1.
Tennessee Theatre
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The Tennessee Theatre is a 1920s-era movie palace, located in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, at 604 South Gay Street. Clay Brown Atkin founded many buildings and was claimed to be the biggest mantel manufacturer in the world, Atkin set his attention on a tall building, originally known as the Knoxville Banking & Trust Building, a 10-story steel frame building at Gay Clinch. The tall building was completed in 1908 and for four years it was Knoxvilles tallest and first skyscraper, the Knoxville Banking & Trust Building because a prestigious address for Knoxville professional and in 1917 Atkin bought the skyscraper and honorarily named it after his wife, Mary Burwell. Measuring in at 166 feet in height, it was Knoxvilles tallest building until 1912, in the 1790s, the lot now occupied by the Burwell Building was home to a two-story log structure where the classes of Blount College— the forerunner of the University of Tennessee— were first held. Tennessee Enterprises hired the George A. Fuller Company because of his prominent works in New York City, the theatre was one of the first public buildings in Knoxville to have air conditioning. It also featured a beautiful Wurlitzer Organ, during its heyday, the theatre played host to a few world movie premieres, including So This is Love, and the adaptation of James Agees All the Way Home. After a refurbishment in 1966, the seating capacity was reduced to 1,545. The theater changed owners several times over its life, and eventually closed for the first time in 1977, thereafter it was open and closed intermittently for the remainder of the late 1970s. It was purchased by local radio company Dick Broadcasting in 1981, on April 1,1982, the theater was placed in the National Register of Historic Places. Portions of the 1999 film October Sky were filmed in and around Knoxville, the theater is home to the Knoxville Opera, and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. The Wurlitzer was installed in the Tennessee Theatre at the time of its opening in 1928 and it was built by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in North Tonawanda, New York, and cost about $50,000 at that time. The organist at the Tennessee is always advertised as the star of the show, the chambers on either side of the stage, which house the pipes, were replastered to fully ensure the protection and preservation of the restored instrument. The Wurlitzer returned to Knoxville in August 2001 and was re-installed over the course of the next month. Acclaimed theatre organist Lyn Larsen was involved in the configuration and tonal regulation of the organ, the Historical Tennessee Theatre was formed in 1996 and Dick Broadcasting donated the theater to the non-profit. It was designated The Official State Theatre of Tennessee, in 2001, the Foundation announced a campaign to completely restore and renovate the Theatre. The $29.3 million project was funded through public and private donations, the theatre closed for renovations in June 2003 to completely restore it to its original glamor. Integration of acoustic treatments into the auditorium and lobby. Seating capacity is now 1,645 people, the theatre reopened on January 14,2005 and presented a near sold-out season, and now offers a wide range of performing arts events and classic films to the public
2.
Nashville, Tennessee
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Nashville is the capital of the U. S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in the central part of the state. The city is a center for the music, healthcare, publishing, banking and transportation industries and it is known as a center of the country music industry, earning it the nickname Music City, U. S. A. Since 1963, Nashville has had a consolidated city-county government which includes six municipalities in a two-tier system. Nashville is governed by a mayor, vice-mayor, and 40-member Metropolitan Council, thirty-five of the members are elected from single-member districts, five are elected at-large. Reflecting the citys position in government, Nashville is home to the Tennessee Supreme Courts courthouse for Middle Tennessee. According to 2015 estimates from the U. S. Census Bureau, the balance population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Nashville, was 654,610. The 2015 population of the entire 13-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,830,345, the 2015 population of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was 1,951,644. The town of Nashville was founded by James Robertson, John Donelson, and it was named for Francis Nash, the American Revolutionary War hero. Nashville quickly grew because of its location, accessibility as a port on the Cumberland River, a tributary of the Ohio River. By 1800, the city had 345 residents, including 136 African American slaves and 14 free blacks, in 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named the permanent capital of the state of Tennessee, by 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the South, antebellum Nashville was a prosperous city. The citys significance as a port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important river. In February 1862, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops, the state was occupied by Union troops for the duration of the war. Within a few years after the Civil War, the Nashville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Confederate veteran John W. Morton, meanwhile, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and developed a solid manufacturing base. The post–Civil War years of the late 19th century brought new prosperity to Nashville and these healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, which can still be seen around the downtown area. Circa 1950 the state approved a new city charter that provided for the election of city council members from single-member districts. This change was supported because at-large voting diluted the minority populations political power in the city and they could seldom gain a majority of the population to support a candidate of their choice
3.
Andy Williams
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Howard Andrew Andy Williams was an American popular music singer. He recorded 44 albums in his career,15 of which have been gold-certified and he was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a variety show, from 1962 to 1971. The Andy Williams Show garnered three Emmy awards, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri, is named after the song he is most known for singing—Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancinis Moon River. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including 10.5 million certified units in the United States, Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, the son of Jay Emerson and Florence Williams. While living in Cheviot, Ohio, Williams attended Western Hills High School in Cincinnati and he finished high school at University High School, in West Los Angeles, because of his familys move to California. Williams had three older brothers—Bob, Don, and Dick Williams and his first performance was in a childrens choir at the local Presbyterian church. Moving to Los Angeles in 1943, the Williams Brothers sang with Bing Crosby on the hit record Swinging on a Star and they appeared in four musical films, Janie, Kansas City Kitty, Something in the Wind and Ladies Man. A persistent myth is that as a teenager the future singing star dubbed the singing for Lauren Bacall in the 1944 feature film To Have and Have Not, according to authoritative sources, including Howard Hawks and Bacall herself, this was not true. Williams and some female singers were tested to dub for Bacall, but those fears were overshadowed by the desire to have Bacall do her own singing despite her less-than-perfect vocal talent. This myth is refuted in Leonard Maltins Movie Guide in the entry for this film, when Bob completed his military service, Kay hired all four brothers to sing on the soundtrack to Good News. They made their debut in Las Vegas in 1947 and became an overnight sensation, within a year, they were the highest paid nightclub act in the world, breaking records wherever they appeared. Williams revealed in his memoir Moon River and Me that he and Thompson became romantically involved while on tour, the act broke up in 1949 but reunited for another hugely successful tour from the fall of 1951 through the summer of 1953. After that, the four went their separate ways. A complete itinerary of both tours is listed on the Kay Thompson biography website, Williams and Thompson, however, remained very close, both personally and professionally. She mentored his emergence as a singing star. She coached him, wrote his arrangements, and composed songs that he recorded. Using her contacts in the business, Thompson helped Williams land his breakthrough television gig as a singer for two-and-a-half years on The Tonight Show starring Steve Allen
4.
