Gordon McPherson (born 1965) is a Scottish composer.
McPherson was born in Dundee. He studied at the University of York, England, returning there for his doctorate, [1] continuing with post-doctoral research at the Royal Northern College of Music.
McPherson has composed almost 100 pieces (as of 2006). [2] His work has been performed and broadcast widely throughout the world. Recent[ when? ] works have included Kamperduin, a second work for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, commissioned to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1797 Battle of Camperdown; Friends in Strange Places, a new chamber work recorded for the inauguration of Dundee Contemporary Arts; a second study for guitar, Miami, premiered at the Wigmore Hall in 1998 and Detours, commissioned by the Hebrides Ensemble.
The Baby Bear's Bed for Icebreaker was premiered in Vienna in October 1999 and has subsequently received performances in Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. It has also been recorded by Icebreaker on their Extraction album. [3]
Other recent[ when? ] works include South for the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, a seventh movement for his Handguns, a suite for Psappha, a third string quartet for the Salisbury Festival and a third study for the Bath International Guitar Festival.
He has been in demand both as a teacher and lecturer and is currently head of composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. [4]
Tom Harrell is an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, and arranger. Voted Trumpeter of the Year of 2018 by Jazz Journalists Association, Harrell has won awards and grants throughout his career, including multiple Trumpeter of the Year awards from DownBeat magazine, SESAC Jazz Award, BMI Composers Award, and Prix Oscar du Jazz. He received a Grammy Award nomination for his big band album, Time's Mirror.
Georges Lentz is a contemporary composer and sound artist born in Luxembourg in 1965 and that country's internationally best known composer. Since 1990, he has been living in Sydney, Australia. Despite his relatively small output and his reclusiveness, he is also considered one of Australia's leading composers. His music is inspired by the starry night sky in the Australian Outback and by Aboriginal art.
Thomas William Ellis Smith is a Scottish jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator.
Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can music collective and festival. He grew up in Nicaragua.
Howard David Blake is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works. Blake's most successful work is his soundtrack for Channel 4’s 1982 film The Snowman, which includes the song "Walking in the Air". He is increasingly recognised for his classical works including concertos, oratorios, ballets, operas and many instrumental pieces.
Icebreaker is a UK-based new music ensemble founded by James Poke and John Godfrey. They interpret new music, specialising in a post-minimal and "totalist" repertoire. Icebreaker always play amplified and have a reputation for playing, by classical standards, "seriously loud". They have expanded their repertoire to include non-classical material, particularly in their version of the Brian Eno album Apollo, a project based on the music of Kraftwerk, and music by Scott Walker.
Darragh Morgan is an Irish violinist. He established himself as a soloist of new music with recitals at Sonorities Festival, as well as in Prague, Malta, Nicosia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United States, throughout the UK, and Ireland.
Tim Kliphuis is a Dutch violinist renowned for mixing gypsy jazz with classical and folk music, whose recent works have been dedicated to raising awareness about climate change.
Wim Henderickx was a Belgian composer of contemporary classical music. He was composer in residence at Muziektheater Transparant and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, writing operas and other stage works. His music was influenced by oriental music and philosophy. He taught composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
John McLeod was a Scottish composer who wrote music in many media including film and television.
Joe Cutler is a British composer who grew up in Neasden and studied music at the Universities of Huddersfield and Durham, before receiving a Polish Government Scholarship to study at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. He has taught composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2000, and since 2005 he has been the Head of Composition there. In 2015 he was made Professor of Composition. He is also the co-founder of the instrumental ensemble Noszferatu.
Timothy Wesley John Brady is a Canadian composer, electric guitarist, improvising musician, concert producer, record producer and cultural activist. Working in the field of contemporary classical music, experimental music, and musique actuelle, his compositions utilize a variety of styles from serialism to minimalism and often incorporate modern instruments such as electric guitars and other electroacoustic instruments. His music is marked by a synthesis of musical languages, having developed an ability to use elements of many musical styles while retaining a strong sense of personal expression. Some of his early recognized works are the 1982 orchestral pieces Variants and Visions, his Chamber Concerto (1985), the chamber trio ...in the Wake..., and his song cycle Revolutionary Songs (1994).
Paul Newland is a composer, musician, and founding member of the group [rout], and the electric guitar duo, exquisite corpse.
John Serry Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer, as well as a composer of contemporary classical music works that feature percussion, on which he also doubles. He is a son of the accordionist and composer John Serry. His debut solo album was 'Exhibition', for which he received a Grammy Nomination for his composition, 'Sabotage'.
Colin David Currie is a multi award-winning Scottish virtuoso percussionist. He is the founder and leader of the Colin Currie Group, an ensemble specializing in performing and recording the music of Steve Reich.
Gordon Brodie Stewart is a British organist, conductor, and teacher.
Richard Ingham is a composer, performer and educator. He was director of the World Saxophone Congress XVI held July 2012 in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.
Rory Boyle is a Scottish composer and currently Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Jennifer Margaret Barker is a Scottish-American classical composer and pianist. Her compositional style is highly influenced by the landscape, culture and musical heritage of Scotland. She is Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Delaware. Her music has been recorded on the Naxos Records, Composers Recordings Inc., New World Records, Albany Records, Meyer Media and PnOVA Recordings labels. She is published by Boosey & Hawkes, Theodore Presser Company, Vanderbeek & Imrie Ltd., Southern Percussion and McKenna-Keddie Publishing.
Mario Lima Caribé da Rocha is a Brazilian bassist, composer, and educator.