A fixture on the American cultural scene, Wynton Marsalis has brought jazz back to centre stage in the U.S.A. through his relentless work ethic and drive. He is also a distinguished classical performer whose many recordings for Sony Classical have been an important aspect of his career since it began. In 1997 he became the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize in music, for his epic oratorio on the subject of slavery, Blood on the Fields. As a composer and performer, Marsalis is also represented on a quartet of Sony Classical releases, At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1 (SK 60979), A Fiddler's Tale (SK 60765), Reel Time (SK 51239) and Sweet Release and Ghost Story: Two More Ballets by Wynton Marsalis (SK 61690). All are volumes of an eight-CD series, titled "Swinging Into The 21st", that is an unprecedented set of albums released in the past year featuring a remarkable scope of original compositions and standards, from jazz to classical to ballet, by composers from Jelly Roll Morton to Stravinsky to Monk, in addition to Marsalis.

At the Octoroon Balls features the world-premiere recording of Marsalis' first string quartet, performed by the Orion Quartet (SK 60979). The work was commissioned by Lincoln Center, and its premiere by the Orion Quartet in 1995 was presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A Fiddler's Tale (SK 60765), also commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for MARSALIS/STRAVINSKY, a joint project of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz At Lincoln Center, is work with narration about a musician who sells her soul to a record producer. It was premiered on April 23, 1998, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A version without narration was included on the album At the Octoroon Balls: String Quartet No. 1. Reeltime (SK 51239) is Marsalis' score for the acclaimed John Singelton film Rosewood. This original music, featuring vocal performances by best-selling artists Cassandra Wilson and Shirley Caesar, was never used in the film and is available here for the first time. Sweet Release and Ghost Story (SK 61690) offers another world premiere recording of two original ballet scores by Marsalis, written for and premiered by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Zhong Mei Dance Company, both in New York City.

As an exclusive classical artist for Sony Classical, Marsalis has won critical acclaim for the recording In Gabriel's Garden (SK/ST 66244), featuring Baroque music for trumpet and orchestra. It includes performances of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 and Mouret's Rondeau, a video of which has been adopted as the new theme for PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. The San Francisco Examiner wrote, "Marsalis continues to define great musicmaking…[the pieces] are all articulated with dazzling clarity and enthusiasm." The album features the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Newman, and was produced by Steven Epstein.

Marsalis' other Sony Classical recordings include concert, chamber and solo music for trumpet from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th-century repertoires.

Marsalis' recent release, Classic Wynton (SK/ST 60804), is a collection of the artist's work, featuring music for trumpet from the Baroque era to the twentieth century. Highlights of the album include a duet with Kathleen Battle from the best-selling recording Baroque Duet, Mouret's "Rondeau", Clarke's "The King's March" and "The Prince of Denmark's March", a movement from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Stanley's "Trumpet Voluntary". Classic Wynton also includes a previously unreleased track -- The Prayer of St. Gregory by Hovhaness.

Other recent Sony Classical recordings include Jump Start & Jazz (SK 62998), which features Marsalis' first ballet scores, written for two choreographers, Twyla Tharp and the New York City Ballet's Peter Martins, and LIBERTY! The American Revolution, the soundtrack by Mark O'Connor to a three-part, six-hour PBS dramatic documentary series by the same name about the birth of the United States (SK 63216). O'Connor composed the duet for violin and trumpet "Brave Wolfe" (a tribute to the heroic death of British General James Wolfe) specifically with Wynton Marsalis in mind.

Winner of eight Grammy awards for his jazz and classical recordings, Marsalis has also been creatively involved in musical education. His four-part, Peabody Award-winning TV series Marsalis on Music, released on home video by Sony Classical, introduces young viewers to the adventure of making music. USA Today hailed Marsalis on Music as "a thrilling four-part seminar of music appreciation written and literally conducted by the affable Wynton Marsalis. Comparisons to Leonard Bernstein's famed "Young People's Concerts" are appropriate."

Born October 18, 1961, in New Orleans, the second of six sons of Dolores and Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis began studying trumpet seriously at age twelve. During high school he performed in local marching bands, jazz bands, funk bands, and classical orchestras, and at age eighteen he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School of Music. In the summer of 1980, he became a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and that same year signed with Columbia Records. Since his self-titled debut was released in 1982, Marsalis' numerous jazz and classical recordings for Columbia and Sony Classical have sold nearly five million copies world wide. He has taken his jazz groups to thirty countries on six continents, averaging more than 120 concerts per year for many of the past sixteen years.

Marsalis serves as artistic director for the internationally recognised Jazz at Lincoln Center program, which he co-founded in 1987. Under his leadership, the jazz department earned the distinction of being named Lincoln Center's first new constituent organisation since 1969. Several commissioned works for the program are among his most recent successes as a composer. The oratorio Blood on the Fields, written in 1994, was named one of the top ten music highlights of the year by Time magazine. The New York Times Magazine said the work "marked the symbolic moment when the full heritage of the line, Ellington through Mingus, was extended into the present. It also reflects a full awareness of Copland and Stravinsky."

