1.
Madison Square Garden
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Madison Square Garden, often called MSG or simply The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Located in Midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues from 31st to 33rd Streets, it is situated atop Pennsylvania Station. The Garden is used for basketball and ice hockey, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown and it is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League, the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, and residency to singer-songwriter Billy Joel. The Garden opened on February 11,1968, and is the oldest major sporting facility in the New York metropolitan area and it is the oldest arena in the National Hockey League and the second-oldest arena in the National Basketball Association. MSG is the fourth-busiest music arena in the world in terms of sales, behind The O2 Arena. At a total construction cost of approximately $1.1 billion and it is part of the Pennsylvania Plaza office and retail complex. Several other operating entities related to the Garden share its name, Madison Square is formed by the intersection of 5th Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in Manhattan. It was named after James Madison, fourth President of the United States, two venues called Madison Square Garden were located just northeast of the square, the first from 1879 to 1890, and the second from 1890 to 1925. The first Garden, leased to P. T. Barnum, had no roof and was inconvenient to use during inclement weather, Madison Square Garden II was designed by noted architect Stanford White. The new building was built by a syndicate which included J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, P. T. Barnum, Darius Mills, James Stillman and W. W. Astor. It was 200 feet by 485 feet, and the main hall and it had a 1, 200-seat theatre, a concert hall with a capacity of 1,500, the largest restaurant in the city and a roof garden cabaret. A third Madison Square Garden opened in a new location, on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, from 1925 to 1968, groundbreaking on the third Madison Square Garden took place on January 9,1925. Designed by the theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, it was built at the cost of $4.75 million in 249 days by boxing promoter Tex Rickard. The arena was 200 feet by 375 feet, with seating on three levels, and a capacity of 18,496 spectators for boxing. Demolition commenced in 1968 after the opening of the current Garden and it finished up in early 1969, and the site is now where One Worldwide Plaza is located. The new structure was one of the first of its kind to be built above the platforms of a railroad station. It was an engineering feat constructed by Robert E. McKee of El Paso, public outcry over the demolition of the Pennsylvania Station structure—an outstanding example of Beaux-Arts architecture—led to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
2.
Chuck Berry
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Charles Edward Anderson Chuck Berry was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven, Rock and Roll Music, Goode, Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive. Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a style that included guitar solos and showmanship. Born into a middle-class African-American family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age, while still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker and his break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded Maybellene—Berrys adaptation of the country song Ida Red—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazines rhythm and blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was a star, with several hit records and film appearances. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berrys Club Bandstand, but in January 1962, he was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines. After his release in 1963, Berry had several hits, including No Particular Place to Go, You Never Can Tell. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a jail sentence and community service. Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazines greatest of all time lists, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fames 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berrys, Johnny B. Goode, Maybellene, and Rock and Roll Music, Berrys Johnny B. Goode is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry was the child in a family of six. He grew up in the north St. Louis neighborhood known as the Ville and his father, Henry William Berry, was a contractor and deacon of a nearby Baptist church, his mother, Martha Bell, was a certified public school principal. His upbringing allowed him to pursue his interest in music from an early age, Berrys account in his autobiography is that his car broke down and he flagged down a passing car and stole it at gunpoint with a nonfunctional pistol. He was convicted and sent to the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men at Algoa, near Jefferson City, Missouri, the singing group became competent enough that the authorities allowed it to perform outside the detention facility. Berry was released from the reformatory on his 21st birthday in 1947, on October 28,1948, Berry married Themetta Toddy Suggs, who gave birth to Darlin Ingrid Berry on October 3,1950
3.
Grammy Award
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A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an honor awarded by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of awards that have a more popular interest. It shares recognition of the industry as that of the other performance awards such as the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards. The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4,1959, to honor, following the 2011 ceremony, The Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 59th Grammy Awards, honoring the best achievements from October 2015 to September 2016, was held on February 12,2017, the Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating a given by their industry similar to the Oscars. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts, after it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it, one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the gramophone, for the awards, the number of awards given grew and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed, at one time reaching over 100. The second Grammy Awards, also held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised, the gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. In 1990 the original Grammy design was revamped, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, Billings developed a zinc alloy named grammium, which is trademarked. The trophies with the name engraved on them are not available until after the award announcements. By February 2009,7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded, the General Field are four awards which are not restricted by genre. Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a full album if other than the performer. Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a single song if other than the performer. Song of the Year is awarded to the writer/composer of a single song, Best New Artist is awarded to a promising breakthrough performer who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist. The only two artists to win all four of these awards are Christopher Cross, who won all four in 1980, and Adele, who won the Best New Artist award in 2009 and the other three in 2012 and 2017. Other awards are given for performance and production in specific genres, as well as for other such as artwork. Special awards are given for longer-lasting contributions to the music industry, the many other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast
4.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
5.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
6.
Lou Adler
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Adler has produced and developed a number of iconic musical artists, including Carole King, The Mamas & the Papas and The Grass Roots. Kings Diamond-certified album Tapestry, produced by Adler, won the 1972 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, Adler was an executive producer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running theatrical film in history. He also discovered and produced albums and films for Cheech & Chong. In 2006, Adler was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements in music and he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 as the winner, alongside Quincy Jones, of the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Adler was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1933 and raised in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles and his career in music began as co-manager, alongside Herb Alpert, of Jan & Dean. Adler and Alpert transitioned from managing into songwriting, composing the song River Rock in 1958 for Bob Froggy Landers and The Cough Drops, in 1964, Adler founded Dunhill Records. He was President and chief producer of the label from 1964 to 1967. During this time, Adler signed The Mamas & the Papas to Dunhill, producing six top-five hits for the group, including California Dreamin, Dunhill also reached #1 on the pop charts with Barry McGuires single Eve of Destruction. Through additional efforts by co-producers and songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri, the label reached #8 on the pop charts with The Grass Roots single Lets Live for Today. Capitalizing on Dunhills success, Adler sold the label to ABC in 1967 and founded Ode Records, to which he signed Carole King, Spirit, Cheech & Chong, Scott McKenzie and others. Adler produced all of Kings albums on Ode, which include four Gold, one Platinum, Kings second album for Ode, Tapestry, sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, and is largely considered one of the greatest albums of all time. Adlers work on Tapestry garnered him two Grammy Awards in 1972, Record of the Year and Album of the Year, in addition to work with his own labels artists, Adler produced a number of live albums for Johnny Rivers. In June 1967, Adler helped to produce the Monterey International Pop Festival, as well as the film version, in 1975, Adler served as executive producer of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. After seeing The Rocky Horror Show at a theater in London, Adler bought the American rights to the show, presented it live in Los Angeles, the movie went on to become the longest-running theatrical film in history. In 1978, Adler directed the movie Up In Smoke, starring Cheech & Chong, the movie remains a cult hit, and in 2000 Adler recorded a commentary track along with Cheech Marin for the DVD release. His 1981 film, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, did not make an impact upon release. Also in 1981, Adler executive-produced the follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Adler was married to actress and singer Shelley Fabares in 1964 and produced several of her songs. They separated in 1966 but were not formally divorced until 1980, in 1973 he fathered his first son, Nic Adler, with actress Britt Ekland
7.
