50th Grammy Awards

50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005). His album Get Rich or Die Tryin' has been certified eight times platinum by the RIAA.
Born in the South Jamaica of Queens, New York City, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic. After leaving drug dealing to pursue a rap career, he was shot at and struck by nine bullets during an incident in 2000. After releasing his album Guess Who's Back? in 2002, Jackson was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records. With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, who produced his first major commercial successes, Jackson became one of the world's highest selling rappers. In 2003, he founded the record label G-Unit Records, which signed several successful rappers such as Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo.

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Ace Young
Brett Asa "Ace" Young (born November 15, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He came to national recognition upon appearing on the fifth season of the reality television talent show, American Idol, although he was eliminated from the competition on April 19, 2006, finishing in seventh place. Young is engaged to Diana DeGarmo, who was runner-up on American Idol season three.
Young was raised in Denver, Colorado.
Young, who has been singing since the age of nine, attended voice lessons and performed at local shopping malls and recreation centers during his youth. He performed at various venues in Colorado and other western states, most notably at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Young graduated from Fairview High School, his local high school, in 1999, having participated in athletics, choir, and International Baccalaureate classes during his school years.
After his high school graduation, Young opened for Brian McKnight and New Edition, and sang the national anthem at Denver Nuggets games. His first published song, "Reason I Live" was featured in the 2000 film The Little Vampire.

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Akon
Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (born April 16, 1973), better known as simply Akon, is a Senegalese American R&B and hip hop recording artist, songwriter, record producer and businessman. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first single from his debut album Trouble.
He has since founded two successful record labels, Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution. His second album, "Konvicted" received three nominations for the Grammy Awards in two categories, Best Contemporary R&B Album for "Konvicted" album and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Smack That" and "I Wanna Love You". He is the first solo artist to hold both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts 'twice'.
Akon often sings hooks for other artists and is currently credited with over 300 guest appearances and more than 35 Billboard Hot 100 songs. He has worked with numerous performers such as Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Eminem, Whitney Houston, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg and many more artists. He has had five Grammy Awards nominations and has produced many hits for artists such as Lady Gaga, Colby O'Donis, Kardinal Offishall and Leona Lewis. Lady Gaga and T-Pain are two artists who were given their chance at fame by Akon.

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Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo (born January 28, 1936), better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Journalism and a member of the advisory board of The Center for Communicating Science.
In 1996, Alda was ranked #41 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.
Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo in The Bronx, New York City. His father, Robert Alda (born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo), was an actor and singer, and his mother, Joan Browne, was a former showgirl. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His adopted surname, "Alda," is a portmanteau of ALphonso and D'Abruzzo. When Alda was seven years old, he contracted Poliomyelitis. To combat the disease, his parents administered a painful treatment regimen developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny that consisted of applying hot woolen blankets to his limbs and stretching his muscles. Alda attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York. In 1956, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in English from Fordham College of Fordham University in the Bronx, where he was a student staff member of its FM radio station, WFUV. Alda's half-brother, Antony Alda, was born the same year and would also become an actor.

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Alejandro Sanz
Alejandro Sanz (born Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro on December 18, 1968) is a Spanish singer-songwriter and musician. For his work, Sanz has won a total of fifteen Latin Grammy Awards and three Grammy Awards. He has won the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year three times, more than any other artist. Throughout his career, he has released a total of ten studio albums and six DVDs. The singer is noted for his flamenco-influenced ballads, but he has also experimented with rock, salsa, and hip hop.
Born in Madrid, Sanz began playing guitar at age seven, taking influence from his family's flamenco roots. He released his debut album at age sixteen, although he did not gain commercial success until his second release, Viviendo Deprisa. His next two records, Si Tú Me Miras and 3 also fared well commercially, but it was his 1997 breakthrough album Más that garnered international success. El Alma al Aire followed in 2000, selling more than a million copies in its first week.
In 2002, he became the first Spanish artist to record an MTV Unplugged album. His collaboration with Shakira on the single "La Tortura" reached number one on several charts worldwide. His albums No Es lo Mismo (2003) and El Tren de los Momentos (2006) showed Sanz experimenting with more diverse styles of music, while his most recent release, Paraíso Express (2009) served as a return to form for the musician. He signed to Universal Music Group in 2011 and is reported to be working on his tenth studio album.

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Alice Smith
Alice Smith (born 1978) is a New York City-based singer, her style anchored in rock, R&B, blues, jazz and soul. Raised between Washington, D.C. and a farm in Georgia, she sang in Moomtez and Black Rock Coalition while studying History at Fordham University. Releasing her first LP in 2006, Smith has a powerful voice,^{[says who?]} and Rolling Stone said of her, "Smith could easily be lumped in with expressive chanteuses like Norah Jones and Alicia Keys, but she has a broader palette than either." The magazine listed her as one of the 10 Artists to Watch in 2006.[1].
Her debut album, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me, is a collection of songs spanning genres from country to rock to funk and almost everything in between but rap. The title is also eclectic, having been borrowed from an unexpected^{[says who?]} source—the Muppets. "We were just trying to think of a title because I haven’t thought of a name after it was all done," she said in an interview with Hiphoprnbsoul.com. "We were thinking about the music and we were throwing ideas around. We were thinking about The Beatles and The Wizard of Oz and whatever else made us think of. Then something made me think of The Muppets. I don’t even know. It wasn’t something in the forefront of my mind. I just thought of it and it came to me like that."

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Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.
Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.

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Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join the band with which she still performs, Alison Krauss and Union Station (AKUS), and later released her first album with them as a group in 1989.
She has released fourteen albums, appeared on numerous soundtracks, and helped renew interest in bluegrass music in the United States. Her soundtrack performances have led to further popularity, including the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, an album also credited with raising American interest in bluegrass, and the Cold Mountain soundtrack, which led to her performance at the 2004 Academy Awards. As of 2012, she has won 27 Grammy Awards from 41 nominations, making her the most awarded living recipient, and three back of the most honoured artist, classical conductor Sir Georg Solti. She is also the most awarded singer and the most awarded female artist in Grammy history. At the time of her first award, at the 1991 Grammy Awards, she was the second youngest winner ever (currently tied as third youngest).

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Allison Moorer
Allison Moorer (born June 21, 1972) is an American alternative country singer and the younger sister of Shelby Lynne. She signed to MCA Nashville in 1998 and made her debut on the U.S. Billboard country charts with the release of her debut single "A Soft Place to Fall", which reached #73.
Since the release of her debut album Alabama Song, she released seven albums and 11 singles, five of which reached positions on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Allison was raised in Monroeville, Alabama, just north of Mobile. Raised on George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris, she sang harmonies as a toddler, eventually thinking she'd make a career of it. Following the murder-suicide of her parents (perpetrated by her father) in 1986, she moved into her aunt and uncle's home.
Not long afterwards, sister Shelby Lynne moved to Nashville for a career in music, and after her high school graduation, Moorer followed. She sang harmonies with her sister for a while but returned to Alabama to earn a degree in public relations. She skipped the graduation ceremony to move back to Nashville.

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Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British female to win five Grammys, including three of the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
In 2007 she won a Brit Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times: once in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for "Stronger Than Me", once in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for "Rehab", and once in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for "Love Is a Losing Game".

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Anastasia Khitruk
Anastasia Khitruk (Russian: Анастасия Хитрук) is a Russian born violin virtuoso. She was a student of Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School. She has made many recordings of which three were for Naxos: Khandoshkin #8.570028, Grammy nominated Miklos Rozsa Violin Concerto #8.570350, and Leon de Saint-Lubin #8.572019. Several works written for Ms. Khitruk include Der Golum by Michael Colina.

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Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli, OMRI, OMDSM (Italian pronunciation: [anˈdrɛːa boˈtʃɛlli]; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor, multi-instrumentalist and classical crossover artist. Born with poor eyesight, he became blind at the age of twelve following a football accident.
Since winning the Newcomers section of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1994, Bocelli has recorded thirteen solo studio albums, of both pop and classical music, two greatest hits albums, and eight complete operas, selling over 75 million records worldwide. Thus, he is the biggest-selling solo artist in the history of classical music and has caused core classical repertoire to "cross over" to the top of international pop charts and into previously uncharted territory in popular culture.
In 1998, he was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. In 1999, his nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards marked the first, and so far only time a classical artist had been nominated in the category, since Leontyne Price, in 1961.The Prayer, his duet with Celine Dion for the animated film The Quest for Camelot, won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category. With the release of his classical album, Sacred Arias, Bocelli captured a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records, as he simultaneously held the top 3 positions on the US classical albums charts. Six of his albums have since reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 200, and a record-setting 8, have topped the classical albums charts in the United States.

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Andy Statman
Andy Statman (born 1950) is a noted American Klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist.
Andy Statman was born in Brooklyn, New York City. Andy spent 1969-70 at Franconia College, located in the heart of the White Mountains, in Franconia, New Hampshire, where he attended classes and played a lot of saxophone, teaching himself circular (or "chain") breathing, dabbled with bagpipes, and began to play the mandolin. He first gained acclaim as a mandolinist in pioneering bluegrass bands Country Cookin' and Breakfast Special. Statman, who grew up in a traditional but secular Jewish home, began to explore his Jewish roots. He turned to Klezmer music, traditional Eastern European Jewish instrumental music. Now playing clarinet, he recorded various albums that were highly influential in the Klezmer revival that began in the late 70s. Soon, he began playing Chassidic melodies, fusing bluegrass, klezmer, and jazz along the way.
Statman learned Klezmer clarinet from legendary Klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras, who bequeathed several of his clarinets to him. Statman also produced Dave Tarras's last recording. Given this apprenticeship and his subsequent teaching at workshops such as KlezKamp as well as privately, Statman has become the dean of living Klezmer clarinetists.

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Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams (born December 3, 1927) is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri named after the song "Moon River", with which he is closely identified.
Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, the son of Jay Emerson and Florence (née Finley) Williams. He first performed in a children's choir at the local Presbyterian church. Williams and his three older brothers Bob, Don, and Dick formed the Williams Brothers quartet in late 1938, and they performed on radio in the Midwest, first at WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, and later at WLS in Chicago and WLW in Cincinnati. Williams graduated from Western Hills High School in Cincinnati and his brother was engaged to Gene Ingram's car-pool partner, Peggy. The Williams Brothers appeared with Bing Crosby on the hit record "Swinging on a Star" (1944). They appeared in 4 musical films: Janie (1944), Kansas City Kitty (1944), Something in the Wind (1947) and Ladies' Man (1947). This led to a nightclub act with entertainer Kay Thompson from 1947 to 1951.

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Angie Stone
Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. She has been most successful on the R&B charts, with four Top 10 albums, including a number one album, and ten singles, including a Top 10. She has sold over 1.4 millions albums in the U.S. and over 5 millions albums worldwide.
Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began singing gospel music at First Nazareth Baptist Church, under the leadership of Reverend Blakely N. Scott.
She has a daughter and son. Her daughter Diamond (born 1984) is from her marriage to Rodney Stone (also known as Lil' Rodney C!, from the hip hop group Funky Four Plus One). Diamond contributed background vocals to her 2007 song "Baby", and gave birth to Stone's grandson in 2008. During the 1990s Stone dated neo soul singer D'Angelo. Their son Michael was born in 1998. Stone lives in Atlanta, Georgia with Michael and fiancé Ashanti, an airline auditor who has two children of his own.

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Angélique Kidjo
Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo, is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has included Angélique Kidjo in its list of the African continent's 50 most iconic figures.The Guardian has listed her as one of their Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World and Angelique is the first woman to be listed among "The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa" by Forbes Magazine.
Her musical influences include the Afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel, and Latin styles; as well as her childhood idols Bella Bellow, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Miriam Makeba and Carlos Santana. She has recorded George Gershwin's "Summertime", Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" and The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", and has collaborated with Dave Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band, Kelly Price, Alicia Keys, Branford Marsalis, Robbie Nevil, Peter Gabriel, Bono, Carlos Santana, John Legend, Herbie Hancock and Cassandra Wilson. Kidjo's hits include the songs "Agolo", "We We", "Adouma", "Wombo Lombo", "Afirika", "Batonga", and her version of "Malaika".

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Ann Nesby
Ann Nesby is an American R&B, gospel, and dance music singer and actress. She is the former lead singer of Sounds of Blackness; a songwriter with credits including hits sung by Patti Labelle and Gladys Knight; plus she co-starred in the 2003 romance musical The Fighting Temptations with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonce Knowles. Nesby had various appearances on the hit television series American Idol. Nesby has been nominated four times since her departure from the Sounds of Blackness, most recently for her 2007 album This Is Love; plus the lead single "I Apologize" was nominated for a Grammy at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
Nesby joined Sounds of Blackness in the late 1980s. The Sounds of Blackness were awarded two Grammys in 1991 and 1993, and Nesby sang on a number of their tracks including "I Believe," "Optimistic," "I'm Going All The Way," "Soul Holiday," and "The Pressure."
In 1996 Nesby released her debut solo album, I'm Here for You. Her "Witness Ep peaked at #42 in the UK Singles Chart in December 1996.

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Anna Netrebko
Anna Yuryevna Netrebko (Russian: Анна Юрьевна Нетребко, born 18 September 1971) is a Russian operatic soprano. She now holds dual Russian and Austrian citizenship and currently resides in Vienna. She has been nicknamed "La Bellissima" by fans.
Netrebko was born in Krasnodar (Russia), in a family of Kuban Cossack background. While a student at the Saint Petersburg conservatoire, Netrebko worked as a janitor at Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre. Later, she auditioned for the Mariinsky Theatre, where conductor Valery Gergiev recognized her from her prior work in the theater. He subsequently became her vocal mentor. Under Gergiev's guidance, Netrebko made her operatic stage debut at the Mariinsky at age 22, as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. She went on to sing many prominent roles with the Kirov Opera, including Amina in La sonnambula, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor.
In 1994, she sang the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte with the Riga Independent Opera Avangarda Akadēmija under conductor David Milnes.

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Antoni Wit
Antoni Wit (born February 7, 1944, Kraków) is a Polish conductor. He is the current musical director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.
Wit graduated from Kraków's State Higher School of Music, studying conducting under Henryk Czyz and composition under Krzysztof Penderecki. He went on to study under Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Wit has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and in London the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has recorded over 90 albums, most of them for the Naxos label, and many of them with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, whose managing and artistic director he was from 1983 to 2000. He specializes in the works of Polish composers such as Henryk Gorecki, Wojciech Kilar, Krzysztof Meyer, Witold Lutosławski and Krzysztof Penderecki whose Polish Requiem he recorded in 2004. Wit received a Cannes Classical Award for his album of Olivier Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony; his recording of Bedřich Smetana's Má vlast cycle was also very well received.

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Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and pianist. In a recording career that has spanned over half a century, Franklin's repertoire has included gospel, jazz, blues, R&B, pop, rock and funk. Franklin is known as one of the most important popularizers of the soul music genre and is referred to as the Queen of Soul, a title she was given early in her career. Franklin, the daughter of prominent Baptist minister and activist C. L. Franklin, began her singing career singing in her father's church at the age of ten and started recording four years later. After several years in the gospel circuit and with her father's blessing, she formed a secular pop music career at the age of eighteen, signing with Columbia Records, where she was branded by its CEO John Hammond as his most important act since Billie Holiday. Franklin's Columbia period wasn't as successful as hoped and in late 1966, Franklin switched over to Atlantic Records, where she began recording a string of popular hits including "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Think", "Chain of Fools" and what later became her signature song, "Respect".

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Ashley Cleveland
Ashley Cleveland (born 2 February 1957) is an American singer/songwriter perhaps best known as a background vocalist and Grammy-winning gospel singer. Ashley Cleveland was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was married to Kenny Greenberg on 27 April 1991 and has three children.
Her career includes vocal contributions to more than 300 albums, including the Dove Award winning albums Songs From the Loft (1994), The Jesus Record by Rich Mullins' and A Ragamuffin Band, 1998.
As part of John Hiatt's band, Ashley Cleveland has also made several widely-seen television appearances including, Austin City Limits, Late Night with David Letterman, The Arsenio Hall Show and Saturday Night Live.
Steve Winwood contributed duet vocals and played the Hammond B3 organ for the song "I Need Thee Every Hour" on Cleveland's 2005 album, Men and Angels Say.
As the Grammy Award's first female nominee in the Best Rock Gospel category, Ashley Cleveland won this award in 1996 for her album Lesson of Love, in 1999 for You Are There, and in 2008 for Before the Daylight's Shot. She is the only artist to be nominated three times and to win three times in this category.

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Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (

ⁱ/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.

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Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, writer, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.
She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre. Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

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BeBe Winans
Benjamin "BeBe" Winans (born 17 September 1962) is a gospel and R&B singer. He is a member of the noted Winans family, most members of which are also gospel artists.
He released several albums, first with his sister CeCe Winans, and later as a solo artist. Jim Bakker's television show "The PTL Club" took interest in BeBe and his sister CeCe as background vocalists for the show. After going to North Carolina to audition they were accepted. BeBe and CeCe moved to the PTL campus in North Carolina, and were on the show for about five years.
During their time on PTL, BeBe and CeCe recorded "Lord Lift Us Up" on PTL's label after popular demand on the show. Eventually the success warranted another effort: a full length album. The album did well on the charts. BeBe and CeCe left PTL to pursue their singing career and recorded five albums together including self titled BeBe & CeCe Winans, Heaven, Different Lifestyles, First Christmas and Relationships. In 1995, BeBe and CeCe split up to pursue solo careers. But in 2009 they did the album "Still" together. On it was the song "Close to You," which won a Dove award in 2010 in the category of Urban Recorded Song (in a tie).

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Bebel Gilberto
Bebel Gilberto (born Isabel Gilberto de Oliveira on May 12, 1966 in New York City) is an American-born Brazilian popular singer often associated with bossa nova. She is the daughter of João Gilberto and singer Miúcha. Her uncle is singer/composer Chico Buarque. Gilberto has been performing since her youth in Rio de Janeiro.
Bebel was born in New York City, New York to Brazilian parents Miúcha and João Gilberto, who raised her in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Music was an integral part of her childhood; she began singing with her mother at a young age and participated in professional musicals such as Saltimbancos and Pirlimpimpim. At the age of seven, she made her recording debut on her mother's first solo album, The Best of Two Worlds. Two years later, she performed at Carnegie Hall with her mother and Stan Getz.
Her professional solo debut came in 1986 with a self-titled EP released by WEA which included "Preciso dizer que te amo," a partnership with Cazuza, Dé, when both were in the Barão Vermelho band. In 1991, she moved to Manhattan, where she was born. Bebel continues to live in New York City, but shares her time between the U.S. and Brazil.

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Beck
Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck.
The four-time platinum artist rose to underground popularity with his early works, which combined social criticism (as in "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack" and "Deep Fried Love") with musical and lyrical experimentation. He first earned wider public attention for his breakthrough single "Loser", a 1994 hit. Beck is known for creating musical collages of different styles.
Two of Beck's most popular and acclaimed recordings are Odelay (1996) and Sea Change (2002).Odelay was awarded Album of the Year by the American magazine Rolling Stone and by UK publications NME and Mojo. Odelay also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Both Odelay and Sea Change appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Beck was born in Los Angeles, California, to David Campbell, a Canadian musician, and Bibbe Hansen, a visual artist and former Warhol "star". His father is of Scottish heritage and his mother is half Norwegian, a quarter Jewish and a quarter Swedish. His maternal grandfather is Al Hansen, a visual collage artist of the Fluxus school of art. Beck's paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. When his parents separated, Beck stayed with his mother and brother in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by the city's diverse musical offerings—everything from hip hop to Latin music and his mother's art scene—all of which would later reappear in his recorded and published work.

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Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents. His albums have been commercially successful in North America, Europe and Oceania. Harper is a two-time Grammy Award winner as well, winning awards for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album, in 2005.
Harper was born in Claremont, in California's Inland Empire. His father, Leonard, was of African-American and Cherokee ancestry, and his mother, Ellen Chase-Verdries, is Jewish. His maternal great-grandmother was a Russian-Lithuanian Jew. His parents divorced when he was age five, and he grew up with his mother's family. Harper has two brothers, Joel and Peter.
Harper began playing guitar as a child. His maternal grandparents' music store The Folk Music Center and Museum laid a foundation of folk and blues for the artist, complemented by regular patrons Leonard Cohen, Taj Mahal and David Lindley and quotes of William Shakespeare and Robert Frost made often by his grandfather. At the age of 12, Harper played his first gig. During the '80s, in his teen years, Harper began to play the slide guitar, mimicking the style of Robert Johnson. Next, Harper refined his style, taking up the Weissenborn slide guitar. Harper broke out of the Inland Empire after being offered an invitation by Taj Mahal to tour with the artist. They recorded Taj Mahal's album Follow the Drinking Gourd, released in November 1990, and toured Hawaii.

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Bernie Grundman
Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer.
He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1983 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan and Brian Gardner, mastered 37 projects which received Grammy Award nominations in 2005.
Grundman and his studio have both won numerous TEC Awards, including Best Mastering Facility and several production awards.
Previously, Grundman worked at Contemporary Records and then was head of the A&M Records mastering department in Los Angeles. Now his studio also has been established in Tokyo, Japan with engineer Yasuji Maeda.
Airwolf Themes

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Bette Midler
Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys. During her more than forty-year career, Midler has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Her voice type is categorized as deep mezzo soprano.
Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents moved from Paterson, New Jersey to Honolulu before she was born, and hers was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth (née Schindel), was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter. She was named after actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbɛt/. She was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School, in Honolulu. She was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election, and in her Senior Year (Class of 1963), "Most Dramatic". Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii, but left after three semesters. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff.

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Betty Wright
Bessie Regina Norris, better known by her stage name, Betty Wright (born December 21, 1953), is a Miami-based soul and R&B singer-songwriter, who won fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight Is the Night". A pioneering singer-songwriter and entrepreneur, she remains one of the few black female musicians to have a gold record on her own vanity label. She possesses a four-octave vocal range and is adept at using the whistle register.
Born Bessie Regina Norris on December 21, 1953, Wright was the youngest of seven children to Rosa Akins Braddy-Wright and her second husband, McArthur Norris. Wright began her professional career at the age of two when her siblings formed the gospel group, the Echoes of Joy. Wright contributed to vocals on the group's first album, released in 1956. Wright and her siblings performed together until the mid-1960s.
In 1965, following the group's break-up, 11-year-old Wright, who was already using the name Betty Wright, decided to switch musical styles from gospel to rhythm and blues, singing in local talent shows until being spotted by a local Miami record label owner, who signed her to her first label in 1966 at twelve. She released the singles, "Thank You Baby" and "Paralyzed", which found Wright local fame in Miami.

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Bettye LaVette
Bettye LaVette (born Betty Haskins, January 29, 1946) is an American soul singer-songwriter who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, with her album, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise. Her eclectic musical style combines elements of soul, blues, rock and roll, funk, gospel, and country music.
LaVette was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and raised in Detroit. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she did not begin singing in the church, but in her parents' living room, singing R&B and country and western music. She was signed by Johnnie Mae Matthews, a local record producer. In 1962, aged sixteen, she recorded a single, "My Man - He's a Lovin' Man", with Matthews, which became a Top Ten R&B hit after Atlantic Records bought distribution rights. This led to a tour with rhythm and blues musicians Clyde McPhatter, Ben E. King, Barbara Lynn, and then-newcomer Otis Redding.
She next hit the charts with “Let Me Down Easy” on Calla in 1965. It is considered by many to be one of the greatest soul recordings of all time. This led to a brief stint with The James Brown Revue.

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Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (née Beyoncé Giselle Knowles; September 4, 1981), known mononymously as Beyoncé (

/biˈjɒnseɪ/ bee-YON-say), is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child. Knowles rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.
During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, in 2003, which spawned two number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy"—and became one of the most successful albums of that year, earning her a then record-tying five Grammy Awards. Following the disbandment of Destiny's Child in 2005, Knowles released her second solo album, B'Day, in 2006, which spawned the top 10 singles "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar". Her third solo album I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), spawned the hit singles "If I Were a Boy", "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", "Halo" and "Sweet Dreams". The album helped Knowles earn six Grammys in 2010, breaking the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. Knowles' fourth solo album, 4 (2011), became her fourth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist. This made her the third artist in history to have her first four studio albums debut atop the chart.

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Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.
Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has served as the United States Secretary of State since 2009 and was a Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state's education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association.

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Bill Harley
Bill Harley is a children's entertainer and storyteller who has been called "the Mark Twain of contemporary children's music" by Entertainment Weekly. He uses a range of musical styles and appeals to children and adults with quirky, heart-filled lyrics. He received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album For Children (albums consisting of predominantly spoken word versus music or song) for his albums Blah Blah Blah: Stories About Clams, Swamp Monsters, Pirates & Dogs and Yes to Running! Bill Harley Live in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Harley's latest CD is High Dive was released 2012. In addition to children's music, he performs at storytelling festivals around the country including appearances at the National Storytelling Festival.
Harley has also published six books. These include: Sitting Down To Eat which was selected as an American Booksellers Association Pick of the list; Sarah's Story a Storytelling World Award Winner; and The Amazing Flight of Darius Frobisher his first novel for elementary students. He is currently working on another novel and has another picture book slated for publication. His second novel for children, Night of the Spadefoot Toads, was released in October 2008.

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Billy Joe Shaver
Billy Joe Shaver (born August 16, 1939 in Corsicana, Texas) is a Texas country music singer and songwriter. Shaver's 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me is a classic in the outlaw country genre.
Shaver was raised by his mother, Victory Watson Shaver, after his father Virgil left the family before he was born. Until he was 12, he spent a great deal of time with his grandmother in Corsicana, Texas so that his mother could work in Waco. He sometimes accompanied his mother to her job at a local nightclub, where he began to be exposed to country music.
Shaver's mother remarried about the time that his grandmother died, so he and his older sister Patricia moved in with their mother and new stepfather. Shaver left school after the eighth grade to help his uncles pick cotton, but occasionally returned to school to play sports.
Shaver joined the U.S. Navy on his seventeenth birthday. Upon his discharge, he worked a series of dead-end jobs, including trying to be a rodeo cowboy. About this time, Shaver met and married Brenda Joyce Tindell. They had one son, John Edwin, known as Eddy, who was born in 1962. The two divorced and remarried several times.

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Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir (

/ˈbjɜrk/; [ˈpjœr̥k ˈkvʏðmʏntsˌtoʊhtɪr] (

listen); born 21 November 1965), known as Björk, is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her musical style is eclectic and she has achieved recognition in rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical, and folk.
Björk's 1990s singles "It's Oh So Quiet", "Army of Me" and "Hyperballad" charted in the UK Top 10.^{[citation needed]} Her record label, One Little Indian, reported that by 2003 she had sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. She has acquired a high level of critical acclaim. She has won four BRIT Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, one MOJO Award, three UK Music Video Awards, and, in 2010, the Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, in recognition for her "deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice".
Björk has also been nominated for twelve Grammy Awards, one Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. She won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Dancer in the Dark. She was ranked thirty-sixth in VH1's "The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll", eighth in MTV's "22 Greatest Voices in Music", and sixtieth in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".

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Bob Carlin
For the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation member of the Ontario legislature see Robert Carlin
Bob Carlin (b. March 17, 1953 in New York City) is an American old-time banjo player and singer.
Carlin performs primarily in the clawhammer style of banjo. He has toured the United States, Canada, and Europe performing on various historical banjos (including gourd banjos), and has explored the African roots of the banjo by working with the Malian musician Cheick Hamala Diabate and the elder African American fiddler Joe Thompson. He is also one of the few musicians skilled in the performance of minstrel-style banjo songs of the mid-19th century.
For six years, Carlin toured throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan with John Hartford.
Carlin is a three-time winner of the late Frets Magazine readers' poll. He has released four albums on Rounder Records as well as several instruction manuals and videos for the banjo.
He is the founder of CarTunes Recordings, and also works as a record producer, having produced numerous recordings.

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Bob Florence
Bob Florence (20 May 1932; Los Angeles – 15 May 2008; Los Angeles) was an American jazz arranger and pianist. He began taking piano lessons at five and initially intended to be a concert pianist. However, on taking classes with Bob McDonald he changed direction toward jazz.
At the beginning of his career Florence worked as a pianist and arranger with Dave Pell. He founded his first band in the late 1950s, working with, amongst others, Herb Geller, Bud Shank, Frank Capp and Bob Enevoldsen. Since that time, Florence worked in various big band projects across the Los Angeles area, working mainly with session musicians and as an accompanist to various singers. Throughout his career Florence worked as an arranger for Harry James, Louie Bellson, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Count Basie and Doc Severinsen.
In 2000, Florence won the Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance

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Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially accessible recordings in the 1990s including "Nick of Time", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up on You", and the slow ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me". Raitt has received nine Grammy Awards in her career and is a lifelong political activist.
Raitt, the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt and his first wife, pianist Marjorie Haydock, began playing guitar at an early age, something few of her high school female friends did. Later she would become famous for her bottleneck-style guitar playing. "I had played a little at school and at camp", she later recalled in a July 2002 interview. The camp Raitt refers to is Camp Regis-Applejack, located in the heart of the Adirondacks.

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Brad Paisley
Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references.
Paisley was the 2008 CMA and ACM Male Vocalist of the Year winner. Starting with the release of his 1999 album Who Needs Pictures, Paisley has recorded seven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified gold or higher by the RIAA. In addition, he has charted 25 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 16 of which have reached #1 with a record 10 consecutive singles reaching the top spot on the chart. On November 10, 2010, Paisley won the Entertainer of the Year award at the 44th annual CMA Awards.
Paisley was born on October 28, 1972 in Glen Dale, West Virginia to Douglas Edward "Doug" Paisley, who worked for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, and Sandra Jean "Sandy" (née Jarvis) Paisley, a teacher. He was raised in Glen Dale, West Virginia. He has stated that his love of country music stems from his maternal grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave Paisley his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone at 8-years-old and taught him how to play. At age 10, he performed for the first time in public by singing in his church. He later recalled that, "Pretty soon, I was performing at every Christmas party and Mother's Day event. The neat thing about a small town is that when you want to be an artist, by golly, they'll make you one". At age 12, Paisley wrote his first song, entitled, "Born on Christmas Day". He had been taking lessons with local guitarist Clarence "Hank" Goddard. By age 13, Goddard and Paisley formed a band called "Brad Paisley and the C-Notes", with the addition of two of Paisley's adult friends.

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Bramwell Tovey
Bramwell Tovey, OM (born 11 July 1953) is an English-born Grammy Award winning conductor and composer. His musical roots are in The Salvation Army. He was educated at Ilford County High School, the Royal Academy of Music and the University of London. His formal music education was as a pianist and composer. Whilst a student at the Royal Academy of Music, he also became a tuba player, studying with John Fletcher.
After a stint conducting the Royal Ballet, Tovey conducted the first season of the revived D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1988. Between 1989 and 2001, Tovey was the music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He was instrumental in establishing the city's annual New Music Festival, which began in 1992. He has been the music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since September 2000. In December 2004, his initial contract was renewed through 2010. In Europe, he was music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra from 2002 to 2006. In January 2010, his Vancouver contract was further extended through 2015. In December 2009, Tovey and the VSO rejected an invitation to play at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver, after the Vancouver Organizing Committee requested that the orchestra pre-record music that other musicians and a different conductor would mime to at the televised event. Tovey remarked that the plan was "dishonest" and "fraudulent."

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Brian Gardner
Brian Gardner, also known as Brian "Big Bass" Gardner is a mastering engineer. He has worked on a number of recordings since the mid-1960s, including classic rock, funk, disco, alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop punk, and dance pop. He is perhaps best known for his work on hip hop albums and in particular in his collaborations with Dr. Dre.
He is currently employed at Bernie Grundman Mastering, a mastering house founded and run by Bernie Grundman.

Brian has been awarded seven Grammy nominations six of which were for Album Of The Year and one Grammy win for Album of the Year (SpeakerBox - Outkast)

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Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer (born April 10, 1959) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with his Swing revival band, The Brian Setzer Orchestra.
Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York. Beginning in January 1979, he fronted the popular rockabilly band, the Stray Cats.
After performing locally from New York to Philadelphia under various band names with no real success, singer and lead guitarist Setzer, drummer Slim Jim Phantom (born James McDonnell) and bassist Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker) decided in June 1980 to go to London, England where they believed people would better appreciate their sound and style.
To obtain the money for their plane tickets, Setzer, Rocker and Phantom went to Sam Ash Music on 48th Street to sell their instruments and gear to the store, for enough money for three one-way plane tickets. Upon their arrival, they decided to call themselves the "Stray Cats", a name suggested by Rocker because of their status as 'strays'. After performing for only a few months they drew the attention of the British record producer Dave Edmunds, and released a series of successful singles in the UK, which countered the already-entrenched punk scene in London.

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Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter-performer who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and more than 120 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 21 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him as the 23rd Greatest Artist of all time.
Springsteen was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and spent his childhood and high school years in Freehold Borough. He lived on South Street in Freehold Borough and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen, was of Dutch and Irish ancestry and worked, among other vocations, as a bus driver, although he was frequently unemployed; his surname is Dutch for jump stone. His mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), was a legal secretary and was of Italian ancestry. His maternal grandfather was born in Vico Equense, a city near Naples. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full time; she took photos for the Human Touch and Lucky Town albums.

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Bubba Hernandez
Bubba Hernandez and Alex Meixner were nominated in the Best Polka album category in the 50th Annual Grammy Awards for their self-titled debut album, Polka Freak Out.
He is a former member of the Denton, Texas based band, Brave Combo, but is best known as the bassist for The Wee-Beasties. He is currently the front member of Los Super Vatos, also based out of Denton, where he primarily plays bass.

wn.com/Bubba_Hernandez

Burning Spear
Winston Rodney, OD (born 1 March 1945), also known as Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer and musician. Burning Spear is known for his Rastafari movement messages.
Rodney was born in Saint Ann's Bay, Saint Ann, Jamaica, as were reggae singer Bob Marley and political activist Marcus Garvey who both had a great influence on Rodney's life: Garvey in his philosophy, which Burning Spear greatly took to, and Marley in directly helping Burning Spear get started in the music industry (by some accounts) by introducing him to Clement Dodd. Rodney met Marley at the latter's farm in 1969, and having told him that he wanted to get into the music business, Marley advised him to start at Dodd's Studio One label.Reggae singer Larry Marshall claimed that it was he, while visiting St. Ann's Bay with Jackie Mittoo, who was approached by Rodney, and gave him this advice, and arranged the introduction.

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Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen (Danish pronunciation: [kʰɑːl ˈnelsn̩]), (9 June 1865 – 3 October 1931), widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age. While it was some time before his works were fully appreciated, even in his home country, Nielsen has now firmly entered the international repertoire. Especially in Europe and the United States, Nielsen's music is ever more frequently performed, with interest growing in other countries as well. Carl Nielsen is especially admired for his six symphonies, his Wind Quintet and his concertos for violin, flute and clarinet. In Denmark, his opera Maskarade and a considerable number of his songs have become an integral part of the national heritage. While his early music was inspired by composers such as Brahms and Grieg, he soon started to develop his own style, first experimenting with progressive tonality and later diverging even more radically from the standards of composition still common at the time. For many years, he appeared on the Danish hundred-kroner banknote.

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Carol Vaness
Carol Theresa Vaness (born July 27, 1952) is an American lyric soprano.
Vaness was born in San Diego and launched her professional career in 1977 with the San Francisco Opera. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1984 and has sung at many of the major opera houses of Europe, including Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, and the Royal Opera House/Covent Garden.^{[citation needed]}
She was particularly known for her Mozart operatic roles, but she has performed in a wide range of operas, including the title role in Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut with the Seattle Opera. She sang Tosca opposite every major tenor of her day, including Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Marcello Giordani.
Vaness teaches at Indiana University. Her hire came as part of the school's "Commitment to Excellence" program, which also brought the matriculation of Jaime Laredo, André Watts and Joshua Bell. She is a tenured professor of voice working with individual students as well as conducting the opera workshop classes. She began teaching in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

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Carole King
Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, her Tapestry album topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971, and remained on the charts for more than six years.
She was most successful as a performer in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She had her first number 1 hit as a songwriter in 1961 at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith, but instead it was sung by Celine Dion.
In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent non-compilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor, which reached number 4 on the charts in its first week, and has sold over 600,000 copies.

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Carrie Underwood
Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer, songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a winner of several Grammy Awards, Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, a Golden Globe Award nominee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and a two-time ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first-ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/10). Underwood was inducted into and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2008. She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2009.Billboard named Underwood Country Music's reigning Queen in 2012.

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Casting Crowns
Casting Crowns is a Grammy Award and Dove Award winning Contemporary Christian/Christian Rock band. Casting Crowns was started in 1999 by youth pastor Mark Hall at First Baptist Church in Downtown Daytona Beach, Florida as part of a youth group. He now serves as a lead vocalist. Later they moved to Stockbridge, Georgia and more members joined creating the band now known as Casting Crowns. Some members of the band currently work as ministers for Eagles Landing First Baptist Church in Stockbridge, Georgia.
Christian rock group Casting Crowns began as a student worship band in Daytona Beach, FL, in 1999. Led by singer, songwriter, and youth pastor Mark Hall, the group initially included guitarists Juan DeVevo and Hector Cervantes and violinist Melodee DeVevo. The group relocated to Stockbridge, GA, in 2001, adding Chris Huffman on bass, Megan Garrett on keyboards and accordion, and drummer Andy Williams. This augmented version of Casting Crowns released two independent albums on CD, both of which were well received in the Atlanta area. Both independent albums were efforts on the part of Mark Hall and the rest of the group as outreach projects for youth in the area. The group won the GMA regional songwriters competition at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida in both the "Best Song" and the "Best Artist" categories in 2004. Although the group was not searching for a record label, one of the group's albums found its way into the hands of Mark Miller, lead singer for country group Sawyer Brown, who was struck by Casting Crowns' driving pop/rock style and Hall's vocal delivery of his hard-hitting but devout songs. Miller signed Casting Crowns to his fledgling Beach Street Records, a division of Reunion Records with distribution by the Provident Label Group, making Casting Crowns the first artist signed to Beach Street Records.

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CeCe Winans
Priscilla "CeCe" Marie Winans Love (born October 8, 1964) is an American gospel singer, who has won numerous awards, including Grammys and Stellar Awards.
CeCe Winans was born in Detroit, Michigan, to David and Delores ("Mom" and "Pop") Winans, on October 8, 1964. She is the eighth of ten children, and the eldest of three girls.
CeCe began her solo career with the Platinum certified album Alone in His Presence. It was released in 1995 and earned her a Grammy Award and two Dove Awards, including the Female Vocalist of the Year, an award she earned again in 1997. Winans' next release, the Gold certified Everlasting Love was released in 1998 and featured Winans highest to date Billboard charting solo singles "Well Alright" & "Slippin". The song "On That Day" from the album was written and produced by R&B singer Lauryn Hill. Later that year, Winans released His Gift a holiday album.
In 1999, Winans started her own recording company, "PureSprings Gospel". Her first album on the label was Alabaster Box in 1999. Some production of the disc was done by Gospel singer and musician, Fred Hammond. It included a guest appearance by Take 6. In 2000 Cece released a concert VHS titled Live At The Lambs Theater in New York. The concert contained songs from her previous albums. Winans released her next album, the self titled CeCe Winans, in 2001. The single "Anybody Wanna Pray" included a guest appearance by GRITS. The second single, "Say A Prayer" crossed over into the CCM market.

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Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan (born Yvette Marie Stevens; March 23, 1953), frequently known as the "Queen of Funk", is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus.
While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career. Her signature hits, both with Rufus and as a solo performer, include "Tell Me Something Good", "Sweet Thing" which she wrote for her then husband Richard Holland, "Ain't Nobody", "I'm Every Woman", "I Feel for You" and "Through the Fire".

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Charles Bruffy
Charles Bruffy (born 1958) is an American choral conductor. He is artistic director of the Kansas City Chorale and the Phoenix Chorale and is Chorus Director of the Kansas City Symphony.
A native of Savannah, Missouri, Bruffy received his Bachelors degree from Missouri Western State University in Saint Joseph, Missouri and a Master’s degree in vocal performance from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, where he also completed all course work for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting. Bruffy has received honorary doctorates from Baker University and Missouri Western State University.
Bruffy has been Artistic Director of the Phoenix Chorale since 1999 and of the Kansas City Chorale since 1988. The choirs are praised for both their live performances and recordings. Bruffy’s eclectic discography of over 13 recordings includes music by Argento, Brahms, Corigliano, Gretchaninov, Martin, Mäntyjärvi, Rachmaninoff, and Vaughan Williams.
Bruffy has conducted workshops across the United States, such as the Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey and for the National Association of Church Musicians Convention in Long Beach, California. In 2003 he conducted Verdi's Messa da Requiem in the Sydney Opera House. As a tenor soloist, Bruffy performed with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in recordings and concerts in France, and in concerts at Carnegie Hall.

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Charlie Louvin
Charles Elzer Loudermilk (July 7, 1927 – January 26, 2011), known professionally as Charlie Louvin, was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known as one of the Louvin Brothers, and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1955.
Born in Henagar, Alabama, Louvin was one of 7 children. He started singing when he was 8 years old.
Louvin began singing professionally with his brother Ira as a teenager on local radio programs in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The boys sang traditional and gospel music in the harmony style they had learned while performing in their church's choir.
After Charlie left the act briefly in 1945 to serve in World War II, the brothers moved first to Knoxville and later to Memphis, working as postal clerks by day while making appearances in the evening. Another brief disbandment due to Charlie's service in the Korean War led to the brothers' relocation to Birmingham, Alabama.
Primarily known as gospel artists, the Louvins were convinced by a sponsor that "you can't sell tobacco with gospel music," and began adding secular music to their repertoire. They began making appearances on the famed Grand Ole Opry during the 1950s, becoming official members in 1955. The Louvin Brothers released numerous singles, such as "When I Stop Dreaming", with over 20 recordings reaching the country music charts. Their rich harmonies served as an influence to later artists such as Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons and The Byrds.

