Biographical note

One of the most gifted and challenging composers of our time, Pierre Boulez (b. 1925) has achieved equal status as a conductor, notably of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, and at Bayreuth. He is the founder and director of the world-renowned IRCAM Institute in Paris and of the associated Ensemble Intercontemporain. Richard Stokes, Professor of Lieder at the Royal Academy of Music, is a regular juror at international Song Competitions. For the operatic stage he has translated Wozzeck and La voix humaine (Opera North), and Parsifal, Lulu, L'Amour de loin and Jakob Lenz (ENO). His books include The Spanish Song Companion (with Jacqueline Cockburn), A French Song Companion (with Graham Johnson) (OUP), The Book of Lieder (Faber), and The Penguin Book of English Song - Seven Centuries of Poetry from Chaucer to Auden. With Alfred Brendel he collaborated on the latter's Collected Poems: Playing the Human Game (Phaidon). Richard Stokes was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2012.