Concord Music Group is a record company owned by Village Roadshow formed in 2004 by the merger of Concord Records and Fantasy Records. In 2005, the company acquired the classics and jazz label Telarc International. On December 18, 2006, Concord announced the re-launch of the soul label Stax; rights to the name were formerly held by Fantasy. New signings include Angie Stone and Nikka Costa.

On March 12, 2007, Concord Music Group and Starbucks jointly founded the Hear Music label, which has released albums by artists that include Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, John Mellencamp and more. In April 2010 it was announced McCartney has transferred distribution rights to his post-Beatles output to Concord from EMI.

Distribution is mainly handled by Universal Music Group. In smaller markets, such as those in Africa and Eastern Europe, local independent labels that represent Universal license the catalogue. Since 2010, Concord Music Group is divided into 3 umbrellas: Concord Records Group, Fantasy Records Group & Telarc Records Group. It is now the 5th largest record groups in the world.^{[citation needed]}

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music, typically known by a distinct name. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families (such as piano, strings, and wind instruments) or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. In jazz ensembles, the instruments typically include wind instruments (one or more saxophones, trumpets, etc.), one or two chordal "comping" instruments (electric guitar, piano, or organ), a bass instrument (electric bass guitar or double bass), and a drummer or percussionist. In rock ensembles, usually called rock bands, there are usually guitars and keyboards (piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, synthesizer, etc.) and a rhythm section made up of a bass guitar and drum kit.

In Western Art music, commonly referred to as classical music, smaller ensembles are called chamber music ensembles. The terms duet, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, nonet and dectet are used to describe groups of two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten musicians, respectively. A group of eleven musicians, such as found in The Carnival of the Animals, is called either a "hendectet" or an "undectet" (see Latin numerical prefixes). A solo is not an ensemble because it only contains one musician.

Kristin Chenoweth (born July 24, 1968) is an American singer and actress, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. She is best known on Broadway for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (1999), for which she won a Tony Award, and for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked (2003). Her best-known television role is Annabeth Schott in NBC's The West Wing. As Olive Snook on the ABC comedy-drama Pushing Daisies, she won a 2009 Emmy Award. Chenoweth stars in the ABC TV series GCB, which premiered in March 2012.

An Oklahoma native, Chenoweth sang gospel music as a child and studied opera before deciding to pursue a career in musical theatre. In 1997, she made her Broadway debut in Steel Pier. Besides You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Wicked, Chenoweth's stage work includes five City Center Encores! productions, Broadway's The Apple Tree in 2006 and Promises, Promises in 2010, as well as Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions.

Chenoweth had her own TV series Kristin in 2001, and has guest starred on many shows, including Sesame Street and Glee, for which she was nominated for Emmy awards in 2010 and 2011. In films, she has played mostly character roles, such as in Bewitched (2005), The Pink Panther (2006) and RV (2006). She has also played roles in made-for-TV movies, done voice work in animated films and the animated TV series Sit Down, Shut Up, hosted several award shows and released several albums of songs, including A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas (2008) and Some Lessons Learned (2011). Chenoweth also penned a 2009 memoir, A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages.

John Neal Axelrod (born March 28, 1966, Houston, Texas) is an American conductor. Axelrod is currently Conductor and Music Director of l'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, based in Nantes and Angers, France; and, from the 2011/12 season the Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica "Giuseppe Verdi" also known as "laVerdi". He is also Music Director of "Hollywood In Vienna" Gala Concerts with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna (www.hollywoodinvienna.com). He also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia

Axelrod was born in Houston, Texas on March 28, 1966. From the age of 5 Axelrod studied piano with Jacquelyn Harbachick and Roberto Eyzaguirre. At the age of 16 he was accepted as a student by Leonard Bernstein, during the premiere of his final opera, A Quiet Place, for Houston Grand Opera. Axelrod graduated cum laude in 1984 from St. John's School and went on to Harvard University, where he completed a Bachelor's Degree in Music in 1988. After a summer jazz course in 1985 he continued his jazz piano and improvisation studies with Craig Najjar at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Axelrod moved to Los Angeles following his studies, working as an A&R Executive for Atlantic and RCA/BMG Records until 1991. He worked briefly as an artist manager for Iron John Management, started his own production company, "Ivy League Records", and eventually became Director of the Robert Mondavi Wine and Food Center in Costa Mesa, California in 1994. After deciding to return to music in 1995, he studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia with Ilya Musin. In 1996 Axelrod founded Houston's former Orchestra X where he served as Artistic Director and Conductor. He also studied with then Houston Symphony Music Director Christoph Eschenbach and became his assistant in 1999 at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival and for Parsifal, at Bayreuth in 2000.

Zuill Bailey (born 1972), Alexandria, Virginia, is an American cellist. A Juilliard graduate, he has appeared with a number of major orchestras internationally, and has an exclusive international recording contract with the Telarc label. He is a professor of cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.

As a concerto soloist, Bailey has performed with the symphony orchestras of Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Louisville, Milwaukee, Minnesota, San Francisco, Toronto and Utah, among others. He has collaborated with such conductors as Itzhak Perlman, Alan Gilbert, Andrew Litton, Grant Llewellyn, James De Priest and Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and has performed with the pianist Leon Fleisher, the Juilliard String Quartet, the violinist Jaime Laredo, and the cellists Lynn Harrell, Janos Starker and David Martín.

In his sold-out New York recital debut, Bailey performed the complete Beethoven sonatas with pianist Simone Dinnerstein at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition to other major venues, he has appeared at the Disney Hall, Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Carnegie Hall, where he made his debut performing the U.S. premiere of Miklis Theodorakis' Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra.