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    "artist" : {
        "name" : "Chris Britton",
        "page" : "chris_britton",
        "description" : "virtuoso performances of Bach on unaccompanied flute",
        "location" : "Beckley, England",
        "bio" : "Born in London in 1953 but now living in Oxford, Chris Britton's flute-playing career has been very diverse, ranging from orchestral playing to solo performances in such glorious settings as Christ Church in Oxford. His early training (which also featured bassoon studies) was at the Royal College of Music, London, for which he won a scholarship, then academic study at the University of Birmingham (music and German), but majoring in performance in his final year.\n\nHe has been a student in private lessons and masterclasses of such distinguished flautists as James Galway, Susan Milan, Peter-Lukas Graf, Atarah Ben-Tovim, Graham Mayger and Peter Lloyd. He freelanced with BBC orchestras, appearing as a concerto soloist and broadcasting frequently on BBC Radio 3. He has played under eminent conductors such as Rudolf Schwarz, Norman Del Mar, Richard Hickox and George Hurst. More recently, alongside a busy and successful career as a flute and recorder teacher, he has been active in diverse forms of chamber music: with the Pavlova Wind Quintet, duos with the guitarist Raymond Burley and with the percussionist Keith Fairbairn.\n\nRecent concerts have featured him in events as extraordinary as appearing with the Oxford Trobadors in performances of Occitan songs, in a prison with his wind quintet, and improvising with the ex-Swingles Singer Wendy Nieper! He also enjoys playing Latin-American songs with his trio Serendipity (flute, guitar and percussion).\n\nChris has long been fascinated by the idea of re-arranging music from its original format. Having grown up during the era of 'switched-on' Bach (Jacques Loussier, Swingle Singers, Modern Jazz Quartet and others) he soon became aware of the exciting possibilities of hearing early music presented in a new way. Well-known precedents for this are Bach's re-arrangement of Vivaldi's string concertos for harpsichord, and Mozart's re-working of Bach's preludes and fugues for string quartet. Chris is currently working on arrangements of keyboard music for his wind quintet. As a keen pianist and harpsichordist he has perhaps greater access to unusual early and more recent compositions that a more conventional wind-player may not be aware of. He is also about to record an album of Bach pieces that he and Raymond Burley have arranged for flute and guitar.\n\nApart from arranging, Chris is concerned to give his instrument genuine solo stature. The flute has long been recognised as an important orchestral instrument, but it was only in the late 20th century that solo flute recitals became the norm. Even so, flautists suffer the frustration that much of their repertoire is second-rank compared to the great masterworks for piano or violin.\n\nHaving heard a performance of Bach's Chaconne for solo violin while at university, which seemed to create an entire orchestra from 4 strings and one player, he felt the flute could do something similar, especially the modern Boehm-system flute with its extended range of notes and tone-colours. Bach himself obviously thought highly of the flute and wrote much of its greatest repertoire (solo sonatas, trio sonatas, obligatos in choral works, concertos), no doubt inspired by the recent great improvements in the construction of the instrument and the presence of virtuosos like Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin and Johann Joachim Quantz. With that in mind, his approval of this album is not impossible to imagine.",
        "photo" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/img/chris_britton.jpg",
        "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/chris_britton/",
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            "sku" : "cbritton-counterpoint",
            "name" : "Counterpoint for One",
            "artist" : {
                "name" : "Chris Britton",
                "page" : "chris_britton"
            },
            "release_date" : "2010-10-01",
            "genres" : ["Classical","Baroque","Instrumental"],
            "cover" : "https://magnatune.com/music/Chris%20Britton/Counterpoint%20for%20One/cover_400.jpg",
            "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/albums/cbritton-counterpoint/",
            "api_url" : "https://magnatune.com/api/albums/cbritton-counterpoint",
            "buy_url" : "https://magnatune.com/buy/album?sku=cbritton-counterpoint"
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    "license" : {
        "music_license" : "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 1.0)",
        "music_license_url" : "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/",
        "listening" : "Stream the free previews, or buy an album for $8 to download it in MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, OGG or WAV. 100% of the price goes to the musician.",
        "non_commercial" : "Non-commercial projects may use the music under CC BY-NC-SA 1.0: credit the artist and Magnatune, and share alike.",
        "projects" : "Magnatune members may use any Magnatune music in their projects, commercial or not (videos, films, podcasts, games, apps, websites, adverts), including work for clients, under the Magnatune Project Licence. Projects released while a member stay licensed for good; new projects need an active membership. Credit is required. TV or radio broadcast, cinema, and background music in shops, restaurants or on-hold lines are not included: license those from the musician. Membership: $10/month, $99/year or $299 lifetime; agents can buy one themselves with MPP at /api/member-pass ($10 month, $99 year, $299 lifetime, one-off).",
        "projects_status" : "available",
        "projects_signup" : "https://magnatune.com/member/signup",
        "details" : "https://magnatune.com/info/licensing",
        "how_to_credit" : "Name the artist and \"Magnatune\", with a link to the album's web_url."
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