- Claude Debussy
Achille-Claude Debussy (August 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel he is considered the most prominent figure working within the style commonly referred to as Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. Debussy was not only among the most important of all French composers but also a central figure in all European music at the turn of the twentieth century.
- Krystian Zimerman
Krystian Zimerman is a Polish classical virtuoso pianist. He was born in Zabrze and studied at the Katowice Conservatory under Andrzej Jasinski. His career was launched when he won the Warsaw International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in 1975. He performed with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Herbert von Karajan in 1976 and he made his American début with the New York Philharmonic in 1979. He has toured widely and made a number of recordings.
- Mitsuko Uchida
(born December 20, 1948) is a classical pianist.
- Albert Roussel
Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (April 5 1869 - August 23 1937) was a French composer.
- Friedrich Gulda
Friedrich Gulda was an Austrian pianist who performed in both the classical and jazz fields. Born in Vienna as the son of a teacher, Gulda began learning to play the piano from Felix Pazofsky at the age of 7; in 1942, he entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he studied piano and musical theory under Bruno Seidlhofer and Joseph Marx. After winning first prize at the International Competition in Geneva four years later, in 1946, …
- Pascal Rogé
Pascal Rogé is a French pianist who was born in Paris on April 6, 1951. His playing exemplifies the elegance and subtlety said to distinguish French pianism, in his interpretation of the works of compatriot composers Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Poulenc, among others. However, his repertoire also covers the German masters Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven.
- Florent Schmitt
Florent Schmitt (September 28 1870, Blamont, Meurthe et Moselle - August 17 1958 Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French composer. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1889, studying under Albert Lavignac, Theodore Dubois, Jules Massenet, and Gabriel Fauré. In 1900 Schmitt won the Prix de Rome on his fourth attempt. Schmitt wrote 138 works with opus numbers. He composed examples of most of the major forms of music, except for opera.
- John Ireland
John Nicholson Ireland (13 August 1879 - 12 June 1962) was an English composer. Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Manchester, into a family of Scottish descent and some cultural distinction. His parents died soon after he had entered the Royal College of Music at the age of 14. He studied piano and organ there, and later composition under Charles Villiers Stanford. He subsequently became a teacher at the College himself, …
- Christopher O'Riley
Christopher O'Riley is an American classical pianist and public radio show host, who is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative pop artists. O’Riley was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. Beginning with a background in jazz, O'Riley switched to classical piano and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has received awards at the Leeds, Van Cliburn, Busoni and Montreal competitions, …
- Philippe Gaubert
Philippe Gaubert was a French musician who was a brilliant performer on the flute, a respected conductor, and a composer, primarily for the flute. Gaubert was born in Cahors in Southwest France. He became one of the most prominent French musicians between the two World Wars. After a distinguished career as a flautist with the Paris Opéra, he was appointed in 1919, at the age of forty, …
- Véronique Gens
Véronique Gens is a French soprano. She has spent much of her career recording and performing Baroque music. Gens studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. Her debut in 1986 was with conductor William Christie. She has since worked with Marc Minkowski, René Jacobs, Christophe Rousset, Philippe Herreweghe, and Jean-Claude Malgoire. While she started out as a Baroque specialist, she has become in demand for roles in Mozart operas, and an interpreter of songs by Berlioz, …
- Charles Rosen
Charles Rosen (born May 5, 1927) is an American pianist and music theorist. He was a piano student of Moriz Rosenthal. In an interview published in the June 2007 edition of "BBC Music Magazine", however, Rosen cites Josef Hofmann, whom he claims to have heard every year from age three, as a greater influence. Rosen recalls having played for Leopold Godowsky at age seven; Godowsky asked Rosen what he would like to be when he grew up, and, to Godowsky's amusement, …
- Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO (August 2, 1891 - March 27, 1975) was a British composer. Born to an American father and English mother, Bliss went to Bilton Grange Preparatory School and Rugby before going up to Cambridge. He was destined to display characteristics of both nations, his profound romanticism balanced by an unquenchable energy and optimism. After studying at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford, …
- Samson François
Samson Pascal François was a French pianist. François was born in Frankfurt where his father worked at the French consulate. His mother, Rose, named him Samson, for strength, and Pascal, for spirit. François discovered the piano early – at the age of two – and his first studies were in Italy, with Mascagni, who encouraged him to give his first concert at the age of six. Moving from country to country with his itinerant family, he studied in Belgrade with Cyril Licar, …
- Gilles Apap
Gilles Apap (b. May 21 1963) is a violinist who plays gypsy music, swing, Irish music, and bluegrass music, as well as the masterpieces of classical music. Born in Bougie, Algeria, he was raised in Nice, France. In 1985 he won the first prize in the contemporary music category at the Yehudi Menuhin Competition. He released a CD with Sony Classical in 1996 called "Gilles Apap & the Transylvanian Mountain Boys".
