Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, composer and performer (born Dec. 29th 1973 in Trondheim, Norway), finished composition studies at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo in 2000. Her compositions have been performed by Oslo Sinfonietta, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Arve Tellefsen, Cikada and Vertavo string quartets, Quatuor Renoir, ticom, Crash Ensemble, Torben Snekkestad, Spunk, Frode Haltli and Poing among others.
An accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer, Eric Whitacre has quickly become one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. The Los Angeles Times has praised his compositions as "works of unearthly beauty and imagination, (with) electric, chilling harmonies"; while the BBC raves that "what hits you straight between the eyes is the honesty, optimism and sheer belief that passes any pretension. This is music that can actually make you smile.”
Stewart, Bill b.18 October 1966, Des Moines, Iowa, USA.
Percussionist Bill Stewart made his name as the rhythmic force behind guitarist John Scofield 's band, working with him for five years between 1990 and 1995. Self-taught on drums, Stewart is also a capable pianist, the instrument on which he composes. He grew up listening to his parents' jazz and R&B record collection, but otherwise jazz was a rare commodity in Iowa in the 70s and he played in a Top 40 covers band in high school as well as the school orchestra.
Bruno Sanfilippo is a classically trained musician and composer who has been creating music for more than 20 years. His focus alternates between the exploration of minimalist piano concepts, and contemporary hybrids of electronic and acoustic music."His gift for picture music is the common thread running through it, his earlier works sounding more like soundtrack music and his later works moving into more ambient realms, though still with a strong sense of imagery" Te is obsessed with the search for new and unique qualities in music - the amazing, the magical and the deep.
Kulenty Hanna, composer, born on 18th March 1961 in Białystok. In 1980-86 she studied composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński at the Music Academy in Warsaw, then in 1986-88 - composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatoire of Music and Dance in the Hague. She also participated in International Courses for Young Composers organised by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM/SIMC), Polish Section, as well as the Summer Courses of New Music in Darmstadt. In 1990-91 she worked in Berlin as a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst scholarship holder.
Public Information are a contemporary jazz quartet based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Their present lineup has been together for about five years and they perform their own material, mainly written by guitarist Iain Carleton, along with new arrangements of various works within the modern jazz rubicon.
The line-up is completed by Don Kelman on alto sax & flute, Ron Ballin on electric bass and Des Travis on drums.
Krzysztof Penderecki (born November 23, 1933 in D?bica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these works exhibit novel compositional techniques. Since the 1970s Penderecki's style has changed to encompass a post-Romantic idiom.
Anouar Brahem (Arabic: أنور ابراهم) is a Tunisian oud (middle eastern lute) player and composer who is widely regarded as an innovator in his field. Performing for primarily a jazz audience, he fuses arabic classical music, folk music and jazz and has been recording since at least 1991 after becoming prominent in his own country in the late 1980s. Brahem began studying the oud at age 10 under the tutelage of Ali Sitri at the National Conservatory of Music in Tunis. In 1987, after six years in Paris, he spent two years as the director of the Ensemble Musical De Ia Ville De Tunis.
Dan Clews does the Kent county proud with a classic but contemporary roots infused folk sound that strolls through elements of Americana, country and even Swedish indie. A fast rising star enjoying great radio support and shared stages with some of the biggest names in music, Dan’s upcoming album is hotly anticipated
Latest release: http://bit.ly/EmergenceEP Composer, producer, graphic artist, collaborator and founder of record label bigo & twigetti,
Jim Perkins fuses traditional compositional structures with experimental instrumental and electronic timbres. He creates graphic art using his performance scores as the basis for the artwork, and applies systematic techniques to produce a visual encoding of the musical information.