- Ton Koopman
Ton Koopman (born October 12, 1944 in Zwolle, Netherlands) is a conductor, organist and harpsichordist. Koopman had a "classical education" and then studied the organ (with Simon C. Jansen), harpsichord (with Gustav Leonhardt) and musicology in Amsterdam. He specialized in Baroque music and received the Prix d'Excellence for both organ and harpsichord. - Alessandro Scarlatti
Alessandro Scarlatti (May 2, 1660 - October 24, 1725) was a Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti. - Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt made his debut in as a harpsichordist in Vienna in 1950. After studying musicology there, he served as professor of harpsichord at the Academy of Music from 1952 to 1955. He was professor of harpsichord at the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1954. He was also active as a church organist there. - Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, musical, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass and requiem. "Libretto" (pl. libretti) is an Italian word which translates literally as "little book." It is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot. - Masaaki Suzuki
Masaaki Suzuki is an organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan. He was born in Kobe to parents who were both Christian and amateur musicians. He studied composition and organ at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and was later taught harpsichord and organ by Ton Koopman and Piet Kee and improvisation by Klaas Bolt at the Sweelink Conservatory in Amsterdam. - Alessandro Stradella
Alessandro Stradella (April 3, 1639 - February 25, 1682) was an Italian composer of the middle Baroque. He was born in Rome, and was murdered in Genoa. Not much is known about his early life, but he was from an aristocratic family, educated at Bologna, and was already making a name for himself as a composer at the age of 20, being commissioned by Queen Christina of Sweden. In 1667 he moved to Rome where he composed copiously, mostly sacred music, … - Thomas Quasthoff
Thomas Quasthoff (born in Hildesheim, Germany, November 9, 1959) is a German bass-baritone generally regarded as one of the finest singers of his generation. Although his reputation was initially based on his performance of Romantic lieder, Quasthoff has proven to have a remarkable range from the Baroque cantatas of Bach to solo jazz improvisations. - Picander
Picander was the pseudonym of Christian Friedrich Henrici (January 14, 1700 - May 10, 1764), a German poet and librettist for many of Johann Sebastian Bach's Leipzig cantatas. Henrici studied law at Wittenberg and Leipzig and most likely practiced or taught law while writing poetry on the side. The preface to one of his volumes of poetry indicates that the entire volume was set to music by Bach in 1729, … - Antonio Lotti
Antonio Lotti (c.1667 - January 5, 1740) was an Italian composer of classical music. Lotti was born either in 1666 or 1667, in Venice or in Hanover (where his father Matteo was Kapellmeister). After studying with Giovanni Legrenzi, Lotti made his career at St Mark's Basilica in Venice, first as an alto singer, then as assistant to the second organist, then as second organist, then (from 1704) as first organist, and finally (from 1736) as "maestro di cappella", … - Luigi Rossi
Luigi Rossi was an Italian Baroque composer. Rossi was born in Torremaggiore, a small town near Foggia, in the ancient kingdom of Naples and at an early age he went to Naples. There he studied music with the Franco-Flemish composer Jean de Macque who was organist of the Santa Casa dell’Annunziata and maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy. Rossi later entered the service of the Caetanis, dukes of Traetta. - Johann Friedrich Fasch
Johann Friedrich Fasch was a German composer. He was born in Buttelstädt, was a choirboy in Weissenfels and studied under Johann Kuhnau at the Thomasschule in Leipzig (he later founded a Collegium Musicum in the city). He then traveled throughout Germany, becoming a violinist in the orchestra in Bayreuth in 1714, and also holding court posts in Greiz and Lukavec. In 1722 he was appointed Kapellmeister at Zerbst, a post he held until his death. - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (August 15, 1875-September 1, 1912) was a black, English composer who achieved such success he was called "The Black Mahler." - Christine Schäfer
Christine Schäfer is a German soprano. Born in Frankfurt in 1965, she studied from 1984 until 1991 at the "Hochschule für Musik" in Berlin, where her teachers were Ingrid Figur and Aribert Reimann. She also followed masterclasses with Arleen Augér and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. After finishing her studies in 1992, Schäfer began singing at the opera house in Innsbruck. The next year she made her debut in the United States, … - Bob Chilcott
Bob Chilcott (born April 9th, 1955) is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxford, England. Born in Plymouth, he sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, both as a boy and as a university student - notable achievements including singing the Pie Jesu on the renowned 1967 King's recording of Gabriel Faure's Requiem. In 1985 he joined the King's Singers, singing tenor for 12 years until his departure in 1997 to focus on composing. - Dudley Buck