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Cher
Cher (

/ˈʃɛər/) (born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer, and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, and a Cannes Film Festival Award for her work in film, music, and television. She is the only person in history to receive all five awards. She began her career as a backup singer and came to prominence in 1965 as one-half of the pop rock duo Sonny & Cher with the success of their song "I Got You Babe". She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist and became a television star in 1971 with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, a variety show for which she won a Golden Globe. A well-received performance in the film Silkwood earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress of 1983. In the following years, she starred in a string of hit films including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress of 1987.

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Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini (Italian pronunciation: [luˈiːdʒi keruˈbiːni]) (8 or 14 September 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries.
Cherubini was born Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini in Florence. There is uncertainty about his exact date of birth. Although 14 September is sometimes stated, evidence from baptismal records and Cherubini himself suggests the 8th is correct. Perhaps the strongest evidence is his first name, Maria, which is traditional for a child born on 8 September, feast-day of the Nativity of the Virgin. His instruction in music began at the age of six with his father, Bartolomeo, maestro al cembalo ("Master of the harpsichord" i.e. ensemble leader from the harpsichord). Considered a child prodigy, Cherubini studied counterpoint and dramatic style at an early age. By the time he was thirteen, he had composed several religious works.

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Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.
Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.
His career has been driven by his will to operate as a free agent and compulsively explore different avenues of music making. This hunger has positioned him as an important catalyst in the world of serious, mainstream acoustic jazz, and he is one of the most influential and widely studied figures in the last 40 years.
Corea continued to pursue other collaborations and to explore various musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He is also known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues, such as eradicating social illiteracy, and is a Scientologist.

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Chris Botti
Christopher Stephen "Chris" Botti (pronounced /ˈboʊti/ BOH-tee; born October 12, 1962), is an American trumpeter and composer. In 2007, Botti was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album. On December 4, 2009, he was nominated for three more Grammy Awards including Best Pop Instrumental Album and Best Long Form Music Video. Three of his albums have reached the #1 position on the Billboard jazz albums chart.
Coming to prominence with the 2001 recording of his Night Sessions CD, Botti established a reputation as a versatile musician in both jazz and pop music for his ability to fuse both styles together.
He was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Corvallis and spent two years of his childhood growing up in Italy. His earliest musical influence was his mother, a classically trained pianist and part-time piano teacher.
He started playing the trumpet at 9 years old, and committed to the instrument at age 12 when he heard Miles Davis play "My Funny Valentine."
In 1983, he was selected as a member of McDonalds’ All American High School Jazz band which marked his first Carnegie Hall performance.

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Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell (born Christopher John Boyle; July 20, 1964) is an American rock musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Soundgarden and as the former lead vocalist for Audioslave. He is also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1991. He is known for his wide vocal range, spanning B1-G5 in full-voice, and up to E6 in falsetto, as well as his powerful vocal belting technique. He was the founder and frontman for Temple of the Dog, the one-off tribute band dedicated to his former roommate, Andrew Wood. He has released three solo studio albums, Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), and Scream (2009). Cornell was ranked 4th in the list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" by Hit Parader. He performed the theme song to the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), "You Know My Name." Chris Cornell also released his first live solo album entitled "Songbook" in November, 2011.
Cornell was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and attended Christ the King, Catholic elementary school and Shorewood High School. His parents are Ed Boyle (a pharmacist from an Irish Catholic background) and Karen Cornell (an accountant from a Jewish background). He has five siblings: older brothers Peter and Patrick, and younger sisters Katy, Suzy, and Maggie. Peter, Katy and Suzy all performed in the band Inflatable Soule in the 1990s. Peter is currently the frontman for the New York-based rock band Black Market Radio. Katy performs as lead vocalist for the Seattle band Happy Hour Hero.

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Chris Daughtry
Christopher Adam "Chris" Daughtry (born December 26, 1979) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Daughtry and as the fourth-place contestant on the fifth season of American Idol, the competition that he was eliminated from on May 10, 2006. After his elimination from Idol, he was given a record deal by RCA Records and formed a band called Daughtry. Their self-titled debut album became the fastest selling debut rock album in history, selling more than one million copies after just five weeks of release. The album was recorded before the band was officially formed, making Chris Daughtry the only official member present on the album. This led some to believe mistakenly that the band Daughtry is Chris Daughtry's solo project.
In its ninth week of release, Daughtry reached number one on the Billboard charts. Chris Daughtry is now the third most successful American Idol contestant in terms of record sales, behind only Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, who both won their respective seasons. At the 50th Grammy Awards, the band was nominated for Best Rock Song for the single "It's Not Over".

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Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is well known by fans for his distinctive tenor voice. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
Chris Martin was born in Exeter, Devon and is the eldest of five children. His father, Anthony Martin, is a retired accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin, is a music teacher. Martin started his education at the pre-preparatory Hylton School and then went on to preparatory Exeter Cathedral School. It was at the prep school that Martin formed his first band, The Rocking Honkies, with Nick Repton & Iwan Gronow. Their debut performance was met with boos from the crowd. After Exeter Cathedral, Martin boarded at Sherborne School, a boys' independent school in Dorset. He also met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey at the school. Martin continued his studies at University College London, staying at Ramsay Hall where he read Ancient World Studies and graduated with First Class honours in Greek and Latin. It is here he met future Coldplay bandmates Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman.

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Chris Milk
Chris Milk is an American music video director and photographer. He has directed videos for Kanye West, U2, Green Day, Courtney Love, Audioslave, Modest Mouse, Gnarls Barkley and Arcade Fire. He also has numerous television commercials to his credit. Milk is signed to @radical.media in the United States for commercials/music videos and WME Entertainment for feature films.
Milk was the accomplice on a prank pulled on Kanye West during the filming of the music video for "Jesus Walks" in an episode of Punk'd.
Milk directed the second unit on "A Mother's Promise", the Barack Obama bio film that played before his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
Milk was awarded the "Music Video Production Association" Award for 2008 "Music Video Director of the Year".
In September, 2009 Milk photographed Kanye West using 3-D scanning and CGI for Complex Magazine's 7th Anniversary cover.
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(Produced for the 42 Second Dream Film Festival Beijing China 2009, www.42x42.com)

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Chris Shiflett
Christopher Aubrey "Chris" Shiflett (born May 6, 1971 in Santa Barbara, California) is best known as the lead guitarist for the rock band Foo Fighters since 1999, as well as the punk rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. He is the younger brother of musician Scott Shiflett.
Shiflett was the resident lead guitarist for the San Francisco Bay Area punk rock band No Use for a Name, when a friend announced that Guns N' Roses was auditioning for a guitarist. Shiflett asked his friend to instead get him an audition for the Foo Fighters, that after recording There Is Nothing Left to Lose as a trio held open auditions to hire another guitarist. Dave Grohl said part of his motivation to hire Shiflett was that he had a history in the underground punk scene, including opening for Grohl's former band Scream as bassist of the group Rat Pack. After being hired, Shiflett played on the tour for There Is Nothing Left to Lose, and all subsequent studio albums starting with One by One. Shiflett has declared that he was afraid of being fired even before he started to play with the band, as previous guitarist Pat Smear had declared interest to rejoin (Smear eventually got back with the band as a fifth member in 2005).

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Chrisette Michele
Chrisette Michele Payne (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Chrisette Michele, is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter. She is signed to the Island Def Jam Music Group and won a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in 2009 for her song "Be OK".
Michele was born in Central Islip, New York, and grew up in Patchogue. Her father was a deacon and her mother a choir director. Michele led gospel choirs in high school. She attended Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, and graduated with a vocal performance degree.
Michele has been featured on several hip hop albums. She is on The Game's album LAX on "Let Us Live". On Jay-Z's Kingdom Come she was featured on the second single "Lost One", while on Nas' Hip Hop Is Dead, she was featured three times: on the album's second single "Can't Forget About You", the Kanye West-produced "Still Dreaming", and the final track "Hope". She also appeared on the bonus track "Slow Down", from Ghostface Killah's The Big Doe Rehab.

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Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. Aguilera signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection", the theme song for the animated film Mulan (1998).
In 1999, Aguilera came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera, which was a commercial success spawning three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)." Her sophomore and her debut Latin-pop album, Mi Reflejo (2000), a Christmas third studio album, My Kind of Christmas (2000), and several collaborations followed which garnered Aguilera worldwide success, though she was displeased with her lack of input in her music and image. After parting from her management, Aguilera took creative control over her fourth studio album, Stripped (2002). The album's second single, "Beautiful", was a commercial success and helped the album's commercial performance amidst controversy over Aguilera's image. Aguilera followed up Stripped with the soul, jazz and blues inspired, Back to Basics (2006), released to positive critical acclaim. The album produced three singles "Ain't No Other Man", "Hurt" and "Candyman". Four years later Aguilera released her sixth studio album, Bionic (2010), which incorporated aspects of R&B, electropop, and synthpop and was met with mixed reviews and low sales. Aguilera's seventh studio album is set to be released in 2012.

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Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach (pronounced [ˈkʁɪstɔf ˈɛʃn̩bax]), born February 20, 1940, Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) is a German-born pianist and conductor. He currently holds positions in Washington, D.C. as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and music director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Eschenbach's parents were Margarethe (née Jaross) and Heribert Ringmann. He was orphaned during World War II. His mother died giving birth to him; his father, a politically active anti-Nazi, was sent to the Eastern front as part of a Nazi punishment battalion where he was killed. As a result of this trauma, Eschenbach did not speak for a year, until he was asked if he wanted to play music. Wallydore Eschenbach (née Jaross), his mother's cousin, adopted him in 1946 and began to teach him to play the piano. At age 11, he attended a concert conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler which had a great impact on the youngster. In 1955 Eschenbach enrolled at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, studying piano with Hans-Otto Schmidt-Neuhaus and conducting with Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg.

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Coko
Cheryl Elizabeth "Coko" Clemons (born June 13, 1970) is an American gospel and R&B singer, and lead singer of R&B group Sisters With Voices (SWV).
Clemons began her recording career as a choir member in Hezekiah Walker's Love Fellowship Tabernacle Choir.
From 1990 to 1998, Coko sang with the platinum recording group, Sisters With Voices (SWV). Altogether the group issued 6 albums. After their 1998 Christmas album SWV disbanded. Two compilation albums were released after the disbanding; Greatest Hits (1999) and the Best of SWV (2001). Though many stories circulated as to why SWV disbanded, it was Coko herself who made the final decision. In an interview, she said it was not a mutual decision and that many people tried to convince her to stay. She states that her reason for leaving was that the group was not communicating well and that she felt she would do better with a solo career.
After SWV disbanded, Coko went on to release her first solo album under RCA, titled Hot Coko, released August 1999. The first single, "Sunshine," which was dedicated to her son Jazz, reached the Top 40 position in the R&B charts that summer. However, both the album and singles did not gather the same mainstream success as Coko once did with SWV. Meanwhile, Coko was working on a second solo album titled Music Doll in early 2001, but RCA closed the black music division and the project was shelved. Since then, she has concentrated more on her family, and eventually married gospel producer and drummer for Israel and New Breed, Mike "Big Mike" Clemmons, the father of her second son, Jaylon. She currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia.^{[citation needed]}

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Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (born March 13, 1972), better known by his stage name Common (previously Common Sense), is an American hip-hop artist and actor.
Common debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar? and maintained a significant underground following into the late 1990s, after which he gained notable mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians. His first major-label album, Like Water for Chocolate, received widespread critical acclaim and tremendous commercial success His first Grammy award was in 2003 for Best R&B Song for "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)" with Erykah Badu. Its popularity was matched by May 2005's Be, which was nominated in the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album. Common was awarded his second Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, for "Southside" (featuring Kanye West), from his July 2007 album Finding Forever. His best-of album, Thisisme Then: The Best of Common, was released on November 27, 2007.
Common has also initiated a burgeoning acting career, starring significant roles in such films as Smokin' Aces, Street Kings, American Gangster, Wanted, Terminator Salvation, Date Night, Just Wright, Happy Feet Two, and New Year's Eve. He also narrated the award-winning documentary Bouncing Cats, about one man's efforts to improve the lives of children in Uganda through hip-hop/b-boy culture. Common currently appears in Hell on Wheels, a dramatic television series on AMC that debuted in November 2011.

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Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae (born Corinne Jacqueline Bailey on 26 February 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist from Leeds, West Yorkshire. Bailey Rae was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2006 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2006. She released her debut album, Corinne Bailey Rae, in February 2006, and became the fourth female British act in history to have her first album debut at number one. In 2007, Bailey Rae was nominated for three Grammy Awards and three Brit Awards, and won two MOBO Awards. In 2008, she won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year (for her work as a featured artist in Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters).
Bailey Rae released her second album, The Sea, on 26 January 2010, after a hiatus of almost three years. It was produced by Steve Brown and Steve Chrisanthou (who produced her debut album in 2006). She was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize for Album of the Year. In 2012, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance (for "Is This Love)". Bailey Rae was married to fellow musician Jason Rae from 2001 until his death in 2008, and as part of the grieving process, she channeled her emotions into her music. Her two albums have together sold over five million copies worldwide.

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Craig Jessop
Craig D. Jessop is an American academic, musician and singer best known for his tenure as the music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1999 to 2008.
A native of Millville, Utah, Jessop has been a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a student of Robert Shaw and received his B.A. from Utah State University, M.A. from Brigham Young University and D.M.A. from Stanford University.
He has been the director of the National High School Choir Festival since its founding in 2005. The event, held at New York's Carnegie Hall, auditions schools from around the country to inspire and enable young singers in learning great works of music and performing with renowned musicians from around the world.
He has also spent seven years as a baritone with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers and performed in the choirs of Helmuth Rilling and John Rutter. Jessop earned a doctorate of musical arts in conducting and performance practice from Stanford University (1980), with an earlier master’s degree in music education from Brigham Young University. He completed a bachelor’s degree in music education at USU in 1973. Prior to his association with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Jessop had a distinguished career as a Lieutenant Colonel from the United States Air Force, where he was director of the Singing Sergeants (1979-1987), commander/conductor, Band of the United States Air Forces in Europe (1987-91) and commander/conductor of the Air Combat Command Heartland of American Band (1991-95). He began his career in education as director of choral activities at Granite High School in Salt Lake City.

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Craig Thompson
Craig Matthew Thompson (born September 21, 1975) is a graphic novelist best known for his books Good-bye, Chunky Rice (1999), Blankets (2003), Carnet de Voyage (2004) and Habibi (2011). Thompson has received four Harvey Awards, two Eisner Awards, and two Ignatz Awards. In 2007, his cover design for the Menomena album Friend and Foe received a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package.
Craig Thompson was born in Traverse City, Michigan in 1975. He and his brother grew up in rural Marathon, Wisconsin, in a fundamentalist Christian family. His father was a plumber, and his mother alternated between working as a stay-at-home mom and a visiting-nurse assistant for the disabled. Media such as films and televisions shows were screened or altogether censored by their parents, and the only music allowed was Christian music. Thompson's only access to the arts were the Sunday funnies and comics, since they were assumed to be for children, to which Thompson attributes his early affinity for the medium. Thompson and his brother were particularly enamored of black and white independent comics in the 1980s, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the do-it-yourself ethic that they embodied.

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Cristian Castro
Cristian Castro (born Cristian Sáez Castro or Cristian Valdez on December 8, 1974 in Mexico City), , referred to as Christian Castro or Cristian is a Grammy Award-nominated Mexican pop singer.
Born in Mexico City, he is the son of renowned actress and singer Verónica Castro and comedian Manuel "El Loco" Valdes. Castro also has a younger brother named Michelle Sáez Castro, his uncle is José Alberto "el Guero" Castro and his aunt is Beatriz Castro, who both are producers. As a baby, he made his acting debut with her during the telenovela named El Derecho de Nacer. Soon after, he appeared on a television commercial with her, and on the Mexican version of the broadway show Mame alongside the prominent actress Silvia Pinal.
Castro is one of the best selling Latin artists and has worked with renowned Latin producers including Kike Santander, Rudy Pérez, and Richard Daniel Roman.
Castro began his singing career in 1992 with the release of Agua Nueva. After appearing in several telenovelas and recording some albums as a teenager, Castro began his "internationalization" in 1993, starting with concerts in Puerto Rico. Castro dedicated a song to that country in his second album, Un Segundo En El Tiempo, titled "Puerto Rico" as a way of thanking the Puerto Rican public for supporting his career. He also modified his singing voice from the deep voice he employed in Agua Nueva to a softer one that he currently uses. His song, Nunca Voy a Olvidarte (I Will Never Forget You), became his first number-one hit at the Hot Latin Tracks charts in 1993 helped launched his career. Castro became an international teen idol and sex symbol almost instantly after he began touring, and he began what has been a fructiferous international singing career.

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Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born June 22, 1953 in Queens, New York) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and LGBT rights activist.
She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the debut solo album She's So Unusual in 1983, which spawned four Billboard Hot 100 top-five songs—"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night"—She's So Unusual was the first album in history to have four top five singles by a female. The album earned Lauper Best New Artist at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the follow-up, True Colors in 1986, which spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"True Colors" and "Change of Heart", and earned two nominations at the 29th Grammy Awards.
Since 1989 released from a nine studio albums acclaimed critical, A Night to Remember (1989), Hat Full of Stars (1993), Sisters of Avalon (1996), Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998),Shine (2001), At Last (2003), The Body Acoustic (2005), Bring Ya to the Brink (2008).

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Céu
Céu (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɛu]), whose full name is Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter whose first American album was released on the Six Degrees Records label in April 2007. She was born in São Paulo, Brazil on April 17, 1980, into a musical family, her father being a composer, arranger and musicologist. It was from her father that she learned to appreciate Brazil's classical music composers, particularly Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ernesto Nazaré and Orlando Silva.
By age fifteen she had decided to become a musician and by her late teens she had studied music theory, as well as the violão (nylon-stringed Brazilian guitar). Her songs reveal her many influences, which include samba, valsa, choro, soul, rhythm and blues, hip hop, afrobeat and electrojazz music.
As Céu herself explained, "I have a passion for Black culture, from Jazz divas to Afro beat. Everything comes from Africa. With Samba, I have a very strong connection to the old school that we call 'Samba de raiz' (Root Samba). I am a vinyl listener, so I tried to bring some of that to the CD, mixing it with modern things like rap or even 'Brega', which is the newest thing in Brazil."

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D.O.E.
D.O.E. (Dominant Over Everyone) is an American rapper/songwriter, born in North Side Queens.
Growing up in North side Queens, D.O.E. looked up to Hip-Hop legends like Slick Rick, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur and Wu-Tang Clan for years before deciding to showcase his passion for rap music. His first mixtape to circulate the scene was titled Me-Unit (a parody of G-Unit). After landing in the hands of Bad Boy Records' vice president Harve Pierre, the mixtape was given to Timbaland's lawyer who passed it on to Timbaland, suggesting that he take a listen. After hearing D.O.E.'s ability to write, rap, and switch styles Timbaland flew him down to Miami, where they recorded a couple of tracks, and according to D.O.E., "...that was all he wrote!"
Originally known as John Doe, he's stated that Interscope had issues with his former moniker:
Initially signed to Timbaland's Beat Club Records alongside rap artists Bubba Sparxxx and Attitude, D.O.E. first appeared on "Rollin" featuring Lil' Jon and produced by Timbaland. The song was hyped to take over the airwaves in the summer of 2006, but unfortunately not before the fledgling Beat Club Records folded. After the label's dissolution D.O.E. returned to the mixtape circuit releasing The Black Ass Album (parodying Jay-Z's The Black Album) and The Mascarade (spoofing 50 Cent's The Massacre). Not long after Beat Club Records' departure, Timbaland started up Mosley Music Group. Timbaland signed D.O.E. to his new label in 2006, however he sat on the sidelines for a majority of the year while Timbaland focused his efforts on Nelly Furtado's chart-topping multi-platinum album Loose, and Justin Timberlake's Grammy Award-winning FutureSex/LoveSounds.

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Daddy Yankee
Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (born February 3, 1977), known artistically as Daddy Yankee, is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican reggaeton recording artist. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, where he became interested in music at a young age. In his youth he was interested in baseball, and aspired to become a Major League Baseball player. He was unable to continue this sport when he received an injury to one of his legs, leaving him unable to walk correctly. He then became involved in the underground rap movement that was in its early stages in Puerto Rico, later to be called reggaeton. After receiving lessons from several artists within the genre, he developed an independent career, first recording in a production titled Playero 37. After this he began to produce independent albums. His first solo album was No Mercy. He subsequently formed a duo with Nicky Jam, and then continued his solo career with the releases of El Cartel and El Cartel II. This led him be one of many pioneers of the reggaeton genre earning him the nickname "El Cangri".

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Danja (producer)
Floyd Nathaniel Hills (born February 22, 1982), professionally known as Danja (

/ˈdɑːndʒə/) or Danjahandz, is an American record producer, composer and songwriter.
Hills, born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, took up drums and piano in his early teens. He got his start by playing in his church when he was growing up. In 2000, Hills worked with producer and singer Teddy Riley on Blackstreets' fourth album, Level II. In 2001, a chance encounter with Timbaland turned into an opportunity to play some music for him. Two years later, Timbaland brought Danja to Miami to work in his studio.
With Timbaland, Hills produced a wide catalog of songs that helped return the famous producer to prominence in 2006 with an ongoing string of hits throughout the year until present, including "Put You On The Game" by rapper The Game, "Promiscuous" and "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado, "SexyBack", "What Goes Around...Comes Around" and "My Love" by Justin Timberlake among others, such as "Love Story" by Katharine McPhee, "Innocence" and "Earth Intruders" by Björk, and "Give It to Me" and "The Way I Are" off Timbaland's second solo album.

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Dave Koz
Dave Koz (born March 27, 1963) is an American smooth jazz saxophonist.
Dave Koz was born on March 27, 1963 in Encino, California. Koz attended William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California performing on saxophone as a member of the school jazz band. He later graduated from UCLA with a degree in mass communications in 1986, and only weeks after his graduation, decided to make a go of becoming a professional musician. Within weeks of that decision, he was recruited as a member of Bobby Caldwell's tour. For the rest of the 1980s, Koz served as a session musician in several bands, toured with Jeff Lorber. Koz was a member of Richard Marx's band and toured with Marx throughout the late 1980s. He also played in the house band of CBS' short-lived The Pat Sajak Show, with Tom Scott as bandleader.
In 1990, Koz decided to pursue a solo career, and began recording for Capitol Records. His albums there include Lucky Man, The Dance, and Saxophonic. Saxophonic was nominated for both a Grammy Award and an NAACP Image Award.

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Dave O'Donnell
Dave O'Donnell is an American producer/engineer. He has worked for such artists as Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, and Ray Charles. Currently a resident of New York City.

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David "Dave" Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter and founder of the Foo Fighters, prior to which he was the drummer in the grunge band Nirvana. He is also the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. Grohl has additionally written all the music and performed all the instruments for his short-lived side projects Late! and Probot, as well as being involved with Queens of the Stone Age numerous times throughout the past decade. He has performed session work (as a drummer) for a variety of musicians, including Garbage, Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Slash, Juliette Lewis, Tenacious D, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Lemmy Kilmister.
As a child, Grohl's family relocated from Warren, Ohio, to Springfield, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Three years later, when Grohl was six, his parents divorced, and Grohl grew up living with his mother.

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David A. Stewart
David Allan Stewart (born 9 September 1952), often known as Dave Stewart, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics. He is usually credited as David A. Stewart, to avoid confusion with other musicians named "Dave Stewart".
Stewart was born in Sunderland, England. In 1971, whilst still in his teens, Dave Stewart secured a record deal as part of folk-rock band Longdancer, but they did not achieve commercial success. Stewart then spent several years living in squats in London. In late 1976, he was introduced to Annie Lennox by a mutual friend. Soon, Stewart and Lennox became lovers. By 1977, the pair had teamed up with Sunderland musician Peet Coombes, releasing a single on Logo Records as The Catch. The band then developed into The Tourists who enjoyed modest success, including a hit in 1979 with a cover of the Dusty Springfield hit "I Only Want to Be with You".
The Tourists (and Stewart & Lennox's romantic liaison) ended in 1980, though the pair continued to work together. They formed a new musical project named Eurythmics, and went on to be one of the most successful pop-rock duos of all time. After a string of hit singles and albums, the duo split in 1990, but reunited in 1999 for the album Peace and another world tour. Lennox and Stewart worked together again in 2005, recording two new tracks for the greatest hits package Ultimate Collection, released to coincide with Eurythmics' 25th anniversary.

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David Arnold
David Arnold (born 23 January 1962) is an English film composer best known for scoring five James Bond films, the 1994 film Stargate, the 1996 film Independence Day, the 1998 film Godzilla and the television series Little Britain and Sherlock.
While attending a Sixth Form College in Luton, Arnold became friends with director Danny Cannon. Danny initially created short films for which David was asked to write the music. The two made their respective major film debuts with The Young Americans. "Play Dead", a song from the film with singer Björk, charted #12 in the UK. The following year he scored Stargate and Last of the Dogmen, with excerpts from the former ranking third in the most commonly used soundtrack cues for film trailers.
Arnold would then go on to compose music for Stargate director Roland Emmerich's next two movies, Independence Day and Godzilla, as well as four movies for director John Singleton. In addition, he has also scored various comedies, dramas, and nineteenth-century period pieces, as well as providing music for several British television shows including the 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Little Britain. During film production, his compositions are conducted by Nicholas Dodd. In 2010, he composed the music for Come Fly With Me, a British television series from the producers of Little Britain.

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Deborah Cox
Deborah Cox (born July 13, 1974) is a Canadian R&B singer-songwriter and actress. Her 1998 song "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" held the record for longest-running number one single on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart (14 weeks), a record held for nearly eight years. She has achieved eleven number-one hits on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart. She is often cited as Canada's top R&B artist.
Deborah Cox was born in Toronto to parents of Afro-Guyanese descent, grew up in Scarborough, Toronto and attended John XXIII Catholic Elementary School and Earl Haig Secondary School. She began singing for TV commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows with the help of her mother. She performed in nightclubs as a teenager, and began to write music around the same time. Cox entered the music industry in the early 1990s, performing as a backup vocalist for Celine Dion for six months. After receiving many rejection letters from Canadian record labels that claimed their "quota" had been reached, Cox moved to Los Angeles in 1994 with producer and songwriting partner, Lascelles Stephens.

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Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater (born May 27, 1950) is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She is a United Nations Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Born Denise Eileen Garrett in Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up in Flint, Michigan. Her father, Matthew Garrett, was a jazz trumpeter and teacher at Manassas High School, and through his playing, Denise was exposed to jazz early on. At the age of sixteen, she was a member of a rock and rhythm'n'blues trio, singing in clubs in Michigan. At 18, she studied at the Michigan State University before she went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With their jazz band, she toured the Soviet Union in 1969. The next year, she met trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, and after their marriage, they moved to New York City, where Cecil played in Horace Silver's band.

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Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide. On December 11, 2009, Billboard magazine named her the second Jazz artist of the 2000–09 decade, establishing her as one of the best-selling artists of her time. She is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debuting at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums. To date, she has won three Grammy Awards and eight Juno Awards. She also has earned nine gold, three platinum, and seven multi-platinum albums.
In 1993, Krall released her first album, Stepping Out, which she recorded with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. It caught the attention of producer Tommy LiPuma, who produced her second album, Only Trust Your Heart (1995).^{[citation needed]}
Her third album, All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio (1996), was nominated for a Grammy and continued for 70 weeks in the Billboard jazz charts. Love Scenes (1997) quickly became a hit record with the trio of Krall, Russell Malone (guitar) and Christian McBride (bass).^{[citation needed]}

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DJ Toomp
Aldrin Davis, better known as DJ Toomp, is an award-winning American record producer and DJ who works in Atlanta, Georgia. In the late 1980s he was MC Shy-D's DJ and went on tour with him and the 2 Live Crew as they performed at various venues across the country with other artists such as N.W.A. and Ice-T, after MC Shy-D left Luke Records he DJ'd for JT Money and the Poison Clan; When the 2 Live Crew broke up he worked on an album with former group member Brotha Marquis when he relocated to Atlanta called Indecent Exposure under the moniker 2 Nazty, the cover billed him as a member of the Poison Clan. He rose to mainstream fame by working with southern rapper T.I. on his first four albums, and received critical acclaim in 2006 for producing T.I.'s single "What You Know", which peaked at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and earned both Toomp and T.I. their first Grammy. More recently, he contributed to production on Kanye West's Graduation, including producing the singles "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Good Life" with West. He and hip hop veteran Bernard Parks, Jr. have launched their own record label called NZone Entertainment.

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Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich Russian pronunciation: [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ˈdmʲitrʲɪɪvʲɪt͡ɕ ʂəstɐˈkovʲɪt͡ɕ] (Russian: Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович; 25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Soviet Russian composer and pianist and was one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century.
Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Leon Trotsky's chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the USSR (from 1962 until death).
After a period influenced by Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, Shostakovich developed a hybrid style, as exemplified by Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1934). This single work juxtaposed a wide variety of trends, including the neo-classical style (showing the influence of Stravinsky) and post-Romanticism (after Gustav Mahler). Sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque characterize much of his music.

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Donald Lawrence
Donald Lawrence (born May 4, 1961) is an American gospel music songwriter, record producer and artist.
Donald Lawrence was born on May 4, 1961. He studied at Cincinnati Conservatory, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in music. While in Cincinnati, he was also the Minister of Music at the Southern Baptist Church on Reading Road. To his credit, Donald's musicality has seen many incarnations, as vocal coach to the R&B group En Vogue, musical director for Stephanie Mills, songwriter for The Clark Sisters, and producer for a host of artists including Peabo Bryson and Kirk Franklin. Donald Lawrence has been an inspiration to many.
Lawrence took on The Tri-City Singers after a friend vacated his position as musical director. (NOTE: The three cities that The Tri-City Singers come from are Spartanburg, SC, Gastonia, NC, and Charlotte, NC.) The group debuted in 1993 with A Songwriter's Point Of View on a then-brand-new independent record label called GospoCentric Records. The set debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top Gospel Charts. The group's follow-up release Bible Stories would top those same charts when it arrived in 1995. It was the first to be billed as Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers and featured black church-ubiquitous hits such as "A Message For The Saints", "I Am God" and "Stranger". The album was released on Lawrence's newly minted label Crystal Rose Records which was distributed through Sparrow Records.

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Doyle Bramhall
Doyle Bramhall (February 17, 1949 – November 12, 2011) was an American singer-songwriter and drummer, closely associated with the music of Austin.
Bramhall joined The Chessmen with Jimmie Vaughan while in high school. The group opened for Jimi Hendrix when he played Dallas. In 1969, he moved to Austin and formed Texas Storm with Jimmie Vaughan. In the 1970s, Bramhall formed The Nightcrawlers with Marc Benno, which also included Jimmie Vaughan's younger brother Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. While in The Nightcrawlers, Bramhall co-wrote the tune "Dirty Pool," which appeared on Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut album, Texas Flood. He would write or co-write several other songs for the younger Vaughan, such as "Life By The Drop" from SRV's The Sky Is Crying album, and he played the drums on the Vaughan Brothers only album, Family Style.
Bramhall released his debut solo record in 1994, which included appearances from the Vaughans and his own son. He also collaborated with Jennifer Warnes in the 1990s.

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Duncan Sheik
Duncan Scott Sheik (born November 18, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Sheik initially found success as a singer, most notably for his 1996 debut single "Barely Breathing". He later expanded his work to include compositions for motion pictures and the Broadway stage, leading him to involvement in the multiple award-winning musical Spring Awakening. He resides in New York City.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Sheik's upbringing was split between his grandparents' home in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and his parents' in New Jersey. His grandmother, a graduate of Juilliard, taught him to play the piano and encouraged his musical development. He has a younger brother, Peter, and a younger sister, Kacie, who is a theatre actress. Sheik graduated from the Eaglebrook School before attending Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1988. He subsequently studied semiotics at Brown University. After college, he moved to Daly City, a suburb near San Francisco where he started his music career.

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Dwele
Andwele Gardner (born February 14, 1978), better known by his stage name Dwele is a soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan.
Gardner was raised on the west side of Detroit in a musical family. He played piano from the age of six, later taking up trumpet, bass and guitar. He was deeply affected by the fatal shooting of his father outside his home when he was age ten, later stating "I learned to put my emotions into music; it was my therapy." He cites Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Roy Ayers, Miles Davis, and Freddie Hubbard as favorite artists, and took inspiration from hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, becoming an MC, and working with Slum Village. Gardner recorded a demo in his bedroom, called, The Rize, and sold it out of the trunk of his car. He had about 100 copies, which sold out within a week. He caught the ears of local heroes Slum Village and more specifically their world-renowned producer J Dilla.Slum Village invited Dwele to sing the hook of the song "Tainted" for their album Trinity (Past, Present and Future). It became an instant classic and led to more high profile work with female rapper Bahamadia, the all-star group Lucy Pearl and London's New Sector Movement. Dwele signed to Virgin Records in 2003, who released his debut album, Subject, which mixed neo soul and hip hop. In a 2005 review in The Independent, his style was summed up: "Dwele's rooted in vintage soul but isn't stuck in the past, overly reverential or an exercise in pastiche - there's a major hip-hop edge which betrays his original incarnation as a rapper." A second album, Some Kinda..., followed in 2005. He then later signed with RT Music Group and KOCH records in March, 2008 He released his fourth album titled, W.ants W.orld W.omen on June 29, 2010. Dwele was featured on the first single off of Kanye West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The song was entitled "Power" and was leaked on May 28, 2010.

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Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. Known for his powerful vocals, he is widely considered an icon of alternative rock.
He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums by other artists. In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album as a soundtrack for the film Into the Wild (2007). His second album, Ukulele Songs, along with a live DVD titled Water on the Road, was released on 31 May 2011.
Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, son of Karen Lee Vedder and Edward Louis Severson, Jr. His parents divorced in 1965, when Vedder was one year old. His mother soon remarried a man named Peter Mueller, an attorney, and Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father. His adopted name became Edward Mueller. While living in Evanston, Vedder's family fostered seven younger children in a group home.

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El Chapo de Sinaloa
Ernesto Pérez (born in Badiraguato, Sinaloa) better know by his stage name El Chapo de Sinaloa (Spanish: The Shorty from Sinaloa), is a Mexican norteño/banda singer.
He first played with local groups at age 11 as a clarinetist. Later, he learned to play bass, and found work as a session musician with regional Mexican labels. In the 1990s he signed with EMI Latin and launched a solo career. Since then he has released over a dozen albums, which have been successful both in Mexico and the United States; he has recorded for Sony Discos and D Disa. His 2007 album Te Va a Gustar was his most successful in America and was nominated for a Latin Grammy.

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El Potro De Sinaloa
José Eulogio Hernandez, better known by his stage name El Potro de Sinaloa, is a Mexican conjunto singer born in Tapias, Sinaloa.
Both of his brothers, Ignacio and Tomas, had careers as musicians in Mexico. Early in his career he adopted his stage name (which means "the colt of Sinaloa"), and became a popular performer throughout the country. In 1996 he signed with Sony Records; he later recorded for EMI and then Lideres, a Universal Records subsidiary. In 2007 he was nominated for a Latin Grammy award.

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Eldar Djangirov
Eldar E. Djangirov, most commonly known as simply Eldar, is a jazz pianist. He was born on January 28, 1987 in Kyrgyzstan (ex-Soviet Union) and then moved to Kansas, United States. He currently resides in New York City.
He began playing the piano when he was three years old. The first piece he remembers learning was C Jam Blues. He later took classical lessons and was "discovered" at age 9 by the late New York City jazz aficionado Charles McWhorter, who saw him play at a festival in Siberia. The family moved to Kansas City, drawn there in large part by the city's jazz history. During his Kansas City years, even before reaching his teens, Eldar already started building a reputation as a true child prodigy, appearing on Marian McPartland's award-winning NPR show, Piano Jazz, when he was only 12 years old, being the youngest performer to ever appear on her show. Eldar attended Interlochen Center for the Arts in his young teenage years. Eldar attended St. Elizabeth's grade school and the Barstow School in Kansas City, Missouri. Eventually, the family moved to San Diego where he attended the Francis W. Parker School (San Diego), and then to the Los Angeles area where he attended University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.

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Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella", was an American jazz and song vocalist. With a vocal range spanning three octaves (D♭3 to D♭6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.
Fitzgerald was a notable interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Over the course of her 59-year recording career, she was the winner of 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush.
Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, the child of a common-law marriage between William and Temperance "Tempie" Fitzgerald. The pair separated soon after her birth and she and her mother went to Yonkers, New York, where they eventually moved in with Tempie's longtime boyfriend, Joseph Da Silva. Fitzgerald's half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923. She and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday School.

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Elliot Scheiner
Elliot Scheiner is a record producer and record engineer. Scheiner has received 24 Grammy Award nominations, 7 of which he won, and he has been awarded four Emmy nominations, one Emmy award for his work with the Eagles on their farewell tour broadcast, three TEC Awards nominations, a TEC Hall of Fame inductee, and recipient of the Surround Pioneer Award. Elliot holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music and is one of the only Americans to be awarded the Master of Sound honor from the Japan Audio Society.
In 2012 he received his 24th Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Surround Sound Album for Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs (Super Deluxe Edition), which he also won, making him a 7 time Grammy Award winner.
He started as Phil Ramone's assistant at A&R Recording in New York City, and quickly advanced to an engineer. By 1973 he had begun to freelance as an engineer and producer, becoming the first person ever to work as a freelance engineer for other artists. Scheiner is considered to be among the most accomplished sound engineers and producers in his field [not identified].

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Emily King
Emily King (born July 10, 1985) is a Grammy-nominated American singer and songwriter. She started her career in 2004 and her debut album East Side Story was released three years later in August 2007. In December 2007, King was listed as a Grammy nominee for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
Born in New York City in 1985, King grew up in a small apartment on the lower east side. Her parents were a singing duo who performed and traveled regularly, bringing her and her older brother along with them. At age 16, King left school to pursue her music career. She began playing shows in restaurants and venues around New York City including CBGB'S [1] and The Bitter End. [2]
Signing her first record deal with J Records in 2004, her debut album "East Side Story" was released 3 years later in August 2007. It went on to earn a Grammy nomination for "Best Contemporary R&B Album of the Year." During that time King toured with John Legend and Floetry. She also opened for various artists such as Nas, Alicia Keys, Chaka Khan and Erykah Badu. After parting ways with her label, King continues her work independently. Her sophomore EP entitled Seven is scheduled to be released on iTunes on July 12, 2011.

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Emmanuel Pahud
Emmanuel Pahud (b. January 27, 1970) is a Swiss flute player.
He was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His father is of French and Swiss background and his mother is French. The Berlin-based flutist is most known for his baroque and classical flute repertory.
Pahud was born into a non-musical family. As a young boy living in Italy, the sounds of the flute captivated Pahud. From the age of four to the age of 22, he was tutored and mentored by flutists such as François Binet, Carlos Bruneel and Aurèle Nicolet. Classically trained at the Conservatoire de Paris, he leapt into the international orchestral and solo music scene when he joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1992.
His versatility in music styles over the years has “signalled the arrival of a new master flautist” (The Guardian). He plays in diverse music genres, whether baroque, jazz, contemporary, classical, orchestral, or chamber music.
Travelling has been a big part of Emmanuel Pahud's life from birth. His father worked for a U.S. company, and the family moved repeatedly during his childhood. However, this would only shape Pahud's international outlook for his future. Only six weeks after Pahud was born, his parents moved to Baghdad for one year. They moved again when he was 1 to Paris, where Emmanuel's younger brother was born. In 1972, they then moved to Madrid for two years, and in 1974, finally settled in Rome for four years. In their apartment building in Rome, lived the Swiss-French Binet family whose four children played musical instruments. The father (François) was a flautist who studied in Zurich and Paris but stopped performing in later years. At the age of four, Pahud first heard the flute. As the eldest son Philippe played the Flute Concerto No. 1 (Mozart) K.313 in G Major, it set the course to a remarkable chapter of Pahud's life. He recalls:

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Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
In the mid 1960s, Clapton departed from the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand". Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed Cream, a power trio with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop." For most of the 1970s, Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of J.J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, another band he formed and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded by Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

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Eric Prydz
Eric Sheridan Prydz (born July 19, 1976) is a Swedish DJ and producer based in London, United Kingdom. The pronunciation of his surname is often questioned; it is pronounced "prids", but when under his alias, Pryda, it is pronounced "pride-ah". In October 2011, DJ Magazine announced the results of their annual Top 100 DJ Poll, where Prydz placed at #46.
Until recently, Prydz had only played shows in and around Europe as he has a fear of flying. In December 2008, Prydz was forced to cancel several dates in Australia, New Zealand and Malta after panic attacks prevented him from boarding the outbound flight.
On Armin van Buuren's radio show "A State of Trance" in February 2011, it was announced that Prydz recently became a father.
His debut live show called "EPIC" (Eric Prydz in Concert) was held on April 2nd, 2011 at the O2 Brixton Academy Arena in London where he played most of his own production, as well as unfinished and upcoming tracks. The second show was at Global Gathering on July 29th and the third instalment at the Alexandra Palace on November 26th.

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Fabolous
John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper. His first music appearance was with his 2001 release Ghetto Fabolous. He is also known for his hit singles "Can't Deny It", "Young'n (Holla Back)", "Breathe", "Make Me Better" and "Throw It in the Bag". Fabolous is also signed to Diddy's Ciroc Management company.
Fabolous was born John David Jackson on November 18, 1977 of Dominican and African American descent. He grew up in Brevoort Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
While in high school in twelfth grade, Fabolous began to pursue a rap career. He was invited to rap live on DJ Clue's radio show and on WQHT Hot 97, where he was signed to Desert Storm Records. He was featured on several DJ Clue mixtapes and mixtapes with Roc-A-Fella artists.^{[citation needed]} This earned Fabolous and Desert Storm a distribution deal with Elektra Records.
Fabolous released his debut album, Ghetto Fabolous, on September 11, 2001. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling over 143,000 copies in its first week. The album's first single, "Can't Deny It", was produced by Rick Rock and features a chorus by Nate Dogg interpolating Tupac Shakur's song "Ambitionz Az a Ridah". It charted on the Billboard Hot 100, along with two of the subsequent singles. The other charting singles were "Young'n (Holla Back)", which is produced by The Neptunes and "Trade It All", which features vocals from Jagged Edge and is produced by DJ Clue and Duro.

