Recommend any good composers?
 

Modern or early?

I've liked every classical song I've played in symphonic band and stuff I've heard off of my Star Wars soundtrack. I'm curious about this genre of music, but I don't know anything about it.

Anyone recommend any good composers? Albums?

I'd recommend for the beginner listener in Classical music to start off with some Chopin piano music (his etudes maybe, the Barcarolle Op. 60, or Polonaises), some J.S. Bach (I like the double Violin Concerto in d minor but anything is great), some Debussy, Beethoven Symphonies (No. 3, 5, and 9 are my favorites), Stravinsky (Rite of Spring), and Schoenberg (if you are feeling adventurous).

For the more advanced listener, some of my favorite composers are Manuel de Falla (try Nights in the Gardens of Spain), Corelli (Concerto Grossi), Gyorgy Ligeti (anything...he's like a modern Beethoven....genius), Samuel Barber (anything), Bela Bartok (anything), Ravel (Gaspard de la Nuit).

Any "albums" out there I need to look for? Or is most of this stuff just on compliation CD's and whatnot?

Dax Johnson is a great Neo-Classical pianist/composer (I guess.)

Konishi Kayo & Kondoo Yukio who composed the elfen lied soundtrack.

Indeed.

I am reviewing that OST for an anime site I work on.

cool, lilium goes superbly well with the anime. It's proabbly my favourite/

Shostakovich
Mendelssohn
Stravinsky

All good composers. I'm keen to check out some Bartok too - I heard a snippet of one of his songs and it has me hooked.

J.S Bach is a genius and I would swallow every piece of work you could find by him.

This isn't objective just my personal favourite

Bela Bartok-Concerto For Orchestra
Bach: 6 Unaccompanied Suites by Yo-yo ma
Richard Wagner: Tristun Und Isolde, actually pretty much anything by him