Carole King
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Carole King is an American composer and singer-songwriter. She is the most successful songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1952 and 2005. Kings career began in the 1960s when she, along with her then husband Gerry Goffin and she has continued writing for other artists since then. Kings success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry, which held the record for most weeks at No.1 by a female artist for more than 20 years. Her most recent non-compilation album was Live at the Troubadour in 2010 and her records sales were estimated at more than 75 million copies worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and she is the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to be so honored. She is also a 2015 Kennedy Center Honoree, King was born Carol Joan Klein in February 1942 in Manhattan, to a Jewish family. Her mother, Eugenia, was a teacher, and her father and they met in an elevator when they were students at Brooklyn College in 1936. He was majoring in chemistry while her mothers major was English and they married in 1937, during the heights of the Great Depression. Her mother dropped out to run the household while her father also quit college, with the economy struggling, he then took a more secure job as a firefighter in New York. After King was born, they remained in Brooklyn, eventually able to buy a small two-story duplex where they could rent the upstairs for income and her mother had learned how to play piano as a child and, after buying a piano, would sometimes practice. When Carol was four years old, her parents discovered she had developed a sense of relative pitch whereby she could name a note by just hearing it. Her father enjoyed showing off his daughters skill to visiting friends, I enjoyed making my father happy and getting the notes right. Carols mother then began giving her real music lessons when she was four years old and she would climb up on the stool and be raised as yet higher by sitting on a phone book. With her mother sitting alongside, Carol was taught music theory and elementary piano technique, including how to read notation, King wanted to learn as much as possible, My mother never forced me to practice. I wanted so much to master the popular songs that poured out of the radio, Carol began kindergarten when she was four years old, but after her first year she was promoted directly to second grade because she had an exceptional facility with words and numbers. In the 1950s she went to James Madison High School and she formed a band called the Co-Sines, changed her name to Carole King, and made demo records with her friend Paul Simon for $25 a session
8.
It's Too Late (Carole King song)
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Its Too Late is a song from Carole Kings 1971 album Tapestry. Toni Stern wrote the lyrics and King wrote the music and it was released as a single in April 1971 and reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts. Sales were later gold-certified by the RIAA, Billboard ranked Its Too Late and its fellow A-side, I Feel the Earth Move, as the No.3 record for 1971. The lyrics describe the end of a relationship without assigning blame. Music critic Dave Marsh noted the implicit feminism in the fact that the woman has left the man, Marsh also remarked on the maturity of the theme. Music critic Robert Christgau claimed that if theres a song about breaking up than Its Too Late. Marsh describes the melody as Tin Pan Alley and the arrangement as a cross between light jazz and L. A. studio craftmanship, Rolling Stone stated that Kings warm, earnest singing on the song brought out the songs sadness. According to author James Perone, the feeling of the song is enhanced by the work of Danny Kortchmar on guitar, Curtis Amy on saxophone. Kortchmar and Amy each have an instrumental solo, the sadness of the song is emphasized by the music being in a minor key. Perone also notes several melodic techniques King uses in the song helped make the song such a hit. She builds the melody out of syncopated rhythmic motifs which are modified and combined over the course of the song, in contrast to many songs in which the rhythmic phrases are simply repeated. Perone also believes that she makes the melody easy to remember by establishing the highest note in the melody by repeating it several times before the melody descends to the tonic and this establishes the highest and lowest notes in the listeners ear, aiding recognition. This effectively contrasts with the lyrics, which imply that the singer has fully accepted the end of the relationship, toni Stern told author Sheila Weller that she wrote the lyrics in a single day, after her love affair with James Taylor was over. The recording won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1972,1972, The Isley Brothers on their album Brother, Brother, Brother, reaching No. Kings version of Its Too Late peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it was on the Hot 100 as a double A-side with I Feel the Earth Move. Kings version of Its Too Late was gold-certified by the RIAA and its Too Late won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1972. Its Too Late is ranked No.469 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, together with its other A-side, it was named by the RIAA as No.213 of 365 Songs of the Century. Its Too Late was the third promotional, and fourth single released by Gloria Estefan on her fourth studio album Hold Me, Thrill Me
9.
Tapestry (album)
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Tapestry is the second album by American singer-songwriter Carole King, released in 1971 on Ode Records and produced by Lou Adler. It is one of the albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide. In the United States, it has been certified Diamond by the RIAA with more than 10 million copies sold and it received four Grammy Awards in 1972, including Album of the Year. The lead single from the album — Its Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move — spent five weeks at one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts. In 2003, Tapestry was ranked number 36 on Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. King wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album, several of which had already been hits for artists such as Aretha Franklins A Natural Woman. Three songs were co-written with Kings ex-husband Gerry Goffin, James Taylor, who encouraged King to sing her own songs and who also played on Tapestry, would later have a number one hit with Youve Got a Friend. Two songs were co-written with Toni Stern, Its Too Late, the album was recorded at Studio B, A&M Recording Studios during January 1971 with the support of Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, plus various experienced session musicians. Several of the musicians worked simultaneously on Taylors Mud Slide Slim album, the cover photograph was taken by A&M staff photographer Jim McCrary at Kings Laurel Canyon home. It shows her sitting in a frame, holding a tapestry she hand-stitched herself. The album remained on the Billboard charts for 313 weeks and it still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one by a female solo artist. The album has been listed on the Billboard 200 for over 300 weeks between 1971 and 2011, the longest by a solo artist. In terms of time on the charts, it ranks fifth overall, of all the albums by female artists to be certified Diamond, it was the first released, although it was not the first being certified. In 2010, Australian recording artist Marcia Hines recorded a tribute album, in March 2016 it was announced that Carole King would perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park, London on 3 July 2016. All songs written by Carole King except where noted, –4,13 Smackwater Jack –3,42 Tapestry –3,15 A Natural Woman –3,591999 CD reissue The album was reissued in 1999 on CD, with two previously unreleased bonus tracks. Out in the Cold –2,44 Smackwater Jack –3,212008 Legacy Edition In 2008, Sony/BMG, Epic, where You Lead is the song not included on the live disc. List of best-selling albums Tapestry at Radio3Net Tapestry at AllMusic
10.
