The Aeolian Chamber Players is an American musical ensemble that is dedicated to the performance of chamber music. Founded in 1961 by violinist Lewis Kaplan, the group has been the resident ensemble at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine since 1964. The ensemble is particularly known for performing new works and has produced several commercial recordings. The ensemble's recording of George Crumb's Night of the Four Moons for Columbia Records was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Album. Approximately 150 works, many by noted composers, were written for the Aeolians including Luciano Berio"O King", George Crumb "Eleven Echoes of Autumn, 1965" and "Dream Sequence", Ralph Shapey "Discourse for Four Instruments" and "Discourse 2", Mario Davidovsky "Junctures", Milton Babbitt "Four Play". Several notable musicians have been members of the ensemble during its history, including pianists Walter Ponce and Gilbert Kalish, flutists Erich Graf and Thomas Nyfenger, cellists Jerry Grossman and Ronald Thomas, and clarinetist Thomas Hill, among others. The ensemble held extended residencies at Sarah Lawrence College and C.W.Post College. The Aeolians recorded for BBC and Swiss Radio and by invitation participated in the NEA's pilot project in chamber music.
Henry Dixon Cowell was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. A leading figure of avant-garde music, Cowell was an early proponent of many modernist compositional techniques and sensibilities.
George Henry Crumb or George Henry Jr. Crumb is an American composer of modern classical and avant-garde music. He is known as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques, which obtain vivid sonorities. Examples include seagull effect for the cello, metallic vibrato for the piano, and using a mallet to play the strings of a double bass, among numerous others. Crumb's most renowned works include Ancient Voices of Children (1970), Black Angels (1971), and Makrokosmos III (1974).
The Aeolian Quartet was a highly reputed string quartet based in London, England, with a long international touring history and presence, an important recording and broadcasting profile. It was the successor of the pre-War Stratton Quartet. The quartet adopted its new name in the late 1940s and disbanded in 1981.
Joseph Norman Alessi is an American classical trombonist with the New York Philharmonic.
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).
Jan (Janice) DeGaetani was an American mezzo-soprano known for her performances of contemporary classical vocal compositions.
Richard Wernick is an American composer. He is best known for his chamber and vocal works. His composition Visions of Terror and Wonder won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Melinda Jane Wagner is a US composer, and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in music. Her undergraduate degree is from Hamilton College. She received her graduates degrees from University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania. She also served as Composer-in-Residence at the University of Texas (Austin) and at the 'Bravo!' Vail Valley Music Festival. Some of her teachers included Richard Wernick, George Crumb, Shulamit Ran, and Jay Reise.
The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London.
String piano is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell (1897–1965) to collectively describe those pianistic extended techniques in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, instead of or in addition to striking the piano's keys. Pioneered by Cowell in the 1920s, such techniques are now often called upon in the works of avant-garde classical music composers.
Robert Harry Kyr is an American composer, writer, filmmaker, and Philip H. Knight Professor of Music Composition and Theory.
Stephen Jaffe is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and serves on the music faculty of Duke University, where he holds the post of Mary and James H. Semans Professor of Music Composition; his colleagues there include composers Scott Lindroth, John Supko, and Anthony Kelley. Jaffe graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977; he received a master's degree the following year from the same institution. During his time in Pennsylvania, he studied with George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Richard Wernick.
Currently entering its fourth decade, Orchestra 2001 was founded at Swarthmore College, where it was Ensemble-in-Residence for over twenty-five years. In addition to concerts in the Philadelphia area, the ensemble has brought new American music to countless new audiences through national and international tours and commercial recordings.
Emma Lou Diemer is an American composer.
Robert Carl is an American composer who currently resides in Hartford, Connecticut, where he is chair of the composition program at the Hartt School, University of Hartford.
The Bowdoin International Music Festival is an annual summer music school and concert series that takes place in Brunswick, Maine. Founded in 1964 as a program of Bowdoin College, it has operated as an independent nonprofit organization since 1997.
Makrokosmos is a series of four volumes of pieces for piano by American composer George Crumb. The name alludes to Mikrokosmos, a set of piano pieces by Béla Bartók, one of Crumb's favorite 20th-century composers. The first volume of the set was composed in 1972, while the last was completed in early 1979; the first performance of all four volumes in sequence was given by Yvar Mikhashoff, Aki Takahashi, Stephen Manes, Freida Manes, Jan Williams and Lynn Harbold, in Buffalo, New York, on 12 June 1980.
The Miró Quartet is an internationally performing professional classical string quartet based in Austin, Texas. The group is the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Texas and its members are on the faculty of the Butler School of Music. Its members are Daniel Ching, violin; William Fedkenheuer, second violin ; John Largess, viola; and Joshua Gindele, cello.
The Avison Ensemble is one of England's leading exponents of classical music on period instruments. It is named after Charles Avison (1709–1770), the Newcastle-born composer, conductor and organist, considered ‘the most important English concerto composer of the 18th Century’. Comprising some of Europe's leading musicians and soloists, the Ensemble is directed by violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk. It varies in numbers depending on the repertoire being performed, and is typically of chamber ensemble or concerto grosso size, expanding to full chamber orchestra when needed.
Thomas Rosenkranz is a contemporary American pianist, noted for performances of modern and international music.