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
8.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
9.
Roberta Flack
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Roberta Cleopatra Flack is an American singer and musician. Flack lived with a family, born in Black Mountain, North Carolina to parents Laron LeRoy and Irene Flack a church organist, on February 10,1939 and raised in Arlington. Her interests in performing were inspired when she discovered the work of Mahalia Jackson, when Flack was nine, she started taking an interest in playing the piano, and during her early teens, Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. By age 15, she entered Howard University, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there and she eventually changed her major from piano to voice, and became an assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received an ovation from the Howard University faculty. Flack is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and was made a member of Tau Beta Sigma by the Eta Delta Chapter at Howard University for her outstanding work in promoting music education. Roberta Flack became a student teacher at a school near Chevy Chase, before becoming a professional singer-songwriter, Flack returned to Washington, D. C. and taught at Browne Junior High and Rabaut Junior High. She also taught piano lessons out of her home on Euclid St. NW. During this period, her career began to take shape on evenings and weekends in Washington. At the Tivoli Club, she accompanied opera singers at the piano, during intermissions, she would sing blues, folk, and pop standards in a back room, accompanying herself on the piano. Later, she performed several nights a week at the 1520 Club, around this time, her voice teacher, Frederick Wilkie Wilkerson, told her that he saw a brighter future for her in pop music than in the classics. She modified her repertoire accordingly and her reputation spread, Flack began singing professionally after being hired to perform regularly at Mr. Henrys Restaurant, on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC in 1968. Mr. Henry’s was owned by Henry Yaffe and it is still in operation at 6th and Pennsylvania Ave, SE. The atmosphere in Mr. Henry’s was welcoming and the club turned into a showcase for the music teacher. Her voice mesmerized locals and word spread, a-list entertainers who were appearing in town would come in late at night to hear her sing. As Yaffe recalled, “She told me if I could give her work there three nights a week, she would quit teaching. ”To meet Roberta’s exacting standards, Yaffe transformed the apartment above the bar into the Roberta Flack Room. “I got the oak paneling from the old Dodge Hotel near Union Station, I put in heavy upholstered chairs, sort of a conservative style from the 50s and an acoustical system designed especially for Roberta. Les McCann discovered Flack singing and playing jazz in a Washington nightclub and he later said on the liner notes of what would be her first album First Take noted below, Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion Ive ever known
10.
Phil Spector
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He is acknowledged as one of the most influential figures in pop music history. Spectors other chart-topping singles include Youve Lost That Lovin Feelin, The Long and Winding Road, from 2007 to 2009, Spector was the subject of a trial and retrial for the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson, of which he was convicted in the second degree. He is serving a sentence of 19 years to life. In 2008, The Washington Times named Spector the second greatest record producer in music history, in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #63 on their list of the Greatest Artists of All Time. In their 2003 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, they included the Spector-produced Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes, A Christmas Gift for You, according to BMI, Youve Lost That Lovin Feelin is the song that received the most US airplay in the 20th century. For co-producing Harrisons Concert for Bangladesh, Spector earned the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, in 1989, Spector was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a nonperformer. In 1997, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, harvey Phillip Spector was born on December 26,1939 to a first-generation immigrant Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City. His father, Ben, was an ironworker from Russia with the surname Spekter, Spectors father committed suicide on April 20,1949. In 1953, his mother moved the family to Los Angeles where she found work as a seamstress, having learned to play guitar, Spector performed Rock Island Line in a talent show at Fairfax High School, where he was a student. With three friends from school, Marshall Leib, Sandy Nelson, and Annette Kleinbard, Spector formed a group. During this period, record producer Stan Ross — co-owner of Gold Star Studios in Hollywood — began to tutor Spector in record production, in 1958, the Teddy Bears recorded the Spector-penned Dont You Worry My Little Pet, which helped them secure a deal with Era Records. At their next session, they recorded another song Spector had written—this one inspired by the epitaph on Spectors fathers tombstone. Released on Eras subsidiary label, Dore Records, To Know Him Is to Love Him reached number one on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on December 1,1958 and it was the seventh number-one single on the newly formed chart. Following the success of their debut, the signed with Imperial Records. Their next single, I Dont Need You Anymore, reached number 91 and they released several more recordings, including an album, The Teddy Bears Sing. But failed to reach the top 100 in US sales, after the split, Spectors career quickly moved from performing and songwriting to production. While recording the Teddy Bears album, Spector had met Lester Sill and his next project, the Spectors Three, was undertaken under the aegis of Sill and his partner, Lee Hazlewood. In 1960, Sill arranged for Spector to work as an apprentice to Leiber and Stoller in New York, Ronnie Crawford would become Spector’s first true recording artist and project as producer
11.
George Harrison
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George Harrison, MBE was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Although most of the Beatles songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and his songs for the group included Taxman, Within You Without You, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes the Sun and Something, the last of which became the Beatles second-most covered song. Harrisons earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt, Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry were subsequent influences. By 1965 he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, having initiated the bands embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, in his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founding HandMade Films in 1978. Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, Harrisons first marriage, to model Pattie Boyd in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Harrison, with whom he had one son, Harrison died in 2001, aged 58, from lung cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India and he left an estate of almost £100 million. Born in Liverpool, United Kingdom, on 25 February 1943, Harrison was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves Harrison and he had one sister, Louise, and two brothers, Harry and Peter. His mother was an assistant from a Catholic family with Irish roots. His future wife, the model Pattie Boyd, described Harrisons parents as quite short, an enthusiastic music fan, she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons windows. While pregnant with George, she listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India. Harrisons biographer Joshua Greene wrote, Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the music would bring peace. Harrison was born and lived the first six years of his life at 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool, the home had an outdoor toilet and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In 1949 the family were offered a house and moved to 25 Upton Green. In 1948, at the age of five, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School and he passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959. Though the institute did offer a course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars
12.
