1.
Order of the British Empire
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There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of, the order. Recommendations for appointments to the Order of the British Empire were at first made on the nomination of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions of the Empire, nominations continue today from Commonwealth countries that participate in recommending British honours. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. Honorary knighthoods are appointed to citizens of nations where the Queen is not head of state, occasionally, honorary appointees are, incorrectly, referred to as Sir or Dame – Bill Gates or Bob Geldof, for example. In particular, King George V wished to create an Order to honour many thousands of those who had served in a variety of non-combatant roles during the First World War, when first established, the Order had only one division. However, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was divided into Military. The Orders motto is For God and the Empire, at the foundation of the Order, the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the British Empire Medal, in addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all members of the Order. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three, Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Mary, and the current Grand Master, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross,845 Knights and Dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the number of members of the fourth and fifth classes. Foreign recipients, as members, do not contribute to the numbers restricted to the Order as full members do. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, and so the rank of Knight/Dame Commander of the Order is the lowest rank of damehood, and second-lowest of knighthood. Because of this, Dame Commander is awarded in circumstances in which a man would be created a Knight Bachelor, for example, by convention, female judges of the High Court of Justice are created Dames Commander after appointment, while male judges become Knights Bachelor. The Order has six officials, the Prelate, the Dean, the Secretary, the Registrar, the King of Arms, the Bishop of London, a senior bishop in the Church of England, serves as the Orders Prelate. The Dean of St Pauls is ex officio the Dean of the Order, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, as are many other heraldic officers. From time to time, individuals are appointed to a higher grade within the Order, thereby ceasing usage of the junior post-nominal letters
2.
Uxbridge
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Uxbridge is a town in west London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Fifteen miles west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbridge historically formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex, as part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century it expanded and increased in population, becoming a municipal borough in 1955, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. It is a significant retail and commercial centre, and is the location of Brunel University, the town is close to the boundary with Buckinghamshire, which is locally the River Colne. Several historical events have taken place in and around the town, the public house at the centre of those events, since renamed the Crown & Treaty, still stands. Uxbridge also houses the Battle of Britain Bunker, from where the air defence of the south-east of England was coordinated during the Battle of Britain. Situated in RAF Uxbridge, the No.11 Group Operations Room within the bunker played a crucial rule during the battle and was used during the D-Day landings. The wards of Uxbridge North and Uxbridge South are used for the election of councillors to Hillingdon Council, the 2011 Census recorded population figures of 12,048 for Uxbridge North and 13,979 for Uxbridge South. The name of the town is derived from Wixans Bridge, which was sited near the bottom of Oxford Road where a road bridge now stands, beside the Swan. The Wixan were a 7th-century Saxon tribe from Lincolnshire who also began to settle in what became Middlesex, anglo-Saxons began to settle and farm in the area of Uxbridge in the 5th century, clearing the dense woodland and remaining there for around 500 years. Two other places in Middlesex bore the name of the Wixan, Uxendon, a now preserved only in the street names of Uxendon Hill and Crescent in Harrow. Archaeologists found Bronze Age remains and medieval remains during the construction of The Chimes shopping centre, Uxbridge is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of the 11th century, but a hundred years later the existing church, St Margarets, was built. The town appears in records from 1107 as Woxbrigge, and became part of the Elthorne Hundred with other settlements in the area. Charles I met with representatives of Parliament at the Crown Inn in Uxbridge in 1645, the town had been chosen as it was located between the Royal headquarters at Oxford and the Parliamentary stronghold of London. The covered market was built in 1788, replacing a building constructed in 1561, in the early 19th century, Uxbridge had an unsavoury reputation, the jurist William Arabin said of its residents They will steal the very teeth out of your mouth as you walk through the streets. For about 200 years most of Londons flour was produced in the Uxbridge area, the Grand Junction Canal opened in 1794, linking Uxbridge with Birmingham. By 1800 Uxbridge had become one of the most important market towns in Middlesex, the development of Uxbridge declined after the opening of the Great Western Railway in 1838, which passed through West Drayton. A branch line to Uxbridge was not built until 1904, harmans Brewery was established in Uxbridge by George Harman in 1763, and moved into its new headquarters in Uxbridge High Street in 1875
3.
Middlesex
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Middlesex is a historic county in south-east England. It is now entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and its area is now also mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in other neighbouring ceremonial counties. It was established in the Anglo-Saxon system from the territory of the Middle Saxons, the largely low-lying county, dominated by clay in its north and alluvium on gravel in its south, was the second smallest county by area in 1831. The City of London was a county in its own right from the 12th century and was able to exert control over Middlesex. Westminster Abbey dominated most of the financial, judicial and ecclesiastical aspects of the county. As London grew into Middlesex, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to expand the city boundaries into the county, in the 18th and 19th centuries the population density was especially high in the southeast of the county, including the East End and West End of London. From 1855 the southeast was administered, with sections of Kent and Surrey, the City of London, and Middlesex, became separate counties for other purposes and Middlesex regained the right to appoint its own sheriff, lost in 1199. In the interwar years suburban London expanded further, with improvement and expansion of public transport, after the Second World War, the population of the County of London and inner Middlesex was in steady decline, with high population growth continuing in the outer parts. Since 1965 various areas called Middlesex have been used for cricket, Middlesex was the former postal county of 25 post towns. The name means territory of the middle Saxons and refers to the origin of its inhabitants. The word is formed from the Anglo-Saxon, i. e. Old English, middel, in an 8th-century charter the region is recorded as Middleseaxon and in 704 it is recorded as Middleseaxan. The Saxons derived their name from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known, the seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the English counties of Essex and Middlesex, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Sussex and Wessex, contain a remnant of the word Saxon, there were settlements in the area of Middlesex that can be traced back thousands of years before the creation of a county. Middlesex was formerly part of the Kingdom of Essex It was recorded in the Domesday Book as being divided into the six hundreds of Edmonton, Elthorne, Gore, Hounslow, Ossulstone and Spelthorne. The City of London has been self-governing since the century and became a county in its own right. Middlesex also included Westminster, which also had a degree of autonomy. Of the six hundreds, Ossulstone contained the districts closest to the City of London, during the 17th century it was divided into four divisions, which, along with the Liberty of Westminster, largely took over the administrative functions of the hundred. The divisions were named Finsbury, Holborn, Kensington and Tower, the county had parliamentary representation from the 13th century
4.
Jazz
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Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
5.
Scat singing
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In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing is a technique that requires singers with the ability to sing improvised melodies. Though scat singing is improvised, the lines are often variations on scale and arpeggio fragments, stock patterns and riffs. As well, scatting usually incorporates musical structure, will Friedwald has compared Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner cartoon—each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways. The deliberate choice of scat syllables also is a key element in vocal jazz improvisation, syllable choice influences the pitch articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance. Syllable choice also differentiated jazz singers personal styles, Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like louie-ooie-la-la-la while Sarah Vaughan would prefer shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee, the choice of scat syllables can also be used to reflect the sounds of different instruments. Humor is another important element of scat singing, cab Calloway exemplified the use of humorous scatting. In addition to such uses of language, humor is communicated in scat singing through the use of musical quotation. Leo Watson, who performed before the canon of American popular music and this is called using a compression. The 1958 song The Witch Doctor by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. creator of Alvin, Ella Fitzgerald, who performed later, was able to draw extensively on popular music in her singing. For example, in her 1960 recording of How High the Moon live in Berlin, she quotes over a dozen songs, including The Peanut Vendor, Heat Wave, A-Tisket, A-Tasket, and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Though Louis Armstrongs 1926 recording of Heebie Jeebies is often cited as the first song to employ scatting, one early master of ragtime scat singing was Gene Greene who recorded scat choruses in his song King of the Bungaloos and several others between 1911 and 1917. Entertainer Al Jolson scatted through a few bars in the middle of his 1911 recording of That Haunting Melody, Gene Greens 1917 From Here to Shanghai, which featured faux-Chinese scatting, and Gene Rodemichs 1924 Scissor Grinder Joe and Some of These Days also pre-date Armstrong. Cliff Ukulele Ike Edwards scatted an interlude on his 1923 Old Fashioned Love in lieu of using an instrumental soloist, harry Barris, one of Paul Whitemans The Rhythm Boys, along with Bing Crosby, scatted on several songs, including Mississippi Mud, which Barris wrote in 1927. One of the female singers to use scat was Aileen Stanley. Jelly Roll Morton credited Joe Sims of Vicksburg, Mississippi, as the creator of scat around the turn of the 20th century. Morton, Oh and that was way before Louis Armstrongs time. By the way, scat is something that a lot of people dont understand, but I must take the credit away, since I know better. The first man ever did a scat number in history of this country was a man from Vicksburg, Mississippi, by the name of Joe Sims
6.
