Brendon Urie

Brendon  Urie (born April 12, 1987) is an American musician and the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, pianist and singer-songwriter ofPanic! at the Disco. He also plays drums, bass guitar, accordion, organ, cello, violin, and trumpet. During high school, Urie worked at Tropical Smoothie Cafe in order to pay the band’s rent for their practice space, and, while there, often sang for customers. “I would sing anything I was listening to at the time, but I was down to take requests.

I remember singing some Scorpions songs, some W.A.S.P. 80s anthems are usually good for tips. It was a huge range of stuff,” he recalled in 2011. “I’m glad they let me sing, and they didn’t fire me because I would sing everywhere – while I was doing dishes, I would sing while I was making the smoothies. I was ‘that guy.’ Some people liked it, and some people didn’t. I had to respect other people’s wishes, but I had a couple people come in who would ask me to sing for a tip. That’s always fun.”

His musical career began when he met Brent Wilson during guitar classes which they shared in high school. Consequently, Wilson asked Urie to try out as lead guitarist for Panic! at the Disco, as they were looking for a replacement at the time. Originally, Urie was not the band’s lead singer; the position had belonged to Ryan Ross. However, when the band heard him sing backup during a rehearsal when Ross was unable to sing, they were impressed with his vocal abilities and unanimously decided to make him the singer. Since then, Panic! at the Disco has released 3 studio albums with Urie as lead vocalist. A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out was released in 2005 and their sophomore record, Pretty. Odd. in 2008. On Pretty. Odd., Urie also took lyrical responsibility and wrote two of the tracks on the record by himself; those tracks being “I Have Friends in Holy Spaces” and festival favorite “Folkin’ Around”. He also wrote “New Perspective” for the soundtrack to the motion picture Jennifer’s Body.

In February 1, 2011, another single was released: “The Ballad of Mona Lisa” which soon reached iTunes #1 spot in the Alternative Music Category. After the song’s Music Video was released, it also reached the #1 spot, this time in Alternative Music Videos.

Steven Ellison as Flying Lotus

• Official Website
• Brainfeeder

Steven Ellison, known by the stage name of Flying Lotus, is an experimental multi-genre music producer from Los Angeles, California. He is the great-nephew of the late jazz pianist Alice Coltrane, wife of saxophonist John Coltrane. He is also the cousin of musician Ravi Coltrane. One of his primary influences are the productions of hip hop producer J Dilla. Flying Lotus has released four studio albums—1983 (2006), Los Angeles (2008), Cosmogramma (2010), and Until the Quiet Comes (2012)—all to critical acclaim. He has produced much of the bumper music on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block.  He also contributed remixes for fellow Plug Research artists including Mia Doi Todd. He is often referred to as FlyLo by fans and critics. In 2007, he announced that he signed with Warp Records.  Following his Warp debut, the six-track Reset EP, he quickly became one of the label’s cornerstone artists and released his second album, titled Los Angeles, on June 10, 2008. In 2008, Flying Lotus also remixed “Reckoner” from Radiohead’s album In Rainbows.  His third album, Cosmogramma, was released on May 3, 2010, in the UK and May 4, 2010, in the US.  In January 2011, Cosmogramma won in the Dance/Electronica Album category in the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards. Recently, Flying Lotus collaborated with the Ann Arbor Film Festival in the performance of a live scoring of the 1962 avant-garde film Heaven and Earth Magic.  In a post-viewing interview with the audience, Flying Lotus said that he was unsure whether or not a recording of the performance (or a recreation of it) would be publicly released, but he would be enthusiastic toward similar projects in the future. He was chosen by Battles to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that it co-curated in December 2011 in Minehead, England, UK.  In January 2011, Flying Lotus won the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards for his video “MmmHmm” in the Short-Form Video category.  Flying Lotus will be collaborating with R&B singer Erykah Badu on new material for her next album. In August 2011, Flying Lotus announced a multimedia project with filmmaker Miwa Matreyek, which is to be titled The Mapping of Countries Yet to Come. It is currently rumored that Flying Lotus plans to remix one of Radiohead’s songs from The King of Limbs. 

Gerald William Clayton

• Gerald Clayton official website
• Flickr photos of Gerald Clayton

Gerald William Clayton is a jazz pianist and composer born in Utrecht, Netherlands, and raised in Southern California. He is the son of bassist/bandleader John Clayton and the nephew of multi-instrumentalist wind player Jeff Clayton.

Gerald Clayton studied classical piano with Linda Buck for eleven years, starting at the age of seven,  and jazz piano and composition with Donald Vega, Shelly Berg, Kenny Barron and Billy Childs. He graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in 2002. At graduation, he was selected by the Music for Youth Foundation as one of four young musicians to receive a scholarship and perform at Steinway Hall. 

In September, 2002, he received the Shelly Manne Award for emerging young artists from the Los Angeles Jazz Society. 

