The International Who's Who in Classical Music 2007 is an unparalleled source of biographical information on singers, instrumentalists, composers, conductors and managers. The directory section lists orchestras, opera companies and other institutions connected with the classical music world. Each biographical entry comprises personal information, principal career details, repertoire, recordings and compositions, and full contact details where available. Appendices provide contact details for national orchestras, opera companies, music festivals, music organizations and major competitions and awards. Entries include individuals involved in all aspects of the world of classical music: composers, instrumentalists, singers, arrangers, writers, musicologists, conductors, directors and managers. Among those listed in this new edition are Philip Glass, Lang Lang, George Crumb, Evelyn Glennie, Yo-Yo Ma and Inga Nielsen. Over 8,000 detailed biographical entries. Covers the classical and light classical fields. Includes both up-and-coming musicians and well-established names. This book will prove invaluable for anyone in need of reliable, up-to-date information on the individuals and organizations involved in classical music.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'A virtuosic memoir . . . elegant, frank and well-structured, that entirely resists cliche . . . The concert pianist's account of striving for musical mastery sits alongside a stirring coming of age narrative . . . readable for both diehard classical music fans and complete newcomers alike . . . A rare feat.' The Guardian A uniquely illuminating memoir of the making of a musician, in which renowned pianist Jeremy Denk explores what he learned from his teachers about classical music: its forms, its power, its meaning - and what it can teach us about ourselves. In this searching and funny memoir, based on his popular New Yorker article, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible journey. Life is difficult enough as a precocious, temperamental, and insufferable six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey. But then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico, far from classical music's nerve centers, and he has to please a new taskmaster while navigating cacti, and the perils of junior high school. Escaping from New Mexico at last, he meets a bewildering cast of college music teachers, ranging from boring to profound, and experiences a series of humiliations and triumphs, to find his way as one of the world's greatest living pianists, a MacArthur 'Genius,' and a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall. There are few writers working today who are willing to eloquently explore both the joys and miseries of artistic practice. Hours of daily repetition, mystifying early advice, pressure from parents and teachers who drove him on - an ongoing battle of talent against two enemies: boredom and insecurity. As we meet various teachers, with cruel and kind streaks, Denk composes a fraught love letter to the act of teaching. He brings you behind the scenes, to look at what motivates both student and teacher, locked in a complicated and psychologically perilous relationship. In Every Good Boy Does Fine, Denk explores how classical music is relevant to 'real life,' despite its distance in time. He dives into pieces and composers that have shaped him - Bach, Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms, among others - and gives unusual lessons on melody, harmony, and rhythm. Why and how do these fundamental elements have such a visceral effect on us? He tries to sum up many of the lessons he has received, to repay the debt of all his amazing teachers; to remind us that music is our creation, and that we need to keep asking questions about its purpose. 'Denk . . . has written a book that shows what it's like to be a pianist, but also what it's like to be Jeremy Denk. As if that were not enough, it is also about the elements of music, and beyond that an account of the ways in which music and life mirror each other. It is a book like none other . . . Denk weaves invisible threads connecting life and art into something very close to musical form.' Simon Callow, The New York Review of Books

What is the point of reading about the music written before 1600? There are two good reasons. First, much of it is very beautiful and most enjoyable. The timeless dignity of plainchant, the mellow consonance of Dufay's chansons, and the dramatic delights of the Renaissance madrigals - these count among life's great pleasures to those who know them. Second, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, European musicians, theorists and craftsmen laid the technical foundations for their successors, the foundations of the classical music that is enjoyed across the world today.

Chapel Royal meets country choir in this collection of eleven strophic psalm-settings, one anthem and two Christmas hymns, for four-part choir without organ. These elaborate settings with fugal passages are suitable for a reasonably competent choir and could provide useful material for evensongs and concerts. The introduction attempts to explain how this London composer, who was trained in the Chapel Royal, came to write music for a country church in Hertfordshire.

In Search of Real Music gives a new perspective on the history of classical music from 1600 to 2000 AD. Written for anyone who enjoys classical music and wants to know more about how it developed, it presents a profile of the music produced in each 50-year period, with additional sections describing the progress of musical instruments, the orchestra, publishing and recording, and the buildings designed for operas and concerts. This book sets out the recollections and research of one amateur listener. As a schoolboy, Clive Bate played the violin in the National Youth Orchestra under Walter Susskind and Hugo Rignold. Later he played in Bryan Fairfax's Polyphonia for the celebrated first performance of Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony. Although he became immersed in a career in I.T. and management consultancy, music remained his principal interest. With retirement he turned his attention to writing this concise history. It is neither an encyclopedia nor a set of biographies, but explores the crucial events, traditions and changes that shaped the course of the art form that is one of Europe's greatest contributions to civilization. In Search of Real Music will allow you to make connections between strands of history that are rarely brought together, and thus enrich your understanding of the music you love.

