Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist.

She was the first full-time solo percussionist. Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire. Her father was Herbert Arthur Glennie, an accordionist in a Scottish country dance band .She studied at Ellon Academy and the Royal Academy of Music, and was also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.Evelyns first instruments were the mouth organ and the clarinet. Glennie performs with a wide variety of orchestras and contemporary musicians, giving over 100 concerts a year as well as master classes and "music in schools". Glennie has been profoundly deaf since age 11. This does not inhibit her ability to perform at the international level. She regularly plays barefoot during both live performances and studio recordings in order to "feel" the music better.[3] Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She claims to have taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. In response to criticism from the media, Glennie published "Hearing Essay" in which she discusses her condition. Glennie has won many awards, including:

Best Chamber Music Performance in the Grammy Awards of 1989 Scot of the Year 1982 Queen's Commendation prize for all round excellence 1985 Scotswoman of the Decade 1990 Best Studio and Live Percussionist from Rhythm Magazine 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 & 2004 Walpole Medal of Excellence 2002 Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year 2003 Sabian Lifetime Achievement Award 2006 Percussive Arts Society: Hall of Fame November 2008[6][1]

She has been awarded 15 honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, was awarded the OBE in 1993, and was promoted to DBE in the New Year's Honours of 2007.[7] She owns over 1800 percussion instruments from all over the world and is continually adding to her collection. She was also a VIP of the music industry. Dame Evelyn Glennie is also an Ambassador of the Royal National Children's Foundation (formerly the Joint Educational Trust) which helps support vulnerable, disadvantaged young people at state and independent boarding schools throughout the UK. Evelyn's first CD, a recording of Bartok's "Sonata for two Pianos and Percussion" won her a Grammy in 1988. The xylophone meaning "wooden sound") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, The modern western xylophone has bars of rosewood, padak, or various synthetic materials such as fiberglass or fiberglassreinforced plastic which allows a louder sound. Some can be as small a range as 2

octaves but concert xylophones are typically 3 or 4 octaves. Xylophones should be played with very hard rubber, polyball, or acrylic mallets. Sometimes medium to hard rubber mallets, very hard core, or yarn mallets are used for softer effects. Concert xylophones have tube resonators below the bars to enhance the tone and sustain. Frames are made of wood or cheap steel tubing: more expensive xylophones feature height adjustment and more stability in the stand. Old methods consisted of arranging the bars on tied bundles of straw, and, as still practiced today, placing the bars adjacent to each other in a ladder-like layout. Ancient mallets were made of willow wood with spoon-like bowls on the beaten ends.[3]

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck, to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings. Some modern guitars are made of polycarbonate materials. Guitars are made and repaired by luthiers. There are two primary families of guitars: acoustic and electric. Guitars can be constructed to meet the demands of both left and right-handed players. Traditionally the dominant hand is assigned the task of plucking or strumming the strings. For the majority of people this entails using the right hand. This is because musical expression (dynamics, tonal expression, color, etc.) is largely determined by the plucking hand, while the fretting hand is assigned the lesser mechanical task of depressing and gripping the strings. Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singersongwriter and composer. With John Lennon,George Harrison and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and his collaboration with Lennon is one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. Following the band's break-up, he pursued a solo career. McCartney has been described by Guinness World Records as the "most successful composer and recording artist of all time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles, as well as "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history.[1] His Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artistsmore than any other song in the history of recorded music. Wings' 1977 release "Mull of Kintyre", co-written with Laine, is one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK. McCartney has composed film scores, classical and electronic music, and has released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist. He has taken part in projects to promote international charities, been an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism and music education, campaigned against landmines and seal hunting, and supported efforts such as Make Poverty History. His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 25,000 songs. He is one of the UK's wealthiest people, with an estimated fortune of 475 million in 2010. In 1990 the minor planet 4148, was named "McCartney" in his honour.[317] In July 2005 he was involved with the fastest-released single in

history, when his performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 at Live 8 was released within forty-five minutes of its recording. Within hours of the single's release it achieved number one on the UK Official Download Chart.[318] In 2008 he received a BRIT award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, as well as an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale University.[319] In 2010 he was honoured by President Barack Obama with theGershwin Prize for his contributions to popular music in a live show for the White House with performances by Stevie Wonder, Lang Lang and others.[320] He returned to the White House later that year as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2012 he became the last of the "Fab Four" to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[321]

