Gregorio Allegri was an Italian Catholic priest and composer of the Roman School and brother of Domenico Allegri; he was also a singer. He was born and died in Rome. He is chiefly known for his Miserere for two choirs.
Miserere is a setting of Psalm 51 by Italian composer Gregorio Allegri. It was composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for the exclusive use of the Sistine Chapel during the Tenebrae services of Holy Week, and its mystique was increased by unwritten performance traditions and ornamentation. It is written for two choirs, of five and four voices respectively, singing alternately and joining to sing the ending in one of the most recognised and enduring examples of polyphony, in this case in a 9-part rendition.
Joby Talbot is a British composer. He has written for a wide variety of purposes, with a broad range of styles, including instrumental and vocal concert music, film and television scores, pop arrangements and works for dance. He is known, to sometimes disparate audiences, for quite different works.
Alonso Lobo was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance. Although not as famous as Tomás Luis de Victoria, he was highly regarded at the time, and Victoria himself considered him to be his equal.
Ludwig Senfl was a Swiss composer of the Renaissance, active in Germany. He was the most famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac, was music director to the court of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and was an influential figure in the development of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in Germany. He and his teacher Isaac played an important role in the development of the German folksongs and their adoption as models for polyphonic compositions as well.
Hilliard Ensemble was a British male vocal quartet originally devoted to the performance of early music. The group was named after the Elizabethan miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard. Founded in 1974, the group disbanded in 2014.
The Tallis Scholars is a British professional early music vocal ensemble established in 1973. Normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers, they specialise in performing a cappella sacred vocal music. The founder and conductor is Peter Phillips. The group has released over 60 discs through its own label, Gimell Records. In 2013 they were elected to the Gramophone Hall of Fame. In 2023, to mark the group's 50th anniversary, Gramophone published a special edition of its magazine, dedicated to The Tallis Scholars.
Officium Defunctorum is a musical setting of the Office of the Dead composed by the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria in 1605. The texts have also been set by other composers including Morales.
The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge is a mixed choir whose primary function is to sing choral services in the Tudor chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. In January 2011, Gramophone named the choir the fifth best choir in the world.
Paweł Łukaszewski is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. He has won seven prestigious Fryderyk Awards. According to David Wordsworth, Łukaszewski is the best-known Polish composer of his generation in and out of Poland "by far".
Georg Enoch Robert Prosper Philipp Franz Karl Theodor Maria Heinrich Johannes Luitpold Hartmann Gundeloh Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg was a German conductor. He also owned the large winery estate Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl. He founded musical ensembles for performances of sacred choral works, and the Herrenchiemsee Festival. In 1975, he co-founded the BUND, a German organization dedicated to protecting the natural environment.
The Rheingau Musik Festival (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, in the wine-growing Rheingau region between Wiesbaden and Lorch.
Gächinger Kantorei is an internationally known German mixed choir, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1954 in Gächingen and conducted by him until 2013, succeeded by Hans-Christoph Rademann.
Hans-Christoph Rademann is a German choral conductor, currently the director of the Dresdner Kammerchor and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart.
Frieder Bernius is a German conductor, the founder and director of the chamber choir Kammerchor Stuttgart, founded in 1968. They became leaders for historically informed performances. He founded the Stuttgart festival of Baroque music, "Internationale Festtage Alter Musik", in 1987, and is a recipient of the Edison Award (1990), Diapason d'Or (1990) and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1993).
Path of Miracles is an extended choral composition by Joby Talbot, written in 2005 following a commission from the vocal chamber group Tenebrae. Under the direction of Nigel Short, Tenebrae's first performance was scheduled for 7 July 2005 in London, but was delayed because of the bombings that took place in the city that day. The City of London Festival quickly rescheduled the event, and the world premiere took place on 17 July 2005 at St. Bartholomew-the-Great Church in London.
Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia is a collection of music for Holy Week by Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo, published in 1611. It consists of three sets of nine short pieces, one set for each of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and a psalm and a hymn. The work was written for unaccompanied voices: two soprano parts, alto, two tenor parts, and bass.
The discography of Westminster Cathedral Choir includes many award-winning recordings, among them the 1998 Gramophone Award Record of the Year for Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir and Ildebrando Pizzetti's Requiem.
MDR Rundfunkchor is the radio choir of the German broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), based in Leipzig, Saxony. Dating back to 1924, the choir became the radio choir of a predecessor of the MDR in 1946, then called Kammerchor des Senders Leipzig, or Rundfunkchor Leipzig. The present name was established in 1992. The choir has appeared internationally, and has made award-winning recordings.
The Choir of King's College London is a mixed-voice choir within British university King's College London whose primary function is to provide music in the Chapel of King's College London, a Grade I listed Renaissance Revival chapel. One of the leading university choirs in England and the wider United Kingdom, since its revival in 1945, it has gained an international reputation as one of the leading university collegiate choirs in the world.
