervantes Theatre (Buenos Aires). He composed Belgrano March – Song with lyrics by Ernesto Aturo Sánchez Queirolo. In 1960 Belgrano March – Song was approved by decree of the National Board of Education and the General Board of Education of the Santa Fe Province to be incorporated in the music repertoire of the schools of Argenti

José Antonio Labordeta

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José Antonio Labordeta Subías (10 March 1935 – 19 September 2010) was a Spanish Aragonese singer, songwriter, poet, writer and political activist. He was described by The Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (Great Aragonese Encyclopedia) as “The most important Aragonese singer-songwriter”. He began singing in an attempt to give more relevance to his poetry; his songs are well-known and beloved anthems in Aragón. Poetic songs such as “Aragón”, “Canto a la libertad” (Song for Freedom) or “Me dicen que no quieres” (They tell me you don’t want to) also gained national popularity. He was also the founder of the Andalán newspaper, which was very influential during the 1970s. From 2000 until retiring in 2008, he represented Zaragoza in the Spanish Congress for Chunta Aragonesista (Aragonese Union), an Aragonese political party. Biography José Antonio Labordeta was born in Zaragoza, Aragón, in 1935. In 1953, his father died. José Antonio went to live with his older brother Miguel, who was married and fourteen years his senior. In 1963, Labordeta married Juana de Grandes, and the newly wed couple moved to Teruel. Two of their daughters, Ana and Ángela, were born while the couple was living there. H

José Carlos Amaral Vieira

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José Carlos Amaral Vieira (born 1952 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian composer, pianist, and musicologist. He has performed solo since he was eight years old and studied in Europe from 1965 to 1976. He returned to Brazil in 1977 and has since composed for several genres there. Biography José Carlos Amaral Vieira was born in 1952 in São Paulo . He studied piano with Souza Lima and composition with Artur Hartmann in Brazil. Vieira later studied in France at the Paris Conservatory with Lucette Descaves and Olivier Messiaen; in Germany at the Freiburger Musikhochschule with Carl Seeman and Konrad Lechner; and in the United Kingdom with Louis Kentner. In 1977 he returned to Brazil to embark on the career of a virtuoso performer, while introducing his own compositions in concert programmes. He has achieved international acclaim both as a concert and recording artist, composer, and musicologist, and has appeared throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Among his honors, Vieira has been the recipient of the Arthur Honegger International Composition Award, a Grand Prix International (Fondation de France), Hungary’s Liszt Award, and Japan’s Min-On Award. List of compositions *Te Deum in stilo

José Evangelista

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José Evangelista (5 August 1943 – 10 January 2023) was a Spanish composer and music educator who was based in Montreal, Canada. He was professor of composition at the Université de Montréal from 1979 to 2009. A member of the Canadian League of Composers, the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, Evangelista was known for his commitment to contemporary classical music and non-Western music. Life and career Born in Valencia on 5 August 1943, At the same time he pursued music courses at the Valencia Conservatory and earned a premier prix in music composition there in 1967. In 1969 Evangelista moved to Canada and settled in the city of Montreal. From 1970 to 1973 he was a pupil of André Prévost at the Université de Montréal where he earned a Master of Music in composition. From 1979 he taught on the music faculty of the Université de Montréal; among his students were composers Simon Bertrand, Analia Llugdar, Samy Moussa and Ana Sokolovic. Awards In 1974 Evangelista was awarded first prize in the Confederación Espanola de Cajas de Ahorros Contest in Madrid for his En guise de fête. * Sonatine for flute and piano, 1971 * Un mur à peine for

José Loyola

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José Eulalio Loyola Fernández (born 1941) is a Cuban composer, professor and flutist. Academic background José Loyola was born in 1941 in Cienfuegos, Cuba. He began to study flute with his father, Efrain Loyola, and continued at a later time, in 1963, at the National Art Schools with professors Juan Pablo Ondina and Emigdio Mayo. In 1967, Loyola concluded his médium level music studies and received instruction from renowned North American professor Federico Smith. In 1967, Loyola received a scholarship to study musical composition at the Warsaw Superior School of Music, with professors Grażyna Bacewicz, Andrzej Dobrowolski and Witold Rudzinski. In 1973, he concluded his studies. From 1981 to 1985, he continued at the Frédéric Chopin Academy at Warsaw, where he received a Doctorate in Music. a musical ensemble which structure is based in the classical format of the “Charanga francesa”, which emerged during the first years of the 20th century derived from the “Orquesta típica”, or wind ensemble. Awards and recognitions * Annual Award for the totality of his work (1992) * “Juan Marinello” Order (1996) * “Alejo Carpentier” Medal,(2002) * National Prize for Artistic Education (2023) See

José Luis Torregrosa

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José Luis Torregrosa (December 4, 1944 in Talavera de la Reina, Toledo – November 5, 2007 in Málaga) was a Spanish singer, musician, composer, and record producer. He worked with numerous artists including Julio Iglesias, Salvatore Adamo, Nino Bravo, and Massiel. His career was terminated in 1996 after suffering from cancer of the larynx; he later died from lung cancer. Biography Early years Torregrosa was born in Talavera de la Reina, Toledo. He got married very young and came to live in Torremolinos, Malaga. There he began to work in music, combining it with other jobs that came to him and left him more money at that time. Some venues hired him some nights as a singer, he stood out a lot for his powerful voice, which was compared in many cases with a multitude of artists. Torregrosa began to shine at night in Torremolinos and people admired him, and listened with pleasure to Torregrosa’s talent. The singer began to become an emblematic sign of Torremolinos in the 60s. He dominated many styles, people danced with him from a ballad to a salsa. Musical career In 1968, Torregrosa signed a contract with the “Mi Bohío” nightclub, Torregrosa sang there where they offered him a good sala