Eric Clapton
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Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important, Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazines list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and fourth in Gibsons Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. He was also named number five in Time magazines list of The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players in 2009, in the mid-1960s Clapton left the Yardbirds to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Furthermore, he formed rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood. For most of the 1970s Claptons output bore the influence of the style of J. J. Cale. His version of Marleys I Shot the Sheriff helped reggae reach a mass market, two of his most popular recordings were Layla, recorded with Derek and the Dominos, and Robert Johnsons Crossroads, recorded with Cream. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Claptons grief was expressed in the song Tears in Heaven, Clapton has been the recipient of 18 Grammy Awards, and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music, in 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers. Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, Fryer shipped off to war prior to Claptons birth and then returned to Canada. The similarity in surnames gave rise to the belief that Claptons real surname is Clapp. Years later, his mother married another Canadian soldier and moved to Germany, Clapton received an acoustic Hoyer guitar, made in Germany, for his thirteenth birthday, but the inexpensive steel-stringed instrument was difficult to play and he briefly lost interest. Two years later Clapton picked it up again and started playing consistently, Clapton was influenced by the blues from an early age, and practised long hours to learn the chords of blues music by playing along to the records. He preserved his practice sessions using his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder and his guitar playing was so advanced that, by the age of 16, he was getting noticed. Around this time, Clapton began busking around Kingston, Richmond, in 1962, Clapton started performing as a duo with fellow blues enthusiast David Brock in pubs around Surrey. When he was seventeen years old, Clapton joined his first band, an early British R&B group and he stayed with this band from January until August 1963. In October of that year, Clapton did a stint with Casey Jones & the Engineers. In October 1963, Clapton joined the Yardbirds, a rock and roll band
13.
Bob Dylan
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Bob Dylan is an American songwriter, singer, painter, and writer. He has been influential in music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when his songs chronicled social unrest, early songs such as Blowin in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement. Leaving behind his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single Like a Rolling Stone, recorded in 1965, Dylans lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture, initially inspired by the performances of Little Richard and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica, backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, since 1994, Dylan has published seven books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a musician, Dylan has sold more than 100 million records and he has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a citation for his profound impact on popular music and American culture. In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, in 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in St. Marys Hospital on May 24,1941, in Duluth, Minnesota and he has a younger brother, David. Dylans paternal grandparents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa, in the Russian Empire and his maternal grandparents, Ben and Florence Stone, were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902. Dylans father, Abram Zimmerman – an electric-appliance shop owner – and mother, Beatrice Beatty Stone, were part of a small, close-knit Jewish community. They lived in Duluth until Robert was six, when his father had polio and the returned to his mothers hometown, Hibbing. In his early years he listened to the radio—first to blues and country stations from Shreveport, Louisiana, and later and he formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by Little Richard and their performance of Danny & the Juniors Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone. In 1959, his high school yearbook carried the caption Robert Zimmerman, the same year, as Elston Gunnn, he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and clapping
14.
Billy Preston
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William Everett Billy Preston was an American musician whose work included R&B, rock, soul, funk and gospel. He then went on to fame as a solo artist, with hit pop singles including Thats the Way God Planned It, Outa-Space, Will It Go Round in Circles, Space Race. Preston was the musician to be credited on a Beatles recording other than the groups four members. Preston was born on September 2,1946 in Houston, when he was three, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Preston began playing piano while sitting on his mother Robbies lap. Noted as a prodigy, Preston was entirely self-taught and never had a music lesson. By the age of ten, Preston was playing organ onstage backing several gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, at age eleven, Preston appeared on Nat King Coles national TV show singing the Fats Domino hit, Blueberry Hill with Cole. Also at eleven, he appeared in the W. C, handy biopic starring Nat King Cole, St. Louis Blues, playing W. C. In 1962, Preston joined Little Richards band as an organist, in 1963, he played the organ on Sam Cookes Night Beat album and released his own debut album,16 Yr Old Soul, for Cookes SAR Records label. In 1965, he released the album The Most Exciting Organ Ever and performed on the rock, in 1967, he joined Ray Charles band. Following this exposure, several musicians began asking Preston to contribute to their sessions, Preston first met the Beatles as a 16-year-old in 1962, while part of Little Richards touring band, when their manager Brian Epstein organized a Liverpool show, at which the Beatles opened. The Washington Post explained their subsequent meeting, Preston is one of people referred to as the Fifth Beatle. At one point during the Get Back sessions, John Lennon proposed the idea of having him join the band. Preston played with the Beatles for several of the Get Back sessions, some of the material from which would later be culled to make the film Let it Be, Preston also accompanied the band for its rooftop concert, the groups final public appearance. In April 1969, their single Get Back was credited to The Beatles with Billy Preston, the credit was bestowed by the Beatles to reflect the extent of Prestons presence on the track, his electric piano is prominent throughout and he plays an extended solo. Preston also worked, in a limited role, on the Abbey Road album, contributing to the tracks I Want You. In 1978, he appeared as Sgt, pepper in Robert Stigwoods film Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was based on the Beatles album of the same name, and sang Get Back as the penultimate song. Signed to the Beatles Apple Records label, in 1969, Preston released the album Thats the Way God Planned It, produced by Harrison, Preston also worked on solo releases by Lennon and Ringo Starr
15.
