"Ashokan Farewell" is a piece of music composed by the American folk musician Jay Ungar in 1982. For many years, it served as a goodnight or farewell waltz at the annual Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps, run by Ungar and his wife Molly Mason, who gave the tune its name, at the Ashokan Field Campus of SUNY New Paltz in Upstate New York.
Nicola Joy Nadia Benedetti is an Italian-Scottish classical solo violinist and festival director. Her ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16. She works with orchestras in Europe and America as well as with Alexei Grynyuk, her regular pianist. Since 2012, she has played the Gariel Stradivarius violin. She became the first woman to lead the Edinburgh International Festival when she was made Festival Director on 1 October 2022.
Mark Simpson is a British composer and clarinettist from Liverpool. In 2006, he became notable for winning both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year, making him the first and, to date, only person to win both competitions.
Jon Christos is an English singer, local radio presenter. and a member of the Professorial Staff - Vocal Studies at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer/arranger, pianist and musicologist. He is currently Music Director for English National Ballet.
Benjamin Grosvenor is a British classical pianist.
TheHeritage Orchestra is a British orchestra founded by Chris Wheeler and Jules Buckley. They perform mainstream, cult, experimental and popular music. The orchestra, which ranges between 25 and 65 members, has performed internationally in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, Emirates Palace, and Hollywood Bowl, and tours throughout the UK to major concert halls and large-scale arenas, including The O2 Arena in London.
Juliette Louise B. Pochin is a Welsh classically trained mezzo-soprano singer, composer/arranger, and record producer. She is known not only for her performances in operas and as a classical recitalist but also for her recordings of operatically styled crossover music. Morgan Pochin Music Productions Ltd, the company she formed with her husband James Morgan, is known for its record productions for artists such as Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe, as well as its arrangements for film and television scores.
Anna Howard Meredith is a Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music. She is a former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA.
Esther Yoo is an American violinist.
Aurora Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra, co-founded in 2004 by conductors Nicholas Collon and Robin Ticciati. The orchestra is based in London, where it is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre and Resident Ensemble at Kings Place. The orchestra was also previously Associate Orchestra at LSO St Luke's, and performs regularly at other venues including St George's Bristol, the Colyer-Fergusson Hall in Canterbury, and The Apex in Bury St Edmunds. It has developed a particular reputation for creative programming and concert presentation, including pioneering memorised performance as a regular feature of its artistic output. Since its launch in 2005, it has worked with artists ranging from Ian Bostridge, Brett Dean, Anthony Marwood and Sarah Connolly to Edmund de Waal, Wayne McGregor and Björk.
Ben Parry is a British musician, composer, conductor, singer, arranger and producer in both classical and light music fields. He is the Director of London Voices and Artistic Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.
Noah Stewart is an American operatic tenor. He released his debut album Noah in March 2012; it peaked at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart and number 1 on the UK Classical Album Chart.
Sean Shibe is a classical and electric guitarist from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He is of English and Japanese ancestry. He studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and with Italian guitarist Paolo Pegoraro. He is frequently referred to as the foremost guitarist of his generation. His debut album was described as "not just great guitar playing... the best [the jury] had ever heard" by BBC Music Magazine, and "the best solo guitar disc I've heard" by The Arts Desk.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a British cellist who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician award. He was the first Black musician to win the competition since its launch in 1978. He played at the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle on 19 May 2018 under the direction of Christopher Warren-Green. As of 2021, Kanneh-Mason plays a Matteo Goffriller cello which was made in 1700.
Lise Davidsen is a Norwegian opera singer, known as a lyric dramatic soprano. She came to prominence after winning the Operalia competition in London in 2015.
This is a summary of the year 2019 in British music.
Christian Curnyn is a British conductor, harpsichordist and baroque music specialist.
Jess Gillam is a British saxophonist and BBC radio broadcaster from Ulverston, Cumbria. Gillam hosts This Classical Life on BBC Radio 3.
Isata Kanneh-Mason is a British pianist. She is the sister of and frequent collaborator with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