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Fantasia (singer)
Fantasia Monique Barrino (born June 30, 1984), commonly known simply as Fantasia, is an American R&B singer and actress. She rose to fame as the winner of the third season of the reality television series American Idol in 2004. Following her victory, she released her debut single, "I Believe", which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequently, she released her debut album, Free Yourself, which went on to be certified Platinum by the RIAA and garnered Barrino three Grammy nominations in 2006.
In 2006, she released her second album, Fantasia, which featured the single "When I See U" which topped the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for eight weeks. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA and received three Grammy nominations in 2008. She then played the part of Celie in the Broadway musical The Color Purple, for which she won a 2007 Theatre World Award. Her third studio album, Back to Me, was released worldwide on August 24, 2010 and features the single "Bittersweet," which peaked in the top ten on the R&B chart. The single won her a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. As of February 2012, Barrino has sold 2,842,000 albums and 1,425,000 tracks in the United States.

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Fat Joe
Joseph Antonio Cartagena (born August 19, 1970), better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an American rapper, CEO of Terror Squad Entertainment, and member of musical groups D.I.T.C. and Terror Squad.
Fat Joe's first album was Represent, released in 1993, followed by Jealous One's Envy in 1995. From 1998 to 2006, he was signed to Atlantic Records, releasing four albums under the label, Don Cartagena in 1998, Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.) in 2001, Loyalty in 2002, and All or Nothing in 2005. Around the release of All or Nothing, Fat Joe became involved in a highly publicized feud with another New York City-based rapper 50 Cent, who attacked Fat Joe in his song "Piggy Bank". His most popular song in which he performed was his Remy Ma duet "Lean Back" with Terror Squad. The song was a number-one hit in the summer of 2004.
Starting in 2006, when his album Me, Myself, & I was released, Fat Joe was signed to Imperial Records, which distributes through Terror Squad Entertainment. His follow up album wasThe Elephant in the Room, which was released in 2008; Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 (J.O.S.E. 2), the sequel to Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E.), was released in October 2009. His tenth album The Darkside Vol. 1 was released on July 27, 2010.

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Feist (singer)
Leslie Feist (born 13 February 1976), known professionally as Feist, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene.
Feist launched her solo music career in 1999 with the release Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down). Her subsequent studio albums, Let It Die, released in 2004, and The Reminder, released in 2007, were critically acclaimed and commercially successful, selling over 2.5 million copies. The Reminder earned Feist four Grammy nominations, including a nomination for Best New Artist. She was the top winner at the 2008 Juno Awards in Calgary with five awards, including Songwriter of the Year, Artist of the Year, Pop Album of the Year, Album of the Year and Single of the Year. Her fourth studio album, Metals, was released on 30 September 2011.
Feist received three Juno awards at the 2012 ceremony: Artist of the Year, Adult Alternative Album of the Year for Metals, and Music DVD of the Year for her documentary Look at What the Light Did Now.

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Fergie (singer)
Stacy Ann Ferguson (born March 27, 1975), better known by her stage name Fergie, is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer, television host and actress. She was a member of the children's television series Kids Incorporated and the girl group Wild Orchid. She is the female vocalist for the hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas with whom she has achieved chart success worldwide. Her debut solo album spawned five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, three of which went to number one.
Having left Wild Orchid in 2001, Ferguson joined The Black Eyed Peas. With The Black Eyed Peas she enjoyed a series of hits and albums before releasing her debut album The Dutchess, in September 2006, to success. The Black Eyed Peas enjoyed further success with the release of their third album with Ferguson, The E.N.D.; they attained their first string of Billboard Hot 100 number one songs. She began touring in 2009/2010 with her group and she launched her debut fragrance, Outspoken, under Avon in May 2010.

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Frank Macchia
Frank Macchia (born October 12, 1958) is an American composer, arranger, saxophonist, and multi-reed player in Los Angeles. Originally from San Francisco he began playing clarinet at age 10 and later studied bassoon, saxophone and flute. At 14 he began studying musical composition and writing jazz and classical music pieces. He is noted for his large catalog of eclectic and virtuosic original compositions spanning jazz, classical, Cajun, Americana, experimental, New Age, Spoken Word, and jazz-fusion styles as well as his extensive work as a composer and orchestrator for live television and television and film soundtracks. Macchia has recently^[when?] been noted for his jazz and orchestral arrangements of traditional American folk songs.
In 1976 Macchia attended Berklee College of Music where he studied woodwinds with Joe Viola, Joseph Allard, and Steve Grossman. His composition and arranging teachers included Herb Pomeroy, Phil Wilson, Tony Texiera, Ken Pullig, and Greg Hopkins.
In 1979 Macchia received Down Beat magazine’s DB award (second place) for best original big band composition. In 1980 he was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to compose a jazz/classical suite for large ensemble. After earning a degree in Traditional Composition, Macchia taught at Berklee from 1980 to 1981.

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Frank Proto
Frank Proto American composer and bassist. Proto was born on July 18, 1941, Brooklyn, New York. Double Bass student of Fred Zimmermann and David Walter. Graduate of the Manhattan School of Music 1966 Master of Music. Self-taught composer. Proto has played and composed for a wide range of ensembles and soloists including Dave Brubeck, Eddie Daniels, Duke Ellington, Cleo Laine, Sherrill Milnes, Gerry Mulligan, Roberta Peters, Francois Rabbath, Ruggiero Ricci, Doc Severinsen and Richard Stoltzman.
Proto worked as a double bassist and composer-in-residence with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1966 to 1997. The orchestra premiered over 25 new works including concertos and solo works for Violin, Cello, Double Bass, Clarinet, Trumpet, Tuba and Percussion. He also composed and arranged music for Young People's and Pops concerts including Casey at the Bat - an American Folk Tale for Narrator and Orchestra and A Carmen Fantasy for Trumpet and Orchestra.
Proto is among the most prolific composers of music for the double bass. His output includes 7 works with orchestra and over 30 solo and chamber music works. He has also composed extensively for the violin, viola and clarinet. His 2007 CD/DVD Bridges - Eddie Daniels plays the music of Frank Proto consisting of a series of works written for clarinet virtuoso Eddie Daniels was nominated for a Grammy Award.

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Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra,

/sɨˈnɑːtrə/, (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1953 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity.
He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as Ring-a-Ding-Ding!, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".

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Fred Hammond
Fred Hammond (born December 29, 1961]]. in Detroit, Michigan) is a gospel singer, bass guitar player, and record producer.
Hammond has been active both as a member of the gospel performing group Commissioned, and as a solo artist (currently for Verity Records). He is a multiple Grammy-, Dove-, Stellar- award winner and nominee as a performer, producer and writer.
Hammond first gained recognition while playing bass guitar for the gospel group The Winans. By 1985 he was one of the six original members of the group Commissioned, participating in 10 of the group's 12 albums.
After his stint with Commissioned ended, he regained fame in the gospel community after selling millions of albums with his musical group Radical For Christ.
In 2002 Hammond returned to the group Commissioned (now with members Keith Staten, Marvin Sapp, Mitchell Jones, Karl Reid, Michael Williams, and Marcus Cole) to produce the Commissioned Reunion Live album.
Hammond produced Make Me Like The Moon, a stirring gospel ballad co-written by Chante Moore and Kenny Lattimore for their 2006 double-CD of gospel and R&B love songs entitled Uncovered/Covered (released October 10, 2006 by LaFace/Verity/Zomba Music Group). He also performs with Sean Combs on the album Thank You.

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Freddy Cole
Lionel Frederick Cole (born October 15, 1931) is an American jazz singer and pianist, whose recording career has spanned over fifty years. He is leader of the Freddy Cole Quartet, which regularly tours the US, Europe, the Far East and South America.
He is the brother of musicians Nat King Cole and Ike Cole, father of Lionel Cole and uncle of Natalie Cole.
Cole was born to Edward and Paulina Cole, and grew up in Chicago with siblings Eddie, Ike and Nat King Cole. He began playing piano at the age of six, and continued his musical education at the Roosevelt Institute in Chicago. He moved to New York in 1951, where he studied at the Juilliard School of Music, before completing a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Following the moderate success of Whispering Grass in 1953 Cole spent several months on the road with Johnny Coles and Benny Golson as the Earl Bostic band. He went on to work with Grover Washington, Jr. and to record jingles for various companies, including Turner Classic Movies

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Geno Delafose
Geno Delafose (born February 6, 1972 in Eunice, Louisiana) is a zydeco accordionist and singer. He is one of the younger generations of the genre who has created the sound known as the nouveau zydeco. His sound is deeply rooted in traditional Creole music with strong influences from Cajun music and also country and western. His father is the famous zydeco accordion player John Delafose.
Delafose was born and raised in Eunice, Louisiana. At the age of eight, he joined his father's band, the Eunice Playboys as a rubboard player and continued to play with the band until his father's death in 1994. He also appeared on the several of the bands recordings. He switched to the accordion in the early 1990s and started to play as an opening act for his father.
In 1994, he debuted with album French Rockin' Boogie on Rounder Records. The name of this album also became the name of his band with whom he still plays with today. He released two more albums from the label, before signing with Time Square label to release Everybody's Dancin' in 2003.

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George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE (born 3 January 1926) is an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he has described as "nonsense"—in reference to his extensive involvement on each of The Beatles' original albums. He is considered one of the greatest record producers of all time, with 30 number one hit singles in the UK and 23 number one hits in the USA.
Influenced by a range of musical styles, encompassing Cole Porter and Johnny Dankworth, he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1947 to 1950, studying piano and oboe. Following his graduation, he worked for the BBC's classical music department, then joined EMI in 1950. Martin produced comedy and novelty records in the early 1950s, working with the likes of Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan.
In a career spanning over six decades, Martin has worked in music, film, television and live performance. He has also held a number of senior executive roles at media companies and contributes to a wide range of charitable causes, including his work for the Prince's Trust and the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

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Gerald Levert
Gerald Levert (July 13, 1966 – November 10, 2006) was an American R&B singer. Gerald Levert sang with his brother, Sean Levert, and friend Marc Gordon in the R&B trio LeVert. He was also a part of LSG, an R&B supergroup comprising Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, and Levert. His father, Eddie Levert, is the lead singer of the 1970s soul group The O'Jays.
Gerald Levert was born to The O'Jays frontman Eddie Levert and his wife Martha in Canton, Ohio on July 13, 1966. Levert grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and due to his father's career, Levert would travel with the band regularly. While in high school, Levert's inclination towards music became apparent when he formed the R&B trio LeVert, with his younger brother Sean Levert (deceased, March 30, 2008) and friend Marc Gordon in 1984. Four of the group's seven albums went platinum. These include, I Get Hot in 1985, Bloodline in 1986, The Big Throwdown in 1987, and Just Coolin in 1988. Among the group's memorable hits were, "(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind", "Casanova", and "ABC-123" (not to be confused with The Jackson 5 hit with a similar title).

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Gerard Way
Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977) is an American musician and comic book writer who has served as lead vocalist and co-founder of the band My Chemical Romance since its formation in 2001. He is also the writer of the Eisner Award-winning comic book The Umbrella Academy.
Gerard Way was born April 9, 1977 in Summit, New Jersey to Donna Lee (née Rush) and Donald Way. He has Italian ancestry on his mother's side and Scottish ancestry on his father's. He was raised in Belleville, New Jersey and first began singing publicly in the fourth grade, when he played the role of Peter Pan in a school musical production. His maternal grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, was a great creative influence who taught him to sing, paint, and perform from a young age; he has said that "she has taught me everything I know". Also, while in elementary school, the glam metal band Bon Jovi was instrumental in forming his love of music.
At the age of 15, Way was held at gunpoint, as he said in an April 2008 Rolling Stone interview: "I got held up with a .357 Magnum, had a gun pointed to my head and put on the floor, execution-style." He went on to say that "no matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith." At age 16, Way appeared on an episode of Sally Jesse Raphael which discussed the controversy surrounding the publicizing of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes in comic books [1].

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Gil Norton
Gil Norton is a British record producer known for his work with such bands as Pixies, Echo & the Bunnymen, Foo Fighters, Tribe, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Feeder, The Distillers, Maxïmo Park, Counting Crows, Terrorvision, The Triffids, Del Amitri, James, The Feelers, The Beekeepers, General Fiasco and Span.
In 2001, he began to work with The Strokes on their debut album Is This It, but he was replaced by Gordon Raphael.

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Giles Martin
Giles Martin (born 9 October 1969) is an English record producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the son of Sir George Martin, famed producer of almost all of The Beatles' records.
Giles Martin grew up without much awareness of The Beatles, and was discouraged by his father from pursuing a career in music lest the inevitable comparisons should be made. Giles ignored the advice, first playing in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful band Velvet Jones, then writing jingles in college, then working in various musical capacities in the UK. In 1995, he was appointed co-music director for the television and radio music countdown show, The Great Music Experience. He worked on the Party at the Palace concert to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, for which he also produced the subsequent album and DVD.
Martin's first notable producer role came with the high-selling UK band Kula Shaker. After that, his production and mixing credits came to include Jeff Beck, Elvis Costello, INXS, and Kate Bush. In 2004 Martin produced Hayley Westenra's multi-platinum album Pure, the UK’s fastest-selling classical album of all time.

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Glen Hansard
Glen Hansard (born 21 April 1970 in Dublin, Ireland) is the Academy Award–winning principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for Irish group The Frames and one half of folk rock duo, The Swell Season. He is also known for his acting, having appeared in the BAFTA winning film The Commitments, as well as starring in the film Once. His song, "Falling Slowly", from Once, co-written with his co-star Markéta Irglová, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2007, and earned him ten other major awards or nominations between 2007-08.
Hansard quit school at age 13 to begin busking on local Dublin streets. He formed The Frames in 1990, and they've been staples of the Irish music scene ever since. Their first album, Another Love Song, was released on Island Records in 1991, and their most recent, The Cost, was released in 2006.^{[citation needed]}
Hansard came to international attention as guitar player Outspan Foster in the 1991 Alan Parker film The Commitments, after attending the New York Film Academy School of Acting. He has often stated that he regretted taking the role, because he felt it distracted him from his music career. In 2003, he presented the television programme Other Voices: Songs from a Room, which showcased Irish music talent on RTÉ.

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Gloria Gaither
Gloria Gaither (born March 4, 1942) is a Christian songwriter, author, speaker, editor, and academic. She is the wife of Bill Gaither and also sang in the Bill Gaither Trio, one of the most influential groups in recent Christian music.
She was born Gloria Lee Sickal in 1942 in Michigan, a daughter of pastor Lee Sickal and Dorothy Sickal. She spent most of her childhood and high school career in the Battle Creek area of Michigan, working a brief time for the Kellogg Company. When Sickal graduated from high school, she attended Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. There, she triple majored in English, French, and Sociology. Upon her graduation, she took a job at Alexandria Monroe High School as a French teacher. There, she met Bill Gaither, who was teaching English at the time. She married Gaither in 1962, and they began writing songs recreationally. By the end of the 1960s, Gloria, Bill, and his brother Danny Gaither were touring steadily, as the Bill Gaither Trio.
After touring with the Bill Gaither Trio, Gaither drew her focus to the Gaither Homecoming series. She has been an active presence in every video production. Gaither is currently the scriptwriter and narrator for the Homecoming series. In 1991, she attended Ball State University and received a Master of Arts in Literature. She taught as an adjunct professor at Anderson University for periods in the late 80s and late 90s. In 1996, she spearheaded the creation of Gaither Family Reources in Alexandria, Indiana, and currently serves as co-owner and managing director. In 2002, Gaither launched Homecoming: The Magazine, and she currently acts as writer, interviewer, and contributing editor.

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Gordon Goodwin
Gordon L. Goodwin (born 1954) is an American studio pianist, saxophonist, composer, arranger and conductor. He now lives in Southern California with his wife Lisa, daughter Madison and two sons, Trevor and Garrison.
Gordon Goodwin was born in Wichita, Kansas.
Gordon Goodwin began his musical education at Cal State Northridge with Joel Leach and Bill Calkins. He wrote his first big band chart when he was in the 7th grade, called "Hang Loose". After graduation he was recruited to Louie Bellson's big band, where he played with the likes of Pete Christlieb and Don Menza. He went on to play under Les Hooper and Grant Geissman.
Since then, Goodwin has risen to prominence in the American studio music scene with his big band, The Big Phat Band. In the band, Goodwin plays piano and occasionally both the soprano and tenor saxophone. This band brings together the talents of such players as Wayne Bergeron, Eric Marienthal and Andy Martin. These detailed music charts are all written or adapted by Gordon Goodwin. Several of his songs are plays on old jazz tunes: a prime example is "Sing, Sang, Sung" which mimics the famous Louis Prima song "Sing, Sing, Sing". Under Goodwin's direction, the band has released five albums: "Swingin' For the Fences", which received two Grammy nominations, and "XXL", which received three. "The Phat Pack" was released on June 13, 2006, and "Bah, Humduck! a Looney Tunes Christmas (Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture)" was also released in 2006. "Act Your Age", was released on September 30, 2008. Their most recent album, "That's How We Roll", was released on April 12, 2011. Goodwin won the 2012 Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement for his Arrangement of George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue.

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Greg Wells
Greg Wells is a multiple Grammy nominated musician, record producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. Wells has produced and written with Adele, The All American Rejects, Katy Perry, Kid Cudi, Weezer, Pink, Theophilus London, Rufus Wainwright, OneRepublic, Mika, Otep, Deftones, Aerosmith, Burt Bacharach, Alexz Johnson, Colbie Caillat, Jamie Cullum, Jessie Baylin, Kyosuke Himuro and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Creeper Lagoon, Celine Dion, Crash Test Dummies, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, Team Sleep, Jars of Clay, and the Count Basie Orchestra.

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Gregg Wattenberg
Gregg Wattenberg is a Grammy Award nominated songwriter, music producer, and musician residing in New York City, New York.
Wattenberg co-produced Train's #1 hit single "Hey, Soul Sister". He also co-wrote and co-produced Train's #1 hit single "If It's Love". He co-wrote the Daughtry #1 hit single "It's Not Over", O.A.R.'s #1 song "Shattered (Turn the Car Around)", and Goo Goo Dolls Top 10 Single "Let Love In". He produced Five for Fighting's #1 hit singles "Superman (It's Not Easy)" and "100 Years" and co-wrote and produced Top 5 AC single "Slice". Wattenberg also produced the album What If It All Means Something by Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk.

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Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (German pronunciation: [ˈɡʊstaf ˈmaːlɐ]; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. Then his family moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava) where Mahler grew up.
As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

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Gustavo Santaolalla
Gustavo Alfredo Santaolalla (born 19 August 1951) is an Argentine musician, film composer and producer. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score in two consecutive years, for Brokeback Mountain in 2005 and Babel in 2006.
Santaolalla was born in El Palomar, Argentina. His professional music career began in 1967, when he co-founded the group Arco Iris, an Argentine band that pioneered the fusion of rock and Latin American folk as part of 'rock nacional'. The band adopted the lifestyle of a yogic commune guided by former model Danais Wynnycka (known as Dana) and her partner, musician Ara Tokatlian. The band had a few hits, such as Mañanas Campestres ("Country Mornings"), and made inroads into different forms of expression (notably a ballet piece for Oscar Aráiz), but Santaolalla felt constricted by the strict requirements of Dana's teachings, which prohibited meat, alcohol and drugs. He left the group in 1975.
A year later, he assembled Soluna, in which he played alongside teenage pianist and singer Alejandro Lerner and his then-girlfriend Monica Campins. Together they recorded just one album (Energía Natural, 1977). Santaolalla left for Los Angeles, where he adopted a rock and roll sound and made the rounds with his band Wet Picnic, together with ex-Crucis member Anibal Kerpel. He briefly returned to Argentina in 1981, to produce Leon Gieco's Pensar en Nada and record his first solo album.

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Guy Clark
Guy Clark (born 6 November 1941) is an American Texas country and folk singer, musician, songwriter, recording artist, and performer. He has released more than twenty albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, and Rodney Crowell.
Clark was born in Monahans, Texas. His early musical influences were the Spanish music and songs he heard in West Texas.
He is an accomplished luthier and often plays his own guitars. He achieved success as a songwriter with Jerry Jeff Walker’s recordings of "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting For A Train". Artists such as Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, Rodney Crowell and The Highwaymen have recorded Clark’s songs.Emmylou Harris has accompanied him on several recordings, particularly his own version of "Desperados Waiting For A Train" on his first album, Old No. 1, released in 1975. Clark is frequently referred to as "The Fifth Highwayman".

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Hank Jones
Henry "Hank" Jones (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He was also honored in 2003 with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award. In 2008, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On April 13, 2009, the University of Hartford presented Jones with a Doctorate Degree for his musical accomplishments.
Jones recorded over sixty albums under his own name, and countless others as a sideman.
Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Henry "Hank" Jones moved to Pontiac, Michigan, where his father, Henry Jones Sr. a Baptist deacon and lumber inspector, bought a three-story brick home. One of seven children, Jones was raised in a musical family. His mother Olivia Jones sang; his two older sisters studied piano; and his two younger brothers—Thad, a trumpeter, and Elvin, a drummer—also became prominent jazz musicians. He studied piano at an early age and came under the influence of Earl Hines, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, and Art Tatum. By the age of 13 Jones was performing locally in Michigan and Ohio. While playing with territory bands in Grand Rapids and Lansing in 1944 he met Lucky Thompson, who invited Jones to work in New York City at the Onyx Club with Hot Lips Page.

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Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. (born September 11, 1967) is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with 16 million in certified sales. He has seven top-20 US albums, and ten number-one US jazz albums, earning more number-one albums than any other artist in the US jazz chart history.
Connick's best selling album in the United States is his 1993 Christmas album When My Heart Finds Christmas, which also is one of the best selling Christmas albums in the United States. His highest charting album, is his 2004 release Only You which reached #5 in the U.S. and #6 in Britain. He has won three Grammy awards and two Emmy Awards. He played Grace's husband, Dr. Leo Markus, on the TV sitcom Will & Grace from 2002 to 2006.
Connick began his acting career as a tail gunner in the World War II film, Memphis Belle, in 1990. He played a serial killer in Copycat in 1995, before being cast as jet fighter pilot in the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. Connick's first role as a leading man was in 1998's Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock. His first thriller film since Copycat came in 2007, when he played the violent ex-husband in Bug, before two romantic comedies, 2007's P.S. I Love You, and the leading man in New in Town with Renée Zellweger in 2009.

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Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor, appearing in The Jack Benny Program, as well as the 1953 films Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and The Robe. In 1957, Shearer played the precursor to the Eddie Haskell character in the pilot episode for the television series Leave It to Beaver, but his parents decided not to let him continue in the role so that he could have a normal childhood.

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Henry Krieger
Henry Krieger (born February 9, 1945 in New York City) is an American composer.
Krieger wrote the music for the Broadway shows Dreamgirls (1981, with lyrics and book by Tom Eyen), The Tap Dance Kid (1983), and Side Show (1997), as well as other works of musical theatre.
He was nominated for the Tony Awards for Best Score for both Dreamgirls and Side Show, won a Grammy Award for the cast album of Dreamgirls and received three Academy Award nominations for the songs he wrote for the 2006 film.
Born in New York City, Krieger grew up in Westchester County, New York and attended school in Scarborough, New York, which had a theatre that was a replica of the Helen Hayes Theatre. There he played in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe and Ruddigore. He became interested in theatre and the dramatic arts, and he later studied creative and liberal arts at the American University in Washington, D.C., and Columbia University in New York.

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Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound. He was one of the first jazz musicians to embrace music synthesizers and funk music (characterized by syncopated drum beats). Hancock's music is often melodic and accessible; he has had many songs "cross over" and achieved success among pop audiences. His music embraces elements of funk and soul while adopting freer stylistic elements from jazz. In his jazz improvisation, he possesses a unique creative blend of jazz, blues, and modern classical music, with harmonic stylings much like the styles of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Hancock's best-known solo works include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man" (later performed by dozens of musicians, including bandleader Mongo Santamaría), "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the singles "I Thought It Was You" and "Rockit". His 2007 tribute album River: The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album ever to win the award after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.

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Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg, having scored all but one of his films since 1979.
He has also composed a few concert works including one opera, The Fly, based on the plot (though not his score) of Cronenberg's 1986 film premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 2 July 2008., a short piece Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a short overture for the Swiss 21st Century Symphony Orchestra.
Shore is a three-time winner of the Academy Award, and has also won three Golden Globe Awards and four Grammy Awards. He is the uncle of film composer Ryan Shore. Shore serves on the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Berklee College of Music.
Shore was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the son of Bernice (née Ash) and Mac Shore. He studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston after graduating from Forest Hill Collegiate Institute. From 1969 to 1972, he performed with the group Lighthouse. In 1970 he was the music director of Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz's short-lived TV program The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour. Shore wrote the music for Canadian magician Doug Henning's magical/musical Spellbound in 1974, and he was the musical director for Lorne Michaels' hugely influential late-night NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980, appearing in many musical sketches, including Howard Shore and His All-Nurse Band, and dressed as a beekeeper for a John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd performance of the Slim Harpo classic I'm a King Bee. Shore also suggested the name for The Blues Brothers to Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.

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India.Arie
India.Arie (born India Arie Simpson; October 3, 1975) is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and record producer . She has sold over 3.3 million records in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 15 nominations, including Best R&B Album.
Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado. Her musical skills were encouraged by both parents early in life. Her mother Joyce is a former singer (she was signed to Motown as a teenager and opened for Stevie Wonder and Al Green) and is now her stylist. She has an older brother named J'On. After her parents divorced, Simpson's mother moved the family to Atlanta, Georgia when she was thirteen. Simpson had taken up a succession of musical instruments throughout her schooling in Denver, but her interest in the guitar while attending the Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, led to a personal revelation about songwriting and performing. "When I started tapping into my own sensitivity, I started to understand people better. It was a direct result of writing songs", she said at the press release of her debut album, Acoustic Soul.

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Isabel Bayrakdarian

Isabel Bayrakdarian (born 1974 in Zahlé, Lebanon) is a Grammy Award-nominated Armenian Canadian opera singer.
Born in Lebanon in 1974, she moved to Canada as a teenager. Bayrakdarian graduated in 1997 from the University of Toronto with an honours B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science.
Isabel Bayrakdarian is noted as much for her stage presence as for her musicality, and she has followed a unique career path. Since winning first prize at the 2000 Operalia International Opera Competition founded by Plácido Domingo, she has launched an international opera career, appearing at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, La Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Salzburg Festival, Dresden Semperoper, Bavarian State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company among others.
Her roles have included Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Romilda in Serse, Emilia in Flavio, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Marzelline in Fidelio, Adina in L'elisir d'amore, Norina in Don Pasquale, Leila in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, Teresa in Benvenuto Cellini, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, the Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen, Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites and Catherine in A View from the Bridge.

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Israel Houghton
Israel Houghton (pronounced, hoh’-tin) (born May 19, 1971) is an American Christian singer and worship leader, mostly known for his cross-cultural style of Christian music that fuses elements from gospel, jazz and rock. Houghton is usually credited as Israel & New Breed and currently signed to Integrity Music. Houghton is a worship leader at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. "All Around" is on the Digital Praise PC game Guitar Praise.
He has earned two gold-selling albums, six Dove Awards, two Stellar Awards, a Soul Train Award, and four Grammy® Awards—for "Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album" for The Power of One, “Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album” for A Deeper Level, “Best Traditional Gospel Album” for Alive In South Africa, and “Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album” for Love God, Love People.
Israel produced an album by Michael Gungor called "Bigger Than My Imagination". This album was described as "one of the year's best worship albums" in a 2003 Christianity Today review.

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Issac Delgado
Issac Delgado (born Issac Felipe Delgado-Ramirez on September 11, 1962 in Marianao, Habana, Cuba) is one of the founders of the band NG La Banda and is a popular salsa and timba performer.

His father, Luis Delgado, was a tailor and his mother, Lina Ramirez, was an actress, dancer and singer in the Teatro Musical de La Habana. When he was ten years old he entered the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory where he studied violoncello, an instrument that did not interest him. At twelve he left the conservatory, and pursued the study of sports and football. He later graduated in sport education. At 18, Isaac joined the group "Proyecto" at the request of the pianist, Gonzalo Rubalcaba. This sparked his innate love for music. It was at this point that he decided to study vocal technique with one of the best vocal instructors in Cuba, Mariana De Gonish. He also enrolled in the school for professional musicians, "Ignacio Cervantes".

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J. D. Crowe
James Dee Crowe (August 27, 1937 in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American banjo player and bluegrass band leader. He first became known during his four year stint with Jimmy Martin in the 1950s.
Crowe began playing the banjo early on and was offered a job with Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys in mid 1950s. He cut his first recordings with Jimmy Martin on December 1, 1956 and his last on August 17, 1960, recording a total of 33 songs on Decca Records. In the late 1960s, Crowe formed the Kentucky Mountain Boys, principally performing in the Lexington, Kentucky region. By the early 1970s, Crowe changed the band's name to The New South and included material from rock and country music sources. Crowe's New South band is widely considered one of the most influential bluegrass groups since the 1970s. Many influential musicians have been a part of the band over the years, including Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, and Doyle Lawson.
Some banjo bridges have "Crowe" spacing. The strings remain equally spaced, but the outside strings are then, at the bridge, 1/8" farther apart. Thus, each string is 1/32" farther apart than for standard spacing.

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J. Moss
J. Moss (born James Moss, December 25, 1971), Detroit, Michigan is an American singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan as James Moss went to Cass Technical High School, the son of Gospel star Bill Moss, Sr., James spent much of his childhood on tours with his father's popular group, Bill Moss and the Celestials, and his cousin's group The Clark Sisters. As an early teen, Moss was teamed with his brother Bill Moss,Jr. in the singing duo The Moss Brothers. They toured on weekends around the midwest and recorded two major label albums during their seven years together.
In this period James developed as a keyboardist and burgeoning songwriter. He was also learning first-hand the business of music. He attended Michigan State University for two years, but the desire to write and perform was too strong, and he left to seek a career in music.
Upon his return to Detroit, Moss signed with a small local Christian label Aviday Records and released two albums to little fanfare. Yet, during this time he became acquainted with Paul Allen and Walter Kearney. The three began working together as PAJAM. Moss spent the mid-90s touring with The Clark Sisters and was signed, along with Karen Clark-Sheard, his cousin, to Island Records in 1996 to record a solo album. While a proper release never materialized for Moss before Island Black Music shut its doors, Clark's became a smash and introduced the Gospel world to the production powerhouse of PAJAM.

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James Ehnes
James Ehnes, CM (born January 27, 1976 in Brandon, Manitoba) is a Canadian concert violinist.
The son of Alan Ehnes, trumpet professor at Brandon University (Canada) and Barbara Ehnes, former director of the Brandon School of Dance, James Ehnes began his violin studies at the age of four. He graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997 where he was a student of Sally Thomas, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music.
Praised as "the Jascha Heifetz of our day" (Globe and Mail), James Ehnes has performed in over 30 countries on five continents. He had a total of 24 recordings released through 2009. His recordings have won numerous awards and prizes, including 6 Junos, a Grammy, and a Gramophone Award. In October 2005, he was awarded a Doctor of Music degree (honoris causa) from Brandon University and in July 2007 he became the youngest person ever elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada. Ehnes performs on the 1715 "Ex Marsick Stradivarius" on loan from the Fulton Collection. He lives in Bradenton, Florida with his wife, Kate.

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James Levine
James Lawrence Levine (

/lɨˈvaɪn/; born June 23, 1943) is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently on hiatus from his work as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, a situation necessitated by health problems and not due to end before the fall of 2013; the hiatus began in May 2011.
Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and, as of June 2011, he had conducted 2,442 Met performances, a record. The conductor has held music director positions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. In 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a musical family: his maternal grandfather was a cantor in a synagogue, his father was a violinist who led a dance band, and his mother was an actress. He began to play the piano as a small child. At the age of 10, he made his concert debut as soloist in Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 at a youth concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

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James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films. The recipient of eight Academy Award nominations, some of Howard's best known film scores include The Prince of Tides (1991), The Fugitive (1993), Dinosaur (2000), King Kong (2005), I Am Legend (2007), and, most recently Green Lantern (2011) and The Hunger Games (2012). He is also known for his collaboration with director M. Night Shyamalan, having scored all his films since The Sixth Sense (1999).
Howard was born in Los Angeles, California. Twenty-five years after the death of his father, Howard learned that his father's family was Jewish (Howard later became a practicing Reconstructionist Jew).
Throughout his career as a composer/musician/songwriter, he has scored films of all scales and genres, earning multiple award nominations for his work. Howard began studying music as a child and went on to attend the Thacher School in Ojai, California, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, and then majored in piano performance at the University of Southern California.

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James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his major breakthrough in 1970 with the #3 single "Fire and Rain" and had his first #1 hit the following year with "You've Got a Friend", a recording of Carole King's classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT, he has retained a large audience over the decades. His commercial achievements declined slightly until a big resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when some of his best-selling and most-awarded albums (including Hourglass, October Road and Covers) were released.
James Taylor was born at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1948, where his father, Isaac M. Taylor, was a resident physician. His father was from a well-off family of Southern Scottish ancestry. His mother, the former Gertrude Woodard, had studied singing with Marie Sundelius at the New England Conservatory of Music and was an aspiring opera singer before the couple's marriage in 1946. James was the second of five children, the others being Alex (1947-1993), Kate (born 1949), Livingston (born 1950), and Hugh (born 1952).

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Jason Bateman
Jason Kent Bateman (born January 14, 1969) is an American television and film actor. After appearing in several 1980s and 1990s sitcoms including It's Your Move, and The Hogan Family, Bateman came to prominence in the early 2000s for playing Michael Bluth on Arrested Development, for which he won a TV Land, a Golden Globe, and two Satellite Awards. He has since established himself in Hollywood by appearing in several films including The Kingdom, Juno, Hancock, Up in the Air, Paul, and Horrible Bosses.
Bateman was born in Rye, New York, the son of Victoria Elizabeth, a former flight attendant for Pan Am, and Kent Bruce Bateman, an actor, film and television writer/director, and founder of a repertory stage in Hollywood. His mother was from the United Kingdom, born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. His older sister, Justine, is of Family Ties fame. Bateman also has three half-brothers. His family moved to Salt Lake City when he was only four years old, and later to California.

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Javier Navarrete
Javier Navarrete (born 1956, Teruel) is a Spanish composer of film scores.
His most famous score, for which he received an Academy Award nomination, was for Pan's Labyrinth (his second collaboration with Guillermo del Toro, the first being The Devil's Backbone). Navarrete also composed the scores for Whore, Tras el cristal, Dot the i, along with various other Spanish films. His other scores include 2009's Cracks (directed by Jordan Scott), and the U.S. productions, Mirrors and Inkheart. He scored the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn and the sequel film Wrath of the Titans.

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Jeff Lorber
Jeff Lorber (born November 4, 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American Grammy Award-nominated keyboardist, composer, and record producer.
After leading his own group, The Jeff Lorber Fusion, he went on to pioneer the smooth jazz genre.^{[citation needed]}
Many of his songs were featured on The Weather Channel's Local On The 8s segments, including appearances on the channel's compilation albums, The Weather Channel Presents: The Best of Smooth Jazz and The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II.
In February, it was announced Jeff Lorber signed with Peak Records. Lorber's first CD for his new label is expected to hit the street on Tuesday, June 10.
He was also nominated for a Grammy for his 2007 Blue Note Records release titled, "He Had A Hat."
Jeff Lorber was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lorber started to play the piano when he was four years old and after playing in a number of R&B bands as a teen, went on to attend Berklee College of Music, where he developed his love for jazz. He moved to Vancouver, Washington in 1972.

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Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Kate Hudson (born September 12, 1981) is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol, coming in seventh place. She made her film debut in the 2006 film Dreamgirls, which won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
She won a Grammy Award for her eponymous debut album, Jennifer Hudson, which was released in 2008 on Arista Records and was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over 800,000 copies in the US; sales exceeded 1 million copies worldwide. Additionally, it spawned the hit single Spotlight. Her second album, I Remember Me, was released in March 2011, and reached number two on the Billboard 200, selling 165,000 copies in its first week of release. The album was certified gold by the RIAA, for shipping over 500,000 copies in the US.
In late 2008, after Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were killed in a shooting, Hudson stepped out of the limelight for three months. Hudson resumed her public appearances in 2009, and has since performed at the Super Bowl XLIII, the Grammy Awards, American Idol, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Hudson has been described as a friend of President Barack Obama, who invited her to appear with him at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills in May 2009. She also performed at the White House at the "Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement" event. Her vocal range is mezzo-soprano. Hudson has sold 1,280,000 albums and 2,237,000 tracks in the United States as of February 2012.

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Jennifer Larmore
Jennifer Larmore (born June 21, 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer, noted for coloratura and bel canto.
Jennifer Larmore is an American mezzo-soprano, well known for her versatility, natural beauty and stage craft. This artist has a wide ranging repertoire, excelling in the coloratura roles of the Baroque and bel canto, in addition to music from the Romantic and Contemporary periods.
She began her career at Opera de Nice in 1986 with Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito and went on to sing at virtually every major opera house in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris Opera, Berlin Deutsche Oper, and London Covent Garden.
Jennifer Larmore has recorded widely for the Teldec, RCA, Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Arabesque, Opera Rara, Bayer, Naive, Chandos, VAI and Cedille labels in over one hundred CDs to date.

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Jennifer Peña
Jennifer Marcella Peña (born September 17, 1983 in San Antonio, Texas), is an American Latin Pop/Tejano singer and actress who has sold over 3.5 million records internationally. Peña is the third and youngest daughter of Jaime and Mary Peña with other siblings Janet and Jackie. Peña is of Mexican descent native to the state of Texas raised in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Peña first achieved notoriety after performing at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas during a Selena tribute concert in 1995 while under management with Q Productions and Abraham Quintanilla II, who was Selena's father and former manager. This was Peña's first public performance on a grand scale performing Bidi Bidi Bom Bom, a #1 song for the late Latin superstar Selena. Peña's first studio album Dulzura released in May 1996 as part of Jennifer y Los Jetz was produced by Abraham Quintanilla III and introduced her to the music scene officially at the age of 12 with the title track and "Ven a mí" (a Spanish-language cover of The Drifters' "Dance with Me") garnered her a loyal fanbase. The album sold quite well in the Latin market, certified gold and winning several Tejano Music Awards. At the time Tejano Music was in its prime and Jennifer was another staple act in the scene. Her introduction was both praised and criticized mainly in part due the artistic similarities between Selena and she. The comparisons came and went, but Jennifer managed to continue winning over fans. The year 1997 saw the release of her second album, Jennifer Y Los Jetz , with the singles "Tu Castigo" and "Yo Te Vi", being promoted and drawing the same level of success Dulzura had achieved winning another gold certification.

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Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. He is known by the nickname "The Killer". An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis had hits in the late 1950s with songs such as "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "Breathless" and "High School Confidential". However, Lewis' rock 'n' roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to his young cousin. He had little success in the charts following the scandal until his popularity recovered in the late 1960s after he extended his career to country and western music with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time". More country hits soon followed over the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Lewis's successes continued throughout the decade and he embraced his rock 'n' roll past with songs such as a cover of the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace" and "Rockin' My Life Away". In the 21st century Lewis continues to tour to audiences around the world and still releases new albums. One such new album, titled Last Man Standing, is his best selling to date at over a million copies sold worldwide.

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Jill Scott
Dependency or dependent may refer to:
without one, in the case of independent forms
Among monastic orders, the term denotes the relation of a monastic community with a newer community which it has established elsewhere. The relationship can be that of an abbey with a priory composed of the monks who originated from the first house. In that situation, the abbot remains the ultimate authority for the affairs of the dependent priory, which is considered an extension of the founding house. This relationship will end at such time as the daughter community might become fully autonomous and an abbey in its own right.
Smaller monasteries of nuns within a monastic congregation can make a bond with a monastery of monks within the same division of the Order, whereby the two are affiliated, and the monks guarantee pastoral care of the nuns. In this sense, the women's house is considered a dependency on that of the men.

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Jim Lauderdale
Jim Lauderdale is a musician & singer-songwriter who performs bluegrass and country music. He has recorded since 1986 and has released nineteen studio albums. Artists who have recorded his material include George Strait, Vince Gill and Patty Loveless.
James Russell Lauderdale was born in Troutman, North Carolina on April 11, 1957. His father, the late W.C. Lauderdale, was a minister and his mother, the late Barbara Lauderdale a retired music teacher. Growing up in Due West, South Carolina , he played drums in high school, attended the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC (in the Drama Department as an actor) and after he graduated, he decided to become a solo performer in New York. He began singing backing vocals for various artists including Carlene Carter and Dwight Yoakam before scoring it big in Nashville after writing hits for George Strait, the Dixie Chicks, Patty Loveless, and more. His solo 1990s recordings have gained him much critical acclaim and a loyal cult following. In 2003, Lauderdale was joined by roots/jam band Donna the Buffalo on the album Wait 'Til Spring.

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Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served as a U.S. Naval officer, was a peanut farmer, served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975).
During Carter's term as President, two new cabinet-level departments were created: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. Throughout his career, Carter strongly emphasized human rights. He took office during a period of international stagflation, which persisted throughout his term. The end of his presidential tenure was marked by the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (at the end of 1979), 1980 Summer Olympics boycott by the United States of the Moscow Olympics and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

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Jimmy Douglass
Jimmy Douglass (also known as The Senator) is an American four-time Grammy winning recording engineer and record producer, whose prolific career has spanned more than four decades.
In the early 1970′s at Atlantic Records studios in New York City, he started his studio career as a part-time tape duplicator while still attending high school. There he learned how to operate the studio’s custom made 16-channel console and observed, was trained by, as well as worked with some of the greatest engineers, producers and record moguls including Tom Dowd, Arif Mardin, Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun. For his first time behind the faders, he was encouraged by Wexler to engineer the session recording for a demo of a new band. He went on to work with great Atlantic Recording artists such as Aretha Franklin, Hall & Oates, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Foreigner, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC to name a few.
During the 1980′s, Douglass continued to hone his engineering skills while also taking on the role as producer. He engineered and produced established artists including The Rolling Stones, Slave, Odyssey, Roxy Music and Gang of Four.