Leon Russell
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Leon Russell was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling pop music records over the course of his 60-year career. His genres included pop, rock, blues, country, bluegrass, standards, gospel and he was awarded six gold records. His collaborations rank as some of the most successful in music history and he recorded 33 albums and at least 430 songs. He wrote Delta Lady, recorded by Joe Cocker, and organized and performed with Cockers Mad Dogs and his A Song for You has been recorded by more than 200 artists, and his This Masquerade by more than 75. As a pianist, he played in his years on albums by the Beach Boys. On his first album, Leon Russell, in 1970, the musicians included Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, One of his biggest early fans, Elton John said Russell was a mentor and inspiration. They recorded their album The Union in 2010, which earned them a Grammy nomination, Russell produced and played in recording sessions for Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Ike & Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, and others. He wrote and recorded the hits Tight Rope and Lady Blue and he performed at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 along with Dylan and Eric Clapton. In 2011, he was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Russell was born in Lawton, Oklahoma. He began playing the piano at the age of four and he attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Also at Will Rogers High School were Anita Bryant, who was two years older, and in the same 1959 class, David Gates, Russell and Gates played and recorded together as the Fencemen. Another student at Will Rogers at the time was Elvin Bishop, during this time Russell was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. He took the name Leon from a friend who lent him a fake ID to get into clubs he was too young to perform in. After moving to Los Angeles in 1958, Russell became a session musician, by the late 1960s, he had diversified, becoming successful as an arranger and songwriter. By 1970, he had become a recording artist. After performing country music under the name Hank Wilson in the 1970s and 1980s, Russell re-emerged in 2010 when Elton John called on him to record the album that became The Union. The album, which included contributions from Brian Wilson and Neil Young, brought renewed popularity to Russell, Russell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14,2011. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2011, according to his wife, Jan Bridges, Russell died quietly in his sleep at his suburban Nashville home on the morning of November 13,2016, at the age of 74
16.
Ravi Shankar
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Ravi Shankar, KBE, born Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury, his name often preceded by the title Pandit, was an Indian musician and a composer of Hindustani classical music. He was one of the exponents of the sitar in the second half of the 20th century. Shankar was born to a Bengali family in India, and spent his youth touring India and he gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray and his influence on the latter helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout the 1960s. Shankar engaged Western music by writing compositions for sitar and orchestra, from 1986 to 1992, he served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. He continued to perform until the end of his life, in 1999, Shankar was awarded Indias highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. Shankar was born on 7 April 1920 in Benares, British India, in a Bengali family and his father, Shyam Shankar, was a Middle Temple barrister and scholar from East Bengal. A respected statesman, lawyer and politician, he served for years as dewan of Jhalawar, Rajasthan. Shyam was married to Hemangini Devi who hailed from a village named Nasrathpur in Mardah block of Ghazipur district, near Benares. Shyam later worked as a lawyer in London, England, and there he married a second time while Devi raised Shankar in Benares, Shankar shortened the Sanskrit version of his first name, Ravindra, to Ravi, for sun. Shankar had six siblings, only four of whom lived past infancy, Uday, Shankar attended the Bengalitola High School in Benares between 1927 and 1928. At the age of ten, after spending his first decade in Benares, by the age of 13 he had become a member of the group, accompanied its members on tour and learned to dance and play various Indian instruments. Shankar was sporadically trained by Khan on tour, and Khan offered Shankar training to become a musician under the condition that he abandon touring. Shankars parents had died by the time he returned from the European tour, Shankar gave up his dancing career in 1938 to go to Maihar and study Indian classical music as Khans pupil, living with his family in the traditional gurukul system. He often studied with Khans children Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi, Shankar began to perform publicly on sitar in December 1939 and his debut performance was a jugalbandi with Ali Akbar Khan, who played the string instrument sarod. Shankar completed his training in 1944 and he moved to Mumbai and joined the Indian Peoples Theatre Association, for whom he composed music for ballets in 1945 and 1946. Shankar recomposed the music for the popular song Sare Jahan Se Achcha at the age of 25 and he began to record music for HMV India and worked as a music director for All India Radio, New Delhi, from February 1949 to January 1956. Shankar founded the Indian National Orchestra at AIR and composed for it, in his compositions he combined Western, beginning in the mid-1950s he composed the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, which became internationally acclaimed
17.
Ringo Starr
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Richard Starkey, MBE, known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He occasionally sang lead vocals, usually for one song on an album, including With a Little Help from My Friends, Yellow Submarine and their cover of Act Naturally. He also wrote the Beatles songs Dont Pass Me By and Octopuss Garden, Starr was twice afflicted by life-threatening illnesses during childhood, and as a result of prolonged hospitalisations fell behind in school. In 1955, he entered the workforce and briefly held a position with British Rail before securing an apprenticeship at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer, soon afterwards, he became interested in the UK skiffle craze, developing a fervent admiration for the genre. In 1957, he cofounded his first band, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, when the Beatles formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. After achieving moderate success with that band in the UK and Hamburg, he quit the Hurricanes and joined the Beatles in August 1962, Starr played key roles in the Beatles films and appeared in numerous others. After the bands break-up in 1970, he released several singles including the US number four hit It Dont Come Easy. In 1972, he released his most successful UK single, Back Off Boogaloo and he achieved commercial and critical success with his 1973 album Ringo, which was a top ten release in both the UK and the US. He has been featured in a number of documentaries and hosted television shows, since 1989, he has toured with twelve variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Ringos popularity brought forth a new paradigm and we started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named Starr the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. Starr, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988, was inducted for his solo career in 2015. Richard Starkey was born on 7 July 1940, at 9 Madryn Street, in Dingle and he is the only child of confectioners Elsie and Richard Starkey. Elsie enjoyed singing and dancing, a hobby that she shared with her husband, an avid fan of swing. Prior to the birth of their son, whom they nicknamed Ritchie, the couple had spent much of their time on the local ballroom circuit. Elsie adopted an approach to raising her son that bordered on fixation. Subsequently, Big Ritchie, as Starkeys father became known, lost interest in his family, choosing instead to spend hours drinking and dancing in pubs
18.
