Sir Donald Arthur Rolleston Albery (London 19 June 1914 – 14 September 1988) was an English theatre impresario who did much to translate the adventurous spirit of London in the 1960s into theatrical reality.

Born into a theatrical family, his father was director Sir Bronson James Albery, his first job was struggling to manage Sadler's Wells Ballet during the air raids of World War II. Perhaps such an experience formed a modernist sensibility and when he launched his own Donmar company in 1953 he championed plays by Graham Greene, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Jean Anouilh, and an adaptation by J.B. Priestley of an Iris Murdoch novel.

Though always commercially minded, his spirit of adventure endured with the first London production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and sponsorship of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. In 1960, Albery, in collaboration with William Donaldson, produced Beyond the Fringe in London and, in 1962, in New York.

From 1964 through 1968, Albery served as director and administrator of the London Festival Ballet.

Tim Bronson Reginald Albery (born 4 June 1952) is an English stage director, best known for his productions of opera.

Albery was born in Harpenden, the son of the impresario Donald Albery and grandson of the producer Sir Bronson Albery. After directing drama in the British provinces, he directed his first operatic production, Britten's The Turn of the Screw for a music festival at Batignano, Italy in 1983. For Opera North, Albery directed operas by Tippett, Mozart and most notably Berlioz: his production of Les Troyens is described by The New Grove Dictionary of Opera as "triumphant".

For the English National Opera (ENO), Albery directed Berlioz’s Beatrice and Benedict (1990) and Britten’s Billy Budd (1988) and Peter Grimes (1991). Together with his fellow directors, Richard Jones, Jude Kelly, Phyllida Lloyd, Deborah Warner and Francesca Zambello, Albery publicly supported ENO's general director Nicholas Payne in his dispute with the ENO's chairman Martin Smith over avant garde productions. They wrote, "The aim must be to create a new audience that does not see opera as a middle class trophy art form: an audience that Payne was beginning to attract to the Coliseum."

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and big-band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions. In the opinion of Bob Blumenthal of The Boston Globe "In the century since his birth, there has been no greater composer, American or otherwise, than Edward Kennedy Ellington." A major figure in the history of jazz, Ellington's music stretched into various other genres, including blues, gospel, film scores, popular, and classical. His career spanned more than 50 years and included leading his orchestra, composing an inexhaustible songbook, scoring for movies, composing stage musicals, and world tours. Several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. Due to his inventive use of the orchestra, or big band, and thanks to his eloquence and extraordinary charisma, he is generally considered to have elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional genres of music. His reputation increased after his death and the Pulitzer Prize Board bestowed on him a special posthumous honor in 1999.

William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades. His compositions include "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the "A" Train" and "Lush Life".

Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio. His family soon moved to the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his mother's family was from Hillsborough, North Carolina, and she sent him there to protect him from his father's drunken sprees. Strayhorn spent many months of his childhood at his grandparents' house in Hillsborough. In an interview, Strayhorn said that his grandmother was his primary influence during the first ten years of his life. He first became interested in music while living with her, playing hymns on her piano, and playing records on her Victrola record player.

Strayhorn returned to Pittsburgh, and attended Westinghouse High School, later attended by Erroll Garner and Ahmad Jamal. In Pittsburgh, he began his musical career, studying classical music for a time at the Pittsburgh Music Institute, writing a high school musical, forming a musical trio that played daily on a local radio station, and, while still in his teens, composing (with lyrics) the songs "Life Is Lonely" (later renamed "Lush Life"), "My Little Brown Book", and "Something to Live For". While still in grade school, he worked odd jobs to earn enough money to buy his first piano. While in high school, he played in the school band, and studied under the same teacher who had also instructed jazz pianists Erroll Garner and Mary Lou Williams. By age 19, he was writing for a professional musical, Fantastic Rhythm.

Steuart John Rudolf Bedford (born 31 July 1939, London) is a British orchestral and opera conductor. He is the brother of composer David Bedford and a grandson of Liza Lehmann.

Bedford is particularly associated with the music of Benjamin Britten, and conducted the world premiere of Death in Venice in 1973. Bedford has also conducted Britten's other operas, and made an orchestral suite of music from Death in Venice. Between 1974 and 1998, he was one of the Artistic Directors of the Aldeburgh Festival. In 1989, he became joint artistic director with Oliver Knussen. His other work in contemporary opera has included conducting the 1996 world premiere in Monte Carlo of Lowell Liebermann's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and also the 1999 US premiere.

Bedford has conducted several commercial recordings of Britten operas, including the first recording of Death in Venice (Decca), as well as The Turn of the Screw (Collins Classics, since reissued on Naxos) He has also recorded his Death in Venice suite and the major vocal cycles by Britten.