Karl Jenkins receives Knighthood
Karl Jenkins awarded Knighthood in Queen's Birthday Honours.
Karl Jenkins (b.1944), the composer of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace and Adiemus, has been awarded a Knighthood (Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's Birthday Honours, announced on 12 June 2015, for "services to composing and crossing musical genres".
Jenkins is the first Welsh-born composer to be so honoured and the Knighthood follows an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005 and CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2010.
The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, first performed in 2000, has become an international classical music phenomenon, with on average two performances per week around the world. The recording has been in the UK Classical Album Chart for 573 weeks, and 123,000 vocal scores have been purchased by choirs in every major country.
Karl Jenkins made this statement following the announcement:
"I am delighted by this great honour and the recognition of my music, and am grateful and humbled that my works have been able to reach out to so many performers and listeners around the globe".
October 2015 brings the publication of Karl Jenkins’s autobiography "Still With The Music" by Elliott & Thompson, written with Sam Jackson. Tied in with the book are a new compilation disc of his music and a box set reissue of his greatest works, to be released by Warner Classics. Jenkins conducts a concert on 30 October at the Royal Albert Hall, including Stabat Mater and The Armed Man, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Philharmonic Choir.
About Karl Jenkins
Following training as a classical musician at Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music in London, Karl Jenkins worked as a jazz performer and with jazz-rock fusion band Soft Machine. He topped the record charts with Adiemus, and went on to compose some of the most performed choral works of our age, including The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, Requiem, Stabat Mater and The Peacemakers. The Armed Man has been performed over 1800 times in 20 different countries, including at Carnegie Hall in New York to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, while his recorded output has resulted in 17 gold and platinum disc awards. Karl Jenkins was this year confirmed as the most popular living composer in Classic FM’s Ultimate Hall of Fame.
In 2013 Karl Jenkins signed a new recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Releases have included Adiemus Colores, with a Latin theme and guest artists including tenor Rolando Villazón and guitarist Milos Karadaglic, and Motets featuring a collection of choral arrangements sung by Polyphony conducted by Stephen Layton, which have been enthusiastically taken into the repertoire of choirs at home and abroad.
Karl Jenkins has composed works for leading singers including Kiri Te Kanawa and Bryn Terfel, and for instrumentalists including percussionist Evelyn Glennie, Royal harpist Catrin Finch, euphonist David Childs and violinist Marat Bisengaliev. As a conductor Jenkins has appeared on the rostrum in the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, the Welsh Millennium Centre and St David’s Hall in Cardiff, and Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as conducting performances of his music as far afield as Johannesburg, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.
The music of Karl Jenkins is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.
> Read the full press release as a PDF
> Further information on Karl Jenkins
> Visit the Karl Jenkins website
> Visit Karl Jenkins on Facebook
> View a video interview with Karl Jenkins about his music
> Further information on Work: The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace (full orchestra version)
Photo: Deutsche Grammophon/Rhys Frampton