Klaus Voormann
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Klaus Voormann is a German artist, musician, and record producer. He designed artwork for bands including the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Wet Wet Wet. His most notable work as a producer was his work with the band Trio and his association with the Beatles dated back to their time in Hamburg in the early 1960s. Following the bands split, rumours circulated of the formation of a group named the Ladders, consisting of Lennon, Harrison, Starr, in the 1990s, he designed the artwork for the Beatles Anthology albums. In 2009, he released his solo album A Sidemans Journey. Klaus Voormann was born in Berlin, Germany, and raised in the suburbs of North Berlin and his father was a physician and he was one of six brothers. In his July 2010 interview on Talking Germany, Voormann discussed his dyslexia, the Voormann family were interested in art, classical music, and books, with a feeling for history and tradition. His parents decided that instead of studying music it would be best for Klaus to study art in Berlin at the Meisterschule für Grafik und Buchgewerbe. It was in Hamburg that Voormann first met Astrid Kirchherr, after an argument with her and Jürgen Vollmer one day, Voormann wandered down the Reeperbahn, in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, and heard music coming from the Kaiserkeller club. He walked in on a performance by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, the next group to play was the Beatles. Voormann was left speechless by the performances and he had never heard rock n roll before, having previously only listened to traditional jazz, with some Nat King Cole and Platters mixed in. Voormann invited Kirchherr and Vollmer to watch the performances the next day, after joining Voormann at a performance, the trio decided upon spending as much time as possible close to the group and immersing themselves in the music. During a break, Voormann tried to talk to Lennon, Lennon took little interest, and brushed Voormann off, suggesting that he talk to Stuart Sutcliffe, who, Lennon said, is the artist round here. Sutcliffe did not share Lennons attitude, and was fascinated by the trio and he later wrote that he could hardly take his eyes off them, and had tried to talk to them during the next break, but they had already left the club. Lennon dubbed the trio the Exies, as a joke about their affection for existentialism, Voormann was in a relationship with Kirchherr at the time, and lived just around the corner from her parents upper-class home in the Altona district of Hamburg. Kirchherrs bedroom, which was all in black, including the walls, after the visits to the Kaiserkeller their relationship became purely platonic, as Astrid started dating Sutcliffe, who was fascinated by her, although she always remained a close friend of Voormann. In the early 1960s, Voormann decided to leave Germany and move to London, Voormann lived with Harrison and Ringo Starr for a time before finding work as a commercial artist and renting an apartment of his own. He returned to Hamburg in 1963, where he founded a band with Paddy Chambers, Voormann and Gibson Kemp called Paddy, in 1966, Voormann returned to London and was asked by Lennon to design the sleeve for the album Revolver
19.
The Concert for Bangladesh (album)
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Besides the main performers, the musicians and singers on the recording include Badfinger, Jim Horn, Klaus Voormann, Alla Rakha, Jim Keltner, Jesse Ed Davis and Claudia Linnear. On release, The Concert for Bangladesh was a critical and commercial success, topping albums charts around the world. Together with the 1972 Apple concert film directed by Saul Swimmer, the album was reissued in 2005, in remastered form, featuring a new cover. Equally notable were appearances by fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and Bob Dylan, the media lavished praise on Harrison as an ambassador for rock altruism and hailed the event as proof that the Utopian spirit of the Sixties was still flickering, as Rolling Stone magazine put it. During his and Shankars press conference in New York on 27 July, Harrison and co-producer Phil Spector began working on the Bangladesh recordings on 2 August, and work continued there at the Record Plant for around a week. In his review of the Concert for Bangladesh film for NME, John Pidgeon described the scene as a nightmare of instruments, mikes, amps. An additional challenge for Kellgren had been the need to capture the dynamics of a show designed around professionally presented hit songs. With ongoing friendships a priority, Harrison had promised the main participants that, should turn out badly on 1 August. According to Madinger and Easter, he took early mixes of the tapes to Dylan for the latters approval. Of all the performers, only Leon Russell chose to intervene, necessitating a reworking of his Jumpin Jack Flash/Youngblood medley. The final mix down of the recordings, for album and film use, was carried out in Los Angeles in September, by A&M Studios engineers Norman Kinney, the second show was preferred when it came to selecting the best concert audio. Harrisons geniality as a host was well represented on the recordings, mr Bob Dylan – would become as integral to the legacy of the event as the music itself. Columbia/CBS were eventually mollified with the granting of tape distribution rights in North America, with the sound mix being completed in LA, Harrison spent most of September 1971 in New York working on the problematic film footage of the concert, before heading to London. Harrison returned to New York on 5 October and announced that the Bangladesh live album would be issued during the following month, at this time, with concert bootlegs now on the market, posters were placed in record shops bearing the slogan, Save a starving child. Of all the labels involved, only Columbia would make any money from The Concert for Bangladesh –25 cents on every copy sold, some retailers responded with shameless price gouging on the three-record set, apparently at Capitols recommendation. Following the protracted negotiations surrounding the albums distribution, Harrisons disaffection with EMI/Capitol was a key factor behind his signing with A&M Records in January 1976. The albums packaging was designed by Camouflage Productions partners Tom Wilkes and Barry Feinstein, having created the provocative, headline-filled picture sleeve for Harrisons Bangla Desh single earlier in the year, Wilkes was keen to capture real human compassion in this cover and poster image. The booklets back-cover picture showed an open guitar case filled with food and medical supplies, Wilkes intended this image to convey a sense of hope, signifying the completion of the task that the participants had set out to achieve for the refugees from East Pakistan
20.
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
21.
America (band)
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America is a rock band, formed in England in 1970 by multi-instrumentalists Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek, and Gerry Beckley. The trio first met as sons of U. S. Air Force personnel stationed in London, America achieved significant popularity in the 1970s and was famous for the trios close vocal harmonies and light acoustic folk rock sound. This popularity was confirmed by a string of hit albums and singles, the band came together shortly after the members graduation from high school, and a record deal with Warner Bros. Records followed. 1974s Holiday featured the hits Tin Man and Lonely People, History, Americas Greatest Hits, a compilation of hit singles, was released the same year and was certified multi-platinum in the United States and Australia. Peek left the group in 1977, and their fortunes declined. The group continues to record material and tour with regularity and their 2007 album Here & Now was a collaboration with a new generation of musicians who credited the band as an influence. America won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 15th Annual Grammy Awards, the group has also been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Peek left for the United States for an attempt at college during 1969. Soon after his return to the UK the following year, the three met and began making music together, starting out with borrowed acoustic guitars, they developed a style which incorporated three-part vocal harmony with the style of contemporary folk-rock acts, much like Crosby, Stills & Nash. Eventually the trio dubbed themselves America, chosen because they did not want anyone to think they were British musicians trying to sound American. They played their first gigs in the London area, including some highlights at the Roundhouse, through Ian Samwell and Jeff Dexters efforts they were eventually contracted to Kinney Records in March 1971 by Ian Ralfini and assigned to the UK Warner Brothers label. Their first album America was recorded at Trident Studios in London, Samwell was best known for being Cliff Richards lead guitarist as well as writing Richards 1958 breakthrough hit, Move It. Jeff Dexter, Ians roommate was involved with the business himself. He co-produced the album and became the trios manager, although the trio initially planned to record the album in a similar manner to The Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Samwell convinced them to perfect their acoustic style instead, the debut album America was released in 1971 to only moderate success, although it sold well in the Netherlands, where Dexter had taken them as a training ground to practice their craft. Samwell and Dexter subsequently brought the trio to Morgan Studios to record additional songs. One of them was a Bunnell composition called Desert Song, which Dexter previously demoed during studio rehearsals in Puddletown, the song had its public debut at The Harrogate Festival, four days later, to great audience response. After several performances and a TV show, it was re-titled A Horse with No Name, the song became a major worldwide hit in early 1972
22.
