Karl Jenkins
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| Karl Jenkins | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | February 17, 1944 Penclawdd, Swansea, Wales |
| Genre(s) | jazz; modern classical |
| Occupation(s) | composer |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Website | http://www.karljenkins.com |
Dr. Karl William Jenkins OBE (born February 17, 1944) is a Welsh musician and composer. Jenkins was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours list for 2005.
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[edit] Background
Jenkins was born and raised in the Gower village of Penclawdd. His father, who was a local schoolteacher, organist, and choirmaster, gave him his initial musical instruction.
Jenkins began his diverse musical career as an oboist in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He went on to study music at University College, Cardiff, and then commenced postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music.
[edit] Career overview
For the bulk of his early career, he was known as a jazz and jazz-rock musician, playing variously: baritone and soprano saxophones, keyboards, and oboe (an unusual instrument in the jazz context). He joined jazz composer Graham Collier's group and later co-founded groundbreaking jazz-rock group Nucleus, which won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970. Later he joined the Canterbury progressive rock band Soft Machine in 1972 and co-led their very last performances in 1984. The group defied categorisation and played venues as diverse as the Proms, Carnegie Hall, and the Newport Jazz Festival. The album on which Jenkins first played with Soft Machine, Six, won the Melody Maker British Jazz Album of the Year award in 1973. Jenkins also won the miscellaneous musical instrument section (as he did the following year). Soft Machine was voted best small group in the Melody Maker jazz poll of 1974. After Mike Ratledge left the band in 1978 Soft Machine did not include any of its founding members, but kept recording on a project basis with line-ups revolving around Jenkins and drummer John Marshall.
Jenkins has created a good deal of advertising music, twice winning the industry prize in that field. Perhaps his most-heard piece of music is the classical theme used by De Beers diamond merchants for their famous television advertising campaign focusing on jewellery worn by people who are otherwise seen only in silhouette. He later included it as the title track in a compilation of various works called Diamond Music, and eventually created Palladio, using it as the theme of the first movement.
Karl Jenkins - "Theme from Palladio"
As a composer, his breakthrough came with the innovative crossover project Adiemus. Jenkins has conducted the Adiemus project in Japan, Germany, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, as well as London's Royal Albert Hall and Battersea Power Station. The Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary (1995) album sold well enough where it topped the classical album charts. It spawned a series of successors, each revolving around a central theme.
He is also the first international composer and conductor to conduct The University of Johannesburg Kingsway Choir led by Renette Bouwer, during his visit to South Africa as the choir performed his The Armed Man: A mass for peace together with a 70 piece orchestra.
[edit] Awards and Achievements
Dr. Jenkins holds a D.Mus (Doctor of Music) degree from the University of Wales. He has been made both a Fellow and an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, and a room has been named in his honour. He also has fellowships at Cardiff University, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Trinity College Carmarthen, Swansea Institute and was presented by Classic FM with the 'Red f' award for outstanding service to classical music.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate in Music from the University of Leicester, the Chancellors Medal from the University of Glamorgan and two Honorary visiting Professorships; one at Thames Valley University, London College of Music and the other at the ATriUM, Cardiff.
He was awarded an OBE, by Her Majesty The Queen, in the 2005 New Years Honours List "for services to music".
Jenkins' Post-nominal letters include D.Mus., FRAM (Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music), FWCMD and FTCC.
[edit] Partial list of works
[edit] Albums
- Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary
- Adiemus II: Cantata Mundi
- Adiemus III: Dances of Time
- Adiemus IV: The Eternal Knot
- Adiemus V: Vocalise
[edit] Greatest Hits collection
- The Best of Adiemus
[edit] Other works
- Adiemus: Live — live versions of Adiemus music
- Eloise (opera)
- Imagined Oceans (1998)
- The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace (Composed1999 Premiered 2000)
- Dewi Sant (2000)
- Diamond Music (1996)
- Merry Christmas to the World (1995) — a collection of traditional Christmas music orchestrated by Jenkins
- Over the Stone (2002) — a double harp concerto
- Crossing the Stone (2003) — an album featuring Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and material from the double harp concerto
- Ave Verum (2004) — for baritone (composed for Bryn Terfel)
- In These Stones Horizons Sing (2004)
- Requiem (2005)
- Quirk (2005) concertante
- River Queen (2005) — score for the film River Queen directed by New Zealand director Vincent Ward
- Tlep (2006)
- Kiri Sings Karl (2006) — with Kiri Te Kanawa
- This Land of Ours (2007) — with Cory Band and Cantorion
- Stabat Mater (2008) - Jenkins' adaptation of a 13th Century Roman Catholic Poem
[edit] External links
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