Results for "composer/conductor"

George Herms

George Herms is a Los Angeles assemblage artist who was associated with the Beats and who, my colleague Christopher Knight noted in a review of a 2005 Herms retrospective at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, has discovered the “precise location for making spiritually inclined art out of worldly trash.” Herms may also be the ultimate outsider artist, even though he is insider enough that when the Whitney Museum of Art had a show on Beat culture in 1996, several of his works were included and he was invited on the Charlie Rose show along with Allen Ginsberg. He was, of necessity, part of the big Los Angeles show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2006

Milton Babbitt

Born: May 10, 1916

Milton Babbitt, crabby, exuberant, reviled, playful, rigorous, thrilling. The composer who has been among the most controversial yet influential figures in American concert music of the past 60 years. The theorist whose vision about the direction that music should take dominated the academy for decades. The teacher who has guided generations of young composers both at The Juilliard School and in the Ivy League. The man who, as he celebrates his 90th year, continues to lead a full life as a composer and pedagogue, and who glows at the thought that James Levine, one of his most powerful champions, is now in command at the Boston Symphony. In person, Milton Babbitt is a small, compact figure whose pursed lips and twinkling eyes behind thick black frames seem always on the edge of a smile

Rodrigo Faina

Born: October 13, 1976

Rodrigo Faina is a composer and bandleader whose music often transcends conventional and outdated genre distinctions. An alchemist, able to blend the techniques of new music and the traditions of jazz, tango and other popular genres into a lush, progressive and evocative sound-world distinctively of his own. The unpredictable and adventurous nature of his musical output places him in a particular position within the contemporary music landscape, and has earned him the respect and admiration of the international music scene’s key figures, but at the same time, brings him in conflict with both: the avant-garde and conceptualist classical composers. Rodrigo’s music draws inspiration from literature, social inequality and abstract images, and his aim is to develop and renew musical heritage and traditions without losing the connection with the emotional, expressive and spiritual aspects of music. Rodrigo’s music has been performed in prestigious venues such as the Kölner Philharmonie, WDR Funkhaus Köln, De Doelen and Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. He has collaborated with renowned ensembles, soloists and conductors from Europe and the United States, such as Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, DoelenEnsemble, Metropole Orchestra, Zapp4, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, David Kweksilber Big Band, Bulgaria National Radio Symphony, Platypus Ensemble, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Vince Mendoza, Etienne Siebens, Bas Wiegers and Claron McFadden among others. Rodrigo studied musical composition with Paul van Brugge and Klaas de Vries at the Rotterdam Conservatory, where he obtained his Bachelor and Master’s degrees with honours

Michele Caniato

Compositions and arrangements performed by Andy McGee, Jeff Stout, Igor Butman, Bill Pierce, Alan Dawson, Diego Urcola, Shannon LeClaire, the Kendrick Oliver Big Band, Berklee Faculty Big Band, Harvard University Jazz Ensemble, New England Conservatory Jazz Composers Big Band, New York BMI Jazz Composers Orchestra, 14th Coltrane Memorial Concert at Northeastern University, in the United States, Canada, and on Italian National Radio.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Born: January 27

Probably the greatest genius in Western musical history, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, Jan. 27, 1756, the son of Leopold Mozart and his wife, Anna Maria Pertl. Leopold was a successful composer, violinist and assistant concertmaster at the Salzburg court. Wolfgang began composing minuets at the age of 5 and symphonies at 9. When he was 6, he and his older sister, Maria Anna (who was nicknamed "Nannerl"), performed a series of concerts to Europe's courts and major cities. Both children played the keyboard, but Wolfgang became a violin virtuoso as well. In 1762 the Mozart children played at court in Vienna; the Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, received them

Henry Wolfe

Born: 1979

In era of dwindling attention spans, it is something of a shock to discover a musician who doesn’t want to shock, who doesn’t want to drive a dagger into the heart of modern music for fifteen megabytes of fame, who simply wants to write beautiful, timeless songs. But that’s precisely what you hear when you listen to Henry Wolfe’s refreshingly tasteful new record Linda Vista (Undermoutnain 2011). A loose, dressed down affair, it captures the sound of real people in a room, playing together in real time. In making the record, Wolfe and producers Nico Aglietti and Aaron Older (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes) abided by the approach used to make their favorite classic albums: get out of the way and let the songs and performances speak for themselves

Percy Faith

Born: April 7, 1908

One of the founding fathers of easy listening, but not always the purveyor of pablum he's made out to be. Faith was a child prodigy on the piano, but his hopes for a career as a concert pianist ended when he injured his hands in a fire when he was 18. He switched to arranging and conducting, working in hotel and theater orchestras in Toronto and eventually landing his own radio show on CBC in 1938. In 1940, Faith moved to Chicago and became a naturalized citizen a few years later. He moved to New York City and worked in radio for a while until he joined the A&R staff of Decca. By 1950, he was working for Mitch Miller at Columbia, who found Faith's rich but not overbearing string work perfect for the sound he was trying to cultivate

Buddy Holly

Born: September 7, 1936

Pioneering rock 'n' roll musician Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was born in Lubbock, Texas on September 7, 1936. He died in 1959 in a plane crash in Iowa. The youngest of four children of Lawrence and Ella (Drake) Holley, Buddy became one of the greatest legends of rock music. His father worked as a tailor and salesman in a Lubbock clothing store, and though Lawrence did not play an instrument, he and Buddy's mom encouraged their children's musical skills. At age five, Buddy appeared with his brothers in a talent show in the neighboring town of County Line. They won five dollars singing "Down the River of Memories." At age eleven Buddy took piano lessons, but quit after nine months

Gustavo Dudamel

Born: January 26, 1981

Internationally acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel continues to share his magnetic enthusiasm for music with audiences of all ages around the world. As he begins his twelfth year as Music Director of the Simón Bol

Scott Healy

Los Angeles-based Scott Healy is an award-winning musician who multitasks across the music divide. He is best-known for his long association with Conan O'Brien: "Late Night", "The Tonight Show", and now "Conan" on TBS, where he holds down the keyboard chair in the Basic Cable Band. In addition to the nightly TV gig, Scott works as a pianist, organist, electronic keyboardist and accordionist. His performing and recording credits include many of the greats in rock, blues, R&B and jazz: Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt,Al Green, BB King, Jackson Browne, Levon Helm, Son Seals, Hubert Sumlin and Tony Bennett. His composing, arranging and scoring credits include the Portland Symphony, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the Mel Lewis Orchestra, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, and music for film and TV