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Alexander Brett Stobbs (born 30 January 1990), (Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England) is a British musician with cystic fibrosis who was the subject of the Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary A Boy Called Alex [1] in 2008 and its sequel, Alex: A Passion for Life [2] in 2009, also broadcast on Channel 4.
Following academic and musical studies at Stoke Brunswick, Stobbs joined the choir of King's College, Cambridge. During his tenure as a chorister, he participated in a recording of Bach's Magnificat with King's College for EMI. Notably, he would later return to conduct this same piece.
His earliest inspirations were the works of Walter de la Mare and the British novelist Jo Rowling.
Stobbs was then a music scholar at Eton College, where he conducted Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat in March 2007. He was a choral scholar at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied music. On 5 April 2009, he conducted Bach's St Matthew Passion at Cadogan Hall, London (with Rodolfus Choir and Southbank Sinfonia) in aid of others who have cystic fibrosis.
In September 2009, his book A Passion for Living was published, a diary of his life during his A-levels and his preparation for performing Bach's Matthew Passion in April 2009.
In July 2018, he won the Royal College of Music third prize in the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize for Piano [3]
His musical accomplishments are despite significant hearing loss arising from the medications involved in the treatment of his cystic fibrosis.
At the end of 2022, he was saying that thanks to a new drug, not only was he looking forward to Christmas "like any other 32 year old", but also his musical career was back on track thanks to the drug. [4]
The life-affirming story of some of his accomplishments despite fearsome challenges was featured in two television documentaries. Both were directed by Paddy Wivell, produced by Walker George Films, and broadcast on Channel 4.
The first, A Boy Called Alex, [5] followed Alex's determined and passionate attempt to conduct Bach's Magnificat while living with cystic fibrosis. [6] It was broadcast in 2008 and was nominated for a BAFTA in 2009. [7]
The second documentary, titled Alex: A Passion For Life, was broadcast in October 2009. It showed Stobbs' first year at King's College, Cambridge, as he prepared to conduct Bach's Matthew Passion with a full orchestra in the Cadogan Hall, always with the backdrop of his struggles with cystic fibrosis. [8] [4]
He also appeared on the UK talk show Richard & Judy in January 2008, on which he performed Rachmaninov's Prelude in G sharp minor, Op. 32/12.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably Staphylococcus aureus. CF is a rare genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. The hallmark feature of CF is the accumulation of thick mucus in different organs. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. Other signs and symptoms may include sinus infections, poor growth, fatty stool, clubbing of the fingers and toes, and infertility in most males. Different people may have different degrees of symptoms.
Karl Richter was a German conductor, choirmaster, organist, and harpsichordist.
Sir Stephen John Cleobury was an English organist and music director. He worked with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, where he served as music director from 1982 to 2019, and with the BBC Singers.
Sir David Valentine Willcocks, was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.
Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a membrane protein and anion channel in vertebrates that is encoded by the CFTR gene.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is an American biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the first biotech firms to use an explicit strategy of rational drug design rather than combinatorial chemistry. It maintains headquarters in South Boston, Massachusetts, and three research facilities, in San Diego, California, and Milton Park, Oxfordshire, England.
David John Briggs is an English organist and composer.
Joshua Rifkin is an American conductor, pianist, and musicologist. He is currently a professor of music at Boston University. As a performer he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre Revueltas; as a scholar has published research on composers from the Renaissance to the 20th century.
Cutting Edge is a British TV documentary series broadcast by Channel 4. It had been Channel 4's flagship documentary series between 1990 and 2017 that focused on political and social issues.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific authorship of music across a variety of instruments and forms, including orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th century Bach Revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.
The Bach Choir is a large independent musical organisation founded in London, England in 1876 to give the first performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor in Britain.
Notable recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-Passion) are shown below in a sortable table.
Walker George Films, founded in 2005 by Stephen Walker and Sally George, is a production company producing films for British television, including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
John Butt is an English orchestral and choral conductor, organist, harpsichordist and scholar. He holds the Gardiner Chair of Music at the University of Glasgow and is music director of the Dunedin Consort with whom he has made award-winning recordings in historically informed performance. He is a prolific scholar, conductor and performer of works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bath Bach Choir, formerly The City of Bath Bach Choir (CBBC), is based in Bath, Somerset, England, and is a registered charity. Founded in 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who also became a founding father of the Bath Bach Festival in 1950, the choir's original aim was to promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach via periodic music festivals. Bates – an amateur musician with a great love and understanding of this composer's works – was also the CBBC's principal conductor and continued in this role until his sudden death, in April 1980. This untimely exit pre-empted his planned retirement concert performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor, scheduled for July of the same year, and effectively ended the first period of the choir's history.
Christopher Stephen Varcoe is an English classical bass-baritone singer, appearing internationally in opera and concert, known for Baroque and contemporary music and a notable singer of Lieder.
Ivacaftor is a medication used to treat cystic fibrosis in people with certain mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, who account for 4–5% cases of cystic fibrosis. It is also included in combination medications, lumacaftor/ivacaftor, tezacaftor/ivacaftor, and elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor which are used to treat people with cystic fibrosis.
Rogers Henry Lewis Covey-Crump is an English tenor noted for his performances in both early music and contemporary classical music. He has sometimes been identified as an haute-contre tenor. He has performed for over 50 years in choirs and ensembles such as the Hilliard Ensemble, and as a soloist. He has been especially in demand for the part of the Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion and St John Passion. He also specialises in vocal tuning, and has written articles on the subject.
The Magnificat, Wq 215, H.772, by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is a musical setting of the biblical canticle Magnificat as an extended composition for voices and orchestra in nine movements, composed in Berlin in 1749. It is the composer's first extant major choral composition.
Michael James Welsh is an American pulmonologist. He is the current Roy J. Carver Chair in Biomedical Research, the Professor of Internal Medicine in Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine at the Department of Internal Medicine, and the Director of Pappajohn Biomedical Institute, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa. He is also a professor at the Department of Neurosurgery, Department of Neurology, and Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. He received the 2022 Shaw Prize in Life science and Medicine, together with Paul A. Negulescu, for their work that uncovered the etiology of cystic fibrosis and developed effective medications.
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