Contralto
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A contralto is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto voice type is divided into the coloratura, lyric. Contralto is primarily meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, the term contralto is only applied to female singers, men singing in a similar range are called countertenors. A true contralto is often regarded as the rarest of the female voices, some vocal theorists have found that the vocal folds are thicker than those present in other female voices. Studies have used cameras to photograph visible differences which are found in countertenors. The contralto has the lowest vocal range of the voice types. The contralto voice range is between tenor and mezzo-soprano, although tenors and baritones are usually male singers, some women can sing as low and are called female tenors or female baritones. With the exception of very rare female singers, such terms are usually informal, more formal terminology would be contralto profundo and contralto basso or oktavistka but these are not traditionally named among the fach system. Some of the rare contraltos that can sing the female equivalent of tenor and baritone include Zarah Leander, Ruby Helder, within the contralto voice type category are three generally recognized subcategories, coloratura contralto, lyric contralto, and dramatic contralto. Given its deviations from the norms, this voice type is quite rare. The lyric contralto voice is lighter than a dramatic contralto but not capable of the ornamentation and this class of contralto, lighter in timbre than the others, is the most common today and usually ranges from the E below middle C to the second G above middle C. The dramatic contralto is the deepest, darkest, and heaviest contralto voice, usually having a heavier tone, singers in this class are rare. True operatic contraltos are rare, and the operatic literature contains few roles written specifically for them, a common saying among contraltos is that they may play only witches, bitches, or britches. Examples of contralto roles in the operatic repertoire include the following. * indicates a role that may also be sung by a mezzo-soprano, category of contraltos List of operatic contraltos Fach, the German system for classifying voices Voice classification in non-classical music List of contraltos in non-classical music Coffin, Berton. Coloratura, Lyric and Dramatic Soprano, Vol.1, vocal Workouts for the Contemporary Singer. Media related to Contralto vocalists at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of Contralto at Wiktionary
7.
C (musical note)
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In terms of musical pitch, C or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solfège scale. When the A440 pitch standard is used to tune a musical instrument, Middle C is designated C4 in scientific pitch notation because of the notes position as the fourth C key from left on a standard 88-key piano keyboard. Another system known as scientific pitch assigns a frequency of 256 Hz but, while numerically convenient, other note-octave systems, including those used by some makers of digital music keyboards, may refer to Middle C differently. In MIDI, Middle C is note number 60, the C4 designation is the most commonly recognized in auditory science, and in musical studies it is often used in place of the Helmholtz designation c. While the expression Middle C is generally clear across instruments and clefs, C4 may be called Low C by someone playing a Western concert flute, which has a higher and narrower playing range than the piano, while C5 would be Middle C. This technically inaccurate practice has led some pedagogues to encourage standardizing on C4 as the definitive Middle C in instructional materials across all instruments, in vocal music, the term Soprano C, sometimes called High C or Top C, is the C two octaves above Middle C. It is so named because it is considered the defining note of the voice type. It is C6 in scientific notation and c in Helmholtz notation. The term Tenor C is sometimes used in music to refer to C5. In organ music, the term Tenor C can refer to an organ builders term for small C or C3, in stoplists it usually means that a rank is not full compass, omitting the bottom octave. For the frequency of each note on a piano, see piano key frequencies. Pythagorean,701.955 ×12 =8423.46 =23.46 = B♯+++ ET,700 ×12 =8400 =0 = B♯ = C1200 ×7 =8400 =0 = C This difference,23.46 cents, is known as the Pythagorean comma. Piano key frequencies A440 C major C minor Root
8.
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
9.
Popular music
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Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training and it stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or folk music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of music, although since the beginning of the recording industry. Traditional music forms such as blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller. The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States, although popular music sometimes is known as pop music, the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music songs and pieces typically have easily singable melodies, in the 2000s, with songs and pieces available as digital sound files, it has become easier for music to spread from one country or region to another. Some popular music forms have become global, while others have an appeal within the culture of their origin. Through the mixture of genres, new popular music forms are created to reflect the ideals of a global culture. The examples of Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East show how Western pop music styles can blend with local traditions to create new hybrid styles. Sales of recordings or sheet music are one measure, middleton and Manuel note that this definition has problems because multiple listens or plays of the same song or piece are not counted. Manuel states that one criticism of music is that it is produced by large media conglomerates and passively consumed by the public. He claims that the listeners in the scenario would not have been able to make the choice of their favorite music, moreover, understandings of popular music have changed with time. A societys popular music reflects the ideals that are prevalent at the time it is performed or published, david Riesman states that the youth audiences of popular music fit into either a majority group or a subculture. The majority group listens to the commercially produced styles while the subcultures find a minority style to transmit their own values and this allows youth to choose what music they identify with, which gives them power as consumers to control the market of popular music. Form in popular music is most often sectional, the most common sections being verse, chorus or refrain, other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, chorus form *, and twelve-bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely composed using different music for each stanza of the lyrics, the verse and chorus are considered the primary elements. Each verse usually has the melody, but the lyrics change for most verses. The chorus usually has a phrase and a key lyrical line which is repeated
10.
Classical music
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Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music, including both liturgical and secular music. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common-practice period, Western staff notation is used by composers to indicate to the performer the pitches, tempo, meter and rhythms for a piece of music. This can leave less room for such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation. The term classical music did not appear until the early 19th century, the earliest reference to classical music recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836. This score typically determines details of rhythm, pitch, and, the written quality of the music has enabled a high level of complexity within them, J. S. The use of written notation also preserves a record of the works, Musical notation enables 2000s-era performers to sing a choral work from the 1300s Renaissance era or a 1700s Baroque concerto with many of the features of the music being reproduced. That said, the score does not provide complete and exact instructions on how to perform a historical work, even if the tempo is written with an Italian instruction, we do not know exactly how fast the piece should be played. Bach was particularly noted for his complex improvisations, during the Classical era, the composer-performer Mozart was noted for his ability to improvise melodies in different styles. During the Classical era, some virtuoso soloists would improvise the cadenza sections of a concerto, during the Romantic era, Beethoven would improvise at the piano. The instruments currently used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century and they consist of the instruments found in an orchestra or in a concert band, together with several other solo instruments. The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for music and includes members of the string, woodwind, brass. The concert band consists of members of the woodwind, brass and it generally has a larger variety and number of woodwind and brass instruments than the orchestra but does not have a string section. However, many bands use a double bass. Many of the used to perform medieval music still exist. Medieval instruments included the flute, the recorder and plucked string instruments like the lute. As well, early versions of the organ, fiddle, Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone note, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the 13th century through the 15th century there was a division of instruments into haut, during the earlier medieval period, the vocal music from the liturgical genre, predominantly Gregorian chant, was monophonic, using a single, unaccompanied vocal melody line. Polyphonic vocal genres, which used multiple independent vocal melodies, began to develop during the medieval era, becoming prevalent by the later 13th
11.
John Dankworth
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Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE, also known as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist, and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he was a music educator and he had violin and piano lessons before settling eventually on the clarinet at the age of 16, after hearing a record of the Benny Goodman Quartet. Soon afterwards, inspired by Johnny Hodges, he learned to play the alto saxophone, after studying at Londons Royal Academy of Music and then national service in the army, he began a career on the British jazz scene. He attended the Paris Jazz Festival in 1949 and played with Charlie Parker, parkers comments about Dankworth led to the engagement of the young British jazz musician for a short tour of Sweden with the soprano-saxophonist Sidney Bechet. Dankworth was voted Musician of the Year in 1949, vocalist and percussionist Frank Holder also sang and recorded with this ensemble. After three successful years, the group was wound up, although it re-formed for several reunions over the years, Dankworth formed his big band in 1953. The band was soon earning plaudits from the critics and was invited to the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival, the New York Times critic said of this appearance Mr. Dankworths group. This English group has a flowing, unforced, rhythmic drive that has disappeared from American bands. The band performed at the Birdland jazz club in New York City, Dankworths band also performed at a jazz event at New Yorks Lewisohn stadium where Louis Armstrong joined them for a set. By now, Cleo Laines singing was a feature of Dankworths recordings. After her divorce from George Langridge became final, in 1957, the only witnesses at the wedding were Johnnys friend, pianist Ken Moule, and arranger David Lindup. In 1959, Dankworth became chair of the Stars Campaign for Inter-Racial Friendship, in 1961, Dankworths recording of Galt MacDermots African Waltz reached the UK Singles Chart, peaked at No. 9, and remained in the chart for 21 weeks, American altoist Cannonball Adderley sought and received Dankworths permission to record the arrangement and had a minor hit in the US as a result. The piece was covered by many other groups. Other Dankworth recordings during this period featured many other respected jazz names, Dankworth began a second career as a composer of film and television scores. Among his best-known credits are the themes for two British TV programmes, The Avengers and Tomorrows World. He also wrote the scores for the films Darling and Modesty Blaise and Morgan and he appeared in the film All Night Long alongside Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus – playing himself - and played on the theme to the satirical BBC show The Frost Report in 1966. Dankworths friendship with Duke Ellington continued until the death in 1974
12.