You've Got a Friend
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Youve Got a Friend is a 1971 song written by Carole King. It was first recorded by King, and included in her album Tapestry, another well-known version is by James Taylor from his album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. His was released as a single in 1971 reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the two versions were recorded simultaneously in 1971 with shared musicians. Youve Got a Friend won Grammy Awards both for Taylor and King, dozens of other artists have recorded the song over the years, including Dusty Springfield, Michael Jackson, Anne Murray and Donny Hathaway. Youve Got a Friend was written by Carole King during the January 1971 recording sessions for her own album Tapestry, and James Taylors album Mud Slide Slim, King has stated that the song was as close to pure inspiration as Ive ever experienced. It was written by something outside myself, through me, according to Taylor, King told him that the song was a response to a line in Taylors earlier song Fire and Rain that I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. Kings album was recorded in an overlap with Taylors, and King, Danny Kortchmar, the song is included on both albums, King said in a 1972 interview that she didnt write it with James or anybody really specifically in mind. But when James heard it he really liked it and wanted to record it, Taylors version was released as a single, and reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. The James Taylor version also spent one week at the top of the Easy Listening charts, Billboard ranked it as the No.17 song for 1971. During the recording process, Taylor also offered to his Apple Records labelmate Mary Hopkin a chance to record the song, which she turned down, James Taylor and Carole King performed Youve Got a Friend together in 2010 during their Troubadour Reunion Tour. According to author James D. Perone, the themes include an expression of a universal, sisterly/brotherly, agape-type love of one human being for another. The reassuring lyrics have made the song popular with lonely people needing a boost of self-confidence. The songs messages of friendship having no boundaries and a friend being there when you are in need has universal appeal, for Taylor the lyrics had particular resonance due to the depression he had recovered from shortly before hearing King play the song. The music moves between a major and minor key, which according to music critic Maury Dean gives the song a sympathetic mood, in his review of Tapestry, Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau called Youve Got a Friend Carole Kings most perfect new song. He particularly praised how the melody and lyrics support each other, mojo considered the song to probably be the core of Tapestry. Allmusic critic Stewart Mason commented on the intimacy of Kings performance. Mason finds that the shyness of Kings voice gives her recording of the song a sincerity that he finds Taylors to lack, Mason also praises the depth and shading provided by the string instruments on Kings recording. Music critic Maury Dean describes Taylors performance style for the song as minimalist and folkish, Dusty Springfield recorded the song in early 1971 during the sessions for her third Atlantic Records album Faithful
11.
Grammy Award for Best New Artist
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The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, the award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as follows, For a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, note that this is not necessarily the first album released by an artist. It is sometimes asserted, with varying degrees of sincerity, that winning the award is a curse, as several award winners were never able to duplicate the success they experienced in their debut year. This viewpoint was expressed by former Starland Vocal Band member Taffy Danoff in a 2002 interview for VH1s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, so that was basically the kiss of death and I feel sorry for everyone whos gotten it since. The category is also notable for being the one of its kind in which a Grammy Award was vacated. This occurred in 1990 after it was revealed winners Milli Vanilli did not contribute their own vocals on their debut album, the award was revoked, but was not handed out to another artist. Of the 54 awards presented in the category since its inception, the honor has been presented to 25 solo female artists,18 duos or groups, between 1997 and 2003, all the winners were solo female artists. Also, from 1993 to 2005, no winner was a male artist. In 2006, John Legend broke this trend, which started with Marc Cohn in 1992. Only four artists have won both Best New Artist and Album of the Year in the year, Bob Newhart in 1961, Christopher Cross in 1981, Lauryn Hill in 1999. Of all the winners, only three have been country artists, in 1997, LeAnn Rimes became the first country artist to win the award. She was followed by Carrie Underwood in 2007 and Zac Brown Band in 2010, additionally,2017 marked the first time that two country artists were nominated in this category in the same year. 1984 marked the first time all of the nominees were from outside of the United States. Over the years, the eligibility rules for this category have changed several times, in 2010, Lady Gagas exclusion from the Best New Artist category caused the Recording Academy to change eligibility requirements for the next ceremony. She was ineligible for the nomination because her hit Just Dance had been nominated in 2008, the new rule stated that an artist can be nominated as long as that artist has not previously released an entire album and has subsequently not won a Grammy. To be eligible in the category of Best New Artist, the artist, duo, or group, Must have released a minimum of five singles/tracks or one album, but no more than 30 singles/tracks or three albums. May not have entered into this more than three times, including as a performing member of an established group
12.
Carly Simon
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Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician and childrens author. Over the course of her career, Simon has amassed 24 Billboard Hot 100 charting singles,28 Billboard Adult Contemporary charting singles, AllMusic called Simon, One of the quintessential singer-songwriters of the 70s. Simon has a vocal range. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for Youre So Vain in 2004 and awarded the ASCAP Founders Award in 2012. In 1995 and 1998, respectively, Simon received the Boston Music Awards Lifetime Achievement, Simon is the former wife of another notable singer-songwriter, James Taylor. Simon and Taylor have two children together, Sarah Sally Maria Taylor and Benjamin Ben Simon Taylor, who are also musicians, Carly Simon was born in New York City. Her father was Richard L. Simon, a pianist who often played Chopin and her mother was Andrea Louise Simon, a civil rights activist and singer. Her father was from a German Jewish family, while her maternal grandfather Frederick was a German-speaking Swiss and maternal grandmother a Spanish-Catholic from Valencia and her grandmother was sent to England and raised by nuns until the age of sixteen. In 2015, Simon stated that when she was seven years old and she stated, It was heinous, adding, It changed my view about sex for a long time. Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old, a psychiatrist tried unsuccessfully to cure her stuttering. Instead, Simon turned to singing and songwriting, I felt so strangulated talking that I did the natural thing, which is to write songs, because I could sing without stammering, as all stammerers can. Simon was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City and has two sisters, Joanna and Lucy, and a younger brother, Peter. They were raised as nominal Catholics, according to a book of photography Peter published in the late 1990s and she also briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College before dropping out to pursue music. Simons career began with a music group with her sister Lucy as the Simon Sisters. They had a hit in 1964 called Winkin, Blinkin and Nod. Their second album, Cuddlebug, followed later that year, the duo made one more album together, 1969s The Simon Sisters Sing the Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children, before Lucy left to get married and start a family. Later, Carly collaborated with eclectic New York rockers Elephants Memory for about six months and she also appeared in the 1971 Miloš Forman film Taking Off, playing an auditioning singer, and sang Long Term Physical Effects, which was included in the 1971 soundtrack for the film. Simon was signed by Jac Holzman to Elektra Records in 1970 and she released her self-titled debut album, Carly Simon, in March 1971
13.