Dudley Buck (March 10, 1839 - October 6, 1909) was an American composer of music. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of a merchant who gave him every opportunity for cultivating his musical talents. After attending Trinity College, for four years (1858-1862) he studied at Leipzig (at the Leipzig Conservatory), Dresden and Paris. On returning to America he held the position of organist at Hartford, Chicago (1869), and Boston (1871). - Camargo Guarnieri
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (February 1, 1907 Tietê, São Paulo – January 13, 1993 São Paulo) was a Brazilian composer. He studied piano and composition at the São Paulo Conservatório, and subsequently worked with Charles Koechlin in Paris. Some of his compositions received important prizes in the United States in the 1940s, giving Guarnieri the opportunity of conducting them in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. - Deems Taylor
Deems Taylor (born Joseph Taylor) (1885 - July 3, 1966) was a U.S. composer and music critic. Taylor was born in New York City and educated at New York University (NYU). He initially planned to become an architect; however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices. In 1916 he wrote the cantata "The Chambered Nautilus", … - Johann Ludwig Bach
Johann Ludwig Bach (born February 4, 1677, buried May 1, 1731) was a composer and violinist. He was born in Thal. At the age of 22 he moved to Meiningen eventually being appointed cantor there, and later Kapellmeister. He wrote a large amount of music and regularly oversaw performances, both at Meiningen and neighbouring courts. He was a second cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach, who made copies of several of his cantatas and performed them at Leipzig. - Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Karl Amadeus Hartmann (August 2, 1905 Munich - December 5, 1963 Munich) was a German composer. Some have lauded him as the greatest German symphonist of the 20th century. - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (born December 23, 1689 in Thionville; died October 28, 1755 in Roissy-en-Brie) was a French baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opera ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was purely a composer and one of the first to have no patrons: he made his living simply by writing new works of music. - Louis-Claude Daquin
Louis-Claude Daquin (or d'Acquin), (July 4, 1694 - June 15, 1772) was a French composer of Jewish birth writing in the Baroque and Galant styles. He was a virtuoso organist and harpsichordist. Louis-Claude Daquin was born in Paris, to a converted Jewish family from Carpentras originating from Italy (where their name was D'Acquino). One of his great-uncles was a professor of Hebrew at the College de France. - Gottfried August Homilius
Gottfried August Homilius (February 2, 1714 - June 2, 1785) was a German composer, cantor, and organist. Born in Rosenthal, Saxony, Homilius studied music in Leipzig, where he was the pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach. From 1742 he was organist at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, and from 1755 until his death he was Cantor of the Kreuzkirche in Dresden and music director at the three main churches of Dresden. - Gustave Charpentier
Gustave Charpentier was a French composer, best known for his opera "Louise". He was born in Dieuze, the son of a baker, and after studying at the conservatoire in Lille entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1881. There he studied compositions under Jules Massenet and in 1887 won the Prix de Rome for his cantata "Didon". During the time in Rome that the prize gave him, … - Philipp Nicolai
Philipp Nicolai was a German Lutheran pastor, poet, and composer, author of two famous hymns: "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" and "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". These two chorales have inspired many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, whose cantata BWV 36 is based on "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" and whose BWV 140 is based on "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme". - Horatio Parker
Horatio Parker (September 15, 1863-December 18, 1919) was an American composer and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is also remembered as the teacher of Charles Ives. He was born in Auburndale, Massachusetts. After early study in the United States with George Whitefield Chadwick and others, he went to Europe, a common destination for a young American composer in the 1880s. - Sergio Ortega
Sergio Ortega was a Chilean composer and pianist. Ortega was born in Antofagasta, Chile. He studied composition with Gustavo Becerra Schmidt in the National Conservatory at the Universidad de Chile. After graduating, he worked in the Institute of Musical Extension and was a sound engineer for six years in the University’s Experimental Theater, "Teatro Antonio Varas." Ortega was a force for the leftist movement in Chile. - Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel
Gottfried Henrich Stölzel (January 31, 1690 in Grünstädtl - November 27, 1749 in Gotha) was a prolific German composer. From 1707 he was a student in Leipzig of Melchior Hofmann among others. He studied, worked and composed in Breslau and Halle, then a year and a half sojourn in Italy from 1713— where he met Antonio Vivaldi in Venice— rendered him au courant with the latest musical taste. - Aldo Clementi
