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The Balanescu Quartet
Balanescu Quartet is an avant-garde string ensemble formed in 1987. Current members are Alexander Bălănescu (violin), James Shenton (violin), Helen Kamminga (viola) and Nick Holland (cello). Group history The Balanescu Quartet is a contemporary music ensemble formed in 1987. Its guiding force has been the Romanian virtuoso violinist and composer Alexander Balanescu, who has led the quartet across musical frontiers into new uncharted territory. This search to push the limits of the string quartet, has revealed an ensemble nearer to a band rather than a classical group, and reflects Balanescu's passionate belief in the intercommunication and fluidity between different musical fields. From its roots as collaborators with composers such as Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars, through projects with Lounge Lizard John Lurie, Jack de Johnette, Ornette Coleman, David Byrne, the Pet Shop Boys, Spiritualized, Kate Bush and Kraftwerk, they have developed their own unique writing and perform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Bălănescu
Alexander Bălănescu () (born 11 June 1954) is a Romanian violinist, and founder of the Balanescu Quartet. Biography Bălănescu was born in Bucharest, and at the age of seven went to the Special School for Music there. His teachers in Romania were Dolly Koritzer, Garabet Avakian and Ștefan Gheorghiu. His studies continued at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem with Iair Kless, London's Trinity College with Bela Katona, and from 1975-79 at the Juilliard School, New York with Dorothy DeLay, where he also took part in master classes with Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Felix Galimir and Robert Mann. In 1979 Bălănescu became leader of the Michael Nyman Band and toured with this group around the world for 15 years. During the same period he was also a member of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble. Bălănescu was in the Arditti Quartet for four years before forming his own quartet in 1987. The Bălănescu Quartet has worked closely with Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Kevin Volans, as well a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the National Poetry Library, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room), together with the Hayward Gallery, and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracted 4.36 million visitors during 2019. Over two thousand paid performances of music, dance and literature are staged at Southbank Centre each year, as well as over two thousand free events and an education programme, in and around the performing arts venues. In addition, three to six major art exhibitions are presented at the Hayward Gallery yearly, and national touring exhibitions reach over 100 venues across the UK. Location Southbank Centre's site, which formerly extended to 21 acres (85,000 m2) from County Hall to Waterloo Bridge, is fronted by The Queen’s Walk. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optimo
Optimo Espacio ('Optimum Space') was a weekly Sunday-night club based in Glasgow, Scotland at the Sub Club on Jamaica Street, as well as a collective moniker for the night's resident DJ duo. Having run every week since it was founded in 1997, on 11 March 2010, it was announced on the official Facebook page that the weekly nights would come to an end on Sunday 25 April 2010. However, JD Twitch and JG Wilkes continued to tour, promote and release music as Optimo. Often known simply as Optimo, the club takes its name from the eponymous Liquid Liquid song and 1983 EP title. JD Twitch and JG Wilkes (real names Keith McIvor and Jonnie Wilkes), the club's founders and resident DJs, are also collectively known as Optimo and have toured in Europe, America, Australia and Japan and released music under that name. In 2011 they visited China to play Split Works' inaugural Black Rabbit festival. Renowned for its diverse music policy, the club retains a reputation for adventurous innovation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arabian Waltz
''Arabian Waltz'' is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, featuring the Balanescu Quartet, which was recorded in 1995 and released on the Enja label the following year. accessed June 18, 2018 Reception The review by Kurt Keefner called it "the pinnacle of Rabih Abou-Khalil's achievement as a composer and arranger" and stated "It is a sublime fusion of jazz, Middle Eastern traditional music, and Western classical ... This recording suits every fan of world music, jazz, classical, or just good music".Track listing All compositions by Rabih Abou-Khalil # "Arabian Waltz" – 8:10 # "Dreams o ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabih Abou-Khalil
Rabih Abou-Khalil ( ar, ربيع أبو خليل, born August 17, 1957) is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1978. Musical style Abou-Khalil studied the oud at the Beirut conservatory with oudist Georges Farah. After moving to Germany, he studied classical flute at the Academy of Music in Munich under Walther Theurer. In his compositions and live concerts, he combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, rock, or classical music, and has earned praise as "a world musician years before the phrase became a label". — According to a review of his concert in ''The Guardian'' of 2002, Abou-Khalil "makes the hot, staccato Middle Eastern flavour and the seamless grooves of jazz mingle, as if they were always meant to." In a review of his 2007 album ''Songs For Sad Women,'' the BBC wrote "the characteristic b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pure Phase
