The Gift of Music is an English record label specializing in nostalgia, classical, folk, and historical-themed compilation recordings. The unusual aspect of the record label is that its marketing strategy is focussed on sales at museums, National Trust houses, and other British and Irish tourist attractions rather than focussed on traditional music retail markets. The label's releases are usually designed around historical themes likely to compliment museums and tourist attractions, and issues include both re-issued recordings and new commissions.
The management also owns the more traditional, and more specialist Obsidian Records (founded 2005) which specializes in English and Flemish renaissance choral music from the collegiate choirs of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The musicologist David Skinner is both conductor of the Alamire ensemble, Magdala ensemble, and the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge on the Obsidian label, and also one of the managers of The Gift of Music and Obsidian Records. [1]
Dr David Skinner is a British musicologist and choir director. He is Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He co-founded the Cardinall's Musick and Magdala.
A lute is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. More specifically, the term "lute" can refer to an instrument from the family of European lutes. The term also refers generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table. The strings are attached to pegs or posts at the end of the neck, which have some type of turning mechanism to enable the player to tighten the tension on the string or loosen the tension before playing, so that each string is tuned to a specific pitch. The lute is plucked or strummed with one hand while the other hand "frets" the strings on the neck's fingerboard. By pressing the strings on different places of the fingerboard, the player can shorten or lengthen the part of the string that is vibrating, thus producing higher or lower pitches (notes).
A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm and face gestures.
The Music of Mali is, like that of most African nations, ethnically diverse, but one influence predominates; that of the ancient Mali Empire of the Mandinka. Mande people make up 50% of the country's population, other ethnic groups include the Fula (17%), Gur-speakers 12%, Songhai people (6%), Tuareg and Moors (10%) and another 5%, including Europeans. Mali is divided into eight regions; Gao, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Ségou, Sikasso, Tombouctou and Bamako.
The music of Thailand reflects its geographic position at the intersection of China and India, and reflects trade routes that have historically included Persia, Africa, Greece and Rome. Traditional Thai musical instruments are varied and reflect ancient influence from far afield - including the klong thap and khim, the jakhe, the klong jin, and the klong kaek . Though Thailand was never colonized by colonial powers, pop music and other forms of modern Asian, European and American music have become extremely influential. The two most popular styles of traditional Thai music are luk thung and mor lam; the latter in particular has close affinities with the music of Laos.
For the American label, see Argo Records
The Taverner Choir, Consort and Players is a British music ensemble which specialises in the performance of Early and Baroque music. The ensemble is made up of a baroque orchestra, a vocal consort and a Choir. Performers place emphasis on a historically informed performance practice and players work with restored or replicated period instruments.
Joel Cohen is an American musician specializing in early music repertoires. Cohen graduated from Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. in 1959, and Brown University in 1963. He continued graduate education at Harvard University. From 1968 to 2008 he was the director of the Boston Camerata, a prominent American early music ensemble. He remains connected to the Boston Camerata as Music Director Emeritus. Cohen founded the Camerata Mediterranea in 1990 and incorporated it as a nonprofit research institute in France in 2007. He performs on lute and guitar and sings, but is best known as an organizer and creator of concert programs and sound recordings. He has also written extensively on musical topices. In recent years Cohen's research and performance activities have centered on early American repertoires, as well as southern European repertoires of the Middle Ages. Many of his projects in this latter category involve collaboration with Middle Eastern musicians.
Ngoma are musical instruments used by certain Bantu populations of Africa. Ngoma is derived from the Kongo word for "drum". Different Bantu-inhabited regions have their own traditions of percussion, with different names for their instruments. In Kikongo, "ngoma" is used by extension to signify specific dances, social occasions and rhythms.
Dr Arthur Wills OBE is a musician, composer, and professor. He was Director of Music at Ely Cathedral from 1958 to 1990, and also held a Professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1964 until 1992. He has toured extensively as a recitalist in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, and has broadcast, appeared on TV and made many recordings, both as a soloist and with the Ely Choir.
Kerry Andrew is an English composer, performer and author.
Charles Daniels is an English tenor, particularly noted for his performances of baroque music. He is a frequent soloist with The King's Consort, and has made over 25 recordings with the ensemble on the Hyperion label.
The Westminster Williamson Voices is an ensemble that specializes in choral music. It is named for Westminster Choir College's founder, John Finley Williamson, who believed that choral music performed at the highest level should be accessible to all. The Choir is directed by conductor, pedagogue, and writer Dr.James Jordan
Alamire is an English vocal consort specialising in medieval and Renaissance music, both secular and religious. It was founded by David Skinner in 2005, and very swiftly won praise for the quality and imagination of its recordings. "The performances fairly glow, and so does one's spirit after traversing this glorious programme."
Blue Heron, directed by Scott Metcalfe, is a professional vocal ensemble based in the Boston area. The ensemble presents an annual concert series in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and performs throughout New England as well as touring the US; it made its European debut in the United Kingdom in 2017.
Schola Antiqua of Chicago is a professional American early music ensemble based in Chicago, Illinois. The group specializes in vocal music before the year 1600 and is the 2012 winner of the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, an award that recognizes "outstanding contributions to historical performing practices." In 2006-7, Schola Antiqua served as Artist in Residence at the University of Chicago, and the group currently holds an artistic residency at the Lumen Christi Institute. Schola Antiqua of Chicago performs mainly in Chicago but has also presented concerts around the United States. The choir is under the artistic direction of Michael Alan Anderson from the Eastman School of Music.
The Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge is a Cambridge collegiate choir, under the direction of the musicologist and conductor David Skinner, with Senior Organ Scholar Laurence Carden and Junior Organ Scholar Jim Cooper. The composer Eric Whitacre spent three months in the College in 2010, later being appointed Composer in Residence for five years.
Magdala is an English early music group founded by David Skinner (musicologist).
Jakob Lindberg is a Swedish lutenist, performing solo, in small and large ensembles, and also directing operas, using instruments of the lute and guitar families. He is known for the first ever recording of the Complete Solo Lute Music of John Dowland as well as for recording music never before recorded, with repertoire dating back to the Renaissance period.
The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble are an early music group specializing in music for cornett and sackbut. Formed in 1993, they perform in early music concerts and festivals on period instruments.