Bechara El Khoury's Symphony, subtitled The Ruins of Beirut, was composed in 1985. It was the third of a series of works inspired in the ongoing Lebanese Civil War, being preceded by tone poem Lebanon in flames and a Requiem. It is composed of four movements, marked Drammatico, Misterioso, Poetico and Tragique.
It was recorded for Naxos Records in 2002 by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, conducted by Vladimir Sirenko.
Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts.
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized through the efforts of contemporaries like Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, and he came to be regarded as an "American original". He was also among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. His experimentation foreshadowed many musical innovations that were later more widely adopted during the 20th century. Hence, he is often regarded as the leading American composer of art music of the 20th century.
John Paul Corigliano Jr. is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Oscar.
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1788. It is sometimes referred to as the "Great G minor symphony", to distinguish it from the "Little G minor symphony", No. 25. The two are the only extant minor key symphonies Mozart wrote.
Hugo Emil Alfvén was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter.
Symphony No. 4 ("Heroes") is a symphony composed by American composer Philip Glass in 1996 based on the album "Heroes" by David Bowie. Glass had based his earlier Symphony No. 1 on the David Bowie album Low.
Richard Warren Joseph Hayman was an American musician who was the chief music arranger of the Boston Pops Orchestra for over 50 years, and served as a pops conductor for orchestras including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek was a Czech composer, pianist, and organist.
Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.
Jeff Beal is an American composer of music for film, television, recordings, and the concert hall. Highly regarded as a jazz instrumentalist and versatile composer, Beal creates music that often incorporates a synthesis of improvisatory and composed elements.
Rony Barrak is an internationally renowned Lebanese darbouka player and composer. He held his Darbouka at the tender age of four and began playing it intuitively.
Volodymyr Markovych Kozhukhar was a Soviet and Ukrainian conductor and academic teacher who focused on opera. Most notably, he conducted and taught in Kyiv and Moscow, among other places.
Walid Georges Gholmieh was the director of the Le Conservatoire libanais national supérieur de musique or The Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. He was considered one of the most prominent Middle Eastern conductors and composers.
Steve Barakatt is a Canadian composer, music producer, pianist, singer and creative director. He was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 2020 and he is a former National Ambassador of UNICEF Canada.
George Pehlivanian is a French-American conductor.
Hiba Al Kawas is a Lebanese operatic soprano, composer, and academic.
Orca Symphony No. 1 is the fourth studio album by Armenian-American musician Serj Tankian. The album takes the form of a classical symphony. A professionally sampled studio version was released on November 30, 2012, while the live recorded version was released on June 25, 2013, through Serjical Strike Records.
Fady Abi Saad, better known by his stage name Aleph, is a Lebanese pianist, composer, arranger and entrepreneur. He is the owner and Art Director of 8ͤ Art Entertainment.
Joelle Khoury is a Lebanese-American pianist and composer of jazz and contemporary classical music.
Review at Gramophone, February 2003.