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W11 Opera
W11 Opera is an independent opera company in London which produces operas performed by young people aged 9 to 18. Founded in 1971, it takes its name from its location in W11, a postal district in West London consisting largely of Notting Hill and parts of Holland Park. Almost all of the productions are new works created by internationally recognised composers such as George Fenton, John Gardner, Richard Harvey, Colin Towns and Timothy Kraemer. Some of these works go on to be revived by schools and other opera companies. Notable alumni of the company include Eve Best, Jonathan Antoine and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Works commissioned and premiered W11 Opera has commissioned and produced almost 40 new operas, more than any other UK company, providing a rich repertoire of music theatre for its cast of 9- to 18-year-olds. Each has a running time of just over one hour. Most of the group's commissions are available for performance by schools and music theatre groups. *1971 ''Noye's Fludde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opera Company
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as '' Singspiel'' and '' Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' (often colloquially known as ''Joseph'') is a sung-through musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the character of Joseph from the Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly; their first collaboration, ''The Likes of Us'', written in 1965, was not performed until 2005. Its family-friendly retelling of Joseph, familiar themes, and catchy music have resulted in numerous stagings. According to the owner of the copyright, the Really Useful Group, by 2008 more than 20,000 schools and amateur theatre groups had staged productions. ''Joseph'' was first presented as a 15-minute " pop cantata" at Colet Court School in London in 1968, and was published by Novello and recorded in an expanded form by Decca Records in 1969. After the success of the next Lloyd Webber and Rice piece, ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', ''Joseph'' received amateur stage productio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecilia McDowall
Cecilia McDowall (born 1951 in London, England) is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions. Life and career McDowall read music at the University of Edinburgh, continuing her studies at Trinity College of Music, London and later completing an MMus in composition. She studied with Joseph Horovitz, Robert Saxton and Adam Gorb. She has won many awards and has been short-listed seven times for the British Composer Awards. In 2014 she won the British Composer Award for her choral piece ''Night Flight''. In 2010, Oxford University Press signed McDowall as an 'Oxford' composer. Since 2015, she has been Visiting Composer in Dulwich College, London. In 2015, she served on the panel for a Women Composers Competition of The Arcadian Singers of Oxford. Music McDowall's music has been commissioned and performed by both professional and amateur choirs. A commission from the Portsmouth Festival Choir, ''The Shipping Forecast,'' gained her national media attention in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Jenkins
Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins (born 17 February 1944) is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song " Adiemus" and the ''Adiemus'' album series; '' Palladio''; ''The Armed Man''; and his ''Requiem''. Jenkins was educated in music at Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music: of the latter, he is a fellow and an Associate. He joined the jazz-rock band Soft Machine in 1972 and became the group's lead songwriter in 1974. Jenkins continued to work with Soft Machine up to 1984, but has not been involved with any incarnation of the group since. Jenkins has composed music for advertisement campaigns and has won the industry prize twice. Early life and education Karl Jenkins was born and raised in Penclawdd, Gower, Wales. His mother was Swedish, and his father was Welsh. Jenkins received his initial musical instruction from his father, who was the local schoolteacher, chapel organist and choirmaster. He attended Gowerton Grammar S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician. Biography Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born in New York City, the second of four sons. His father, Saul Kamen, was a dentist, and his mother, Helen, was a teacher. He was of Jewish heritage. While attending the High School of Music & Art in New York City, Kamen became friends with Martin Fulterman (later known as Mark Snow), who composed the theme music for ''The X-Files'', among other projects. While studying the oboe, Kamen formed a rock- classical fusion band called New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, together with classmates Fulterman and Dorian Rudnytsky, along with Clifton Nivison and Brian Corrigan of Toms River, New Jersey. The group released five albums from 1968 to 1972 (''Self-Titled'', ''Reflections'', ''Faithful Friends'', ''Roll Over'' & ''Freedomburger''). The group performe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Gray (musician)
Steve Gray (18 April 1944 – 20 September 2008) was a British pianist, composer and arranger. Biography Gray was born in Middlesbrough, England. At the age of 10, he began teaching himself to play the piano. He joined the Middlesbrough Junior Orchestra, at first playing the bassoon but later switching to the saxophone. The orchestra was directed by Ron Aspery, who would go on to create the fusion group Back Door. During the 1970s he played sessions for Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Michel Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr and John Barry. Gray joined John Williams' band Sky in 1981, replacing Francis Monkman on keyboards, a role he continued until Sky's final live concerts in 1995. Gray was also a respected composer of concert works. These include two operas, a Requiem Mass for jazz big band and choir, a guitar concerto written for John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra (1988), and a piano concerto written for French jazz pianist Martial Solal. He also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Bedford