Joe Raposo
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He also wrote music for television shows such as The Electric Company, Shining Time Station and the sitcoms Threes Company and The Ropers, including their theme songs. Raposo was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, the child of Portuguese immigrant parents Joseph Soares Raposo. He was known as Sonny to his family, Joseph Sr. was an accomplished musician, classical guitarist, violinist, flutist, pianist, music teacher and Joes first music teacher. He was a graduate of B. M. C, durfee High School in Fall River. A1958 graduate of Harvard College, he was known for writing the scores for several Hasty Pudding shows there. He was also a graduate of LEcole Normale de Musique in Paris, Raposo worked in musical theater both before and after his work for the Childrens Television Workshop and Sesame Street, musical theater was where he first encountered future collaborator Jim Henson. Upon hearing Raposos musical skill, Schwartz claims in his autobiography he urged Raposo to give up piano bar playing in Boston, Raposos decision to take Schwartzs suggestion and move in 1965 eventually led him to his fated meeting with Henson, to Sesame Street, and toward international fame. Raposo was the supervisor and arranger of the original off-Broadway run of Youre a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Raposo is best known for the songs he wrote for Sesame Street from its beginning in 1969 through the mid-1970s, and also for a time in the 1980s. He wrote the Sesame Street Theme – various versions of which have opened every episode – as well as many of its most popular songs, such as Bein Green, C is for Cookie, Sing and ABC-DEF-GHI. A version of Sing recorded by The Carpenters in 1973 reached #3 on the Billboard top singles chart, for many years, most of the music used in Sesame Streets film segments was also written — and often sung — by Raposo. Aside from his contributions, Raposo performed several uncredited stock characters on Sesame Street during the early 1970s. According to his son Nicholas in a 2002 telephone conversation, Joe Raposo usually chose to portray anonymous, silly characters in these segments and he also did voice-overs for a few animated segments. The Sesame Street character Don Music maintained a framed and autographed glamour photograph of Raposo on the wall of his Muppet atelier, Raposo was very fond of sweets according to many who knew him. One favorite food of his was cookies, Raposo was actually the first puppeteer to operate Cookie Monster on television for Sesame Street. His widow Pat Collins-Sarnoff celebrated his life with a milk and cookies reception, one of Raposos Sesame Street compositions, The Square Song, was used in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 1971, Childrens Television Workshop created the show The Electric Company, Raposo served as the musical director of the show for its first three seasons, and contributed songs throughout the shows run, until 1977. Raposo performed joke characters for film segments on The Electric Company similar in style to what he had done on Sesame Street, although primarily known for work in live-action and animated childrens television, Joe Raposo actually aspired to become a Broadway musical composer
23.
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
24.
Rita Moreno
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Rita Dolores Moreno is a Puerto Rican-American actress, dancer and singer. Moreno is one of twelve performers to have won all four major annual American entertainment awards, an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and she has also won numerous other awards, including various lifetime achievement awards. Moreno also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Americas highest civilian honor, Moreno, was born Rosa Dolores Alverío in Humacao, Puerto Rico, to Rosa María, a seamstress, and Francisco José Paco Alverío, a farmer. Moreno, whose mother was 17 at the time of her birth, was raised in nearby Juncos, Ritas mother moved to New York City in 1936, taking her daughter, but not her son, Ritas younger brother, Francisco. Rita later adopted the surname of her first stepfather, Edward Moreno, Rita began her first dancing lessons soon after arriving in New York with a Spanish dancer known as Paco Cansino, who was a paternal uncle of film star Rita Hayworth. When she was 11 years old, she lent her voice to Spanish language versions of American films and she had her first Broadway role—as Angelina in Skydrift—by the time she was 13, which caught the attention of Hollywood talent scouts. Moreno acted steadily in films throughout the 1950s, usually in roles, including in The Toast of New Orleans. In March 1954, Moreno was featured on the cover of Life Magazine with the caption Rita Moreno, An Actresss Catalog of Sex, Moreno disliked most of her film work during this period, as she felt the roles she was given were very stereotypical. One exception was her role in the film version of The King. Moreno won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for that role and she did appear in one film during her self-imposed exile from Hollywood – Cry of Battle – although it had been filmed directly before and after she won the Academy Award. She made her return to film in The Night of the Following Day, another notable role was in the hit film The Four Seasons. She has continued to work in film since then, including a voice role in the 2014 film Rio 2. From 1971 to 1977, Moreno was a main cast member on the PBS childrens series The Electric Company and she screamed the shows opening line, HEY, YOU GUYS. Her roles on the show included Millie the Helper, the naughty little girl Pandora, and Otto, One notable guest appearance was a three-episode arc on The Rockford Files in 1977 as former call girl Rita Kapcovic. For her portrayal, Moreno won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress - Drama Series, as a result, she became the third person to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony, and an Emmy. She was a regular on the first three seasons of the version of Nine to Five during the early 1980s. During the mid-1990s, Moreno provided the voice of Carmen Sandiego on Foxs animated series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego. In the late 1990s, she gained exposure to a new generation of viewers when she played Sister Pete and she made a guest appearance on The Nanny as Coach Stone, Maggies tyrannical gym teacher, whom Fran Fine also remembered from her school as Ms. Wickavich
25.