José Luis Turina

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José Luis Turina (born 1952, in Madrid) is a Spanish composer, grandson of Joaquín Turina. He studied composition under Antón García Abril, Román Alís, Rodolfo Halffter and Carmelo Bernaola at the conservatories of Barcelona and Madrid, and then, with a grant from the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for studying at the Spanish Fine Arts Academy in Rome, he attended the classes in composition given by Franco Donatoni at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. In 1981, his work Meeting Point won the First Prize in the International Composition Contest organised by the Orchestra of the Valencia Conservatory to mark their first centenary. In 1986 he won the First Prize of the Musical Composition Contest “Queen Sofía”, from the Ferrer Salat Foundation, with his piece Ocnos (orchestral music on poems by Luis Cernuda). He was awarded Spain’s Premio Nacional de Música for composition in 1996. Teacher of Harmony in the Conservatories of Cuenca and Madrid since 1981, in 1993 he was designated technical advisor of the Ministry for Education and Science, for the reformation of musical teaching in the realm of the new education law of 1990. In February 2001 he was appointed artistic director of th

José Nieto (composer)

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José Nieto (born March 1, 1942) is a Spanish composer, orchestrator, songwriter, conductor and drum player. He is best known for writing films scores, such as Mad Love (2001), El bosque animado (1987), The Fencing Master (1992), Carmen (2003), The Turkish Passion (1994) or I Know Who You Are (2000). For television he has composed music for the BBC in series like Crusades(1995) or From the Heart of the World (1990), and other international and Spanish series such as Captain James Cook (1988), Armada (1988), Teresa de Jesús (1984) or Los jinetes del alba. He has collaborated in theater with Miguel Narros in “El burlador de Sevilla” and “Salomé”, with María Ruiz in the “Serrana de la Vera” and “The portrait of Dorian Gray”, with José Luis Gómez in “Bodas que fueron famosas del Pingajo y la Fandanga” and in “Life is a Dream”, with Adolfo Marsillach in “Los locos de Valencia” and with Josefina Molina in “No se ser …”, among others. He also has worked in the field of ballet. Her works in this field include “Tres Danzas Españolas”, “Ritmos”, “Romance de Luna”, “Don Juan Tenorio”, “Dualia” and “El Corazón de Piedra Verde”, all composed for the National Ballet of Spain. For the Andalusian

Josef Anton Riedl

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Josef Anton Riedl (11 June 1929 – 25 March 2016) was a German composer. Biography Riedl was born in Munich in 1929 (1927 is also given as his year of birth). Following a period of studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and in courses given by Hermann Scherchen in Gravesano, Riedl, influenced by Carl Orff and Edgar Varèse, devoted himself as a composer particularly to percussion and Lautgedichte (sound poetry). In 1950 he was co-founder of the German Section of the Jeunesses Musicales, together with Herbert Barth, Reiner Bredemeyer and Eckhart Rolfs. Starting in 1952 he did pioneering work in the use of concrete and electronic sounds, joining Pierre Schaefer’s Groupe de Recherche Musicale in 1953. In 1955 he worked in the electronic studio of NWDR in Cologne, and spent some time in 1959 in Scherchen’s experimental studio in Gravesano. From 1959 until its closure in 1966 Riedl was director of the Siemens Studio for electronic music. The concert series Neue Musik München / Klang-Aktionen initiated by Riedl in 1960 continues to this day. In 1967 he established the Musik/Film/Dia/Licht-Galerie group, and in 1974 in Bonn founded the Kultur Forum, which he directed until

Josef Berg

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Josef Berg (8 March 1927 – 26 February 1971) was a Czech composer, musicologist and librettist. His work represents a remarkable value in the context of Czech music after World War II. Life From 1946 to 1950 he studied at the Brno Conservatory, in the class of Vilém Petrželka. Simultaneously he attended the music lectures at the Faculty of Philosophy on Brno university given by Jan Racek and Bohumír Štědroň. He worked as a music editor in the Czechoslovak Radio in Brno (1950–53), and also wrote reviews for the journals and newspapers. Later he concentrated exclusively on composing. Berg founded an association of young composers called Group A. The members of the group strived in their program to connect convincing artistic activity with the new musical language, and also to promote new musical trends in Czechoslovakia. Style Even though the Berg’s style was at first influenced by Moravian folk music, his mature compositions are very individual and take advantage of new composition techniques and principles. Selected works *Months. Piano cycle (1956) *Seven Preludies for Piano (1959) *Sextet for Harp, Piano and String Quartet (1959) *Nonet for Two Harps, Piano, Cembalo, Glockenspiel

Josef Maria Horváth

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Josef Maria Horváth (born József Mária Horváth; 20 December 1931 – 21 October 2019) was an Austrian composer of Hungarian descent, who wrote contemporary classical music. A Professor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, he left his concert pianist and conductor career in 1964 to focus on composition. Horváth was among the most important 20th-century composers active in Salzburg. Life Josef Maria Horváth was born on 20 December 1931 as József Mária Horváth in Pécs, Hungary. At the Jesuit School of his hometown he learned to play the organ. After high school he studied piano (receiving his diploma in 1956), music composition, and conducting at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Horváth emigrated to Austria in 1956 to study at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in Salzburg. His studies lasted until 1959 with a focus on piano, composition and electronic music under Cesar Bresgen and Kurt Leimer. After his 1959 graduation, Horváth led a career within Austria and abroad as a pianist, conductor and sometimes organist, described by his later publisher as a “successful concert career” . He often performed his own compositions. Based in Salzburg, in 1964 Horváth left a career as a pianist to con

Josefina Benedetti

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Josefina Benedetti Punceles (born September 17, 1953) is a Venezuelan-American composer, musicologist and choral director. Biography Josefina Benedetti was born in New Haven, Connecticut to Venezuelan-born father. She studied piano in Caracas and London, finished her studies at the National Conservatory of Music, Juan José Landaeta, and studied choral conducting at the University Institute of Musical Studies, Magister Scientiarum, in Latin American. She received a musicology degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. She received the National Prize for Composition in 1989, 1993 and 1998, the Municipal Music Prize of the City of Caracas in 1990 and the José Antonio and Carmen Calcaño Foundation Composition Prize in 1993. She served as president of Jeunesses Musicales de Venezuela, (1991–96), the National Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation (1995–2000) and the music label Música y Tiempo (Music and Time). She has been Secretary General of the Venezuelan Music Council (UNESCO) and a member of the boards of the Venezuelan Society of Contemporary Music, the Teatro Teresa Carreño Foundation and Director of Culture of the Central University of Venezuela (2000–05). Works Benedetti is