Black people
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As such, the meaning of the expression varies widely both between and within societies, and depends significantly on context. For many other individuals, communities and countries, black is also perceived as a derogatory, outdated, reductive or otherwise unrepresentative label, different societies apply differing criteria regarding who is classified as black, and these social constructs have also changed over time. In a number of countries, societal variables affect classification as much as skin color, in the United Kingdom, black was historically equivalent with person of color, a general term for non-European peoples. In South Africa and Latin America, mixed-race people are not classified as black. In other regions such as Australasia, settlers applied the term black or it was used by local populations with different histories and ancestral backgrounds. The Romans interacted with and later conquered parts of Mauretania, a state that covered modern Morocco, western Algeria. The people of the region were noted in Classical literature as Mauri, numerous communities of dark-skinned peoples are present in North Africa, some dating from prehistoric communities. In the 18th century, the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his Black Guard and he claims that black-looking Arabs, much like black-looking Latin Americans, consider themselves white because they have some distant white ancestry. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had a mother who was a dark-skinned Nubian Sudanese woman, in response to an advertisement for an acting position, as a young man he said, I am not white but I am not exactly black either. My blackness is tending to reddish, due to the patriarchal nature of Arab society, Arab men, including during the slave trade in North Africa, enslaved more black women than men. They used more black female slaves in domestic service and agriculture than males, the men interpreted the Quran to permit sexual relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage, leading to many mixed-race children. When an enslaved woman became pregnant with her Arab masters child, she was considered as umm walad or mother of a child, the child was given rights of inheritance to the fathers property, so mixed-race children could share in any wealth of the father. Because the society was patrilineal, the children took their fathers social status at birth and were born free, some succeeded their fathers as rulers, such as Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who ruled Morocco from 1578 to 1608. He was not technically considered as a child of a slave, his mother was Fulani. Such tolerance for black persons, even when technically free, was not so common in Morocco, the long association of sub-Saharan peoples as slaves is shown in the term abd, it is still frequently used in the Arabic-speaking world as a term for black people. In early 1991, non-Arabs of the Zaghawa tribe of Sudan attested that they were victims of an intensifying Arab apartheid campaign, Sudanese Arabs, who controlled the government, were widely referred to as practicing apartheid against Sudans non-Arab citizens. The government was accused of deftly manipulat Arab solidarity to carry out policies of apartheid, American University economist George Ayittey accused the Arab government of Sudan of practicing acts of racism against black citizens. The Arabs monopolized power and excluded blacks – Arab apartheid, many African commentators joined Ayittey in accusing Sudan of practising Arab apartheid
13.
Swindon
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Swindon is a large town in Wiltshire, South West England, midway between Bristol,35 miles to the west and Reading,35 miles to the east. London is 78 miles to the east, and Cardiff is 78 miles to the west, at the 2011 census, it had a population of 185,609. Swindon became an Expanded Town under the Town Development Act 1952, Swindon railway station is on the line from London Paddington to Bristol. Swindon Borough Council is an authority, independent of Wiltshire Council since 1997. Residents of Swindon are known as Swindonians, the town and wider borough also has the headquarters of the Nationwide Building Society and a Honda car manufacturing plant. The original Anglo-Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the Domesday Book as Suindune, believed to be derived from the Old English words swine and dun meaning pig hill or possibly Sweyns hill, Swindon was a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until roughly 1848. This original market area is on top of the hill in central Swindon, the Industrial Revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindons growth. It started with the construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810, the canals brought trade to the area and Swindons population started to grow. Between 1841 and 1842, Isambard Kingdom Brunels Swindon Works was built for the repair, the GWR built a small railway village to house some of its workers. The Steam Railway Museum and English Heritage, including the English Heritage Archive, in 1878 the fund began providing artificial limbs made by craftsmen from the carriage and wagon works, and nine years later opened its first dental surgery. In his first few months in post the dentist extracted more than 2000 teeth, from the opening in 1892 of the Health Centre, a doctor could also prescribe a haircut or even a bath. The cradle-to-grave extent of service was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. The Mechanics Institute, formed in 1844, moved into a building looking rather like a church and included a covered market, on 1 May 1855. The New Swindon Improvement Company, a co-operative, raised the funds for this path self-improvement and it was a groundbreaking organisation that transformed the railways workforce into some of the countrys best-educated manual workers. It had the UKs first lending library, and a range of improving lectures, access to a theatre, the Institute also nurtured pioneering trades unionists and encouraged local democracy. During the second half of the 19th century, Swindon New Town grew around the line between London and Bristol. In 1900, the market town, Old Swindon, merged with its new neighbour at the bottom of the hill to become a single town
14.
Southall
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Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated 10.7 miles west of Charing Cross, neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London, Southall is located on the Grand Union Canal which first linked London with the rest of the growing canal system. It was one of the last canals to carry significant commercial traffic and is open to traffic and is used by pleasure craft. The district of Southall has many other Anglo-Saxon place-names such as Elthorne and its earliest record, from ad 830, is of Warberdus bequeathing Norwood Manor and Southall Manor to the archbishops of Canterbury. Southall formed part of the chapelry of Norwood in the ancient parish of Hayes, for Poor Law it was grouped into the Uxbridge Union and was within Uxbridge Rural Sanitary District from 1875. The chapelry of Norwood had functioned as a parish since the Middle Ages. On 16 January 1891 the parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858, in 1894 it became the Southall Norwood Urban District. In 1936 the urban district was granted a charter of incorporation and became a municipal borough, in 1965 the former area of the borough was merged with that of the boroughs of Ealing and Acton to form the London Borough of Ealing in Greater London. The southern part of Southall used to be known as Southall Green and was centred on the historic Grade II* listed Tudor-styled Manor House which dates back to at least 1587. A building survey has much of the building is original. Minor 19th and 20th century additions exist in some areas and it is currently used as serviced offices. The extreme southernmost part of Southall is known as Norwood Green and it has few industries and is mainly a residential area, having remained for many years mainly agricultural whilst the rest of Southall developed industrially. Norwood Green borders, and part is inside, the London Borough of Hounslow, the main east west road through the town is Uxbridge Road, though the name changes in the main shopping area to The Broadway and for an even shorter section to High Street. In 1877, the Martin Brothers set up a factory in an old soap works next to the canal and until 1923, produced distinctive ceramics now known. A branch railway line from Southall railway station to the Brentford Dock on the Thames was also built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1856 and it features one of his engineering works, the Three Bridges. Brunel died shortly after its completion, sections of his bell-section rail can still be seen on the southern side being used as both fencing posts and a rope rail directly under the road bridge itself. It is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, otto Monsted, a Danish margarine manufacturer, built a large factory at Southall in 1894
15.
Hayes, Hillingdon
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Hayes is a town in west London, situated 13 miles west of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, Hayes became part of the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1965, the towns population was recorded as 95,763 in the 2011 census. The area appears in the Domesday Book, the towns oldest public house - the Adam and Eve, on the Uxbridge Road - though not the original seventeenth-century structure, has remained on the same site since 1665. Hayes is best known as the home of EMI. The words Hayes, Middlesex appear on the reverse of The Beatles albums, the town is the location of the U. K. headquarters of companies including, Heinz, United Biscuits, Fujitsu, and Rackspace U. K. Notable historical residents include the modern father of English music, William Byrd. The place-name Hayes comes from the Anglo-Saxon Hǣs or Hǣse, brushwood, the towns name is spelt Hessee in a 1628 entry in an Inquisition post mortem held at The National Archives. Hayes is formed of what originally were five villages, Botwell, Hayes Town, Hayes End, Wood End. The name Hayes Town has come to be applied to the area around Station Road between Coldharbour Lane and Hayes & Harlington railway station, but this was historically the hamlet called Botwell. The original Hayes Town was the area to the east of St Marys Church, centred around Church Road, Hemmen Lane, for some 700 years up to 1546, Hayes formed part of the Archbishop of Canterburys estates, ostensibly owing to grants from the Mercian royal family. In that year, the then-Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was forced to surrender his land to King Henry VIII, the area changed hands several times thereafter, but by the eighteenth century, two family-names had established themselves as prominent and long-time landowners, Minet and Shackle. John Wesley and Charles Wesley, founders of the evangelical Methodist movement, the Salvation Army - founded in 1865 in London by William Booth - registered a barracks in Hayes between 1887 and 1896, their hall in Coldharbour Lane was registered in 1927. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hayes was home to private boarding schools catering for wealthy families. Until the end of the century, Hayess key areas of work were agriculture. The Second Industrial Revolution brought change in the nineteenth century. The towns location on the Grand Junction Canal and the Great Western Railway - Hayes & Harlington railway station had opened in 1868 - made it well-placed for industry, hDCs company secretary, Alfred Clayton, is commemorated in the name of Clayton Road. Residential districts consisting of dwellings of the garden suburb type were built to house workers after World War I, in 1904 the parish council created Hayes Urban District in order to address the issue of population growth. Hayes and Harlington Urban District continued until 1965 when Hayes became part of the newly established London Borough of Hillingdon
16.