Aldo Clementi (born May 25, 1925 in Catania, Italy) is an Italian composer. He studied the piano, graduating in 1946. His studies in composition began in 1941, and his teachers included Alfredo Sangiorgi and Goffredo Petrassi. After receiving his diploma in 1954, he attended the Darmstadt summer courses from 1955 to 1972. Important influences during this period included meeting Bruno Maderna in 1956, … - Johann Schop
Johann Schop (c.1590-1667) was a German violinist and composer, much admired as a musician and a technician, who was obviously a virtuoso and whose compositions for the violin set impressive technical demands for that area at that time. In 1756 Leopold Mozart commented on the difficulty of a trill in a work by Schop, probably composed before 1646. He worked in Hamburg. - Earl Robinson
Earl Hawley Robinson was a songwriter and composer from Seattle, Washington. Robinson is probably as well remembered for his left-leaning political views (a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s) as he is for his music, including the song "Joe Hill" and the cantata "Ballad for Americans". In addition, he wrote many popular songs and was a composer for Hollywood films. He studied violin, viola and piano as a child, … - Heinrich von Herzogenberg
Heinrich Picot de Peccaduc, Freiherr von Herzogenberg (born in Graz on 10 June 1843, died in Wiesbaden 9 October 1900) was an Austrian composer and conductor descended from a French aristocratic family. He studied law and music in Vienna, the latter including composition under Felix Otto Dessoff. He was early attracted to the music of Wagner, … - Jonathan Manson
Jonathan Manson is a Scottish cellist and viol player. Born in Edinburgh, he studied cello with Jane Cowan and later went on to the Eastman School of Music in New York, where he studied with Steven Doane and Christel Thielmann. He studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken in The Hague. While a student, he was a founding member of Phantasm, a consort of viols. - Moritz Hauptmann
Moritz Hauptmann (October 13, 1792 - January 3, 1868), German composer and writer. He was born at Dresden, and studied music under Scholz, Lanska, Julius Waldemar Grosse and Francesco Morlacchi, the rival of Carl Maria von Weber. Afterwards, he completed his education as a violinist and composer under Louis Spohr, and till 1821 held various appointments in private families, … - Johann Melchior Molter
Johann Melchior Molter was a German baroque composer and violinist. He was educated at the Gymnasium in Eisenach. By autumn 1717 he had left Eisenach and was working as a violinist in Karlsruhe. Here he married Maria Salome Rollwagen, with whom he had eight children. From 1719–1721 he studied composition in Italy. From 1722 to 1733 he was court Kapellmeister at Karlsruhe. In 1734 he became Kapellmeister at the court of Duke Wilhelm Heinrich of Saxe-Eisenach. - Henry Bishop
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (November 18, 1786 - April 30, 1855) was an English musical composer. He is famous for composing "Home! Sweet Home!" (lyrics by John Howard Payne), originally from his 1823 comic opera "Clari, or the Maid of Milan". He was the composer or arranger of some 120 dramatic works, including 80 operas, light operas, cantatas, and ballets. He worked for all the major theatres of London in his era - the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, … - David Lumsdaine
David Lumsdaine (born 31 October 1931) is an Australian composer. He studied at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (as it was then known). He moved to England in 1952 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 studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley. - Paul Steinitz
Paul Steinitz OBE (August 25 1909-April 21 1988) was a pioneer in the post-war interpretation of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He founded the London Bach Society and Steinitz Bach Players in order to put his scholarship into practice, performing all Bach’s cantatas in London venues over the space of 25 years. - Peter Ruzicka
Peter Ruzicka is a German composer of classical music. Ruzicka was born in post-war Düsseldorf, and studied music at the Hamburg Conservatory. In 1969, his cantata, "Esta Noche", won a prize, and in 1972, he won the Bach Prize Scholarship. In 1979 he was appointed intendant of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1990, he became a professor of music at Hamburg, and from 2001 to 2006 was musical director of the Salzburg Festival. - Cecil Armstrong Gibbs
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (August 10, 1889, Great Baddow, Essex - May 12, 1960, Chelmsford) was an English composer. He studied with Edward Dent at Trinity College, Cambridge, and with Charles Wood and Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music, where he himself taught composition and music theory from 1921 to 1939. From 1937 to 1952, he also served as the Vice President of the British Federation of Music Festivals. - Mátyás Seiber
Mátyás Seiber was a Hungarian-born composer who lived in England from 1935 onward. He studied in Budapest with Zoltán Kodály, and in 1928 gave the first academic lectures on jazz at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. From 1942, he was on the staff of Morley College in London, and he became a respected teacher of composition. Several of his students went on to become eminent musicians themselves, including Peter Racine Fricker, Anthony Milner, Hugh Wood and Wally Stott, …
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