In 2006, he received the Bachelor of Arts degree through the Jazz Studies program at USC Thornton School of Music; a program that included his father as senior lecturer. He took second place in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Piano Competition.  In the winter of 2006–2007, Gerald Clayton moved to New York Citywhere he currently resides. Clayton is currently represented by Addeo Music International (AMI).

Elfrida Andrée

Elfrida Andrée (19 February 1841 – 11 January 1929), was a Swedish organist, composer, and conductor. A 1996 recording on the Caprice label features Andrée’s piano quintet, along with a piano sonata, the string quartet in D minor, and vocal music.

Andrée was born in Visby. She was the pupil of Ludvig Norman and Niels Wilhelm Gade. Her sister was the singer Fredrika Stenhammar. An activist in the Swedish women’s movement, she was one of the first female organists to be officially appointed in Scandinavia. She began work in Stockholm in 1861 and became the organist at Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867. For her services, she was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She died in Gothenburg.

she was named leader of that city’s Workers Institute Concerts, establishing her reputation as the first Swedish woman to conduct a symphony orchestra. Playwright Selma Lagerlöf was a good friend of Andrée’s and they wrote an opera entitled Fritiof’s Saga (1898) together that was unsuccessfully submitted to a competition for a new work to be staged at the opening of the Royal Opera House in Stockholm.

Andrée’s two organ symphonies are still performed today. Her other compositions included the opera Fritiofs saga (1899, libretto by Selma Lagerlöf), several works for orchestra including two symphonies, a piano quartet in A minor (1870) and a piano quintet in E minor (published in 1865), a piano trio in G minor (1887) (and another published posthumously in C minor), a string quartet in D minor from 1861 and another in A major, pieces for violin (including sonatas in E flat and B flat major) and for piano, two Swedish masses, an 1879 choral ballade “Snöfrid”, and lieder.

Kian Egan

• Kian Egan at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website of Westlife

Kian  Egan (born 29 April 1980) is an Irish musician. He was a member of the boyband Westlife and a coach on The Voice of Ireland. He was also in a pop group called IOYOU with fellow Westlife members Mark Feehily and Shane Filan, as well as Graham Keighron, Michael “Miggles” Garrett and Derrick Lacey. Egan plays many instruments inside and outside the group, including the piano and guitar and was a former member of Sligo punk rock group Skrod.

Aside from being a member of Irish boy band Westlife, Kian, (during a year long hiatus from the group on 2008) launched a new venture along with Louis Walsh to put together and co-manage girlband, Wonderland, their debut album reached number 6 in Ireland and number 8 in the UK; just 4 months later, however, they were dropped by Mercury Records.

Egan has also co-written a few songs, including; “Too Hard To Say Goodbye” “Closer” “Don’t Let Me Go” “When You Come Around” “Imaginary Diva” “Reason For Living” “Crying Girl” “You Don’t Know”
“Never Knew I Was Losing You” “Where We Belong” “Singing Forever” “I Won’t Let You Down” “You See Friends (I See Lovers)” “I’m Missing Loving You” “When It Comes to Love” “Timeless” for the pop band D-Side.

Mark Duane Morton

Mark Duane Morton (born November 25, 1972) is the lead guitarist of the American groove metal band Lamb of God. His performing gear consists mostly of various Jackson guitars, including a Rhoads style and Swee-Tone archtop (both seen in the Killadelphia DVD) and, most often, his own signature model, the Jackson Dominion strung with GHS Boomer Strings 10-46 tuned to drop-D, loaded with a Seymour Duncan ’59 in the bridge and a Duncan Jazz in the neck. He has recently developed a signature “Dominion” pickup with Dimarzio, which he is now using in his signature guitars. Onstage, Mark uses two Dual Mesa Boogie Mark V heads amplifiers with Mesa 4X12 cabinets His rack gear includes a Sennheiser wireless system, a DBX 266XL compressor / noise gate, and a splitter box. Mark only uses a few pedals on stage, Original Cry Baby Wah Pedal, MxR Eddie Van Halen Phaser which “makes his solos sear”, MxR Overdrive pedal, and a Boss tuning pedal. Recently, it has been rumored that a signature Crybaby might be in production. Morton is known for writing some of Lamb of God’s less conventional songs. These include, “Descending”, “Vigil”, and “Remorse Is for the Dead”. In the DVD documenting the making of Sacrament, he made the point that he likes to “toss in the wildcard, the oddball, ’cause for every three you toss in, one of ’em winds up being real special because it’s that different.” Morton has also written some of the band’s more traditional metal songs, such as, “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For”, “Redneck” and “Walk With Me in Hell”. In September 2011, Morton revealed plans of collaborating with DevilDriver frontman Dez Fafara on a new project. According to Morton, Chicago doom legends Trouble are a big influence on the material. He says 14 “killer tunes” have been written so far, with Morton stating he is “not sure when it’ll come to light.” In March 2012, Mark Morton collaborated with Dez Fafara on a new project called ‘Born of the Storm’. Two songs were released, ‘Nowhere Fast’ and ‘Dust’. Dez’s vocals are different from his trademark DevilDriver vocals on these songs and Mark’s guitar sound is more original and incorporates bluesy rock riffs, a style that Mark is making into his own. On Thursday, 19th of July, Morton released his own song titled ‘To Make Sure2’. He announced the release of his song through his Facebook page. He wrote: “Here’s a tune I worked on with some friends the other night. It’s something different. I hope you enjoy.”