Ella Fitzgerald
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Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer often referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing and intonation, Fitzgeralds rendition of the nursery rhyme A-Tisket, A-Tasket helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. Taking over the band after Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start a career that would last effectively the rest of her life. With Verve she recorded some of her more noted works. These partnerships produced recognizable songs like Dream a Little Dream of Me, Cheek to Cheek, Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall, in 1993, Fitzgerald capped off her sixty-year career with her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79, Fitzgerald was born on April 25,1917, in Newport News, Virginia, the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Temperance Tempie Fitzgerald. Her parents were unmarried but lived together for at least two and a years after she was born. Initially living in a room, her mother and Da Silva soon found jobs. Her half-sister, Frances Da Silva, was born in 1923, by 1925, Fitzgerald and her family had moved to nearby School Street, then a predominantly poor Italian area. She began her education at the age of six and proved to be an outstanding student. Fitzgerald had been passionate about dancing from third grade, being a fan of Earl Snakehips Tucker in particular, Fitzgerald and her family were Methodists and were active in the Bethany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and she regularly attended worship services, Bible study, and Sunday school. The church provided Fitzgerald with her earliest experiences in music making. During this period Fitzgerald listened to recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby. Fitzgerald idolized the Boswell Sisters lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, My mother brought home one of her records, in 1932, her mother died from serious injuries she received in a car accident when Fitzgerald was 15 years of age. This left her at first in the care of her stepfather but before the end of April 1933, following these traumas, Fitzgerald began skipping school and letting her grades suffer. During this period she worked at times as a lookout at a bordello, Ella Fitzgerald never talked publicly about this time in her life. When the authorities caught up with her, she was first placed in the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, in the Bronx. However, when the orphanage proved too crowded, she was moved to the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, eventually she escaped and for a time she was homeless
17.
Sarah Vaughan
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Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by music critic Scott Yanow as having one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century. Nicknamed Sassy and The Divine One, Sarah Vaughan was a four-time Grammy Award winner, the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989. Sarah Vaughans father, Asbury Jake Vaughan, was a carpenter by trade and played guitar and her mother, Ada Vaughan, was a laundress and sang in the church choir. Jake and Ada Vaughan had migrated to Newark, New Jersey from Virginia during the First World War, Sarah was their only biological child, although in the 1960s they adopted Donna, the child of a woman who traveled on the road with Sarah Vaughan. The Vaughans lived in a house on Brunswick Street in Newark for Sarahs entire childhood, Jake Vaughan was deeply religious and the family was very active in the New Mount Zion Baptist Church at 186 Thomas Street. Sarah began piano lessons at the age of seven, sang in the choir and occasionally played piano for rehearsals. Vaughan developed a love for popular music on records and the radio. In the 1930s, Newark had an active live music scene and Vaughan frequently saw local. However, her adventures as a performer began to overwhelm her academic pursuits. Around this time, Vaughan and her friends began venturing across the Hudson River into New York City to hear big bands at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, biographies of Vaughan frequently stated that she was immediately thrust into stardom after a winning amateur night performance at Harlems Zeus Theater. In fact, the story that biographer Renee relates seems to be a bit more complex, Vaughan was frequently accompanied by a friend, Doris Robinson, on her trips into New York City. Some time in the fall of 1942, Vaughan suggested that Robinson enter the Apollo Theater Amateur Night contest, Vaughan played piano accompaniment for Robinson, who won second prize. Vaughan later decided to go back and compete herself as a singer, Vaughan sang Body and Soul and won, although the exact date of her victorious Apollo performance is uncertain. The prize, as Vaughan recalled later to Marian McPartland, was $10, after a considerable delay, Vaughan was contacted by the Apollo in the spring of 1943 to open for Ella Fitzgerald. Some time during her week of performances at the Apollo, Vaughan was introduced to bandleader and pianist Earl Fatha Hines, Billy Eckstine, Hines singer at the time, has been credited by Vaughan and others with hearing her at the Apollo and recommending her to Hines. Hines claimed later to have discovered her himself and offered her a job on the spot, regardless, after a brief tryout at the Apollo, Hines officially replaced his current male singer with Vaughan on April 4,1943. Vaughan spent the remainder of 1943 and part of 1944 touring the country with the Earl Hines big band that featured baritone Billy Eckstine. The Earl Hines band in this period is remembered as an incubator of bebop, as it included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Charlie Parker and trombonist Bennie Green
18.
Lena Horne
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Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American jazz and pop music singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist. Hornes career spanned over 70 years appearing in film, television, because of the Red Scare and her political activism, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood. She announced her retirement in March 1980, but the year starred in a one-woman show, Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music. She then toured the country in the show, earning numerous awards, Horne continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, disappearing from the public eye in 2000. Horne died of heart failure on May 9,2010. Lena Horne was born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and her mother, Edna Louise Scottron, was a granddaughter of inventor Samuel R. Scottron, she was an actress with a black theatre troupe and traveled extensively. Ednas maternal grandmother, Amelie Louise Ashton, was a Senegalese slave, Horne was mainly raised by her grandparents, Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne. When Horne was five, she was sent to live in Georgia, for several years, she traveled with her mother. From Fort Valley, southwest of Macon, Horne briefly moved to Atlanta with her mother and she then attended Girls High School, an all-girls public high school in Brooklyn that has since become Boys and Girls High School, she dropped out without earning a diploma. Aged 18, she moved in with her father in Pittsburgh, staying in the citys Little Harlem for almost five years and learning from native Pittsburghers Billy Strayhorn and Billy Eckstine, among others. In the fall of 1933, Horne joined the line of the Cotton Club in New York City. In the spring of 1934, she had a role in the Cotton Club Parade starring Adelaide Hall. A few years later, Horne joined Noble Sissles Orchestra, with which she toured and with whom she made her first records, issued by Decca. After she separated from her first husband, Horne toured with bandleader Charlie Barnet in 1940–41 and she replaced Dinah Shore as the featured vocalist on NBCs popular jazz series The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. The shows resident maestros, Henry Levine and Paul Laval, recorded with Horne in June 1941 for RCA Victor, Hornes songs from Boogie Woogie Dream were later released individually as soundies. Horne made her Hollywood nightclub debut at Felix Youngs Little Troc on the Sunset Strip in January 1942, a few weeks later, she was signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In November 1944, she was featured in an episode of the radio series Suspense, as a fictional nightclub singer. In 1945 and 1946, she sang with Billy Eckstines Orchestra, as a result, most of Hornes film appearances were stand-alone sequences that had no bearing on the rest of the film, so editing caused no disruption to the storyline
19.
Hampstead
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Hampstead, commonly known as Hampstead Village, is an area of London, England,4 miles northwest of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath and it has some of the most expensive housing in the London area. The village of Hampstead has more millionaires within its boundaries than any area of the United Kingdom. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon words ham and stede, which means, and is a cognate of, the growth of Hampstead is generally traced back to the 17th century. Trustees of the Well started advertising the medicinal qualities of the waters in 1700. Although Hampstead Wells was initially most successful and fashionable, its popularity declined in the 1800s due to competition with other fashionable London spas, the spa was demolished in 1882, although a water fountain was left behind. Much luxurious housing was created during the 1870s and 1880s, in the area that is now the ward of Frognal & Fitzjohns. Much of this remains to this day. The large Victorian Hampstead Library and Town Hall was recently converted and extended as a creative industries centre, on 14 August 1975 Hampstead entered the UK Weather Records with the Highest 155-min total rainfall at 169 mm. As of November 2008 this record remains, Hampstead became part of the County of London in 1889 and in 1899 the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead was formed. The borough town hall on Haverstock Hill, which was also the location of the Register Office, Hampstead is part of the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency, formed at the 2010 general election. It was formerly part of the Hampstead and Highgate constituency, since May 2015 the area has been represented on Camden Council by Conservative Party councillors Tom Currie, Oliver Cooper and Stephen Stark. The area has a significant tradition of educated liberal humanism, often referred to as Hampstead Liberalism, michael Idov of The New Yorker stated that the community was the citadel of the moneyed liberal intelligentsia, posh but not stuffy. As applied to an individual, the term Hampstead Liberal is not synonymous with champagne socialist, the term is also rather misleading. As of 2016, all the component wards of Hampstead elect a full slate of Conservative councillors, the bridge pictured is known locally as The Red Arches or The Viaduct, built in fruitless anticipation of residential building on the Heath in the 19th century. The largest employer in Hampstead is the Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, George Martins AIR recording studios, in converted church premises in Lyndhurst Road, is a current example, as Jim Hensons Creature Shop was before it relocated to California. It was recently restored by Notting Hill Housing Trust, notable and longstanding are La Gaffe, Gaucho Grill, Jin Kichi, Tip Top Thai, Villa Bianca and, in May 2016, Patara. Hampsteads rural feel lends itself for use on film, an example being The Killing of Sister George starring Beryl Reid
20.