David Vickerman Bedford (4 August 1937 – 1 October 2011) was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter and author Herbert Bedford and the composer Liza Lehmann, and the son of Leslie Bedford, an inventor, and Lesley Duff, a soprano opera singer. From 1969 to 1981, Bedford was Composer in Residence at Queen's College, London. From 1968 to 1980, he taught music in a number of London secondary schools. In 1996 he was appointed Composer in Association with the English Sinfonia. In 2001 he was appointed Chairman of the Performing Right Society, having previously been Deputy chairman. Early life and career Bedford was born in Hendon, London to Leslie Bedford, the director of engineering for the guided weapons division of the British Aircraft Corporation, and Lesley Duff, a soprano singer who worked with the English Opera Group. He was e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Gunning
Christopher Gunning (born 5 August 1944) is an English composer of concert works and music for films and television. Gunning was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where his tutors included Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett. Gunning's film and TV compositions have received many awards, including the 2007 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for ''La Vie en Rose'', as well as three additional awards for ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'', ''Middlemarch'', and ''Porterhouse Blue''. He has also won three ''Ivor Novello Awards'', for the TV miniseries ''Rebecca'', and the film scores for '' Under Suspicion'' (1991), and ''Firelight'' (1997). His other film scores include ''Goodbye Gemini'' (1970), ''Hands of the Ripper'' (1971), '' Ooh... You Are Awful'' (1972), the film version of ''Man About the House'' (1974), ''In Celebration'' (1975), '' Rogue Male'' (1976), ''Charlie Muffin'' (1979), ''Rise and Fall of Idi Amin'' (1981), ''K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Taylor (English Director And Playwright)
Donald Victor Taylor (30 June 1936 – 11 November 2003) was an English writer, director and producer, active across theatre, radio and television for over forty years. He is most noted for his television work, particularly his early 1960s collaborations with the playwright David Mercer, much of whose early work Taylor directed for the BBC. The BBC Born in Marylebone in London, Taylor attended Chiswick Grammar School and subsequently studied English Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. While at university he became actively involved in student theatre, particularly with the Experimental Theatre Club. It was for the club that Taylor directed, in 1957, the world premiere of ''Epitaph for George Dillon'' by the acclaimed playwright John Osborne. After graduating, he joined the BBC as a general trainee in 1960, quickly becoming a television director in the drama department. His first directing work was an episode of the crime series ''Scotland Yard'', but he rapidly became mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Chappell
Herbert Reginald Chappell (18 March 1934 – 20 October 2019) was a British conductor, composer and film-maker, best known for his television scores. Education and early career Born in Bristol, Herbert Chappell's first musical training was as a chorister in the cathedral. At Oriel College, Oxford he briefly studied music with Egon Wellesz. His contemporaries there included Richard Ingrams, Ken Loach and Dudley Moore, and Chappell wrote incidental music for many college theatre productions. Following Oxford he taught for several years at Cumnor House Sussex school in Haywards Heath. The headmaster there, Hal Milner-Gulland, encouraged him to produce music that would engage the interest of his pupils. (Chappell dedicated ''The Daniel Jazz'' to him in 1963). In 1962 Chappell joined the BBC Home Service, introducing the ''Adventures in Music'' series and presenting music programmes for BBC radio schools programming. Children's cantatas Herbert Chappell's children's cantata ''The Daniel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daryl Runswick
Daryl Runswick (born 12 October 1946) is a classically trained English composer, arranger, jazz musician, producer and educationalist. Career Runswick was born in Leicester, and educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He started playing bass with leading UK jazz musicians in the mid-1960s, including Dick Morrissey and John Dankworth, with whom he would tour and compose for extensively for some 12 years. In 1969, he was a member of the Lionel Grigson- Pete Burden Quintet, and in 1972 he played and recorded with the Ian Hamer Septet, a band in which he coincided with Tubby Hayes, among others, and throughout the 1970s he was also a member of the London Jazz Four. As a session musician he later branched out into more popular music, including appearing on the first The Alan Parsons Project recording and working with Elton John. He has also worked with the London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble and The King's Singers, Pierre Boulez, Ornette Cole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Oliver (composer)
Stephen Michael Harding Oliver (10 March 1950 – 29 April 1992) was an English composer, best known for his operas. Early life and education Oliver was born on 10 March 1950 in Chester, the son of (Charlotte Hester) (née Girdlestone, born 1911), a religious education adviser, and Osborne George Oliver (born 1903), an electricity board official. His maternal great-grandfather was William Boyd Carpenter, a Bishop of Ripon and a court chaplain to Queen Victoria. Oliver was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School, Ardingly College and at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read music under Kenneth Leighton and Robert Sherlaw Johnson. His first opera, ''The Duchess of Malfi'' (1971), was staged while he was still at Oxford. Career Later works include incidental music for the Royal Shakespeare Company (including ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby''), a musical, '' Blondel'' (1983; with Tim Rice), and over forty operas, including ''Tom Jones'' (1975), ''Beauty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