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Jimmy Sturr
James W. "Jimmy" Sturr, Jr. is a polka musician, trumpeter/clarinetist/saxophonist and leader of Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra. His recordings have won 18 out of the 24 Grammy Awards given for Best Polka Album. Sturr's orchestra is on the Top Ten List of the All-Time Grammy Awards, and has acquired more Grammy nominations than anyone in the history of musical polka awards. His band is arguably the most popular polka band in America, and have their own TV show on the RFD-TV network, a network devoted to rural America.
When touring, the band rides in Jimmy’s forty-five foot customized tour bus, previously owned by Billy Ray Cyrus. On their travels, they have been to the most prestigious venues in the world, including seven sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall and four sold out concerts at Lincoln Center in New York City and a sold out concert at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, Poland. The band has also played at many famous casinos.
The band usually attracts crowds of loyal fans wherever their travels take them.

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JJ Cale
JJ Cale (also J.J. Cale), born John Weldon Cale on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and musician. Cale is one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back".
His only U.S. hit single, Crazy Mama, peaked at #22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. During the 2006 documentary film To Tulsa and Back Cale recounts the story of being offered the opportunity to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand to promote the song, which would have moved the song higher on the charts. Cale declined when told he could not bring his band to the taping and would be required to lip-sync the words to the song.
His songs have been performed by a number of other musicians including "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton,"Cajun Moon" by Randy Crawford, "Magnolia" by Jai, "Bringing It Back" by Kansas, "Call Me the Breeze" and "I Got the Same Old Blues" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Travelin' Light" and "Ride Me High" by Widespread Panic, "Tijuana" by Harry Manx, "Sensitive Kind" by Carlos Santana, "Cajun Moon" by Herbie Mann with Cissy Houston, and "Same Old Blues" by Captain Beefheart.

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Joan Albert Amargós
Joan Albert Amargós is a Spanish composer and conductor born in Barcelona in 1950. Amargós is an instrumentalist on piano and clarinet, and has composed a number of chamber and symphonic works. He is also a great connoisseur of Flamenco, which has served as the basis for some of his compositions, that always breathe a brightness and colour distinctly Mediterranean.
He has earned a number of prizes, such as the prize for best arranger of Spain. The government of Catalonia awarded him the National Award for music for the opera Euridice in 2002. He also won the Ciudad de Barcelona Prize the same year, for his collaborations with Miguel Poveda. In 2008 his composition Northern Concerto was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition; Michala Petri was the soloist on recorder.

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Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE (born 9 December 1950) is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist. Armatrading is a three-time Grammy Award-nominee and has been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She also received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996. In a recording career spanning 40 years she has released a total of 17 studio albums, as well as several live albums and compilations.
Joan Armatrading was born in Basseterre, on the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts, in 1950, as the third of six children. Her mother was born in Antigua and her father was from Saint Kitts. When she was three, her parents moved with their two eldest boys to Birmingham, England, and she lived with her grandmother on Antigua. She joined her parents in a district of Birmingham in early 1958, at the age of seven. Her father had played in a band in his youth, later forbidding his children from touching his guitar. Armatrading began writing lyrics and music at the age of 14 on a piano that her mother had purchased as "a piece of furniture". Shortly thereafter her mother bought her a £3 guitar from a pawn shop in exchange for two prams, and the younger Armatrading began teaching herself the instrument.

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Joan Tower
Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938 in New Rochelle, New York) is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world. After gaining recognition for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981), a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant tree from trunk to needles, she has gone on to compose a variety of instrumental works including Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the Island Prelude, two string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works, including her widely-performed Petroushskates.
Born in New Rochelle, New York in 1938, Tower moved to the South American nation of Bolivia when she was nine years old, an experience which she credits for making rhythm an integral part of her work. For the next decade Tower's talent in music, particularly on the piano, grew rapidly due to her father's insistence that she benefit from consistent musical training. Tower's relationship with her mineralogist father is visible in many aspects of her work, most specifically her "mineral works" (including Black Topaz(1976) and Silver Ladders (1986). She returned to the United States as a young woman to study music, first at Bennington College, in Vermont, and then at Columbia University where she studied under Otto Luening, Jack Beeson, and Vladimir Ussachevsky and was awarded her doctorate in composition in 1968.

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Joe "King" Oliver
Joe "King" Oliver (May 11, 1885 – April 10, 1938) was a jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly noted for his playing style, pioneering the use of mutes. Also a notable composer, he wrote many tunes still played regularly, including "Dipper Mouth Blues", "Sweet Like This", "Canal Street Blues", and "Doctor Jazz". He was the mentor and teacher of Louis Armstrong. His influence was such that Armstrong claimed, "if it had not been for Joe Oliver, jazz would not be what it is today".
Joseph Oliver was born in Aben, Louisiana, near Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish, and moved to New Orleans in his youth. Oliver played cornet in the New Orleans brass bands and dance bands and also in the city's red-light district, Storyville. The band he co-led with trombonist Kid Ory was considered New Orleans' hottest and best in the 1910s. Oliver achieved great popularity in New Orleans across economic and racial lines, and was in demand for playing jobs from rough working class black dance halls to white society debutante parties.

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Joe Chiccarelli
Joe Chiccarelli, a native of Boston, Massachusetts is a music producer, mixer and engineer who has been active since the 1970s. He has produced albums by Stan Ridgway, Oingo Boingo, Sandra Bernhard, My Morning Jacket, Counting Crows, The Shins, Augie March, Manchester Orchestra, Minus the Bear, Kurt Elling, Big Talk. Other artists include Elton John, Rufus Wainright, U2, Beck, Etta James, Jamie Cullum, Tori Amos, Liquid Blue, Pink Martini, Christina Perri and Jason Mraz. He also engineered Frank Zappa's albums Sheik Yerbouti, Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III and Tinseltown Rebellion, and engineered the White Stripes 2007 album Icky Thump. He also engineered The Raconteurs "Consolers of The Lonely" for which he received his eighth Grammy award, for Best Engineered Album of 2008.
Chiccarelli got his first taste of the studio through a cousin who owned Boston's Fleetwood Studio. Chiccarelli moved west in the late '70s where he scored an assistant engineer gig at L.A.'s Cherokee Studios. He got his career break engineering Frank Zappa's album Sheik Yerbouti (1979). In an interview with HitQuarters, Chiccarelli said: "[Zappa's] engineer couldn’t make the session and so he decided to take a chance on me. I’m so thankful ever since that day because he gave me a career."

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Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano (born December 29, 1952) is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players^{[says who?]}, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls. He is married to jazz singer Judi Silvano.
Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Sicilian-American parents. His father's family came from the town of Alcara Li Fusi in Sicily, and his mother's family came from Cesarò, also in Sicily. In Cleveland, Ohio, Lovano was exposed throughout his early life to jazz by his father, Tony "Big T" Lovano. John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Stitt were among his earlier influences. After graduating from Euclid High School in 1971, he developed further at Berklee College of Music where he studied under Herb Pomeroy and Gary Burton, then served a big band apprenticeship with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd and the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.

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Joe Mantegna
Joseph Anthony "Joe" Mantegna, Jr. (born November 13, 1947) is an American actor, producer, writer, director, and voice actor. He is best known for his roles in box office hits such as Three Amigos (1986), The Godfather Part III (1990), Forget Paris (1995), and Up Close & Personal (1996). He currently stars in the CBS television series Criminal Minds as FBI Special Agent David Rossi.
Mantegna has gained Emmy Award nominations for his roles in three different miniseries: The Last Don (1997), The Rat Pack (1999), and The Starter Wife (2007). He has also served as executive producer for various movies and television movies, including Corduroy (1984), Hoods (1998), and Lakeboat (2000) which he also directed.
For television, Mantegna has starred in the short lived series First Monday (2002) and Joan of Arcadia (2003–2005). Since the 1991 episode "Bart the Murderer," Mantegna has had a recurring role on the animated comedy series The Simpsons as mob boss Fat Tony, reprising the role in The Simpsons Movie (2007). Additionally, he played Robert B. Parker's fictional detective Spenser in three made-for-TV movies between 1999 and 2001.

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Joe Sample
Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample (born February 1, 1939) is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.
He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 (not including the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal).
Sample began playing the piano when he was five years old. He was a student of the late great organ and piano extraordinaire Curtis Mayo. Since the early 1980s, he has enjoyed a successful solo career and has guested on many recordings by other performers and groups, including Miles Davis, George Benson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, and The Supremes. Sample incorporates jazz, gospel, blues, Latin, and classical forms into his music.
In high school in the 1950s, Sample teamed up with two friends, saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer "Stix" Hooper, to form a group called the Swingsters. While studying piano at Texas Southern University, Sample met and added trombonist Wayne Henderson and several other players to the Swingsters, which became the Modern Jazz Sextet and then the Jazz Crusaders, in emulation of one of the leading progressive jazz bands of the day, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Sample never took a degree from the university; instead in 1960, he and the Jazz Crusaders made the move from Houston to Los Angeles.

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Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani (born July 15, 1956) is an American instrumental rock guitarist of Italian origin, multi-instrumentalist and multiple Grammy Award nominee. Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, and some of his former students have achieved fame such as Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan and Alex Skolnick. Satriani has been a driving force in music credited to other musicians throughout his career, as a founder of the G3 tour, as well as performing in various positions with other musicians.
In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for Jagger's first solo tour. In 1994, Satriani was the lead guitarist for Deep Purple. Satriani worked with a range of guitarists, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Larry LaLonde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Patrick Rondat, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Legg, and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam Concerts. He is currently the lead guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot. Since 1988, Satriani has been using his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is sold in music stores worldwide.

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Joe Zawinul
Josef Erich Zawinul (July 7, 1932 – September 11, 2007) was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.
First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with elements of rock and world music. Later, Zawinul co-founded the groups Weather Report and the world fusion music-oriented Zawinul Syndicate. Additionally, he made pioneering use of electric piano and synthesizers. Zawinul was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" 28 times by the readers of Down Beat magazine.
Several artists have honored Zawinul with songs, notably Brian Eno's instrumental "Zawinul/Lava", John McLaughlin's instrumental "Jozy", Warren Cuccurullo's "Hey Zawinul", Bob Baldwin's "Joe Zawinul", Chucho Valdés's "Zawinul's Mambo", Biréli Lagrène's instrumental "Josef" and Toninho Horta's instrumental "Balada para Zawinul". Zawinul's playing style is often dominated by quirky melodic improvisations — traversing bebop, ethnic and pop styles — combined with sparse but rhythmic playing of big-band sounding chords or bass lines. In Weather Report, he often employed a vocoder as well as pre-recorded sounds played (i.e. filtered and transposed) through a synthesizer, creating a very distinctive synthesis of jazz harmonics and "noise" ("using all the sounds the world generates").

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Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (pronounced [joːˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms]; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the Three Bs.
Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he also worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed many of his works and left some of them unpublished.
Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint, the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian Bach is famous, and also of development, a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Brahms aimed to honour the "purity" of these venerable "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.

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John Legend
John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He has won nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career gained momentum through a series of successful collaborations with multiple established artists. Stephens added his voice to those of other artists, assisting in them reaching chart-topper hits. He lent his voice to Kanye West's All of the Lights, on Slum Village's "Selfish" and Dilated Peoples' "This Way". Other artists included Jay-Z's "Encore", and he sang backing vocals on Alicia Keys' 2003 song "You Don't Know My Name" and Fort Minor's "High Road." Stephens played piano on Lauryn Hill's "Everything Is Everything."
Stephens was born on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio. He is the son of Phyllis, a seamstress, and John Mills, a factory worker and former National Guardsman. Throughout his childhood, Stephens was homeschooled on and off by his mother. At the age of four, he began playing the piano and at the age of seven, he performed with his church choir. When he was ten, his parents divorced, causing his mother to suffer a breakdown. At the age of 12, Stephens attended North High School, from which he graduated four years later. He graduated salutatorian.

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John Mayer
John Clayton Mayer (

/ˈmeɪ.ər/ MAY-ər; (born October 16, 1977) is an American pop and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his skills and gained a following, and he now lives in New York City. His first two studio albums, Room for Squares and Heavier Things, did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body Is a Wonderland."
Mayer began his career performing mainly acoustic rock, but gradually began a transition towards the blues genre in 2005 by collaborating with renowned blues artists such as B. B. King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton, and by forming the John Mayer Trio. The blues influence can be heard throughout his 2005 live album Try! with the John Mayer Trio and his third studio album Continuum, released in September 2006. At the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007 Mayer won Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Waiting on the World to Change". He released his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, in November 2009. His fifth album, Born and Raised, was released on May 22, 2012. He has sold over 10 million albums in the U.S. and 20 million albums worldwide.

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John Newton
John Henry Newton (July 24, 1725 – December 21, 1807) was a British sailor and Anglican clergyman. Starting his career at sea, at a young age, he became involved with the slave trade for a few years. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of slavery. He was the author of many hymns, including "Amazing Grace" and "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken."
John Newton was born in Wapping, London, in 1725, the son of John Newton Sr., a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service, and Elizabeth Newton (née Seatclife), a Nonconformist Christian. His mother died of tuberculosis in July, 1732, about two weeks before his seventh birthday. Two years later, he went to live in Aveley, the home of his father's new wife. Newton spent two years at boarding school. At age eleven he went to sea with his father. Newton sailed six voyages before his father retired in 1742. Newton's father made plans for him to work at a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Instead, Newton signed on with a merchant ship sailing to the Mediterranean Sea.

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John Patitucci
John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American Grammy-winning jazz double bass and jazz fusion electric bass player.
Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York, where he began playing the electric bass at age ten, composing and performing at age 12, as well as the acoustic bass at 15, and the piano one year later. After moving west, he studied classical bass at San Francisco State University and Long Beach State University.
Patitucci has released twelve albums as a leader. In addition to his solo work, Patitucci has played on albums by B.B. King, Chick Corea, Joanne Brackeen, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, John Abercrombie, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, Was Not Was, Roby Duke, Dave Grusin, Natalie Cole, Bon Jovi, Queen Latifah, Sting, The Manhattan Transfer, Carly Simon and Everything But The Girl.
As a performer, he has played with his own band, and with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, and Tony Williams. He was selected to be the bassist for the GRP All-Star Big Band. Some of the many pop and Brazilian artists he has played with include Sting, Natalie Cole, Carole King, Astrud and João Gilberto, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. Patitucci has worked with film composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Ry Cooder, Henry Mancini, and John Williams.

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John Powell
John Powell (born 18 September 1963) is an English composer, best known for his scores to motion pictures. He has been based in the United States since 1997 and has composed the scores to over fifty feature films. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and 2000s, scoring numerous animated films, in addition to his live-action collaborations with directors Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass. His 2010 score for the film How to Train Your Dragon earned him his first Academy Award nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards. He was a member of Hans Zimmer's music studio, Remote Control Productions, and collaborated frequently with other composers from the studio, including Harry Gregson-Williams and Zimmer himself.
Powell was born in London. He originally trained as a violinist as a child, before studying at London's Trinity College of Music. He later ventured into jazz and rock music, playing in a soul band the Fabulistics. On leaving college, he composed music for commercials, which led to a job as an assistant to the composer Patrick Doyle on several film productions, including Much Ado About Nothing.

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Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country music icon, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues".

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Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson; November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto. In 1965 she moved to the United States and, touring constantly, began to be recognized when her original songs ("Urge for Going," "Chelsea Morning," "Both Sides, Now," "The Circle Game") were covered by notable folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her own debut album in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell and her popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock" helped define an era and a generation. Her more starkly personal 1971 recording Blue has been called one of the best albums ever made. Musically restless, Mitchell switched labels and began moving toward jazz rhythms by way of lush pop textures on 1974's Court and Spark, her best-selling LP, featuring her radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris."

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Jorge Calandrelli
Jorge Calandrelli is an Argentine composer, arranger and orchestrator.
His truly ingenious arranging and composing techniques, especially his beautiful string writing, makes him very well recognized on many records of today's pop - jazz/ Jazz commercial record publications.
Big record stars hired him for writing arrangements, including Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocelli, Tony Bennett, Celine Dion, Ricky Martin, Luis Miguel, Eddie Daniels, Barry Manilow, and many others.
One of his most interesting works is the concerto for jazz clarinet and orchestra. He wrote it under the 1984 New York winter impression. With slight inflections from composers like Stravinsky and Bartók, it has 3 movements: Allegro, Adagio and Presto. Calandrelli earned for this work the "Wavedon Award" - All music composer of the year. Among others, he has been nominated for 2 Academy Awards and 22 Grammy Awards. Other credits include The Shining (1980, uncredited orchestrator), Tron (1982, orchestrator), The Color Purple (1985, adapttor and orchestrator), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, composer, music producer).

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Jorge Drexler
Jorge Drexler (born Jorge Abner Drexler Prada; September 21, 1964) is an Uruguayan musician, actor, and doctor specialized on otolaryngology.
In 2004 Drexler won wide acclaim after becoming the first Uruguayan ever to win an Academy Award. He won for composing the song "Al Otro Lado del Río" from The Motorcycle Diaries.
Drexler was born in Montevideo. His father, a German Jew, fled to Uruguay with his family at the age of four to escape the Holocaust. His mother is a Christian of mixed Spanish, French and Portuguese descent. Drexler was raised Jewish, but embraces Christian tradition as well.
Like much of his family, he studied medicine and became an otolaryngologist ear, nose and throat specialist. Drexler began playing piano at age five, before attending guitar and composition classes. Although he had an interest in music, he became a doctor like both of his parents. He attended medical school in Montevideo. During his time in medical school, Drexler took a break to hitchhike through Brazil.

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Joseph Banowetz
Joseph Banowetz December 5, 1936, is an American-born pianist, pedagogue, author, and editor, currently teaching at the University of North Texas. Banowetz has been described by Fanfare magazine record review as "a giant among keyboard artists of our time",^{[cite this quote]} by Russia's News (Moscow) as "a magnificent virtuoso, who amazed the public by his deep understanding of the composer's spirit",^{[cite this quote]} and by Ruch Muzyczny (Warsaw) as "a virtuoso in the noblest sense of the word."^{[cite this quote]} In 1992, he was awarded the Liszt Medal by the Hungarian Liszt Society in Budapest, in recognition of his outstanding performances of F. Liszt and the Romantic literature and is acknowledged^{[weasel words]} as one of the greatest living experts on the music of the Russian Romantic Composer, Anton Rubinstein.
Banowetz studied first in New York City with Carl Friedberg, a pupil of German composer/pianist Clara Schumann. He continued his studies at the Vienna Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, where György Sándor, a pupil of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, was among his teachers. He graduated with a First Prize in piano performance and was later sent by the Austrian government on an extended European concert tour.

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Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn (

/ˈdʒoʊzəf ˈhaɪdən/; German pronunciation: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈhaɪdən] (

listen); 31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809), known as Joseph Haydn, was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in the evolution of sonata form.
A lifelong resident of Austria, Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". At the time of his death, he was one of the most celebrated composers in Europe.
Joseph Haydn was the brother of Michael Haydn, himself a highly regarded composer, and Johann Evangelist Haydn, a tenor. He was also a close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a teacher of Ludwig van Beethoven.

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Josh Groban
Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban (born February 27, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country. To date, he has sold over 24 million albums worldwide, and is the top selling classical artist of the 2000s in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Groban originally studied acting, but as his voice changed, it developed into a "significant instrument". Groban attended the Los Angeles High School for the Arts, a free public school where students received a conservatory-style education. His life changed when his vocal coach, Seth Riggs, submitted a tape of Josh singing "All I Ask of You", from The Phantom of the Opera, to Riggs' friend, producer, composer and arranger David Foster. Foster called him to stand in for an ailing Andrea Bocelli to rehearse a duet, "The Prayer," with Celine Dion at the rehearsal for the Grammy Awards in 1998.Rosie O'Donnell immediately invited him to appear on her talk show. Foster asked him to sing at the California Governor's Gray Davis' 1999 inauguration. He was cast on Ally McBeal by the show's creator, David E. Kelley, performing "You're Still You" for the 2001 season finale.

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Josh Kear
Joshua Peter "Josh" Kear is an American songwriter. His credits include Carrie Underwood's number-one "Before He Cheats," for which Kear won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 2007 and Lady Antebellum's number-one "Need You Now," for which Kear won an Academy of Country Music Award for Best Country Song in 2010 and also won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Best Country Song for the 53rd Grammy Awards in 2011. Both songs were awarded the ASCAP Country Song Of The Year. Kear also co-wrote "Inventing Shadows," the debut single for The Voice's Dia Frampton which hit #1 on the iTunes song chart. In 2011 Kear was awarded ASCAP's Global Impact Award.

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Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman (born February 1, 1969) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition of 1991.
Redman was born in Berkeley, California to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. His father was African American and his mother was Jewish. He was exposed to many kinds of music at the Center for World Music in Berkeley, where his mother studied South Indian dance. Some of his earliest lessons in music and improvisation were on recorder with gamelan player Jody Diamond. He was exposed at an early age to a variety of musics (jazz, classical, rock, soul, Indian, Indonesian, Middle-Eastern, African) and instruments (recorder, piano, guitar, gatham, gamelan), and began playing clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary instrument, the tenor saxophone, one year later. The early influences of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley and his father, Dewey Redman, as well as the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, the Police and Led Zeppelin drew Joshua more deeply into music.

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José Serebrier
José Serebrier (born 3 December 1938) is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He married American soprano Carole Farley in 1969.
Serebrier was born in Montevideo, and first conducted an orchestra at the age of eleven, while at school. The school orchestra toured the country, which meant he was able to notch up over one hundred performances within four years. He graduated from the Municipal School of Music in Montevideo at fifteen, having studied violin, solfege, and Latin American folklore. The National Orchestra, known as SODRE, announced a composition contest. Within two weeks, Serebrier had composed his "Legend of Faust" overture. It won. To his huge disappointment he was not allowed to conduct it, because he was only fifteen. Now he is one of the most recorded conductors of his generation.
He was awarded a United States State Department Fellowship, at the Curtis Institute of Music, with Vittorio Giannini. Later he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. His first symphony, written at the age of 17, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski, who was 56 years older than he was. His New York conducting debut with the American Symphony Orchestra was at Carnegie Hall in 1965. Ives' Fourth Symphony used to be considered so difficult that it was performed using three conductors at its premiere in 1965, almost 50 years after its composition. Stokowski, Serebrier and another conductor performed it this way. A few years later Serebrier conducted it on his own. It was his recording debut, and Hi-Fi News was euphoric. They wrote "Serebrier's recording of the Ives Symphony is one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the Gramophone". The third symphony and his "Fantasia for strings" are amongst his most popular works. His style is energetic, colourful and melodic. One of his most unusual works is "Passacaglia and Perpetuum Mobile for accordion and chamber orchestra".

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Juan Luis Guerra
Juan Luis Guerra (born June 7, 1957) is a singer, songwriter and producer from the Dominican Republic who has sold over 30 million records, and won numerous awards including 12 Latin Grammy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Latin Billboard Music Awards. He recently won 3 Latin Grammy Awards in 2010, including Album of the Year.
He is one of the most internationally recognized Latin artists of recent decades. His pop style of merengue and bolero and Afro-pop/Latin fusion has garnered him considerable success throughout Latin America. Guerra is sometimes associated with the popular Dominican music called bachata, and while this association is partly true, he actually uses the basics of Bachata rhythm with a more bolero feel to the melodies in some of his songs. He does not limit himself to one style of music, instead, he incorporates diverse rhythms like merengue, bolero-bachata, balada, salsa, rock and roll, and even gospel as in the song "La Gallera". "Ojalá Que Llueva Café" ("I Wish It Would Rain Coffee") is one of his most critically acclaimed self-written and composed pieces. A remix of "La Llave de Mi Corazón" ("The Key of My Heart") with Taboo from The Black Eyed Peas is also an example of his fusion of genres.

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Juanes
Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born August 9, 1972), better known as Juanes (for the contraction of his first and second name) is a Colombian musician who was a member of heavy metal band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. In 2000, his solo debut album Fíjate Bien won three Latin Grammy Awards. According to his record label, Juanes has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide.
Raised in Medellín, Colombia, Juanes began playing guitar at age seven. He started his first band, Ekhymosis, in 1988, which experienced commercial success in Colombia but had difficulty achieving popularity outside of the country. In 2000, Juanes released his solo debut album, Fíjate Bien, which earned him three Latin Grammys. His follow-up album, Un Dia Normal, was released in 2002 and was later certified platinum in multiple countries throughout Latin America. Juanes' third album, Mi Sangre, achieved success due to the single "La Camisa Negra". He has since released La Vida... Es Un Ratico (2007) and P.A.R.C.E. (2010).

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Junior Boys
Junior Boys are a Canadian indie electronic pop group.
Junior Boys formed in 1999 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada as a duo of Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark. Years of collaboration followed and a demo was produced, but after many rejections and near-misses, they were resigned to being bedroom beat constructors. Soon after, Johnny Dark left the band to pursue other interests. Eventually, KIN Records heard their demo at the end of 2002 and commissioned more work from remaining member Greenspan. Hooking up with his engineer, Matt Didemus, he began again, writing more material and pulling an album together.
The first release Birthday/Last Exit came in October 2003 — a four-track EP with a remix by Fennesz which brought them near-unanimous acclaim^{[citation needed]}. The High Come Down EP followed in February 2004 with a Manitoba (now Caribou) remix and word began to spread. Their debut album, Last Exit (recorded at the end of 2003 by Greenspan and Didemus in Hamilton), was released September 21, 2004 on KIN Records. A reissue on Domino featured the Manitoba mix of Birthday, a Fennesz mix of title track, and a new track.

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Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, actor, and businessman. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez. Timberlake became famous in the late 1990s as the lead singer and youngest member of the boy band 'N Sync, whose launch was financed by Lou Pearlman.
In 2002, he released his debut solo album, Justified, which sold more than seven million copies worldwide. The album was a commercial success, spawning the hits "Cry Me a River" and "Rock Your Body". Timberlake continued his success with his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006), debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and produced the US number-one hit singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around".
Timberlake has won six Grammy Awards and four Emmy Awards. His first two albums made him one of the most commercially successful singers in the world, each selling in excess of 7 million copies. He also has an acting career, having starred in films such as The Social Network, Bad Teacher and Friends with Benefits. His other ventures include record label Tennman Records, fashion label William Rast, and the restaurants Destino and Southern Hospitality.

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Kanye West
Kanye Omari West (

/ˈkɑːnjeɪ/; born June 8, 1977) is an American musician, film director and fashion designer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used pitched-up vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. However, subsequent productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B, baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synthpop, and classical music.
West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008, and his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. West released a collaborative album, Watch the Throne with Jay-Z in 2011, which is the duo's first collaborative album. His five solo albums, all of which have gone platinum, have received numerous awards and critical acclaim. As of 2012, West has won a total of eighteen Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all-time. All albums have been very commercially successful, with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy becoming his fourth consecutive No. 1 album in the U.S. upon release. West has had 5 songs exceed 3 million in digital sales as of July 2011, with "Gold Digger" selling 3,086,000, "Stronger" selling 4,402,000, "Heartless" selling 3,742,000, "E.T." selling over 4,000,000 and "Love Lockdown" selling over 3,000,000 placing him third in overall digital sales of the past decade. He has sold over 30 million digital songs in the United States making him one of the best-selling digital artists of all-time.

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Kaskade
Ryan Raddon (born February 25, 1971), better known by his stage name Kaskade, is an American DJ and record producer. On October 20, 2011, DJ Magazine announced the results of their annual Top 100 DJ Poll, with Ultra Records, Kaskade placed at #30. On September 9, 2011, a DJ Times poll voted Kaskade "America's Best DJ 2011".
Kaskade was born in Evanston, Illinois. He grew up in nearby Northbrook and attended Glenbrook North High School. He is the brother of Rich Raddon, an entrepreneur and film producer. He attended Brigham Young University in Provo, UT from 1989-1990 honing his DJ skills in his dorm room. At age 19, Raddon served a two year full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan. Following his mission, in 1992, he moved to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah. During this time he owned and operated a local record store, Mechanized Records. In May 2000, Kaskade moved to San Francisco and began working as an A&R assistant for Om Records.
Releasing his first single "What I Say" on the label in 2001.In the Moment saw Kaskade's first top 10 single with "Steppin' Out" reaching #5 on Billboard Magazine’s Hot Dance Club Play chart and #6 on Dance Radio Airplay. The fourth single to be released from the album, "Everything," reached #1 on Billboard Magazine’s Hot Dance Club Play.

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KC Porter
KC Porter (born June 27, 1962 Karl Cameron Porter) is an American record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. For nearly three decades in the entertainment industry, Porter has earned numerous Grammy nominations and 3 Grammys and Latin Grammys. He is best known for his production work on Carlos Santana's Supernatural, (which sold over 27 million copies worldwide and won 9 Grammy Awards) and for producing and penning some of the most popular Spanish language singles for Ricky Martin to date.
He is also known for crossing over artists such as Bon Jovi, Janet Jackson, Brian McKnight, Toni Braxton, Scorpions, Mýa into the Spanish speaking market and crossing over world music artists such as Khaled, Laura Pausini, Kadim Al Sahir, and Cheng Lin into the international market.
Porter is one of the founding members of Oneness, a non-profit organization that promotes the oneness of humanity through music, the arts and education.
The path to his current success began at an early age for Porter, who was born in Southern California and resides there now, with his wife, Aimee, daughter Emma, and two adopted sons, Carlos and Wenjie.

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Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is a Australian country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album, and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States in 1992. Eventually, Urban found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Records and charted two singles on the Billboard country charts.
Still signed to Capitol, he made his solo American debut in 1999 with the album Keith Urban. Certified platinum in the U.S., it also produced his first American Number One in "But for the Grace of God". His breakthrough hit was the Number One "Somebody Like You", from his second Capitol album Golden Road (2002). This album also earned Urban his first Grammy Award win for "You'll Think of Me", its fourth single and the fourth Billboard Number One of his career. 2004's Be Here, his third American album, produced three more Number Ones, and became his highest-selling album, earning 4× Multi-Platinum certification. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing was released in 2006, producing the record-setting No.17 country chart debut of "Once in a Lifetime", as well as Urban's second Grammy for the song "Stupid Boy", while a Greatest Hits package entitled Greatest Hits: 18 Kids followed in late 2007. This album was re-released a year later as Greatest Hits: 19 Kids with one track added: the number one "You Look Good in My Shirt", which he had previously recorded on Golden Road. Additional albums Defying Gravity and Get Closer were released on 31 March 2009 and 16 November 2010, respectively.

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Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and occasional actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and later was the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.
In 2003, Clarkson released her debut album, Thankful, which was a commercial success and established herself in the pop music industry. The release of its first single, "A Moment Like This" (2002), broke The Beatles' record for the biggest leap to number one, from 52, in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. After parting ways with her management, Clarkson developed a more rock-oriented music with the release of her critically acclaimed sophomore album, Breakaway (2004), which sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and which garnered Clarkson more worldwide success as a pop rock artist. The album's single, "Because of You" (2005), became the best-selling single by an Idol contestant worldwide. In 2007, Clarkson took full creative control for her third album My December, which had a more rock-inspired sound and was met with controversy and moderate success. Clarkson later returned to a more pop-oriented sound with All I Ever Wanted (2009), which became a commercial and critical success. The album's lead single, "My Life Would Suck Without You" (2009), surpassed "A Moment Like This"'s record for the biggest leap to number one on a single week in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, a milestone it still holds today. Furthermore, it also became her first number one single in the United Kingdom. Clarkson's fifth studio album, Stronger, was released in 2011, containing elements from synthpop, R&B and country music. The album's single, "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" (2012), became her longest number one single and eventually became her best-selling single in the United States.

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Kenneth Slowik
Kenneth Slowik is an American cellist, viol player, and conductor, Curator of the Division of Music, Sports and Entertainment at the National Museum of American History and Artistic Director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society.
He has appeared in hundreds of concerts with SCMS ensembles and made over fifty recordings for Dorian, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and other labels; some have won France's Diapason d'Or for Chamber Music, Germany's Alte Musik Actuell's Record of the Year, and other similar prizes.

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Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd (born Kenny Wayne Brobst, June 12, 1977, Shreveport, Louisiana) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced a rare level of commercial success both as a blues artist and a young musician.
Shepherd graduated Caddo Magnet High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. The guitarist is "completely self taught", and does not read music. Growing up, Shepherd's father (Ken Shepherd) was a local radio personality and some-time concert promoter, and had a vast collection of music. Shepherd got his first "guitar" at the age of three or four, when his grandmother purchased a series of several plastic guitars for him with S&H Green Stamps, which Shepherd has said he would "go through like candy".^{[clarification needed]}
Shepherd stated in a 2010 interview that he began playing guitar in earnest at age seven, about six months after meeting and being "pretty mesmerized" by Stevie Ray Vaughan, in June 1984, at one of his father's promoted concerts. His self-taught method employed a process of learning one note at a time, playing and rewinding cassette tapes, utilizing "a cheap Yamaha wanna-be Stratocaster...made out of plywood, basically", learning Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Albert Lee licks from his father's vast music collection.

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Keola Beamer
Keola Beamer (born Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer in 1951) is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music.
Beamer comes from a line of musicians five generations back, and can also trace his roots to the House of Kamehameha and Ahiakumai, 15th century rulers of Hawaii. His great grandmother was Helen Desha Beamer, an influential songwriter and hula dancer, and his mother, Winona Beamer ("Auntie Nona") has been one of the most important figures in the revival of Hawaiian culture since the 1940s: composer, dancer, educator, and coiner of the term "Hawaiiana," which describes the cultural-studies area she pioneered at the Kamehameha Schools.
Beamer's debut recording was 1972's solo effort, Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar in the Real Old Style. The following year, he and his younger brother Kapono started performing as a duo, mixing traditional materials and styles with mainland pop influences. In the seven albums they produced over the next decade, they played an important part in establishing the style that came to be called "Hawaiian contemporary," rooted in Hawaiian language and tradition but open to influences from elsewhere: rock, pop, Latin, folk-revival singer-songwriter, Hollywood soundtrack, and so on. The title song of the brothers' 1978 LP Honolulu City Lights was an enormously popular single in the Hawaiian local market, and in 2004 Honolulu Magazine placed the album first on a list of the fifty most important Hawaiian albums. In the 1980s, the brothers went their separate ways professionally, each producing award-winning records. After several pop-oriented albums, Keola connected with George Winston's Dancing Cat recording project for five releases between 1994 and 2002, emphasizing slack key guitar and Hawaiian lyrics, but by no means abandoning "contemporary" influences.

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Keri Hilson
Keri Lynn Hilson (born December 5, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, and spent most of her youth working with producer Anthony Dent, as a songwriter and background vocalist for several R&B and hip hop artists. By the age of 14, Hilson had secured a record deal with the girl group D'Signe, who later disbanded. She attended Emory University in Atlanta, while she continued writing songs for artists, including Britney Spears and Mary J. Blige, with the production and songwriting team, The Clutch. In 2006, Hilson signed with American rapper and producer Timbaland's record label, Mosley Music. Her breakthrough came the following year after appearing on Timbaland's single, "The Way I Are", which topped charts around the world.
Hilson's debut studio album, In a Perfect World..., was released in 2009, and debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, eventually being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album spawned the hit singles, "Knock You Down", "Turnin Me On" and "I Like". It also earned Hilson two Grammy Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Knock You Down". Her second studio album, No Boys Allowed, was released in 2010 and was considerably less successful than its predecessor; however, it included the hit single, "Pretty Girl Rock". Hilson's achievements include a BET Award, MOBO Award, NAACP Image Award and two Soul Train Music Awards. Apart from her work in music, she has pursued a career in acting. Hilson made her acting debut in the romantic comedy film, Think Like a Man, in 2012.

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Kerry Brothers
Kerry Brothers, Jr. (born October 1, 1970) better known as "Krucial" or as Alicia Keys often referred to him "K"; is Multi-Grammy Award winning producer who is an American songwriter, executive producer and record producer.
Brothers was once rumored to be the boyfriend of Alicia Keys. He he has worked on her four multi-platinum albums Songs in A Minor (2001), The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), As I Am (2007) and The Element of Freedom (2009). Brothers and Keys are the co-founders of KrucialKeys Enterprises, an independent music production company, and they also co-own a Long Island-based recording studio named The Oven Studios. In addition to Keys, he has worked with R&B and hip hop artists like Mario, Rakim, Angie Stone, Nas, Keyshia Cole, Toni Braxton and rising stars Drake and K'naan. In a prolific musical partnership with Keys that first developed in the early 1990s, Brothers helped write and produce a number of tracks for her debut and second albums, Songs in A Minor and The Diary of Alicia Keys, respectively, which have both sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Brothers has produced, written, arranged, and composed songs that have appeared on motion picture soundtracks such as Dr. Dolittle, Drumline, Shaft, and Ali. With his work with Keys, earned him three Grammy Awards; Best R&B Album (Songs in A Minor and The Diary of Alicia Keys), Best R&B Song ("No One").

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Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Cole (born October 15, 1981) is an American singer–songwriter and actress. She gained nationwide acclaim when her 2005 debut album, The Way It Is went platinum. Her second album Just Like You went into production shortly after that and was released in September 2007. Her third studio album, A Different Me was released on December 16, 2008 and is certified Gold for selling 900,000+ units in the United States. She also achieved moderate success for her reality/documentary series Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is which aired on BET from 2006-2008 which gave a close look at Cole's career and personal life with her biological mother and sister. In December 2010, she released her fourth studio album, Calling All Hearts.
Keyshia Cole was born on October 15, 1981 in Oakland, California, where she was raised. Cole was born to Francine "Frankie" Lons and Sal, her now deceased father. She was later adopted by family friend Yvonne Cole and raised by Yvonne's husband's family and friends from the age of two. Yvonne learned that Cole could sing when she was five. At a school function, she snuck away from her mother and the next thing she knew, Cole had won a talent show. Along with her brother Sean, Cole was first introduced to the music industry at the age of 12, when she met and recorded with MC Hammer. She later formed a friendship with Tupac Shakur, who promised to help start her singing career before he died unexpectedly. Cole remembers Shakur as "really outspoken and really bright. He was definitely a guy who gave off a superstar vibe." Cole moved to Los Angeles when she was 18 to pursue a music career. During this time, Cole collaborated with artists from her native Bay Area, among them D'Wayne Wiggins of Tony Toni Tone and Messy Marv. In 2002, she was introduced to A&M Records executive Ron Fair, who signed her and began mentoring her after hearing her singing a verse of her hit song "Love".

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Kid Rock
Robert James "Bob" Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations. Kid Rock released several studio albums that mostly went unnoticed before his 1998 record Devil Without a Cause, released with Atlantic Records, sold 11 million albums behind the hits, "Bawitdaba", "Cowboy", and "Only God Knows Why". In 2000, he released The History of Rock, a compilation of remixed and remastered versions of songs from previous albums as well as the hit single, "American Bad Ass" and the previously unreleased "Abortion".
Kid Rock released the follow-up in 2001, Cocky. After a slow start, his country-flavored hit "Picture" with Sheryl Crow resurrected the album and it went gold as a single and pushed the album's sales over 5 million. It was followed by 2003's self-titled release, which went platinum in the USA and reached No. 8 on the Billboard charts. In 2006 he released Live Trucker, a greatest hits live album that went mostly unnoticed.

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Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum (born July 11, 1958) is an American smooth jazz saxophonist and songwriter. He toured as Whitney Houston's opening act for several years and has recorded a series of well received solo albums and film soundtracks, with music ranging from pop to R&B to smooth jazz. Kirk’s musical accomplishments have brought him a total of 12 Grammy nominations.
Kirk won his first Grammy award in 2011 for Best Gospel Song (“It’s What I Do”-featuring Lalah Hathaway) alongside life-long friend and gifted writer, Jerry Peters.
Kirk Whalum born July 11, 1958 in Memphis, Tennessee, was surrounded by music as he grew up in the R&B capital of the South. Kirk attended Melrose High School and Texas Southern University where he was a member of the World Famous Ocean of Soul Marching Band. In addition to singing in his father's church choir, Whalum also learned to love music from his grandmother, Thelma Twigg Whalum, a piano teacher, and two uncles, Wendell Whalum and Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum, who performed with jazz bands around the country. These influences proved lasting, as he told John H. Johnson's magazine "Ebony Man" in a 1994 profile, "The music I like to play and write encompasses the four elements I grew up with: Memphis R&B, gospel, rock, and jazz. The emphasis, though, is on melody, period."

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Kitarō
Masanori Takahashi (高橋正則 Takahashi Masanori^?), better known as Kitarō (喜多郎^?), (4 February 1953) is an award-winning Japanese musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who is regarded as a pioneer of New Age music.
After graduating, Kitaro moved to Tokyo to experience and become a part of the music scene, and it was there that he discovered the synthesizer. His first synthesizer was analog, and recalls having “just loved the analog sound that it made compared to today's digital sound”.
His parents were first opposed to the idea of their son having a musical career. In an effort to maneuver him towards their vision, they made arrangements for him to take a job at a local company. In return, he left home without telling them. He supported himself by taking on several part time jobs such as cooking and civil service work, while composing songs at night.
In the early 1970s, he changed completely to keyboards. He joined the Japanese music group Far East Family Band which was formed in 1965, and toured with them around the world. While in Europe, he met the German electronic music and former Tangerine Dream member Klaus Schulze. Schulze produced two albums for the band and gave Kitaro some tips for the use of synthesizers. In 1976, Kitaro left "Far East Family Band" and travelled through Asia (China, Laos, Thailand, India).

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Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor (September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings.
Born Cora Walton in Shelby County, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper. She left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois in 1952 with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor. In the late 1950s she began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to wider performances and her first recording contract. In 1965, Taylor was signed by Chess Records where she recorded "Wang Dang Doodle," a song written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf five years earlier. The song became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B charts in 1966, and selling a million copies. Taylor recorded several versions of "Wang Dang Doodle" over the years, including a live version at the 1967 American Folk Blues Festival with harmonica player Little Walter and guitarist Hound Dog Taylor. Taylor subsequently recorded more material, both original and covers, but never repeated that initial chart success.