''Pure Phase'' is the second studio album by Spiritualized, released on 28 March 1995. The album was recorded in the Moles Studio in Bath, and features contributions from The Balanescu Quartet. Initial CD copies were sold in a glow-in-the-dark, encapsulated CD case. The lineup fluctuated during recording, with the band eventually reduced to a core trio of Jason Pierce, Kate Radley and Sean Cook. Previous members Mark Refoy and Jonny Mattock performed the main guitar and drums sections respectively, but by the time of album release, both men had been sacked from the band. At the time of release, Pierce had renamed the band as "Spiritualized Electric Mainline", the name that appears on the album cover, before reverting to the Spiritualized name shortly afterwards. The track "Pure Phase" was the basis for a limited edition release called "Pure Phase Tones For DJs", which consisted of 16 versions of "Pure Phase", four on each side of the single, playable at both 33 and 45rpm. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Volans
Kevin Volans (born 26 July 1949) is a South African born Irish composer and pianist. He studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in Cologne in the 1970s and later became associated with the ''Neue Einfacheit'' (New Simplicity) movement in the city. In the late 1970s he became interested in the indigenous music of his homeland and began a series of pieces which attempted to combine aspects of African and contemporary European music. Although Volans later moved away from any direct engagement with African music, certain residual elements such as interlocking rhythms, repetition and open forms are still detectable in his music since the early 1990s which takes a new direction more redolent of certain schools of abstract art. He settled in Ireland permanently in 1986 and was granted Irish citizenship in 1995. Biography During his teenage years Volans developed an interest in the music of the post-war avant garde as well as abstract painting. He pursued a Bachelor of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoff Smith (music Composer)
Geoff Smith (born 1966) is an English composer, academic and university Vice Chancellor. He has written and recorded four studio albums, performed internationally and been compared to such composers as Philip Glass and Steve Reich. In August 2019, he became the Vice Chancellor and CEO of Regent's University London, having formerly served as the Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor of Falmouth University and Head of Music & Performing Arts at Bath Spa University. Education Smith earned his BA in Music from the University of Nottingham before an MPhil in Electronic Music from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Composition from the University of Huddersfield (where he was supervised by the composer Gavin Bryars). He also holds an MBA in Higher Education Management from the Institute of Education at University College London. Career Along with his wife, singer Nicola Walker Smith (born 1964), he has written and recorded numerous pieces of music and published ''American Originals'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartets 1-3
String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Strings (1991 film), ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian animated short * Strings (2004 film), ''Strings'' (2004 film), a film directed by Anders Rønnow Klarlund * Strings (2011 film), ''Strings'' (2011 film), an American dramatic thriller film * Strings (2012 film), ''Strings'' (2012 film), a British film by Rob Savage * ''Bravetown'' (2015 film), an American drama film originally titled ''Strings'' * ''The String'' (2009), a French film Music Instruments * String (music), the flexible element that produces vibrations and sound in string instruments * String instrument, a musical instrument that produces sound through vibrating strings ** List of string instruments * String piano, a pianistic extended technique in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angels & Insects
''Angels & Insects'' is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Philip Haas and starring Mark Rylance, Patsy Kensit, and Kristin Scott Thomas. It was written by Philip and Belinda Haas with A. S. Byatt after her 1992 novella '' Morpho Eugenia'' (included in her book ''Angels and Insects''). The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. Plot William Adamson (Mark Rylance), a naturalist, returns to Victorian England, staying with his benefactor, Sir Harold Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), a wealthy Baronet. He has lost his possessions in a shipwreck, returning from an extended expedition to the Amazon. Now dependent upon his patron, William is employed to catalog Sir Harold's specimen collection and teach his younger children the natural sciences, assisting their governess, the unassuming Matty Crompton (Kristin Scott Thomas). William becomes enamoured of Sir Harold's eldest daughter, Eugenia (Patsy Kensit). Eugenia is softly spoken, anxious, and mourning the rece ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argo Records (UK)
Argo Records is a record label founded by Harley Usill and Cyril Clarke in 1951 with the intention of recording "British music played by British artists", but the company's releases expanded to include spoken word recordings and other projects. Genres Argo's first issue, ''Music from Bali'', was dedicated to the Indonesian gamelan (ensemble) recorded at the Winter Garden Theatre, London. The catalogue eventually ran to 1,000 items. In 1953, Usill was introduced to Indian musician Deben Bhattacharya, who was responsible for field recordings of traditional music in India. Bhattacharya had been frustrated by the absence of recordings he could use for his BBC Radio broadcasts. Around the same time, Walter Harris recorded an amateur Brazilian choir in Rio de Janeiro. Such recordings as these appeared in the labels "Living Traditions" series. Taking advantage of the capacity of the longer playing time of LP records, Argo embarked on recording the complete works of William Shakes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
