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The Chilingirian Quartet is one of the best-known string quartets based in Britain, with numerous recordings over a three-decade career. Its founder is Levon Chilingirian, born in Cyprus of Armenian descent to a family with a long musical heritage. He started playing the violin when he was five years old and had lessons with the violin virtuoso Manoug Parikian.

The quartet began attracting attention soon after its founding in 1971 and appeared on the BBC early on. These broadcasts were followed by invitations to appear at the Edinburgh, Bath, and Aldeburgh festivals, then by invitations to perform at major musical centers. It has become one of the best-known quartets around the world, traveling to all six inhabited continents and having played in more than 30 countries. These have included several coast-to-coast tours of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, as well as tours to Australia and New Zealand, Japan, Africa, and South America. The Chilingirian Quartet plays annual series of concerts at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall. Other major venues include the Herkulessaal in Munich, Zurich's Tonhalle, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Tivoli in Copenhagen.

It has appeared in concert on most European national television stations, on National Public Radio in the U.S., and on the CBC. The group has recorded extensively on the EMI, RCA, CRD, Nimbus, Chandos, Conifer, and Virgin Records labels. These recordings have included a broad representation of the basic works in the quartet repertory, as well as music of lesser-known and contemporary composers. Among the latter are the world premieres of Hugh Wood's quartets Nos. 1-4, quartet works of Stravinsky, Schnittke, Roslavets, and Firsova, and music of Arvo Pärt, Andrzej Panufnik, John Tavener, and Michael Tippett. Three of the Chilingirian members participated in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's recording of Tippett's Triple Concerto.

In 1986 the Chilingirian was named ensemble-in-residence at the Royal College of Music in London and regularly gives master classes there. It won the Royal Philharmonic Society's Chamber Ensemble Award for 1995.

Levon Chilingirian is also the conductor of Camerata Romana, a chamber orchestra. He is a professor of violin on the faculty of the Royal College and performs as a violin soloist, having appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Liverpool Philharmonic. He plays a 1729 Stradivarius violin. The other members of the quartet are violinist Charles Sewart, violist Asdis Valdimarsdottir, and cellist Philip de Groote.

Accompanist is a misleading -- even, demeaning -- term for a musician possessing the uncommon range of skills required to project great music in tandem. The first of these is an intuitive rapport making for hand-in-glove unanimity, allied with the unusual temperament to be, so to speak, second among equals. The stylistic awareness and technical resourcefulness demanded of any performing artist and a superb accompanist must be mercurially responsive. Possessed of these gifts in abundance, Geoffrey Parsons was, for nearly a half-century, a favorite keyboard partner to artists on a roster drawn from the 20th century's greatest. Early precocity sent him to the Sydney Conservatory at 12 for study with Busoni pupil Winifred Burston (1941-1948). By the time he completed his studies with Friedrich Wührer in Munich in 1956, he already had a considerable career behind him -- a tour of Australia with Essie Ackland in 1948, a Southampton appearance with Peter Dawson, the Grand Old Man of English song (despite being Australian), in 1950, and an appearance with Gerhard Hüsch in the Schubert cycle, Die Winterreise, in London in 1955. His first recital with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf took place in London's Festival Hall in 1961 -- the beginning of a partnership later to blossom into the favored status of Schwarzkopf's principal accompanist. Victoria de Los Angeles, Rita Streich, Dame Janet Baker, Nicolai Gedda, Hans Hotter, Hughes Cuénod, and Norman Bailey -- among many others -- gave memorable recitals with Parsons and left a considerable legacy of classic recordings, ranging from the restrained purity of Satie's Socrate, with Cuénod, to the jovial rumbustiousness and vernal poetry of Warlock's best songs, with Norman Bailey, though the great lieder composers and mélodistes, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wolf, Richard Strauss, Mahler, Fauré, and Poulenc were his mainstay. Instrumentalists such as Paul Tortelier, Ida Haendel, and Nathan Milstein often appeared with Parsons. He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1971. At the time of his death in 1995 he had become a genial godfather to a new generation of superstar vocalists, including Olaf Bär, Thomas Hampson, and Barbara Bonney. He was also in demand as a teacher, and his master classes were avidly attended.

Gerald Moore is widely regarded as the finest recital accompanist of the 20th century. Known for his great sensitivity in adapting to and drawing the best from his various musical partners, he was in constant demand for decades, and his discography amply represents his talents.

Born on July 30, 1899, in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, Moore began taking lessons with Wallis Bandey at the local Watford School of Music. He had perfect pitch. Moore was a reluctant student who had to be dragged to the piano by his parents. He stated that he did not feel truly immersed in music until his middle twenties. The family moved to Canada in 1913, and Moore studied with Michael Hambourg. For a time, he worked as a movie theater accompanist. His family did not envision this as a musical career, however, and sent him back to England. There, he studied with Michael Hambourg's son Mark and began to make solo appearances.

In 1921, Moore signed with EMI, accompanying violinist Renée Chemet on a recording, and he remained on that label for his entire six-decade recording career. Landon Ronald of the Guildhall School of Music noticed Moore's talent as an accompanist and urged him to focus on that field. In 1925, tenor John Coates recruited Moore as his permanent accompanist, and Moore accepted, working with Coates for five years. Moore mostly declined permanent arrangements of this sort but pointed to his work with Coates as a major influence. Other singers noted Moore's gifts, and soon he was in demand as an accompanist. By the late '30s, he was well known and was able to give lectures at Britain's National Gallery on the art of accompaniment, notable in that the accompanist had always previously been considered a secondary figure. He continued to lecture after World War II, and in this capacity, he became a draw even internationally. In 1943, he published a book, The Unashamed Accompanist, which gained popularity despite its arcane subject with its variously instructive and anecdotal style, and he went on to write seven more books, including an accompanist's edition of Schubert's song cycles. In 1986, Moore's various memoir writings were collected into a single volume entitled Am I Too Loud?

Moore often worked with singers Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Victoria de los Angeles, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and he was a major influence in propelling the popularity on recordings of tenor Aksel Schiøtz. Most of his work was with singers, but he also accompanied cellist Pablo Casals and other major instrumentalists. He cultivated a distinctive style marked by exceptional legato and a variety of tonal shades generated by subtle but significant use of pedals. He spoke disdainfully of those who considered it the accompanist's job to recede into the background. Moore, however, was a supremely empathetic artist who meshed deeply with musical personalities of his partners. The song recital was Moore's specialty, and he knew the repertory of German lieder deeply. He induced his recital partners to explore lesser-known songs of Schubert, Hugo Wolf, and Richard Strauss, and there are few works by those composers not included somewhere in his large discography. Moore also taught master classes in song interpretation. In 1967, Moore retired from the concert stage, bowing out with a recital at Royal Festival Hall in London that concluded with him playing the piano solo, but he remained active in recordings until 1975. He is widely credited with having raised the status of the accompanist to that of a true partner in the vocal recital. Moore died at his home in Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, on March 13, 1987. Some 450 CD reissues exist that capture some aspect of his work, but a full survey of his importance and influence is lacking. ~ James Manheim