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KRS-One
Lawrence Krisna Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (an acronym for Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone), and Teacha, is an American rapper. At the 2008 BET Awards, KRS-One was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for all his work and effort towards the Stop the Violence Movement as well as the overall pioneering of hip hop music and culture.
Lawrence Parker was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York during the summer of 1965. Parker left home at 16 to become an MC, coming to live at a homeless shelter in the South Bronx where he was dubbed Krishna by residents because of his interest in the Hare Krishna spirituality of some of the antipoverty workers. By the time he met youth counselor Scott Sterling, he was also writing graffiti as KRS-One (Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone). Together he and Sterling, a.k.a. DJ Scott La Rock eventually created Boogie Down Productions, releasing their debut album, Criminal Minded, in 1987. KRS-One has been a vegetarian since his youth.

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Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist and vocalese performer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling first became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. Growing up, Elling sang in choirs and played various musical instruments, but wasn't exposed to jazz until he attended Gustavus Adolphus College. Elling enrolled in graduate school at the University of Chicago Divinity School, but left school one credit short of a master's degree to pursue a career as a jazz vocalist.
Elling began to perform around Chicago, scat singing and improvising his own lyrics. He recorded a demo in the early 1990s and was signed by Blue Note Records, releasing a total of seven albums with the label. He has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Vocal Jazz Album for Dedicated to You (2009) on the Concord Jazz label. Elling often leads the Down Beat critics poll, and he was awarded the Prix Billie Holiday from the Académie du Jazz. Since 1995, Elling has collaborated with pianist, composer, and arranger Laurence Hobgood, leading a quartet that regularly tours the world.

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Lan Shui
Lan Shui is a Chinese-American conductor and currently holds the post as Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of Copenhagen Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of Denmark's Aalborg Symphony.
Born in China, Shui started as a violinist and eventually studied conducting at Boston University in the mid-1980s, first with Michael Charry and later with David Hoose. He made his professional conducting debut with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing in 1986 and was later appointed Conductor of the Beijing Symphony. In 1990 he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Summer Festival, where he came to the attention of David Zinman who invited him to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as Conducting Affiliate in 1992. From 1994 to 1997, he was Associate Conductor to Neeme Jarvi and the Detroit Symphony. In the same period he assisted Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic and conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in Paris as part of Boulez's young conductors' project.

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Lang Lang (pianist)
Lang Lang (Chinese: 郎朗; pinyin: Láng Lǎng), born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York, who has performed with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native China. He is increasingly well known around the world for his concert performances, television appearances, albums and soundtracks. Lang has done much to encourage children and young musicians to take an interest in classical music, especially through the international foundation he launched in New York in 2008.
Lang Lang, which means "brilliance of the sky", was born in Shenyang, China. His father Lang Guoren (郎国任) is also a musician, who specializes in the erhu, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. At the age of two, Lang watched the Tom and Jerry episode The Cat Concerto which features the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt. According to Lang, this first contact with Western music is what motivated him to learn piano. He began lessons with Professor Zhu Ya-Fen at age three. At the age of five, he won first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his first public recital.

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Larry Klein
Larry Klein (born 1956) is a music producer, songwriter and bass guitar player, commonly known for being the frequent musical collaborator, and ex-husband, of Joni Mitchell.
He began his musical career while still in his teens, as a session musician, playing bass guitar on a string of albums, most notably several by jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.
Klein met Mitchell when he was hired as a bassist and sound engineer for her 1982 album Wild Things Run Fast. The two quickly became romantically attached, and were married in November 1982. He helped produce that album, as well as her next four, occasionally contributing his own musical compositions to which Mitchell would add lyrics. It was during the recording of Turbulent Indigo, in 1994, that their marriage broke apart. He has continued to be involved, in various capacities, in the production of her albums.
Since his work with Mitchell, Klein has tended to produce albums by female singer–songwriters, although he was the co-producer (with Herbie Hancock) on Hancock's Grammy-winning River: The Joni Letters.

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LeAnn Rimes
Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982), best known as LeAnn Rimes, is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Bill Mack song "Blue" when she was 13 to become the youngest country music star since Tanya Tucker in 1972.
Rimes made her breakthrough into country music in 1996 with her debut album, Blue, which reached #1 on the Top Country Albums chart and was certified multiplatinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's eponymous leadoff single, "Blue," was originally intended to be recorded by Patsy Cline in the early 1960s. It became a Top 10 hit and Rimes gained national acclaim for her similarity to Cline's vocal style. When she released her sophomore studio effort in 1997, You Light up My Life: Inspirational Songs, she moved towards country pop material, which set the trend for a string of albums released into the next decade.

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Ledisi
Ledisi Anibade Young (

/ˈlɛdɨsiː/) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her first name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba. Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning. Along with her group Anibade, Ledisi released an album entitled Take Time. The album gained major airplay from local radio stations.^{[citation needed]}
In 2000, Ledisi released her first album, entitled Soulsinger: The Revival. Ledisi and her group toured in 2001, performing various shows. In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue. The album won her an award for "Outstanding Jazz Album" at the California Music Awards.
In 2007, Ledisi signed a major record deal with Verve Forecast and released her third album in August of that year, entitled Lost & Found, which sold almost 217,000 copies and earned her two Grammy nominations, including one for Best New Artist. In 2008, Ledisi released her Christmas album, It's Christmas.

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Leon "Chu" Berry
Leon Brown "Chu" Berry (September 13, 1908,Wheeling, West Virginia – October 30, 1941,Conneaut, Ohio) was an American swing tenor saxophonist.
Berry graduated from Lincoln High School, in Wheeling, then attended West Virginia State College, near Charleston, for three years. His sister Ann played piano and Chu became interested in music at an early age, playing alto saxophone at first with local bands. He was inspired to take up the tenor sax after hearing Coleman Hawkins on tour. Although Berry based his style on Hawkins' playing, the older man regarded Berry as his equal, saying "'Chu' was about the best."
Most of Chu Berry's career was spent in the sax sections of major swing bands:
"Although it has been stated in some publications that Chu Berry joined Count Basie's orchestra, this is erroneous. He did not take the place of Herschel Evans, but did, however, deputize for him at a recording date..."
Throughout his brief career, Chu Berry was in demand as a sideman for recording sessions under the names of various other jazz artists, including Spike Hughes (1933), Bessie Smith (1933), The Chocolate Dandies (1933), Mildred Bailey (1935–1938), Teddy Wilson (1935–1938), Billie Holiday (1938–1939), Wingy Manone (1938–1939) and Lionel Hampton (1939).

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Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein (

/ˈbɜrnstaɪn/ US dict: bûrn′·stīn; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim. According to The New York Times, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."
His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, as well as Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town and his own Mass.
Bernstein was also the first conductor to give numerous television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. In addition, he was a skilled pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard.
As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and commercial success of West Side Story.

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Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.
While giving the speech at Cohen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 10 March 2008, Lou Reed described Cohen as belonging to the "highest and most influential echelon of songwriters."
Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, into a middle-class Jewish family. He attended Roslyn Elementary School. His mother, Marsha Klinitsky, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry, emigrated from Lithuania while his great-grandfather emigrated from Poland. He grew up in Westmount on the Island of Montreal. His grandfather was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial Montreal clothing store, died when Cohen was nine years old. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that, "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967. "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest." Cohen attended Westmount High School, beginning in 1948 where he was involved with the Student Council and studied music and poetry. He became especially interested in the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca. As a teenager, he learned to play the guitar, and formed a country-folk group called the Buckskin Boys. Although he initially played a regular acoustic guitar as a teenager, he soon switched to playing a classical guitar after meeting a young Spanish flamenco guitar player who taught him "a few chords and some flamenco."

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Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor and composer.
Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His father Felix Slatkin was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet, and his mother Eleanor Aller was cellist with the quartet. His brother Frederick, now a cellist, traced the family's original name as Zlotkin, and adopted that form of the family surname for himself professionally. Frederick Zlotkin has spoken of the family lineage as follows:
"The Zlotkin/Slatkin lineage is Russian-Jewish. The first Zlotkin arrival to the US was Felix's father, grandpa Chaim Peretz Zlotkin, who came to settle with relatives in St. Louis in 1904; he (or the clerk at Ellis Island) changed the name. He probably came from the town of Mogilev [now Mohyliv-Podilskyi], from a shtetl (the Russians forced most Jews to live in villages outside of the major cities)...The Altschuler [Aller] side of the family is really rife with musicians. Grisha's uncle, Modest Altschuler, was a cellist (making me 4th generation) and he had quite a career. Among other things, he did the St. Petersburg premiere of Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence Sextet. When he came to America he formed the Russian Symphony Orchestra (early 1900's)."

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Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band.
Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, and creative drumming style highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", "Ophelia" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". His 2007 comeback album Dirt Farmer earned the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008, and in November of that year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #91 in the list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2010, Electric Dirt, his 2009 follow-up to Dirt Farmer, won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, an inaugural category in 2010. In 2011, his live album Ramble at the Ryman was nominated for the Grammy in the same category and won.
On April 17, 2012, his wife and daughter announced on Helm's website that he was "in the final stages of his battle with cancer" and thanked fans while requesting prayers. Two days later, Helm died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

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Lil' Kim
Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1975), better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and actress who was a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A..
Jones was born and raised in Brooklyn, living much of her adolescent life on the streets after being expelled from home. As a teenager, Kim would rap for fun, being heavily influenced by other female MCs like MC Lyte and Lady of Rage. When word got to The Notorious B.I.G. that she could rhyme, he made Jones perform a freestyle for him on the spot. Impressed with her, he took her in and she began her music career in 1995 with the group Junior M.A.F.I.A., whose debut album Conspiracy generated three hit singles. In late 1996, her solo debut album Hard Core was released. Hard Core was certified double platinum and spawned three consecutive #1 rap hits that included: "No Time" "Not Tonight (Ladies Night remix)" and "Crush on You", a record for a female rapper. Her following albums, The Notorious K.I.M. (2000) and La Bella Mafia (2003), both were certified platinum by the RIAA, making Kim the only female rapper besides Missy Elliott to have at least 3 platinum albums so far. Kim solidified her star power in 2001, when "Lady Marmalade", a song Kim was featured on, went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. That made her the second female rapper to earn a #1 on that chart.

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Lily Allen
Lily Rose Beatrice Cooper (born 2 May 1985), better known as Lily Allen, is an English recording artist, actress and fashion designer. She is the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. In her teenage years, her musical tastes evolved from glam rock to alternative. Allen abandoned school and concentrated on improving her performing and compositional skills. Afterwards, she created several demo songs and, near the end of 2005, she created a profile on MySpace where she made some of her recordings public.
A contract was signed with the label Regal Recordings, as the views on MySpace rose to tens of thousands. In 2006, she began to work on completing what would be her first studio album and its first mainstream single "Smile" reached the top position on the UK Singles Chart in July 2006. Her debut record, Alright, Still, was well received on the international market, selling over 2.6 million copies and brought Allen a nomination at the Grammy Awards, BRIT Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. She then began hosting her own talk-show, Lily Allen and Friends, on BBC Three.

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Lisa Lampanelli
Lisa Lampanelli (born Lisa Lampugnale; July 19, 1961) is an American stand-up comedian and insult comic. She is noted for her racy and controversial style of comedy, which frequently includes subjects such as race and homosexuality.
Lampanelli, one of three siblings, was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, to a middle class family. Three of her grandparents were of Italian descent, and the fourth of Polish ancestry. Her mother, Gloria, worked for the local police department where "she typed in all the arrests made", and her father, Leonard, worked for Sikorsky Aircraft and later became a painter. Lampanelli attended Roman Catholic schools, studied journalism at Boston College and Syracuse University, and went through a graduate program at Harvard. She worked as a copy editor at Popular Mechanics and an assistant at Rolling Stone. She was also a fact checker and the first chief of research for Spy magazine; a book about Spy describes her then as "your average decked-out-heavy-metal-head-next-door." Speaking later to Maxim Magazine Online, Lampanelli remarked, "I was a real journalist for Rolling Stone, Spy, Hit Parader. I interviewed those fuckin' hair bands: Cinderella, Slaughter."

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Little Joe (singer)
José María De León Hernández, known professionally as Little Joe is a Mexican-American tejano performer. He is usually joined by his band La Familia. In 1992, their album 16 de Septiembre earned the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2008, Little Joe once again won a Grammy for Best Tejano Album of the year for Before the Next Teardrop Falls. Other grammy nominated albums include:1988's Timeless, 1993's Que Paso, 1999's Little Joe Y La Familia 2000, and 2003's Celebration of Life Vol.1 & Vol.2.

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Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the mid-1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and contributed significantly to the early development of soul music. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website entry on Penniman states that:
He claims to be "the architect of rock and roll", and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.

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Loreena McKennitt
Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals. She has sold more than 14 million records worldwide.
McKennitt was born in Morden, Manitoba of Irish and Scottish descent to parents Jack (died 1992; a livestock dealer) and Irene McKennitt (1931-2011; a nurse). She moved to Stratford, Ontario in 1981, where she still resides.
When Loreena was young she wanted to become a veterinarian but she found that music chose her rather than she it. Developing a passion for Celtic music, she learned to play the Celtic harp and began busking at various places, including St. Lawrence Market in Toronto in order to earn money to record her first album.
McKennitt's first album, Elemental, was released in 1985, followed by To Drive the Cold Winter Away (1987), Parallel Dreams (1989), The Visit (1991), The Mask and Mirror (1994), A Winter Garden (1995), The Book of Secrets (1997), An Ancient Muse (2006), A Midwinter Night’s Dream (2008), and The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2010). All of her work is released under her own label, Quinlan Road.

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Loren Schoenberg
Loren Schoenberg (born July 23, 1958 in Fair Lawn, New Jersey) is a jazz historian, writer of liner notes, and tenor saxophonist. He began playing tenor saxophone in 1974 and by the late 1970s he was playing professionally with Benny Goodman. In 1981 he formed his own band, his music might be most associated with the swing (genre).
He is a co-winner of the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes.
Loren Schoenberg told John Brown in an interview found on The Jazz Museum in Harlem's website.
"Some people say to me, 'You should have been born fifty years earlier'…. Of course I would have grown up to the great music of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. And I'd have probably spent my life interviewing the widow of Scott Joplin!"
A historian by nature, Loren Schoenberg became a fixture in the jazz world with his encyclopedic knowledge about the genre and passion for preserving its past while making it eminently contemporary. Today, in addition to his work performing, conducting, writing, preaching and teaching, Schoenberg has been named Executive Director of The Jazz Museum in Harlem.

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Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel (born March 6, 1930) is an American conductor, violinist and composer.
Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents of Russian origin in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel (1903–2009), was a singer, teacher of voice and piano, and an actor (he co-starred in George A. Romero's 1977 horror movie Martin); and his mother, Marion "Marie" Shulman Maazel (1894–1992), founded the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. His grandfather Isaac was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for twenty years. Both Lincoln and Marie gave interviews for the Oral History Collection at the University of Pittsburgh, Lincoln’s in 1994, and Marie’s in 1974. These can be heard online.
Lorin Maazel was a child prodigy, taking his first conducting lesson at age seven with Vladimir Bakaleinikov and making his debut at age eight. At the age of eleven, he guest conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra on the radio. At twelve he toured America to conduct major orchestras. He made his violin debut at the age of fifteen. He later studied at the University of Pittsburgh.

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Lost Bayou Ramblers
The Lost Bayou Ramblers are a Grammy-nominated Cajun music band from Pilette, Louisiana.
The Lost Bayou Ramblers were formed in 1999 by Louis Michot (fiddle and vocals) and his brother Andre Michot (cajun accordion and lap steel guitar). The brothers had grown up playing with their father and uncles, a family of lawyers, judges and state senators who played traditional Cajun music as Les Frères Michot. The other Ramblers are Alan Lafleur (upright bass), Cavan Carruth (rhythm guitar) and Paul Etheredge (drums).
The Lost Bayou Ramblers have toured through much of the United States, including performances at the International Country Music Conference in Nashville, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens' Chile Pepper Fiesta, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and at the historic Preservation Hall. The Ramblers had their first international performance in Lyon, France in November 2004. Their debut release, Pilette Breakdown (Swallow Records) received critical acclaim across North America and Europe. Their 2006 release Mellow Joy Boys:Une Tasse Cafe featured guest fiddler Wilson Savoy of the Pine Leaf Boys on a collection of 1930's era songs and classic Cajun Swing. In 2008, the Ramblers were nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Zydeco or Cajun Music category (a new category for that year) for their album Live: A La Blue Moon. The Ramblers have also played a series of shows with Violent Femmes vocalist and fiddle player Gordon Gano and are working on their next album with him.

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Louis Biancaniello
Louis John Biancaniello is a songwriter, record producer, and musician.
Louis' skills were developed while working alongside producer Narada Michael Walden with whom he produced hits for Shanice "I Love Your Smile", Whitney Houston "I'm Every Woman" from the Grammy winning album The Bodyguard and "All The Man That I Need", Tevin Campbell "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do", Elton John "True Love", Lisa Fischer "How Can I Ease The Pain", Al Jarreau the Grammy winning "Heaven and Earth", and various other tracks from artist such as Mariah Carey, The O'Jay's, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Taylor Dayne, and Al Green.
On December 6, 2007, Biancaniello was nominated for 2 Grammy Awards: Best R&B Song for his songwriting credits on "When I See U" and Best Contemporary R&B Album of the year for his production credits on "Fantasia". In April 2008 "Take a Bow" and "Yesterday" were released on Leona Lewis's debut album titled "Spirit".
Biancaniello is often known to work with Sam Watters. The pair have written and produced hits for Jessica Simpson "I Wanna Love You Forever", for Alexia "You need love", the #1 single "I Believe", performed by Fantasia Barrino, the #1 singles "I'm Outta Love" and "One Day In You Life" performed by Anastacia. Recently the two have had chart success with Fantasia's #1 Billboard R&B hit "When I See You", Natasha Bedingfield's top 10 "Love Like This", Jordin Sparks top 10 "Battlefield" and Kelly Clarkson's "All I Ever Wanted". Recent releases also include tracks on new Multi Platinum Artist Leona Lewis and Westlife's 3X Platinum "Back Home". They are also known for their work with Keri Hilson, Celine Dion, Marc Anthony, Lara Fabian, 98 Degrees, Color Me Badd, Elliott Yamin and Tamyra Gray. Biancaniello and Watters are currently signed to the management company Made Communication in Miami, FL.

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Luciana Souza
Luciana Souza (1966) is a Brazilian jazz singer and composer who has crossed over into classical music.
Daughter of poet Tereza Souza and singer-composer-guitarist Walter Santos, she grew up in São Paulo. She is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston from which she received a Bachelor's degree in Jazz Composition. She then received a Master's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.
She began her career at the age of three by recording jingles for commercials. She has also worked in the field of European classical music, working with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, composer Osvaldo Golijov, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.
She has been nominated four times for a Grammy Award as best jazz vocalist. She has appeared and recorded with both renowned jazz musicians and composers of new music, including Danilo Perez, Hermeto Pascoal, Romero Lubambo, Maria Schneider, Kenny Werner, John Patitucci, Herbie Hancock, and Osvaldo Golijov.

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Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album, Lucinda Williams. This release featured "Passionate Kisses," a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter which garnered Lucinda her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994. Known for working slowly, Lucinda recorded and released only one other album in the next several years (Sweet Old World in 1992) before her greatest success came in 1998 with Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. This album presented a broader scope of songs that fused rock, blues, country, and Americana into a more distinctive style that still managed to remain consistent and commercial in sound. It went gold and earned Lucinda another Grammy while being universally acclaimed by critics. Since Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, she has released a string of albums that have also been critically acclaimed, though none have sold in the numbers of her 1998 breakthrough. She was also named "America's best songwriter" by TIME magazine in 2002.

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Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (

ⁱ/ˈlʊdvɪɡ væn ˈbeɪt.hoʊvən/; German pronunciation: [ˈluːtvɪç fan ˈbeːt.hoːfən] (

listen); baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers.
Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire, Beethoven moved to Vienna in his early 20s, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in his late twenties, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf.
Beethoven was the grandson of a musician of Flemish origin named Lodewijk van Beethoven (1712–73) who moved at the age of twenty to Bonn. Lodewijk (Ludwig is the German cognate of Dutch Lodewijk) was employed as a bass singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become Kapellmeister (music director). Lodewijk had one son, Johann (1740–1792), who worked as a tenor in the same musical establishment, and gave lessons on piano and violin to supplement his income. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767; she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, who had been the head chef at the court of the Archbishopric of Trier.

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Luis Miguel
Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri (April 19, 1970) is a Mexican singer. He is widely known only by the name Luis Miguel. An icon in the Spanish-speaking countries, he is often referred to as "El Sol de México" (The Sun of Mexico) or simply "El Sol" (The Sun).
Beginning his musical career in his childhood, Luis Miguel has won five Grammys and four Latin Grammys among other numerous awards. He is considered as one of the top male pop vocalists in the world nowadays. His contribution to Latin pop music, along with his hermetic personal life, has made him a global figure of Latin music for almost three decades. He debuted on the professional music at 11 years old. At the age of fifteen, Luis Miguel received his first Grammy for his duet "Me Gustas Tal Como Eres" (I Like You Just The Way You Are) with Sheena Easton. In 1991, the RIAA gave him a recognition for the high sales of the albums Romance and Segundo Romance. Luis Miguel is the only Latin artist to have two Spanish-language albums (Romance and Segundo Romance) go platinum in the USA. He has achieved a long string of distinctions. Also among those was having his album Luis Miguel achieve gold and platinum certifications in four countries, including the United States, within just three days of its release.

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Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco (

/ˈluːpeɪ/ LOO-pay), is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st and 15th Entertainment.
Raised in Chicago, Fiasco developed an interest in hip hop after initially disliking the genre for its use of vulgarity. After adopting the name Lupe Fiasco and recording songs in his father's basement, 19-year-old Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak. The group disbanded shortly after its inception, and Fiasco soon met rapper Jay-Z who helped him sign a record deal with Atlantic Records. In 2006, Fiasco released his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor on the label, which received three Grammy nominations. He released his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, in December 2007. The lead single "Superstar" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. He released Lasers on March 8, 2011 after a two-year delay. The album's lead single "The Show Goes On" peaked at number 9 on the chart, thus becoming his most successful single since "Superstar".

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Lupillo Rivera
Guadalupe Rivera Saavedra (born January 30, 1972) in La Barca, Jalisco, Mexico, is a Mexican regional singer.
As a youngster, Lupillo, his sister Jenni Rivera and the rest of the Rivera family moved to Long Beach California, where Lupillo graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1990.
Rivera wanted to be a restaurant owner. His father Pedro Rivera, however, was a recording label/studio owner(Cintas Acuario) . Wanting to give his son a hands-on business experience, Mr. Rivera hired his son Lupillo to work at the studio when a contracted singer failed to show up for a recording session. Lupillo was given the task of looking for local talent at bars, with the idea that some of that talent could be signed by his father's company. When Lupillo first started singing he was called "El Torito" Lupillo Rivera.Later when becoming more famous he was known as "El Toro del Corrido. Lupillo's uncle was a semi-famous professional boxer, known as El Toro Rivera to Mexican boxing fans. By 1999, Lupillo began to sing using his own name[Lupillo]. By then, he had already signed with Sony Discos. His star began to rise meteorically at that point. In 2001, he was awarded a Premios lo Nuestro.

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Lyle Lovett
Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man". Lovett has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album. It's Not Big It's Large was released in 2007, where it debuted and peaked at number 2 on the Top Country Albums chart. A new studio album, Natural Forces, was released on October 20, 2009 by Lost Highway Records.
Lovett was born in North Harris County, Texas, in the community of Klein, the son of William Pearce and Bernell Louise (née Klein) Lovett, a marketing executive and training specialist, respectively. He was raised in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Lovett attended Texas A&M University, where he studied German and journalism. It is a common misconception that Lyle and Robert Earl Keen were roommates at A&M. They were not. However, they lived across from each other on Church St. in College Station, became good friends, and wrote "The Front Porch Song" together, which both went on to record.

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Mack Wilberg
Mack Wilberg (born in 1955 in Orangeville, Utah) is a composer, arranger, conductor, and Choral clinician, as well as the music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He was the associate director of the choir and music director of the Temple Square Chorale for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from May 1999 until his appointment as director on March 28, 2008.
Wilberg was raised in Castle Dale, Utah, and served an LDS mission in South Korea where he was part of New Horizons, a vocal group made up of LDS missionaries.
Wilberg attended Brigham Young University upon finishing his missionary service, and earned a bachelor's degree in music in 1979. He then earned a PhD in music from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.
He is a former professor of music at (BYU) where he directed the Brigham Young University Men's Chorus and Concert Choir. His compositions and arrangements are performed and recorded by choral organizations throughout the world. In addition to the many compositions he has written for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, his works have been performed by such artists as Renée Fleming, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel, the King’s Singers, Audra McDonald, David Archuleta, Brian Stokes Mitchell and narrators Walter Cronkite and Claire Bloom.

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Mandisa
Mandisa Hundley (born October 2, 1976) is an American gospel singer, who was the ninth-place finalist in the fifth season of American Idol.
Mandisa Lynn Hundley was born and raised in Citrus Heights, California. After graduating from El Camino Fundamental High School, she attended American River College in Sacramento where she studied Vocal Jazz. Then she studied at Fisk University in Tennessee and graduated with a bachelor's of music degree with a concentration in vocal performance.
Mandisa auditioned for the United States talent competition show American Idol in Chicago. She referred to herself as "just Mandisa," thus was billed simply as Mandisa on the show. She stated that her musical influences run the gamut from Whitney Houston to Def Leppard.
Idol judge Simon Cowell made several comments about Mandisa's weight after her successful audition. He first quipped are we "going to have a bigger stage this year. Then, when Paula Abdul commented that Mandisa had a "Frenchie" growl to her voice, Cowell responded that a more apt comparison would be to France itself. These were among comments that drew the ire of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, (NAAFA) and would be one of the reasons Mandisa would entitle her 2007 album True Beauty.

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Mannie Fresh
Byron O. Thomas, (born March 20, 1969) better known by his stage name Mannie Fresh, is currently an artist and hip-hop producer who records for Def Jam South and his own division Chubby Boy Records. He is probably most famous for his time producing tracks for Cash Money Records from 1993 to 2005, and one half of the hip-hop duo Big Tymers with Birdman.
Thomas began loving music at the age of nine as a local New Orleans DJ, playing songs at parties and clubs. In the late 1980s he began a partnership with New Orleans rapper MC Gregory D. They released their first album together Throwdown in 1987, with Mannie Fresh producing and MC Gregory D rapping. They would release two more records together in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After their last album together, in 1993 Thomas met Bryan "Baby" Williams who gave him an opportunity to become the in-house producer of his record label Cash Money Records. With Williams's help, Thomas made chart-topping albums for the Hot Boys, which was composed of Lil Wayne, B.G., Juvenile, and Turk, producing all of the group’s singles. He also produced all tracks on the members’ solo works as well. Later, Thomas formed the Big Tymers along with Williams, as Mannie Fresh and Birdman respectively, and released five albums. In 2004, he released his own debut solo album The Mind of Mannie Fresh, which consisted of 30 tracks and featured the single “Real Big,” which peaked at #72 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2005, he split from Cash Money for financial reasons, and later joined Def Jam South, to which he is currently signed. On October 27, 2009, Mannie Fresh released his second solo album, Return of the Ballin'. The album was entirely produced by Fresh himself and featured prominent guests Rick Ross and Lil Jon.

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Mark Elder
Sir Mark Philip Elder, CBE, born 2 June 1947 (age 65), is a British conductor. He is the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.
Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, England, the son of a dentist. He played the bassoon when in primary school, and at Bryanston School, Dorset, where he was one of the foremost musicians (bassoon and keyboards) of his generation. He attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he studied music and was a choral scholar. He later became a protégé of Sir Edward Downes and gained experience conducting Verdi operas in Australia, at the Sydney Opera House.
Elder and his wife, Mandy, have a daughter, Katie.
Elder was the music director of English National Opera (ENO) from 1979 to 1993. He was known as part of the "Power House" team that also included general director Peter Jonas and artistic director David Pountney, and which gave ENO several very successful years of productions. Elder has also served as principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1992–1995) and music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (1989–1994). He has also held positions as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1982-1985) and the London Mozart Players (1980-1983).

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Mark Ronson
Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is an English DJ, musician, music producer, artist and co-founder of Allido Records. He currently works with his band under the music alias of Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
While his debut album Here Comes the Fuzz failed to make an impact on the charts, his second album, Version included three top ten hits and won Ronson a Brit Award for Best British Male Artist in 2008. His third studio album, Record Collection, was released on 27 September 2010.
Ronson was born at the Wellington Hospital, St John's Wood, to writer/socialite Ann Dexter-Jones and one-time band manager and real estate entrepreneur Laurence Ronson. His parents are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, with ancestors from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania, and Ronson was brought up in Conservative Judaism. Ronson's family name was originally Aaronson, but his grandfather Henry Ronson changed it to Ronson. Ronson is the nephew of property tycoon Gerald Ronson. Ronson is related to British Conservative politicians Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Leon Brittan, as well as Odeon Cinemas founder Oscar Deutsch. Ronson has twin sisters who are two years younger than him, Charlotte Ronson, a fashion designer, and Samantha Ronson, a singer and DJ. Ronson also has five younger half-siblings. Alexander and Annabelle, through his mother's remarriage to Mick Jones as well as Henrietta, David and Joshua, through his father's remarriage to model Michele First. After his parents broke up, his mother married Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones, which contributed to a childhood surrounded by music.

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Mark Walker
For the fisher and songwriter with the same name, see Mark Walker (songwriter). For the Canadian Ethicist, see Mark Alan Walker
General Sir Mark Walker VC KCB (24 November 1827 – 18 July 1902) was born in Gore Port, Finea, County Westmeath in Ireland. He was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
During the Crimean War, Walker was a 26 year old lieutenant in the 30th Regiment of Foot (later the East Lancashire Regiment) British Army when the deed for which he was awarded the VC was performed.
On 5 November 1854 at Inkerman, Crimea, Lieutenant Walker jumped over a wall in the face of two battalions of Russian Infantry which were marching towards it. This act was to encourage the men, by example, to advance against such odds - which they did and succeeded in driving back both battalions.
His Victoria Cross was until recently on display at The Buffs Regimental Museum, Canterbury, England. With the rest of that museum's collections, it has now been transferred to the National Army Museum, where it is not currently on display.

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Mark Wilkerson
Mark Wilkerson (born September 6, 1976) is the lead singer and guitarist for rock band Course of Nature.
Wilkerson co-wrote the song "It's Not Over" which was released as a single and as the opening track on the eponymous album by Daughtry. On December 6, 2007, the song earned him and the other co-writers a nomination for Best Rock Song for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
On May 3, 2007, Wilkerson gave a concert to help the relief efforts of Enterprise High School, two months after a violent storm destroyed the school and killed eight students.
On July 19, 2003, Wilkerson married actress Melissa Joan Hart. As of May 2011, they have two sons: Mason (born January 2006) and Braydon (born March 2008), and the couple is expecting a third child.

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Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (born June 2, 1944) is an American composer. He is one of only eleven people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony. He is also one of only two people to have won those four prizes and also a Pulitzer Prize (the other is Richard Rodgers). Hamlisch has also won two Golden Globes.
Hamlisch was born in New York City to Viennese Jewish parents: Lilly Schachter and Max Hamlisch. His father was an accordionist and bandleader. Hamlisch was a child prodigy, and by age five he began mimicking music he heard on the radio on the piano. A few months before he turned seven, in 1951, he was accepted into what is now the Juilliard School Pre-College Division. His first job was as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand. Shortly after that, he was hired by producer Sam Spiegel to play piano at Spiegel's parties. This connection led to his first film score, The Swimmer. His favorite musicals growing up were My Fair Lady, Gypsy, West Side Story, and Bye Bye Birdie.

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Marvin Sapp
Pastor Marvin Louis Sapp (born on January 28, 1967) is an American Gospel music singer-songwriter who recorded with the group Commissioned during the 1990s before beginning a record-breaking solo career. Sapp is also the Founder and Senior pastor of Lighthouse Full Life Center Church, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Sapp was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and began singing in church at age four. He spent his teenage years singing with a number of Gospel groups and ensembles before being invited by Gospel singer Fred Hammond to sing with Commissioned in 1991 after Keith Staten left. Marvin Sapp appears on the group's albums Number 7, Matters of the Heart, and Irreplaceable Love. Sapp left in 1996 and was replaced by Marcus R. Cole.
In 1996, Sapp decided to establish himself as a contemporary gospel solo artist and has recorded seven albums. Sapp first achieved crossover fame with the release of "Never Would Have Made It" from the album Thirsty in 2007. It peaked at #14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, #82 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and also at #1 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart. Thirsty debuted at #28 on the U.S. Billboard 200, #4 on the U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and also #1 on the U.S. Billboard Top Gospel Albums. It has been certified gold by the RIAA due to the album selling over 500,000 copies, making it Sapp's best selling album of his solo career, and has so far sold over 712,000 copies. In 2009, Sapp won all seven Gospel Stellar Awards that he was nominated for.

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Marvin Winans
Marvin Lawrence Winans (born March 5, 1958) is an American gospel singer and member of the musical Winans family. He is also known for his recurring role in the hit show Tyler Perry's House of Payne.
Winans was born in Detroit, Michigan, the fourth of 10 children of Delores (née Ransom) and David Glenn Winans, Sr., who recorded together as "Mom and Pop Winans". His siblings David II, Carvin (his fraternal twin), Benjamin (BeBe), Daniel, Michael, Ronald, Priscilla (CeCe), Deborah (Debbie), Angelique (Angie) are also musically gifted and have careers in the music industry singing, writing and producing. Marvin met and married Vickie Bowman, to whom he was married for 16 years until their divorce in 1995. His sons, Marvin Jr. (Coconut), Josiah Winans, and stepson Mario (Skeeter) are also in the music business. Mario is a producer and R&B singer. Marvin Jr., once a member of Winans Phase 2, is now a solo artist and is also a producer, and Josiah Winans is Also a Producer featured on Marvin jr's first solo project.

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Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige (

/ˈblaɪʒ/; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and occasional rapper and actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B.
Blige started her musical career in 1992, releasing her debut album, What's the 411? on MCA Records and Uptown. With her tenth album, My Life II... The Journey Continues (Act 1) (2011), she had ten consecutive albums debut in the top 10 on the Billboard 200. Blige's work has defined the course of R&B/Hip-Hop music. My Life, in particular, is considered among the greatest albums ever recorded according to Rolling Stone (279/500),Time, and Vibe. For her part in combining hip hop and soul in the early 1990s and its subsequent commercial success, Blige received the World Music Awards "Legends Award". In 2007 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awarded her its "Voice of Music" Award. ASCAP official Jeanie Weems stated that "[Blige's] music has been the voice of inspiration to women worldwide in both struggle and triumph." That same year, Time included her in its "Time 100" list, a collection of the year's 100 most influential individuals around the world. In a documentary by BET television, Mary J. Blige said that when she hears music, she sees colors. In other words she has Synesthesia.

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Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou (

/ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/; born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928) is an American author and poet. She has published six autobiographies, five books of essays, numerous books of poetry, and is credited with a long list of plays, movies, and television shows. She is one of the most decorated writers of her generation, with dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her first seventeen years, and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
Angelou's long list of occupations has included pimp, prostitute, night-club dancer and performer, castmember of the musical Porgy and Bess, coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, author, journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization, and actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. Since 1991, she has taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she holds the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Since the 1990s she has made around eighty appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

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Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. She is widely regarded as one of the most talented actors of all time.
Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie Deadliest Season (1977). In that same year, she made her film debut with Julia (1977). Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the former giving Streep her first Academy Award nomination and the latter her first win. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).
Streep has received 17 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and 26 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight, more nominations than any other actor in the history of either award. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, five New York Film Critics Circle Awards, two BAFTA awards, an Australian Film Institute Award, five Grammy Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination, amongst others. She was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2009 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts, the youngest actress in each award's history.

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Meshell Ndegeocello
Meshell Ndegeocello (born Michelle Lynn Johnson, August 29, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy Award nominations. She has been credited for having "sparked the neo-soul movement."
Ndegeocello was born Michelle Lynn Johnson in Berlin, Germany, to army lieutenant and saxophonist father Jacques Johnson and health care worker mother Helen. She was raised in Washington, D.C. where she attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Oxon Hill High School. In early press releases from Maverick Records her birth year was erroneously listed as 1969. The 1968 birth date has been confirmed through a previous manager and lifelong friend.^{[citation needed]}
Named Michelle Lynn Johnson at birth, Ndegeocello adopted her surname at the age of 17, which she says means "free like a bird" in Swahili. Meshell Ndegeocello is pronounced Mee-shell N-deh-gay-o-chel-o. Early pressings of Plantation Lullabies were stickered with the instructions. The spelling has changed in the hands of record labels a few times during her career; however, the correct spelling of her stage name is now Meshell Ndegeocello.

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Michael Brecker
Michael Leonard Brecker (March 29, 1949 – January 13, 2007) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Acknowledged as "a quiet, gentle musician widely regarded as the most influential tenor saxophonist since John Coltrane," he has been awarded 15 Grammy Awards as both performer and composer and was inducted into Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2007.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Cheltenham Township, a local suburb, Michael Brecker was exposed to jazz at an early age by his father, an amateur jazz pianist. He grew up a part of the generation of jazz musicians who saw rock music not as the enemy but as a viable musical option. Brecker began studying clarinet, then moved to alto saxophone in school, eventually settling on the tenor saxophone as his primary instrument. He graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1967 and after only a year at Indiana University, Michael Brecker moved to New York City in 1969 where he carved out a niche for himself as a dynamic and exciting jazz soloist. He first made his mark at age 21 as a member of the jazz-rock band Dreams—a band that included his older brother Randy, trombonist Barry Rogers, drummer Billy Cobham, Jeff Kent and Doug Lubahn. Dreams was short-lived, lasting only a year, but Miles Davis was seen at some gigs prior to his recording Jack Johnson.

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Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino (Italian pronunciation: [dʒakˈkiːno]; born October 10, 1967) is an Italian American composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games. Some of his most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, Alias and Fringe, games such as the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series, and films such as Mission: Impossible III, The Incredibles, Star Trek, Cloverfield, Ratatouille, Up, Super 8, Cars 2,50/50, and John Carter. Giacchino has received numerous awards for his work, including an Emmy, multiple Grammys, an Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award.
Michael Giacchino, an Italian American (with dual citizenship), was born in Riverside Township, New Jersey. Giacchino grew up in Edgewater Park Township, New Jersey and graduated from Holy Cross High School in Delran, New Jersey.^{[citation needed]}
Giacchino began combining images and music at age 10, when he began creating stop-motion animation with homemade soundtracks in his basement. While in high school, an art teacher who mentored Giacchino recommended to his parents that attend the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Giacchino describes visiting the school with his parents thus:

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Michael W. Smith
Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957) is an American contemporary Christian musician, who is best known for his Billboard Hot 100 top ten hit song, "Place in this World". As a longtime Musician, he has charted primarily in the contemporary Christian and occasionally in the mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in this World" hit No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Smith is a three-time Grammy Award winner, and has earned 40 Dove Awards. Over the course of his career, he sold more than 13 million albums and recorded 29 No. 1 Hit songs, fourteen gold albums, and five platinum albums. Smith is an American Music Award recipient; he was also named one of People magazine's "Most Beautiful People".
Michael Whitaker Smith was born to Paul and Barbara Smith in Kenova, West Virginia. His father was an oil refinery worker at the Ashland Oil Refinery, one of the top ten largest oil refineries in the world, in nearby Catlettsburg, Kentucky and his mother was a caterer. He inherited his love of baseball from his father, who had played in the minor leagues. As a child, he developed a love of music through his church. He learned piano at an early age and sang in his church choir. At the age of 10, he had "an intense spiritual experience" that led to his becoming a devout Christian. "I wore this big cross around my neck," he would recall, "It was very real to me." He became involved in Bible study and found a group of older friends who shared his religious faith.

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Miguel Bosé
Miguel Dominguín Bosé (born April 3, 1956) is a Latin Grammy-winning Spanish/Italian musician and actor. Bosé became a honorary Colombian citizen in 2010.
Bosé was born in San Fernando Hospital in Panama City, Panama, the son of the famous Italian actress Lucia Bosè and the legendary bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín. He is also a cousin of Carmen Ordóñez. He grew up in an environment surrounded by art and culture. Close friends of his family were Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway. His godfather was Luchino Visconti and Pablo Picasso was the godfather of his sister Paola Dominguin.
In 1971, Bosé started a career as an actor, participating in various movies. However, he did not make that many films, and in 1975 he decided a career change was due and started exploring his talents as a singer. With the assistance of Camilo Blanes he recorded his first singles. Two years later, in 1977, Bosé signed a contract with CBS Records, and he remained with them until 1984.
In 1983, 1984 and 1985, he participated in the "Llena Tu Cabeza De Rock" television specials on Puerto Rico WAPA-TV. But it was in 1985 that he became an international superstar, when his song "Amante bandido" rose to the top of the charts all over Latin America and in Spain, while he started to decline in Italy (where he had a parallel career, singing in both Italian and English - he would go back to the top there in 1994, by winning Festivalbar (the second musical event after the Sanremo Music Festival) for the third time). The video to that song also became one of the most widely seen Spanish music videos, with Bose playing both a Superman style superhero and an Indiana Jones type of adventurer in it.