This gorgeously designed retelling of The Nutcracker will make the perfect Christmas present for ballet fans everywhere! In snow white covered St. Petersburg, young dancer Stana's dreams have finally come true - she has been chosen to play the lead role in Tchaikovsky's new ballet, The Nutcracker. But with all eyes looking at her, can Stana overcome her nerves and dance like she's never danced before? From the author of the bestselling The Sinclair Mysteries, Katherine Woodfine, and Waterstone's Book Prize winner, Lizzy Stewart, this sumptuous and magical retelling of The Nutcracker will transport you on a journey fay beyond the page. Praise for Katherine Woodfine's The Sinclair's Mysteries series: 'A wonderful book, with a glorious heroine and a true spirit of adventure' Katherine Rundell, award-winning author of Rooftoppers 'Dastardliness on a big scale is uncovered in this well-plotted, evocative novel' The Sunday Times 'It's a dashing plot, an atmospheric setting and an extensive and imaginative cast. Katherine Woodfine handles it all with aplomb' The Guardian Praise for Lizzy Stewart's There's a Tiger in the Garden (Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2017, Illustrated Books Category): 'A journey of discovery' The Guardian 'A stunning testament to the power of imagination' Metro

In "Beethoven", Edmund Morris, the author of three bestselling presidential biographies and a lifelong devotee of the great composer, brings him to life as a man of astonishing complexity and overpowering intelligence. A gigantic, compulsively creative personality unable to tolerate constraints, he was not so much a social rebel as an astute manipulator of the most powerful and privileged aristocrats in Germany and Austria, at a time when their world was threatened by the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. But Beethoven's achievement rests in his immortal music. Struggling against progressive, incurable deafness (which he desperately tried to keep secret), he nonetheless produced towering masterpieces, such as his iconic Fifth and Ninth symphonies. With sensitivity and insight, Edmund Morris illuminates Beethoven's life, including his interactions with the women he privately lusted for but held at bay, and his work, whose grandeur and beauty were conceived 'on the other side of silence.'

Traces the life and career of the great Czech composer, examines the influence of Bohemian music on Dvorak's works, and assesses his contributions to modern music.

Agile, flexible and never afraid of controversial innovations (such as abandoning traditional 'black tie' evening dress for its players or giving amplified concerts with creative lighting at the Hammersmith Apollo), the LCO has surfed the waves of history. It has travelled from the early days of broadcasting - which other orchestras shunned, fearing it spelt the end of 'live' music - through the difficult days of the Second World War, when London's largest concert hall was bombed, and the thrill of being invited to play at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011, to a triumphant return and reinvention after the Covid-19 pandemic when its comeback programmes included Concerto for Turntables by the composer Sergei Prokofiev's grandson Gabriel Prokofiev, featuring DJ Mr Switch. Author and music critic Jessica Duchen traces the LCO's history from the beginning under its founding conductor, the entrepreneurial Anthony Bernard from London's East End, whose contacts included Britain's first female MP, the American Nancy Astor (who kindly lent her house for the orchestra's first concert) and leading composers like Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, up to its current Artistic Director, Christopher Warren-Green, who ensures the LCO continues to delight its devoted audiences at home and abroad with an eclectic and diverse programme of music. Over the years it has performed dozens of world or UK premieres by composers including Stravinsky, Falla, Delius and even Mozart. This engaging book teems with entertaining stories: the composer who relished riding naked on a motor bike in the Gloucestershire countryside, the oboe player who taught her daughter's boyfriend, Paul McCartney, to play the recorder for a much-loved Beatles song, and the times the LCO travelled the length and breadth of the US in a country & western tour bus straight out of Nashville. It adds up to a fascinating celebration of over 100 years of classical music, as well as giving unique insider glimpses into this vibrant and much loved orchestra.

'A really great book.' Bruce Springsteen With a foreword by Billy Bragg. Few artists have captured the American experience of their time as wholly as folk legend Woody Guthrie. Singer, songwriter and political activist, Guthrie drew a lifetime of inspiration from his roots on the Oklahoma frontier in the years before the Great Depression. His music -- scathingly funny songs and poignant folk ballads -- made heard the unsung life of field hands, migrant workers, and union organisers, and showed it worthy of tribute. Though his career was tragically cut short by the onset of a degenerative disease that ravaged his mind and body, the legacy of his life and music had already made him an American cultural icon, and has resounded with every generation of musician and music lover since. In this definitive biography, renowned journalist Joe Klein creates an unforgettable portrait of a man as gifted, restless and complicated as the American landscape he came from.