An international tour for Blood on the Fields, presented by Jazz at Lincoln Center in early 1997, featured vocalists Cassandra Wilson, Jon Hendricks and Miles Griffith with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The work was released as a three-CD set by Columbia in April 1997. The extended septet work In This House on This Morning, which was premiered at Lincoln Center in 1983 and released on CD by Columbia in 1994, was termed "a spiritual feast" and a "masterpiece" by Ebony magazine. Another important Lincoln Center commission, Marsalis' first string quartet, (at the) Octoroon Balls, was premiered by the Orion String Quartet in May 1995 and was presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Marsalis has also shown a special interest in composing for dance. His Sony Classical recording Jump Start and Jazz features Jazz/Six Syncopated Movements and Jump Start, which were written for ballets by Peter Martins and Twyla Tharp, respectively. The New York Times rated the score of Jump Start as simply "superb," and Newsweek wrote that Jazz contained "verve and vigour rarely heard at the ballet." Sweet Release, a recent commission from Jazz at Lincoln Center, was his first collaboration with Judith Jamison of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and a work that The New York Times described as "sly and exuberant." Marsalis also collaborated with Garth Fagan to create a three-movement symphony for seven pieces, Citi Movement/Griot New York, his first music for dance as well as his first extended work. He recently wrote Ghost Story for New York's Zhong Mei Dance Company.

Education continues to be a top priority for Marsalis. One of the most successful aspects of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program has been Marsalis' Jazz for Young People series, which has become a favourite of New York audiences. Throughout the year, Wynton schedules meetings with students wherever he is, and while on the road with his bands he regularly conducts master classes in local schools. The 1996 Peabody Award he won for Marsalis on Music also recognised his informative twenty-six-part National Public Radio series, Making the Music, which was based on Jazz for Young People.

This release of a companion book with CD for Marsalis on Music followed the publication of Marsalis' 1994 book, Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, an in-depth chronicle of his touring life. His personal thoughts are accompanied by Frank Stewart's photographs in this firsthand portrayal of the travels and camaraderie of a jazz band. The Los Angeles Times Book Review described the book as "laden with insight and anecdote and a lexicon unique to modern-day jazz," and Jazz Times praised Marsalis by saying, "He writes warmly and well about his men as a group, and about their musicianship and personalities," adding further that the book is replete with "original thought and expression."

Marsalis has been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of France and the Edison Award of the Netherlands, and was elected an honorary member of England's Royal Academy of Music. In recognition of the many hours he has contributed to music education, community organisations, and charities, he has been given keys to cities across the country, all types of community service awards, and a congressional citation. In May of 1997 he received honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers University and Amherst College; these honours will be added to the list of colleges and universities that have recognised him, including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, John Hopkins, Brandeis, the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Miami. He was profiled by 60 Minutes in December 1995. He has been the subject of cover stories for Life magazine, Time magazine, Parade, the Sunday New York Times Magazine, the Sunday Los Angeles Times Calendar, London Times magazine and Esquire (UK), as well as numerous appearances on the covers of Jazz Times, Downbeat, and Jazziz. In 1996, Time magazine named him among America's twenty five most influential people.

Top of page

Edgar Meyer Biography

Prominently established as a unique and masterful instrumentalist, Edgar Meyer delights his audiences both as a vibrant performer and an innovative composer. Hailed by The New Yorker as "the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument," Meyer combines unparalleled technique and musicianship with a gift for composition, winning him a vast, varied audience. In recognition of his unique place in the world of music, the MacArthur Foundation named him a recipient of one of the 2002 recipients of its prestigious "genius" grants.

An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Edgar Meyer brings a new dimension to his long-standing friendship and collaboration with banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck on Music for Two, their new recording for the label, which features live performances from the pair's first tour as a duo. After collaborating on the double-Grammy-winning Sony classical recording Perpetual Motion, the two forged a new creative alliance and crafted a repertoire for the unusual combination of bass and banjo. With original works composed by the two artists, the recording also features a DVD with footage documenting the tour and the development of their collaboration. Music for Two will be released in Spring 2004.

As a solo classical bassist, Meyer recently released a concerto album on Sony Classical with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra featuring Bottesini's Gran Duo with Joshua Bell; Meyer's Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma; Bottesini's Bass Concerto No. 2 and Meyer's Concerto in D for Bass. Just prior to that, Meyer released an album of Bach's Unaccompanied Suites for Cello.

