A native of Haifeng, Guangdong, Ma was a famous Chinese composer and violinist.

He began to study instruments and got in touch with folk music when he was at a primary school in Guangzhou.

In 1923, at the age of 11, he went to France for the first time to study the violin there; in 1929 he returned to China after finishing his studies.

As one of China's first violinists, he gave concerts in Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and other places.

In 1930 he went to France for the second time for the

In 1852 he entered the Guards' cadet school in St Petersburg.

Although he had not studied harmony or composition, in 1856 he tried to write an opera; the same year he entered the Guards.

In 1857 he met Dargomizhsky and Cui, and through them Balakirev and Stasov.
He persuaded Balakirev to give him lessons and composed songs and piano sonatas.

In 1858 Mussorgsky passed through a

Keiko Abe was born in Tokyo into a family of doctors and businessmen.

As a child she studied piano, composition and percussion and, most notably, from the age of 12, the marimba.

After forming her own trio playing commercial light classics, in 1962 she turned to the world of contemporary classical music.

In the following years she was employed as an orchestral percussionist and released 13 albums which often included works composed for her on marimba and even had her own show on Japanese

Johann Aber was an Italian composer and flautist of German descent, living in Milan.

Abrahamsen is a pupil of Per Nøgård and Pelle Gudmundsen Holmgreen, but his particular point of stylistic departure also reflects a special trend in Danish music termed "New Simplicity" that emerged in the mid sixties.

Simplification and method are key concepts in Abrahamsen's work.

He is one of the generation most outstanding composers, and his orchestral work "Nacht und Trompeten" was first performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1982.