Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.
Contemporary classical music is classical music relative to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music. Newer forms of music include spectral music, and post-minimalism.
The Labour Party of Scotland was a minor Scottish nationalist political party that was active in the early 1970s. Formed as a left-wing breakaway from Dundee's branch of the Scottish National Party (SNP), it is perhaps best known for standing in the Dundee East by-election of 1973, where its interference split the nationalist vote and probably cost the SNP a parliamentary seat as a result. The party contested elections to Dundee City Council two months later but was ultimately unsuccessful. It folded soon after, and by early 1974 most of its membership had returned to the SNP, whose campaigns on North Sea oil were proving popular with Scotland's urban electorate. It never had any official political representation.
Joanna Clare MacGregor is a British concert pianist, conductor, composer, and festival curator. She is Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and a professor of the University of London. She is currently artistic director of the International Summer School & Festival at Dartington Hall.
New-age music is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather than trance, or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is associated with environmentalism and New Age spirituality.
The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an early ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin. It was one of Joplin's early works, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces. As a result, Joplin became dubbed the "King of Ragtime" by his contemporaries. The piece gave Joplin a steady if unspectacular income for the rest of his life.
Graham Fitkin is a British composer, pianist and conductor. His compositions fall broadly into the minimalist and postminimalist genres. Described by The Independent in 1998 as "one of the most important of our younger composers", he is particularly known for his works for solo and multiple pianos, as well as for music accompanying dance.
Christian Jacob is a jazz pianist. He has gained widespread exposure as co-leader, arranger and pianist with vocalist Tierney Sutton, although he has also maintained a substantial career as a solo artist and leader.
Steve Martland was an English composer. He curated the Factory Classical label of Factory Records, featuring contemporary British composers.
Selena is the self-titled debut studio album by American Tejano singer Selena, released on October 17, 1989 by EMI Latin. Its music incorporates a range of contemporary genres with a mix of cumbia and regional styles of Mexican music. The album was released following company president Jose Behar's failed crossover request for the singer. The project was denied by the heads of EMI Records' pop division, believing the singer should first strengthen her fanbase. Selena's brother and principal record producer and songwriter, A.B. Quintanilla III fought to remain the singer's producer. The band introduced Pete Astudillo and Joe Ojeda, who contributed to the album's experimental production and songwriting. Aside from A.B., Selena worked with two Mexican songwriters, Alejandro Montealegre and Reinaldo Ornelas.
Andy Sheppard is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, George Russell and Steve Swallow.
"Atmosphere" is a song by English post-punk band Joy Division. It was originally released in March 1980 by the Sordide Sentimental label as the "Licht und Blindheit" package, a France-only limited edition single featuring the track "Dead Souls" as the B-side. Following Ian Curtis's death two months later, it was re-released as a 12" single by Factory Records with "She's Lost Control" as the B-side.
The Frankfurt Group, also called the Frankfurt Gang or the Frankfurt Five, was a group of English-speaking composers and friends who studied composition under Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main in the late 1890s. The group included Balfour Gardiner, Roger Quilter, Norman O'Neill and Cyril Scott, who were all English, and Percy Grainger, who was born in Australia and established himself as a composer in England between 1901 and 1914 before moving to the United States. Although they did not study in Frankfurt all at the same time they remained close friends from their student days onwards.
Savage Republic is a Los Angeles based post-punk band formed in the early 1980s. The group reformed in 2002 and remains active with a different lineup.
Arthur Levering is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Sordide Sentimental is a French record label, founded in 1978 by Jean-Pierre Turmel and Yves Von Bontee, notable for its releases of early works by Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and others.
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
Scott MacLeay is a Canadian photographer, composer and new media artist. His images, like his music, often deal with juxtapositions of fragmented elements in multilayered environments. He began his career in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in the later 1970s, moving to Paris in 1979. In 2010 he moved to Florianópolis, Brazil.
Martyn Bates, is an English singer, musician and songwriter.