Alec Dankworth
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Alexander William Tamba Dankworth is an English jazz bassist and composer. After attending Bedford School, he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1978, and then joined his parents quintet. Between 1980 and 1983 he toured the United States, Australia, and Europe with them, going on to work with Tommy Chase, the BBC Big Band, and Clark Tracey, with whom he recorded two albums. Dankworth recorded Duke Ellingtons Black, Brown, and Beige with violinist Nigel Kennedy in 1988, with whom he also performed Antonio Vivaldis The Four Seasons. He also played in the 1980s with Dick Morrissey, Spike Robinson, Jean Toussaint, Michael Garrick, Tommy Smith, Julian Joseph, and Andy Hamilton, as well as leading his own quartet. In 1990 he was invited to join and tour with Dave Brubecks band and he has played with Mose Allison, Clark Terry, Mel Tormé, Anita ODay, Peter King, Alan Barnes, David-Jean Baptiste, Van Morrison and Martin Taylor, among others. He also co-led a 14-piece band with his father, John Dankworth, in 2013 Dankworth toured with the Ginger Baker Jazz Confusion, a quartet comprising Dankworth on bass, drummer Ginger Baker, saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and percussionist Abass Dodoo. Dankworth is also a tutor for the National Youth Jazz Collective, ISBN 1-85828-528-3 Richard Cook & Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD 6th edition, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 Alec Dankworth — discography from Allmusic
21.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
22.
Royal Court Theatre
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The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre, in 1956 it was acquired by and is home to a resident company, the English Stage Company. The first theatre on Lower George Street, off Sloane Square, was the converted Nonconformist Ranelagh Chapel, marie Litton became its manager in 1871, hiring Walter Emden to remodel the interior, and it was renamed the Court Theatre. By 1878, management of the theatre was shared by John Hare, further alterations were made in 1882 by Alexander Peebles, after which its capacity was 728. After that, Arthur Cecil was co-manager of the theatre with John Clayton, among other works, they produced a series of Arthur Wing Pineros farces, including The Rector, The Magistrate, The Schoolmistress, and Dandy Dick, among others. The theatre closed on 22 July 1887 and was demolished, the present building was built on the east side of Sloane Square, replacing the earlier building, and opened on 24 September 1888 as the New Court Theatre. Designed by Walter Emden and Bertie Crewe, it is constructed of red brick, moulded brick. Originally the theatre had a capacity of 841 in the stalls, dress circle, amphitheatre, Cecil and Clayton yielded management of the theatre to Mrs. John Wood and Arthur Chudleigh in 1887, although Cecil continued acting in their company until 1895. The first production in the new building was a play by Sydney Grundy titled Mamma, starring Mrs. John Wood and John Hare, with Arthur Cecil and Eric Lewis. Harley Granville-Barker managed the theatre for the first few years of the 20th century and it ceased to be used as a theatre in 1932 but was used as a cinema from 1935 to 1940, until World War II bomb damage closed it. The interior was reconstructed by Robert Cromie, and the number of seats was reduced to under 500, George Devine was appointed artistic director at the suggestion of Oscar Lewenstein, one of the other two co-founders of the English Stage Company. The ESC opened at the Royal Court in 1956 as a subsidised theatre producing new British and foreign plays, Devine aimed to create a writers theatre, seeking to discover new writers and produce serious contemporary works. Devine produced the new companys production in 1956, John Osbornes Look Back in Anger. Osborne followed Look Back In Anger with The Entertainer, with Laurence Olivier in the lead as Archie Rice, significantly, although it was quickly reversed, the artistic board of the ESC initially rejected the play. Two members of the board were in agreement in opposing The Entertainer, in the mid-1960s, the ESC became involved in issues of censorship. The succès de scandale of the two helped to bring about the abolition of theatre censorship in the UK. During the period of Devines directorship, besides Osborne and Bond, early seasons included new international plays by Bertolt Brecht, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Marguerite Duras. In addition to the 400-seat proscenium arch Theatre Downstairs, the smaller studio Theatre Upstairs was opened in 1969
23.
John Osborne
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John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his excoriating prose and intense critical stance towards established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre, in a productive life of more than 40 years, Osborne explored many themes and genres, writing for stage, film and TV. His personal life was extravagant and iconoclastic and he was notorious for the ornate violence of his language, not only on behalf of the political causes he supported but also against his own family, including his wives and children. Osborne was one of the first writers to address Britains purpose in the post-imperial age and he was the first to question the point of the monarchy on a prominent public stage. Osborne was born on 12 December 1929 in London, the son of Thomas Godfrey Osborne, a commercial artist and advertising copywriter of South Welsh extraction, and Nellie Beatrice, a Cockney barmaid. Thomas Osborne died in 1941, leaving the boy an insurance settlement which he used to finance a private education at Belmont College. He entered the school in 1943, but was expelled in the term of 1945, after whacking the headmaster. A School Certificate was the formal qualification he acquired. After school, Osborne went home to his mother in London, a job tutoring a touring company of junior actors introduced him to the theatre. He soon became involved as a manager and acting, joining Anthony Creightons provincial touring company. Osborne tried his hand at writing plays, co-writing his first, The Devil Inside Him, with his mentor Stella Linden, around this time he also married Pamela Lane. His second play Personal Enemy was written with Anthony Creighton, Personal Enemy was staged in regional theatres before he submitted Look Back in Anger. It was submitted to all over London and returned with great rapidity. In his autobiography, Osborne writes, The speed with which it had returned was not surprising. It was like being grasped at the arm by a testy policeman. Finally it was sent to the newly formed English Stage Company at Londons Royal Court Theatre, formed by actor-manager and artistic director George Devine, the company had seen its first three productions flop and urgently needed a success if it was to survive. Devine was prepared to gamble on this play because he saw in it a ferocious, Osborne was living on a leaky houseboat on the River Thames at the time with Creighton, stewing up nettles from the riverbank to eat. So keen was Devine to contact Osborne that he rowed out to the boat to tell him he would like to make the play the fourth production to enter repertory, the play was directed by Tony Richardson and starred Kenneth Haigh, Mary Ure and Alan Bates
24.
Harold Pinter
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Harold Pinter CH CBE was a Nobel Prize-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, and Betrayal and his screenplay adaptations of others works include The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenants Woman, The Trial, and Sleuth. He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, Pinter was born and raised in Hackney, east London, and educated at Hackney Downs School. He was a sprinter and a cricket player, acting in school plays. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the course and he was fined for refusing National service as a conscientious objector. Subsequently, he continued training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, in 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant and had a son, Daniel, born in 1958. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980, Pinters career as a playwright began with a production of The Room in 1957. His second play, The Birthday Party, closed after eight performances and his early works were described by critics as comedy of menace. Later plays such as No Mans Land and Betrayal became known as memory plays and he appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film. He also undertook a number of roles in works by other writers and he directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen. Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes, and other honours, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005 and he died from liver cancer on 24 December 2008. In 1940 and 1941, after the Blitz, Pinter was evacuated from their house in London to Cornwall, Pinter discovered his social potential as a student at Hackney Downs School, a London grammar school, between 1944 and 1948. Partly through the school and partly through the life of Hackney Boys Club. He formed an almost sacerdotal belief in the power of male friendship, the friends he made in those days—most particularly Henry Woolf, Michael Goldstein and Morris Wernick—have always been a vital part of the emotional texture of his life. A major influence on Pinter was his inspirational English teacher Joseph Brearley, according to Billington, under Brearleys instruction, Pinter shone at English, wrote for the school magazine and discovered a gift for acting. In 1947 and 1948, he played Romeo and Macbeth in productions directed by Brearley, at the age of 12, Pinter began writing poetry, and in spring 1947, his poetry was first published in the Hackney Downs School Magazine. In 1950, his poetry was first published outside of the magazine in Poetry London
25.