Bill Cosby
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William Henry Bill Cosby, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and singer. Cosbys start in comedy began at the hungry i in San Francisco and was followed by his landing a starring role in the 1960s television show I Spy. He was also a regular on the television series The Electric Company during the shows first two seasons. Throughout the 1970s, Cosby starred in a number of films, after attending Temple University in the 1960s, he received his bachelors degree there in 1971. In 1973, he received a degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His dissertation discussed the use of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids as a tool in elementary schools. The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an affluent African-American family, Cosby has been the subject of publicized sexual assault allegations since about 2000. He surrendered to authorities on December 30,2015, and was released on $1 million bail, Cosby is scheduled to go on trial on or before June 5,2017. Cosby was born on July 12,1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he is one of four sons of Anna Pearl, a maid, and William Henry Cosby Sr. who served as a mess steward in the U. S. Navy. During much of Cosbys early childhood, his father was away in the U. S. armed forces, as a student, he described himself as a class clown. Cosby was the captain of both the team and the track and field team at Mary Channing Wister Public School in Philadelphia. Early on, though, teachers noted his propensity for clowning around rather than studying, at FitzSimons Junior High School, Cosby began acting in plays as well as continuing his devotion to playing sports. Cosby went on to Philadelphias Central High School, a magnet and academically rigorous university prep school where he played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track. In addition, Cosby was working before and after school, selling produce, shining shoes and he transferred to Germantown High School, but failed the tenth grade. Instead of repeating, he got a job as an apprentice at a repair shop, which he liked. In 1956, Cosby enlisted in the Navy, serving at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. During his four years in the Navy, Cosby served as a Hospital Corpsman working in therapy with Navy. He finished his equivalency diploma via correspondence courses and was awarded a track, there, he studied physical education while running track and playing fullback on the universitys football team
14.
Carlo Maria Giulini
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Carlo Maria Giulini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian conductor. Initially, he studied the viola and conducting, then, following an audition, as the war was ending, he hid until the liberation to avoid continuing to fight alongside the Germans. While in hiding, he married his girlfriend, Marcella, after the 1944 liberation, he was invited to lead what was then known as the Augusteo Orchestra in its first post-Fascist concert, and quickly other conducting opportunities came along. These included some of the major orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Londons Philharmonia Orchestra. His career spanned 54 years with retirement coming in 1998 and he died in Brescia, Italy, at 91 years of age. Giulini was born in Barletta, Kingdom of Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a born in Naples, but he was raised in Bolzano. Therefore, most of the neighbors spoke a dialect of German, and he recalled being transfixed by the town band. For Christmas in 1919, when he was five, Giulini was given a violin and he progressed rapidly with local instructors, Giulini undertook his studies there two years later, at the age of 16. He studied viola with Principe, composition with Alessandro Bustini, at the age of 18, in order to supplement his familys income, he auditioned for the viola section of the Orchestra dellAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, at the time Italys foremost orchestra. He recalled crying for joy when informed that he had won the audition, among the guest conductors he played under were Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Richard Strauss, Victor de Sabata, Fritz Reiner, Pierre Monteux, Igor Stravinsky, and Otto Klemperer. His first public performance was the First Symphony of Brahms under Walter, however, because of his commitment to pacifism and intense opposition to fascism and to Benito Mussolini, he did not fire his gun at human targets. In 1942, on a 30-day break in Rome, he married Marcella de Girolami, his girlfriend since 1938, posters around Rome with his face and name instructed that he be shot on sight. On the program was the Brahms Symphony No,4, which he had studied while in hiding. It became the work he conducted most frequently over the course of his career, Giulini began working with the Chamber Orchestra of Rome in 1944, and was made its music director in 1946. Also in 1944 he became assistant conductor of the RAI Orchestra in Rome, Four years later he was involved in the founding of the Milan Radio Orchestra, working with them from 1946 to 1954, as well as with the RAIs Rome orchestra. Although he conducted La traviata for Italian radio in 1948, conducting his first staged opera came in 1950 in Bergamo and it was La traviata and he returned the following year, this time with Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi alternating in the role of Violetta. Also, he revived several obscure operas, including works by Alessandro Scarlatti and his work in Bergamo came to the attention of Arturo Toscanini, when the latter heard his radio broadcast of Debussys La mer. Toscanini asked to meet the conductor, and the two men formed a deep bond
15.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, based in Chicago, was formed by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenure in 2010, the CSO is one of five American orchestras commonly referred to as the Big Five. Since Thomas, the orchestra has had ten music directors, including Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Sir Georg Solti, from 2010 to the present, the incumbent conductor is Riccardo Muti. In 1890 Charles Norman Fay, a Chicago businessman, invited Theodore Thomas to establish an orchestra in Chicago, under the name Chicago Orchestra, the orchestra played its first concert October 16,1891 at the Auditorium Theater. It is one of the oldest orchestras in the United States, along with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Hall, now a component of the Symphony Center complex, was designed by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and completed in 1904. Maestro Thomas served as director for thirteen years until his death shortly after the orchestras newly built residence was dedicated December 14,1904. The orchestra was renamed Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1905 and today, in 1905, Frederick Stock became music director, a post he held until his death in 1942. The orchestra was renamed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1913, subsequent music directors have included Désiré Defauw, Artur Rodziński, Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim. His contract has been renewed for five years, through the 2020 season. Many of these guests have also recorded with the orchestra, carlos Kleiber made his only symphonic guest appearances in America with the CSO, in October 1978 and June 1983. The three principal guest conductors of the orchestra have been Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado, the CSO holds an annual fundraiser, originally known as the Chicago Symphony Marathon, more recently as Radiothon and Symphonython, in conjunction with Chicago radio station WFMT. As part of the event, from 1986 through 2008, the released tracks from their broadcast archives on double LP/CD collections. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra maintains a home at Ravinia in Highland Park. The CSO helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival in August 1936 and has been in residence at the Festival every summer since, as of 2005, James Conlon holds the title of Ravinia music director. The Chicago Symphony has amassed an extensive discography, recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. These include several Classical Album of the Year awards, awards in Best Classical Performance in vocal soloist, choral, instrumental, engineering and orchestral categories. On May 1,1916, Frederick Stock and the orchestra recorded the Wedding March from Felix Mendelssohns music to A Midsummer Nights Dream for what was known as the Columbia Graphophone Company
16.
Gustav Mahler
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Gustav Mahler was an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century, born in Bohemia as a German-speaking Jew of humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the regular opposition. Late in his life he was director of New Yorks Metropolitan Opera. Mahlers œuvre is relatively limited, for much of his composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Some of Mahlers immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composers life, the Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances, the composers grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire, the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, from this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, always an intruder, never welcomed. Bernhard Mahler, the son and the composers father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt, halfway between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the center of todays Czech Republic. Bernhards wife, Marie, gave birth to the first of the couples 14 children, a son Isidor, two years later, on 7 July 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born. In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son, Gustav, to the town of Iglau,25 km to the south-east, the family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. All of these elements would later contribute to his musical vocabulary. When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents piano and he developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local Wunderkind and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded. In 1871, in the hope of improving the results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague. In 1874 he suffered a personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music, with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he work on an opera
17.
