- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptized Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. His output of over 600 compositions includes works widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of European composers and many of his works are part of the standard concert repertoire. - Franz Schubert
Franz Seraphicus Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 Lieder, seven completed symphonies, the famous "Unfinished Symphony", liturgical music, operas, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. He is particularly noted for his original melodic and harmonic writing. While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (including his teacher Antonio Salieri, and the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl), … - Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and known generally as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 - November 4, 1847) was a German composer and conductor of the early Romantic period. Born to a notable Jewish family, being the grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His work includes symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano and chamber music. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes in the late 19th century, … - Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 - December 28, 1937) was a French composer and pianist of the impressionistic period, known especially for the subtlety, richness and poignancy of his music. His piano, chamber music and orchestral works have become staples of the concert repertoire. Ravel's piano compositions, such as "Jeux d'eau", "Miroirs" and "Gaspard de la Nuit", demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his orchestral music, … - Alice Tully
Alice Tully (September 14 1902 - December 10 1993) was a singer, music promoter and philanthropist. Tully began her career as a mezzo-soprano, then became a soprano. She studied in Paris, France and made her debut in 1927 with the Pasdeloup Orchestra. In 1933, she appeared in "Cavalleria Rusticana" in New York City. In 1958, Tully inherited the estate of her grandfather, William Houghton, founder of the Corning Glass Works. - Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO (2 June 1857 - 23 February 1934) was an English Romantic composer. Several of his first major orchestral works, including the "Enigma Variations" and the "Pomp and Circumstance Marches", were greeted with acclaim. He also composed oratorios, chamber music, symphonies and instrumental concertos. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924. - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, OM (October 12, 1872 - August 26, 1958) was an influential English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also an important collector of English folk music and song. - Leif Ove Andsnes
Leif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist. He studied with Jiri Hlinka at the Grieg Academy of Music in Bergen. He is an ardent champion of the works of Edvard Grieg. Andsnes is one of the most respected classical pianists in the world today and has been nominated for the prestigious Grammy Awards four times (as of December 2004). He has won numerous awards, including the Hindemith-Prize (1987), Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (1997), Royal Philharmonic Society Award, … - Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music. Critic Claude Rostand, in a July 1950 "Paris-Presse" article, described Poulenc as "half bad boy, half monk" ("le moine et le voyou"), a tag that was to be attached to his name for the rest of his career. - John Corigliano
John Corigliano (b. February 16, 1938) is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. - Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer (born February 27, 1947) is a Latvian violinist and conductor. Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish origin, his father being a Holocaust survivor. He began to play the violin at the age of four, receiving tuition from his father and his grandfather, who were both professional violinists. He went on to study at the Riga School of Music and with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. - David Diamond
David Leo Diamond (July 9 1915 - June 13 2005) was an American composer of classical music. He was born in Rochester, New York and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music under Bernard Rogers, also receiving lessons from Roger Sessions in New York City and Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He won a number of awards including three Guggenheim Fellowships, and is considered one of the preeminent American composers of his generation. - Stephen Hough
Stephen Hough (born November 22, 1961) is a British-born classical pianist and composer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005. Hough was born in Heswall (then in Cheshire) on the Wirral Peninsula, and grew up in Hoylake, where he began piano lessons at the age of five. In 1978, he was a finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. In 1982, he won the Terence Judd Award in England. - Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887 - November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, possibly the best-known classical composer born in South America. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his "Bachianas brasileiras" ("Brazilian Bach-pieces"). - Gioachino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 - November 13, 1868) was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include "Il barbiere di Siviglia" ("The Barber of Seville") and "Guillaume Tell" ("William Tell"). - Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer (born November 24, 1960) is a prominent contemporary bassist. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Meyer has worked as a session musician in Nashville, part of various chamber groups, a composer, and an arranger. - Steven Isserlis
Steven Isserlis (born December 19 1958, London) is one of the most prominent living cellists. He is notable for his diverse repertoire, distinctive sound and total command of phrasing. He studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and was also highly influneced by the great iconoclast of Russian cello playing, Daniil Shafran. Isserlis plays both as soloist and chamber musician and has rediscovered many previously neglected works. - Richard Goode
Richard Goode (born June 1, 1943) is an American classical pianist, known especially for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven and chamber music. Goode was born in East Bronx, New York. He studied piano with Elvira Szigeti, Claude Frank, Nadia Reisenberg at Mannes College, and Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute. He won numerous prizes. - Luigi Boccherini
Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini (February 19, 1743 - May 28, 1805) was a classical era composer and cellist from Italy, whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is mostly known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 13, No. 5, and the Cello Concerto in B flat major (G 482). - Robert Spano
