Daniel Barenboim, KBE (born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings. Currently, he is general music director of La Scala in Milan, the Berlin State Opera, and the Staatskapelle Berlin; he previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.
Arcadi Volodos (Russian: Аркадий Володось, Arcadij Volodos) (born February 24, 1972) is a Russian pianist. His first name is sometimes transliterated Arcady or Arkady. Volodos is renowned for his technical mastery of the instrument's virtuosic repertoire; particularly that of Rachmaninoff, Liszt and his recordings of transcriptions by Vladimir Horowitz.
Born in Leningrad in 1972, he began his musical training studying voice, following the example of his parents, who were singers, and later shifted his emphasis to conducting while a student at the Capilla M.
Georg Philipp Telemann (14th March 1681–25th June 1767) was a German Baroque composer, born in Magdeburg. Self-taught in music, he studied law at the University of Leipzig. The most prolific composer of his era, he was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach and a life-long friend of Georg Friedrich Händel. While in the present day Bach is generally thought of as the greater composer, Telemann was more widely renowned for his musical abilities during his lifetime.
The New York Philharmonic is the oldest active symphony orchestra in the United States, organized during 1842. Based in New York City, the Philharmonic performs most of its concerts at Avery Fisher Hall. The orchestra is older than any other American symphonic institution in existence by nearly four decades; its record-setting 14,000th concert was given in December 2004.[1] Since 2002, the Philharmonic's music director has been Lorin Maazel, whose tenure is scheduled to conclude at the end of the 2008-2009 season.
Yefim "Fima" Bronfman (born April 10, 1958) is a Jewish-born Russian-Israeli pianist. He has recorded works by Prokofiev, Bartók, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and others. (More on Wikipedia)
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin(Александр Николаевич Скрябин) (1872-1915, Moscow) was a Russian composer and pianist. Many of Scriabin's works are written for the piano; the earliest pieces resemble Frédéric Chopin and include music in many forms that Chopin himself employed, such as the etude, the prelude and the mazurka. Later works, however, are strikingly original, employing very unusual harmonies and textures.
Born in Hanau in 1895, Paul Hindemith was taught the violin as a child. He entered the Hoch'sche Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main where he studied conducting, composition and violin under Arnold Mendelssohn and Bernhard Sekles, supporting himself by playing in dance bands and musical-comedy outfits. He led the Frankfurt Opera orchestra from 1915 to 1923 and played in the Rebner string quartet in 1921 in which he played second violin, and later the viola. In 1929 he founded the Amar Quartet, playing viola, and extensively toured Europe.
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (Russian: ??????? ????????? ???????????, Modest Petrovi? Musorgskij), also Modeste, Moussorgsky (and see also ?????? ???????? ??????????) (March 9/21, 1839
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (May 12, 1842 – August 13, 1912) was a French composer from Montaud, France, who was best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas fell into almost total oblivion. Apart from Manon and Werther, his works were rarely performed. However, since the mid-1970s, many operas of his such as Thaïs and Esclarmonde have undergone periodic revivals.
Jordi Savall i Bernadet (born 1941, in Igualada, Catalonia, Spain) is a Spanish-Catalan viol player and composer. He is one of the major figures in the field of early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol (viola da gamba) back to life on the stage. His repertory ranges from medieval to renaissance and baroque music. Savall's musical training started in the school choir of his native town (1947-55).