Leontyne Price
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Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, she rose to acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s. Time magazine called her voice Rich, supple and shining, it was in its capable of effortlessly soaring from a smoky mezzo to the pure soprano gold of a perfectly spun high C. A lirico spinto soprano, she was considered well suited to the roles of Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. After her retirement from the stage in 1985, she continued to appear in recitals. In October 2008, she was one of the recipients of the first Opera Honors given by the National Endowment for the Arts, Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi. Her father James worked in a mill and her mother Katie was a midwife who sang in the church choir. They had waited 13 years for a child, and Leontyne became the focus of intense pride, given a toy piano at the age of three, she began piano lessons with a local teacher. When she was in kindergarten, her parents traded in the family phonograph as the payment on an upright piano. At 14, she was taken on a trip to hear Marian Anderson sing in Jackson. Meanwhile, she visited the home of Alexander and Elizabeth Chisholm. Mrs. Chisholm encouraged the early piano playing. During World War II, Price worked as a maid in the Chisholms household where she was allowed to play the piano. Mrs. Chisholm noticed her singing voice and accompanied her in several early recitals. Aiming for a career, Price enrolled in the music education program at the all-black Wilberforce College in Wilberforce. Her success in the club led to solo assignments. She sang in the choir with another singer, Betty Allen. With the help of the Chisholms and the famous bass Paul Robeson and she won a scholarship and was admitted to the studio of Florence Page Kimball, who would remain her principal teacher and advisor throughout the 1960s
18.
Robert Schumann
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Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. Works such as Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and his writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded. In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wiecks daughter Clara, against the wishes of her father, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favor of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and had a concert career as a pianist. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to an asylum, at his own request. Diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness, Schumann was born in Zwickau, in the Kingdom of Saxony, the fifth and last child of Johanna Christiane and August Schumann. Schumann began receiving general musical and piano instruction at the age of seven from Johann Gottfried Kuntzsch, the boy immediately developed a love of music and worked at creating musical compositions himself, without the aid of Kuntzsch. Even though he often disregarded the principles of composition, he created works regarded as admirable for his age. At age 14, Schumann wrote an essay on the aesthetics of music and also contributed to a volume, edited by his father, titled Portraits of Famous Men. While still at school in Zwickau, he read the works of the German poet-philosophers Schiller and Goethe, as well as Byron and the Greek tragedians. His most powerful and permanent literary inspiration was Jean Paul, a German writer whose influence is seen in Schumanns youthful novels Juniusabende, completed in 1826, and Selene. Schumanns interest in music was sparked by seeing a performance of Ignaz Moscheles playing at Karlsbad and his father, who had encouraged the boys musical aspirations, died in 1826 when Schumann was 16. Neither his mother nor his guardian thereafter encouraged a career in music, in 1828 Schumann left school, and after a tour during which he met Heinrich Heine in Munich, he went to Leipzig to study law. In 1829 his law studies continued in Heidelberg, where he became a member of Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg. During Eastertide 1830 he heard the Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, in July he wrote to his mother, My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it Music and Law. During his studies with Wieck, it has claimed that Schumann permanently injured a finger on his right hand
19.
Erich Leinsdorf
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Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera throughout the United States and Europe. He also published books and essays on musical matters, Leinsdorf was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, and was studying music at a local school by the age of 5. He played the cello and studied composition, in his teens, Leinsdorf worked as a piano accompanist for singers. He studied conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and later at the University of Vienna, from 1934 to 1937 he worked as an assistant to the noted conductors Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival. In November 1937, Leinsdorf travelled to the United States to take up a position as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. As it turned out, his departure from Austria came a few months ahead of the Anschluss of March 1938. With the assistance of freshman Representative from Texas Lyndon B, johnson, he was able to stay in the United States, and became a naturalized American citizen in 1942. While at the Met, Leinsdorf was particularly noted for his Wagner performances, after the death of Artur Bodanzky in 1939. Leinsdorf was the conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1947 to 1955. He came to despair of what he saw as Rochesters insular musical culture, subsequently, he was briefly head of the New York City Opera, before resuming his association with the Met. In 1962 he was named director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His time in Boston produced many recordings for RCA, but was marked by controversy, as he occasionally clashed with musicians. On November 22,1963, during a Boston Symphony concert and he and the orchestra followed the news with a performance of the Funeral March from Beethovens third symphony. In 1969 Leinsdorf left the Boston post and he would continue to guest-conduct operas and orchestras around the world for the next two decades, being particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. He also served from 1978 to 1980 as principal conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and he died of cancer in Zürich, Switzerland, at the age of 81. Leinsdorf is also known for his arrangements of orchestral concert suites of music from major operas and they include, Claude Debussys Pelléas et Mélisande, Richard Wagners Parsifal, and Richard Strausss Die Frau ohne Schatten. Leinsdorf made numerous recordings throughout his career, including some 78-rpm discs for Columbia Records with the Cleveland Orchestra and he made a number of recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Capitol and later for Sheffield Labs
20.
Grace Bumbry
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Grace Melzia Bumbry, an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years. She was a member of a generation of singers who followed Marian Anderson in the world of classical music and paved the way for future African-American opera. Bumbrys voice was rich and sizable, possessing a wide range, in her prime, she also possessed good agility and bel canto technique. She was particularly noted for her fiery temperament and dramatic intensity on stage, more recently, she has also become known as a recitalist and interpreter of lieder, and as a teacher. From the late 1980s on, she concentrated her career in Europe, a long-time resident of Switzerland, she now makes her home in Salzburg, Austria. Bumbrys career in the world of opera was a remarkable and long one, initially, Bumbry began her career as a mezzo-soprano, but later expanded her repertoire to include many dramatic soprano roles. In the mid-1970s and 1980s she considered herself a soprano, but in the 1990s, as her career approached its twilight, she often returned to mezzo roles. She was one of the more successful singers who have made the transition from mezzo-soprano to high soprano, however, audiences and her operatic career spanned from 1960 to 1997. Grace Bumbry was born in St Louis, Missouri, to a family of modest means, in a BBC radio interview she recalled that her father was a railroad porter and her mother a school teacher. She graduated from the prestigious Charles Sumner High School, the first black high school west of the Mississippi and she first won a local radio competition at age 17, singing Verdis demanding aria O don fatale. One of the prizes for first place was a scholarship to the music conservatory, however, as the institution was segregated. Embarrassed, the contest promoters arranged for her to study at Boston University College of Fine Arts instead and she also studied with renowned teachers Marinka Gurewich and Armand Tokatyan. In 1958, she was a joint winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions with soprano Martina Arroyo, later that year, Bumbry made her operatic debut in 1960 when she sang Amneris at the Paris Opéra, that same year she joined the Basel Opera. She gained international renown when she was cast by Wieland Wagner as Venus at Bayreuth in 1961, at age 24, the first black singer to appear there, the cast also included Victoria de los Angeles as Elisabeth and Wolfgang Windgassen as Tannhäuser. The ensuing furor in the media made Bumbry an international cause célèbre and she was subsequently invited by Jacqueline Kennedy to sing at the White House. Having begun her career on such a high note, she achieved the rare feat of never falling back on small or comprimario roles. Bumbry made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in 1963, her La Scala debut in 1964, in 1964, Bumbry appeared for the first time as a soprano, singing Verdis Lady Macbeth in her debut at the Vienna State Opera. In 1963, she married the Polish-born tenor Erwin Jaeckel, in the 1970s, Bumbry—having recorded many soprano arias-began taking on more soprano roles
21.
