The Sounds Of War And Peace: Chapter 2 The Music Of Karl Jenkins, A 70th Birthday Celebration
Acts
Participating Groups
Special Guests
Artist's Name
Karl JenkinsArtist's Name
Belinda SykesArtist's Name
Jonathan GriffithArtist's Name
Darik KnutsenArtist's Name
Samuel Smith
Participating Group Directors
Mr. Jenkins’ style and integrity have transcended musical boundaries, encompassing jazz-rock with Soft Machine, the global crossover phenomenon Adiemus, soundtracks for Levi’s and British Airways, the scoring of a Kiefer Sutherland film, being castaway on BBC “Desert Island Discs,” appearing on the ITV seminal South Bank Show with Melvyn Bragg receiving the Freedom of the City of London Award. Recent recordings include Requiem, Stabat Mater and Quirk. He has composed music for HRH The Prince of Wales, Bryn Terfel, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and the London Symphony Orchestra, among many others.
A doctor of music, Mr. Jenkins holds fellowships, honorary doctorates, and professorships at five universities and conservatoires, including the Royal Academy of Music, where a room has been named in his honor. In recent years he has consistently been the highest placed living composer in the United Kingdom’s Classic FM “Hall of Fame.” He holds the Classic FM “Red F” Award for “outstanding service to classical music” and was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE), by Her Majesty The Queen, in the 2005 New Years Honors List “for services to music.”
Maestro Griffith made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut in 1989 and has since conducted well over 65 performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center combined. In addition to the major works of the classical repertoire, conducting highlights include the U.S. premieres Karl Jenkins' Stabat Mater and Te Deum; Sergei Taneyev's Upon Reading a Psalm; Miloš Bok's Missa Solemnis; Luigi Boccherini's Villancicos; and Eugène Goossens' reorchestration of Handel's Messiah, along with world premieres by Eric Funk, Seymour Bernstein, and Robert Convery.
Maestro Griffith’s additional conducting credits include the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City; Manhattan Philharmonic and New England Symphonic Ensemble, both at Carnegie Hall; The European Symphony Orchestra in Spain; Bohuslava Martinů Philharmonia and Philharmonia Chorus, Virtuosi Pragensis Chamber Orchestra, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, and Dvořák Chamber Orchestra, in the Czech Republic; and the Bialystok State Philharmonic in Poland, as well as numerous regional orchestras and choruses across the United States.
The Jonathan Griffith Singers, an ensemble drawn from singers across North America and founded in 1987, has made its mark internationally. In recent years, Griffith has led the Singers on highly acclaimed tours to Uruguay and Argentina; to the People’s Republic of China, premiering Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in Beijing and Shanghai; and to Pisa, Italy. Dr. Griffith and the Jonathan Griffith Singers toured Turkey in June of 2013 performing the acclaimed Turkish oratorio Yunus Emre by A. Adnan Saygun in Istanbul with the Cemal Reșit Rey Orchestra and in Ankara and Eskinșehir with the Presidential Orchestra at the invitation of the TURKSOY governmental agency.
Dr. Griffith received his DMA in conducting from the Conservatory of Music/University of Missouri-Kansas City, a Masters in Music Education from Wichita State University, and Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Kansas.