Robert Spano (born May 7, 1961) is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004. Spano has gained national and international prominence in recent years, appearing with major orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe. He is regarded as an advocate of contemporary composers, … - William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton, OM (March 29, 1902-March 8, 1983) was a British composer and conductor. His style was influenced by the works of Stravinsky, Sibelius and jazz, and is characterized by rhythmic vitality, bittersweet harmony, sweeping Romantic melody and brilliant orchestration. His output includes orchestral and choral works, chamber music and ceremonial music, as well as notable film scores. - Carl Stamitz
Karel Stamic (May 7, 1745 - November 9, 1801), who took the German form of his name Karl Philipp Stamitz and is now better known as Carl, was a Bohemian composer, violin, viola and viola d'amore virtuoso. He was the most prominent of the second generation of the so-called Mannheim school. Stamitz was born in Mannheim and was first taught music by Johann Stamitz, his father and founder of the Mannheim school. - Herbert Howells
Herbert Norman Howells CH (17 October, 1892 - 23 February, 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher. - Peter Schickele
Peter Schickele (born Johann Peter Schickele, July 17 1935) is an American composer, musical educator and parodist, best known for his comedy music albums featuring music he wrote as P. D. Q. Bach. - Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 - July 10, 1979) was the long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specialized in popular music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Pops the best-known orchestra in the country. Some criticized him for watering down music, particularly when adapting popular songs or edited portions of the classical repertoire, but Fiedler deliberately kept performances informal, light, … - Myra Hess
Dame Myra Hess DBE (February 25, 1890 - November 25, 1965), born Julia Myra Hess, was a British pianist. She was born in London. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the gold medal. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay. Her debut came in 1907 when she played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. - Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer (born March 30, 1959, in Crailsheim, Germany) is a German classical clarinetist. Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist. She studied with Hans Deinzer at the Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater Hannover along with her brother, clarinetist Wolfgang Meyer, and now-husband, clarinetist Rainer Wehle, who played later in the Munich Philharmonic. - Pamela Frank
Pamela Frank is an American violinist, equally well known as a soloist and as an exponent of chamber music. She was born in New York City, the daughter of two pianists, Claude Frank and Lilian Kallir. She studied under Shirley Givens using the Givens Method, unlike many of her contemporaries, who generally begin with the Suzuki Method as children. - Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE (born April 29, 1929) is a noted Australian composer. He is known primarily for his orchestral and chamber music, such as "Kakadu" (1988) and "Earth Cry" (1992), which evoke the sounds and feeling of the Australian bushland and outback. He has also written several string quartets, using unusual timbre effects, and works for piano. - Pavel Haas
Pavel Haas was a Czech composer. His formal musical education began at the age of 14 in Brno. He studied composition at the Conservatory from 1919 to 1921 under Jan Kunc and Vilém Petrželka, followed by two additional years of study at the school of Leoš Janáček. Only 18 of his more than 50 works written during the following 20 years have been categorised by the self-criticizing musician himself. - Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of his native Bohemia in symphonic, oratorial, chamber and operatic works. - Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage (born June 10, 1960 in Corringham, Essex) is an English composer of classical music. He has also been strongly influenced by jazz, and by Miles Davis in particular. Turnage's music is often in a characteristic personal style, with strong rhythmic thrust, involved jazz harmonies, colourful orchestration with prominent use of tuned and untuned percussion, … - Wilhelm Kempff
Wilhelm Kempff was a German pianist and composer. Kempff was born in Jüterbog, Germany and studied in Berlin and Potsdam. He toured widely in Europe and much of the rest of the world. Between 1936 and 1979 he performed ten times in Japan and a small Japanese island was named "Kempu-san" in his honor. Kempff made his first London appearance in 1951 and in New York in 1964. He gave his last public performance in Paris in 1981 and died in Positano, … - Pierre Fournier
Pierre Fournier (June 24, 1906 - January 8, 1986) was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists," on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound. He was born in Paris, the son of a French Army general. His mother taught him to play the piano, but he had a mild case of polio as a child and lost dexterity in his feet and legs. Having difficulties with the piano pedals, he turned to the cello. He graduated from the Paris Conservatory at 17, … - Jacques Thibaud
Jacques Thibaud (September 27, 1880 - September 1, 1953) was a French violinist. Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin first with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatoire's violin prize with Pierre Monteux (who later became a famous conductor). He was injured while fighting in World War I, after which he had to rebuild his technique. - Henryk Szeryng
Henryk Szeryng was a Polish-born Mexican violinist. He was born in Żelazowa Wola in Poland and studied there and with Carl Flesch in Berlin. He made his solo debut in 1933 playing the Johannes Brahms "Violin Concerto". From 1933 to 1939 he studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, … - Silvestre Revueltas
Silvestre Revueltas was a Mexican composer of classical music, violinist and conductor. He was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas and the Chicago College of Music. He gave violin recitals and in 1929 was invited by Carlos Chávez to become assistant conductor of the Mexico Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 1935. - Natalia Gutman
Natalia Gutman is a cellist. She began to study cello at the Moscow Music School with R. Saposhnikov. She was later admitted to the Central Conservatoire of Moscow, where she was taught by Rostropovich, amongst others. Distinguished at important international competitions, she has carried out tours around Europe, America and Japan, being invited as a soloist by great conductors and orchestras. - Tabea Zimmermann
Tabea Zimmermann, born on October 8 1966 in Lahr, (Germany), is a German violist. She began learning to play the viola at the age of three, and commenced piano studies at age five. At the age of 13, she studied viola with Ulrich Koch at the Conservatory of Fribourg and progressed to study with Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. She soon gained notice in international competitions, winning first prizes in Genève (1982), Budapest (1984), … - Stephen Paulus
Stephen Paulus (born August 24 1949 in Summit, New Jersey) is an American composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His most well-known piece is his 1982 opera "The Postman Always Rings Twice", one of several operas he has written for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which prompted "The New York Times" to call him "a young man on the road to big things". His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature.
|
| |