The Takács Quartet is a string quartet, founded in Hungary, and now based in Boulder, Colorado, United States.
The Belcea Quartet is a string quartet, formed in 1994, under the leadership of violinist Corina Belcea.
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leading centres for this type of music and an essential port of call for many of the classical music world's leading stars. With near-perfect acoustic, the Hall quickly became celebrated across Europe and featured many of the great artists of the 20th century. Today, the Hall promotes 550 concerts a year and broadcasts a weekly concert on BBC Radio 3. The Hall also promotes an extensive education programme throughout London and beyond and has a huge digital broadcasting arm, which includes the Wigmore Hall Live Label and many live streams of concerts.
Julian Anderson is a British composer and teacher of composition.
Andrew Matthews-Owen is a Welsh pianist and accompanist. He was born at Neath, Wales, and now lives in London, England.
Soile Marja Isokoski is a Finnish lyric soprano. She is an opera singer as well as a concert and lieder singer.
Piers Lane is an Australian classical pianist. His performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works.
The Pavel Haas Quartet is a Czech string quartet which was founded in 2002. Their first album with the second quartets of Haas and Janáček won the 2007 Gramophone Award for Chamber music. The Gramophone reviewer David Fanning described their playing as "streamlined but full-blooded". Their recording of the Dvořák String Quartets Op. 106 & 96 won the Gramophone Awards' most coveted "Recording of the Year" prize in 2011.
Paul Watkins is a Welsh classical cellist and conductor. His brother is the composer Huw Watkins. Watkins studied cello with William Pleeth, Melissa Phelps and Johannes Goritzki. In 1988, he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in the string section. From 1990 to 1997, he was principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Margaret Fingerhut is a British classical pianist. She is known for her innovative recital programmes and recordings in which she explores lesser known piano repertoire.
Huw Watkins is a British composer and pianist. Born in South Wales, he studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he received piano lessons from Peter Lawson. He then went on to read Music at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Alexander Goehr, and completed an MMus in composition at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Julian Anderson. Huw Watkins was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, where he used to teach composition. He is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music.
NMC Recordings is a British recording label and a charity which specialises in recording works by living composers from the British Isles.
The first complete recording of Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony was made on 9 April 1950, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the New York Philharmonic and combined New York choirs. The recording was of a live performance at the Carnegie Hall. Nearly two years earlier the Hungarian-born conductor Eugene Ormandy had recorded the "Veni Creator Spiritus" movement, with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in July 1948. Since Stokowski's version at least 70 recordings of the symphony have been made, by many of the world's leading orchestras and singers, mostly during live performances. This number includes recordings which were for private or limited distribution and were not issued under commercial record labels.
Mahan Esfahani is an Iranian-American harpsichordist.
Dunedin Consort is Scotland's leading baroque ensemble based in Edinburgh, Scotland, recognised for its vivid and insightful performances and recordings. Formed in 1995 and named after Din Eidyn, the ancient Brittonic Celtic name of Edinburgh Castle, Dunedin Consort’s ambition is to make early music newly relevant to the present day. Performing on period instruments, with choruses often numbering just one to a part, the group presents concerts that are both intimate and invigorating, often aiming to recreate the music as it was originally intended. Under the direction of John Butt, this has seen the ensemble earn two coveted Gramophone Awards – for the 2007 recording of Handel’s Messiah and the 2014 recording of Mozart’s Requiem – and a Grammy nomination. In 2018 it was shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Ensemble category.
Quatuor Ébène is a French string quartet ensemble based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
The Escher String Quartet is an American string quartet based in New York City, where they serve as Artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Their name derives from the Dutch artist M. C. Escher.
The Jerusalem Quartet is an Israeli string quartet, which made its debut in 1996. Their performance repertoire is wide and includes works of Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms and Dmitri Shostakovich. They have toured extensively worldwide and three of their recordings have won BBC Music Magazine Awards.
The Calidore String Quartet is an internationally performing classical music string quartet based in New York City. The Calidore is composed of violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry and cellist Estelle Choi.
Arcangelo is a UK-based early music ensemble founded by Jonathan Cohen in 2010. It performs and records music from the Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi to Beethoven. It is noted for its approach based on the collaborative tradition of chamber music making.