Joseph Alfidi

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Joseph Alfidi (May 28, 1949 – February 2, 2015) was an American pianist, composer, and conductor and initially a child prodigy. He was born in Yonkers, New York, as the son of American-born parents of Italian descent. His father, Frank Alfidi, was an accordion player who ran a music school in Yonkers. Known as “Joey” in his childhood, he was three when he started to play several instruments in his father’s studio. By the age of four, he frequently improvised little compositions at the piano, and soon became fascinated by symphonic music as well. Biography At the age of six, he had professional engagements to conduct the Miami Symphony Orchestra in Florida and members of the New York Philharmonic on Long Island. On November 18, 1956, the seven-year-old appeared in Carnegie Hall, conducting the Symphony of the Air. The ambitious program included two overtures, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Rossini’s William Tell, as well as Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. He appeared on two CBS Television Network Goodson-Todman produced game-shows. On November 14, 1956, he was a guest on I’ve Got a Secret starring Garry Moore where he performed on four different instru

Joseph Baber

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Joseph Wilson Baber Jr. (September 11, 1937 – March 19, 2022) was an American composer, violist, and composition teacher living in Lexington, Kentucky. Life Baber was born in 1937 in Richmond, Virginia, and died in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a Professor of Theory and Composition at the University of Kentucky from 1971 to 2021, and the longtime principal violist of Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. Selected works Information from and. * Op. 1: Duos for Violin and Viola * Op. 2a: Longfellow Songs ** “It Is Not Always May” ** “The Aftermath” ** “Serenade” ** “The Rainy Day” ** “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” ** “Snow-flakes” * Op. 2b: Emersonian Hymns ** “The Informing Spirit” ** “Compensation” ** “Thine Eyes Still Shined” ** “Thought” ** “Terminus” ** “To Ellen” ** “Nature” * Op. 3: Miscellaneous Instrumental (1960) * Op. 4: Wise Men And Shepherds, Christmas cantata (1951) * Op. 5: Instrumental Works for Winds ** Sonnet for Solo Oboe, Flute and String Orchestra ** Meditation for Solo Bassoon ** Sketches for Flute and Piano * Op. 6: Cavalier Lyrics (1960) ** “Song (Sedley)” ** “Why So Pale and Wan” (Sir John Suckling) ** “Take, O Take Those Lips Away” (Shakespeare) ** “The Constant

Joseph Byrd

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Joseph Hunter Byrd Jr. (December 19, 1937 – November 2, 2025) was an American composer, musician and academic. After first becoming known as an experimental composer in New York City and Los Angeles, he became the leader of the psychedelic rock band The United States of America, an innovative but short-lived band which integrated psychedelic rock, electronic sound, and radical political ideas into rock music. In 1968 he recorded the album The American Metaphysical Circus, credited to Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies. After working as a record producer, arranger, and soundtrack composer, he became a university teacher in music history and theory. Early life and career Byrd was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and was raised in Tucson, Arizona, after his father purchased a mine near the Mexican border. His sister, Elizabeth would become a notable writer. As a teenager, Byrd played accordion and vibraphone in a series of pop and country bands, started writing his own arrangements, and performed on some local TV shows. He formed his first jazz quartet while a student at the University of Arizona, where he studied composition with Barney Childs (B.M., 1959). He began his graduate studies in

Joseph Dillon Ford

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Joseph Dillon Ford (February 6, 1952 – March 8, 2017) was an American composer and author. Life and career Ford was born in Americus, Georgia. He held undergraduate degrees in music and graduate degrees in both musicology and landscape architecture. Although he focused on keyboard performance during his college years, Ford completed his training at Harvard as a Variell Scholar specializing in historical musicology. He studied twentieth-century composers and compositional techniques with Ivan Tcherepnin, the works of Bach and Handel with Christoph Wolff, Dowland and the English lutenists with John Ward, and the music of medieval Aquitaine with David Hughes. His major works include three symphonies, a piano concerto, several harpsichord concertos and sonatas, choral music, and a large quantity of chamber and solo works for the piano and other instruments. Although most of his oeuvre is tonal—often very traditionally so, he also produced non-tonal work using both acoustic and electronic media, and developed synthetic chromatic dialects amenable to both idioms. Keenly interested in emergent music and telecommunications technologies and the rich potential they offer for international cr

Joseph Fennimore

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Joseph Fennimore (born 16 April 1940) is an American composer, pianist and teacher best known for his works for piano and chamber ensembles, ranked by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Philip Kennicott as “one of this country’s finest composers.” His music has been performed and broadcast worldwide and included in the Metropolitan Opera Studio and New York City Ballet repertories. Early life and education Joseph Fennimore was born in Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital. He began formal music studies in upstate New York at the Schenectady Conservatory of Music, his principal teacher being its founder and director, Joseph G. Derrick, graduate of the New England Conservatory in the piano class of Ethel Newcomb, Theodor Leschetizky’s first American assistant. In his twelfth year Fennimore was chosen to perform a piano concerto with the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra at that city’s historic Proctor’s Theater. Fennimore was one of eight high school juniors to participate in the Eastman School of Music’s experimental accelerated program in Rochester, New York, during which the first year of his baccalaureate was completed over the summer months before and after his senior year in high school. The f

Joseph Gelineau

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Joseph Gelineau, SJ (31 October 1920 – 8 August 2008) was a French Jesuit priest and composer, mainly of modern Christian liturgical music. He was a member of the translation committee for La Bible de Jérusalem (1959). Gelineau was born in Champ-sur-Layon, Maine-et-Loire. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1941, he studied Catholic theology in Lyon and music in Paris. He was one of the founders of the international study group on music and liturgy Universa Laus. Heavily influenced by Gregorian chant, he developed his Gelineau psalmody which is used worldwide. His psalm tones were designed to express the asymmetrical, three to four line design of the psalm texts. He collaborated with the Dominican Raymond-Jacques Tournay and Raymond Schwab to rework the Jerusalem Bible Psalter. Their joint effort produced the Psautier de la Bible de Jerusalem and recording Psaumes, which won the Gran Prix de L’ Academie Charles Cros in 1953. Later he composed numerous chants for the ecumenical French Taizé Community. He was associated with the Institut Catholique de Paris. He also collaborated with Didier Rimaud. He died in Sallanches, aged 87. Selected recordings * Hymnes de Joseph Gelineau 4CD