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola, cello, and double bass. The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the type of music played on it. The word violin comes from the Medieval Latin word vitula, meaning stringed instrument. Someone who plays the violin is called a violinist or a fiddler. The violinist produces sound by drawing a bow across one or more strings (which may be stopped by the fingers of the other hand to produce a full range of pitches), by plucking the strings (with either hand), or by a variety of other techniques. The violin is played by musicians in a wide variety of musical genres, including Baroque music, classical, jazz, folk music, and rock and roll. The violin has come to be played in many non-western music cultures all over the world. A violin typically consists of a spruce top (the soundboard, also known as the top plate)maple ribs and back, two endblocks, a neck, a bridge, a soundpost, four strings, and various fittings, optionally including a chinrest, which may attach directly over, or to the left of, the tailpiece. A distinctive feature of a violin body is its hourglass-like shape and thearching of its top and back. The hourglass shape comprises two upper bouts, two lower bouts, and two concave C-bouts at the waist, providing clearance for the bow. The voice of a violin depends on its shape, the wood it is made from, the graduation (the thickness profile) of both the top and back, and the varnish that coats its outside surface. The varnish and especially the wood continue to improve with age, making the fixed supply of old violins much sought-after. Joshua Bell was born December 9, 1967 in Bloomington, Indiana. He made his orchestral debut at age 14 with the Philadelphia Orchestrabecoming the orchestra's youngest-ever soloistand he made his first recording at age 18. He received a Grammy Award for his performance in the first recording of Nicholas Maw's "Violin Concerto" (2000). In 2007 he received the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Often referred to as the "poet of the violin," JOSHUA BELL is one of the world's most celebrated violinists. He continues to enchant audiences with his breathtaking virtuosity, tone of sheer beauty, and charismatic stage presence. His restless curiosity, passion, universal appeal, and multi-faceted musical interests have earned him the rare title of "classical

music superstar." In 2013 Bell will appear in a US tour with the Cleveland Orchestra and a European tour with the New York Philharmonic as well as other performances. Joshua Bell currently records exclusively for Sony Classical and he has recorded more than 40 CDs. Billboard named Romance of the Violin the 2004 Classical CD of the Year, and Bell the Classical Artist of the Year. Bell has been embraced by a wide television audience. He has twice performed on the Grammy Awards telecastGrowing up with his two sisters in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell indulged in many passions outside of music, becoming an avid computer game player and a competitive athlete. He placed fourth in a national tennis tournament at age 10, and still keeps his racquet close by. At age four, he received his first violin after his parents, both mental health professionals, noticed him plucking tunes with rubber bands he had stretched around the handles of his dresser drawers. By 12 he was serious about the instrument, thanks in large part to the inspiration of renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold, who had become his beloved teacher and mentor. Two years later, Bell came to national attention in his highly acclaimed debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1989, Bell received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance from Indiana University where he currently serves as a senior lecturer at the Jacobs School of Music. His alma mater honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award, he has been named an Indiana Living Legend and is the recipient of the Indiana Governors Arts Award. In 2011 Bell received the Paul Newman Award from Arts Horizons and the Huberman Award from Moment Magazine. Bell was named Instrumentalist of the Year, 2010 by Musical America and that same year received the Humanitarian Award from Seton Hall University. In 2009 he was honored by Education Through Music and he received the Academy of Achievement Award in 2008 for exceptional accomplishment in the arts. In 2007 he was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize and recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2005. Today Bell serves on the artist committee of the Kennedy Center Honors and is on the Board of Directors of the New York Philharmonic. He has performed before President Obama at Fords Theatre and at the White House.