Sherrill Milnes
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Sherrill Milnes is an American operatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera and his voice is a high dramatic baritone, combining good legato with an incisive rhythmic style. By 1965 he had made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera and his international debuts followed soon thereafter, and Milnes became one of the worlds prominent Verdi baritones of the 1970s and 1980s. Milnes was born in Downers Grove, Illinois and his mother and father were dairy farmers. As a child, he exhibited strong and varied musical talents, in addition to singing, he also played piano, violin, viola, double bass, clarinet, and tuba. Although his interests did not always lean toward opera, he spent many hours singing to his fathers cows and was found on a tractor practicing an operatic laugh. He attended North Central College before transferring to Drake University and Northwestern University, Milnes was awarded an honorary doctorate from North Central College in 2006. Milnes began his career with the Opera Company of Boston in 1960, joining Boris Goldovskys Opera Theater, from very early on in his career, Milnes was managed by well-known talent manager Herbert Barrett. In 1961, he made his debut at Ponselles Baltimore Opera as Gérard in Andrea Chénier. In 1964, Milnes made his first major breakthrough singing the role of Valentin in Gounods Faust at the New York City Opera, in 1967 he created the role of Captain Adam Brant in the world premiere of Marvin David Levys Mourning Becomes Electra at the Met. In 1964, Milnes also made his European debut singing Figaro from The Barber of Seville at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan, however, it was his performance as Miller in Verdis Luisa Miller in 1968 which catapulted him into international fame. In the early 1980s, Milnes experienced serious health problems. In 1984 he sang in the premiere of Act I of Sergei Rachmaninoffs opera Monna Vanna. Milnes was awarded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternitys Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award at its 1982 national convention in Urbana and he had been initiated into the Fraternitys Alpha Beta chapter at Drake University in 1954. The orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, performed in Central Park, in September 1996, Milnes was honored by the French government with the distinguished Chevalier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres. After 653 performances, he made his bow at the Met on March 22,1997 in Aida. In 1998, Milnes published a memoir, American Aria, Milnes is currently a professor emeritus in voice at Northwestern University. He is a recipient of Yale Universitys Sanford Medal and he is Artistic Advisor to Opera Tampa
22.
Ruggero Raimondi
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Ruggero Raimondi is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures. Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II and his voice matured early into its adult timbre, and at the age of 15, he auditioned for conductor Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, who encouraged him to pursue an operatic career. He began vocal studies with Ettore Campogalliani, and was accepted at age 16 as a student at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan and he then continued his studies in Rome, under the guidance of Teresa Pediconi and Armando Piervenanzi. After having won the National Competition for young singers in Spoleto. The young singer was very shy and stiff at first, but his early directors helped him, and he was soon an accomplished opera actor. His La Scala debut was as Timur in Turandot in 1968, his Metropolitan Opera debut was as Silva in Ernani in 1970, and his Covent Garden debut was as Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra in 1972. In 1975, he made his Paris Opera debut as Procida, followed by the role in Boris Godunov. In 1986, he first directed a production of Don Giovanni and he also made the television film Six characters in search of a singer. In 2008 he appeared in the Mini-Series Les Sanglot des Anges on French TV, in July 2011 he played the role of Pagano in Verdis I Lombardi alla prima crociata on the rooftop of the Duomo of Milan. The concert was organized to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Italian Unity by the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano. Raimondi website Profile of Raimondi dead link 01/11/10 Answers. com profile Ruggero Raimondi at the Internet Movie Database Interview with Ruggero Raimondi by Bruce Duffie, November 16,1987
23.
London Symphony Orchestra
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The London Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1904, is the oldest of Londons symphony orchestras. It was set up by a group of players who left Henry Woods Queens Hall Orchestra because of a new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services, the LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset, the LSO was organised on co-operative lines and this practice continued for the orchestras first four decades. The profit-sharing principle was abandoned in the era as a condition of receiving public subsidy for the first time. In the 1950s the orchestra debated whether to concentrate on work at the expense of symphony concerts. By the 1960s the LSO had recovered its position, which it has retained subsequently. In 1966, to perform alongside it in works, the orchestra established the LSO Chorus, originally a mix of professional and amateur singers. As a self-governing body, the orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works, at some stages in its history, it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London, among its programmes there have been large-scale festivals celebrating composers as diverse as Berlioz, Mahler and Bernstein. At the turn of the century there were no permanent salaried orchestras in London. The main orchestras were those of Covent Garden, the Philharmonic Society and he would then engage another player to deputise at him for the original concert and the rehearsals for it. The treasurer of the Philharmonic Society described the system thus, A and he sends B to the first rehearsal. B, without knowledge or consent, sends C to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, in 1904, the manager of the Queens Hall, Robert Newman and the conductor of his promenade concerts, Henry Wood, agreed that they could no longer tolerate the deputy system. After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with dozens of unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came to the platform and announced, Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies. Orchestral musicians were not highly paid, and removing their chances of better-paid engagements permitted by the deputy system was a financial blow to many of them. The principal movers were three players and a trumpeter, John Solomon. Busby organised a meeting at St. Andrews Hall, not far from the Queens Hall, invitations were sent to present and former members of the Queens Hall Orchestra
24.