Joseph Horovitz

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Joseph Horovitz (26 May 1926 – 9 February 2022) was an Austrian-born British composer and conductor best known for his 1970 pop cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, which achieved widespread popularity in schools. Horovitz also composed music for television, including the theme music for the Thames Television series Rumpole of the Bailey, and was a prolific composer of ballet, orchestral (including nine concertos), brass band, wind band and chamber music. He considered his fifth string quartet (1969) to be his best work. Biography Horovitz was born in Vienna, Austria, into a Jewish family who emigrated to England via Belgium in 1938 to escape the Nazis. His father was the publisher Béla Horovitz, the co-founder in 1923, with Ludwig Goldscheider, of Phaidon Press. His sister was the classical music promoter Hannah Horovitz (1936–2010). When he was about 6 or 7, he attended the Vienna Conservatorium. After completing his schooling at The City of Oxford High School Horovitz studied music and modern languages at New College, Oxford, where his teachers included R. O. Morris, Percy Scholes, Bernard Rose and Egon Wellesz. He later attended the Royal College of Music in London, study

Joseph Marcus Ritchie

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Joseph Marcus Ritchie (born 1946 in Elizabethton; †21 August 1989 in Washington, D.C. ) was an American organist, choirmaster and composer. He often shortened his name to “J. Marcus Ritchie.” Biography After graduating from Elizabethton High School in 1960, His principal organ teachers were Ruth Fuque Stout during high school, Harold G. Andrews at Greensboro College and Grigg T. Fountain at Northwestern University. He also underwent a five-week training in Boychoir techniques, repertory and choral conducting with Simon Preston at Christ Church College Oxford in 1972 St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Metairie, where he established a concert series entitled “Abendmusiken.” He was dean of the American Guild of Organist’ New Orleans Chapter through 1979, he was organist and choirmaster at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, Georgia. He initiated the Sunday Afternoon Organ Recital Series which preceded Evensong. In October 1976 he organized a Jehan Alain festival, featuring Marie-Claire Alain and John Obetz, among others He also managed the concert series for the Roman Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta Joseph Marcus Ritchie died of AIDS. His body was c

Joseph Schwantner

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Joseph Clyde Schwantner (born March 22, 1943) is an American composer, educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2002. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize. Schwantner is prolific, with many works to his credit. His style is coloristic and eclectic, drawing on such diverse elements as French impressionism, African drumming, and minimalism. His orchestral work Aftertones of Infinity received the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Biographical information Schwantner began his musical study at an early age in classical guitar; this study also incorporated the genres of jazz and folk. He also played the tuba in his high school orchestra. His first compositional aspirations were noticed by his guitar teacher who consistently experienced Schwantner elaborating on pieces he would be studying. From this, Schwantner’s teacher suggested he collect these ideas and create his own musical composition. One of his earliest compositions was in the jazz idiom. The piece Offbeats won the National Band Camp Award in 1959. Remaining in Chicago, he continued his musical study in composition at the city’s American Conservatory, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree

Joseph Waters

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Joseph Martin Waters (born 1952) is an American classical composer. He also mounts experimental electronic music festivals attempting to bridge the gap between contemporary popular genres and the avant-garde Western classical tradition. Creative projects May 31, 2025 Waters’ rock opera “El Sidd and the Healers” was premiered in concert form at The Cutting Room in NYC. The work is a reimagining of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha set in California and Mexico in 1969. His first musical theater work, “El Colibrí Magico - The Magic Hummingbird” was premiered by Opera Tijuana in Mexico June 4th & 5th 2023. October 19, 2024 His work “Garden Mother” for traditional Korean instrument, Piri, along with vibraphone, was commissioned and performed by Jeongmin Son at the Gugak Center in Seoul, Korea. May 26, 2020 NWEAMO Festival (during pandemic) included a remote performance of “Things” from EUM Studio, Seoul Korea by Jaeonghyeon Joo (Haegeum) and Seunghee Han (harp). December 28, 2018 Ensemble Phase performed “Air, Earth, Ocean” in Ilshin Hall, Seoul, Korea. In 2011 Orchestra Nova conductor Jung-Ho Pak commissioned Waters to create a double concerto for violin (featuring Lindsay Deutsch) and alto s

Joseph Willcox Jenkins

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Joseph Willcox Jenkins (15 February 1928 – 31 January 2014) was an American composer, professor of music, and musician. During his military service in the Korean War, he became the first arranger for the United States Army Chorus. He ended his teaching career as Professor Emeritus at the Mary Pappert School of Music, Duquesne University, where he had been a professor since 1961, soon afterward, he started composing small pieces in elementary school. In high school, he wrote numerous arrangements as well as some original works for orchestra. In 1946, Jenkins began his tertiary studies at Saint Joseph’s University (then St. Joseph’s College) in Philadelphia, where he focused on pre-law with the ambition of becoming a lawyer. At the same time, he studied composition and counterpoint with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory (which became part of the University of the Arts in 1962). Jenkins completed his degree at St. Joseph’s in three years and enrolled in the Eastman School of Music in 1949. While there, he studied under important composers including Thomas Canning, Howard Barlow, Bernard Rogers, and Howard Hanson. Jenkins graduated from Eastman with a Masters of Musi

Joseph-François Kremer

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Joseph-François Kremer (born 22 June 1954) is a French composer, conductor, cellist and musicologist. Biography Joseph-François Kremer was born in Lyon (France) in 1954. Currently director of the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud of the City of Antony (Île-de-France). He is associated with an original movement in Postmodernism, cited in the ‘‘Larousse de la musique’’. He is interested in the sound qualities of contemporary music as well as the human role in the context of musical interpretation. As a cellist, he studied with Robert Cordier, Maurice Gendron and Claude Burgos. He studied orchestral conducting with J.C. Hartmann. As a composer, he was principally the disciple of Claude Ballif. He has written several books which deal with musical phenomenology, especially on the symbolic forms of music (1984), on the great musical topics (1994), on musical aesthetics (2000), as well as on musical theory, among them the first French reissue of Rameau’s Traité d’harmonie of 1722, a project supported by the Fondation Singer-Polignac in 1986, and in 1996 Rameau’s Nouveau système de musique théorique of 1726. He has also written several works of comparative aesthetics. From 1987 to 1994, he dire

