Lorin Varencove Maazel was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in the concert halls of Europe by 1960 but, by comparison, his career in the U.S. progressed far more slowly. He served as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, among other posts. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores. Described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age.
Stuart Oliver Knussen was a British composer and conductor.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music director of the San Francisco Symphony.
The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and referred to as the Oscars for classical music. They are widely regarded as the most influential and prestigious classical music awards in the world. According to Matthew Owen, national sales manager for Harmonia Mundi USA, "ultimately it is the classical award, especially worldwide."
Thomas 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).
Julian Anderson is a British composer and teacher of composition.
Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical music composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus. For his notable students, See: List of music students by teacher: R to S#Bernard Rands.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer, professor, and supporter of the arts.
Sakari Markus Oramo, is a Finnish conductor. He is chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Jurowski is a Russian conductor. He is the son of conductor Michail Jurowski, and grandson of Soviet film music composer Vladimir Michailovich Jurowski.
Ondine is a Finnish classical record label founded in 1985 in Helsinki, Finland. Its catalogue with several award-winning releases includes over 600 titles with major Finnish and international artists.
Lisa Larsson is a Swedish classical soprano singer.
The Avanti! Chamber Orchestra is a Finnish ensemble that focuses on contemporary music. The ensemble when it performs varies in size from a solo player to a symphony orchestra. Avanti! Chamber Orchestra won the Gramophone Prize with their first recording. The Orchestra also holds a music festival of its own each summer.
Music and Its Double is an album composed by John Zorn and featuring three contemporary compositions which were recorded in late 2011 and early 2012 in New York City and Finland, released on the Tzadik label in October 2012. The first track dedicated to composer György Ligeti, "À Rebours", was recorded at the Miller Theatre by cellist Fred Sherry and ensemble conducted by Brad Lubman. The four movements of "Ceremonial Magic" are 2012 studio recordings by David Fulmer and Kenny Wollesen and the final composition, "La Machine de L'Être" inspired by Antonin Artaud, was recorded by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in 2011.
Sarah Elizabeth Peel Willis is an American-born British-American French horn player. She is a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, and is a presenter of TV and online programs about classical music.
Sebastian Fagerlund is a Finnish composer. He is described as “a post-modern impressionist whose sound landscapes can be heard as ecstatic nature images which, however, are always inner images, landscapes of the mind”. Echoes of Western culture, Oriental music and heavy metal may, for example, all be detected under the same Sky in the music of Fagerlund.
Grace-Evangeline Mason is a British composer of contemporary classical music.
Heidi Stober is an American operatic soprano who has performed leading roles in major opera houses internationally, including the Dutch National Opera, the Garsington Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, the Semperoper, and the Vienna State Opera. She has been particularly active with the Houston Grand Opera where she has performed in more than a dozen operas since 2004, including the world premieres of Daniel Catán's Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies (2004), Mark Adamo's Lysistrata (2005), and Ricky Ian Gordon's The House without a Christmas Tree (2017). She has also performed in more than ten operas with the San Francisco Opera since 2010. Since 2008 she has been a resident artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin where she has primarily performed roles from the lyric soprano repertoire. Also active as a concert soprano on the international stage, she has performed with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest among other orchestras. She is particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of George Frideric Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble based in Kokkola, Western Finland. When configured as a larger symphony orchestra, reinforced with local musicians, the orchestra is referred to as the Kokkola Orchestra.
