Gayraud

Bien qu’il naquit Australien en 1882, le compositeur, pianiste et « arrangeur » Percy Grainger déroula la majeure partie de sa carrière en Europe jusqu’à la Première Guerre mondiale, puis aux États-Unis où il mourut en 1961. Il faut dire qu’à cette époque les grandes possibilités de carrière ne foisonnaient pas « Down Under » (expression anglo-saxonne utilisée pour désigner l'Australie et la Nouvelle-Zélande), alors que les grands centres musicaux se trouvaient à Berlin, Paris, Londres ou New York. Fortement influencé par Grieg dont il fut l’ami à la fin de la vie du maître norvégien, il se pencha sur bien des traditions nordiques et se fit le champion de la collecte de mélodies folkloriques scandinaves. Mais ce n’était là qu’un pan de sa carrière, puisqu’il fut aussi un pianiste virtuose très demandé, un accompagnateur apparemment génial, et un compositeur productif et inventif.

Percy Grainger was known during his lifetime as a virtuoso pianist and arranger of popular English folk song. His primary contribution to music, however, lies in his prolific output as a composer of expert and highly original works. Grainger's early years were spent in Melbourne where he studied first with his mother, and later with Louis Pabst. From 1895-1899 he attended the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany, and then settled in London in 1901.

Conductor Peter Phillips is one of the leading lights in the world of British choral music, best known as the director of the prolific and durable group The Tallis Scholars. He is also a noted scholar, radio and television presenter who has done much to popularize Renaissance music, a music label founder and executive, and an educator. Phillips was born on October 15, 1953, in Southampton, England. He studied at St. John's College, Oxford University, as an organ scholar. By the time he graduated in 1975, he had gained a grounding not only in choral and organ music but in music history, studying with two of the leading British musicologists of the day, Denis Arnold and David Wulstan. In 1973, Phillips assembled a group of singers from Oxford and Cambridge to perform Renaissance music and named them The Tallis Scholars in honor of English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis. The term "Scholars" was not merely fanciful, for the singers were all choral scholars from the various colleges of the two universities. Phillips held teaching posts at Oxford, the Royal College of Music, and Trinity College of Music, but the activities of The Tallis Scholars expanded after they established themselves formally in 1978.

Armbruster was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When he was 8 years old, Armbruster began performing professionally in Philadelphia.After studying with Constantin von Sternberg [ru] he became a concert pianist, then branched out into conducting and a composing for radio, then television and film. He debuted as a pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of eight. In his teenage years, he started recording piano rolls for the Aeolian Company's Duo-Art reproducing pianos and turned out hundreds of classical and salon-type performances for them. He attracted particular notice as orchestra leader of The Voice of Firestone, the songs "Cuddle Up" and "High Barbaree" and his compositions "Western Ballet" and "Variations in Miniature on Chopsticks".

Carreno received early lessons from her father, who is also credited for developing her strong sense of self-criticism, to which she attributed her success. She also studied with Gottschalk and later with Anton Rubinstein. She was very successful in Germany, where she lived for over 30 years. Most of her compositions were for piano, although an interest in strings motivated her to write a String Quartet in b minor. Carreno was married four times, and together with her second husband, Tagliapietra, she organized, conducted and sang in an opera company in Venezuela. Her third husband greatly influenced her style, changing her performances from the tempestuous to the thoughtful.

All of us carry a piece of where we're from with us, but these parcels of fallow land often - in a uniquely mysterious way - become the prey that nourishes our aspirations. Agnes Gayraud - a refined thinker by day that transforms into la Feline at night - left Tarbes many years ago in search of greener pastures.