contemporary classical

Frank Martin (15 September 1890 – 21 November 1974) was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands. He was born in Geneva, the tenth and last child of Charles Martin, a pastor. Before he started school, he was already playing the piano and improvising. At nine, he was composing complete, fully formed songs, without having had any instruction in song forms or harmony. A performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion which he heard at the age of twelve left upon him an ineradicable impression, and Bach became his true master.

Aram Ilyich Khachaturian, (Russian: Аpaм Ильич Xaчaтypян or Aram Il'ič Hačaturjan) (1903 - 1978) was a Russian composer of Armenian origin. He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia (then a part of pre-Soviet Imperial Russia) to a poor Armenian family. In his youth, he was fascinated by the music he heard around him, but at first he did not study music or learn to read it.
In 1921, he traveled to Moscow to join his brother, unable to speak a word of Russian.

Jürg Frey (b. 1953 in Aarau, Switzerland) studied in Zurich and Geneva where he graduated with a concert diploma in clarinet under Thomas Friedli.
He studied composition under Urs Peter Schneider in Bern and trained in Basel as a teacher of the Alexander Technique.
Frey continues to perform as a clarinetist at numerous premieres and world premieres. He was co-founder of the Lenzburg Music Forum, and has been artistic director of the Aarau concert series 'Moments Musicaux' for more than ten years.

Fans of the Berlin based Nils Frahm are by now familiar with his beguiling live shows where more often than not fellow touring artists are encouraged to join Frahm on stage – the likes of Rachel Grimes, Rob Lowe of Balmorhea as well as label colleagues Peter Broderick and Ólafur Arnalds have all obliged with fascinating results. It will come as no surprise then that Nils Frahm, an accomplished composer and producer who signed to Erased Tapes in 2009...