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Mika (singer)
Mika (

/ˈmiːkə/; born Michael Holbrook Penniman, Jr.; 18 August 1983) is a British singer-songwriter.
After recording his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday EP, Mika released his first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion, on Island Records in 2007. Life in Cartoon Motion sold more than 5.6 million copies worldwide and helped Mika win a Brit Award—winning Best British Breakthrough act, and receive a Grammy Award nomination. In 2006, Mika started up his company, Dodgy Holiday Tours Limited. Two years later Mika released his second extended play, Songs for Sorrow, of which limited edition copies are now sold out worldwide. In 2009 Mika released his second studio album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much. Finishing his worldwide tour, Mika started writing and recording material for his third album, The Origin of Love, stating it will be "more simplistic pop, less layered than the last one".
Mika was born in Beirut, the third of five children born to a Lebanese mother and an American father. When he was a year old his family was forced to leave war-torn Lebanon and moved to Paris. The first piano piece he learned to play was "Les Champs-Élysées", by Joe Dassin. At age seven, he wrote his first song, which he describes as an "awful" piano instrumental called "Angry". The family moved to London when he was nine years old. There, he attended the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, where he experienced severe bullying. He also had problems with dyslexia. In response to these experiences Mika was home-schooled by his mother at the age of 12, for six to eight months. He then attended St Philip's School in Kensington, where he was the head of the Schola Cantorum (the St. Philip's Choir). Later he attended Westminster School and the Royal College of Music, which he left to record his first album at Casablanca Records. He has also slightly altered his given name, Mica, changing the "c" to a "k" because he was frustrated by how often people would mispronounce it.

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Mike Dean (producer)
Mike Dean is an American Grammy Award winning hip-hop producer. He is known for pioneering the "Dirty South" sound in the 1990s, particularly in work for artists from Rap-A-Lot Records. Dean has most notably worked alongside Scarface of the Geto Boys, 2Pac, Do or Die, Tha Dogg Pound, Yukmouth of the Luniz, Outlawz, C-Bo, Nate Dogg, Tech N9ne, UGK, Z-Ro, Devin the Dude, among others. He has also mixed, produced and mastered many hits on multi-platinum albums.
In recent years he has also become known for his work alongside Kanye West. He did mixing on West's album Late Registration and production on his Graduation, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy albums. He also co-produced with Kanye on and the Kanye/Jay-Z collaboration album Watch the Throne. He particularly made heavy contributions to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, where he did production work on 9 of the album's 13 tracks, and Watch the Throne, where he contributed to 7 of 12 tracks.

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Mike Elizondo
Michael "Mike" Elizondo is a well-known songwriter, bassist, keyboardist, and hip hop music producer.
Mike resides with his wife, 3 daughters and newborn son in Westlake Village, CA.
Mike Elizondo is especially known for his collaborations with internationally successful producer Dr. Dre and rapper Eminem. He has played the bass for many of Dr. Dre's productions and has co-written some of Eminem's songs, including the hit single "The Real Slim Shady". He co-produced several songs on Encore with Dr. Dre, and co-produced 50 Cent's hit single "In Da Club", again, with Dr. Dre. Elizondo has also co-written songs for many other notable artists, including Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, D-12, Xzibit, Nate Dogg and Obie Trice.
Aside from hip-hop, Elizondo has worked with singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, producing her 2005 album Extraordinary Machine. He was also involved in album tracks for artists such as Nelly Furtado, Lisa Marie Presley, and Pink. He writes songs and plays the bass, guitar, and keyboards himself. With three other high-profile musicians, Elizondo is part of the experimental rock group Shogun Warrior, who play at the famed Baked Potato bar & club in Hollywood, CA frequently.

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Mike Shinoda
Michael Kenji "Mike" Shinoda (born February 11, 1977) is a Japanese American musician, record producer, and artist. He is best known as the rapper, principal songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Linkin Park. Shinoda is also noted as a solo rapper in his side-project, Fort Minor. He also provides artwork, production, and mixing for both projects.
Shinoda was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Agoura Hills. His father is Japanese American and his mother is Caucasian. He also has a younger brother, Jason. Shinoda attended Parkman Elementary and Lindero Canyon Middle School.
Following his mother's wishes, Shinoda began his classical piano training with lessons around the age of six. His enthusiasm grew eventually and at the age of thirteen, he expressed the desire to move toward playing jazz, blues, and even hip-hop. During his middle school and high school years, he added the guitar and, eventually, rap-style vocals to his repertoire.
After his teens, Mike Shinoda's rap interests found a source of encouragement in Brad Delson, with whom he started to write and record songs in a makeshift studio set up in his bedroom. Shinoda attended Agoura High School with Linkin Park bandmates Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon as well as with members of the band Hoobastank. By the end of high school, Bourdon had become involved in their musical ventures. The trio formed the band Xero, and began to make a more serious attempt to pursue a career in the music industry.

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Miranda Lambert
Miranda Leigh Shelton (née Lambert) (born November 10, 1983) is an American country music artist who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of Nashville Star, where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut album Kerosene. This album, which was certified Platinum in the United States, also produced the singles "Bring Me Down", "Kerosene", and "New Strings". All four singles were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
After Epic's Nashville division closed, Lambert was transferred to Columbia Records Nashville for her second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which was released in early 2007. Although the title track failed to make top 40, the next three singles ("Famous in a Small Town", "Gunpowder & Lead", and "More Like Her") were all Top 20 hits, with "Gunpowder & Lead" becoming her first Top 10 country hit in July 2008. Lambert's third album, Revolution, was released in September 2009. Five singles have been released from the album, including Lambert's two Number One hits "The House That Built Me," which spent four weeks at the top of the chart, and "Heart Like Mine". Lambert has also been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Country Music Association Awards.

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Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith (born December 11, 1973) is an American actor and MC, known by the stage names Mos Def (

/ˌmoʊsˈdɛf/) and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which released the album Black Star in 1998. He was a major force in late 1990s underground hip hop while with Rawkus Records. As a solo artist he has released the albums Black on Both Sides in 1999, The New Danger in 2004, True Magic in 2006, and The Ecstatic in 2009.
Although he was initially recognized for his musical output, since the early 2000s, Mos Def's screen work has established him as one of only a handful of rappers who has garnered critical acclaim for his acting work. He is well known for his portrayal of Brother Sam in the American drama series Dexter. Mos Def has also been active in several social and political causes.
He was born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman. He was raised by his mother in Brooklyn; his father lived in New Jersey. While his father was initially a member of the Nation of Islam and later an active member in the community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who merged into mainstream Islam from the Nation, Mos Def was not exposed to Islam until the age of 13. At 19, he took his shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. He is friends with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.

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Musiq Soulchild
Musiq Soulchild or Musiq (

/ˈmjuːsɪk/; born Taalib Johnson on September 16, 1977) is a American R&B/soul singer-songwriter whose style blends contemporary R&B, soul, funk, alternative, blues, jazz, some gospel influences and hip hop.
Musiq was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the oldest of nine children. At an early age, Musiq decided he would drop out of high school, and left home at 17. It was during that time Musiq started to sell dope in the hood and build a reputation for being musically gifted, beat boxing for MC's, free styling on the open mic circuit, scatting at a jazz club, or just performing a cappella in the streets of Philadelphia, which is where he got the name "Musiq" and later added "Soulchild", which is intended to respect and represent the legacy and traditions of past soul artists. We all know how hard it can be for an African American to get by and Muisq protected his dream with a compact 9mm. He cites as his inspiration such icons as Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Patti LaBelle, Billie Holiday, Sly & the Family Stone and Ray Charles.

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Nas
Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones (

/nɑːˈsɪər/; born September 14, 1973), better known by his stage name Nas (

/ˈnɑːz/), is an American rapper and actor. He is also the son of jazz musician Olu Dara. Nas has released eight consecutive platinum and multi-platinum albums since 1994, four of which topped the Billboard charts upon release and has sold over thirteen-million records in the United States alone. Nas was also part of the hip hop supergroup The Firm, which released one album under Dr. Dre's record label Aftermath. Aside from rapping, Nas is also an occasional actor and has appeared in feature films such as Hype Williams' directorial debut Belly, Ticker and In Too Deep and the television show Hawaii Five-0.
His rise to fame began in 1991 with his feature on hip hop group Main Source's debut album on the track "Live at the Barbeque". In the years that followed, Nas garnered attention from music industry A & R's and record labels with more impressive features and a solo single "Halftime". His debut album Illmatic, released in 1994 by Columbia Records, received universal acclaim from both critics and the hip hop community and would go on to be widely hailed as a musical landmark and a classic in the genre and is consistently ranked as one of the greatest LP's of all time. His follow up album It Was Written debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Charts, stayed on top for four consecutive weeks and went platinum twice in only two months, propelling Nas to worldwide notoriety.

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Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole (born February 6, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)", "Inseparable" and "Our Love". After a period of failing sales and performances due to a heavy drug addiction, Cole reemerged as a pop artist with the 1987 album, Everlasting, and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she re-recorded standards by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and also won Cole numerous Grammy Awards.
Natalie Cole was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of crooner Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Cole. Raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles; regarding her childhood, Cole has referred to her family as "the black Kennedys" and was exposed to many great singers of jazz, soul, and blues. At the age of six Natalie sang on her father's Christmas album and later began performing at age 11.

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Nate Mendel
Nathan Gregor "Nate" Mendel (born December 2, 1968) is an American bassist for the bands Foo Fighters, The Jealous Sound, Sunny Day Real Estate, and The Fire Theft.
He began his musical career in the punk band Diddly Squat, then played in the fairly popular punk bands Christ on a Crutch, Brotherhood (Seattle Straight edge), Galleons Lap. He was a member of Sunny Day Real Estate and Juno before joining the Foo Fighters in 1995 (after Sunny Day Real Estate had disbanded). Although Sunny Day Real Estate reunited for two more albums (How It Feels to Be Something On and The Rising Tide), he stayed with the Foo Fighters. After SDRE disbanded once more, he joined with other Sunny Day Real Estate members Jeremy Enigk and William Goldsmith to form The Fire Theft, who released a self-titled album in 2003.
He scored a role in the indie movie Our Burden Is Light, in which he also played a minor role as the main female character's best friend's boyfriend and bassist. In the movie, Mendel plays in a band named Bleeder, consisting of himself, Jessica Ballard, and Taylor Hawkins.

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Ne-Yo
Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr. (born October 18, 1979), better known by his stage name Ne-Yo, is an American and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer and actor. Beginning his career as a songwriter, Ne-Yo penned the hit "Let Me Love You" for singer Mario. The single's successful release in the United States prompted an informal meeting between Ne-Yo and Def Jam's label head, and signing a recording contract.
In 2006, he released his debut album, In My Own Words, which contained the US number one hit "So Sick", as well as the top 10 hit "Sexy Love". Then in 2007, he released his second album, Because of You, which contained the US top 3 hit, "Because of You". In 2008, he released his third album, Year of the Gentleman, which contained the top 10 hits "Closer","Mad" and "Miss Independent". His fourth studio album, Libra Scale, was released on November 22, 2010.
In 2009, Billboard ranked him as the 57th Artist of the 2000s decade. In addition to a successful recording career, Ne-Yo has amassed a catalog of chart-topping songs that he has written for other artists.

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Nelly Furtado
Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. Furtado first gained fame with her debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, and its single "I'm Like a Bird", which won a 2001 Juno Award for Single of the Year and a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her second studio album, Folklore, was released. It was less commercially successful in the US but produced three international singles: "Powerless (Say What You Want)", "Try", and "Força" (the theme of the 2004 European Football Championship). Her third studio album, Loose was her biggest success worldwide. It produced the number-one hits "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "Say It Right" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)". After a three-year break, she released her first full-length Spanish album, Mi Plan. For Mi Plan, Furtado received the Latin Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. Furtado's fourth English-language studio album, The Spirit Indestructible, is set for release on September 18, 2012.

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Nottz
Dominick Lamb better known by his stage name, Nottz is a music producer, writer and rapper from Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. He sometimes extends his executive name to Nottz Raw.
Nottz has produced for some of the biggest names in hip hop including Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, The Game, Notorious B.I.G., Pusha T, Scarface, J Dilla, and Asher Roth. Some of his earliest production work was on the Rawkus Records compilation Lyricist Lounge, Volume One, in 1998. From there he landed three tracks on Busta Rhymes' Extinction level Event LP, after Rhymes stumbled across one of his beat tapes.
Like many other hip hop producers to emerge before the 2000s, Nottz samples from old (primarily soul) records and film soundtracks to reconstruct new beats. West Coast hip hop icon, Dr. Dre, has named Nottz as one of his favourite producers, and has selected him as one of the few guest producers on his much delayed, yet anticipated Detox album.
Nottz also has a group called D.M.P., which stands for "Durte Muzik Prahdukshun". They released an EP in 2004 and a full length album on Koch Records, titled Nottz Presents D.M.P., in 2005.

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Oleg Maisenberg
Oleg Maisenberg is a Russian-Austrian pianist and teacher.
Born 29 April 1945 to a Jewish family in Odessa, Oleg Maisenberg received his first piano lessons from his mother at the age of five. He completed his studies at the Central Music School Kishinev and at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow with Professor Jocheles. In 1967 he won the second prize at the "International Schubert Competition" in Vienna, where in the same year he won the first prize in the competition "Music of the 20th Century". From 1971 to 1980 he appeared regularly with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and other renowned orchestras of the former Soviet Union.
In 1981 Oleg Maisenberg emigrated to Vienna. Since then he has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, with the conductors Christoph von Dohnányi, Zubin Mehta, Eugene Ormandy, Herbert Blomstedt, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Neeme Järvi, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Georges Prêtre, Alain Lombard, Michel Plasson, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Vladimir Fedosejev, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

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Osmo Vänskä
Osmo Antero Vänskä (born 28 February 1953, Sääminki, Finland) is a Finnish conductor, clarinetist and composer.
He started his musical career as an orchestral clarinetist with the Turku Philharmonic (1971–76). He then became the principal clarinet of the Helsinki Philharmonic from 1977 to 1982. During this time, he started to study conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy, where his classmates included Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. In 1982, he won the Besançon Young Conductor's Competition.
Vänskä became principal guest conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in 1985, and chief conductor in 1988. He concluded his tenure with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and is now the orchestra's Conductor Laureate. His complete set of Sibelius symphonies with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, also on the BIS label, has gathered widespread acclaim. He has recorded extensively with his Lahti orchestra for the BIS label, including music of Kalevi Aho, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Bernhard Crusell, Uuno Klami, Tauno Marttinen, Robert Kajanus, Sofia Gubaidulina, Joonas Kokkonen, Jan Sandström, Jean Sibelius, and Fredrik Pacius.

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Otis Clay
Otis Clay (born February 11, 1942, Waxhaw, Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States) is an American R&B and soul singer, who started in gospel music.
Clay was born in rural Bolivar County, Mississippi to a musical family, who moved in 1953 to Muncie, Indiana. After singing with local gospel group, the Voices of Hope, he returned to Mississippi to sing with the Christian Travelers, before settling in Chicago in 1957. There, he joined a series of gospel vocal groups including the Golden Jubilaires, the Famous Blue Jay Singers, the Holy Wonders, and the Pilgrim Harmonizers, before making his first solo secular recordings in 1962. They were unissued, and Clay joined the Gospel Songbirds, who recorded in Nashville in 1964 and who also included Maurice Dollison who sang R&B under the name Cash McCall, and then the Sensational Nightingales.
In 1965 Clay signed with One-derful! Records in Chicago, to make secular recordings. After releasing a series of gospel-tinged soul records, his first hit came in 1967 with "That's How It Is (When You're In Love)", which reached # 34 on the R&B chart, followed by "A Lasting Love" (# 48 R&B). In 1968 the record company folded and his contract was bought by Atlantic Records, who launched their subsidiary Cotillion label with Clay's version of the Sir Douglas Quintet hit, "She's About A Mover", produced at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. The record became Clay's biggest pop hit, reaching # 97 on the Hot 100 (# 47 R&B). However, follow-ups on Cotillion, including "Hard Working Woman" produced by Syl Johnson, and "Is It Over?" produced by Willie Mitchell in Memphis, were less successful.

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Otis Rush
Otis Rush (born April 29, 1935 in Philadelphia, Mississippi) is a blues musician, singer and guitarist. His distinctive guitar style features a slow burning sound and long bent notes. With similar qualities to Magic Sam and Buddy Guy, his sound became known as West Side Chicago blues and became an influence on many musicians including Michael Bloomfield and Eric Clapton.
Rush is left-handed and, unlike many other left-handed guitarists, plays a left-handed instrument strung upside-down with the low E string at the bottom. He played often with the little finger of his pick hand curled under the low E for positioning. It is widely believed that this contributes to his distinctive sound. He has a wide-ranging, powerful tenor voice.
After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1948, Rush made a name for himself playing in clubs on both the South Side and West Side blues scenes. From 1956 to 1958, he recorded for the Cobra Records and released eight singles, some featuring Ike Turner or Jody Williams on guitar. His first single "I Can't Quit You Baby" in 1956 reached No. 6 on Billboard's R&B chart. During his tenure with Cobra, he recorded some of his well known songs such as "Double Trouble" and "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)."

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Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English band Black Sabbath, whose dark and hard sound helped spawn the heavy metal genre. Due to Sabbath's dark style, Osbourne became known as the "Prince of Darkness". Osbourne is also known as the "Godfather of Heavy Metal".
In the early 2000s, Osbourne's career expanded when he became a star in his own reality show The Osbournes, alongside wife/manager Sharon and two of their three children, Kelly and Jack. A documentary about his life and career, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD in November 2011. Osbourne has achieved multi-platinum status as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath and has sold over 100 million albums worldwide.
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, England, on 3 December 1948. His father Jack worked shifts as a toolmaker at GEC. His mother Lillian worked for the car components firm Lucas. John was the fourth of six children. Ozzy had two brothers (Paul and Tony) and three sisters (Jean, Iris and Gillian); they lived in a small two bedroom home at 14 Lodge Road in Aston. The nickname "Ozzy" was first used when he was in primary school. Although called "John" by his first wife Thelma, Osbourne states that it has been a long time since he's recognised himself when called by his formal name.

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Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda.
Neruda became known as a poet while still a teenager. He wrote in a variety of styles including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and erotically-charged love poems such as the ones in his 1924 collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language." Neruda always wrote in green ink as it was his personal colour of hope.
On July 15, 1945, at Pacaembu Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, he read to 100,000 people in honor of Communist revolutionary leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions and served a stint as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When Chilean President González Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. Friends hid him for months in a house basement in the Chilean port of Valparaíso. Later, Neruda escaped into exile through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina. Years later, Neruda was a close collaborator to socialist President Salvador Allende. When Neruda returned to Chile after his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional before 70,000 people.

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Patrick Daughters
Patrick Daughters (born 1976 in Berkeley, California) is an American music video and commercial director currently signed to The Directors Bureau, after departing Black Dog Films in late 2006.
Daughters is a graduate of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. While still in college, he gained attention with three award-winning short films: In Life We Soar, Any Creature about a young girl who witnesses a mysterious car accident, and Unloved. Unloved earned Daughters the $20,000 Grand Prize Award at Nintendo's Eternal Darkness film contest in 2002. He started directing music videos in 2003.
In December 2003 he directed a concert film for The Rapture titled The Rapture is Live, and Well, in New York City, filmed over a 3 day residency at New York's Bowery Ballroom, released on June 28, 2004.
His video for "1234" by Feist, consists of one single continuous tracking shot, and was nominated for a Grammy and won the award for Best International Video at the British CADs. The video was featured in "Stacks", a late 2007 commercial spot for the release of the third generation iPod nano directed by Mark Coppos and Virginia Lee.

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Patty Griffin
Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16, 1964, is an American Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She is especially known for her down-home crafting of songs and her connection to musicians including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, Rory Block and the Dixie Chicks, who have played with her onstage as well as performing cover songs of Griffin's work, exposing many of her compositions to mainstream pop and country music audiences outside Griffin's folk music circle of fans. She was also recipient of the Americana Music Association's highest honor as "Artist of the Year" in 2007, as well as taking home the award for best album for Children Running Through. In 2011, Griffin won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Gospel Album for Downtown Church.
Patty Griffin is from Old Town, Maine, United States, next to the Penobscot Native American reservation. She is primarily a guitarist, pianist, and vocalist, with a distinctive voice. The youngest child in her family with six older siblings, she bought a guitar for $50 at age 16, and sang and played, but had no inclination at the time to become a professional musician. After a short marriage which ended in 1992, Griffin began playing in Boston coffee houses, and was scouted by A&M Records, who signed Griffin on the strength of her demo tape; however A&M thought it to be overproduced, so Nile Rodgers and A&M instead released a stripped-down reworking of her demo tape, as an album called Living with Ghosts.

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Paul McCandless
Paul McCandless, Jr. (born Indiana, Pennsylvania, United States, March 24, 1947) is an American jazz woodwind player and composer. He is one of few expert jazz oboists, and also plays English horn, soprano saxophone, sopranino saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, and pennywhistle, among other instruments.
He has performed with the Paul Winter Consort and is a founding member of Oregon. In 1985 McCandless toured Europe with bassist Barre Phillips and German clarinetist Theo Jörgensmann. He has been a guest musician with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (appearing on the 2002 album Live at the Quick) and has toured with tabla artist Sandip Burman. He also was a guest of The String Cheese Incident multiple times in the late 1990s.
Grammy Awards:
2011: with Paul Winter Consort, Best New Age Album. 2007: with Paul Winter Consort, Best New Age Album. 1996: with Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Best Pop Instrumental Album. Nominations (personally): CD “Oregon In Moscow”, 2001, Best Instrumental Composition CD “Oregon In Moscow”, 2001, Best Instrumental Arrangement CD Oregon “1000 kilometers”, 2009, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.

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Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.
According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness. As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.

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Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkʂɨʂtɔf pɛndɛˈrɛt͡skʲi] (Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki), born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these works exhibit novel compositional techniques. Since the 1970s Penderecki's style has changed to encompass a post-Romantic idiom.
He has won prestigious awards including Grammy Awards in 1987 and 1998 and 2001, and the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992. He has been called Poland's greatest living composer.
As well as the works already mentioned, his compositions include four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works.

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Pepe Aguilar
José "Pepe" Aguilar Jiménez (born in San Antonio, Texas on August 7, 1968) is a popular singer-songwriter of ranchera, mariachi and pop music. Pepe is the son of Mexican icon Antonio Aguilar and folkloric actress Flor Silvestre.
As a teenager, Aguilar was a rap and rock music fan and had his band called "Equs". The band did not last long, but that led him to make his first album. Aguilar's musical influences were Pink Floyd and The Who among other rock bands.
He decided to become a producer in the 1990s, he produced songs for Lupita D'Alessio, Julieta Venegas, and others.
In 1998, Aguilar released the album Por Mujeres Como Tú, the CD was in Billboard for 52 weeks and has sold two million copies worldwide. In 1999, Aguilar released the album Por Una Mujer Bonita, which won a Latin Grammy. Aguilar has been nominated for the Grammys nine times.
In 2002, Aguilar was the first Mexican singer to sing at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. He was also the first Latino to sing at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. On September 15, 2003 by his Mexican heritage, he celebrated the Mexican War of Independence, Aguilar received the keys of the city of Los Angeles, as previously had been his father. An estimated of 20,000 people attended the ceremony.

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Peter Case
Peter Case (born April 5, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who has had a wide-ranging career ranging from new wave music to folk rock to solo acoustic performance.
Case was born in Buffalo, New York and lived in nearby Hamburg. A veteran of several rock bands and the local bar scene as a teenager, Case dropped out of high school when he was fifteen (he would later earn a GED), and after several years of traveling arrived in 1973 in San Francisco, where he performed as a street musician. During this period a documentary about the local music scene, Nightshift, directed by Bert Deivert, captured the young Case on film. In 1976, he teamed up with Jack Lee and Paul Collins in to form the early new wave band The Nerves in San Francisco. The group's 1976 single, "Hanging on the Telephone", was later recorded by Blondie.
When the Nerves disbanded, Case moved to Los Angeles and formed the pop-rock band The Plimsouls in 1980. The Plimsouls found a measure of success when their songs "A Million Miles Away," "The Oldest Story in the World," and "Play the Breaks" were featured in the movie Valley Girl, but by that time the group had already broken up. Case briefly toured with Gurf Morlix, Victoria Williams (Case's first wife), and Warren Tornado Klein as the Incredibly Strung Out Band, but their collaboration never resulted in a record.

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Peter Himmelman
Peter Himmelman (born November 23, 1960 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota) is a singer-songwriter from Minnesota, who formerly played in the band Sussman Lawrence.
He is Bob Dylan's son-in-law, being married to his daughter Maria Dylan. He grew up in a Jewish home, his Romanian-born grandmother having migrated to the United States with her parents when she was eight years old.
In the early '90s, he achieved a bit of alternative radio play for his song The Woman With The Strength of 10000 Men, from his Strength To Strength release. Nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002 for his "Judging Amy" contributions, his music has also been featured on the television series Bones. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his children album, “My Green Kite”. USA Today called Himmelman "one of rock's most wildly imaginative performers"
Himmelman identifies as an Orthodox Jew, prays 3 times a day, and will not work on the Jewish sabbath or Jewish holidays.
He is also the creative force behind his USTREAM live Internet show broadcast every Tuesday evening at 7pm (Pacific time) from his studio, called Furious World. The show features original live music with his band, video segments that range from philosophical to comedic, and special guests. The show can be accessed through peterhimmelman.com or furiousworld.com

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Peter Kater
Peter Kater is an American composer, songwriter-singer and pianist who has several times nominated for Grammy awards.
He is of German ancestry.

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Peter Lieberson
Peter Lieberson (October 25, 1946, New York City – April 23, 2011, Tel Aviv, Israel) was an American composer. He was the son of ballerina and choreographer Vera Zorina (née Eva Brigitta Hartwig) and Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records.
He studied composition with Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, Donald Martino, and Martin Boykan. After completing his musical studies at Columbia University, he left New York in 1976 for Boulder, Colorado to continue his studies with Chogyam Trungpa, a Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist master. It was there he met and married Ellen Kearney, a fellow student of Chogyam Trungpa. At the request of their teacher, the Liebersons moved from Boulder to Boston, Massachusetts to co-direct Shambhala Training, a meditation and cultural program.
He attended Brandeis University, from which he received a Ph.D. From 1984-88 he taught at Harvard University. He then became international director of Shambhala Training in Halifax, Nova Scotia.^{[citation needed]}
Since 1994, Lieberson devoted his time entirely to composition. He met his second wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in 1997 during the Santa Fe Opera production of his work Ashoka's Dream and they married in 1999 after he and his first wife were divorced. He wrote his song cycles Rilke Songs and Neruda Songs for Hunt Lieberson. The Neruda Songs were co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony; the world premiere was given on May 20, 2005, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting and Hunt Lieberson as soloist.

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Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer. One of the highest profile composers writing "classical" music today, he is often said to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. His music is also often controversially described as minimalist, along with the work of the other "major minimalists" La Monte Young, Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
He has lately distanced himself from the "minimalist" label, describing himself instead as a composer of "music with repetitive structures." Though his early mature music shares much with what is normally called "minimalist", he has since evolved stylistically. Currently, he describes himself as a "Classicist", pointing out that he is trained in harmony and counterpoint and studied such composers as Franz Schubert, Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with Nadia Boulanger.
Glass is a prolific composer: he has written works for the musical group which he founded, the Philip Glass Ensemble (with which he still performs on keyboards), as well as operas, musical theatre works, ten symphonies, eleven concertos, solo works, chamber music including string quartets and instrumental sonatas, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards.

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Pinetop Perkins
Joseph William Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011), known by the stage name Pinetop Perkins, was an American blues musician, specializing in piano music. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock and roll performers in American history, and received numerous honors during his lifetime including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Perkins was born in Belzoni, Mississippi, United States. He began his career as a guitarist, but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a fight with a choirgirl in Helena, Arkansas.^{[citation needed]} Unable to play guitar, Perkins switched to the piano, and also switched from Robert Nighthawk's KFFA radio program to Sonny Boy Williamson's King Biscuit Time. He continued working with Nighthawk, however, accompanying him on 1950's "Jackson Town Gal".
In the 1950s, Perkins joined Earl Hooker and began touring, stopping to record "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" (written by Pinetop Smith) at Sam Phillips' studio in Memphis, Tennessee. ("They used to call me Pinetop," he recalled, "because I played that song.") However, Perkins was only 15 years old in 1928, when Smith originally recorded "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie".

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Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈplaθiðo ðoˈmiŋɡo]; born 21 January 1941), born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range. In March 2008, he debuted in his 128th opera role, and as of July 2011, his 136 roles give Domingo more roles than any other tenor.
One of The Three Tenors, he has also taken on conducting opera and concert performances, and he is the General Director of the Los Angeles Opera in California.
Plácido Domingo was born on January 21, 1941, in the distrito de Retiro section of Madrid, Spain, and in 1949 moved to Mexico with his family, who ran a zarzuela company. He studied piano at first privately and later at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City.
In 1957, Domingo made his first professional appearance, performing with his mother in a concert at Mérida, Yucatán. He made his opera debut performing in Manuel Fernández Caballero's zarzuela, Gigantes y cabezudos, singing a baritone role. At that time, he was working with his parents' zarzuela company, taking baritone roles and as an accompanist for other singers. Among his first performances was a minor role in the first Mexican production of My Fair Lady where he was also the assistant conductor and assistant coach. The company gave 185 performances, which included a production of Lehár's The Merry Widow in which he performed alternately as either Camille or Danilo.

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Prince (musician)
Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson; June 7, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E., Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, and his songs have been recorded by these artists and others (including Chaka Khan, The Bangles, Sinéad O'Connor, and even Kim Basinger). He also has several hundred unreleased songs in his "vault".
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince developed an interest in music at an early age, writing his first song at age seven. After recording songs with his cousin's band 94 East, seventeen-year-old Prince recorded several unsuccessful demo tapes before releasing his debut album, For You, in 1978. His 1979 album, Prince, went platinum due to the success of the singles "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover". His next three records, Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982) continued his success, showcasing Prince's trademark of prominently sexual lyrics and incorporation of elements of funk, dance and rock music. In 1984, he began referring to his backup band as The Revolution and released the album Purple Rain, which served as the soundtrack to his film debut of the same name.

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Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy Award nomination and an Academy Award nomination.
Latifah was born, and primarily raised, in East Orange, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Rita (née Bray), a teacher at Irvington High School (her daughter's alma mater), and Lancelot Owens, Sr., a police officer, her parents divorced when Latifah was ten. Latifah was raised in the Baptist church and attended Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey. Her stage name, Latifah (لطيفة laţīfa), meaning "delicate" and "very kind" in Arabic, she found in an Islamic book of names when she was eight. Always a tall girl, the 5'10" Latifah was a power forward on her high school basketball team. She performed the number "Home" from the musical The Wiz in a high school play. She is of African American and Native American ancestry.

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Quincy Jones
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, conductor, arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is particularly recognized as the producer of the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, which has sold more than 110 million copies worldwide, and as the producer and conductor of the charity song “We Are the World”.
In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner Bob Russell became the first African Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song "The Eyes of Love" from the Universal Pictures film Banning. That same year, he became the first African American to be nominated twice within the same year when he was nominated for Best Original Score for his work on the music of the 1967 film In Cold Blood. In 1971, Jones would receive the honor of becoming the first African American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. He was the first African American to win the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1995. He is tied with sound designer Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African American, each of them having seven nominations. At the 2008 BET Awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the Humanitarian Award. He was played by Larenz Tate in the 2004 biopic about Ray Charles, Ray.

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R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly (born January 8, 1967), better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Often referred to as the King of R&B, Kelly is recognized as one of the most successful R&B artists of all-time. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play. He is known for a collection of major hit singles including "Bump n' Grind", "Your Body's Callin'", "I Believe I Can Fly", "Gotham City", "Ignition (Remix)", "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time", "The World's Greatest", "I'm a Flirt", and the hip-hopera "Trapped in the Closet". In 1998, Kelly won three Grammy Awards for "I Believe I Can Fly".
Kelly has written, produced, and remixed songs for many artists including The Winans, The Isley Brothers, Charlie Wilson, Quincy Jones, K-Ci & JoJo, Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, Michael Jackson, Hi-Five, Nivea, Ciara, Mary J. Blige, Luther Vandross, Gerald LeVert, Raheem DeVaughn, Ruben Studdard, Jaheim, Kelly Price, Tamia, Maxwell, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Usher, B2K, Twista, Tyrese, Jennifer Lopez, Trey Songz, and others in the U.S. and abroad.

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Raheem DeVaughn
Raheem DeVaughn (born May 5, 1975) is an American singer and songwriter. His debut album, The Love Experience (2005), reached No. 46 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It featured the singles "Guess Who Loves You More" and "You". His second album Love Behind the Melody was released in January 2008. It features the singles "Woman", and "Customer".
DeVaughn was nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards for the single "Woman".
DeVaughn was born in Newark, New Jersey on May 5, 1975, the son of jazz cellist Abdul Wadud. He was raised in Maryland (Montgomery and Prince George's counties) by his mother, Imani Smith, a now retired federal worker. He is a cousin of singer Chrisette Michele. His mother states that her son first expressed an affinity towards music in preschool, recalling how whenever the class had musical events, he would conduct them. DeVaughn's love for music solidified during his early teens, when he began to envision his career path. One of his favorite artists was Babyface, and Smith recalls that her son once begged her to visit the Waxie Maxie's record store in the District to buy a promotional picture of the singer. DeVaughn visited his father during the summer, mainly in New Jersey. With his father, DeVaughn attended gigs and experienced his first taste of the life of a working musician.

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Rahim Al Haj
Rahim AlHaj (Arabic: رحيم الحاج, born c. 1968) is an Iraqi American oud musician and composer.
AlHaj was born in Baghdad, Iraq and began playing the oud (an Arabic lute) at age nine. Early on, it was evident that he had a remarkable talent for playing the oud.
AlHaj studied under the renowned Munir Bashir, considered by many to be the greatest oud player ever, and Salim Abdul Kareem, at the Institute of Music in Baghdad, Iraq. AlHaj won various awards at the Conservatory and graduated in 1990 with a diploma in composition. He also holds a degree in Arabic literature from Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.
In 1991, after the first Gulf War, AlHaj was forced to leave Iraq due to his political activism against the Saddam Hussein regime and began his life in Jordan and Syria. He moved to the U.S. in 2000 as a political refugee and has resided in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ever since. He became a U.S. citizen on August 16, 2008.
AlHaj has performed all over the world, on tour with Munir Bashir, his teacher, as well as solo and with his string quartet project, including numerous concerts in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, and France and hundreds of concerts in the United States.

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Rakim
William Michael Griffin Jr. (born January 28, 1968), known by his stage names Rakim, is an American rapper. One half of golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential and most skilled MCs of all time.
Eric B. & Rakim's classic album Paid in Full was named the greatest hip hop album of all time by MTV, while Rakim himself was ranked #4 on MTV's list of the Greatest MCs of All Time. Steve Huey of Allmusic stated that "Rakim is near-universally acknowledged as one of the greatest MCs -- perhaps the greatest -- of all time within the hip-hop community." The editors of About.com ranked him #1 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). Rakim began his career as the emcee of the rap duo Eric B. & Rakim, who in 2011 were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Rakim is the nephew of American R&B singer and actress Ruth Brown. He grew up in Wyandanch, New York, and became involved in the New York hip hop scene at 18. Eric B. brought him to Marley Marl's house to record "Eric B. is President." At the time Griffin was fresh out of high school and on his way to college, but he decided to forgo higher education and instead chose to record with Eric B.

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Randy Crawford
Veronica "Randy" Crawford (born February 18, 1952, Macon, Georgia) is an American jazz and R&B singer. She has been more successful in Europe than in the United States, where she has not entered the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist. She has had multiple top five hits in the UK, including her 1980 #2 hit, "One Day I'll Fly Away".
Crawford first performed at club gigs from Cincinnati to Saint-Tropez, but made her name in mid 1970s in New York, where she sang with jazzmen George Benson and Cannonball Adderley. Adderley invited her to sing on his album, Big Man (1975). Crawford recorded "Don't Get Caught in Love's Triangle," produced by Johnny Bristol, during her short stint on the Fantasy label.
In 1978, Crawford performed on the second solo album of former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. She sang vocals on "Hoping Love Will Last", the opening song on side two of Please Don't Touch.
She led R&B veterans The Crusaders on the transatlantic hit "Street Life" (1979). This song stayed atop the U.S. jazz chart for twenty weeks and has since become both a rare groove and disco classic.^{[citation needed]} It was featured in the soundtrack for the film, Sharky's Machine, and appeared in commercials in the early 2000s. She moved to Warner Bros. and after "Street Life," recorded and toured Europe with the Crusaders. Crawford was named the 'Most Outstanding Performer' at the 1980 Tokyo Music Festival.

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Ray Price (musician)
Ray Price (born January 12, 1926) is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music. His more well-known recordings include "Release Me", "Crazy Arms", "Heartaches by the Number", "City Lights", "My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You", "For the Good Times", "Night Life", "I Won't Mention It Again", "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", and "Danny Boy". He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and—now in his 80s—continues to record and tour.
Price, born in Perryville, Texas, served with the U.S. Marines from 1944–1946, and began singing for KRBC in Abilene, Texas during 1948. He joined the Big D Jamboree in Dallas in 1949. He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967.

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Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955) is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band, on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma City, which caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall. He brought her to Nashville, Tennessee, where she eventually signed a contract with Mercury Records in 1975. She released her first solo album in 1977 and released five additional studio albums under the label until 1983.
Signing with MCA Nashville Records, McEntire took creative control over her second MCA album, My Kind of Country (1984), which had a more traditional country sound and produced two number one singles: "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave". The album brought her breakthrough success, bringing her a series of successful albums and number one singles in the 1980s and 1990s. McEntire has since released 26 studio albums, acquired 35 number one singles, and 28 albums have been certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America.

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Rebecca Evans
Rebecca Evans (born August 1963) is a Welsh operatic soprano.
Born in the village of Pontrhydyfen near Neath, the same village as Hollywood actor Richard Burton.
Evans married businessman Stephen Jones in 1997, and they have one son, William, born 25 April 1999. The family live in Penarth, South Wales, and have an apartment in London.
Evans studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, at the same time as Bryn Terfel.
She has since performed regularly at the Welsh National Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich. She has established a major operatic career in America where she has sung Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) for the Santa Fe Opera; Adele (Die Fledermaus) for the Chicago Lyric Opera; Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Ann Trulove (The Rake's Progress) and Adina (L'elisir d'amore) for San Francisco Opera; and both Susanna and Zerlina for the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
As a concert singer, she has appeared at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh Festival; at a Gala Concert to celebrate the opening of the Welsh Assembly in the presence of the Queen and the Prince of Wales; and in Bremen with Andrea Bocelli and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice. Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also speaks fluent German and French, along with limited Italian. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, the title role in Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, and the title role in Arabella.
A Richard Tucker Award winner, she regularly performs in opera houses and concert halls worldwide. In 2008 she was awarded the Swedish Polar Music Prize for her services in music.
Conductor Sir Georg Solti said of Fleming, "In my long life, I have met maybe two sopranos with this quality of singing; the other was Renata Tebaldi."

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Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [rikˈkardo ˈmuːti]; born 28 July 1941) is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Muti was born in Naples but spent his early childhood in Molfetta, near Bari, in the long region of Apulia on Italy's southern Adriatic coast. His father was a doctor in Molfetta and an amateur singer; his mother, a Neapolitan, was a professional singer. As wryly explained in the conductor's 2010 autobiography, it was a family pattern for the children to be born in Naples.
Muti graduated from Liceo classico (Classical Lyceum) Vittorio Emanuele II in Naples, then studied piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale; here Muti was awarded a diploma cum laude. He was subsequently awarded a diploma in Composition and Conducting by the Conservatory "Giuseppe Verdi", Milan, where he studied with the composer Bruno Bettinelli and the conductor Antonino Votto. He has also studied composition with Nino Rota, whom he considers a mentor. He was unanimously awarded first place by the jury of the "Guido Cantelli" competition for conductors in Milan in 1967 and became, the next year, principal conductor and music director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a post he held for eleven years.

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Ricky Jay
Richard Jay Potash (born 1948), better known by the stage name Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. He is a sleight-of-hand expert and is notable for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter.
Jay was born in Brooklyn, New York to a middle class Jewish family. His grandfather, Max Katz, was a well-to-do certified public accountant and amateur magician who introduced Jay to the profession.
At least three of his one-man shows, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, On the Stem, and A Rogue's Gallery were directed by David Mamet, who has also cast Jay in a number of his films. Jay has appeared in productions by other directors, notably Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights, and Magnolia, as well as Christopher Nolan's The Prestige.
A collector and historian of note, he was a student and firm friend of the legendary Dai Vernon, who Jay states was: "the greatest living contributor to the magical art". An avid collector of rare books (he has spent over five thousand dollars on single books alone) and manuscripts, art, and other artifacts connected to the history of magic, gambling, unusual entertainments, and frauds and confidence games, he is also opposed to any public revelations of the techniques of magic.

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Ricky Skaggs
Richard Lee "Ricky" Skaggs (born July 18, 1954) is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster and banjo.
Ricky Skaggs was born in Cordell, Kentucky. He started playing music at age 5 after he was given a mandolin by his father, Hobert. At age 6, he played mandolin and sang on stage with Bill Monroe. At age 7, he appeared on television's Martha White country music variety show, playing with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. He also wanted to audition for the Grand Ole Opry at that time, but was told he was too young.
In his mid-teens, Skaggs met a fellow teen prodigy, guitarist Keith Whitley, and the two started playing together with Whitley's banjoist brother Dwight on radio shows. By 1970, they had earned a spot opening for Ralph Stanley and Skaggs and Keith Whitley were thereafter invited to join Stanley's band, the Clinch Mountain Boys
Skaggs later joined The Country Gentlemen in Washington, DC, J. D. Crowe's New South. For a few years, Skaggs was a member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band. He wrote the arrangements for Harris's 1980 bluegrass-roots album, Roses in the Snow. In addition to arranging for Harris, Skaggs sang harmony and played mandolin and fiddle in the Hot Band.

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Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE (born 7 July 1940), better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He joined the Beatles in August 1962, taking the place of Pete Best. In addition to his drumming, Starr is featured on lead vocals on a number of successful Beatles songs (in particular, "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Yellow Submarine", and the Beatles version of "Act Naturally"). He is credited as a co-writer of the songs "What Goes On" and "Flying", and as the writer of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".
As drummer for the Beatles, Starr was musically creative, and his contribution to the band's music has received high praise from notable drummers in more recent times. Starr described himself as "your basic offbeat drummer with funny fills". Drummer Steve Smith said that Starr's popularity "brought forth a new paradigm" where "we started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect" and that Starr "composed unique, stylistic drum parts for The Beatles songs". In 2011, Starr was picked as the fifth-best drummer of all-time by Rolling Stone readers.

