Karl Jenkins /

Karl William Pamp Jenkins, CBE (born 17 February 1944) is a British (Welsh) musician and composer. Jenkins was born and raised in the Gower village of Penclawdd, in the county of Swansea, south Wales. His father, who was a local schoolteacher, organist, and choirmaster, gave him his initial musical instruction. Karl Jenkins attended Gowerton Grammar School. Jenkins began his musical career as an oboist in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He went on to study music at Cardiff University, and then commenced postgraduate studies in London at the Royal Academy of Music, where he also met his wife and musical collaborator, Carol Barratt. He studied with Alun Hoddinott. For the bulk of his early career Jenkins was known as a jazz and jazz-rock musician, playing baritone and soprano saxophones, keyboards and oboe, an unusual instrument in a jazz context. He joined jazz composer Graham Collier's group and later co-founded the jazz-rock group Nucleus, which won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1970. He joined the Canterbury progressive rock band Soft Machine in 1972 and co-led their very last performances in 1984.