John Coolidge Adams is an American composer and conductor of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism.
Magnus Gustaf Adolf Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He was the New York Philharmonic's composer-in-residence from 2009 to 2012 and has been the London Philharmonic Orchestra's composer-in-residence since the beginning of the 2014–15 season.
Leon Fleisher was an American classical pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He was one of the most renowned pianists and pedagogues in the world. Music correspondent Elijah Ho called him "one of the most refined and transcendent musicians the United States has ever produced".
Phrygian Gates is a piano piece written by minimalist composer John Adams in 1977–1978. The piece, together with its smaller companion China Gates, written for the pianist Sarah Cahill, is considered by Adams to be his "opus one". They are, according to his own claims, his first compositions consisting of a coherent personal style. It was commissioned and written for the pianist Mack McCray, and first performed by him in the Hellman Hall, San Francisco on March 17, 1978. The work was funded by a group of the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Century Rolls is a piano concerto by the American composer John Adams. Commissioned by Emanuel Ax, the work dates from 1997. Ax was the soloist in the concerto's premiere on September 25, 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio, with Christoph von Dohnányi conducting The Cleveland Orchestra. Ax, von Dohnányi and The Cleveland Orchestra made the first commercial recording of the concerto, for Nonesuch. Adams himself conducted the UK premiere on 1 November 1998, again with Ax as the piano soloist.
Hallelujah Junction is a composition for two pianos written in 1996 by the American composer John Adams. Adams titled his autobiography after this composition. A two-CD retrospective album of works by Adams on the Nonesuch label is also entitled Hallelujah Junction, but does not include the composition.
Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member chamber orchestra that focuses on recordings and performances of contemporary classical music. Its performances have been described as "equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity" by the Financial Times and as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the San Francisco Chronicle. The New York Times said that Alarm Will Sound is "one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American music scene."
Christian Zacharias is a German pianist and conductor.
The New York Youth Symphony, founded in 1963, is a tuition-free music organization for the youth in New York City, widely reputed to be one of the best of its kind in the nation and world. Its programs include its flagship symphony orchestra, Chamber Music program, Jazz Band Classic, Apprentice Conducting, and Making Score. Its members range from 12 to 22 years of age.
Sarah Cahill is an American pianist based in the Bay Area. She has also worked as a writer on music and as a radio show host.
Liang Wang is an American oboist. In 2006, he joined the New York Philharmonic as the principal oboe, The Alice Tully Chair.
Pēteris Plakidis was a Latvian composer and pianist.
Haochen Zhang is a Chinese pianist from Shanghai, China. He was a Gold Medalist and First Prize winner of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, becoming one of the youngest winners in the history of the competition. Zhang received a 2017 Avery Fisher Career Grant in recognition of his outstanding talents.
Antonio Pompa-Baldi is an Italian-American pianist. Described by Donald Rosenberg of The Plain Dealer as "a musician of myriad superlative qualities" and by Allan Kozinn of The New York Times as a "a poised, assured player with a solid technique", Pompa-Baldi won the first prize in the 1999 Cleveland International Piano Competition. He was also a prizewinner of the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition and the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Pompa-Baldi continues to regularly perform internationally as a recitalist, as a chamber musician, and as a soloist with such orchestras as the Boston Pops, Houston Symphony, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France under such conductors as Hans Graf, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Theodore Kuchar. Additionally, Pompa-Baldi currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music and as honorary guest professor and visiting professor at three universities in China, including the China Conservatory of Music.
Yuja Wang is a Chinese classical pianist. She was born in Beijing, began studying piano there at age six, and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. By the age of 21, she was already an internationally recognized concert pianist, giving recitals around the world. She has a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she said: "For me, playing music is about transporting to another way of life, another way of being. An actress does that." Yuja Wang lives in New York City.
Yuja Wang is a Chinese classical pianist who records on the Deutsche Grammophon label. She has released six CDs on with Deutsche Grammophon: Sonatas & Etudes in 2009; Transformation in 2010; Rachmaninov in 2011; and Fantasia, in March 2012. She has also performed on the soundtrack to the film Summer in February. A fifth Deutsche Grammophon album, released internationally in February, 2014, featured the Piano Concerto no. 2 of Sergei Prokofiev and Piano Concerto no. 3 of Sergei Rachmaninov, with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra; and in another 2014 release for DGG, she partnered the violinist Leonidas Kavakos in the violin sonatas of Johannes Brahms.
Seeing is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for the pianist Emanuel Ax, with financial contributions from philanthropists Lillian and Maurice Barbash. It was premiered at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City May 6, 1999, with Leonard Slatkin conducting Emanuel Ax and the New York Philharmonic. The piece is dedicated to Emanuel Ax.
The National Youth Orchestra of China is a full symphony youth orchestra composed of approximately 100 Chinese musicians aged 14 to 21 years old. Each season, students from all over China audition to participate in a two-week training residency before performing alongside a renowned soloist and conductor in premier venues throughout the world.
Eros Piano is a piano concerto written by the American minimalist composer John Adams. The work was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in 1984 and was completed in 1989. Its world premiere was performed by the pianist Paul Crossley and the London Sinfonietta conducted by Adams on November 24, 1989, in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. The piece is dedicated to Paul Crossley. It is the first of three piano concertos by Adams, followed by Century Rolls in 1996 and Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? in 2019.
Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? is a piano concerto by the American composer John Adams. Its title is taken from a saying attributed to Martin Luther. The work was premiered on March 7, 2019 by Yuja Wang and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. A recording, made by Wang, Dudamel, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in November 2019, was released digitally by Deutsche Grammophon on April 17, 2020. The piece is Adams' third piano concerto, after Eros Piano (1989) and Century Rolls (1997).