- Paul Crossley
Paul Crossley (born May 17, 1944) is a British pianist. Born in Yorkshire, his piano teacher was Fanny Waterman in Leeds. While a student at Oxford University, he was discovered by Olivier Messiaen and his wife Yvonne Loriod, who heard him play and immediately invited him to come to Paris to study with them. In 1968 he won the Messiaen Competition in Royan, France. Crossley is particularly associated with the music of Messiaen and British composers such as Michael Tippett, …
- Patricia Petibon
Patricia Petibon (born 27 February 1970) is a French coloratura soprano who has been acclaimed for her interpretations of French Baroque music. Born in Montargis, she studied at the Conservatoire de Paris after earning a bachelor's degree in musicology, and won the Conservatory's first prize in 1995.
- John Shirley-Quirk
John Shirley-Quirk CBE (born August 28, 1931) is an English bass-baritone. He was born in Liverpool, England, and sang in his high school choir. He played the violin and was awarded a scholarship. While studying chemistry and physics at Liverpool University, he studied voice with Austen Carnegie. He made his operatic debut in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1961, …
- Maggie Teyte
Dame Maggie Teyte (April 17 1888 - May 26 1976) was an English operatic soprano and interpreter of French art song.
- Guiomar Novaes
Guiomar Novaes was a legendary Brazilian pianist. Her individuality of tone and phrasing, her extraordinary singing line, and the subtle and nuanced approach to her interpretations mark her as one of the outstanding pianists of the twentieth century. Born in São João da Boa Vista(in the area of São Paulo state in Brazil), Novaes started her studies in Brazil under Luigi Chiaffarelli (1856-1923). Moving to France in the 1910’s, she was accepted by Debussy, among others, …
- Claude Helffer
Claude Helffer was a French pianist noted particularly for his advocacy of 20th-century music. He was born in Paris, and began piano lessons at the age of five and from the age of ten until the outbreak of World War II he studied with Robert Casadesus. During the War he entered the élite École polytechnique and fought for the Resistance (in the Maquis du Vercors). After the War he studied theory and composition with René Leibowitz.
- Édouard Lalo
Édouard Victor Antoine Lalo was a French composer of Spanish descent. Born in Lille, he studied first at that city's conservatoire, and then at the Paris Conservatoire under Berlioz's old enemy François Antoine Habeneck. For years, he worked as a viola player (specializing in chamber music) and teacher in Paris before gaining fame as a composer, which eventually arrived when he was in his late forties. He died in Paris.
- Cecile Licad
Cecile Licad is a Filipina classical pianist. Licad began her piano studies at the age of three with her mother, Rosario Licad, and later studied with the highly regarded Rosario Picazo. At the age of seven, she made her debut as soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Philippines. Cecile Licad’s repertoire as an orchestral soloist ranges from the classical repertoire of Mozart and Beethoven to the Romantic literature of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, …
- Dino Ciani
Dino Ciani was an Italian pianist. Ciani was born in Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) and studied piano with Marta del Vecchio in Genoa. Following studies at the Conservatory in Rome, he attended the advanced courses of Alfred Cortot, who called him "miraculously gifted ... one of the most remarkable examples of the rarest talents one could hope to find". His concert career was launched when he won second prize at the Liszt-Bartók Competition in Budapest in 1961.
- Geirr Tveitt
Geirr (Nils) Tveitt (October 19, 1908-February 1, 1981) was one of Norway's most prolific composers. A talented pianist, Tveitt won considerable acclaim in continental Europe and elsewhere performing his own compositions. His music draws from many styles and traditions: the barbarism found in Stravinsky's early ballets, …
- Maria Ewing
Maria Ewing in Detroit, Michigan is an American opera singer who has sung both soprano and mezzo soprano roles. She studied in Cleveland, Ohio and New York. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1976 in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and her first European performance was at La Scala, Milan as Mélisande in Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande". Her repertoire includes Carmen, Dorabella in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte", Salome, …
- Roger Désormière
Roger Désormière was a French conductor. He is well known for having directed one of the earliest, and arguably one of the best, recordings of Debussy's opera "Pélleas et Mélisande". This was made in 1941, by which time he had become one of France's most celebrated artists of the podium, thanks largely to his work with the Ballets Suédois and Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
- Alphons Diepenbrock
Alphonsus Johannes Maria Diepenbrock was a Dutch composer, essayist and classicist. He studied classics at the University of Amsterdam, gaining his doctorate cum laude in 1888 with a dissertation in Latin on the life of Seneca. As a composer, he had been completely self-taught from an early age. He created a musical idiom which, in a highly personal manner, combined 16th-century polyphony with Wagnerian chromaticism, …
- Emil de Cou
The dynamic American conductor Emil de Cou became associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) in September 2003 and has been an active participant in a wide range of NSO performances and events since his debut at Wolf Trap in 2000. He has led the orchestra on residency tours in five states, in subscription concerts at the Kennedy Center and on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol Building. In 2005 Mr.
