Philip Glass

Philip Morris Glass is an American music composer. He is considered one of the most influential composers of the late 20th Century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public (along with precursors such as Richard Strauss, Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein).

Glass is a prolific composer: He has written works for his own musical group which he founded, The Philip Glass Ensemble, as well as operas, musical theatre works, eight symphonies, eight concertos, solo works, string quartets, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards.

Among recent collaborations are Glass's fellow New Yorker Woody Allen, and poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen.

Thom Yorke

Thomas Edward “Thom” Yorke is an English musician who is the lead singer and principal songwriter of the alternative rock group Radiohead. In July 2006, he released his debut solo album, The Eraser.

Yorke has been cited among the most influential figures in the music industry; in 2002, Q Magazine named Yorke the 6th most powerful figure in music, and Radiohead were ranked #73 in Rolling Stone's “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” in 2005. Also Yorke has been cited among the greatest singers in popular music; in 2005, Blender readers voted Yorke the 18th greatest singer of all time, and in 2008 he was ranked 66th in Rolling Stone's Greatest Singers of All Time.

Damien Rice

Damien Rice is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician. Rice began his musical career as member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, releasing two singles with the band. However, due to increasing interference from their record label Polygram he decided to leave the band to pursue a solo career. Striking out on his own Rice spent time living as a farmer in Tuscany and later busked his way around Europe before returning to Ireland.

After getting into contact with the music producer David Arnold, Rice sent him a demo of his work, which impressed Arnold enough that he bought him a mobile recording studio so he could record his debut. After collaborating with several artists throughout Ireland and England, Rice released his debut O on the 1st of February 2002, which peaked at #8 on the UK albums chart and went on to win the Shortlist music prize. O also produced two top-30 singles, “Cannonball” and “Volcano.”

Rice released his second album 9 in 2006. The Irish Times placed Rice at number thirty-four in a list of “The Best 50 Irish Acts Right Now” in April 2009, referring to him as “the quiet one, the intense one, the singer-songwriter most revered by the other quiet and intense ones” and as “a most excruciatingly honest songwriter.”