A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, such as the jazz quartet or the orchestra. Other music ensembles consist solely of singers, such as choirs and doo wop groups. In both popular music and classical music, there are ensembles in which both instrumentalists and singers perform, such as the rock band or the Baroque chamber group for basso continuo and one or more singers. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. Some ensembles blend the sounds of a variety of instrument families, such as the orchestra, which uses a string section, brass instruments, woodwinds and percussion instruments, or the concert band, which uses brass, woodwinds and percussion.
In music, a quartet is an ensemble of four singers.
Mario Davidovsky was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions called Synchronisms, which in live performance incorporate both acoustic instruments and electroacoustic sounds played from a tape.
Per Nørgård is a Danish composer and music theorist. Though his style has varied considerably throughout his career, his music has often included repeatedly evolving melodies—such as the infinity series—in the vein of Jean Sibelius, and a perspicuous focus on lyricism. Reflecting on this, the composer Julian Anderson described his style as "one of the most personal in contemporary music". Nørgård has received several awards, including the 2016 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.
Matthias Pintscher is a German composer and conductor.
Jukka Santeri Tiensuu is a Finnish contemporary classical composer, harpsichordist, pianist and conductor.
Erich Urbanner is an Austrian composer and teacher.
This topic covers notable events and articles related to 2012 in music. This year was the peak of music downloads sales in the United States, with sales declining year on year since then.
Sampo Haapamäki is a Finnish composer. He has won several international composition competitions.
Claudio Vena is an Italian-born composer for film and television, now living and working in Canada.
Sebastian Fagerlund is a Finnish composer. He is described as “a post-modern impressionist whose sound landscapes can be heard as ecstatic nature images which, however, are always inner images, landscapes of the mind”. Echoes of Western culture, Asian musical traditions, and heavy metal have all been detected in his music.
Colin Maier is a Canadian oboist and multi-instrumentalist and also works as an actor, dancer, and acrobat, often blending these disciplines into one performance. He has also worked as a stuntman and martial artist. He is currently a member of the award-winning Canadian new classical music ensemble Quartetto Gelato, and the oboe and accordion duo JoyRide with accordionist Charles Thomas Cozens.
Alessandro Solbiati is an Italian composer of classical music, who has composed instrumental music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, art songs and operas. He received international commissions and awards, and many of his works are recorded. He is also an academic, teaching in Italy and France.
Alexander Sevastian, "Sasha", was a well-known virtuoso Russian-Canadian accordionist.
Charles Cozens is involved in the music industry in Canada as an arranger for solo artists; a composer writing in multiple genres for diverse organizations including chamber ensembles, musical theatre, and television; a conductor and producer of crossover orchestral shows; a performer on piano and accordion in jazz, classical, and pop styles; and as a recording artist and producer.
Robert Davine was an internationally recognized concert accordionist and Professor of Accordion and Music Theory at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. As the chairman of the Department of Accordion for three decades, he is credited with establishing one of the few collegiate academic programs in advanced accordion studies offered in the United States during the 1950s. His concert performances of 20th century classical music with leading orchestras and chamber ensembles helped to demonstrate the accordion's suitability as an orchestral instrument on the modern concert hall stage.
Gwyn Pritchard is a British composer, ensemble and festival director, and teacher.
Joseph Nicholas Anthony Macerollo, OC is a Canadian classical accordionist, music educator and author. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013 for his achievements as a musician, educator and promoter of the free bass accordion on the concert hall stage.
You may hear the album "Neapolitan Cafe" by Quartetto Gelato with the accordionist Joseph Macerollo in 2001 