About the artists

Karl Jenkins

Karl Jenkins, educated at Gowerton Grammar School, Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music, London, is one of the most prolific, popular and performed composers in the world today. The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace alone has been performed over 700 times in 20 different countries since the CD was released, while his recorded output has resulted in seventeen gold and platinum disc awards.

His style and integrity has transcended musical boundaries encompassing jazz-rock with Soft Machine, the global ‘crossover’ phenomenon Adiemus, soundtracks for Levis and British Airways, while stopping off along the way to score a Kiefer Sutherland movie, be a castaway on BBC “Desert Island Discs”, be featured by Melvyn Bragg on the ITV seminal South Bank Show and has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London. Recent recordings include Requiem, Stabat Mater and Quirk, while he has composed music for HRH The Prince of Wales, Bryn Terfel, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Evelyn Glennie and the London Symphony Orchestra amongst many others.

A Doctor of Music, he holds Fellowships, Honorary Doctorates and Professorships at five universities or conservatoires, including the Royal Academy of Music, where a room has been named in his honour and in recent years, has consistently been the highest placed living composer in Classic FM’s “Hall of Fame”.

He holds the Classic FM ‘Red f ‘award for ‘outstanding service to classical music’ and was awarded an OBE, by Her Majesty The Queen, in the 2005 New Years Honours List “for services to music”.

Carol Barratt

Carol Barratt was born in the Midlands and educated at Ashby-de la-Zouch Grammar School for Girls. She subsequently trained at the Royal College of Music, London where she quickly established herself as a composer and pianist, also studying the violin. After graduating, she [the first woman to be so honoured] was awarded the prestigious Martin Musical Scholarship given by the Philharmonia, enabling her to study composition with Elizabeth Lutyens C.B.E.

Her frequently performed concert works include her Magificat & Nunc Dimittis, Piano Preludes, and her song cycles ‘ Love……a Strange Disease” and ‘Songs for Singing”.

She has however devoted her life to music education and is acknowledged as a leading authority on the subject. She has over 70 publications in print including the renowned “Chester Piano Books” for Chester Music and the “Bravo” series for Boosey & Hawkes” while her music has frequently been set for various examination boards, including the Associated Board.

In 1996 she received the Musical Industries award for the ‘Educational Publication” of the year and in 1998 she was made an Honorary Member of the Royal College of Music. She is also a celebrated lyricist and has written text for many works by Karl, to whom she has been married for thirty-four years. As she often says, “I’m handy and I’m cheap!”

Alice Halstead

Alice Halstead www.alicehalstead.com, a choir girl at St Alphege Church, Solihull and a pupil at King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham, won the coveted title of “BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year 2008” in front of an audience of over 1,000 people in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Since the age of four she has attended the Birmingham Junior Conservatoire where she studies singing under Alison Chamberlain, the cello under Ed Smith and the piano under Magdalena Nasidlak. Alice is a member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain (Training North).

Alice has made several appearances on BBC One TV “Songs of Praise”, and featured in many national radio broadcasts. For BBC Radio 2 she has been heard frequently on Good Morning Sunday with Aled Jones, Sunday Half Hour and Friday Night Is Music Night with the BBC Concert Orchestra. She has performed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune from Birmingham Town Hall, and led the singing in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Worship and Daily Service.

Kate Royal

Kate Royal studied at Guildhall and the National Opera Studio and her many awards include the 2004 Kathleen Ferrier Award, the 2004 John Christie Award and the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award. Operatic roles include Pamina (Glyndebourne and Covent Garden), Countess Almaviva and Governess (Glyndebourne on tour), Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Glyndebourne and Teatro Real, Madrid, Woglinde (concert performances of Das Rheingold) at the BBC Proms and in Baden-Baden, Countess Almaviva at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Miranda (Ades’ The Tempest) for the Royal Opera, Handel’s L’Allegro for the Paris Opera, the title role in L’incoronazione di Poppea (ENO) and Micaëla (Glyndebourne). She has sung in concert with Sir Charles Mackerras and Helmuth Rilling, with the OAE and Sir Simon Rattle and with the Berlin Philharmonic under both William Christie and Rattle and she appeared in recital throughout Europe and North America. She is an exclusive EMI artist.

Alison Balsom

Alison Balsom has gained an international reputation as one of classical music’s great ambassadors. She was named Best Young British Performer at the 2006 Classical BRITs and was honoured with the Classic FM Listener’s Award at the September 2006 Gramophone Awards. In 2007 the Echo Klassik Awards hailed her “Rising Artist of the Year” and in 2009 she became the first ever Briton to be crowned “Female Artist of the Year” at the Classical BRITs.

Alison studied trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music, the Paris Conservatoire, and with Håkan Hardenberger. She is a former member of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme and currently Visiting Professor of Trumpet to the Guildhall School of Music. Alison performs a wide range of recital and concerto repertoire, from Albinoni to Zimmermann and performs on both modern and Baroque trumpets. She records exclusively for EMI Classics; her previous albums for the label have won international critical acclaim.