Georg Solti
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Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and his career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis, and being of Jewish background he fled the increasingly restrictive anti-semitic laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. After the war, Solti was appointed director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946. In 1952 he moved to the Frankfurt Opera, where he remained in charge for nine years and he took West German citizenship in 1953. In 1961 he became director of the Covent Garden Opera Company. During his ten-year tenure, he introduced changes that raised standards to the highest international levels, under his musical directorship the status of the company was recognised with the grant of the title the Royal Opera. He became a British citizen in 1972, in 1969 Solti became music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. He relinquished the position in 1991 and became the music director laureate. Known in his early years for the intensity of his music making and he recorded many works two or three times at various stages of his career, and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The most famous of his recordings is probably Deccas complete set of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen, Soltis Ring has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBCs Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was repeatedly honoured by the industry with awards throughout his career. Solti also received the Academy’s 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award, Solti was born György Stern on Maros utca, in the Hegyvidék district of the Buda side of Budapest. He was the younger of the two children of Móricz Stern and his wife Teréz, née Rosenbaum, both of whom were Jewish, in the aftermath of the First World War it became the accepted practice in Hungary for citizens with Germanic surnames to adopt Hungarian ones. The right wing regime of Admiral Horthy enacted a series of Hungarianisation laws, Mor Stern, a self-employed merchant, felt no need to change his surname, but thought it prudent to change that of his children. He renamed them after Solt, a town in central Hungary. His sons given name, György, was acceptably Hungarian and was not changed, Solti described his father as a kind, sweet man who trusted everyone. He shouldnt have, but he did, jews in Hungary were tremendously patriotic
26.
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
27.
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
28.
Symphony No. 7 (Mahler)
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Symphony No.7 by Gustav Mahler was written in 1904–05, with repeated revisions to the scoring. It is sometimes referred to by the title Song of the Night, although the symphony is often described as being in the key of E minor, its tonal scheme is more complicated. The symphonys first movement moves from B minor to E minor, thus, as Dika Newlin has pointed out, in this symphony Mahler returns to the ideal of progressive tonality which he had abandoned in the Sixth. The complexity of the tonal scheme was analysed in terms of interlocking structures by Graham George. In 1904, Mahler was enjoying great success as a conductor. He then worked on the Seventh intensively the following summer, claiming to take just four weeks to complete the first, third and fifth movements. The completed score was dated 15 August 1905, and the orchestration was finished in 1906,6, while rehearsing for its premiere in May 1906. The Seventh had its premiere on 19 September 1908, in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic, the three years which elapsed between the completion of the score and the symphonys premiere witnessed dramatic changes in Mahlers life and career. The symphony is scored for the following orchestra, the duration of the symphony is around 80 minutes. The work is in five movements, The movement is in sonata form and it begins with a slow introduction in B minor, launched by a dark melody played by a tenor horn. The accompaniment rhythm was said to have come to Mahler whilst rowing on the lake at Maiernigg after a period of compositional drought, the principal theme, presented by horns in unison in E minor, is accompanied similarly, though much faster and in a higher register. The second theme is presented by violins, accompanied by sweeping cello arpeggios. This theme is infected with chromatic sequences, at one point the violins reach an F♯7. The exposition is wrapped up with a theme from the introduction. This section has been interpreted as a religious vision and it has also been asserted that this section contains the chains of fourths that impressed Arnold Schoenberg. After this section plays itself out, a harp glissando propels the music into a new section based on the second theme, but before a climax can be articulated, the final cadence is interrupted by the music from the introduction and the baritone horn arioso. This leads into the recapitulation, but before the recapitulation occurs. In fact, the trumpet for the works premiere even confronted Mahler
29.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
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Opera, Lieder and oratorio in German, Italian or English came alike to him, yet he brought to each a precision and individuality that bespoke his perceptive insights into the idiom at hand. In addition, he recorded in French, Russian, Hebrew, described as one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century and the most influential singer of the 20th Century. Fischer-Dieskau was ranked the second greatest singer of the century by Classic CD Top Singers of the Century Critics Poll, the French dubbed him Le miracle Fischer-Dieskau and Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf called him a born god who has it all. At his peak, he was admired for his interpretive insights and exceptional control of his soft. Despite the small size of his baritone voice, Fischer-Dieskau also performed and recorded a great many operatic roles. He dominated both the opera and concert platform for over thirty years, Albert Dietrich Fischer was born in 1925 in Berlin to Albert Fischer, a school principal, and Theodora Fischer, a teacher. In 1934, his father added the hyphenated Dieskau to the family name and he started singing as a child and began formal voice lessons at the age of 16. He was captured in Italy in 1945 and spent two years as an American prisoner of war, during that time, he sang Lieder in POW camps to homesick German soldiers. He had a brother who was sent to an institution by the Nazi regime. His family home was destroyed during the war. In 1947, Fischer-Dieskau returned to Germany where he launched his career as a singer in Badenweiler. He gave his first Lieder recital in Leipzig in the autumn of 1947, in the autumn of 1948, Fischer-Dieskau was engaged as principal lyric baritone at the Städtische Oper Berlin, making his debut as Posa in Verdis Don Carlos under Ferenc Fricsay. This company, known after 1961 as the Deutsche Oper, would remain his home until his retirement from the operatic stage. Subsequently, Fischer-Dieskau made guest appearances at the houses in Vienna. After 1949 he made tours in the Netherlands, Switzerland, France. In 1951, he made his Salzburg Festival concert debut with Mahlers Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen under Wilhelm Furtwängler and that year, he also made his British debut, at the Royal Albert Hall in London during the Festival of Britain. He appeared in Frederick Deliuss A Mass of Life, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham and he made regular opera appearances at the Bayreuth Festival between 1954 and 1961 and at the Salzburg Festival from 1956 until the early 1970s. As an opera singer, Fischer-Dieskau performed mainly in Berlin and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and his first tour in the United States took place in 1955, when he was 29, with his concert debut in Cincinnati on 15 April and 16 April
30.
