Christopher Norton (born June 22, 1953) is a British pianist and composer of Jazz music. His pieces are standard in piano learning repertoire, especially the ABRSM piano grades.
Norton was born in New Zealand. He worked as a composer-in-schools for a year after finishing his studies at the University of Otago, [1] then freelanced as a composer, arranger and pianist. He moved to the UK in 1977 on a New Zealand Government Scholarship. He studied at York University, taught by Wilfred Meyers and David Blake. [1]
His earliest publications were with Universal Edition in London, and included Carol Jazz — improvisations on Christmas tunes — and Sing'n'Swing, for choir, piano and percussion.
Boosey & Hawkes signed Norton in 1983, and the first of the Microjazz series appeared, an educational music series that has expanded over 30 years to include music for all of the major instruments with piano, ensemble books, backing tracks and midi-file backings. As of 2015 [update] it ranked as the biggest selling music series for Boosey & Hawkes, with well over a million sales to that date.[ citation needed ] Boosey & Hawkes claims that it is "one of the most widely used educational series ever published." [2]
Norton's other publications with Boosey & Hawkes include the Essential Guides to Pop, Latin and Jazz Styles, the Rock, Country, Latin and Jazz Preludes series, and the Christopher Norton Concert Collections. Other recently published works include a CD-ROM, So You Wanna Be a Pop Star, tutors for electronic keyboard and guitar, and a volume in Boosey & Hawkes' Buy A Band range. In 2006, Norton gave a microjazz workshop at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin; [3] he has also held workshops in Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the United States, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Malaysia, and Singapore.
In 2007, Frederick Harris Music published Christopher Norton Connections for Piano, a collection of 180 new, original piano pieces in popular styles. The pieces are divided into graded books that correspond to respective grade of other Frederick Harris Music publications, such as Celebration Series. According to the official website, this series is "ideal for students and teachers looking for a sound pedagogical supplement or alternative to the study of classical piano literature." [4]
Norton has made production music albums for KPM and Cavendish Music.[ citation needed ] A recent venture with the Novus Via Music Group involves the creation of a piano series for North American students that offers traditional skills in the context of popular styles.
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassicist, and a composer of "an Olympian blend of humanity and detachment" whose "expressive voice was always carefully muted" until his late opera Lord Byron which, in contrast to all his previous work, exhibited an emotional content that rises to "moments of real passion".
Władysław Szpilman was a Polish-Jewish pianist, classical composer and Holocaust survivor. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on his autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw. In the film, he is portrayed by American actor Adrien Brody.
Andrew Hill was an American jazz pianist and composer.
The Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major, Sz. 119, BB 127 of Béla Bartók is a musical composition for piano and orchestra. The work was composed in 1945 during the final months of his life, as a surprise birthday present for his second wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók.
Steve Reich and Musicians, sometimes credited as the Steve Reich Ensemble, is a musical ensemble founded and led by the American composer Steve Reich. The group has premiered and performed many of Reich's works both nationally and internationally. In 1999, Reich received a Grammy Award for "Best Small Ensemble Performance " for the ensemble's performance of Music for 18 Musicians.
Jack Hamilton Beeson was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There!, and The Sweet Bye and Bye.
William Henry Cunliffe Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer.
Huw Warren is a Welsh jazz pianist and composer whose work crosses several genres. He is known as co-leader and founder of the jazz quartet Perfect Houseplants.
The Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited is a music publishing firm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1904. The company claims to be the oldest music publishing company in Canada, and has supported the work of composers including Boris Berlin, Sir Ernest MacMillan, and Healey Willan. In addition to repertoire for piano, guitar, violin, flute and voice, the Frederick Harris Music catalogue also includes publications for ear training, sight reading, technique, theory, harmony, and music history.
Franghiz Ali Aga Kïzï Ali-Zadeh is an Azerbaijani composer and pianist of contemporary classical music. Her music synthesizes Western classical modernist techniques with the Azerbaijani mugham art music. Among her better known works are the chamber piece Gabil Sajahy (1979) for cello and piano, as well as the ballet Empty Cradle (1993); she has also written instrumental, vocal and film music.
David Drew was a British journalist on music, particularly known for his work on Kurt Weill.
Nils Vigeland is an American composer and pianist.
Serenade in A is a work for solo piano by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. Completed on September 9, 1925, in Vienna and published by Boosey & Hawkes, it resulted from his signing his first gramophone recording contract, for Brunswick, and was written so that each movement could fit on one side of a 78 rpm record. The dedicatee was Stravinsky's wife Yekaterina.
Homage to Paderewski is an album of piano pieces by 17 composers, published in 1942 in honour of the Polish pianist, composer and statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski.
Barbara Nissman is an American pianist. She is especially known for her interpretations and performances of the works of Alberto Ginastera and Sergei Prokofiev which feature prominently in her repertoire. She is also a writer and a producer of a new DVD series, and a guest clinician presenting concerts, master classes and lectures world-wide.
Four Piano Blues is a collection of pieces for piano by American composer Aaron Copland. The collection was composed between 1926 and 1948.
Nine Little Piano Pieces, Sz. 82, BB 90 is a collection of short pieces for piano by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. It was completed in 1926.
Five Anniversaries is a set of short pieces for piano by American composer Leonard Bernstein and the third installment in the series of Anniversaries for piano. It was composed between 1949 and 1951. It is known for presenting some of the musical ideas that were later developed in other works.
Ailbhe McDonagh is an Irish concert cellist and composer. She performs worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist with many albums to her name. McDonagh has also composed works for orchestra, chamber music ensembles and pedagocial purposes. Her compositions have been published by Boosey & Hawkes, Hal Leonard, RIAM and ABRSM. McDonagh is a professor of cello at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, Ireland.
Yvonne Madeleine Adair was a pianist, teacher and composer whose educational compositions still regularly appear in the graded pieces of music college examination boards. Some pieces were published under the pen name Ella Fairall.
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