Joshua Uzoigwe

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Joshua Uzoigwe (1 July 1946 – 15 October 2005) was a Nigerian composer and ethnomusicologist. A member of the Igbo ethnic group, many of his works draw on the traditional music of that people. Early life and education Uzoigwe was born in Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State (formerly Imo State), located in the southeastern region of Nigeria. He began his education at the village primary school in Umuagu. Most of his early life was spent with his older brother, Sunday Uzoigwe, who was then employed at the University of Ibadan. For his secondary education, Joshua attended King’s College, Lagos before going on to International School Ibadan to study for his Advanced Level Certificate. From 1970 to 1973, he was at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he began his studies in music. He completed his undergraduate degree (1973–77) at the Guildhall College of Music, London, and from 1977 to 1981 he attended Queen’s University Belfast, attaining both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. Career Uzoigwe lectured in Music at three universities in Nigeria, starting from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in Osun State, southwestern Nigeria, then University of Nigeria Nsukka

Josima Feldschuh

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Josima Feldschuh (also spelled Feldszuh or Feldschu; 26 June 1929 – 21 April 1943) was a Polish pianist and composer of Jewish origin. Feldshuh was considered a child prodigy. Life Josima Feldschuh was born in Warsaw in 1929 to Ruben Feldschuh and Perła (Pnina) née Richter. Her father was an intellectual and a Zionist, while her mother, who started teaching Josima to play the piano when the girl was 5 years old, was a pianist and a musicologist. Her father’s cousin Rokhl Auerbakh later described Josima as having perfect pitch and great musical memory which helped her play the works of Chopin, Mendelssohn or Bach from memory and offer her own interpretations. and Austrian Cultural Forum in London, in Plzeň, Leeds, York and at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, among others. Josima’s music has been also showcased at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, most notably during a concert of the winner of Paszport Polityki award, pianist Emilia Sitarz. The part of Josima was played by Lauren Zhang, who was accompanied by the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra. In 2021, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic pla

Josquin Des Pres (American musician)

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Josquin Des Pres (born Josquin Turenne Des Pres) is a French-born American record producer, songwriter, and TV composer who is also known for his composing collaboration with English lyricist Bernie Taupin. He also writes music scores and trailers for more than 40 major TV networks and television shows. Des Pres has contributed to instructional music media books for Hal Leonard and Mel Bay; he has written a vast library of compositions and music techniques on bass, music studies, and various collections, which are used by music teachers, private studies, and in schools, both nationally and internationally, as a standard tool in the music industry. Career Des Pres started out in the mid-1970s playing bass professionally in the South of France. He joined progressive rock group Edition Speciale with whom he recorded two albums, including Allée Des Tilleuls (United Artists Records) and Aliquante (RCA Records) in 1975–1977. In the late ’70s, Des Pres toured with French jazz violinist Didier Lockwood and then migrated to Los Angeles, California, to play with former Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist Jerry Goodman. In the early 1980s, he formed the melodic hard rock group Stress with guitaris

Jovan Adamov

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Jovan Adamov (born 5 May 1942, Čoka) is a Serbian composer and conductor, best remembered as the conductor of the famous children’s show “Muzički tobogan”. Biography Although he graduated as a mechanical engineer, Jovan “Joca” Adamov dedicated his life to music, working at Radio Television of Vojvodina (formerly RT Novi Sad). He received his musical education in Novi Sad and has been involved in music since 1962. A double bassist and occasional conductor of the Dance Orchestra of Radio Novi Sad, where he was a music producer for many years. As a composer of entertaining melodies, he has participated in many Yugoslav festivals since 1964. In addition to schlagers, old town songs, and romances, he wrote film and stage music. He is a recipient of numerous awards. Main works * Old town songs and romances ** “Room in Varadin” ** “We Met” ** “Things That Have Passed” ** “Why I Met You” * Schlagers ** “Hey Why Am I” ** “Hey Soldiers Aviators” ** “Little Words Are Needed When You Love” ** “Unfinished Thoughts” ** “Let It Not Be in Spring” (sung by Ljiljana Petrović) ** “We Will Never Allow Our Love to End” ** “A Summer Story” ** “You Passed by Love” ** “Colorful Displays” ** “What Good Is

Jovino Santos Neto

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Jovino Santos Neto (born September 18, 1954) is a Seattle-based Brazilian-American jazz pianist, flutist, composer, arranger, educator and record producer. Career Jovino Santos Neto started playing piano at age 13 and by 16 was playing keyboards in a band called the Vacancy Group in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro. He earned a degree in Biology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and later attended Macdonald College of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 1977, he joined the group led by Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal, working as a pianist, flutist, composer, arranger and producer. Since leaving Hermeto’s group in 1992 and relocating to the United States, Santos Neto has released several albums. He has toured internationally as the leader of his own ensemble and with musicians such as Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, and Mike Marshall. Santos Neto taught at Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts for 26 years, ending in May 2020, whereupon he took to teaching via Zoom. He is a frequent teacher at Jazz Camp West. Discography * 1998: Caboclo * 2000: Ao Vivo em Olympia (Live in Olympia, Washington) * 2001: Balaio (Basket) (Malandro) * 2003: Canto do Rio * 2003: Serenata wit

Joyce Mekeel

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Joyce Haviland Mekeel (July 6, 1931 in New Haven, CT – December 29, 1997, in Watertown, MA) was a composer, harpsichordist, teacher, anthropologist, and sculptor. Education Joyce Mekeel studied at the Longy School of Music (1952–55), Paris Conservatory (1955–57) and Yale University (BM 1959, MM 1960). In Paris her teachers included Nadia Boulanger; in the 1960s she studied with Earl Kim. At Yale she studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt and theory with David Kraehenbuehl. Mekeel received a fellowship to MacDowell Colony and grants in composition from Ingram-Merrill in 1964 and Radcliffe Institute from 1969-1970. She was a member of Sigma Alpha Iota. Mekeel took up studying anthropology which brought her to West Africa twice, where she created many sculptures. Mekeel also attended Princeton University. She held two doctoral degrees, one in anthropology. Career Teaching Mekeel taught at the New England Conservatory (1964–70) and Boston University (from 1970). At Boston University, she directed the electronic music studio and taught private composition lessons, as well as classes in Advanced Counterpoint, Cannon and Fugue, (for graduate students), Pedagogy of Theory, Ear Training

