Christian Escoudé (born 1947 in Angoulême, Charente, France) is a French Gypsy jazz guitarist.

He grew up in Angoulême and is of Romani descent on his father’s side. His father was also a guitarist who was influenced by Django Reinhardt. When Escoudé was ten, his father began teaching him the guitar, and he became a professional musician at age fifteen. His style is a mix of bebop and gypsy jazz influences, featuring the use of vibrato, portamento, and fast runs.

He started work in a trio with Aldo Romano in 1972. By the 1980s, he was in John Lewis‘s quartet. He also played with Philip Catherine for a time. In his forties, he signed with the French division of Verve Records.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Escoud%C3%A9

Alison Louise Balsom OBE (born 7 October 1978) is an English trumpet soloist, arranger, producer, music educator, curator and spokesperson for the importance of music education. Balsom was awarded Artist of the Year at the 2013 Gramophone Awards and has won three Classic BRIT Awards and three German Echo Awards, and was soloist at the BBC Last Night of the Proms in 2009.

She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Leicester and Anglia Ruskin University, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Balsom

American baritone Quinn Kelsey made his Royal Opera debut in 2016 as Giorgio Germont (La traviata) and has since returned to sing Count di Luna (Il trovatore).

Kelsey was born in Honolulu. He represented the USA in the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. In 2008 he made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as Schaunard (La bohème). He has since sung for many major international opera companies, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Zürich Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Norwegian National Opera, Paris Opéra, Semperoper Dresden, Rome Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Frankfurt Opera and for the Bregenz and Edinburgh festivals. He has sung Germont for the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Zürich Opera and in Seoul. Other Verdi roles include Rigoletto, Ezio (Attila), Count di Luna (Il trovatore), Montfort (Les Vêpres siciliennes), Paolo Albiani (Simon Boccanegra), Amonasro (Aida) and Falstaff.

Kelsey’s other repertory includes Enrico Ashton (Lucia di Lammermoor), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Marcello (La bohème), Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), Athanaël (Thaïs) and Sancho Panza (Don Quichotte). He has performed in concert and recital in the USA, the UK, Germany and Norway, in such repertory as Beethoven’s Symphony no.9, Mahler’s Symphony no.8, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Szymanowski’s Stabat mater.

http://www.roh.org.uk/people/quinn-kelsey

Teresa Stolz (born 2 June 1834, Elbekosteletz (Czech: Kostelec nad Labem), Bohemia – died 23 August 1902, Milan) was a Bohemian soprano, long resident in Italy, who was associated with significant premieres of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, and may have been his mistress. She has been described as “the Verdian dramatic soprano par excellence, powerful, passionate in utterance, but dignified in manner and secure in tone and control”.^[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Stolz