Valmouth
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Valmouth is a 1919 novel by British author Ronald Firbank. Valmouth is an imaginary English spa resort that attracts centenarians owing to its pure air. The towns name evokes actual seaside towns in the southwest peninsula of Britain, the novels plot concerns, among other things, the effects of a black woman and her niece moving into a spa resort inhabited by wealthy centenarians. The ironic novel is about eroticism and exoticism in the milieu of quaint, the novel is noted for its florid and baroque style and parody-like humor, and its sexual innuendos both heterosexual and homosexual. There is also a brand of Catholicism, a blend of mortification of the flesh, high-flown mysticism. In 1958, an adaptation was made by Sandy Wilson. Two wealthy elderly Valmouth-area ladies, Mrs Hurstpierpoint and Mrs Thoroughfare, are concerned with the prospects of the latters son. The Captain, away at sea, is rather scandalously engaged to a girl, Niri-Esther. Thetis Tooke, a farmers daughter, is obsessed with Captain Thoroughfare. Meanwhile, the exotic Mrs Yajnavalkya, a masseuse and chiropodist. Eventually, Captain Thoroughfare returns to England and it comes to light that he has virtually married Niri-Esther, that they have a baby, and that she is also pregnant with his second child. Mrs Elizabeth Thoroughfare, another dowager, Mrs Hurstpierpoints companion at Hare-Hatch House, Lady Parvula de Panzoust, a widow and friend of the Hare-Hatch dowagers, she is taken with the young farmer David Tooke. Mrs Yajñavalkya, a woman of Eastern birth, who is a ladies masseuse. Niri-Esther, a young woman, niece of Mrs Yajñavalkya. Captain Dick Thoroughfare, Mrs Thoroughfares son, away in Jamaica, miss Thetis Tooke, a farmers daughter, who is infatuated with Captain Thoroughfare. David Tooke, Thetiss brother, a farmer, Mrs Tooke, grandmother to Thetis and David, and a massage client of Yajñavalkya. Lieutenant Whorwood, an man who is Captain Dick Thoroughfares chum. Father Colley-Mahoney, a priest, who seems fond of male servants
26.
Robert Morley
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Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment, often in supporting roles. More politely, Ephraim Katz in his International Film Encyclopaedia describes Morley as a rotund, triple-chinned, delightful character player of the British and American stage and screen. Morley was born in Semley, Wiltshire, England, the son of Gertrude Emily and Robert Wilton Morley and his mother came from a German family that had emigrated to South Africa. Morley attended Wellington College, Berkshire, which he hated, followed by RADA, as he was a famous Old Wellingtonian, generations of headmasters tried to contact him, without success, with Morley stating the only reason for me visiting Wellington would be to burn it down. Morley made his West End stage debut in 1929 in Treasure Island at the Strand Theatre, although soon won over to the big screen, Morley remained both a busy West End star and successful author, as well as appearing in touring productions. A versatile actor, especially in his years, he played Louis XVI in Marie Antoinette. As a playwright he co-wrote several plays for the stage and his 1937 play Goodness, How Sad was turned into a Ealing Studios film Return to Yesterday directed by Robert Stevenson. Later, he had outstanding success in London and New York with Edward, My Son, Edward, My Son was directed by George Cukor for MGM-British. His acting career continued with roles as a missionary in The African Queen, The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan, as W. S. Gilbert, and in Oscar Wilde. Baby boomers will remember with fondness, Morleys 1959 performance in an Alfred Hitchcock Presents adaptation of a Stanley Ellin short story entitled. Morley also personified the conservative Englishman in many comedy and caper films and he was the face of BOAC as the merry television commercial spokesman of the 1970s with Well take good care of you for British Airways. Later in his career, he received acclaim and numerous accolades for his performance in Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe. During the 1980s, Morley hosted a celebrity cooking show on Cable TV and he also hosted the Granada Television series Ladykillers. He was renowned as a witty raconteur and for being an eloquent conversationalist, Morley was honoured by being the first King of Moomba appointed by the Melbourne Moomba festival committee and, in typical humility, he accepted the crown in bare feet. Morley was in Australia touring his show, The Sound of Morley. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1974 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews, Robert Morley married Joan Buckmaster, a daughter of Dame Gladys Cooper. Their elder son, Sheridan Morley, became a writer and critic and they also had a daughter, Annabel, and another son, Wilton. Morley was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1957 and was offered a knighthood in 1975
27.
Ruth Gordon
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Ruth Gordon Jones, known as Ruth Gordon, was an American film, stage, and television actress, as well as a screenwriter and playwright. Gordon began her performing on Broadway at age nineteen. Known for her voice and distinctive personality, she gained international recognition. Her later work included performances in Rosemarys Baby, Harold and Maude, in addition to her acting career, Gordon wrote numerous plays, film scripts, and books, most notably co-writing the screenplay for the 1949 film Adams Rib. Gordon won an Academy Award, an Emmy, and two Golden Globe awards for her acting, as well as receiving three Academy Award nominations for her writing, Ruth Gordon Jones was born at 31 Marion Street in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was the child of Annie Tapley and Clinton Jones. Her first appearance in the public eye came as an infant when her photograph was used in advertising for her fathers employer, prior to graduating from Quincy High School, she wrote to several of her favorite actresses requesting autographed pictures. A personal reply from Hazel Dawn inspired her to go into acting, although her father was skeptical of her chances of success in a difficult profession, in 1914 he took his daughter to New York, where he enrolled her in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1915, Gordon appeared as an extra in silent films that were shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, including as a dancer in The Whirl of Life, woollcott, who described her favorably as ever so gay, would become her friend and mentor. In 1918, Gordon played opposite actor Gregory Kelly in the Broadway adaptation of Booth Tarkingtons Seventeen, the pair continued to perform together in North American tours of Frank Cravens The First Year and Tarkingtons Clarence and Tweedles. Then in 1920, Gordon and Kelly were wed, in December 1920, Gordon checked into a Chicago hospital to have her legs broken and straightened to treat her lifelong bow-leggedness. After a three-month recovery, she and Kelly relocated to Indianapolis where they started a repertory company, Kelly died of heart disease in 1927, at the age of 36. In 1929, Gordon was starring in the hit play, Serena Blandish and their son, Jones Harris, was born in Paris that year and Gordon brought him back to New York. Although they never married, Gordon and Harris provided their son with a normal upbringing, in 1932 the family was living discreetly in a small, elegant New York City brownstone. Gordon married her husband, writer Garson Kanin, who was 16 years her junior. Gordon and Kanin collaborated on the screenplays for the Katharine Hepburn – Spencer Tracy films Adams Rib and Pat, both films were directed by George Cukor. The couple were friends of Hepburn and Tracy, and incorporated elements of their real personalities in the films. Gordon and Kanin received Academy Awards nominations for both of those screenplays, as well as for that of a film, A Double Life
28.
John Neville (actor)
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John Reginald Neville, CM, OBE was an English theatre and film actor who moved to Canada in 1972. He enjoyed a resurgence of attention in the 1980s as a result of his starring role in Terry Gilliams The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Neville was born in Willesden, London, the son of Mabel Lillian and Reginald Daniel Neville, Neville was a West End idol of the 1950s, hailed as one of the most potent classical actors of the Burton-OToole generation. He also alternated with Richard Burton the parts of Othello and Iago in Othello and he was a frequent visiting player at the Bristol Old Vic. He received good reviews in the adaptation of Lolita, called Lolita, My Love. Noted for his good looks and mellifluous voice, the young Neville was frequently described as the young John Gielguds natural successor. For a while, he took over the role of Nestor Le Fripé from Keith Michell in the original West End production of the musical Irma La Douce. For a brief period in 1963, he returned to the London stage, playing Alfie in the version of the play by Bill Naughton. It became one of Britains leading provincial repertory theatres, though Dunlop and Ustinov soon left, Neville remained at the theatre until 1967 when he resigned over funding disputes with the local authority and the Arts Council. With his family, he left Britain in 1972 and devoted his career to the Canadian theatre, taking up the post of artistic director at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. In 1988, Terry Gilliam cast him as the lead in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, in the film, Neville plays the character at three different stages of his life, in his 30s, his 50s and his 70s. From 1995–98, Neville had a prominent recurring role in The X-Files television series as The Well Manicured Man, although he made numerous other television appearances and occasional film roles, the main focus of Nevilles career was always the theatre. He had a role as Terrence in David Cronenbergs 2002 Spider. In the same year he appeared alongside Vanessa Redgrave in the 2002 film adaptation of Crime. In 2003, Neville performed a reading of John Miltons Samson Agonistes. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2006, according to publicists at Canadas Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Neville died peacefully surrounded by family on 19 November 2011, aged 86. Neville suffered with Alzheimers disease in his later years and he is survived by his wife, Caroline, and their six children. His grandson is actor Joe Dinicol and he was part of the In Memoriam segment at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards
29.