- Piero Coppola
Piero Coppola was an Italian conductor, pianist and composer. Coppola's parents were both singers. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, graduating in piano and composition in 1910. By 1911 he was already conducting opera at La Scala opera house in Milan. That year he heard Debussy conduct his own compositions "Ibéria" and "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" in Turin, an experience that "had a decisive influence on his career".
- Alexander Brailowsky
Alexander Brailowsky was a Russian pianist who specialized in the works of Frédéric Chopin. He achieved most of his fame between the two world wars. Brailowsky was born in Kiev, (although some sources suggest he was Polish) and later became a French citizen in 1926. He made his concert debut in Paris in 1919. His first recordings were done in Berlin from 1928 to 1934 (78 rpm discs). In 1938 he recorded in London for HMV.
- 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.
- Robert Orledge
Robert Orledge is a leading scholar of early twentieth century French music. He was born in Bath, Somerset on 5 January 1948 and educated at the City of Bath Boys' School (1958-65) and at Clare College, Cambridge (1965-71) where he gained a BA (Hons) Music degree in 1968 and an MA in 1972. He was awarded a Ph.D. for his thesis: A Study of the Composer Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) in May 1973.
- Alexander Siloti
Alexander Ilyich Siloti Siloti was born on his father's estate near Kharkov, Ukraine (then part of Imperial Russia). He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Nikolai Zverev from 1871, and under Nikolai Rubinstein, Sergei Taneyev, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Hubert from 1875. He graduated with the Gold Medal in Piano in 1881. He worked with Franz Liszt in Weimar (1883-1886), co-founded the Liszt-Verein in Leipzig, and there made his professional debut on 19 November 1883.
- Larry Clinton
Larry Clinton was a trumpeter who became a prominent American bandleader from 1937 to 1941 and again from 1948 to 1950, having worked as a flight instructor during the intervening war years. His practise of rearranging the works of famous composers like Debussy and Tchaikovsky and adding lyrics was known as "swinging the classics." His version of Debussy’s "Reverie", with vocalist Bea Wain, was particularly popular.
- Didier Squiban
Didier Squiban (born 23 September 1959 in Saint-Renan (Finistère)) is a Breton pianist and composer from France. His musical work is a combination of traditional Breton music, jazz improvisation and classical romanticism and has added the piano to the repertoire of modern Breton music. He has been influenced by Duke Ellington, Keith Jarrett, Charlie Parker and Bill Evans as well as Debussy, Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Darius Milhaud, Schönberg and Glenn Gould.
- Camille Maurane
Camille Maurane is a French baritone singer. His father was a music teacher and he started singing as a child in the Maîtrise Saint-Evode in Rouen. He studied in the Paris Conservatoire in the class of Claire Croiza (1936-1939). He began his professional career as a singer in 1940 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. His voice is typical of the baryton-martin range (between baritone and tenor).
- Shunji Iwai
Shunji Iwai. Iwai is a Japanese film director/video artist, writer and documentarian. Iwai attended Yokohama National University, graduating in 1987. In 1988 he started out in the Japanese entertainment industry by directing TV dramas and music videos. Then, in 1993, his TV drama, "Fireworks", brought him critical praise and an award from the Japanese Director's Association for his portrayal of a group of children in the town of Iioka.
- Pierre Villette
Pierre Villette was a French composer of choral and instrumental music. Pierre Villette was born into a musical family in 1926. He studied with Marcel Dupré before attending the Paris Conservatoire. Pierre Boulez was a fellow student but their careers followed very different paths. In 1957 Villette was appointed director of the Conservatoire in Besançon, the capital of the Franche-Comté region.
- Kosaku Yamada
9 June 1886 - 29 December 1965) was a Japanese composer and conductor. In many western reference books his name is given as Kósçak Yamada, a fanciful transliteration he apparently used in the West. Yamada was born and died in Tokyo. After studying at the Tokyo Music School, he left Japan for Germany where he enrolled in the Berlin Hochschule and learnt composition, before going to the USA for two years. Yamada left about 1600 pieces of music.