(Vocals, b. 1979) Will Young is perhaps most famously remembered as the winner of UK TV talent show Pop Idol in 2002 over favourite Gareth Gates. Since then he has achieved the rare privilege of sustaining a chart career. After secrecy surrounding his homosexuality during the competition, the singer/actor went on to chart highly several times and sustain his ...
1543–1623 English composer Byrd’s early life is shrouded in mystery. He may have been born in Lincoln, but his formative years must have been spent at least partly in London; at some point in his youth he studied with Tallis. In 1563 he was made organist and master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral. He married in 1569 and in ...
c. 1465–1523 English composer Cornysh served at the courts of both Henry VII and Henry VIII as a poet, actor and musician. His greatest moment was being chosen to head the Chapel Royal at the famous ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold’ in June 1520. Five polyphonic works by him are preserved in the Eton Choirbook; he also composed early ...
(A’-dre-an Vil-lârt) c. 1490–1562 Flemish composer Willaert was one of an important group of composers who settled in Italy and there adapted the Franco-Flemish style. He spent most of his career as maestro di cappella at St Mark’s, Venice. He gathered around him an influential group of musicians, including Rore and the great theorist Zarlino. His greatest publication was Musica ...
Classical guitarist-composer John Christopher Williams (b. 1941) is a Grammy-Award winning Australian classical guitarist who has explored many styles beyond the classical tradition. John’s father Leonard (Len) Williams was an accomplished guitarist who emigrated from Britain to Australia and was best known there for his jazz playing. He taught John to play guitar, and it soon became apparent that the ...
AC/DC guitarist Angus Young – all five feet two inches of him – is a larger-than-life figure. Rising up from working-class Scottish roots to become the heart and soul of one of the greatest rock’n’roll bands of all time, Young, with his schoolboy outfit and Gibson SG in hand, has become the definitive rock-guitar icon. Born in Glasgow ...
Hailed as one of hard rock’s greatest rhythm guitarists, Malcolm Young (b. 1953) was born in Glasgow, Scotland. When he was 10, the family emmigrated to Sydney, Australia, where Malcolm and younger brother Angus were taught to play guitar by elder sibling George, a member of The Easybeats. Malcolm founded AC/DC with Angus in 1973. ...
Canadian rock legend Neil Young (b. 1945) has become respected as much for his playing as for his composing and vocal work with his occasional partners Crosby, Stills & Nash. Born in Toronto, Canada, Young got a ukulele from his father for Christmas in 1958. In 1960, Young moved to Winnipeg with his mother. A poor student ...
1602–45 English composer William Lawes, like his brother Henry Lawes, was a musician at the court of the English King Charles I. Although he too composed songs and theatre music, his greater strength lay in consort music for viols or members of the violin family and it is for these that he is best remembered. Lawes’ consort music ...
1711–79 English composer A Londoner, Boyce was a chorister at St Paul’s and a pupil of Maurice Greene (1696–1755) and J. C. Pepusch (1667–1752). He held posts as organist, notably at the Chapel Royal, and became Master of the King’s Musick in 1755. In that capacity he composed many court odes; he also wrote sacred music and stage ...
(Khres’-tof Vil’-le-balt fun Glook) 1714–87 Bohemian composer Gluck was born in Erasbach, by the Czech-German border; his native language may well have been Czech. His father, a forester, was opposed to a musical career, but the boy left home at 13 to study in Prague, where he took musical posts and went briefly to the university. At ...
The young country movement was an industry-driven trend aimed at the mass market of teens and twenty-something music fans. Like the urban cowboys, young country artists often contemporized or diluted prevailing styles like honky-tonk and pop country for mass consumption. The early 1990s saw a continuation of the mid- and late-1980s neo-traditionalist movement and produced a glut of gifted young ...
1816–75 English composer Bennett was a leading figure of the ‘London Piano School’, a significant group of pianist-composers that included Muzio Clementi (1752–1832), Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870) and Johann Baptist Cramer (1771–1858). A boy chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, he began studies aged 10 at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where his teachers included Cipriani Potter. Close friends included ...
Clarence Williams was born in 1898 in Plaquemine, Louisiana, migrating to New Orleans in the teens to play piano in the District and begin a long career as a composer, bandleader and musical promoter. He was manager of two early jazz venues – the Big 25 Club and Pete Lala’s Café – hiring the best musicians in the ...
(Composer, arranger, violin, 1869–1944) Will Marion Cook was a highly educated musician, studying at Oberlin Conservatory and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik with virtuoso Joseph Joachim (he also studied briefly with Antonín Dvořák). He worked as a composer with Bob Cole’s All-Star Stock Company, a seminal force in early African-American musical comedy production. (The group later ...
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