Show Boat
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Show Boat is a 1927 musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love, the musical contributed such classic songs as Ol Man River, Make Believe and Cant Help Lovin Dat Man. The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was a moment in the history of American musical theatre. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera, Here we come to a new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy. The play was the thing, and everything else was subservient to that play, came complete integration of song, humor and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity. The quality of the musical was recognized immediately by the critics, awards for Broadway shows did not exist in 1927 when the original production of the show premiered, nor in 1932, when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, in a few weeks, she gained what she called a treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true. Jerome Kern was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kerns latest musical, Criss Cross. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about their keeping too serious tone, Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita, when Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boats Broadway opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theatre. Note, Although the basic plot of Show Boat has always remained the same, over the years revisions and alterations were made by the creators, and over time by subsequent producers and directors. Some of these revisions were for length and some for convenience, some have been made to reflect contemporary sensitivities toward race, gender and other social issues. Act I In 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the dock in Natchez. The Reconstruction era had ended an earlier, and white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation. The boats owner, Capn Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee, Steve knocks Pete down, and Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Capn Andy pretends to the crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed. The troupe exits with the band, and the crowd follows. A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer, Magnolia is likewise smitten with Ravenal. She seeks advice from Joe, a dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie
30.
Adelphi Theatre
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The Adelphi Theatre /əˈdɛlfi/ is a London West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site, the theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals. The theatre was Grade II listed for preservation on 1 December 1987. It was founded in 1806 as the Sans Pareil, by merchant John Scott, Jane was a British theatre manager, performer, and playwright. Together, they gathered a company and by 1809 the theatre was licensed for musical entertainments, pantomime. She wrote more than fifty pieces in an array of genres, melodramas, pantomimes, farces, comic operettas, historical dramas. Jane Scott retired to Surrey in 1819, marrying John Davies Middleton, on 18 October 1819, the theatre reopened under its present name, which was adopted from the Adelphi Buildings opposite. In its early years, the theatre was known for melodrama and this is notable for being thought the first Dickens adaption performed. In 1848, The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain was performed, the new theatre could seat 1,500 people, with standing room for another 500. The interior was lighted by a Strouds Patent Sun Lamp, a brilliant array of gas mantles passed through a chandelier of cut-glass, in the mid-19th century, John Lawrence Toole established his comedic reputation at the Adelphi. Also in the century, the Adelphi hosted a number of French operettas. In 1867, however, the Adelphi gave English comic opera a boost by hosting the first public performance of Arthur Sullivans first opera, Cox and Box. They also built a new enlarged facade and part of this can still be seen today above the Crystal Rooms next door to the present Adelphi Theatre and this is now recorded on a plaque on the wall by the stage door. Outside a neighbouring pub, a sign says that the killer was one of the stage hands. It has been said that Terriss ghost haunts the theatre, Terriss daughter was Ellaline Terriss, a famous actress, and her husband, actor-manager Seymour Hicks managed the Adelphi for some years at the end of the 19th century. The stage door of the current Adelphi is in Maiden Lane, william Terriss would later have a Theatre named after him, the Terriss Theatre in Rotherhithe, later known as the Rotherhithe Hippodrome. The adjacent, numbers 409 and 410 Strand, were built in 1886–87 by the Gatti Brothers as the Adelphi Restaurant, the frontage remains essentially the same, but with plate glass windows, and, like the theatre, is a Grade II listed building. On 11 September 1901, the theatre was opened as the Century Theatre
31.
Edinburgh Festival
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The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that takes place each summer, mostly in August, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh Festival is member of the Global Cultural Districts Network, the Edinburgh International Festival was established in 1947 in a post-war effort to provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit. The EIF and the Fringe remain independent bodies and run separate programmes each year, in more recent years various other annual cultural festivals have been created in Edinburgh, again by separate organizations, though taking place at around the same time. Edinburgh Festival Fringe * — now the largest of all the festivals, includes theatre, comedy, music, musicals, dance and childrens shows. co
32.
Kurt Weill
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Kurt Julian Weill was a German composer, active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he developed such as his best-known work The Threepenny Opera. Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a useful purpose. He also wrote works for the concert hall. He became a United States citizen on August 27,1943, Weill was born on March 2,1900, the third of four children to Albert Weill and Emma Weill. He grew up in a religious Jewish family in the Sandvorstadt, the Jewish quarter in Dessau, Germany, where his father was a cantor. At the age of twelve, Weill started taking lessons and made his first attempts at writing music. In 1915, Weill started taking lessons with Albert Bing, Kapellmeister at the Herzogliches Hoftheater zu Dessau, who taught him piano, composition, music theory. Weill performed publicly on piano for the first time in 1915, koch, and also attended philosophy lectures by Max Dessoir and Ernst Cassirer. The same year, he wrote his first string quartet, from May to September 1920, Weill spent a couple of months in Leipzig, where his father had become the new director of a Jewish orphanage. Before he returned to Berlin, in September 1920, he composed Sulamith, a fantasy for soprano, female choir. Back in Berlin, Weill had an interview with Ferruccio Busoni in December 1920, after examining some of Weills compositions, Busoni accepted him as one of five master students in composition at the Preußische Akademie der Künste in Berlin. From January 1921 to December 1923, Weill studied music composition with him, during his first year he composed his first symphony, Sinfonie in einem Satz, as well as the lieder Die Bekehrte and two Rilkelieder for voice and piano. To support his family in Leipzig, he worked as a pianist in a Bierkeller tavern. In spring of 1922, Weill joined the November Groups music faction and that year he composed a psalm, a divertimento for orchestra, and Sinfonia Sacra, Fantasia, Passacaglia, and Hymnus for Orchestra. On November 18,1922, his childrens pantomime Die Zaubernacht premiered at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm, out of financial need, Weill taught music theory and composition to private students from 1923 to 1925. Among his students were Claudio Arrau, Maurice Abravanel, Heinz Jolles, in December 1923, Weill finished his studies with Busoni
33.
Kenneth MacMillan
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Earlier he had served as director of ballet for the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He was also director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1984 to 1989. From a family with no background of ballet or music, MacMillan was determined from an age to become a dancer. The director of Sadlers Wells Ballet, Ninette de Valois, accepted him as a student, in the late 1940s, MacMillan built a successful career as a dancer, but, plagued by stage fright, he abandoned it while still in his twenties. After this he worked entirely as a choreographer, he created ten full-length ballets, in addition to his work for ballet companies he was active in television, musicals, non-musical drama, and opera. Although he is associated with the Royal Ballet, MacMillan frequently considered himself an outsider there. His creations for the Stuttgart Ballet and the Deutsche Opera ballet include some of his most frequently revived works. MacMillan was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, the youngest of four surviving children of William MacMillan, who was a labourer and, from time to time, cook and his father had served in the army in the First World War, and suffered permanent physical and mental damage. In search of work he moved with his family to his wifes home town, after attending a local primary school, Kenneth studied from 1940 at Great Yarmouth Grammar School, to which he won a scholarship. As Great Yarmouth was a target for German air raids in the Second World War, in Retford, MacMillan was introduced to ballet by a local dance teacher, Jean Thomas. He had already had lessons in Scottish dancing in Dunfermline and tap dancing in Great Yarmouth, in 1942 his mother died, which caused him acute and lasting distress. His father was a distant figure, and the only close family relationship was with an elder sister. His obituarist in The Times suggests that the feeling of being an outsider, when the grammar school returned to Great Yarmouth in 1944 MacMillan found a new ballet teacher, Phyllis Adams. With her help, MacMillan, aged fifteen, secured admission to the Sadlers Wells Ballet School and he saw his first performances of ballets, given by Ninette de Valois Sadlers Wells company, at the New Theatre in London. When David Webster was appointed executive of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden at the end of the war, his assignment was to establish permanent opera. He set about building the company from scratch but persuaded de Valois to make Covent Garden the main base for her ballet company. In 1946, while still a student, MacMillan appeared in the production of The Sleeping Beauty with which Webster, at first he was a non-dancing extra, and later he was promoted to a small dancing role. With the main company now resident at Covent Garden, de Valois established a smaller ensemble to perform at Sadlers Wells, in April 1946 MacMillan was a founder member, and quickly made progress
34.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
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Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16. 3-acre complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts many notable performing arts organizations, which are nationally and internationally renowned, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Ballet. Respected architects were contracted to design the buildings on the site. Rockefeller was Lincoln Centers inaugural president from 1956 and became its chairman in 1961, the centers three buildings, David Geffen Hall, David H. Koch Theater and the Metropolitan Opera House were opened in 1962,1964 and 1966, respectively. While the center may have been named because it was located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, the name was bestowed on the area in 1906 by the New York City Board of Aldermen, but records give no reason for choosing that name. There has long been speculation that the name came from a local landowner, City records from the time show only the names Johannes van Bruch, Thomas Hall, Stephan de Lancey, James de Lancey, James de Lancey, Jr. and John Somerindyck as area property owners. One speculation is that references to President Lincoln were omitted from the records because the mayor in 1906 was George B, mcClellan, Jr. son of General George B. McClellan, who was general-in-chief of the Union Army early in the American Civil War, Architects who designed buildings at the center include, Max Abramovitz, David Geffen Hall Pietro Belluschi, The Juilliard School. Koch Theater Eero Saarinen, Vivian Beaumont Theater Davis, Brody and Associates, The Samuel B. the centers cultural institutions also make use of facilities located away from the main campus. In 2004, the center was expanded through the addition of Jazz at Lincoln Centers newly built facilities, in March 2006, the center launched construction on a major redevelopment plan that modernized, renovated, and opened up its campus. Redevelopment was completed in 2012 with the completion of the Presidents Bridge over West 65th Street, when it was first announced in 1999, Lincoln Centers campuswide redevelopment was to cost $1.5 billion over 10 years and radically transform the campus. Among the architects that have been involved were Frank Gehry, Cooper, Robertson & Partners, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Beyer Blinder Belle, Fox & Fowle, Olin Partnership, and Diller & Scofidio. Additionally, Alice Tully Hall was modernized and reopened to critical and popular acclaim in 2009, topped by a sloping lawn roof, the film center is part of a new pavilion that also houses a destination restaurant named Lincoln, as well as offices. Subsequent projects were added which addressed improvements to the main plazas, under the direction of the Lincoln Center Development Project, Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with FXFOWLE Architects and Beyer Blinder Belle Architects provided the design services. Additionally, Turner Construction Company and RCDolner, LLC were the managers for the projects. April 21,1955, Lincoln Square designated for urban renewal, june 22,1956, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. incorporated. May 14,1959, Ground-breaking ceremony with U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower September 23,1962, a two-hour live CBS special, Opening Night at Lincoln Center, preserved the event on videotape. April 6,1964, Lincoln Center Fountain opened, renamed the Revson Fountain April 23,1964, New York State Theater opened
35.
