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David Briggs is one of the world's foremost concert organists, with an unusual specialty in the French improvisatory tradition. He began his career in cathedral posts and then became mostly a concert organist.

Briggs was born on November 1, 1962, in Bromsgrove, near Birmingham, England. His grandfather, Lawrence Briggs, had been a longtime Birmingham church organist, and his parents met while playing in a Birmingham orchestra. David's first formal musical experiences came as a chorister at Birmingham Cathedral, and it was there that he first became interested in the organ; an assistant let him improvise on the organ when the regular organist was not present. In 1973, Briggs earned a full scholarship to the Solihull School, studying piano, violin, viola, counterpoint, harmony, and organ. He won many honors during this period and also traveled to London for lessons with David Popplewell. He also played the viola in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain from 1977 to 1981. From 1981 to 1984, Briggs studied organ at King's College, Cambridge. In 1982 and 1983, he performed in the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols before a worldwide audience of 35 million. Briggs also traveled to Paris for lessons in repertoire and improvisation with Jean Langlais, and there, he became interested in the organ improvisations of Pierre Cochereau. He transcribed Cochereau's improvisations from cassette recordings, a task that took 11 years.

From 1985 to 2002, Briggs held organist posts at Hereford, Truro, and Gloucester Cathedrals. At the latter two institutions, he served as a consultant for the refurbishing of the cathedral organs, and at Gloucester, he also served as conductor for the venerable Three Choirs Festival. In 1994, he made his recording debut on the Priory Records label with the album Improvisation, The Illusionist's Art. Since then, he has also recorded for Delos, Pro Organo, Analekta, and other labels. On Analekta, he recorded a complete cycle of his transcriptions of Mahler's symphonies for organ; he is prolific as an arranger, often of orchestral works. Briggs moved to the U.S. in 2003 and has stayed on in North America, living in New York, Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Toronto. He tours internationally, giving some 65 concerts annually. Since 2017, Briggs has been artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. By 2022, his recording catalog numbered some 30 items, and that year, he released the album Vaughan Williams: Transcriptions from Truro on the Albion label. ~ James Manheim

Conductor Stephen Layton has, unusually, cultivated strong careers in both choral and orchestral music. Perhaps best known as the director of music at Trinity College, Cambridge, he has often championed contemporary works.

Layton was born in Derby, England, on December 23, 1966. His father was a church organist, and he became interested in choral music early on, becoming a chorister at Winchester Cathedral and earning scholarships to Eton College (in American terms, a high school) and then to Cambridge University, where he earned the competitive post of organ scholar at King's College. He sang in its famous choir and soon settled on a career as a choral conductor himself, founding the mixed-voice choir Polyphony in 1986 while still a Cambridge student. He has remained associated with the group, which has broadened its repertory beyond its original early music base, moved to London, and recorded extensively; Layton recorded his debut album with Polyphony in 1995, featuring James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross. The group has participated in the world premieres of several major works, including the Symphony No. 2 of Alfred Schnittke.

Layton held posts as assistant organist at Southwark Cathedral, as director of the Wokingham Choral Society, and as director of music at the medieval Temple Church in London. He worked in northwestern Europe as chief conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir from 1999 to 2004 and as chief guest conductor of the Danish National Vocal Ensemble from 2000 to 2012. In addition to Polyphony, Layton serves as director of three other major ensembles: the Holst Singers, taking up the baton in 1993; the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he began work in 1996 and later assumed the position of director of music; and conductor of the City of London Sinfonia, where he was named artistic director in 2009, later given the title of principal conductor. It is a measure of Layton's depth and versatility that he has made major recordings with all three of these groups. By the late 2010s, his catalog of recordings, many of them on the Hyperion label, numbered well over 50, and they were strikingly diverse. In 2019, with the Choir of Trinity College, he issued a recording of choral music by Gerald Finzi, and he led Polyphony in a recording of Karl Jenkins' Miserere. Layton remained active through the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing an album of music by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi in 2020, one of works by Cecilia McDowall in 2021, one of music by Ivo Antognini in 2023, and one of anthems by Elgar and others, also in 2023, all with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, on the Hyperion label. In March of 2023, he stepped down from the directorship of the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, to devote more time to guest conducting. ~ James Manheim