Cassius Khan

Cassius Khan (born June 7, 1974), is an Indian classical musician known for playing the tabla and Ghazal while singing. In 2001, Khan composed “Asia Music” for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics under the guidance of composer Jan Randall. The piece he composed gained him international recognition as a composer. Khan’s second album was with the late Darcy Greaves called “Angel of Sevilla” (1995). Following recordings included “I Feel Love Again” (2002) with Pavlo, “Mani Licks” (2002) with Dan Mani, “A Demon’s Dream” (2002) with Dave Martone, and “The Alchemists” (2002) with Dave Martone. In 2005, Khan was invited to perform Ghazal and a tabla solo recital at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa as part of Alberta Scene. Khan was invited by the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival to present his first classical Ghazal and tabla recital concert in 2006 Khan’s newest Ghazal album “Mushtari, a live concert” released in 2010, was nominated for World album of the Year by the Western Canadian Music Awards (WCMA) and was a tribute to his guru and teacher, the late Mushtari Begum, with a selection of choice classical Ghazals and a tabla solo recital. Khan has also released a tabla solo single titled “Sparks Of Energy” in 2011. Other selected collaborations include “Dark Clouds” (2006) with jazz pianist Stu Goldberg and “Soundcurrent” with Kelly Dean and Franny Kumar. Khan collaborated with slide guitarist Ellen McIlwaine to record “Mystic Bridge” in which Khan and McIlwaine were invited to Juno Fest to perform numbers from the album. Khan has also accompanied Mohan Veena, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Ustad Majid Qiyam, Ustad Aashish Khan Debsharma, Maihar Gharana, Sashi Roy, and is working on a classical Indian duo with Satvick Veena exponent Salil Bhatt. Khan has also worked in television and is featured in a commercial for Nanak Foods as a tabla player who finds musical inspiration when served halwa from his wife, Amika Kushwaha. Cassius Khan is also known as one of the most successful Indian Classical musicians in the world, with royalties rumored to total in the millions. Khan was awarded the Salute to Excellence Award by the City of Edmonton for his work in Indian classical music, and is currently the founder of the Mushtari Begum Festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance, debuting on August 25th 2012 at the Massey Theatre live in New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Julia Fischer

• Julia Fischer’s fanclub
• Julia Fischer’s homepage
• PentaTone’s homepage

Julia Fischer (born 15 June 1983) is a German classical violinist and pianist.

In 2003 Fischer, with numerous performances in the U.S. in the previous six years, appeared with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Lorin Maazel playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto in New York’s Lincoln Center, as well as the Mendelssohn Violin concerto in Vail, Colorado. Her 2003 Carnegie Hall debut received standing ovations for her performance of Brahms’s Double Concerto with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Fischer has been on orchestral tours with Sir Neville Marriner and theAcademy of St. Martin in the Fields, Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dresden Philharmonic.

In fall 2004 the label PentaTone released Fischer’s first CD: Russian violin concertos with Yakov Kreizberg and the Russian National Orchestra. It received rave reviews, climbed into the top five best-selling classical records in Germany within a few days, and received an “Editor’s Choice” from Gramophone in January 2005. Other critically acclaimed recordings include sonatas and partitas for solo violin of J. S. Bach, the Mozart violin concerti and the Tchaikovsky violin concerto.

Julia Fischer, ConcertgebouwAmsterdam, December 2007

Among the most prestigious competitions that Fischer has won are the International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition under Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s supervision, where she won both the first prize and the special prize for best Bach solo work performance in 1995, and the Eighth Eurovision Competition for Young Instrumentalists in 1996, which was broadcast in 22 countries from Lisbon. In 1997, Fischer was awarded the “Prix d’Espoir” by the Foundation of European Industry. She had the opportunity to play Mozart’s own violin in the room in which he was born at Salzburg to honor the 250th anniversary of his birth.

Her active repertoire spans from Bach to Penderecki, from Vivaldi to Shostakovich, containing over 40 works with orchestra and about 60 works of chamber music.

On 1 January 2008, Fischer had her unexpected public debut as a pianist, performing Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie at the Alte Oper, Frankfurt. The concert was conducted by Matthias Pintscher, who stepped in for Sir Neville Marriner. On the same occasion she also performed the Violin Concerto no. 3 in B minor by Camille Saint-Saëns.