Harrison Birtwistle is one of the world's foremost living composers. Born Accrington, 1934, he studied Clarinet and Composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1953 where, along with fellow students Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr, John Ogdon and Elgar Howarth, he formed the New Music Manchester group which was dedicated to performing avant-garde and contemporary compositions.
Pierre Boulez (born March 26, 1925) is a composer and conductor of contemporary and classical music. Boulez is also an articulate, perceptive and sweeping writer on music. Some articles
Don Byron (b.1958) is a U.S. composer and clarinettist. While he is considered a jazz musician, he is stylistically very adventurous, having recorded klezmer music, German lieder, and cartoon music. Byron was born on 8th November 1958 in the Bronx, New York City and was raised by his parents who were themselves musicians, his mother a pianist; his father a bass player for calypso bands. His parents raised him listening to all kinds of music, taking him on trips to the ballet and the symphony, and also exposing him to jazz such as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis records.
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted musical organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. It is a major force in the presentation of new concert music, and has presented hundreds of musical events worldwide. The San Francisco Chronicle has called Bang on a Can "the country's most important vehicle for contemporary music."
Piers Hellawell (born 1956) is a Northern Ireland-based English composer of contemporary classical music. He has a steady reputation as a musical non-conformist. His work has been commissioned, broadcast and performed in many countries. Recent commissions in the UK include those from the BBC Proms, The Hilliard Ensemble, Schubert Ensemble of London and the London Symphony Orchestra, with performances worldwide.
Joshua Bell is an internationally-acclaimed American violinist known for the versatility of his musical understanding as well as his technical skill. He has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras under such conductors as Charles Dutoit. A master of the classical repertoire, Bell has expanded his career to contemporary music and genres such as folk and jazz. He has won Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for his work with John Corgliano on The Red Violin.
MISSY (Melissa) MAZZOLI Missy Mazzoli is a delinquent tap dancer turned insomniac composer, whose influences range from Beethoven to Balinese Gamelan. She writes for melodicas, out-of-tune guitars and electronics as well as orchestras and string quartets to create a truly unique sound. At a recent performance of her work by the Minnesota Orchestra, James Oestreich of the New York Times singled out her piece These Worlds In Us as the best piece on the program.
Morten Qvenild is already a central force in a young generation of extremely competent Norwegian musicians operating with great ease between various genres. He is Susanna
There are at least two musicians named John Ireland: 1. John Nicholson Ireland (13 August 1879 – 12 June 1962) was an English composer.
2. John Ireland (Born John Griffith, 24 August 1954) was a South African artist. 1.
John Nicholson 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.
David Behrman (born Salzburg, Austria, August 16, 1937) is a US composer and the producer of Columbia Records' Music of Our Time series. He was also a founding member of the Sonic Arts Union. He toured with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and has worked with Ben Neill. He was a part of Robert Ashley's Music with Roots in the Aether interview series. He is known as a minimalist composer. His music has often involved interactions between live performers and computers, usually with the computer generating sounds triggered by some aspect of the live performance...