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Robben Ford
Robben Ford (born December 16, 1951) is an American blues, jazz and rock guitarist. He was a member of the L.A. Express and has collaborated with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison and KISS. He was named one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century" by Musician magazine.
Ford was born in Woodlake, California and raised in Ukiah, California. He began playing the saxophone at age 10 and the guitar at age 14. Ford and his brothers Mark (harmonica) and Patrick (drums) created a band and named it the Charles Ford Blues Band in honor of their father.
Ford has received four Grammy Award nominations and was named one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century" by Musician magazine.
At age 18 Ford and the Charles Ford Blues Band were hired as a backup band for Charlie Musselwhite. The band also recorded two albums The Charles Ford Band and Discovering the Blues. Ford recorded two albums with the Witherspoon's called Live and Spoonful'. The Ford Blues Band reunites periodically, and released live albums in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1970s, Ford branched out into jazz fusion, and joined the band, L.A. Express , led by saxophonist Tom Scott in 1974. That same year the band supported George Harrison on his American tour and Joni Mitchell's on albums, Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns and Miles of Aisles.

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Robert Lockwood, Jr.
Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, (March 27, 1915 – November 21, 2006) was an American Delta blues guitarist, who recorded for Chess Records among other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known as a longtime collaborator with Sonny Boy Williamson II and for his work in the mid-1950s with Little Walter.
Robert Lockwood was born in Turkey Scratch, a hamlet west of Helena, Arkansas. He started playing the organ in his father's church at the age of 8. The famous bluesman Robert Johnson lived with Lockwood's mother for 10 years off and on after his parents' divorce. Lockwood learned from Johnson not only how to play guitar, but timing and stage presence as well. Because of his personal and professional association with the music of Robert Johnson, he became known as "Robert Junior" Lockwood, a nickname by which he was known among fellow musicians for the rest of his life, although he later frequently professed his dislike for this appellation.
By age 15, Lockwood was playing professionally at parties in the Helena area. He often played with his quasi-stepfather figure, Robert Johnson, also occasionally with Sonny Boy Williamson or Johnny Shines. Lockwood played at fish fries, juke joints, and street corners throughout the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s. An anecdote from Lockwood's website claims on one occasion Robert Johnson played on one side of the Sunflower River, while Lockwood played on the other, with the people of Clarksdale, Mississippi milling about the bridge, supposedly unable to tell which guitarist was the real Robert Johnson.

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Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career. In 2007, Plant released Raising Sand, an album produced by T-Bone Burnett with American bluegrass soprano Alison Krauss, which won the 2009 Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 51st Grammy Awards.
With a career spanning more than 40 years, Plant is regarded as one of the most significant singers in the history of rock music, and has influenced contemporaries and later singers such as Freddie Mercury and Axl Rose. In 2006, heavy metal magazine Hit Parader named Plant the "Greatest Metal Vocalist of All-Time". In 2009, Plant was voted "the greatest voice in rock" in a poll conducted by Planet Rock. In 2011, a Rolling Stone readers' pick placed Plant in first place of the magazine's "Best Lead Singers of All Time".
Plant was born in the Black Country town of West Bromwich (then in Staffordshire now in West Midlands) to parents Robert C. who worked as a civil engineer and Annie C. (Cain) Plant, but grew up in Kidderminster, in Worcestershire. Plant gained an interest in singing and rock and roll music at an early age.

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Robert Spano
Robert Spano (born May 7, 1961, Conneaut, Ohio) is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004. He is the Music Director Designate of the Aspen Music Festival and School, beginning full-time responsibilities in the 2012 season.
Spano has gained national and international prominence in recent years, appearing with major orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe. He is regarded as an advocate of contemporary composers, and has earned a reputation for ambitious and adventurous orchestral programming and presentation.
In addition to raising his profile with, for example, appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, Spano has made several prominent recordings with the ASO, which have garnered multiple Grammy Awards. Spano has also won the favor of many major music critics, and he is frequently mentioned as a candidate to lead any of the most prominent orchestras in the USA.

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Rolando Villazón
Emilio Rolando Villazón Mauleón (born February 22, 1972) is a Mexican tenor. He settled in France and in 2007 became a French citizen.
He was raised in Fuentes de Satélite, a suburban area of Greater Mexico City, Mexico. In an interview for Mexican television, Villazón told the story of how he was discovered as a tenor. He said that one day, as he was getting out of the shower in his apartment in Mexico City, somebody came knocking on his door; it was baritone Arturo Nieto, a friend of his neighbour, who had heard him singing while in the shower. He told Rolando he had an amazing voice and invited him to his music academy to develop his voice, there Rolando fell in love with opera.
He came to international attention in 1999 when he won both first prizes awarded in the Operalia international competition - both for opera and zarzuela. The same year he sang for the first time in Italy as des Grieux in Manon at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. In 2000 he appeared for the first time at the Berlin State Opera - as Macduff in Macbeth. Over the years he has presented many of his best roles there, among them José in Carmen and des Grieux in Manon.

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Roselyn Sanchez
Roselyn Sánchez (born Roselyn Sánchez Rodríguez; April 2, 1973) is a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter, model, actress, producer and writer of film and television.
Sánchez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the youngest of four siblings, having three older brothers. She received her primary education in San Juan. At a young age, she showed an interest in both dancing and acting and would put on shows for her family. Sánchez enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico, where like her father and brothers she was to study marketing. However, this was not her calling and after three years she left the course. In 1991, at the age of 18, Sánchez moved to New York City, where she took classes in dancing, acting and singing. She returned to Puerto Rico, and in 1992 she made her movie debut, having landed a small part as an island girl in the movie Captain Ron, which was partly filmed in Puerto Rico, starring Martin Short and Kurt Russell.
In Puerto Rico, she gained public attention as a dancer and as co-host of a variety show called Qué Vacilón. At that time, in 1993, Sánchez won the Miss Puerto Rico Petite contest, and in 1994 she won the international title of Miss American Petite, bringing her international fame. Sánchez has been named to numerous annual lists of beautiful women including Maxim Magazine's "Hot 100" in 2001, 2002 and 2006; AskMen.com's "Top 99 Most Desirable Women" in 2005 and 2006; and FHM's "100 Sexiest Women" in 2005 and 2006.

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Ruben Ramos
Ruben Ramos, also known as El Gato Negro, is an award-winning American Tejano music performer. Beginning his music career in the late '60s, Ruben fame as has grown throughout the years as he formed his own distinct sound of music. In March 1998, Ruben was inducted into the Tejano Music Awards Hall of Fame and later won Best Male Vocalist in 1999. His band, The Mexican Revolution, also won album of the year in 2008. In January 2009 at the 51st annual Grammy awards, Ramos & the Revolution won the 2009 Grammy for "Best Tejano album of the Year."Alicia Cardenas
Ruben Ramos was born in to a family music legacy dating back to post-World War I Texas. Ruben's uncles began performing just after the World War I in 1919 as Juan Manuel Perez y Los Serenaders. Meanwhile, Ruben's father, Alfonso Ramos Sr., worked the cotton fields and the railroads; he also played the fiddle while his mother, Elvira Perez, played the guitar at family gatherings. At the end of World War II, Ruben's Uncle Justin re-formed the band as Justin Perez and His Ex-GIs. Ruben's sister Inez had joined the band as singer in 1947. Then, in his early teens, Ruben's older brother Alfonso Ramos Jr. joined their uncle's group.

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Russ Barenberg
Russ Barenberg (born October 8, 1950) is a Grammy-nominated American bluegrass musician.
Barenberg began playing guitar at age 13, taking lessons from Alan Miller, whose brother John Miller Barenberg he would later play with. His style was heavily influenced by the flatpicking technique of Clarence White. He attended Cornell University and met Pete Wernick there in 1968. Together they joined to form Country Cooking, who released two albums of bluegrass before breaking up in 1975.
In 1975 Barenberg briefly began playing electric guitar with a jazz rock group, Carried Away. Late in 1975 he quit playing music, but returned in 1977, moving to New York City to play in the group Heartlands. This group also played backup on Barenberg's debut solo effort, Cowboy Calypso, in 1980. He then moved to Boston, teaching at the Music Emporium in Cambridge. Here he played in the groups Fiddle Fever and Laughing Hands.
In 1986 Barenberg moved to Nashville, where he has played often with Jerry Douglas and Maura O'Connell, and done much work as a session musician with Béla Fleck, Hazel Dickens, Mel Tillis, and Randy Travis, among others. He has released several instructional videos.

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Ruth Ziesak
Ruth Ziesak is a German soprano in opera and concert.
Ruth Ziesak studied voice at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts with Elsa Cavelti and Christoph Prégardien. She has been a member of the Municipal Theatre Heidelberg since 1988 and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 1990.
She appeared in roles of Mozart's operas, such as Pamina in The Magic Flute (at the Salzburg Festival 1991 and recorded with Georg Solti), Ilia in La clemenza di Tito (recorded with Nikolaus Harnoncourt) or the Countess in Il nozze di Figaro in Glyndebourne and with the Zurich Opera.
In concert she appeared and recorded with the Berliner Barock-Compagney and took part in the project of Ton Koopman to record the complete vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir. In 2011 she performed the Liebesliederwalzer of Brahms and Spanische Liebeslieder op. 138 of Schumann with Anke Vondung, Werner Güra and Konrad Jarnot at the Rheingau Musik Festival at Schloss Johannisberg.
She is on the faculty of the Hochschule für Musik Saar.

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Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder (born March 15, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.
His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing folk, blues, Tex-Mex, soul, gospel, rock, and much else. He has collaborated with many musicians, including Larry Blackmon, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Randy Newman, Earl Hines, Little Feat, Captain Beefheart, The Chieftains, John Lee Hooker, Pops and Mavis Staples, Flaco Jiménez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Freddy Fender, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Ali Farka Touré. He formed the band Little Village with Nick Lowe, John Hiatt, and Jim Keltner.
Ry Cooder produced the Buena Vista Social Club album (1997), which became a worldwide hit. Wim Wenders directed the documentary film of the same name (1999), which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000.
He was ranked eighth on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". A 2010 ranking by Gibson placed him at number 32.

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Ryan Shaw
Ryan Christopher Shaw (born 25 December 1980) is a soul musician from Georgia, USA.
Shaw began singing in Pentecostal church at the age of three, having been raised in a deeply religious household. Shaw won a spot in a gospel musical at Georgia State University, and in 1998 he dropped out of college to take part in Tyler Perry's play I Know I've Been Changed. At the end of the play's run he began doing Motown covers in New York, joining the group Fabulous Soul Shakers in 2004. He recorded a demo in 2006, won the ear of Columbia Records, and was signed to said label. The album, This is Ryan Shaw, mixes new material with covers of songs by Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack, and Jackie Wilson. He was the opening act for the Van Halen tour 07-08. At the end of 2009 he reached some fame in the Netherlands with his single It Gets Better, which peaked at number 2 on the single top 100 charts. On May 15th, 2012 Ryan Shaw released Real Love on Dynotone Records.

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Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer (born 30 March 1959, in Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg) is a German classical clarinetist.
Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist. She studied with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and then with Hans Deinzer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hannover, along with her brother, clarinetist Wolfgang Meyer, and now-husband, clarinetist Reiner Wehle, who played later in the Munich Philharmonic. She began her career as a member of the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, where her appointment as one of the orchestra's first female members caused controversy. Herbert von Karajan, the orchestra's music director, hired Meyer in September 1982, but the players voted against her at the conclusion of her probation period by a vote of 73 to 4. The orchestra insisted the reason was that her tone did not blend with the other members of the section, but other observers, including Karajan, believed that the true reason was her gender. In 1983, after nine months, Meyer left the orchestra to become a full-time solo clarinetist.

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Salaam Remi
Salaam Remi Gibbs, better known as Salaam Remi, is a hip hop producer and keyboard player, known for his association with Nas, Amy Winehouse, Fergie, and his reggae-tinged (often referred to as "broken-bottle") approach to production. A good example of this unique style can be found in the production on the Nas record "Made You Look", off his 2002 release God's Son.
The son of studio musician Van Gibbs, Salaam first appeared on record as the keyboardist for Kurtis Blow's 1986 release Kingdom Blow. In the late 1980s Salaam began mixing records. His first full production was in 1992, for the hip-hop group Zhigge. He has also worked with such luminaries as the Fugees and Black Sheep.
Salaam Remi has been associated with releases like Lil' Flip's "I Need Mine", Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes the Hotstepper", The Fugees' multi-platinum The Score LP, and Toni Braxton's "You're Makin Me High." He also produced 10 tracks on the 2002 UK sensation Ms. Dynamite's album titled A Little Deeper, including the hugely successful lead single "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee", which had moderate crossover success in the U.S. market^{[citation needed]}. Salaam contributed tracks to Jurassic 5's 2006 LP Feedback and Nas' 2006 album Hip Hop is Dead and, more recently, racked up production credits on Frank, the platinum debut from North London soul-jazz singer Amy Winehouse. He also worked on her follow up, Back to Black, and was producing her third album that was to be released in 2011 up until her death. Remi also worked with Nelly Furtado on her first Spanish language album, Mi Plan. Remi's active projects in late 2008 include Jazmine Sullivan, Nas, Free, Nick Harrison, Lemar, Noel Gourdin, Julian Perretta, Leona Lewis, Corrine Bailey Rae, and Craig David, as well as many film and TV projects.

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Sam Watters
Sam Watters is a Grammy nominated American songwriter, record producer, singer, and record executive. Watters was a member of the multi-platinum selling 1990’s R&B group Color Me Badd and co-authored many of their hits including “I Wanna Sex You Up”, “I Adore Mi Amor”, and “All 4 Love”. Watters has also written and produced songs for Grammy winning and nominated artists such as American Idol winners Fantasia, Kelly Clarkson and Jordin Sparks, and other superstars such as Whitney Houston, Leona Lewis, and Anastacia. Watters is a member of the production/songwriting team The Runaways including fellow hitmakers Rico Love, Wayne Wilkins, Ryan Tedder, and Louis Biancaniello. Watters has formed his own record label, Fresh Laundry, along with production partner Louis Biancaniello, and is currently developing new artists. Watters is managed by Made Communication of Miami, FL.
Watters formed what later would be known as the R&B singing group Color Me Badd in high school along with fellow members Mark Calderon, Kevin Thornton, and Bryan Abrams. After forming, the group was soon discovered by Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool and the Gang fame. Bell introduced them to his management team and the group were soon signed to Giant Records in 1990.

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Sammy Figueroa
Sammy Figueroa is an American percussionist born in The Bronx, New York. At 18 he joined the band of bassist Bobby Valentín and also co-led the Brazilian/Latin fusion group Raices.
Discovered by jazz flautist Herbie Mann, Figueroa became a well-known session and studio musician appearing on tours and albums with the Brecker Brothers, Average White Band, Morrissey - Mullen, John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis.
He has also appeared with Blondie, Sonny Rollins, Dave Sanborn, Quincy Jones, Dave Grusin, George Benson, Chet Baker, Stanley Clarke, Grover Washington, Jr., Al Jarreau, Lena Horne, Joe Williams, Mark Murphy, Mike Mainieri, Nestor Torres, Chico O’Farrill, Mike Stern, Dave Grusin, Chuck Loeb, Bobby Watson, Dave Valentin, Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D’Rivera, Rubén Blades, Eddie Palmieri, Bobby Valentín, Tania Maria, Mariah Carey, James Taylor, Dr. John, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Celine Dion, Blues Traveler, Natalie Merchant, David Lee Roth, Hall & Oates, Joe Cocker, Rickie Lee Jones, Annie Lennox, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, Grace Jones, James Ingram, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin and many others.

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Sarah Connolly
Sarah Patricia Connolly CBE (born 13 June 1963,County Durham) is an English mezzo-soprano.
Sarah Connolly was educated at Queen Margaret's School, York and then studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, of which she is now a Fellow. She then became a member of the BBC Singers for 5 years.
Sarah Connolly's interest in opera and a full-time career in classical music began after she left the BBC Singers. She began her opera career in the role of Annina (Der Rosenkavalier) in 1994. Her breakthrough role was as Xerxes in the 1998 English National Opera production of Handel's Serse (Xerxes), directed by Nicholas Hytner.In 2005 she sang Giulio Cesare by Handel for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The DVD of the production, directed by David McVicar won a Gramophone Award. Her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden was in March 2009, as Dido in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.
During the 2011 Gustav Mahler celebrations, Connolly performed all of his vocal works in the UK and abroad with The Philharmonia and Maazel, The LPO and Jurowski and Nezet Séguin, The LSO with Alsop, The OAE with Rattle and The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Chailly. Committed to promoting new music, her performances include Sir John Tavener's Tribute to Cavafy at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham and his film music to Children of Men. She also made the first commercial recording of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Twice Through the Heart with Marin Alsop and the London Philharmonic Orchestra having previously given the Belgian and Dutch premieres of the work with the Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by Oliver Knussen. She sang the role of Susie in the premiere production of Turnage's opera The Silver Tassie at English National Opera in 2000, which was subsequently released in a 2002 commercial recording.

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Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel (born 19 February 1963 in Paddington, London, England), popularly known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award. Seal is known for his numerous international hits; the best known being "Kiss from a Rose", which appeared in the soundtrack to the 1995 film Batman Forever. He has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. He is a coach on The Voice Australia.
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel was born on 19 February 1963 in Paddington, London, England. He is the son of Adebisi and Francis Samuel. His mother is Nigerian, while his father is Brazilian. Seal's name, Olusegun, means "God is victorious" in the Yoruba language. He was raised in a district of the City of Westminster in inner London by his foster family. He received a two-year diploma, or associate's degree, in architecture and worked in various jobs in the London area. Although there have long been rumours as to the cause of the scars on his face, they are in fact the result of a type of Lupus called Discoid lupus erythematosus – a condition that specifically affects the skin above the neck.

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Serban Ghenea
Serban Ghenea is a four-time Grammy Award and three-time Latin Grammy Award-winningmixer. He has mixed songs for such artists as Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Jewel, Santana, Ozomatli, Shakira, Jill Scott, R. Kelly, Rod Stewart, Dave Matthews Band, and The All American Rejects. As of March 2012, Serban Ghenea had mixed over 74 #1 singles and albums, - including hits for Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Britney Spears, Black Eyed Peas, The Fray, Train, Lifehouse, Weezer, The Hives, Maroon 5, Avril Lavigne, Gavin DeGraw, and Pink. He is represented exclusively by Andy Kipnes and Mark Beaven of Advanced Alternative Media.
Serban Ghenea mixed the following tracks:

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Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (

/ʃəˈkɪərə/,Spanish: [t͡ʃaˈkiɾa]; born February 2, 1977),known mononymously as Shakira, is a Colombian singer-songwriter who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s. Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira began performing in school, demonstrating her vocal ability with rock and roll, Latin and Arabic influences with her own original twist on belly dancing. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks fluent English and Portuguese as well as some Italian, French, Catalan and Arabic.
After a poor commercial reception with local producers on her first two albums, and being little-known outside Colombia, Shakira decided to produce her own brand of music. In 1995 she released Pies Descalzos, which brought her great fame in Latin America and Spain, and her 1998 album Dónde Están los Ladrones? was a critical success selling over 7 million copies worldwide. In 2001, aided by the worldwide success of her first English single "Whenever, Wherever" that became the best selling single of 2002, she broke through into the English-speaking world with the release of Laundry Service, which sold over 13 million copies worldwide. Four years later, Shakira released two album projects called Fijación Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2. Both reinforced her success, particularly with the best selling song of the 2000s, "Hips Don't Lie". In 1997, Shakira founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation. It is a Colombian charity with special schools for poor children all around Colombia. During her career, Shakira has performed at a large number of benefit concerts. Among the most famous are the Live 8 benefit concert in July 2005, the Live Earth concert, Hamburg where she headlined the show, as well as the "Clinton Global Initiative" created by former US President Bill Clinton. She was also invited to the Oval Office by President Barack Obama in February 2010 to discuss early childhood development.

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Shop Boyz
The Shop Boyz are an Atlanta-based hip hop group, originating from the Kings Glen Trail in Decatur.They relocated to Des Plaines, Illinois during the early nineties. They are most known for their single "Party Like a Rockstar" from their debut album Rockstar Mentality. The group is composed of Demetrius "Meany" Hardin, Richard "Fat" Stevens and Rasheed "Sheed" Hightower. In mid-2008, Rich "Shoo" left the group of a battle with Sheed.
After signing with Universal Republic Records, Shop Boyz began to record their debut album, Rockstar Mentality, which saw them create rock influenced-hip-hop. The album's lead single, "Party Like a Rockstar was released in May 2007 and acheived commercial success, reaching number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also topped US rap charts and charted in the top ten on pop and R&B charts, and went on to become the highest selling ringtone of 2007. With its success, their debut, Rockstar Mentality, was released on June 19, 2007. Although it debuted at 11 on the US Billboard 200, it received a negative reception from critics and became a commercial disappointment, selling fewer than 200,000 copies to date The album's second single, "They Like Me", had a similar fate, as it only charted below the top one hundred on US R&B charts. With the group only achieving minor success, they were eventually dropped by Universal Records.

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Siedah Garrett
Siedah Garrett (born June 24, 1960, Los Angeles, California) is a Grammy winning and two-time Oscar nominated American songwriter and singer.
She appeared as a contestant on Password Plus in 1980.
She performed "One Man Woman" on Quincy Jones' Grammy-Award winning "Back on the Block."
She joined the soul / funk outfit Plush, their self titled album was issued in 1982 on RCA Records.
Her hits include "Don't Look Any Further" with Dennis Edwards (#72 pop, #2 R&B in 1984); "Do You Want It Right Now?" in 1985 from the Fast Forward soundtrack (#3 Hot Dance Music/Club Play and #63 R&B), which was covered by Taylor Dayne in 1988 and later covered by Armand Van Helden in 2007 under the title "I Want Your Soul"; "Everchanging Times" from the movie Baby Boom (#30 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1987), and "K.I.S.S.I.N.G." (#97 in 1988). The latter song went to #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
In 1987 Garrett was involved in Michael Jackson's Bad album, singing a duet with Jackson on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and co-writing the #1 single "Man in the Mirror". The association with Jackson enabled her to sing on several Quincy Jones albums of the 1980s and 1990s, co-writing his hit songs "Tomorrow (A Better You, Better Me)", "Back On The Block," and "The Secret Garden." Garrett also toured with Michael Jackson from 1992 to 1993 on his Dangerous World Tour, singing backing vocals and duetting with him for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You".

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Simon Keenlyside
Simon Keenlyside CBE (born 3 August 1959) is a British baritone who has had an active international career performing in operas and concerts since the mid 1980s.
Keenlyside was born in London, the son of Raymond and Ann Keenlyside. Raymond played second violin in the Aeolian Quartet, and Ann's father was the violinist Leonard Hirsch. When he was eight, he was enrolled in St John's College School, a boarding school for the child choristers of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge and spent much of his childhood touring and recording with the choir under the direction of choirmaster George Guest.
Keenlyside read zoology at Cambridge University, returning to St John's as a choral scholar, before studying singing at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. After graduation, he won a Peter Moores Foundation scholarship (1985) and chose to join the Royal Northern College of Music to study voice with the baritone John Cameron under whom he developed a love for lieder and German poetry. Keenlyside later said of him:

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Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE (born 19 January 1955) is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO).
Rattle was born in Liverpool, the son of Pauline Lila Violet (Greening) and Denis Guttridge Rattle, a Commander in the Royal Navy. He was educated at Liverpool College. Although Rattle studied piano and violin, his early work with orchestras was as a percussionist. He entered the Royal Academy of Music, University of London in 1971. There, his teachers included John Carewe. In 1974, his graduation year, Rattle won the John Player Conductor Competition. After organising and conducting a performance of Mahler's Second Symphony whilst still at the Academy, he was talent-spotted by the music agent Martin Campbell-White, of Harold Holt Ltd. (now Askonas Holt Ltd.), who has since managed Rattle's career. He spent the academic year 1980/81 at St Anne's College, Oxford studying English Language and Literature. He had been attracted to the college by the reputation of Dorothy Bednarowska, Fellow and Tutor in English. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Anne's in 1991. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Music honoris causa of the University of Oxford in 1999.

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Smokie Norful
Rev. W.R. "Smokie" Norful, Jr. is an American gospel singer and pianist, best known for his 2002 album, I Need You Now and his 2004 release, Nothing Without You, which won a Grammy at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album in 2004.
Norful, a minister who is also the son of an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas but grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, deeply involved in his father's church. He was interested in music from a very young age, reportedly picking out one-finger piano melodies from the age of four. His parents supported him with music lessons, and, unusual for his background, allowed him to experiment with and listen to the current R&B and soul music of the day as well as gospel music. Norful attended Pine Bluff High School, where he occasionally performed in school assemblies and programs. Norful graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff as a History major and spent four years teaching high school at Jack Robey in Pine Bluff,AR . In 1998 he felt a calling to the ministry of the gospel, and pursued a Master of Divinity degree at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. While working toward ordination in the A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) church, he took a position as assistant pastor at a church in Chicago. He currently pastors Victory Cathedral Worship Center in Romeoville, IL, which he founded on September 20, 2005.

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Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. (born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school. Shortly after graduation, he was arrested for cocaine possession and spent six months in Wayside County Jail. His music career began in 1992 after his release when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on several tracks on Dre's solo debut, The Chronic and on the titular theme song to the film Deep Cover.
Snoop's debut album Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records making a debut at No.1 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B charts. Selling almost a million copies in the first week of its release, Doggystyle quickly became certified 4× platinum in 1994 and spawned several hit singles, including "What's My Name" and "Gin & Juice". In 1994, Snoop released a soundtrack on Death Row Records for the short film Murder Was The Case, starring himself. In early 1996, Snoop Dogg was cleared of charges over his bodyguard's 1993 murder of Philip Woldemariam. His second album, late 1996's Tha Doggfather, also debuted at No.1 on both charts with "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" as the lead single. The album sold only half as well, being certified double platinum in 1997.

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Sol Gabetta
Sol Gabetta (born 1981, Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina) is an Argentine cellist of French and Russian descent, now settled in Switzerland.
Sol Gabetta was born in Villa María, her family moved to the capital city of Córdoba where she studied piano, cello and sang in a chorus.^{[citation needed]} She continued her studies as a cellist in Buenos Aires with Leo Viola and in Madrid at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía.^{[citation needed]} At the age of 12 she left Argentina to live in Spain and then Alsace in France.^{[citation needed]}
Since winning her first competition at the age of ten, she has gone on to win numerous other awards, including the Natalia Gutman Award for best musical interpretation in the International Tchaikovsky Competition, an award from the ARD competition in Munich, a Fellowship from the Borletti Buitoni Trust (2003) and 5th place in the Mstislav Rostropovich International Cello Competition.^{[citation needed]} She continues to study in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" with David Geringas, and currently plays on a 1759 G. B. Guadagnini cello, made available to her through private funding by Hans K. Rahn.

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Solange Knowles
Solange Piaget Knowles (born June 24, 1986), who performs under the mononym Solange, is an American singer-songwriter, actress, model, dancer, and DJ. Knowles was born and raised in Houston, Texas along with her older sister singer Beyoncé. Showing an interest in music recording at an early age, she eventually broke into the music scene at 16. She has released two studios albums: Solo Star in 2003 and Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams in 2008, which peaked at number nine in the US Billboard 200 chart.
Aside from recording, Knowles has ventured into film, modeling, and entrepreneurship. Knowles has been compared to her sister by the media, but she dismisses the notion, saying they are artistically different.
Knowles was born in Houston, Texas, to Mathew Knowles and Tina Knowles. Solange is the second child of Mathew and Tina, and the younger sister of Beyoncé. Her father is African American and her mother is Creole (of African, Native American, and French descent) and Irish descent. Her maternal grandparents are Lumis Beyincé and Agnéz Deréon, (a seamstress). She is also a descendant of Acadian leader Joseph Broussard. As a child, Knowles studied dance and theater. At the age of five, she made her singing debut at an amusement park. She began writing songs at the age of nine. At 13, she decided to pursue recording, but her parents initially advised her to wait. At the age of 15 Knowles replaced a departed dancer and performed with her sister's group Destiny's Child on tour. During the group's opening stint for American pop singer Christina Aguilera's tour, Knowles temporarily replaced Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland after Kelly broke her toes backstage during a costume change. When Knowles was 16, her father, who was then also her manager, signed her to his recording company, Music World Entertainment.

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Soulja Boy
DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, or simply Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur.
In September 2007, his single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was initially self-published on the internet, and it later became a number-one hit in the United States for seven non-consecutive weeks starting in September 2007. On August 17 Way was listed at #18 on the Forbes list of Hip-Hop Cash Kings of 2010 earning $7 million for that year.
Way has currently released three studio albums and one independent album: his debut studio album Souljaboytellem.com (2007) was certified platinum by the RIAA. However, his next two albums, iSouljaBoyTellem (2008) and The DeAndre Way (2010) did not match the commercial success of his debut, the latter only selling 100,000 copies, despite the success of several singles across both albums, such as "Kiss Me Thru the Phone" and "Turn My Swag On" (iSouljaBoyTellem) and "Pretty Boy Swag" (The DeAndre Way).

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Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci (born November 11, 1960) is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his critically acclaimed performance in The Lovely Bones (2009). He also has won an Emmy for his performance in Winchell, and has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children – "The One And Only Shrek".
Tucci, an Italian American, was born in Peekskill, New York, the son of Joan (née Tropiano), a secretary and writer, and Stanley Tucci, Sr., an art teacher at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York. His sister is actress Christine Tucci, and his cousin is the screenwriter and retired history teacher Joseph Tropiano. He grew up in Katonah, New York, and attended John Jay High School. Tucci played on the John Jay soccer team and baseball teams; his main interest lay in the school's drama club, where he and fellow actor and high school buddy, Campbell Scott, son of actor George C. Scott, gave well-received performances at many of John Jay's drama club productions. Tucci attended SUNY Purchase, and completed his B.F.A. degree after four years in the school's Conservatory of Theatre Arts.

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Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (

/ˈsɒnd.haɪm/) (born March 22, 1930) is an American composer and lyricist known for his contributions to musical theatre. He is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer) including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award. Described by Frank Rich of the New York Times as "the greatest, and perhaps best-known artist working in musical theatre", his most famous works include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy.
Sondheim has also written material for movies, including the 1981 Warren Beatty film Reds, contributing the song "Goodbye For Now". He also wrote five songs for the 1990 movie Dick Tracy, including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)", which won the Academy Award for Best Song.

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Stephen Stubbs
Stephen Stubbs (born 1951) is a lutenist and music director and has been a leading figure in the American early music scene for nearly thirty years.
He was born in Seattle and studied harpsichord and composition at the University of Washington where, at the same time, he began to play the harpsichord and lute. He left America after graduation to study the instrument in England and Holland and gave his debut concert in London's Wigmore Hall in 1976. Since 1981, Stubbs has been teaching at the University of the Arts Bremen in Germany where he is currently holding a post as professor. He has performed extensively with his ensembles Tragicomedia and Teatro Lirico, and conducted baroque opera worldwide. He has recorded numerous albums with other famous ensembles like the Hilliard Ensemble and with Andrew Lawrence-King.
He moved back to Seattle in 2006. There he established a program for young professional singers called the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera and is an adjunct professor at Cornish College of the Arts. He is artistic co-director (with Paul O'Dette) of the Boston Early Music Festival.

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Steve Earle
For the drummer Steve Earle, see Afghan Whigs
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle (

/ˈɜrl/; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock, folk and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play.
Earle was born on January 17, 1955, at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. He is the eldest son of Jack Earle, an air traffic controller, and Barbara Earle. Although he was born in Virginia where his father was stationed in the military, the family returned to Texas before Earle's second birthday. His ancestry is Irish Catholic on his mother's side and Scots-Irish on his father's side. They moved often during his childhood, primarily within Texas, but spent several of his formative years in and around San Antonio, Texas including East Terrell Hills, Converse, and Schertz. He dropped out of school in the 9th grade to move to Houston and learn more about the music business. Earle released his first album, Guitar Town, in 1986. His sister, Stacey Earle, is also a musician, having toured with her brother in the 1990s and sung on the song "When I Fall" on Earle's 2000 album, Transcendental Blues.

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Steve Khan
Steve Khan (born April 28, 1947) is an American jazz guitarist.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Khan is known for his work with artists such as Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Michael Franks, Hubert Laws, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, James Brown, Maynard Ferguson, and Weather Report. In 1977, he toured with the CBS Jazz All Stars in Japan, and led a band called Eyewitness that featured musicians such as Steve Jordan, Anthony Jackson and Manolo Badrena. Khan is the author of five books on jazz music: Pentatonic Khancepts, Contemporary Chord Khancepts, The Wes Montgomary Guitar Folio, Pat Martino - The Early Years, and Guitar Workshop Series. His album Borrowed Time (TIEMPO PRESTADO) was a nominee for the 2007 50th Grammy Awards in the Best Latin Jazz Album (vocal or instrumental) category.
During the 1980s and 90s he was a member of the group Elements.
He is the son of lyricist Sammy Cahn.
With Patti Austin
With George Benson

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Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. After starting his career as a music transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, Vai recorded and toured in Zappa's band for two years, from 1980 to 1982. He began a solo career in 1983, has released eight solo albums and won three Grammy Awards. He has also recorded and toured with Public Image Ltd., Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. Vai has been a regular touring member of the G3 Concert Tour which began in 1996. In 1999 Vai started his own record label Favored Nations, intending to showcase as he describes, "...artists that have attained the highest performance level on their chosen instruments."
Vai began playing guitar in 1973, at the age of 13. In 1974, he took guitar lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani and played in local bands, one of which was called "The Steve Vais". He was influenced by guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Glen Buxton, and jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Vai attended the Berklee College of Music, afterwards recording a promotional piece for them in which he spoke about auditioning for Frank Zappa at age 20.

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Steven Wright
Steven Alexander Wright (born December 6, 1955) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes, paraprosdokians, and one-liners with contrived situations.
Wright was born in Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up in Burlington, Massachusetts, one of four children of Lucille “Dolly” (née Lomano) and Alexander K. Wright. He was raised Catholic. His mother was Italian American and his father was of Scottish descent. Wright's father, an electronics technician who "tested a lot of stuff for the Apollo space program," became a truck driver after that program ended.
Wright spent two years obtaining an associate's degree from Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Massachusetts, before enrolling at Emerson College. He graduated from the latter in 1978 and began performing stand-up comedy in 1979 at the Boston comedy club the Comedy Connection. He cites George Carlin and Woody Allen among his influences.

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Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.
Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

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Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (sometimes spelled Strawinsky or Stravinskii; Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский, transliterated: Igorʹ Fëdorovič Stravinskij; Russian pronunciation: [ˌiɡərʲ ˌfʲjodɐrɐvʲɪtɕ strɐˈvʲinskʲɪj]; 17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian, and later French and American composer, pianist and conductor. He is acknowledged by many as one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.
Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The Rite of Spring, which provoked a riot during its premiere, transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His so-called Russian phase was followed in the 1920s by a period in which he turned to neoclassical music. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso, fugue and symphony). They frequently concealed a vein of intense emotion beneath a surface appearance of detachment or austerity and often paid tribute to the music of earlier masters, for example J.S. Bach and Tchaikovsky. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures. His compositions of this period shared traits with examples of his earlier output: rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells and clarity of form, of instrumentation and of utterance.

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Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.
Two of Vega's songs (both from her second album Solitude Standing, 1987) reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner". The latter was originally an a cappella version on Vega's album, which was then remade in 1990 as a dance track produced by the British dance production team DNA.
Vega was born July 11, 1959 in Santa Monica, California. Her mother, Pat Vega, is a computer systems analyst of German-Swedish heritage. Her father, Richard Peck, is of Scottish-English-Irish origin. They divorced soon after her birth. Her stepfather, Ed Vega, also known as Edgardo Vega Yunque, was a writer and teacher from Puerto Rico.
When Vega was two and a half, the family moved to New York City. She grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side. At the age of nine she began to write poetry; she wrote her first song at age fourteen. Later she attended New York's prestigious High School of Performing Arts (now called LaGuardia High School). There she studied modern dance and graduated in 1977.

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T-Bone (rapper)
T-Bone (born in San Francisco, California) is a conscious/inspirational Christian rapper. His father is Nicaraguan and his mother is Salvadoran. His name came from being called 'Bones' as a youngster because he was very skinny. The 'T' was "added to give the name a little slang edge.
According to published interview, he started rapping at the age of 7 at parties and in rap battles. He was close to getting a gangsta rap record but, after changing his life, he opened for a noted rock group at that time which led him to getting signed to his first inspirational record deal that very night.
His first three albums: Redeemed Hoodlum in 1991, Tha Life of a Hoodlum in 1993 and Tha Hoodlum's Testimony in 1995 were released on the independent Metro One record label. All these 3 albums were characterised by being gangsta rap albums, which was rare in the inspirational music scene at the time.
In 1997, he released a 3-disc compilation set of the hits from his first 3 albums titled History of a Hoodlum. This album was released on the Diamante record label.

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T-Pain
Faheem Rasheed Najm (born September 30, 1985), who goes by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany, which reached number one on the Billboard 200. His third studio album,Thr33 Ringz, was released in 2008. T-Pain has earned two Grammy Awards alongside artists Kanye West and Jamie Foxx.
T-Pain is the founder of the record label Nappy Boy Entertainment, established in 2005. Throughout his career as a singer, T-Pain has extensively used the Auto-Tune pitch correction effect.
Najm was born in Tallahassee, Florida on September 30, 1985. His stage name is short for "Tallahassee Pain" and was chosen because of the hardships he experienced while living there. He is a Muslim. At just three years old he got his first taste of the music business. A friend of the family, gospel jazz artist/producer Ben Tankard allowed him to hang out and "twist the knobs" at his recording studio. At age ten, Najm turned his bedroom into a music studio, using a keyboard, a beat machine and a four-track recorder.

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T.I.
Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. (born September 25, 1980), better known by his stage name T.I., is an American rap artist, film and music producer, actor and author. He is also the founder and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Grand Hustle Records.
T.I. has released seven studio albums (I'm Serious, Trap Muzik, Urban Legend, King, T.I. vs. T.I.P., Paper Trail, and No Mercy) with the most recent five being highly successful on the commercial market. He has released such successful singles as "Bring Em Out", "What You Know", "Big Shit Poppin' (Do It)", "Swagga Like Us" (featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne), "Whatever You Like", "Live Your Life" (featuring Rihanna), "Dead and Gone" (featuring Justin Timberlake), "Got Your Back" (featuring Keri Hilson) and "That's All She Wrote" (featuring Eminem). He has served two stints in county jail, twice for probation violations and a federal prison bid for a U.S. federal weapons charge. While serving 11 months in prison he released his seventh studio album, No Mercy. T.I. has also had successful acting career, starring in the films Takers and ATL.

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Tank (singer)
Tank (born Durrell Babbs on January 1, 1976 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American R&B singer, songwriter and producer.
In 2001, following Ginuwine's successful tour Tank released his debut album Force of Nature which spawned the R&B Top Ten-single "Maybe I Deserve".^{[citation needed]}
In 2002, Tank released his second album One Man and a single of the same name.
Tank released his third solo album entitled "Sex, Love & Pain" on May 15, 2007. The lead single was intended to be "I Luv Dem Girls", but for unknown reasons the song was given to Marques Houston who renamed it "Strip Club" (intending to place it on his third solo album "Veteran"). However, "Strip Club" did not make "Veteran" so the the single was final single was the Timbaland remix to "I Luv Dem Girls". The second single was "Please Don't Go". Later in the year Tank, Ginuwine and Tyrese Gibson formed a group called TGT. Their first single was a remix of "Please Don't Go" with an international tour entitled "The Shirts Off Tour" and search for a fourth member to follow.. The group later split.

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Taylor Hawkins
Oliver Taylor Hawkins (born February 17, 1972 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an American musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters. Prior to joining the band in 1997, he was the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette on her Jagged Little Pill and Can't Not tours, as well as the drummer in the progressive experimental band called Sylvia which, after changing their name to Anyone, went on to sign with Roadrunner Records. His cousin, Kevin Harrell, introduced him to Dave Grohl after camping with him for several weeks in the Ozarks. Hawkins would eventually become the drummer for Grohl's band, Foo Fighters. He was voted "Best Rock Drummer" in 2005 by the UK drumming magazine, Rhythm.
In 2004, Hawkins formed his own side project, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, in which he plays drums and sings.
After leaving the Orange County-based band Sylvia (later emerging as ANYONE), he joined up as drummer for Sass Jordan, which in turn he left to act as drummer for Alanis Morissette. He has appeared in Morissette's videos for "You Oughta Know" and "You Learn".

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Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.
Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in late 2008. Buoyed by the chart success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless attracted a crossover audience and became the top-selling album of 2009. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. She then embarked on the 111-date Speak Now World Tour, which was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Swift is currently recording her fourth studio album, due for release in the fall of 2012.

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Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (

/ˈpjɔːtər ˈɪliɪtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒfski/); (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский;tr. Pyotr Ilyich Chaykovsky) (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893), also rendered as Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (

/ˈpiːtər .../), was a Russian composer whose works included symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, and chamber music. Some of these are among the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, which he bolstered with appearances as a guest conductor later in his career in Europe and the United States. One of these appearances was at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1891. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884 by Tsar Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension in the late 1880s.

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Tego Calderón
Tegui Calderón Rosario (born February 1, 1972) is a Puerto Rican rapper, and actor.
Calderón was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, the son of Pilar Rosario Parrilla, a schoolteacher, and Esteban Calderón Ilarraza, a government worker for Puerto Rico's Department of Health. Moving at a young age from his native Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida, Tego attended Miami Beach Senior High. Here he was exposed to several different cultures, eventually studying percussion and working as a drummer in a rock band. The band would cover songs produced by artists including Ozzy Osbourne and Led Zeppelin. He has noted that both of his parents were fans of Ismael Rivera, and that his father was also interested in jazz. He was influenced by both genres and incorporated them into his music, including songs such as Minnie the Moocher. He eventually developed a music style that combined elements of salsa, plena, dancehall, and hip-hop, focusing on aspects of urban life in his lyrics.
Calderón made several cameo appearances on other rapper's albums, eventually signing with label White Lion. In 2002, after three years of voice training, he published his first full-length album titled El Abayarde. Despite the fact that Reggaeton was considered an underground genre, the album sold 50,000 copies upon its release, setting a sales record for an urban music album. Three months after publishing El Abayarde, Calderón organized his first concert, which took place at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico and sold out the venue. The following day he became the first rap artist to perform at the annual Puertorican Día Naciónal de la Salsa (National Day of Salsa).

