Aaron Copland (November 11, 1900 – December 2,1990) was an American composer of concert and film music. Instrumental in forging a uniquely American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers." Copland's music achieved a difficult balance between modern music and American folk styles, and the open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape.
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
Jennifer Higdon (born December 31, 1962) is an American composer of classical music and flutist. Higdon was born in Brooklyn, but spent her first 10 years in Atlanta before moving to Tennessee. With almost no advanced flute training, she studied at Bowling Green State University towards a degree in flute performance. While at Bowling Green she met Robert Spano, who was teaching a conducting course there; Spano would go on to be the foremost champion of Higdon's music in the American orchestral community.
Bernard Herrmann (June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures. In over forty scores Bernard Herrmann[ enriched the work of such directors as Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), Alfred Hitchcock (North By Northwest, Vertigo, Psycho, Marnie etc.), Francois Truffaut (Fahrenheit 451), and Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver). From his first film (Citizen Kane) to his last (Taxi Driver)...
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett, O.M. (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was one of the foremost English composers of the 20th century. Tippett was regarded by many as an outsider in British music, a view that may have been related to his early conscientious objection and his homosexuality. His pacifist beliefs led to a prison sentence in World War II, and for many years his music was considered ungratefully written for voices and instruments, and therefore difficult to perform.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja was born in Moldova to musician parents. She studied composition and violin in Vienna and Bern. 2000 she won the international Szeryng-Competition in Mexico and in 2002 the prestigious "International Credit Suisse Group Young Artist Award". During the Season 2002/3 she represented Austria in the concert series "Rising Stars" with debuts in New York and many European capitals.
Mauricio Kagel (born in Buenos Aires, December 24, 1931, died in Cologne, September 18, 2008) was an Argentine composer who has lived in Germany for most of his career. He was most famous for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance. Many of his pieces give specific theatrical instructions to the performers, such as to adopt certain facial expressions while playing, to make their stage entrances in a particular way, to physically interact with other performers and so on.
Tavener was born on 28 January 1944 in Wembley, London, England, and is a direct descendant of the sixteenth century composer John Taverner. He attended Highgate School (where a fellow pupil was John Rutter) and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where his tutors included Sir Lennox Berkeley. He first came to prominence in 1968 with his dramatic cantata The Whale, based on the Old Testament story of Jonah.