Jože Humer

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Jože Humer (24 June 1936 – 13 June 2012) was a Slovenian composer, choirmaster, lyricist, translator, and cultural organiser. He was also a judge, a secretary of the Supreme Court of Slovenia, In March 2012, he was decorated by Slovenian President Danilo Türk with the Order for Merits of Slovenia, with a rationale that described him as an “above-average deserving personality of the Slovenian cultural life.” References

Józef Świder

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Józef Świder (born 19 August 1930 in Czechowice-Dziedzice, died 22 May 2014 in Katowice ) was a Polish composer and music teacher. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Katowice (formerly PWSM – today Akademia Muzyczna), then continued his studies with Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Since 1954, he taught composition and music theory at the Akademia Muzyczna in Katowice. Among his pupils were the Polish composers Aleksander Lasoń, Julian Gembalski, Andrzej Dziadek and Wiesław Cieńciała. Professor at the University of Silesia (Uniwersytet Śląski) where, from 1985 until 1999, he managed the Institute for Music Education. Since 1984 professor of the postgraduate course for choir directors at the Akademia Muzyczna in Bydgoszcz. Member of the jury of numerous Polish and international choir competitions. Józef Świder was the recipient of many awards, among them the Prize of Poland’s Prime Minister for his works for children. He was a member of the Union of Polish Composers (ZKP). Compositions * more than 200 choral songs * 3 operas: Magnus (1970), Wit Stwosz (Veit Stoss – 1974), Bal Baśni (The Fairy Tales Bal – 1977) * Wokaliza (Vocalise) for so

József Soproni (composer)

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József Soproni (4 October 1930 – 24 April 2021) was a Hungarian composer. Biography After graduating from the , Soproni entered the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in 1949. He graduated in 1956. He taught music theory and composition at Béla Bartók Music High School from 1957 to 1972. In 1992, he was a founding member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts. József Soproni died in Sopron on 24 April 2021 at the age of 90. Selected works ;Stage * Antigoné, Opera in 3 acts (1987) * Aranylövés (Golden Shot), Opera in 1 act (2004) ;Orchestral * Divertimento for string orchestra (1951–1952) * Concerto for string orchestra (1953) * Symphony (Szimfónia) for string orchestra, brass and percussion (1961) * Eklypsis for symphony orchestra (1969) * Symphony No. 1 for orchestra (1975, revised 1980) * Symphony No. 2 Seasons (Évszakok) for orchestra (1977) * Symphony No. 3 Sinfonia de Requiem for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra (1979–1980) * Comments on a Theme by Händel (Kommentárok egy Händel-témához) for orchestra (1985) * 3 Pieces (Három darab) for orchestra (1988) * Symphony No. 4 Találkozások Philipp Emanuel B.-vel (Encounters with Philipp Emanuel B.) for orchestra (1994) * Sympho

Juan Carlos Calderón

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Juan Carlos Calderón López de Arróyabe (7 July 1936 – 26 November 2012) was a Spanish singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Career Born in Santander, he was the author of “Eres tú”, which, performed by Mocedades, came second in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973. It was an important hit in several countries, including the United States. He wrote another three Eurovision entries: “Tú volverás” by Sergio y Estíbaliz in 1975, “La fiesta terminó” by Paloma San Basilio in 1985, and “Nacida para amar” by Nina in 1989; as well as an entry for the OTI Festival: “Amor de medianoche”, which ended up runner-up in 1975 performed by Cecilia. He also wrote music for several movies, including the horror films Vengeance of the Zombies (1973) and Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1974). In 1968 he won an Ondas Award. He wrote songs for artists like Luis Miguel (who received a nomination for Song of the Year at Latin Grammy Awards in 2000 with a Calderón song, “O Tú o Ninguna”), Julio Iglesias, Joan Manuel Serrat, Donald Byrd, Stéphane Grappelli, Bill Coleman, Pedro Iturralde, Herb Alpert, Chayanne, Nino Bravo, Camilo Sesto, Paloma San Basilio, Rocío Dúrcal, David Bustamante, Mari Trini, José

Juan Hidalgo Codorniu

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Juan Hidalgo Codorniu (14 October 1927 – 26 February 2018 ) was a Spanish composer, poet, an action and visual artist. Biography Hidalgo was born in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. After studying piano and composition in Barcelona and Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Bruno Maderna, he participated in the XII Internationale Ferienkurse Für Neue Musik festival in Darmstadt in 1957 with his work “Ukanga”, a serial-structural composition for five chamber ensembles. With this piece, Hidalgo became the first Spanish composer to take part in that festival. In 1958 Juan Hidalgo met the Darmstadt American composers John Cage and David Tudor who were crucial to his musical and career development. In 1964 he founded the ZAJ group along with Walter Marchetti, Ramón Barce, and was later joined by Esther Ferrer and the writer José Luis Castillejo. ZAJ was an exponent of Spanish neodadaism with influences of zen and Marcel Duchamp’s vision of the arts. There were said to be similarities in the philosophy and aesthetics of ZAJ and that of the Japanese Gutai and American Fluxus artistic movements. In 1966 he participated alongside Gustav Metzger, Otto Muehl, Wolf Vostell, Hermann Nitsch and others in the

Juanjo Mier Cáraves

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Juan José Mier Cáraves (Alles, 28 April 1947 – Santander, 7 August 1997) was a Spanish composer, professor, and pedagogue. He is known for his musical and pedagogical work in Cantabria, as well as for the premiere of various chamber and symphonic works in the region. He received several composition awards for his organ works. Life Born in Alles, Asturias, in 1947, Mier moved with his family to Santander in 1955. He studied Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical University of Rome and at the University of Barcelona. His musical training included studies in Santander with Remedios Bacigalupi and Alicia Alonso, and in Bilbao with Juan Cordero and Rafael Castro. including pieces for organ, string quartets, and symphonic works. His music, which was socially engaged and rooted in popular culture, fused tradition and avant-garde with a personal musical language. References Bibliography * *