Bob Dylan has helped transform music, literature, pop culture, and even politics. The World of Bob Dylan chronicles a lifetime of creative invention that has made a global impact. Leading rock and pop critics and music scholars address themes and topics central to Dylan's life and work: the Blues, his religious faith, Civil Rights, Gender, Race, and American and World literature. Incorporating a rich array of new archival material from never before accessed archives, The World of Bob Dylan offers a comprehensive, uniquely informed and wholly fresh account of the songwriter, artist, filmmaker, and Nobel Laureate whose unique voice has permanently reshaped our cultural landscape.

'Wonderful ... we need music in our lives now more than ever' HERBIE HANCOCK 'Joan Koenig is on a wonderful mission to enrich children's lives through music' DR GUY DEUTSCHER A pioneering music educator reveals how parents and caregivers can harness the power of music and use it to supercharge early childhood development. Since opening her famed Parisian conservatory over three decades ago, Joan Koenig has led a global movement to improve children's lives and minds with the transformative power of music. With a curriculum and philosophy drawn from cutting-edge science, L'Ecole Koenig has educated and empowered even the youngest students. From baby Max, whose coordination and communication grow as he wiggles and coos along to targeted songs and dance; to five-year-old Sara, who nourishes her empathy, creativity, and memory, while practising music from other cultures. In The Musical Child, Koenig shares stories from her classrooms, along with tips about how to use the latest research during these critical years, when children are most sensitive to musical exposure-and most receptive to its benefits. A gift for parents, caregivers, musicians, and educators, The Musical Child reveals the multiple ways music can help children thrive-and how, in the 21st century, its practice is more vital than ever. * Filled with at-home activities and musical games * Recordings and tutorials available instantly with scannable QR codes

Combining the International Who's Who in Classical Music and the International Who's Who in Popular Music, this two-volume set provides a complete view of the whole of the music world. Within the International Who's Who in Classical Music, each biographical entry comprises personal information, principal career details, repertoire, recordings and compositions, and full contact details where available. Appendices provide contact details for national orchestras, opera companies, music festivals, music organizations and major competitions and awards. The International Who's Who in Popular Music boasts detailed entries, including full biographical information, such as principal career details, recordings and compositions, honours and contact information.

The authoritative Beethoven biography, endorsed by and produced in close collaboration with the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, is timed for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. With unprecedented access to the archives at the Beethoven House in Bonn, renowned Beethoven conductor and scholar Jan Caeyers expertly weaves together a deeply human and complex image of Beethoven-his troubled youth, his unpredictable mood swings, his desires, relationships, and conflicts with family and friends, the mysteries surrounding his affair with the "immortal beloved," and the dramatic tale of his deafness. Caeyers also offers new insights into Beethoven's music and its gradual transformation from the work of a skilled craftsman into that of a consummate artist. Demonstrating an impressive command of the vast scholarship on this iconic composer, Caeyers brings Beethoven's world alive with elegant prose, memorable musical descriptions, and vivid depictions of Bonn and Vienna-the cities where Beethoven produced and performed his works. Caeyers explores how Beethoven's career was impacted by the historical and philosophical shifts taking place in the music world, and conversely, how his own trajectory changed the course of the music industry. Equal parts absorbing cultural history and lively biography, Beethoven, A Life paints a complex portrait of the musical genius who redefined the musical style of his day and went on to become one of the great pillars of Western art music.

Schubert's Workshop offers a fresh study of the composer's compositional technique and its development, rooted in the author's experience of realising performing versions of Franz Schubert's unfinished works. Through close examination of Schubert's use of technical and structural devices, Brian Newbould demonstrates that Schubert was much more technically innovative than has been supposed, and argues that the composer's technical discoveries constitute a rich legacy of specific influences on later composers. Providing rich new insights into the creative practice of one of the major figures of classical music, this two-volume study reframes our understanding of Schubert as an innovator who constantly pushed at the frontiers of style and expression.

Moira Bennett casts her perceptive, wry and amused eye over a childhood and adolescence in South Africa and her years raising sponsorship for the Aldeburgh Festival, the Barbican Centre and the London Symphony Orchestra. In her early fifties, Moira Bennett was widowed with a school-age son and in need of a job. With virtually no previous working experience but full of energy and determination, she found herself working at the Britten-Pears Schoolat Snape, helping to run masterclasses for young professional musicians studying with artists such as Peter Pears, Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich, Hugues Cuenod and William Pleeth. Her gift for arts administration - understanding the needs of performers and audiences - was soon to become highly valued at Aldeburgh, as she became the Registrar at the Britten-Pears School and went on to create the post of Development Director in the early days ofcommercial sponsorship of the arts. She was later invited to take on a similar role at the Barbican Centre, supporting a series of international arts festivals, before going on to work with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 the Bittern Press published Moira Bennett's history of the Britten-Pears School, Making Musicians, which Classical Music magazine made one its Books of the Year. Now in her early nineties, Moira Bennett has written an extraordinary autobiography, casting an astute eye over her childhood and adolescence in South Africa, the impact of the Second World War and the Apartheid years on the country, and her second, 'unexpected', life in the arts.

