Paul Meier, organist

Official Position: Associate Organist of St. James Episcopal Church in Los Angeles

Education: has studied mainly with Patricia Churchley, Clyde Holloway and Cherry Rhodes; studied with Harald Vogel at the Norddeutschen Orgelakademie; holds degrees from Rice University and the University of Southern California, and is currently a doctoral candidate at USC

As a featured organist: with Pacific Symphony; also played services at the cathedrals of Canterbury, Wells, St. George’s Chapel in Windsor and Westminster Abbey

Awards: received the award for outstanding Master’s Degree graduate in organ performance from USC

Previous positions: organist of Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles; Christ the King Lutheran Church and the Bach Society in Houston

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William Byrd, composer

Born: 1543 in Lincoln, England

Died: 1623 in Stondon Massey, Essex

Considered by many: the greatest English composer of any age, and his substantial volume of high quality compositions in every genre of the time makes it easy to consider him the greatest composer of the Renaissance

Appointments: Organist and choirmaster of the Lincoln Cathedral; Gentleman of the Chapel Royal

Notable compositions include: Cantiones Sacrae motets, three Latin Masses, Gradualia, Psalmes, Sonets & Songs, Songs of Sundrie Natures, Passing Measures Pavan & Galliard, Quadran Pavan & Galliard

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Judith Weir, composer

Born: 1954 in Cambridge, England

Education: studied composition with John Tavener as a young woman; attended Cambridge University and studied with Robin Holloway

Notable compositions: operas include A Night at the Chinese Opera, The Vanishing Bridegroom and Blond Eckbert; King Harald’s Saga; The welcome arrival of rain for orchestra; Tiger Under the Table for chamber ensemble; Piano Trio Two

Commissions: collaboration with Margaret Williams on a one-hour television opera Armida commissioned by BBC’s Channel 4; woman.life.song, a song cycle commissioned for Jessye Norman; We are Shadows, written for Sir Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and three choruses

As a professor: taught composition at Glasgow’s University and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; Fromm Foundation Visiting Professor at Harvard University during 2004; Research Professor at Cardiff University; has also had visiting professorships at Oxford University and Princeton University

Awards and posts: from 1995 to 2000, Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival in London; from 1995 to 1998, Composer in Association for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; in 2007 she was presented with the Queen’s Medal for Music by Her Majesty the Queen and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies; in 2008 the BBC Symphony Orchestra hosted a three-day retrospective of her music at the Barbican Center in London

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Benjamin Britten, composer

Born: November 22, 1913, in Lowestoft, Suffolk

Died: December 4, 1976, in Aldeburgh

Education: Royal College of Music in London

Operas: Paul Bunyan, Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, Albert Herring, Billy Budd, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw, Noye's Fludde, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Owen Wingrave and Death in Venice

Compositions: Sinfonietta, Phantasy Quartet, Our Hunting Fathers, Ballad of Heroes, Les Illuminations, Sinfonia da Requiem, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell

Collaborated with: poet W. H. Auden and tenor Peter Pears, with whom he entered into the lifelong personal and creative partnership that was to become a major inspiration for his music

Founded: with Pears, the English Opera Group in 1946 and the Aldeburgh Festival

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John Tavener, composer

Born: January 28, 1944 in London

Education: Highgate School and the Royal Academy of Music

Breakthrough work: The Whale, a cantata based on the book of Jonah, in 1968

Influences: traditional music of the Russian Orthodox Church (he joined in 1977), writings of William Blake, Igor Stravinsky

Best-loved works: The Whale, The Lamb (a setting of the poem by William Blake), Song for Athene (performed at Princess Diana’s funeral), The Protecting Veil, Village Wedding

Awards and Honors: received a knighthood in the Millenium Honors List (2000); Ivor Novello Award; honorary degree from University of Winchester

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