Judith Bailey (composer)

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Judith Margaret Bailey (18 July 1941 – 16 March 2025) was a Cornish clarinettist, composer and conductor. Bailey was born in Camborne, Cornwall. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1959 to 1963. From 1971 she worked as a composer and conductor. Bailey conducted the Southampton Concert Orchestra and Petersfield Orchestra (where she succeeded Kathleen Merritt in 1972) for almost 30 years before returning to her native Cornwall around 2001 where she conducted the Cornwall Chamber Orchestra and the Penzance Orchestral Society. Bailey died on 16 March 2025 in Cornwall after a short illness. Selected works *Trencrom, symphonic poem, 1978 *Symphony, 1981 *Symphony, 1982 *Seascape, for women’s chorus, woodwind trio and orchestra, 1985 *Penwith, overture, 1986 *Fiesta for orchestra, 1988 *Concerto for clarinet and strings, 1988 *Havas for orchestra, 1991 *Joplinesque for wind band *Festive Concert Piece for wind band References External links *

Judith Bingham

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Judith Bingham (born 21 June 1952) is an English composer and mezzo-soprano singer. She was a member of the BBC Singers from 1983 to 1995. She is a fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music. Bingham won the 1977 BBC Young Composer Award, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2020 for services to music. Early life and education Bingham was born on 21 June 1952, in Nottingham. Her parents are Jack Bingham and Peggy Bingham (née McGowan). She was educated at High Storrs Grammar School for Girls in Sheffield, and began learning singing from bass John Dethick from the age of 16. Bingham attended the Royal Academy of Music from 1970 to 1973, where she received the Principal’s Prize for Music in 1972 and was elected as an associate in 1997. Her teachers included Malcolm MacDonald, Eric Fenby, Alan Bush and John Hall (composition) and Jean Austin-Dobson (singing). She was a member of the BBC Singers from 1983 to 1995, and has composed music for them and the Finchley Children’s Music Group. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen in 2018. *Chartres (orchestral), 1988 *Beyond Redemption (orchestral), 1994–5 *The Temple at Karnak (o

Judith Clingan

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Judith Ann Clingan (born 19 January 1945) is an Australian composer, conductor, performer and music educator. Since 1997, she has been the Director of Wayfarers Australia (formerly Waldorf Wayfarers) Australia Wide Choir. Early life Clingan was born on 19 January 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales to Victor Lawrence Clingan and Marian Dorothy Tasker. She was educated at Hornsby Girls’ High School, the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and the Australian National University (ANU). Clingan moved to Canberra with her family in 1963, and graduated from the ANU in 1966. In 1967 she founded the Canberra Children’s Choir and began composing music for SSA voices. She studied voice, bassoon and composition at the Canberra School of Music (now ANU School of Music) She studied music education at the Zoltan Kodaly Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemet (Hungary) from 1981–1982. Career In 1969 she founded the Summer Music Schools for Children, known as the Young Music Society from 1975. In 1983 she founded Gaudeamus Music and Performing Arts (now Music For Canberra). She was the director of Gaudeamus for eleven years and during this time she remained a composer, writing

Judith Dvorkin

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Judith Dvorkin (22 April 1928 – 24 July 1995) was an American composer and librettist. She also used the pseudonym Judy Spencer. Dvorkin was born in New York. She received a bachelor’s degree in music at Barnard College, where her teachers included Otto Luening. She received a master’s degree from Columbia University, where her teachers included Luening, Douglas Moore, and Elliott Carter. She continued her studies in seminars with Roger Sessions at the University of California at Berkeley, and with jazz pianist Teddy Wilson. She wrote lyrics for 23 songs for the Captain Kangaroo television program, which Earl Rose set to music. Other collaborators included Norris Turney, Jimmy Rowles, Paul Rosner, and Dick Chodosh. Most of her manuscripts and papers are archived at the New York Public Library’s American Music Center. *Marpessa: A Myth, for soprano, clarinet and piano *Cyrano, based on the play by Edmond Rostand, as translated by E.W. Dvorkin ca. 1964 *Maurice *Perspectives for flute *Song Cycle for choir *Four Women for voice. Premiered April 1981 in New Canaan, CT, a song cycle written for Jacqueline Sharpe based on texts by Emily Dickinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sarah Bernhardt, and

Judith Lang Zaimont

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Judith Lang Zaimont (; born November 8, 1945) is an American composer and pianist. Biography Judith Lang Zaimont was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to a Jewish family. Both Zaimont and her sister, Doris Lang Kosloff, began piano lessons with their mother, Bertha Lang, who was an accomplished pianist and singer. Bertha was very active in the music profession and served as a president of the New York State Music Teachers Association. Judith began lessons at Juilliard at age 12, where she studied piano and theory from 1958-1964. These lessons included piano with Rosina Lhévinne and theory and duo-piano with Ann Hull. Judith and Doris had a successful performance career as duo-pianists that included appearances on Lawrence Welk’s and Mitch Miller’s television programs and a Carnegie Hall debut in 1963. Judith’s musical ability was observed at an early age. Family members recall her singing in her sleep when she was a child. She also had an incredible ability to play by ear and sight read. She was drawn to the art of composing after performing Chopin. She was not fond of practicing since she did not like to play the same notes over and over. She states, “I like to mess around with the note

Judith Shatin

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Judith Shatin (Allen) (born November 21, 1949) is an American composer. Biography Shatin was born and raised in Albany, New York, to a clinical psychologist father and a microbiologist mother. At the age of five, her father bought her a piano and she fell in love with music. In her youth, she learned to play the flute. She holds degrees from Douglass College, the Juilliard School, and Princeton University, at which institution she was a pupil of Milton Babbitt. Currently, she is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor at the University of Virginia. She also founded and is Director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music. In 2012 Shatin was honored as one of the Library of Virginia’s “Virginia Women in History”. References External links *Current performances and presentations of Judith Shatin compositions *Performance archive of Judith Shatin compositions *Complete list of Judith Shatin compositions *Video performances of Judith Shatin compositions *Available sheet music, CDs, and DVDs of Judith Shatin compositions *Judith Shatin’s biography (at the Library of Virginia website) *Curriculum Vitae of Judith Shatin (PDF format) *Judith Shatin’s website *Interview with Judith Shatin, May 26,

