Wilson Gault Somers is a jazz and vocal music instructor, composer and performer in the Delaware Valley. [1] Somers is perhaps best known for his soundtrack for Edward Loper: Prophet of Color, a documentary about the artist Edward L. Loper, Sr. which won a regional Emmy award in 2000 in the Mid-Atlantic chapter. [2]
Somers has been an instructor at the Tatnall School for several years, mainly instructing vocal music, and has led a group which performed for Pope John Paul II. He has also created several original orchestral works- Somers' first large-scale composition, entitled MASS FOR THE HOMELESS, premiered to a sold-out audience at the Grand Opera House in 1977. The concert raised funds for homeless agencies in Northern Delaware, as did an encore performance of the same composition in 1999. [3] His most recent large-scale creation, titled "Requiem for 9/11", is intended to remember the first responders of 9/11. "Requiem" premiered in 2012, and the performance raised several thousand dollars for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA.’ [1] [3] [4] [5] Additionally, he is the choir director and organist for an Episcopal church in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
Wilson is married to Joan Somers, with whom he collaborated for his composition "Requiem for 9/11." They are also the parents of Tyler Somers, a member of the musical duo Jenny & Tyler;
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the War Requiem (1962) and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945).
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead, is a Mass offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is usually, but not necessarily, celebrated in the context of a funeral.
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music. Musical Masses take their name from the Catholic liturgy called "the Mass".
David Arnold is an English film composer whose credits include scoring five James Bond films, as well as Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998) and the television series Little Britain and Sherlock. For Independence Day he received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television and for Sherlock he, and co-composer Michael Price, won a Creative Arts Emmy for the score of "His Last Vow", the final episode in the third series. Arnold scored the BBC / Amazon Prime series Good Omens (2019) adapted by Neil Gaiman from his book Good Omens, written with Terry Pratchett. Arnold is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
In North America, an adjunct professor, also known as an adjunct lecturer or adjunct instructor, is a professor who teaches on a limited-term contract, often for one semester at a time, and who is ineligible for tenure.
Jeff Beal is an American composer of music for film, television, recordings, and the concert hall. Highly regarded as a jazz instrumentalist and versatile composer, Beal creates music that often incorporates a synthesis of improvisatory and composed elements.
Brian Theodore Tyler is an American composer, conductor, arranger and producer known for his film, television and video game scores. In his 24-year career, he has scored Transformers: Prime, Eagle Eye, The Expendables trilogy, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron with Danny Elfman, Now You See Me, and Crazy Rich Asians, among others. He also re-arranged the current fanfare of the Universal Pictures logo, originally composed by Jerry Goldsmith, for Universal Pictures' 100th anniversary, which debuted with The Lorax (2012). He composed the 2013–2016 Marvel Studios logo, which debuted with Thor: The Dark World (2013), which he also composed the film's score. He composed the NFL Sunday Countdown Theme for ESPN and the Formula One theme. He scored seven installments of the Fast & Furious franchise, and the soundtrack for the Paramount TV series Yellowstone. For his work as a film composer, he won the IFMCA Awards 2014 Composer of the Year.
Fernando Lopes-Graça, GOSE, GCIH was a Portuguese composer, conductor and musicologist. Lopes-Graça was born in Tomar, and was influenced by Portuguese popular music, which he also studied, continuing the work of the composer and musicologist Francisco de Lacerda. He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party and strenuously opposed the Estado Novo and its leader António de Oliveira Salazar. He completed the Dicionário de Música, started by his teacher, Tomás Borba, himself a composer. He died in Parede, near Cascais.
Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.
Based in San Jose, California, The Choral Project is a mixed-voice choir founded in 1996 by artistic director and conductor Daniel D. Hughes. The group's vision is "to heal our world through music and words," while their mission is "to connect to one another through choral theater, education and musical excellence."
Carl Rütti is a notable Swiss composer, who has written much choral music.
Max Reger's 1915 Requiem, Op. 144b, is a late Romantic setting of Friedrich Hebbel's poem "Requiem" for alto or baritone solo, chorus and orchestra. It is Reger's last completed work for chorus and orchestra, dedicated in the autograph as Dem Andenken der im Kriege 1914/15 gefallenen deutschen Helden.
Carol Edith Barnett is an American composer. She was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and studied at the University of Minnesota with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler (composition), Bernard Weiser (piano) and Emil J. Niosi (flute). She graduated with a bachelor's degree in music theory and composition in 1972 and a masters in theory and composition in 1976.
Jenny & Tyler are a husband-wife folk-pop band originally from Newark, Delaware, and currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. The group consists of singer-songwriters Jenny Somers and Tyler Somers. Their style is a fusion of folk, pop, funk, rock, soul, and bluegrass that has been called "soul-grass". The duo has independently released three full-length albums and two EPs, and regularly tour the United States.
Aaron Robinson is an American composer, conductor, and musicologist. He is the author of Does God Sing? – A Musical Journey. He created the musical work Black Nativity – In Concert: A Gospel Celebration. He also served as conductor and musical director in the PBS documentary On This Island. In 2013, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for composing Maine Public Broadcasting Network's Maine Arts series theme music.
The Music for the Requiem Mass is any music that accompanies the Requiem, a Mass in the Catholic Church for the deceased. It has inspired a large number of compositions, including settings by Mozart, Berlioz, Donizetti, Verdi, Bruckner, Dvořák, Fauré and Duruflé. Originally, such compositions were meant to be performed in liturgical service, with monophonic chant. Eventually the dramatic character of the text began to appeal to composers to an extent that they made the requiem a genre of its own, and the compositions of composers such as Verdi are essentially concert pieces rather than liturgical works.
Edward Leroy Loper Sr. was an African American artist and teacher from Delaware, best known for his vibrant palette and juxtaposition of colors. He taught painting for almost 70 years.
Kristopher Bowers is an American composer and pianist who has composed scores for films, video games, television and documentaries including Green Book, Madden NFL, Dear White People, and Kobe Bryant's Muse. He has recorded, performed, and collaborated with the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye West, and José James. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 2011 and a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition in 2017 for The Snowy Day. He has also composed the score for Ava DuVernay's Netflix mini-series When They See Us.
Requiem is a composition for solo baritone, children's choir, chorus, and orchestra by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The piece was commissioned by Soli Deo Gloria for the 2003 bicentennial of the birth of French composer Hector Berlioz. It was completed July 12, 2002 and premiered March 25, 2007 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, with the conductor Grant Gershon leading the Los Angeles Master Chorale and their orchestra, the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, and the baritone Sanford Sylvan.
Hilda Wilson was a British contralto and composer who also used the name Matilda Ellen Wilson and composed under the name Douglas Hope.