William Porter (born 1946) is an American organist, harpsichordist and improviser.
Porter studied organ at Oberlin College and Yale University, where he received the DMA degree in 1980.
Porter taught harpsichord and organ at Oberlin from 1974 to 1986 and taught organ, music history and music theory at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1985 to 2002. He taught organ, organ improvisation and harpsichord at the Eastman School of Music from 2001-2013 and again from 2015. [1] He taught at McGill University from 2004 to 2015.
Porter has mentioned Francis Chapelet, Klaas Bolt, and Harald Vogel as influences. [2]
Trevor David Pinnock is a British harpsichordist and conductor.
Daniel Rogers Pinkham Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist.
Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist, conductor, and the founder and music director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also an artist-in-residence at Yale University and the principal guest conductor of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.
John Diercks was an American composer born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1927. He held degrees from Oberlin College, the Eastman School, and the University of Rochester (PhD). His composition teachers included Howard Hanson and Alan Hovhaness. For Asian music and dance he studied with Dorothy Kahananui and Halla Huhm.
David Higgs is an American organist. He has given a large number of recitals and is the head of the organ department at the Eastman School of Music.
Gerre Edward Hancock was an American organist, improviser, and composer. Hancock was Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at the University of Texas at Austin. He died of cardiac arrest in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, January 21, 2012.
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" can also be applied to non-Western art musics. Classical music is often characterized by formality and complexity in its musical form and harmonic organization, particularly with the use of polyphony. Since at least the ninth century it has been primarily a written tradition, spawning a sophisticated notational system, as well as accompanying literature in analytical, critical, historiographical, musicological and philosophical practices. A foundational component of Western culture, classical music is frequently seen from the perspective of individual or groups of composers, whose compositions, personalities and beliefs have fundamentally shaped its history.
Hans Davidsson is a Swedish organist and pedagogue. He was one of the driving forces behind establishing the organ research center GOArt and the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative. He is currently professor of organ at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
Peter Watchorn is an Australian-born harpsichordist who has combined a virtuosic keyboard technique, musical scholarship and practical experience in the construction of harpsichords copied from original instruments of the 17th and 18th centuries. As well as presenting many solo public performances and broadcasts of baroque keyboard music and participating in choral and orchestral performances, he has made numerous commercial CD recordings of solo harpsichord music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
In music a voluntary is a piece of music, usually for an organ, that is played as part of a church service. In English-speaking countries, the music played before and after the service is often called a 'voluntary', whether or not it is so titled.
Baroque music refers to the period or dominant style of Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Classical period after a short transition. The Baroque period is divided into three major phases: early, middle, and late. Overlapping in time, they are conventionally dated from 1580 to 1650, from 1630 to 1700, and from 1680 to 1750. Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, and is widely studied, performed, and listened to. The term "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning "misshapen pearl". The works of George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach are considered the pinnacle of the Baroque period. Other key composers of the Baroque era include Claudio Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella, Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Pachelbel, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Arcangelo Corelli, François Couperin, Johann Hermann Schein, Heinrich Schütz, Samuel Scheidt, Dieterich Buxtehude, Gaspar Sanz, José de Nebra, Antonio Soler, Carlos Seixas and others.
Anthony Newman is an American classical musician. While mostly known as an organist, Newman is also a harpsichordist, pianist, composer, conductor, writer, and teacher. He is a specialist in music of the Baroque period, particularly the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and has collaborated with such noted musicians as Kathleen Battle, Julius Baker, Itzhak Perlman, Eugenia Zukerman, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Leonard Bernstein, Michala Petri, and Wynton Marsalis, for whom he arranged and conducted In Gabriel’s Garden, the most popular classical record of 1996.
Putnam Calder Aldrich was an American harpsichordist, musicologist and Professor of Music at Stanford University. He is credited with creating the Ph.D. music program at Stanford University, for "establishing the first union of the disciplines of musicology and performance technique" and for developing the first graduate program in Early music in the country.
Claudio Di Veroli is an Argentine-Italian harpsichordist who has written several books and papers on baroque performance practice. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was raised in an Italian family and attended Italian primary and secondary school. He studied privately in Buenos Aires under Ernesto Epstein, Erwin Leuchter (harmony) and Ljerko Spiller, obtained a degree in mathematics from the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in statistics from Imperial College, London, under the supervision of Prof. Sir David Cox (statistician). Living in Europe in the early 70's he studied harpsichord with Colin Tilney in London and Hubert Bédard in Paris.
Mark Edwards is a Canadian harpsichordist and organist from Toronto, Ontario. He is first-prize winner of the 2012 Musica Antiqua Bruges International Harpsichord Competition and is Assistant Professor of Harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Robert Hugh Willoughby was an American classical flute player and flute teacher. He played both Baroque and modern flute. He has been described by Flute magazine as the "American grandmaster of the flute".
John Philip Kitchen MBE is a Scottish organist, harpsichordist, conductor, early music scholar, and music educator based in Edinburgh. He serves as the Edinburgh City Organist. Kitchen is known for his extensive recording portfolio of organ music, and his research and demonstration of historical keyboard instruments. He made major contributions to the discography and scholarship on the organ works of William Russell, and Johann Ludwig Krebs.
Erich Paul Schwandt was a Canadian cembalist, organist, musicologist and music educator.
John Austin Clark is an American music director and keyboardist. He plays piano and historical keyboards, including harpsichord, organ and fortepiano. He is a founder and current director of Bourbon Baroque.
Mareile Krumbholz is a German organist and music educator.