Judith Weir

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Dame Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954 ) is a British composer. She served as Master of the King’s Music from 2014 to 2024. Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir was the first woman to hold this office. Early life Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents from Aberdeen. It was a musical household, with her father playing the trumpet and her mother the viola; the family moved house to Harrow and she began to play the oboe in her early teens. and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976. Career The first of her works to be heard professionally was Where the Shining Trumpets Blow, given by the New Philharmonia in 1974. At the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, Weir served as Guinness composer-in-residence from 1988 to 1991. her musical language is fairly conservative, with a “knack of making simple musical ideas appear freshly mysterious”, and, later in her career, explained that pleasure in listening and curiosity guide her choices. Her first stage work, The Black Spider, is a one-act opera that was premiered in Canterbury in 1985, loosely based on the short novel of the same name by Jeremias Gotthelf. She has subse

Judy Bailey (pianist)

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Judith Mary Bailey (3 October 1935 – 8 August 2025) was a New Zealand-born pianist, classical jazz musician, composer, arranger and senior lecturer who lived in Australia from 1960. Life and career Bailey was born in Auckland on 3 October 1935, and raised in Whangārei. As a young child she learned ballet, followed by piano and theory when she was 10 years old. She graduated from Trinity College London when she was 16. Bailey moved to Australia in 1960, spending most of her time in Sydney. She performed on TV, music venues such as the El Rocco, and on many recordings. In 1973, Bailey became the pianist on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation children’s radio show Kindergarten, which often featured presenters from Play School In 2017, rapper Rick Ross with producer Bink sampled Bailey’s “Colour of My Dreams” from the Judy Bailey Quartet album Colours. The sample was used on Ross’s track “Santorini Greece” on the album Rather You Than Me. Bailey was a represented artist of the Australian Music Centre. She died in Willoughby, Sydney, New South Wales on 8 August 2025, at the age of 89. Discography Albums Awards and honours *2004: Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “for service to

Judy Klein

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Judy Klein (born 14 April 1943, in Chicago) is an American composer, music educator. She is the founder of the Computer Music Studio at New York University and served as its director in 1980’s. Her music is primarily acousmatic, —- Education Judy Klein earned her Bachelor in Arts at the University of California, Berkeley (1967), and continued her studies at the Music Academy in Basel, Switzerland (Diploma, 1977). She graduated with a Master of Arts degree from New York University (1987), after studying with Thomas Kessler, Reynold Weidenaar, Lilli Friedemann and Ruth Anderson. She continued her studies in computer generated music at the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music with Charles Dodge. Musical career Klein began teaching electro-acoustic music composition at New York University (SEHNAP) in 1985, and later founded and directed the New York University Computer Music studio. Klein composes almost exclusively in the C programming language and the C sound computer music language. Her works are primarily acousmatic and increasingly combine her interest in sound with her commitment to animal rights, which she speaks about in an interview with Peter Shea about her piece “The

Juhani Komulainen

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Juhani Komulainen (born 22 April 1953) is a Finnish composer of modern classical music. He lives in Helsinki. Biography Juhani Komulainen was born in Jämsänkoski, and has studied composition at the University of Miami in the U.S., and with Einojuhani Rautavaara in Finland. He gained a reputation in the 1990s through his successful participation in several Finnish and international competitions. The compositions of Juhani Komulainen are performed at international music festivals, choral competitions and workshops. He is working extensively with Finnish choirs and vocal groups creating a wide range of new choral compositions which have been recently premiered at concerts and recordings by numerous choirs including Academic Female Choir Lyran, The EOL Chamber Choir, Vocal Ensemble Fiori, Jubilate Chamber Choir, Kampin Laulu chamber choir, Vocal Ensemble Lumen Valo, Tapiola Choir and Liiton Miehet. Selected works Choral Works: Mixed Choir *Salve, flos et decor (Tervehditty ollos, armoitettu) *Cat Morgan Introduces Himself. 1st prize in the South Coast Choral Society Composition Competition, California, U.S., 1986 *Sade (Rain). Text by Leena Saarisalo ( in Finnish ) *Three sonnets of Sh

Julia Perry

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Julia Amanda Perry (March 25, 1924 – April 24, 1979) was an American classical composer and teacher who combined European classical and neo-classical training with her African-American heritage. Life and education Born in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 25, 1924, Julia Perry moved with her family while still a child to Akron, Ohio. She studied voice, piano, and composition at Westminster Choir College from 1943 to 1948, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. For her thesis she wrote a secular cantata titled Chicago. In 1952, Perry began studying under Nadia Boulanger in Paris and was awarded the Boulanger Grand Prix for her Viola Sonata. Perry also studied conducting at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena during the summers of 1956 and 1957, and in 1957 was sponsored by the U.S. Information Service to conduct a series of concerts in Europe. After five and a half years in Europe, Perry returned to the US and continued her work in composition. She took up teaching at Tallahassee’s Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1967 and was also a visiting artist at Atlanta College. In 1964 her three-act opera-ballet The Selfish Giant won an American Academy of Arts and Lette

Julia Tsenova

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Julia Tsenova (also spelled Julia Tzenova, Julia Cenova, or Julia Zenova, ) ( – ) was a Bulgarian composer, pianist and musical pedagogue. Life and career Julia Tsenova graduated in both Composition and Piano from the State Academy of Music in Sofia as a student of Prof. Pancho Vladigerov. Tsenova took part in the International Composers’ class in Sofia and Amsterdam, directed by Prof. Ton de Leeuw - the Netherlands (1981, 1982). She attended many workshops in Europe. Her music was performed in different contemporary festivals, as well as at the International Composers’ Rostrum in Paris (1995). Since 1997 she was Professor of Piano and Dean at the Pop and Jazz Music Faculty in the State Academy of Music. She was a member of the Union of the Bulgarian Composers as well as of the International Society for Contemporary Music, and a President of the Bulgarian section. Julia Tsenova died on 11 April 2010. Her daughter Kristina Sandulova is also a concert pianist. Music Julia Tsenova has had versatile musical interests. She wrote various pieces of symphonic, chamber, choral and scenic music. Her works have been described as expressive and rich. Tsenova has always had a strong interest in