Giuseppe Verdi
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Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian opera composer. Verdi was born near Busseto to a family of moderate means. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, whose works influenced him. In his early operas Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy and he also participated briefly as an elected politician. He surprised the world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida. The baptismal register, prepared on 11 October 1813, lists his parents Carlo, additionally, it lists Verdi as being born yesterday, but since days were often considered to begin at sunset, this could have meant either 9 or 10 October. Verdi himself, following his mother, always celebrated his birthday on 9 October, Verdi had a younger sister, Giuseppa, who died aged 17 in 1833. From the age of four, Verdi was given lessons in Latin and Italian by the village schoolmaster, Baistrocchi. After learning to play the organ, he showed so much interest in music that his parents provided him with a spinet. Verdis gift for music was apparent by 1820–21 when he began his association with the local church, serving in the choir, acting as an altar boy for a while. After Baistrocchis death, Verdi, at the age of eight, Carlo Verdi was energetic in furthering his sons education. something which Verdi tended to hide in later life. He picture emerges of youthful precocity eagerly nurtured by a father and of a sustained, sophisticated. Verdi returned to Busseto regularly to play the organ on Sundays, at age 11, Verdi received schooling in Italian, Latin, the humanities, and rhetoric. By the time he was 12, he began lessons with Ferdinando Provesi, maestro di cappella at San Bartolomeo, director of the music school. This information comes from the Autobiographical Sketch which Verdi dictated to the publisher Giulio Ricordi late in life, in 1879, written, understandably, with the benefit of hindsight, it is not always reliable when dealing with issues more contentious than those of his childhood. The other director of the Philharmonic Society was Antonio Barezzi, a grocer and distiller. The young Verdi did not immediately become involved with the Philharmonic, by June 1827, he had graduated with honours from the Ginnasio and was able to focus solely on music under Provesi. By 1829–30, Verdi had established himself as a leader of the Philharmonic, none of us could rival him reported the secretary of the organisation, Giuseppe Demaldè
25.
Colin Davis
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Sir Colin Rex Davis CH CBE was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom he was particularly associated were Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and he studied as a clarinettist, but was intent on becoming a conductor. He also held the musical directorships of Sadlers Wells Opera and the Royal Opera House and his guest conductorships included the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Dresden Staatskapelle, among many others. As a teacher, Davis held posts at the Royal Academy of Music, London, Davis was born in Weybridge, Surrey, the youngest of three sons among seven siblings, to Reginald George and Lillian Davis. The family was musical, and he was exposed to music from an early age and he recalled, I can still see Sargent conducting the first concert I ever attended. I can still hear Melchior in the scene of Siegfried – an old 78 playing on my fathers gramophone. … I can also remember the moment I decided to make music my life, I was 13 or 14 at the time and the performance was of Beethovens Eighth. I became totally involved, even obsessed by music, although I was frightfully enclosed by my likes and dislikes and his fellow-students included Gervase de Peyer, but Davis developed a greater interest in conducting. He was, however, not eligible for the class at the college. Following compulsory military service and completing his studies at college, Davis served as a clarinettist in the band of the Life Guards, stationed at Windsor, he had continual opportunities to attend concerts in London under conductors including Sir Thomas Beecham and Bruno Walter. In 1949, he began his career as a musician where he remained until 1957. His first conducting work was with the Kalmar Orchestra, which he co-founded with other students of the Royal College. He was subsequently invited to conduct the recently founded Chelsea Opera Group in Don Giovanni, in the early years of his career, he also took some engagements as an orchestral clarinettist. What seemed at first to be a full-time conducting appointment, for the Original Ballet Russe in 1952 and his first breakthrough came in 1957 when, at his third attempt, he secured the post of assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra. The chief conductor of the orchestra generally chose to conduct the standard repertoire pieces himself, Davis first found wide acclaim when he stood in for an ill Otto Klemperer in a performance of Don Giovanni, at the Royal Festival Hall in 1959. A year later, Beecham invited him to collaborate with him in preparing The Magic Flute at Glyndebourne, Beecham was taken ill, and Davis conducted the opera. After the Don Giovanni, The Times wrote, A superb conductor of Mozart declared himself last night at the Festival Hall…, mr Davis emerged as a conductor ripe for greatness. Neville Cardus in The Guardian was less enthusiastic but nevertheless considered that he had his triumphs in the performance
26.
Hector Berlioz
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Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts. Berlioz made significant contributions to the orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and he also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss. Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, Louis was an agnostic, with a liberal outlook, his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was a devout Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood, the other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life. Berlioz was not a prodigy, unlike some other famous composers of the time, he began studying music at age 12, writing small compositions. As a result of his fathers discouragement, he never learned to play the piano and he became proficient at guitar, flageolet and flute. He learned harmony from textbooks alone—he was not formally trained, the majority of his early compositions were romances and chamber pieces. While yet at age twelve, as recalled in his Mémoires, he experienced his first passion for a woman and he also began to visit the Paris Conservatoire library, seeking out scores of Glucks operas and making personal copies of parts of them. He recalled in his Mémoires his first encounter with Luigi Cherubini, Cherubini attempted to throw the impetuous Berlioz out of the library since he was not a formal music student at that time. Berlioz also heard two operas by Gaspare Spontini, a composer who influenced him through their friendship, and whom he later championed when working as a critic, from then on, he devoted himself to composition. He was encouraged in his endeavors by Jean-François Le Sueur, director of the Royal Chapel, in 1823, he wrote his first article—a letter to the journal Le corsaire defending Spontinis La vestale. Despite his parents disapproval, in 1824 he formally abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music. This work was rehearsed and revised after the rehearsal but not performed until the following year, Berlioz later claimed to have burnt the score, but it was re-discovered in 1991. Later that year or in 1825, he began to compose the opera Les francs-juges, the work survives only in fragments, the overture has been much recorded and is sometimes played in concert. In 1826 he began attending the Conservatoire to study composition under Jean-François Le Sueur and he also submitted a fugue to the Prix de Rome, but was eliminated in the primary round. Winning the prize would become an obsession until he won it in 1830
27.
Julian Bream
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Julian Alexander Bream, CBE, is an English virtuoso classical guitarist and lutenist. One of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, Bream was born in Battersea, London, and brought up in a musical environment in Hampton. Bream described his parents as both conventional suburban, but in another way very unusual and his father was a commercial artist, with an extraordinary talent for drawing and a natural musician according to Bream. Bream would lie under the piano in ecstasy when his father played and his mother, of Scottish descent, was a very beautiful woman who was often, according to Bream, not always there mentally and did not like music, but was a warm-hearted person. His grandmother owned a pub in Battersea, and Bream spent much time there during his youth and his father played jazz guitar and the young Bream was impressed by hearing the playing of Django Reinhardt, he would later call his dog Django. Bream began his association with the guitar by strumming along on his father′s jazz guitar at an early age to dance music on the radio. He became frustrated with his lack of knowledge of harmony, so read instruction books by Eddie Lang to teach himself and his father taught him the basics. On his 11th birthday, Bream was given a small gut-strung Spanish guitar by his father and he became something of a child prodigy, at 12 winning a junior exhibition award for his piano playing, enabling him to study piano and composition at the Royal College of Music. Aged 13, he made his debut recital at Cheltenham on 17 February 1947, in 1951. Leaving the RCM in 1952, Bream was called up into the army for national service and he was originally drafted into the Pay Corps, but managed to sign up for the Royal Artillery Band after six months. This required him to be stationed in Woolwich, which allowed him to moonlight regularly in London with the guitar, after three years in the army, he took any musical jobs that came his way, including background music for radio plays and films. Commercial film, recording sessions and work for the BBC were important to Bream throughout the 1950s and he played part of a recital at the Wigmore Hall on the lute in 1952, and since has done much to bring music written for the instrument to light. 1960 saw the formation of the Julian Bream Consort, a period-instrument ensemble with Bream as lutenist, the consort led a great revival of interest in the music of the Elizabethan era. Bream performed for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston, first solo, in 1959, in addition to master classes given in North America, Bream has conducted an international summer school in Wiltshire, England. Bream has recorded extensively for RCA Victor and EMI Classics and these recordings have won him several awards, including four Grammy Awards, two for Best Chamber Music Performance and two for Best Classical Performance. RCA also released The Ultimate Guitar Collection, a set commemorating his birthday in 1993. Despite his importance as a classical guitarist, however, many of his RCA recordings were out of print for several years, in 2011, RCA released My Favorite Albums, a 10-CD set of albums chosen by Julian Bream himself. A highly successful film, A Life in the Country, was first shown on BBC TV in 1976, in it, the narrator and Bream discuss his beginnings and his life as a concert guitarist
28.
