Karl Jenkins (17/02/1944) was born in Penclawdd, South Wales, of mixed Welsh and Swedish parentage. He began studying piano at six, with his father who was a local chapel choirmaster. Upon entering Gowerton Grammar School at eleven he started to play the oboe, becoming principal in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He graduated from the University of Wales, Cardiff, where he read music (Bachelor of Music). This was followed by post graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
While at university he began playing jazz, adding the saxophone to his repertoire of instruments and it was in this area that he initially made his mark when he left the Royal Academy of Music. Winning awards in the unusual role of jazz oboist and multi-instrumentalist, he worked with Ronnie Scott amongst others and co-founded Nucleus in 1972, which won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival, before joining Soft Machine.
Soft Machine was one of the seminal and progressive bands of the '70s, embracing a wide variety of styles from jazz and classical rock, including even 'minimalism' before it was widely known as such. Defying categorisation, in various incarnations, it played at venues as diverse as The Proms, the Newport Jazz Festival (USA), Carnegie Hall, the Reading Festival and the Montreux Festival.
In recent years Karl Jenkins has become one of the world's best-selling living composers. He continues to conduct his epic Adiemus Live Concerts with distinguished orchestras including the London Philharmonic, featuring in Festivals and concerts in Britain and abroad.
Jenkins is probably best known for his Adiemus project. The first three albums - Songs of Sanctuary, Cantata Mundi and Dances of Time have found enormous success worldwide, achieving silver, gold and platinum awards globally. Following the works' live premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, Jenkins has conducted Adiemus Live in cities as diverse as Helsinki, Palma de Mallorca, Frankfurt and Tokyo. Further live performances are planned in Japan and Taiwan in the near future. Adiemus IV - The Eternal Knot is also the soundtrack to a major television documentary 'The Celts' to be broadcast worldwide over 2000 - 2001.