Fruitful collaborations are the cornerstone of Meyer's work. The most recent example was the organization of a quartet made up of violinist Joshua Bell and legendary bluegrass musicians Sam Bush and Mike Marshall. This group joined together for a collaboration featuring a unique fusion of classical and bluegrass musical styles. Their first performances were in June of 1998 at the Aspen Music Festival and at Indiana University. They made their New York debut at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center following an extensive North American tour. The album Short Trip Home, released in Fall 1999, was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Classical Crossover album and the group was subsequently invited to perform live at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards. Shortly before this collaboration, Meyer was involved in an inventive trio project with Béla Fleck on banjo and Mike Marshall on mandolin, performing original compositions marrying bluegrass, classical and other traditional styles.

In October 1997, the Fleck/Marshall/Meyer trio opened the 1997-98 season of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in conjunction with the release of their Sony Classical disc Uncommon Ritual. Earlier in Meyer's career, from 1986-1992, he was a member of the progressive bluegrass band Strength in Numbers, whose members included Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck and Mark O'Connor. Meyer also works with pianist Amy Dorfman, his longtime accompanist for solo recitals, featuring both classical repertoire and his own compositions. To further explore his interests in a variety of musical genres, Meyer's vast musical interests have also led him to be a widely sought after guest bass player for an assortment of recording artists, such as Garth Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams, Jr., Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, T-Bone Burnett, Reba McIntyre, the Indigo Girls, Travis Tritt and the Chieftains.

Among his imaginative projects for Sony Classical, Meyer and colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O' Connor were widely acclaimed for the best-selling Appalachia Waltz, which soared to the top of the charts and remained there for 16 weeks. Appalachia Waltz toured extensively in the U.S., and the trio was featured both on Late Show With David Letterman and the televised 1997 Inaugural Gala. Joining with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O'Connor for a second time, Appalachian Journey, the follow-up to Appalachia Waltz, was released in March 2000. This time, their tour took them not only to major venues across the U.S. but also to Europe and parts of Asia. Appalachian Journey won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album that season. In October 1999, Meyer's violin concerto written for violinist Hilary Hahn was premiered and recorded by Hahn with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Hugh Wolff.

Meyer began studying bass at the age of five under the instruction of his father, and continued further to study with Stuart Sankey. He is the winner of numerous competitions. In 1994 he became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2000 became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Prize. Meyer premiered his bass concerto in 1993 with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1995, he premiered his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet in collaboration with the Emerson String Quartet, which was later recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Also, in 1995, he premiered his Double Concerto for Bass and Cello, in collaboration with Carter Brey, cello and Jeffrey Kahane conducting the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra. Most recently, Meyer made his Boston Symphony debut with Seiji Ozawa conducting, featuring the premiere of one of his own works, the Meyer Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma.

A frequent guest at music festivals, Meyer has appeared as performer and composer at Aspen, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Chamber Music Northwest, and Marlboro. At the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, he was a regular guest from 1985-1993, and composed six works for the festival during that time. In 1994, Meyer joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and continues to perform regularly with this ensemble. Currently, he is also Visiting Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music.

###

2/04

Top of page

Since joining Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company as composer and music director in 1987, Patrick Doyle has established himself at the forefront of film and theatre composition on both sides of the Atlantic with such award-winning scores (available from Sony Classical) as Hamlet (directed by Kenneth Branagh) (SK 62857) and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (SK 62258).

Most recently, Doyle has completed the soundtrack to the film Love's Labour's Lost (SK 89004), which is due for release on Sony Classical in the spring.

He has also composed "A Face in the Lake" for the Sony Classical project Listen to the Storyteller: A Trio of Musical Tales from Around the World (SK 60283), a collection of three musical stories with narration. Wynton Marsalis and Edgar Meyer also contributed works, one of which features Joshua Bell as violin soloist. Kate Winslet, Graham Greene and Marsalis narrate.

Doyle wrote the score for East-West, a French film set against the bleak times of Stalin's Russia, starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Catherine Deneuve and Oleg Menshikov. The director is Régis Wargnier, who also directed the Oscar nominated Indochine. Sony Classical released the soundtrack (SK 64429) in conjunction with international film openings this autumn.

The many awards and nominations Doyle has received for his scores include nominations for Golden Globe, Oscar, and BAFTA Awards for his score for Sense and Sensibility, as well as a nomination for his score to Branagh's Hamlet.

After graduating from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Doyle wrote his first score in 1978, and has since provided music for a host of radio, television, theatre and film productions, working with such notable directors as Judi Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Geraldine McEwan. He travelled with the Renaissance Theatre Company's world tour, serving as composer and music director for their stage productions of King Lear and A Mid summer Night's Dream.

Doyle's other film credits include scores for Indochine starring Catherine Deneuve; Into the West and Donnie Brasco, both directed by Mike Newell; Frankenstein, starring Robert de Niro and directed by Kenneth Branagh; as well as Branagh's film version of Much Ado About Nothing.

In addition to his film scoring and incidental composition, Doyle occasionally finds time for other musical work. In 1990, HRH The Prince of Wales commissioned Doyle to write "The Thistle and The Rose", a song cycle for full choir, in honour of the Queen Mother's 90th birthday.