A slight condensation of Hanon's first exercises. The simplification in layout and range make the exercises appear less difficult to a young student.

Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn't exist. Who was this titan of world culture? Through 100 recordings, Lebrecht brings to life the composer as we've never seen him before. Unruly, offensive and hopeless in so much of his life, yes, but driven to a fault and devoted to his art, conquering deafness to compose some of the towering works of our culture. Along the way, we encounter the great musicians who have taken on the challenge of Beethoven, in all their glories and foibles. In this revealing, unique biography, Beethoven emerges as a cornerstone of the modern world. All recordings are freely available on Idagio and YouTube.

A photographic journey, including a selection of previously unpublished images, that reveal the man 'behind the scenes' at work and play. A new and often surprising portrait of this major musical genius. Benjamin Britten was one of the most important cultural figures in England in the twentieth century. Internationally renowned as a composer, performer, and founder of the Aldeburgh Festival and English Opera Group, he had a careerspanning nearly five decades, producing a series of works such as Peter Grimes and the War Requiem that caught the public imagination, and becoming a familiar figure to worldwide concert and TV and radio audiences through his conducting and song recitals with his partner, the tenor Peter Pears. Behind this public face, however, Britten was an intensively private man, who valued perhaps more than anything the time he spent at home on the Suffolk coast, composing and enjoying a settled domestic life. Britten in Pictures celebrates the many facets of Britten's life in a major new photographic treatment timed to coincide with the composer's centenary in 2013. Using the wealth of images housed in the collections of The Britten-Pears Foundation at Aldeburgh, the book charts the curve of Britten's life, using a selection of rare and previously unpublished images to reveal him anew in all phases of his career, catching a multitude of informal glimpses of the man 'behind the scenes' at work and play as well as in more familiar formal settings. The result is a new and often surprising portrait of this major musical genius. Published in association with The Britten-Pears Foundation.

With a huge reward on the line, the Stockwell Park Orchestra will need to play on a whole new scale to win big... After a brief and disastrous Resident Poet episode, Stockwell Park Orchestra is invited to take part in a TV competition for classical music. For a GBP50,000 prize some competitors are tempted to stretch the genre to 'crossover' and beyond. Can a full concert orchestra compete with jazz bands, horn quartets, harp ensembles, and Mrs Ford-Hughes singing in Portuguese with nine cellos? Or will the competition be derailed by the poet's return, this time sporting live Ambient Sounds? The TV producers aren't worried: they know a good fight means great ratings. What was supposed to be a quirky diversion threatens to take over the orchestra's rehearsals for their own concert, but discovering a voting scam means they must fix things in the TV studio first. What people are saying about Life, Death and Cellos: "I was charmed... a very enjoyable read." Marian Keyes "Life, Death and Cellos is a witty and irreverent musical romp, full of characters I'd love to go for a pint with. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Stockwell Park Orchestra and can't wait for the next book in the series." Claire King, author of The Night Rainbow "Life, Death and Cellos is that rare thing - a funny music book. Rogers knows the world intimately, and portrays it with warmth, accuracy and a poetic turn of phrase. Sharp, witty and richly entertaining." Lev Parikian, author of Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? "With its retro humour bordering on farce, this novel offers an escape into the turbulent (and bonkers) world of the orchestra." Isabel Costello, author of Paris Mon Amour "Dodgy post-rehearsal curries, friendly insults between musicians, sacrosanct coffee-and-biscuit breaks, tedious committee meetings: welcome to the world of the amateur orchestra. Throw in a stolen Stradivarius, an unexpected fatality and the odd illicit affair and you have Life, Death and Cellos, the first in a new series by Isabel Rogers." Rebecca Franks, BBC Music Magazine "...a very funny tale of musical shenanigans set in the febrile atmosphere of the Stockwell Park Orchestra" Ian Critchley

This collection of essays offers a historical reappraisal of what musical modernism was, and what its potential for the present and future could be. It thus moves away from the binary oppositions that have beset twentieth-century music studies in the past, such as those between modernism and postmodernism, between conceptions of musical autonomy and of cultural contingency and between formalist-analytical and cultural-historical approaches. Focussing particularly on music from the 1970s to the 1990s, the volume assembles approaches from different perspectives to new music with a particular emphasis on a critical reassessment of the meaning and function of the legacy of musical modernism. The authors include scholars, musicologists and composers who combine culturally, socially, historically and aesthetically oriented approaches with analytical methods in imaginative ways.