Barry Tuckwell

Barry Tuckwell’s multi-faceted career in music spans more than fifty years and during this time he has performed throughout the world as soloist, chamber musician and conductor. Born into a distinguished musical family in Melbourne, he played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which he joined at the age of 15, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra before leaving at the age of 19 for England.

After playing with the Hallé, Scottish National and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, Professor Tuckwell was appointed Principal Horn with the London Symphony Orchestra. During his 13 years with the orchestra, which is a co-operative orchestra, run entirely by the players, he was elected to the Board of Directors and was Chairman of the Board for years.

He resigned from the Orchestra in 1968 to pursue a career as a soloist and conductor. He has made over 50 recordings as a horn soloist and conductor and in January of 1997 gave his farewell concerts as a horn soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Barry Tuckwell was chief conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for four years, and the founding Music Director of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra for sixteen years. He continues to have an active career throughout the world guest conducting, teaching and broadcasting, giving lectures and master classes.

He currently holds the position of Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, is a regular faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center at Le Domaine Forget in Quebec, and for the past six years has served on the executive committee of the Maryland Humanities Council.

Among the many awards Barry Tuckwell has received are the Companion of the Order of Australia, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Sydney, Fellow of the Royal College of Music, Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America, and the Andrew White Medal from Loyola College. He is an Honorary member of both the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music in London and has received three Grammy nominations.

Professor Tuckwell joined the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne in 2005 as a Principal Fellow.

Daniel Grabois

Hornist Daniel Grabois is the chairman of the Contemporary Performance Department at Manhattan School of Music and professor of horn at The Hartt School. An extremely active performer, he has played frequently in New York and on tour with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orpheus and St. Luke’s chamber orchestras, Music from Marlboro, and other ensembles. He has recorded extensively, including solo and orchestral works and a horn concerto written for him. He received his bachelor’s degree from Yale and his master’s from the Manhattan School of Music.

Meridian Arts Ensemble

Meridian Arts Ensemble, a sextet comprised of five brass players and a percussionist, is America’s leading brass group exploring the music of today. Founded in 1987, with nine commercial CD releases, over fifty premieres, and performances on four continents and in forty-nine states, Meridian’s exciting and ambitious musical approach has changed the face of classical music.

Now a faculty ensemble at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, the ensemble began its career looking away from academic music and toward the American vernacular. Meridian’s arrangements of the music of Frank Zappa brought critical and popular acclaim, interviews on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and performances in concert halls and rock clubs. Commissions from Milton Babbitt, Elliott Sharp, Tania Leon, Su Lian Tan, Mark Applebaum, Hermeto Pascoal, Nick Didkovsky, David Sanford, the Common Sense Composers Collective, Stephen Barber, John Halle, and Kirk Nurock have created a balanced and broad ranging repertoire for brass and percussion that peers into every corner of today’s musical experience.

Meridian’s catalog of nine CDs on the Channel Classics label represents an equally broad look at the music of today. From an album of Baroque and Renaissance music to the latest release exploring the music of Central and South America, Meridian’s discs have garnered critical acclaim and a large and passionate popular following.

Meridian Arts Ensemble has succeeded in bringing classical music to popular audiences. Consistently attracting a diverse audience base, the ensemble has worked tirelessly to keep the traditions of classical music alive, to spread the appeal of these traditions, and to revisit these traditions from a contemporary sensibility.

John Clark

A French horn player, arranger, and composer, John Clark has performed all over the world with a tremendous diversity of musicians, in a variety of musical arenas: jazz, pop, Broadway, classical, and commercial studio work. A graduate of the University of Rochester and the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied horn, composition, improvisation, and piano, Mr. Clark established his jazz credentials with a series of recordings with his own band, the most recent being the album I Will on the Postcards label (nominated for Record of the Year by the National Association of Independent Record Dealers in 1998). The list of artists with whom he has recorded (many of them Grammy winners) or performed is enormous, and includes Gil Evans, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Joe Lovano, Julius Hemphill, Hank Jones, Wayne Shorter, David Sánchez, Chick Corea, Frank Sinatra, Lara Fabian, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Carly Simon, Billy Joel, Sting, Linda Ronstadt, Leonard Bernstein, the Boston Symphony, the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Gerry Mulligan, Paquito d’Rivera, Elton John, Boyz II Men, SMAP (the Japanese pop group), Natalie Cole, Luther Vandross, and Speculum Musicae, among many others. The recipient of a composition grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Clark’s work has been performed and recorded by the Gil Evans Orchestra, McCoy Tyner Big Band, Paul Winter Consort, and the Pugh-Taylor Project, among others. He has appeared on television for HBO, PBS, the Late Show with David Letterman, and Saturday Night Live. His recent studio work includes films The Spanish Prisoner, Batman Forever, Gloria, You’ve Got Mail, and 8mm; and TV commercials for CNN International, Xerox, TWA, Kodak, Home Depot, and Chrysler. He has been a leader and guest artist at many of New York’s jazz clubs such as Sweet Basil, Blue Note, Visiones, and the Knitting Factory. Mr. Clark is also the recipient of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences award for Most Valuable Player in the Recording Field, as well as the DownBeat “Critics’ Poll.” He is a UMI artist and has conducted many workshops and master classes.