Johannes Brahms
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his life in Vienna. Brahms composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works and he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished, Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, the diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahmss works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs, Brahmss father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of Heide in Holstein. The family name was sometimes spelt Brahmst or Brams, and derives from Bram. Against the familys will, Johann Jakob pursued a career in music, arriving in Hamburg in 1826, where he work as a jobbing musician. In 1830, he married Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, a seamstress 17 years older than he was, in the same year he was appointed as a horn player in the Hamburg militia. Eventually he became a player in the Hamburg Stadttheater and the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. As Johann Jakob prospered, the family moved over the years to better accommodation in Hamburg. Johannes Brahms was born in 1833, his sister Elisabeth had been born in 1831, Fritz also became a pianist, overshadowed by his brother he emigrated to Caracas in 1867, and later returned to Hamburg as a teacher. Johann Jakob gave his son his first musical training, Johannes also learnt to play the violin, from 1840 he studied piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel. Cossel complained in 1842 that Brahms could be such a good player, at the age of 10, Brahms made his debut as a performer in a private concert including Beethovens quintet for piano and winds Op.16 and a piano quartet by Mozart. He also played as a solo work an étude of Henri Herz, by 1845 he had written a piano sonata in G minor
31.
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
32.
BBC Symphony Orchestra
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The BBC Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, the BBC SO is the principal orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Among its guest conductors in its first years was Arturo Toscanini, after Boults retirement from the BBC in 1950, the orchestra went through a fallow period. Boults successor, Sir Malcolm Sargent, was popular with the public but had poor rapport with his players, as a result of initiatives begun in the 1960s by the BBC controller of music William Glock, performing standards gradually began to rise. Under Andrew Davis in the 1990s and Jiří Bělohlávek in the 2000s the orchestra prospered, by the second decade of the 21st century the BBC SO was once again regarded by critics as of first-class status. Almost from its beginning in November 1922 the BBC had started broadcasting from its 2LO transmitter with its own musical ensembles. The first such groups were the 2LO Dance Band, the 2LO Military Band, the 2LO Light Orchestra, and the 2LO Octette, all of which began broadcasting in 1923. No concert promoter would co-operate with the BBC, regarding it as a dangerous competitor, John Reith, the General Manager of the BBC, invited the opera companys musical director, Percy Pitt, to become the BBCs part-time musical adviser from May 1923. Later in the same year Pitt conducted the BBCs first broadcast symphony concert, Pitt expanded the regular eight-piece studio ensemble to form The Wireless Orchestra of 18 players, augmented to 37 for important broadcasts. There was no thought at this stage that the BBC would maintain a full-scale symphonic orchestra of up to 100 players, with Reiths approval, Pitt engaged various orchestras for a BBC concert series in 1924 at the Methodist Central Hall Westminster. In 1924 the Wireless Orchestra, by then comprising 22 players, was contracted for six concerts a week, in 1927 the BBC and Covent Garden collaborated in a series of public concerts with an orchestra of 150 players under conductors including Richard Strauss and Siegfried Wagner. Although the orchestra was large, it was not good, the BBC attempted to stop its contracted players sending deputies to rehearsals and even to concerts, but was unsuccessful. In January 1928 The Musical Times protested, The B. B. C, … This year at Queens Hall they have assembled an orchestra which sounds as if it were composed in great part of substitutes. In 1927 the BBC took over the responsibility for the Promenade Concerts, at first Henry Wood, the founding conductor, persuaded the corporation to engage his Queens Hall Orchestra for each Prom season, from 1930 onwards, the BBC provided the orchestra. The inadequacy of the BBCs players, and also of the established London orchestras, was shown up by the Berlin Philharmonic, under Wilhelm Furtwängler, in two concerts in 1927. These, and later concerts by the orchestra, gained plaudits from the public and music critics at the expense of the London orchestras. The chief music critic of The Times, Frank Howes, later commented, was electrified when it heard the disciplined precision of the Berlin Philharmonic. This apparently was how an orchestra could, and, therefore, among those determined that London should have a permanent orchestra of similar excellence were Reith and the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham
33.
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
34.
Benvenuto Cellini
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Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, draftsman, soldier, musician, and artist who also wrote a famous autobiography and poetry. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism, Benvenuto Cellini was born in Florence, in present-day Italy. His parents were Giovanni Cellini and Maria Lisabetta Granacci and they were married for eighteen years before the birth of their first child. Benvenuto was the child of the family. At the age of sixteen, Benvenuto had already attracted attention in Florence by taking part in an affray with youthful companions and he was banished for six months and lived in Siena, where he worked for a goldsmith named Fracastoro. From Siena he moved to Bologna, where he became an accomplished flute player. After a visit to Pisa and two periods of living in Florence, he moved to Rome, at the age of nineteen. His first works in Rome were a silver casket, silver candlesticks, and a vase for the bishop of Salamanca, which won him the approval of Pope Clement VII. Another celebrated work from Rome is the medallion of Leda and the Swan executed for the Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino. He also took up the flute again, and was appointed one of the court musicians. In the attack on Rome by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, according to his own accounts, he himself shot and injured Philibert of Châlon, prince of Orange. His bravery led to a reconciliation with the Florentine magistrates, from Florence he went to the court of the duke of Mantua, and then back to Florence. On returning to Rome, he was employed in the working of jewellery and in the execution of dies for private medals, in 1529 his brother Cecchino killed a Corporal of the Roman Watch and in turn was wounded by an arquebusier, later dying of his wound. Soon afterward Benvenuto killed his brothers killer – an act of blood revenge, Cellini fled to Naples to shelter from the consequences of an affray with a notary, Ser Benedetto, whom he had wounded. Through the influence of cardinals, Cellini obtained a pardon. He found favor with the new pope, Paul III, notwithstanding a fresh homicide during the three days after the death of Pope Clement VII in September 1534. The fourth victim was a goldsmith, Pompeo of Milan. The plots of Pier Luigi Farnese led to Cellinis retreat from Rome to Florence and Venice, at the age of 37, upon returning from a visit to the French court, he was imprisoned on a charge of having embezzled the gems of the popes tiara during the war