Heitor Villa-Lobos
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Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music. Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time, a prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras. His preludes for guitar, written in 1940, are important works in the guitar repertory, Heitor Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro. His father, Raul, was a servant, an educated man of Spanish extraction, a librarian. In Villa-Loboss early childhood, Brazil underwent a period of revolution and modernisation, abolishing slavery in 1888. Villa-Lobos underwent very little of this formal training, after a few abortive harmony lessons, he learnt music by illicit observation from the top of the stairs of the regular musical evenings at his house arranged by his father. He learned to play cello, guitar and clarinet, when his father died suddenly in 1899 he earned a living for his family by playing in cinema and theatre orchestras in Rio. Around 1905 Villa-Lobos started explorations of Brazils dark interior, absorbing the native Brazilian musical culture and his earliest compositions were the result of improvisations on the guitar from this period. Villa-Lobos played with many local Brazilian street-music bands, he was influenced by the cinema and Ernesto Nazareths improvised tangos. For a time Villa-Lobos became a cellist in a Rio opera company, encouraged by Arthur Napoleão, a pianist and music publisher, he decided to compose seriously. In 1912, Villa-Lobos married the pianist Lucília Guimarães, ended his travels and his music began to be published in 1913. He introduced some of his compositions in a series of chamber concerts from 1915–1921. This was decided by 1916, the year in which he composed the symphonic poems Amazonas and these works drew from native Brazilian legends and the use of primitive folk material. European influences did still inspire Villa-Lobos, in 1917 Sergei Diaghilev made an impact on tour in Brazil with his Ballets Russes. That year Villa-Lobos also met the French composer Darius Milhaud, who was in Rio as secretary to Paul Claudel at the French Legation, Milhaud brought the music of Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, and possibly Igor Stravinsky, in return Villa-Lobos introduced Milhaud to Brazilian street music. In 1918, he met the pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who became a lifelong friend and champion. In about 1918 Villa-Lobos abandoned the use of numbers for his compositions as a constraint to his pioneering spirit
29.
Vladimir Horowitz
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Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-born American classical pianist and composer. He was acclaimed for his technique, his tone color. He is recognized as one of the greatest pianists of all time, Vladimir Horowitz was born in Kiev in the Russian Empire. There are unsubstantiated claims that Horowitz was born in Berdychiv, however, Horowitz was the youngest of four children of Samuil Horowitz and Sophia Bodik, who were assimilated Jews. Samuil was an electrical engineer and a distributor of electric motors for German manufacturers. Horowitzs grandfather Joachim was a merchant, belonging to the 1st Guild and this status gave exemption from having to reside in the Pale of Settlement. The 1904 date appeared in reference works during the pianists lifetime. Horowitzs uncle, Alexander, was a pupil and close friend of Alexander Scriabin, as a 10-year-old boy, it was arranged for Horowitz to play for Scriabin, who afterwards informed his parents that he was extremely talented. Horowitz received piano instruction from an age, initially from his mother. In 1912 he entered the Kiev Conservatory, where he was taught by Vladimir Puchalsky, Sergei Tarnowsky and his first solo recital was in Kharkiv in 1920. Horowitzs fame grew, and he began to tour Russia where he was often paid with bread, butter and chocolate rather than money. During the 1922–1923 season, he performed 23 concerts of different programs in Petrograd alone. In December 1925, Horowitz immigrated to the West, ostensibly to study with Artur Schnabel in Berlin, privately intending not to return, the 22-year-old pianist had stuffed American dollars and British pound notes into his shoes to finance his initial concerts. On December 18,1925, Horowitz made his first appearance outside his home country and he later played in Paris, London, and New York City. Horowitz gave his United States debut on January 12,1928 and he played Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No.1 under the direction of Sir Thomas Beecham, who was also making his U. S. debut. Horowitz later commented that he and Beecham had divergent ideas regarding tempos, Horowitzs rapport with his audience was phenomenal. In this debut performance, Horowitz demonstrated an ability to excite his audience. As Downes commented, it has been years since a pianist created such a furor with an audience in this city, in his review of Horowitzs solo recital, Downes characterized the pianists playing as showing most if not all the traits of a great interpreter
30.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
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Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the classical repertoire. Born into a family, Rachmaninoff took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 and had composed several piano, in 1897, following the critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No.2 in 1901. After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninoff and his family left Russia and resided in the United States, in 1942, Rachmaninoff moved to Beverly Hills, California. One month before his death from advanced melanoma, Rachmaninoff acquired American citizenship, the piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninoffs compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Rachmaninoff was born at an estate in the Novgorod province in north-western Russia. It is unclear if he was born in the estate of Oneg, near Veliky Novgorod, or Semyonovo, near Staraya Russa, the Rachmaninoffs had strong musical and military leanings. The composers grandfather on the line, Arkady Alexandrovich, was a musician. His father, Vasily Arkadyevich Rachmaninoff, was an army officer and he married Lyubov Petrovna Butakova, the daughter of a wealthy army general who gave her five estates as part of her dowry. The couple had three sons and three daughters, Rachmaninoff being their fourth child, Rachmaninoff began piano and music lessons organised by his mother at the age of four. She became impressed with her sons musical ability to recite passages from memory without playing a wrong note. Rachmaninoff later dedicated Spring Waters, Song No.32 to Ornatskaya, in 1882, Rachmaninoffs father had to auction off their Oneg estate due to his financial incompetence—the familys five estates had been reduced to one. Rachmaninoff described his father as a wastrel, a gambler, a pathological liar. The family moved to a flat in Saint Petersburg. When Rachmaninoffs course of lessons with Ornatskaya neared its end, she arranged for him to music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. That year, his sister Sofia died of diphtheria and his left the family, with their approval. In 1885, Rachmaninoffs sister Yelena died of pernicious anemia at eighteen and she was an important musical influence to Rachmaninoff who introduced him to the works of Tchaikovsky
