Karl Jenkins
The extraordinarily diverse output of composer Karl Jenkins has encompassed genres as numerous as jazz, rock, film music, advertising music, New Age music, and classical composition, largely choral. He is perhaps best known for the song Adiemus, for a series of classical or New Age works derived from it, and for the widely performed mass setting The Armed Man.
Jenkins was born in Penclawdd, Swansea, Wales, on February 17, 1944. His father was a local schoolteacher, organist, and choir director who gave him his first music lessons. Jenkins attended Cardiff University, studying music, and went on for further work at the Royal Academy of Music. He later earned a doctorate in music from the University of Wales. In the late '60s, Jenkins became interested in London's vigorous jazz scene, playing saxophones, keyboards, and, more unusually, oboe. He performed with a band led by bassist Graham Collier and founded the jazz fusion band Nucleus, which performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970. In 1972, Jenkins joined the progressive rock band Soft Machine, composing many of the songs on their successful albums of the '70s and early '80s.
In the '80s and '90s, Jenkins enjoyed a successful career as a composer of music for advertising, winning two industry awards. Some of his advertising music later found its way into his classical compositions. The most significant example of this was his song Adiemus, which was sung by Miriam Stockley and first appeared in 1994 in a Delta Airlines ad. The song was a hit in its own right, and the material (later simply the concept) continued its life through five extraordinarily successful Adiemus albums (Songs of Sanctuary, Cantata Mundi, Dances of Time, The Eternal Knot, and Vocalise). These albums have been categorized as New Age or classical; they incorporate various influences from Celtic music, world music, electronic music, and more into a basic theme. Just as successful has been The Armed Man (1999), a setting of the Catholic mass incorporating the medieval song The Armed Man (L'homme armé) along with other texts and musical materials. The mass has been performed by hundreds of choirs, many of them nonprofessional, in Britain and beyond. The Armed Man featured a 70-piece orchestra, and in the 21st century, Jenkins has focused on yet larger classical works. The giant choral work The Peacemakers (2014), with texts from Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Anne Frank, included a 1,000-voice choir called The Really Big Chorus on its 2012 debut recording. Jenkins' 2016 work Cantata Memoria: For the Children commemorated the victims of the Aberfan Disaster, a mine waste collapse in Wales that killed 116 children.
Jenkins has remained active into his seventies and continues to issue albums, mostly under his own name. In 2019, the album Miserere: Songs of Mercy and Redemption appeared on the Decca label; that year also saw the release of Karl Jenkins: Piano, featuring the composer's performances of his relatively underexposed piano music. He returned in 2023 with the album One World, commissioned by World Choir for Peace director Nicol Matt.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Artistas semelhantes
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Adiemus IV - The Eternal Knot
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 25/09/2000
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This Land Of Ours
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 22/10/2007
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Healing Light: Healing
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 17/05/2021
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Adiemus V - Vocalise
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 01/01/2003
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One World
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 07/06/2023
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Healing Light: Peace
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 09/06/2021
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Healing Light: Rest
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 21/04/2021
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Cantata Memoria - For The Children
Bryn Terfel, Elin Manahan Thomas, Catrin Finch, Sinfonia Cymru, Karl Jenkins
Classical - Lançado por Deutsche Grammophon (DG) em 07/10/2016
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Healing Light: Hope
Classical - Lançado por UME - Global Clearing House em 26/03/2021
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Push Button
Karl Jenkins, Mike Ratledge, De Wolfe Music
Electronic - Lançado por De Wolfe Ltd em 29/11/1979
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Karl Jenkins: Piano
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 08/02/2019
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Symphonic Adiemus
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 29/09/2017
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Beautiful Classical Music
Classical - Lançado por Lark Recordings em 28/06/2015
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Miserere mei, Deus
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 20/09/2019
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Nomination
Peter Milray, Karl Jenkins, De Wolfe Music
Pop - Lançado por De Wolfe Ltd em 10/06/1976
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
For The Fallen: In Memoriam Alfryn Jenkins
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 01/01/2019
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In Caelum Fero
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 08/09/2017
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The Very Best Of Karl Jenkins (80th Birthday Edition)
Classical - Lançado por Decca (UMO) (Classics) em 03/05/2011
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Snow My Press
House - Lançado por kDope Srl em 30/09/2022
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