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Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard (born March 13, 1962) is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz. He was an integral figure in the 1980s jazz resurgence having recorded several award-winning albums and having performed with the jazz elite.
He is known as a straight-ahead artist in the hard bop tradition but has recently utilized an African-fusion style of playing that makes him unique from other trumpeters on the performance circuit. However, it is as a film composer that Blanchard reaches his widest audience. His trumpet can be heard on nearly fifty film scores; more than forty bear his unmistakable compositional style. Since 2000, Blanchard has served as Artistic Director at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and as of August 2011 he was named the Artistic Director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He lives in the Garden District of New Orleans with his wife and four children.

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The Cross Movement
The Cross Movement is a Christian hip hop group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Cross Movement has three separate and distinct eponymous components which comprise its ministry. The first component is the Christian hip hop group known as The Cross Movement (CM) which was most recently composed of four solo rappers: The Ambassador (William Branch), The Tonic (John Wells), Phanatik (Brady Goodwin), and T.R.U.-L.I.F.E, (Virgil Byrd). The CM also frequently collaborates with the Christian disc jockey, DJ Official. The CM’s niche has been to translate biblical and Christian theology into rap music by using the same hyper-aggressive lyrics, sampled orchestral riffs, alliteration, and virtuoso delivery of many underground rappers without the self-aggrandizing and violent lyrics, or the materialistic imagery stereotypically associated with many rappers. The second component to the Cross Movement is the record label, Cross Movement Records (CMR), which is responsible for producing and marketing the albums of the CM, its individual members' solo albums, and other Christian hip hop artists such as Da' T.R.U.T.H. and FLAME. The third aspect of the Cross Movement is the incorporated, non-profit group called Cross Movement Ministries (CMM), which aims to use creative ways to spread the Christian gospel message within hip hop culture.

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The Del McCoury Band
The Del McCoury Band is a bluegrass band. Originally Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals with Del on guitar and his brother Jerry on bass, the band went through a number of changes until the 1980s when the band solidified its line-up, adding McCoury's sons, Ronnie and Robbie on mandolin and banjo, respectively. In 1988, the "Dixie Pals" name was dropped in favor of the current name. Fiddler Tad Marks and bass player Mike Brantley joined in the early 1990s while the band became a national touring act. In 2004 they were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for It's Just the Night, and in 2006 they won that category for The Company We Keep.
The band recorded with Steve Earle on his 1999 album The Mountain. The band has also often performed in recent years with The Lee Boys, with setlists mixing bluegrass, funk and gospel with extended jams on many songs.
The Travelin' McCourys are an offshoot of the Del McCoury Band, featuring all current (2009) members of the band minus Del, augmented by guitarist Cody Kilby on live performances. The Travelin' McCourys also often play joint concerts with The Lee Boys.

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The-Dream
Terius Youngdell Nash (Born September 20, 1977), better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. He is known for co-writing chart topping hits such as "Baby" for Justin Bieber, "Umbrella" for Rihanna and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" for Beyoncé, as well as for his three solo albums, Love Hate, Love vs. Money, and Love King.
Terius Nash was born in Rockingham, North Carolina and moved with his mother, Reva Nash, to Atlanta at the age of 3. He played trumpet, drums, and guitar as a child. His mother died in 1992 when Nash was fifteen years old, an event which would inspire him to write songs. He states that the death of his mother gave him a "soft spot" for women, which he credits to his desire to write songs about female empowerment such as Rihanna's "Umbrella". He moved in with his grandfather, a concrete mason who instilled a strong work ethic in young Nash. Of his grandfather, Nash recalls "He came out of a bad time for blacks in the South, but even though we lived in the hood, we had a boat, some cars and a house that was paid for. So I’ve always had a different outlook on life. There’s nothing I can’t do."

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Thomas Quasthoff
Thomas Quasthoff (born November 9, 1959) is a German bass-baritone. Although his reputation was initially based on his performance of Romantic lieder, Quasthoff has proven to have a remarkable range from the Baroque cantatas of Bach to solo jazz improvisations.
Quasthoff was born in Hildesheim, Germany, with serious birth defects caused by his mother's exposure during pregnancy to the drug thalidomide which was prescribed as an antiemetic to combat her morning sickness. Thomas Quasthoff is 4' 4¾" (1.34 m) [1] tall due to shortening of the long bones in his legs, and he has phocomelia of the upper extremities with very short or absent long bones.
Quasthoff was denied admission to the music conservatory in Hanover, Germany, owing to his physical inability to play the piano, rather than a lack of skill required for entry to the conservatory. In the early stages of his education as a singer, Quasthoff was promoted by Sebastian Peschko. Thus, he chose to study voice privately. He also studied law for three years. Prior to his music career, he worked six years as a radio announcer for NDR. He also did voice-over work for television.

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Tia Carrere
Tia Carrere (born Althea Rae Janairo on January 2, 1967) is an American actress, model, voice artist, and singer who obtained her first big break being a regular on the daytime soap opera General Hospital.
She is most widely known for her roles as Cassandra Wong in the feature films Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2, Nani in Lilo & Stitch its sequel films and Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Queen Tyr'ahnee in Duck Dodgers, as Sydney Fox in the syndicated television series Relic Hunter, and her participation as a contestant in the second season of the United States version of Dancing with the Stars and the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice.
Carrere was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the daughter of Filipino parents, Audrey Duhinio Janairo, a computer supervisor, and Alexander Janairo, a banker. Carrere identifies herself as being of "Filipino, Spanish, and Chinese descent ... raised on Hawaii." Carrere attended Sacred Hearts Academy, an all-girls school. Carrere longed to be a singer as a child. Although she was eliminated during the first round of her 1985 Star Search appearance at the age of 17, she was spotted by a local producer while shopping at a Waikiki grocery store and was cast in the movie Aloha Summer, which he produced and had a cameo in..

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Tierney Sutton
Tierney Sutton (born June 28, 1963) is an American jazz singer.
A three-time Grammy Nominee for "Best Jazz Vocal Album" and "a selection by Jazzweek as Vocalist of the Year in 2005," Sutton was born in Omaha Nebraska]] and was educated at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to attending Wesleyan, Tierney Sutton attended Nicolet High School in the Milwaukee metro area.
For the past 16 years, Sutton has fronted the Tierney Sutton Band featuring pianist Christian Jacob, bassists Trey Henry and Kevin Axt, and drummer Ray Brinker. The band is an incorporated unit and makes all musical as well business decisions together. They tour throughout the world and have headlined in recent years at Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl and Jazz at Lincoln Center. For 11 years, Sutton taught in the Jazz Studies Department at the University of Southern California. In 2008, she became the Vocal Department Chair at Los Angeles Music Academy in Pasadena, California.

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Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the Soundscan era. He is married to country singer Faith Hill and is the son of former baseball player Tug McGraw.
McGraw had 11 consecutive albums debut at Number One on the Billboard albums charts. Twenty-one singles hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. He has won 3 Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards, and 3 People's Choice Awards. His Soul2Soul II Tour with Faith Hill is the highest grossing tour in country music history, and one of the top five among all genres of music.
McGraw has ventured into acting, with supporting roles in The Blind Side (with Sandra Bullock), Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, and Four Christmases (with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon), and lead roles in Flicka (2006) and Country Strong (2010). He was a minority owner of the Arena Football League's Nashville Kats. Taylor Swift's debut single, "Tim McGraw", refers to him and his song, "Can't Tell Me Nothin'".

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Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972) better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper. Timbaland's first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine...the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine. After further work on Aaliyah's 1996 album One in a Million and Missy Elliott's 1997 album Supa Dupa Fly, Timbaland became a prominent producer for R&B and hip-hop artists. As a rapper he initially released several albums with fellow rapper Magoo, but later released his debut solo album Tim's Bio in 1998. In 2007, Timbaland released the first album in his Shock Value series, Timbaland Presents: Shock Value. Then In 2009 Timbaland Presents: Shock Value II. It is expected that Timbaland will release Timbaland Presents: Shock Value III in June 2012.
Timothy Zachery Mosley was born on March 10, 1972 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he was raised. He graduated from Salem High School. During his time as a DJ, he was known as "DJ Tim" or "DJ Timmy Tim". His brother, Sebastian, is nine years younger. Timbaland began making hip hop backing tracks on a Casio keyboard. While attending high school, he began a long-term collaboration with rapper Melvin Barcliff, who performed under the name of Magoo. The teenaged Mosley also joined the production ensemble S.B.I. (which stood for surrounded by idiots) which also featured Neptunes producer Pharrell. Mosley was also high school friends with Terrence and Gene Thorton, who would go on to be known as Pusha T and Malice of the rap group Clipse. In 1986, when Timbaland was 15 years old, he was shot while working a part time job at his local Red Lobster and was partially paralyzed for nine months. During this time, he began to learn how to DJ using his left hand.

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Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards. Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of hits including "River Deep, Mountain High" and the 1971 hit "Proud Mary". With the publication of her autobiography I, Tina (1986), Turner revealed severe instances of spousal abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. After virtually disappearing from the music scene for several years following her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" and the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer.
Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film's theme, "We Don't Need Another Hero", was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.

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Tiësto
Tijs Michiel Verwest, OON (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈtɛi̯s miˈxil vərˈʋɛst]; born 17 January 1969), known as Tiësto (

/ˈtʃɛstoʊ/ CHES-toh; Dutch pronunciation: [cɛsto]), is a Dutch musician, DJ and record producer of electronic dance music. Although he has used many aliases in the past, he is best known for his work as DJ Tiësto. On his latest productions, however, he has dropped the "DJ" label and is now known simply as "Tiësto", an alias which is a twist of his childhood nickname.
In 1997, he founded the label Black Hole Recordings with Arny Bink, where he released the Magik and In Search of Sunrise CD series. Tiësto met producer Dennis Waakop Reijers in 1998, and the two have worked together extensively since then. Reijers is credited as producer, writer, composer, or arranger on many of Tiësto's releases. In 1999 and 2000 Tiësto collaborated with Ferry Corsten to create Gouryella. His 2000 remix of Delerium's "Silence" featuring Sarah McLachlan exposed him to more mainstream audiences. In 2001, he released his first solo album In My Memory which gave him several major hits that launched his career. He ranked in the #1 poll position 3 consecutive times in the DJ Magazine Top 100 Popularity Poll from 2002 to 2004.

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TobyMac
Toby McKeehan (born Kevin Michael McKeehan; October 22, 1964), better known by his stage name TobyMac (styled tobyMac), is a Christian recording artist, music producer, hip-hop/pop artist, singer-songwriter, and author.
TobyMac was one of the first Christian rappers.^{[citation needed]} He was first known for being a member of the Christian singing trio DC Talk, staying with them from 1987 until their announced hiatus in 2000. He has since continued a successful solo career with the release of four studio albums: Momentum (2001), Welcome to Diverse City (2004), Portable Sounds (2007), Tonight (2010), as well as two remixed albums of the first two albums titled Re:Mix Momentum and Renovating Diverse City and one remix album for the last two albums titled Dubbed and Freq'd: A Remix Project (2012), respectively. He also has a full-length Christmas album Christmas in Diverse City (2011).
Between DC talk and his own solo career, he has sold more than 10 million albums. TobyMac has had six No. 1 hit CHR singles including "Gone", "Made to Love" and "Lose My Soul." His live concert CD+DVD combo album, Alive and Transported, was released in 2008 and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album at the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009. His fourth studio album, Tonight, was released on February 9, 2010.

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Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks is known for his roles in Philadelphia and as the title character in Forrest Gump, roles which won him two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. Hanks is also known for his Oscar nominated roles in Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.
Hanks' other acting roles include Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, The Green Mile as Paul Edgecomb, Toy Story as Woody and Charlie Wilson's War as Charlie Wilson.
Hanks was born in Concord, California. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California, on March 9, 1924 – died in Alameda, California, on January 31, 1992), was an itinerant cook. His mother, Janet Marylyn (née Frager; born in Alameda County, California, on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker. Hanks' mother is of Portuguese ancestry, while two of his paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Britain. Hanks's parents divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer)^{[citation needed]}, Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, PhD, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California.^{[citation needed]}

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Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and has acted in supporting roles in films including Paradise Alley and Bram Stoker's Dracula; he also starred in the 1986 film Down by Law. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.
Lyrically, Waits' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places—although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best-known through cover versions by more commercial artists: "Jersey Girl", performed by Bruce Springsteen, "Ol' '55", performed by the Eagles, and "Downtown Train", performed by Rod Stewart. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries. He has been nominated for a number of major music awards and has won Grammy Awards for two albums, Bone Machine and Mule Variations. In 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She also was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. She won the Nobel Prize in 1993 and in 1987 the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved. In April 2012, it was announced she would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and on 29 May 2012, she received the award.
Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio to Ramah (née Willis) and George Wofford. She is the second of four children in a working-class family. As a child, Morrison read fervently; among her favorite authors were Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy. Morrison's father told her numerous folktales of the black community (a method of storytelling that would later work its way into Morrison's writings).
In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University, where she received a B.A. in English in 1953. She earned a Master of Arts degree in English from Cornell University in 1955, for which she wrote a thesis on suicide in the works of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. After graduation, Morrison became an English instructor at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas (1955–57), then returned to Howard to teach English. She became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

wn.com/Toni_Morrison

Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett (born August 3, 1926), is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, having created works — under the name Benedetto — that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in New York City.
Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in the European Theatre. Afterwards, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records, and had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett then further refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and his personal life then suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era.

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Tony Kaye (director)
Tony Kaye (born 1952) is a British director of films, music videos, advertisements, and documentaries.
Kaye was born in London, United Kingdom. He has made several well-known music videos, including the video for "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum, which won a Grammy Award; "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers; "What God Wants" by Roger Waters; and "Help Me^{[disambiguation needed ]}" and "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash. Kaye is a six time Grammy nominated music video director. He won a Grammy in 2006 for the famous Johnny Cash video God's Gonna Cut You Down with cameo appearances by Bono, Johnny Depp, Kanye West, Patti Smith, Terrence Howard, Iggy Pop, The Dixie Chicks, Brian Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Keith Richards, Chris Martin, Sharon Stone, Lisa Marie Presley, Flea, Chris Rock, Justin Timberlake, Kate Moss, Peter Blake, Sheryl Crow, Dennis Hopper, Mick Jones^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Jay-Z, Kris Kristofferson, Owen Wilson and Amy Lee.
His feature film debut was American History X (1998), a drama about racism starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. Norton was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film. Kaye later disowned the film with Norton reputedly re-editing it.

wn.com/Tony_Kaye_(director)

Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka (born January 16, 1949 in Syracuse, New York) is an American five-string banjo player.
Tony Trischka was born in Syracuse, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University (in Syracuse, New York) with a B.A in Fine Arts, and was inspired to play the banjo in 1963, listening to the Kingston Trio's "Charlie and The MTA".
Trischka was a founding member of the Syracuse band Down City Ramblers during and beyond his college years, along with such musicians as Harry "Tersh" Gilmore (aka Lou Martin), Tom Hosmer, John Cadley, John Dancks, Greg Root, Greg Johnson, and Joel Diamond. Along with Gilmore and Hosmer he was also in the trio calling itself The Inedible String Bland. Both bands primarily, and frequently, played at Syracuse's premier music club/restaurant of the 1960s, Cap'n Mac's Clam Shack.
In 1971 he made his recording debut on 15 Bluegrass Instrumentals with the Ithaca, NY based Country Cooking, (Peter Wernick, Kenny Kosek, Andy Statman, John Miller, Harry "Tersh" Gilmore) and at the same time, he was also a member of Syracuse's Country Granola (Herb Feuerstein, Johno Lanford, Greg Root, Danny Weiss, etc.). In 1973, he began a two-year stint with the New York City band, Breakfast Special (Kenny Kosek, Andy Statman, Roger Mason, Stacy Phillips, Jim Tolles). (This was Trischka's "food band" period.) Between 1974 and 1975, he recorded two solo albums, Bluegrass Light and Heartlands. After another solo album in 1976, Banjoland, he became musical leader for the Broadway show, The Robber Bridegroom. Trischka toured with the show in 1978, the year he also played with the Monroe Doctrine. Beginning in 1978, he also played with artists such as Peter Rowan, Richard Greene, and Stacy Phillips.

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Toots & The Maytals
Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and reggae vocal groups. According to Sandra Brennan at Allmusic, "The Maytals were key figures in reggae music. Formed in the early 1960s when ska was hot, the Maytals had a reputation for having strong, well-blended voices and a seldom-rivaled passion for their music. Frontman Hibbert's soulful style led him to be compared to Otis Redding".
Frederick "Toots" Hibbert, the frontman of the group, was born in May Pen, Clarendon, Jamaica in 1945, the youngest of seven children. He grew up singing gospel music in a church choir, and moved to Kingston in 1958 at the age of thirteen.
In Kingston, Hibbert met Henry "Raleigh" Gordon and Nathaniel "Jerry" Mathias, forming in 1961 a group whose early recordings were incorrectly attributed to 'The Flames' and 'The Vikings' in the UK by Island Records. The Maytals first had chart success recording for producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd at Studio One. With musical backing from Dodd's house band, The Skatalites, the Maytals' close-harmony gospel singing ensured success, overshadowing Dodd's other up-and-coming vocal group, The Wailers. After staying at Studio One for about two years, the group moved on to do sessions for Prince Buster before recording with Byron Lee in 1966. With Lee, the Maytals won the first-ever Jamaican Independence Festival Popular Song Competition with their original song "Bam Bam" (later covered in a Dancehall style by Sister Nancy, and also by Yellowman in 1982). However, the group's musical career was interrupted in late 1966 when Hibbert was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. He stated that he was not arrested for ganja, but whilst bailing a friend. He also stated that he made up the number 54-46 when writing "54-46 That's My Number" about his time in jail.

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Trent Walker
Trent Walker is an American sound engineer who was nominated for the 2008 Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Classical category. Along with Bruce Leek and Fred Vogler, Walker received the nomination for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas album Spirit of the Season.
Since 2005, Walker has been the senior audio engineer on the Bonneville Communications show Music and the Spoken Word, which features the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has also worked on live shows for AC/DC, The Beach Boys, America, Chuck Mangione, CAKE and Reel Big Fish. Formerly, he worked at Brigham Young University Idaho, in Rexburg, Idaho, and also owned and operated Rockhouse Recording Studio.

wn.com/Trent_Walker

Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood (born September 19, 1964), is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."
Trisha Yearwood signed with MCA Records in 1990. She came to prominence with her debut single, "She's in Love with the Boy" which became a number 1 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in 1991. Her second album release, Hearts in Armor (1992) reflected Yearwood's own personal issues, which won her widespread critical acclaim among music critics and further success in country music. Her later album releases such as The Song Remembers When (1993), Thinkin' About You (1995) and Everybody Knows (1996) also demonstrated her creative control, featuring collaborations from Rodney Crowell, Willie Nelson and Garth Brooks.
Yearwood also found major success in country radio during much of the 1990s, including with the 1997 song "How Do I Live." Initially released on the soundtrack of the film, Con Air, the song was also issued on her "greatest hits" compilation entitled (Songbook) A Collection of Hits (1997) and would eventually win Best Female Country Vocal Performance from the Grammy Awards. In addition she would also win accolades from the Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Awards in 1997 and 1998. Aside from her success in country music, she has also donated her time as a philanthropist, working with Habitat for Humanity and the Make a Wish Foundation. In addition she also set aside a project to release her first cookbook in April 2008 titled Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen, which consisted of southern cooking recipes from Yearwood, her mother and sister.

wn.com/Trisha_Yearwood

Usher (entertainer)
Usher Terry Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978), who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit, "Nice & Slow". The album has been certified 6-times platinum by the RIAA. His follow-up album, 8701, produced the Billboard Hot 100 number one hits "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad". The album has been certified 4-times platinum by the RIAA.
Usher's 2004 album Confessions sold over 10 million copies in the United States, and been certified diamond by the RIAA. Confessions has the highest first week sales for an R&B artist in history. It spawned four consecutive Billboard number-one hits—"Yeah!", "Burn", "Confessions Part II", and "My Boo". Usher's 2008 album Here I Stand sold over 5 million copies worldwide, and its lead single "Love In This Club" peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100.
On March 30, 2010, Usher released his sixth studio album Raymond v. Raymond, which became his third consecutive album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. It has been certified platinum by the RIAA, and spawned another Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "OMG". The song became his ninth number one in the United States, making him the first 2010s artist to collect number one singles in three consecutive decades. He later released an extended play and deluxe edition of "Raymond v. Raymond", entitled Versus, which debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. Its lead single "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Valentin Elizalde
Valentín Elizalde Valencia (February 1, 1979 – November 25, 2006) was a Mexican banda music singer gunned down in an ambush. Known by the nickname "El Gallo de Oro" (The Golden Rooster), his biggest Banda hits included "Vete Ya," "Ebrio de Amor", " Vete Con Él", "Vuelve Cariñito", "Como Me Duele", "Vencedor", " Mi Virgencita", and "Soy Así". Some of his songs were narcocorridos eulogizing Mexican drug lords like Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. He was allegedly murdered at the age of 27 by a member of the drug trafficking gang Los Zetas, which at that time served as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel.
Elizalde was born in the city of Navojoa, Sonora. He then moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco and later to Guasave, Sinaloa where he, his father (also a singer), Lalo Elizalde, nicknamed "El Gallo" (The Rooster), and brothers resided for a few years. His father died in a car accident on the so called "Curva de la muerte" (Curve of Death) in the city of Villa Juárez, Sonora. He had six children with his wife Camila Valencia: Jesus, Joel, Sergio, Valentin, Francisco and Lidia. In 2007, Elizalde was nominated posthumously for the Grammy Awards.

wn.com/Valentin_Elizalde

Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev PAR (Russian: Валерий Абисалович Гергиев, Ossetic: Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери/Gergity Abisaly Fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.
Gergiev, born in Moscow, is the son of Tamara Tatarkanovna and Abisal Zaurbekovich. He and his siblings were raised in Vladikavkaz in their native North Ossetia in the Caucasus. He began piano at secondary school, before going on to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Leningrad from 1972 to 1977. His principal conducting teacher was Prof. Ilya Musin (Илья Мусин), one of the greatest conductor-makers in Russian musical history. His sister, Larissa Gergieva, is a pianist and director of the Mariinsky's singers' academy.
In 1978, he became assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera, now the Mariinsky Opera, under Yuri Temirkanov, where he made his debut conducting Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace. He was chief conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1981 until 1985 – the year he made his debut in the United Kingdom, along with pianist Evgeny Kissin, and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin, at The Lichfield Festival.

wn.com/Valery_Gergiev

Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (

/ˌreɪf ˌvɔːn ˈwɪliəmz/; 12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many folk song arrangements set as hymn tunes, and also influenced several of his own original compositions.
Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on 12 October 1872 in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, where his father, the Reverend Arthur Vaughan Williams (the surname Vaughan Williams is an unhyphenated double-barrelled name of Welsh origin), was vicar. Following his father's death in 1875 he was taken by his mother, Margaret Susan née Wedgwood (1843–1937), the great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, to live with her family at Leith Hill Place, a Wedgwood family home in the Surrey Hills. He was also related to the Darwins, Charles Darwin being a great-uncle. Though born into the privileged intellectual upper middle class, Vaughan Williams never took it for granted and worked all his life for the democratic and egalitarian ideals in which he believed.

wn.com/Vaughan_Williams

Vesselina Kasarova
Vesselina Kasarova (born 18 July 1965) is a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano opera singer.
Vesselina Kasarova was born in the central Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora. Under the communist regime she studied Russian as a second language and had an early start in music education. She started taking piano lessons at the Pionerski Dom at age 4 (in 1970) and enrolled at Stara Zagora's Hristina Morfova School of Music and Performing Arts (normal studies in the morning, and music in the afternoon) in 1979. As she studied piano and worked as accompanist at recitals, Kasarova became so drawn to the voice as a musical instrument that upon earning her concert pianist diploma in 1987, she switched to study singing under Ressa Koleva at Sofia's Music Academy -- focusing on the works of Mozart and Rossini. Kasarova gave her first singing performance in Stara Zagora singing "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen. She performed at Sofia National Opera while still a student. She performed the part of Rosina in the Barber of Seville for her graduation exam.

wn.com/Vesselina_Kasarova

Vikter Duplaix
Vikter Duplaix, is an American singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and DJ. Duplaix has traditional soul singer’s beginnings – being raised in both Philadelphia and Augusta, Georgia singing in church choirs, and later took work programming drum tracks while working at a Philadelphia studio.
He has released several solo records as well as appearing on the releases of Erykah Badu, Jazzanova, King Britt´s Sylk 130, Jamiroquai, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Incognito, Esthero, Cherokee, Jaguar Wright, Eric Benet and Dynamite MC, often with fellow studio rat James Poyser. Associations with DJ Jazzy Jeff and Kenny Gamble proved to be instrumental to his growth and stature. His relationship with King Britt led to immersion in dance music. He contributed vocals to Britt's Scuba project 'Swell', and before long, Duplaix was producing his own material. Remixes and collaborations with the likes of Jazzanova and an installment in !K7's DJ Kicks series all led up to International Affairs, Duplaix's full-length debut as a solo artist. The album was released in Europe in late 2002; it came out in the United States early the following year on Hollywood Records.

wn.com/Vikter_Duplaix

Viktor Krauss
Viktor Karl Krauss (born 1969 in Champaign, Illinois) is a bassist.
He has worked with Peter Rowan and Lyle Lovett, among other musicians.
He is the brother of bluegrass musician Alison Krauss. He has played on some of his sister's albums, together with those of her dobro player, Jerry Douglas.
Eclectic composer and double bassist Viktor Krauss was born in Champaign, IL, in 1969. His youth was spent listening to soundtracks and instrumental music, eventually leading him to the piano and trumpet. After witnessing the power and ominous presence of the double bass at a middle school concert, the budding musician began looking outside of the traditional music programs offered by the public school system. He soon played with local jazz groups and accompanying others in different genres. In high school, Krauss explored the worlds of rock, soul, and R&B and began to write material that shared these new influences, eventually leading to the study of double bass, voice, electronic, and tape music at the University of Illinois.

wn.com/Viktor_Krauss

Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a vocalist and musician have placed him in high demand as a guest vocalist, and a duet partner. Gill has recorded more than twenty studio albums, charted over forty singles on the U.S. Billboard charts as Hot Country Songs, and has sold more than 22 million albums. He has been honored by the Country Music Association with 18 CMA Awards, including two Entertainer of the Year awards and five Male Vocalist Awards. Gill has also earned 27 Grammy Awards, more than any other male Country music artist. In 2007, Gill was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill was born in Norman, Oklahoma. His father, J. Stanley Gill, was a lawyer and administrative law judge who played in a country music band part time and encouraged Gill to pursue a music career. At the encouragement of his father, Gill learned to play several instruments, including the banjo and guitar, before he started high school at Oklahoma City's Northwest Classen High School. He first played with a teenage band called Bluegrass Revues in the late 1970s. The other members were: Billy Perry on the banjo, Bobby Clark on the triangle and Mike Perry on the bass.

wn.com/Vince_Gill

Vince Mendoza
Vince Mendoza (born November 17, 1961) is a music arranger and composer.
Mendoza was born in Connecticut and studied guitar as a child, influenced by classical music, soul and jazz. He then took up the trumpet, which he continued to play throughout his time at Ohio State University, where he played in the Jazz Ensemble and the Concert Band. Mendoza also led his own big band at Ohio State called the Vince Mendoza Big Band where he honed his composing skills. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in music composition in 1983. He did his graduate studies in composition at the University of Southern California.
He was signed to Blue Note Records, with whom he released “Start Here” and “Instructions Inside”. His compositions have been featured by Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Charlie Haden. Mendoza has frequently provided arrangements for their work, as well as for Randy Brecker and Peter Erskine.
Mendoza's work involves various musical styles. He has produced and arranged for singers as diverse as Robbie Williams, Björk, Elvis Costello, and six Grammy Award winning albums, Travelogue, Both Sides Now with Joni Mitchell, Some Skunk Funk, Brown Street, El Viento and 54. Since 2005 he has been chief conductor of the Dutch Metropole Orchestra.

wn.com/Vince_Mendoza

Vittorio Grigolo
Vittorio Grigolo (b. February 19, 1977, Arezzo, Italy) is an Italian singer.
Grigolo was born in Arezzo, but raised in Rome. He began singing by the age of four. When he was nine years old he accompanied his mother to have her eyes tested and, hearing someone singing from another room, he spontaneously began his own rendition of "Ave Maria." The singer, the optician's father, was so impressed that he insisted Grigolo have an audition for the Sistine Chapel Choir as soon as possible. Young Vittorio was chosen to become part of Sistine Chapel Choir as a soloist. He then studied for five years at the Schola Puerorum at the Sistine Chapel.
At age 13 he played the Pastorello in a performance of Tosca at Rome's opera house, where he shared the stage with Pavarotti; becoming known as 'Il Pavarottino'.^{[citation needed]} When 18, Vittorio joined the Vienna Opera Company. He became the youngest man to perform in Milan's La Scala at age 23.^{[citation needed]} He is the first Italian male to be excused compulsory military service on account of his promising career.^{[citation needed]} He also raced Pre-3000 Formula cars for a while until an accident limited his opportunities in this field.^{[citation needed]}

wn.com/Vittorio_Grigolo

Walter Ostanek
Walter Ostanek, CM(born Ladislav Walter Ostanek 20 April 1935 Duparquet,Quebec, Canada), is known as Canada's Polka King. He has received thirteen nominations for Grammy Awards and won three.
Originally from Duparquet his family moved to St. Catharines, Ontario when he was a boy. A young Ostanek received his first accordion as a gift in 1944. After several years, Ostanek became a popular entertainer in Southern Ontario, performing Cleveland-style polkas and waltzes. He could be heard frequently on the radio in St. Catharines and Welland. Walter began playing polka after his best friend introduced him to the accordion at age 5.
In 1957 Ostanek formed his own band playing Slovenian-style polka music. In 1963, Ostanek and his band, Walter Ostanek Band, would record their first of many albums. Over his career, Ostanek would record more than 50 albums and become known as Canada's Polka King. He has received three Grammy Awards and he has been nominated thirteen times. His style has been compared to America's Polka King, Frankie Yankovic of Cleveland. Like the late Yankovic, Walter Ostanek is of Slovene descent.

wn.com/Walter_Ostanek

Warryn Campbell
Warryn Campbell (nicknamed "Smiley" or "Baby Dubb") is an American record producer. He specializes in gospel music and R&B.
His work includes production and songwriting credits for Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Xzibit, Yolanda Adams, Dayna Caddell, Mos Def, Missy Elliott, Kierra Sheard, Brandy, Dave Hollister, Men of Standard, Mario, Shanice, Dru Hill, Musiq Soulchild, and more. He is also a member of the modern quartet-styled traditional gospel group The Soul Seekers signed to GospoCentric Records. As a record executive, he served as vice president of A&R for Elektra Records briefly. Warryn recently helped produce Australian R&B Singer Jade MacRae's second album Get Me Home, which was released February 2008 in Australia. He recently collaborated with R&B/Pop singer Amerie on a Rock & Roll track titled 'Higher' for her 4th album In Love & War. He is also currently working on songs with Ashanti for her new album.

Years Active: (1999-present)
On May 26, 2001 he married Erica Atkins of the gospel/R&B duo Mary Mary. They have a daughter, Krista Nicole Campbell (born September 13, 2004). On October 20, 2009 Erica announced via twitter the birth of her nephew, TJ as well as her second pregnancy. On April 24, 2010, the couple's second child, Warryn Campbell III was born. On Tuesday July 19, 2011 Erica announced on Good Morning America that she is pregnant with their third child.[17] She gave birth early to a girl, Zaya Monique, on January 24, 2012.([1], [2], [3]) Campbell was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2008 and had an emergency operation to remove one kidney.

wn.com/Warryn_Campbell

Will Bernard
Will Bernard is a guitarist and band leader from the San Francisco Bay Area, now living in Brooklyn, New York. He has led the Will Bernard Band, Will Bernard Trio, Will Bernard 4-tet, and Motherbug.
Bernard's first major touring and recording was with Peter Apfelbaum's Hieroglyphics Ensemble. In the mid 1990s he joined guitarists Charlie Hunter and John Schott as T.J. Kirk. The band's name originally "James T. Kirk" tributed James Brown, Thelonious Monk and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Their second release, If Four Was One, received a 1997 Grammy Award nomination. Bernard also received a Grammy Award nomination for his own Party Hats in 2007.
Bernard has played with many musicians including Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, The Coup, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, MG5 (formerly Frequinox), Idris Muhammad, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Zigaboo Modeliste, Groundation and the Stanton Moore Trio. In January 2008 Bernard recorded his second album with the Palmetto label including John Medeski on keyboards, Stanton Moore on drums and Andy Hess on bass which was released as Blue Plate Special.

wn.com/Will_Bernard

Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (pronounced /wɪli nɛlsən /; born April 30, 1933) is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed at the end of the 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

wn.com/Willie_Nelson

Ying Quartet
The Ying Quartet is an American string quartet. The Ying siblings from Winnetka, Illinois, formed the quartet in 1988 while studying at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. The quartet began performing in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa, as the first artists involved in the National Endowment for the Arts Chamber Music Rural Residencies Program. The original members of the quartet were Timothy and Janet Ying (violins), Phillip Ying (viola), and David Ying (cello). In April 2009, Timothy Ying announced his departure from the ensemble. In 2009, Frank Huang became the first violinist of the Ying Quartet. When Huang left the quartet in 2010 to assume the position of concertmaster of the Houston Symphony, Ayano Ninomiya was appointed first violinist of the Ying Quartet.
While the Ying Quartet was in Jesup, it won the 1993 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In the years since, the Yings have performed in many major American cities; at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen and San Miguel; and in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. The Yings have played in diverse settings including Carnegie Hall, the White House, hospitals and juvenile prisons. The EMI Classics recording of works by Osvaldo Golijov on which the Ying Quartet appeared with the St. Lawrence Quartet was nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award. The Quartet was nominated once again for a Grammy in 2007 in the "Best Chamber Music Performance" category for a recording of the three Tchaikovsky Quartets and the Sextet on Telarc. The Quartet won a 2005 Grammy for its collaborative recording with the Turtle Island String Quartet, entitled 4+Four, and has recorded for the Telarc, Quartz, Elektra and Albany record labels.

wn.com/Ying_Quartet

Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta (ज़ुबिन मेहता); pronounced [ˈzuːbɪn ˈmeːɦt̪aː] (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Zubin Mehta was born into a Parsi family in Bombay, British India, the son of Mehli and Tehmina Mehta. His father Mehli Mehta was a violinist and founding conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Mehta is an alumnus of St. Mary's School, Mumbai, and St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Mehta initially intended to study medicine, but eventually became a music student in Vienna at the age of 18, under Hans Swarowsky. Also at the same academy along with Mehta were conductor Claudio Abbado and conductor–pianist Daniel Barenboim.
Mehta's first marriage was to Canadian soprano Carmen Lasky in 1958. They have a son, Mervon and a daughter, Zarina. In 1964, they divorced. Two years after the divorce, Carmen married Zubin's brother, Zarin Mehta, now the Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic. In July 1969, Mehta married Nancy Kovack, a former American film and television actress. Mehta is a permanent resident of the United States, but retains his Indian citizenship.

wn.com/Zubin_Mehta

Grammy Awards
54th Grammy Awards
The Grammy awards are named for the trophy: a small, gilded gramophone statuette.
Awarded for	Outstanding achievements in the music industry
Presented by	National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
Country	United States
First awarded	1959
Official website	grammy.com
Television coverage
Network	NBC (1959–1970) ABC (1971–1972) CBS (1973–present)

Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse at the Eurockéennes festival in France (2007)
Background information
Birth name	Amy Jade Winehouse
Born	(1983-09-14)14 September 1983 Southgate, London, UK
Died	23 July 2011(2011-07-23) (aged 27) Camden, London, UK
Genres	Soul, R&B, jazz, blues
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, composer, arranger
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, drums
Years active	1993–2011
Labels	Island, Lioness, Universal Republic (U.S.)
Associated acts	Dionne Bromfield, Mark Ronson, Tony Bennett, Nas, Zalon, Tyler James, Paul Weller, The Rolling Stones, Lily Allen
Website	www.amywinehouse.com

Find more about Amy Winehouse on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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	Quotations from Wikiquote

Persondata
Name	Winehouse, Amy
Alternative names	Winehouse, Amy Jade
Short description	English singer and songwriter
Date of birth	14 September 1983
Place of birth	London, England
Date of death	23 July 2011
Place of death	London, England

Dave Grohl
Grohl, Milton Keynes National Bowl, July 3, 2011
Background information
Birth name	David Eric Grohl
Also known as	Davy Grolton, Dale Nixon, Late! (pseudonym for his solo album Pocketwatch), and Dr. G (as Tenacious D's drummer) .
Born	(1969-01-14) January 14, 1969 (age 43) Warren, Ohio
Genres	Alternative rock, grunge, post-grunge, hard rock, heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, drums, guitar, bass guitar, piano
Years active	1986–present
Labels	RCA, Capitol, DGC, Dischord
Associated acts	Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Scream, Dain Bramage, Probot, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Tenacious D, The Muppets, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Notable instruments
Gibson SG Custom Gibson DG-335/Trini Lopez^[1] Gibson Firebird^[2]^[3] Ampeg Dan Armstrong Plexi^[4]

Rank	1st	2nd	3rd
Artist	Georg Solti	Quincy Jones, Alison Krauss	Pierre Boulez
Total awards	31	27	26

	"Rehab" noicon 21-second audio sample from Amy Winehouse's first hit "Tears Dry on Their Own" noicon 25-second audio sample from one of the standout tracks on "Back to Black" album "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" noicon Originally performed by The Shirelles in the 1960s, this version slows the tempo down and features a jazz arrangement.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2006	Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny	Satan
2011	The Muppets	Animool	Cameo
2011	Back and Forth	Himself
2012	Sound City	Himself

Persondata
Name	Grohl, Dave
Alternative names	Grohl, David Eric
Short description	guitarist
Date of birth	(1969-01-14) January 14, 1969 (age 43)
Place of birth	Warren, Ohio, U.S.
Date of death
Place of death

Herbie Hancock
Hancock in concert at the Nice Jazz Festival 2010
Background information
Birth name	Herbert Jeffrey Hancock
Also known as	Herbie Hancock
Born	(1940-04-12) April 12, 1940 (age 72) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	Jazz, bebop, post bop, jazz fusion, hard bop, jazz-funk, funk, R&B, electro funk, classical
Occupations	Musician, composer, bandleader
Instruments	Piano, synthesizer, organ, clavinet, keytar, vocoder
Years active	1961–present
Labels	Columbia, Blue Note, Verve, Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Miles Davis Quintet, Jaco Pastorius, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder
Website	www.herbiehancock.com

Title	Year	Label
Takin' Off	1962	Blue Note
My Point of View	1963	Blue Note
Inventions and Dimensions	1963	Blue Note
Empyrean Isles	1964	Blue Note
Maiden Voyage	1965	Blue Note
Blow-Up (Soundtrack)	1966	MGM
Speak Like a Child	1968	Blue Note
The Prisoner	1969	Blue Note
Fat Albert Rotunda	1969	Warner Bros.
Mwandishi	1970	Warner Bros.
He Who Lives In Many Places (with bassist Terry Plumeri)	1971	Airborne.
Crossings	1972	Warner Bros.
Sextant	1973	Columbia
Head Hunters	1973	Columbia
Thrust	1974	Columbia
Death Wish (Soundtrack)	1974	Columbia
Dedication	1974	Columbia
Man-Child	1975	Columbia
Flood (Live album)	1975	Columbia
Secrets	1976	Columbia
VSOP (Live album)	1976	Columbia
Herbie Hancock Trio	1977	Columbia
VSOP: The Quintet (Live album)	1977	Columbia
VSOP: Tempest in the Colosseum (Live album)	1977	Columbia
Sunlight	1977	Columbia
Directstep	1978	Columbia
An Evening with Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert (Live album with Chick Corea)	1978	Columbia
The Piano	1979	Columbia
Feets, Don't Fail Me Now	1979	Columbia
VSOP: Live Under the Sky (Live album)	1979	Columbia
CoreaHancock (Live album with Chick Corea)	1979	Polydor
Monster	1980	Columbia
Mr. Hands	1980	Columbia
Herbie Hancock Trio	1981	Columbia
Magic Windows	1981	Columbia
Lite Me Up	1982	Columbia
Quartet (Live album)	1982	Columbia
Future Shock	1983	Columbia
Sound-System	1984	Columbia
Village Life (with Foday Musa Suso)	1985	Columbia
Round Midnight (Soundtrack)	1986	Columbia
Jazz Africa (Live album with Foday Musa Suso)	1987	Polygram
Perfect Machine	1988	Columbia
A Tribute to Miles	1994	Qwest/Warner Bros.
Dis Is Da Drum	1994	Verve/Mercury
The New Standard	1995	Verve
1 + 1 (with Wayne Shorter)	1997	Verve
Gershwin's World	1998	Verve
Future2Future	2001	Transparent
Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall (Live album)	2002	Verve
Possibilities	2005	Concord/Hear Music
De Luxe (Unofficial)	2005	Leader Music (Argentina)
River: The Joni Letters	2007	Verve
Then and Now: the Definitive Herbie Hancock	2008	Verve
The Imagine Project	2010	Hancock

Persondata
Name	Hancock, Herbie
Alternative names	Hancock, Herbert Jeffrey
Short description	Pianist, composer, and bandleader
Date of birth	April 12, 1940
Place of birth	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Date of death
Place of death

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[edit] Fat Albert and Mwandishi