Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist and violist. His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The BBC SO is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), based in London, was formed by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagements including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the concerts of the Royal Philharmonic Society. After Beecham's death in 1961 the orchestra's fortunes declined steeply; it battled for survival until the mid-1960s, when its future was secured after an Arts Council report recommended that it should receive public subsidy; a further crisis arose in the same era when it seemed that the orchestra's right to call itself "Royal" could be withdrawn.
Sir Neville Marriner, was an English violinist and was viewed by some as one of the world's greatest conductors. He founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and his partnership with them is the most recorded of any orchestra and conductor.
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera and was the first Australian chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington is an English conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington.
David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.
Marin Alsop is an American conductor and violinist. She is currently music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as well as, chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Ravinia Festival. In 2020 she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
James Loughran CBE, DMus., FRNCM, FRSAMD is a conductor.
Nicola Joy Nadia Benedetti CBE is a Scottish-Italian classical solo violinist. Her ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16 and also many other awards. She works with orchestras in Europe and America as well as Alexei Grynyuk, her regular pianist. Since 2012 she has played the Gariel Stradivarius violin.
Howard Gordon Shelley is a British pianist and conductor. He was educated at Highgate School and the Royal College of Music. He is married to fellow pianist Hilary Macnamara, with whom he has performed and recorded in a two-piano partnership, and they have two sons.
Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer/arranger and pianist. He is currently Music Director for English National Ballet.
Mark Grey is an American classical music composer, sound designer and sound engineer.
Erich Gruenberg was an Austrian-born British violinist and teacher. Following studies in Israel, he was a principal violinist of major orchestras, including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He was an international soloist, playing the first performance of Britten's Violin Concerto in Moscow. As a chamber musician, he was leader of the London String Quartet and recorded all Beethoven violin sonatas with pianist David Wilde. He was the lead violinist for The Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Gruenberg taught at the Royal Academy of Music until age 95, influencing generations of violinists.
David Michael Lucian Measham was a British-Australian conductor and violinist.
Dejan Lazić is a Croatian pianist and composer, and a naturalised Austrian citizen. He has appeared with such orchestras as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Bamberger Symphoniker, Swedish Radio, Danish National, Helsinki Philharmonic, Australian Chamber Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra, working with such conductors as Iván Fischer, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Giovanni Antonini, Kirill Petrenko, Robert Spano and John Storgårds.
Martin Owen is a British classical horn player. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He was principal horn of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) 1998–2008. In 2008, he was appointed principal horn of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Quartet San Francisco is a non-traditional and eclectic string quartet led by violinist and String Masters co-founder Jeremy Cohen. The group played their first concert in 2001 and has recorded five albums. Playing a wide range of music genres including jazz, blues, tango, swing, funk, and pop, the group challenges the traditional classical music foundation of the string quartet.
Pete Townshend Live: Sadler's Wells 2000 is a live album released by Pete Townshend in 2000. Townshend presented the music from Lifehouse at two concerts at Sadler's Wells in London on February 25 and 26, 2000, supported by a number of musicians and vocalists and The London Chamber Orchestra. Musicians included Pete Townshend, Chucho Merchán, Phil Palmer, John "Rabbit" Bundrick, Peter Hope-Evans and Jody Linscott. Vocalists included Chyna, Cleveland Watkiss and Billy Nicholls. Violinist and orchestra leader Gaby Lester performed the violin solo on "Baba O'Riley". The live recording was issued on a CD album titled Pete Townshend Live: Sadler's Wells 2000 and a video/DVD titled Pete Townshend – Music from Lifehouse in 2002.
Philip Dukes is a British classical viola soloist.
