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Graham Fitkin
Graham Fitkin (born 19 April 1963) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. His compositions fall broadly into the minimalist and postminimalist genres. Described by ''The Independent'' in 1998 as "one of the most important of our younger composers",Johnson P. Classical music: Graham Fitkin Group Arnolfini, Bristol. ''Independent'' (17 March 1998) (accessed 20 June 2010) he is particularly known for his works for solo and multiple pianos, as well as for music accompanying dance. Biography Fitkin was born at Crows-an-Wra in west |
Composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Classical music, Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Definition The term is descended from Latin, wikt:compono, ''compōnō''; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from Thomas Morley's 1597 ''A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music'', where he says "Some wil be good descanters [...] and yet wil be but bad composers". 'Composer' is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who in the tradition of Western classical music. Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms 'songwriter' or 'singer-songwriter' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Montbrison in the Loire department of France, the son of an engineer, Boulez studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Olivier Messiaen, and privately with Andrée Vaurabourg and René Leibowitz. He began his professional career in the late 1940s as music director of the Renaud-Barrault theatre company in Paris. He was a leading figure in avant-garde music, playing an important role in the development of integral serialism (in the 1950s), controlled chance music (in the 1960s) and the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time (from the 1970s onwards). His tendency to revise earlier compositions meant that his body of work was relatively small, but it included pieces regarded by many as landmarks of twentieth-century music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathryn Stott
Kathryn Stott (born 10 December 1958)Morrison B. "Stott, Kathryn" in ''Grove Music Online'' (Oxford University Press) (accessed 8 December 2008) is an English classical pianist who performs as a concerto soloist, ist and ian. Her specialities include the English and French classical repertoire, and the |
Pianocircus
Piano Circus is a musical ensemble consisting of six pianists. The original six-piano ensemble formed in 1989 to perform Steve Reich's ''Six Pianos''. Founding members included Kirsteen Davidson-Kelly, Richard Harris, Kate Heath, Max Richter, Ginny Strawson and John Wood. As of 2016, membership was Dawn Hardwick, James Young, Paul Cassidy, Neil Georgeson, Leo Nicholson and Nathan Williamson Since then they have created a repertoire of over one hundred works, the majority of which have been written specially for the ensemble. These include pieces by Kevin Volans, Graham Fitkin, Brian Eno, Louis Andriessen, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Terry Riley, Nikki Yeoh, Michael Nyman, Robert Moran, Peter Bengtson, and Heiner Goebbels. Piano Circus has released seven CDs with Decca and now has three CDs available on its own label. The six pianists have a broad range of experience, from traditional western classical music to jazz, pop and rock, African and Asian traditional music, improvisation and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurence Crane
Laurence Crane (born 1961 in Oxford) is a composer of contemporary classical music. Career Laurence Crane is closely associated with the ensemble Apartment House, who have given over 40 performances of his works. Some performances they have given include ''Riis'' (1996) and ''John White in Berlin'' (2003). He has written a considerable amount of piano music. Pianists who have performed his work include Michael Finnissy, Thalia Myers and John Tilbury. His piece ''Octet'' was shortlisted for the 2009 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards in the Chamber-Scale Composition category, along with works by Harrison Birtwistle and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 2017, he won the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists 2017. In the same year, his piece ''Omloop Het Ives'' for bass flute and string quartet was nominated for the British Composer Awards. In 2021, Juliet Fraser, in association with Oxford Lieder Festival and Musica Sacra Maastricht, commissioned Crane to write a new piece ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavin Bryars
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 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 – they toured 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 br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pet Shop Boys
The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music history in the 1999 edition of '' The Guinness Book of Records''. Three-time Brit Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, since 1984 they have achieved 42 top 30 singles, 22 of these being top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart, including four UK number ones: " West End Girls" (also number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100), " It's a Sin", a synth-pop version of " Always on My Mind", and "Heart". Other hit songs include a cover of " Go West", and their own " Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and " What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in a duet with Dusty Springfield. With five US top ten singles in the 1980s, they are associated with the Second British Invasion. At the 2009 Brit Awards in London, the Pet Shop Boys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wire (band)
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar) and Robert Grey (drums). They were originally associated with the punk rock scene, appearing on '' The Roxy London WC2'' album, and were later central to the development of post-punk, while their debut album '' Pink Flag'' was influential for hardcore punk. Wire are considered a definitive art punk and post-punk band, due to their richly detailed and atmospheric sound and obscure lyrical themes.They steadily developed from an early noise rock style to a more complex, structured sound involving increased use of guitar effects and synthesizers (1978's '' Chairs Missing'' and 1979's ''154''). The band gained a reputation for experimenting with song arrangements throughout their career. History 1976 to 1980 Wire's debut album '' Pink Flag'' (1977) – "perhaps the most original debut album to come out of the first wave of Bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerge from the 1980s British independent music scene. The Smiths signed to the independent label Rough Trade Records in 1983 and released their first album, '' The Smiths'', in 1984. They based their songs on the songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr. Their focus on a guitar, bass, and drum sound and a fusion of 1960s rock and post-punk was a rejection of the synth-pop sound that was predominant at the time. Several Smiths singles reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart, and all their studio albums reached the top five of the UK Albums Chart, including the number-one album '' Meat Is Murder'' (1985). They achieved mainstream success in Europe with '' The Queen Is Dead'' (1986) and '' Strangeways, Here We Come'' (1987), both of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the " Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He is among the world's best-selling music artists with an estimated 150 million record sales. Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was greatly influenced by the intimate, easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby and began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. He found success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the " bobby soxers". Sinatra released his debut album, '' The Voice of Frank Sinatra'', in 1946. When his film career stalled in the early 1950s, Sinatra turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best-known residency performers and part of the famous Rat Pack. His acting career was revived by the 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. Born in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis left to study at Juilliard in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. Shortly after, he recorded the '' Birth of the Cool'' sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records but did so haphazardly due to a heroin addiction. After a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, he signed a long-term co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muggsy Spanier
Francis Joseph "Muggsy" Spanier (November 9, 1901 – February 12, 1967) was an American jazz cornetist based in Chicago. He was a member of the Bucktown Five, pioneers of the "Chicago style" that straddled traditional Dixieland jazz and swing. Life and career Spanier was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. At thirteen, he began playing the cornet and played with Elmer Schoebel in 1921. He borrowed the sobriquet of "Muggsy" from John "Muggsy" McGraw, the manager of the New York Giants baseball team. In the early 1920s, he played with the Bucktown Five. In 1929, he became a member of a band led by Ted Lewis, then spent two years with Ben Pollack. After an illness, he assembled the eight-man group Muggsy Spanier and His Ragtime Band. In 1939, the band recorded several sessions of Dixieland standards for Bluebird Records, that were later called The Great Sixteen and influenced a Dixieland revival. The band's members included George Brunies (later Brunis - trombone and voc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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