Oliver Weeks (born in Gloucester, Gloucestershire) is an English composer, arranger, and guitarist.
Weeks grew up in Frome, Somerset, and developed an early interest in classical music and '50s and '60s rock 'n' roll. [1] He attended Frome Community College and then Clare College, Cambridge, where he read music and received a starred First.
A school visit to Kolkata in 1996 led to a deep engagement with Bengali poetry and music. Weeks wrote his undergraduate dissertation on baul music and Rabindra Sangeet. He also created classical works based on original Bengali source material. He remained at Cambridge to complete an MPhil under Robin Holloway, and subsequently received his PhD in composition from the Royal Academy of Music, London, studying with Simon Bainbridge and Philip Cashian.
Orchestras and ensembles who have performed his work include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, [2] the Philharmonia, [3] the ensemble Endymion, [4] the Royal Academy Soloists, and the City of London Sinfonia.
After fieldwork on the Baul musicians (mystic poets and singers) of Bengal, Weeks collaborated with the Bengali singer Moushumi Bhowmik to form the syncretic group Parapar. [5] He also plays in the instrumental metal band Astrohenge [6] and formed the band Khiyo with singer Sohini Alam in 2007. [7]
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestras.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, he announced his resignation from the San Francisco Symphony upon the expiration of his contract in 2025.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music.
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Bayan Peter Northcott was an English music critic and composer.
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Satyaki Banerjee is an Indian Bengali composer. He is a part of an Anglo-Bengali band with members in Kolkata and London. He plays instruments like the dotara and the sarod, and his performances incorporate both the classical and the folk idioms. He studied the sarod with the late Pandit Dipak Chowdhury and now trains under Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. He picked up the dotara in the company of practising folk musicians, in akhras and melas and in him the classical and folk meld to evolve into a unique style of playing. He is also a self-taught oud and rebab player, besides being a magnificent singer of mostly Bengali mystical poetry, in the baul and kirtan traditions.
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Khiyo are an English fusion band of British and Bengali descent formed in London, England in 2007. The three core members of Khiyo are Sohini Alam on vocals, Oliver Weeks on guitar and piano, and Ben Heartland on bass.
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