Carnegie Hall
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Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1891, it is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music. Carnegie Hall has its own programming, development, and marketing departments. It is also rented out to performing groups, the hall has not had a resident company since 1962, when the New York Philharmonic moved to Lincoln Centers Philharmonic Hall. Carnegie Hall has 3,671 seats, divided among its three auditoriums, Carnegie Hall presented about 200 concerts in the 2008–2009 season, up 3 percent from the previous year. Its stages were rented for an additional 600 events in the 2008–2009 season, Carnegie Hall contains three distinct, separate performance spaces. The Isaac Stern Auditorium seats 2,804 on five levels and was named after violinist Isaac Stern in 1997 to recognize his efforts to save the hall from demolition in the 1960s, the hall is enormously high, and visitors to the top balcony must climb 137 steps. All but the top level can be reached by elevator, the main hall was home to the performances of the New York Philharmonic from 1892 until 1962. Known as the most prestigious concert stage in the U. S. almost all of the classical music. After years of wear and tear, the hall was extensively renovated in 1986. The Ronald O. Perelman Stage is 42 feet deep, the First Tier and Second Tier consist of sixty-five boxes, the First Tier has 264 seats at eight seats per box and the Second Tier seats 238, with boxes ranging from six to eight seats each. Second from the top is the Dress Circle, seating 444 in six rows, at the top, the balcony seats 837. Although seats with obstructed views exist throughout the auditorium, only the Dress Circle level has structural columns, Zankel Hall, which seats 599, is named after Judy and Arthur Zankel. Originally called simply Recital Hall, this was the first auditorium to open to the public in April 1891, following renovations made in 1896, it was renamed Carnegie Lyceum. The completely reconstructed Zankel Hall is flexible in design and can be reconfigured in several different arrangements to suit the needs of the performers, the 599 seats in Zankel Hall are arranged in two levels. The Parterre level seats a total of 463 and the Mezzanine level seats 136, each level has a number of seats which are situated along the side walls, perpendicular to the stage. These seats are designated as boxes, there are 54 seats in six boxes on the Parterre level and 48 seats in four boxes on the Mezzanine level, the boxes on the Parterre level are raised above the level of the stage. Zankel Hall is accessible and its stage is 44 feet wide and 25 feet deep — the stage occupies approximately one fifth of the performance space, the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Recital Hall seats 268 and is named after Sanford I. Weill, a chairman of the board, and his wife Joan
36.
The Muppet Show
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The Muppet Show is a family-oriented comedy-variety television series that was produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and features The Muppets. The programmes were recorded at ATVs Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, England, the series shows a vaudeville or music hall-style song-and-dance variety show, as well as glimpses behind the scenes of such a show. Kermit the Frog stars as a showrunner who tries to control of the antics of the other Muppet characters. The show was known for physical slapstick, sometimes absurdist comedy. Each episode also featured a human guest star, as the shows popularity rose, many celebrities were eager to perform with the Muppets on television and in film. Many of the puppeteers also worked on Sesame Street, Jerry Juhl and Jack Burns were two of the show writers. The music was performed by Jack Parnell and his orchestra, since 1969, Sesame Street had given Jim Hensons Muppet creations exposure, however, Henson began to perceive that he was pigeonholed as a childrens entertainer. He sought to create a programme that could be enjoyed by young, Two specials were produced and aired on ABC that are considered pilots for The Muppet Show. Neither led to the sale of a network series. However, the prime-time access rule had just been enacted, which took the 7,30 to 8 pm ET slot from the networks and turned it over to their affiliates. CBS suggested it would be interested in Hensons proposal as a series it could purchase for its owned-and-operated stations. According to the pitch reel, Rowan & Martins Laugh-In co-creator George Schlatter was originally going to be involved. Henson put aside his misgivings about syndication and accepted, the Muppet Show Theme is the shows theme song. It is the opening and closing theme for episode of The Muppet Show and was performed by The Muppets in a scene of The Muppets. Each episode ended with an instrumental performance of The Muppet Show Theme by the Muppet orchestra before Statler. Some last laugh sequences featured other Muppets on the balcony, for example, in one episode, the Muppets of Sesame Street appeared behind the duo who told them, How should we know how to get to Sesame Street. We dont even know how to get out of this stupid theater box, every series, the TV version of the song was presented with re-worked lyrics. While the opening sequence evolved visually over the course of the five series
37.
James Galway
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Sir James Galway, OBE is an Irish virtuoso flute player from Belfast, nicknamed The Man With the Golden Flute. Following in the footsteps of Jean-Pierre Rampal, he one of the first flute players to establish an international career as a soloist. Galway was born in East Belfast near the Belfast docks as one of two brothers and his first instrument was a five-key Irish flute, and at the age of twelve or thirteen, he received a Boehm instrument. He left school at the age of fourteen and worked as an apprentice to a piano repairer for two years and he subsequently went to London to study the flute at the Royal College of Music under John Francis and then at the Guildhall School of Music under Geoffrey Gilbert. He then studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Gaston Crunelle and Jean-Pierre Rampal, after his education he spent fifteen years as an orchestral player. He has played with Sadlers Wells Opera, Covent Garden Opera, the London Symphony Orchestra and he auditioned for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan, and was principal flute of that orchestra from 1969 to 1975. To Karajans surprise and dismay, after a period of some disagreement, the album James Galway and The Chieftains in Ireland by Galway and The Chieftains reached number 32 in the UK Albums Chart in 1987. Galway still performs regularly and is one of the worlds most well-known flute players and his recordings have sold over 30 million copies. In 1990, he was invited by Roger Waters to play at The Wall – Live in Berlin concert, held in Potsdamer Platz, he played Pink Floyds songs Goodbye Blue Sky and Is There Anybody Out There. Galway performed for the Academy Award-winning ensemble recording the soundtracks of Peter Jacksons The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, in June 2008, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame along with Liza Minnelli and B. B. He currently performs on Nagahara flutes, as well as some Muramatsu Flutes, conn-Selmer produces his line of flutes, Galway Spirit Flutes. Galway is president of an organisation called Flutewise, a charitable organisation which supports young flute players. He is an Ambassador for the National Foundation for Youth Music and he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977, and was knighted in 2001, the first wind player ever to receive that honour. He is a National Patron of Delta Omicron, a professional music fraternity. In December 2013 Galway launched First Flute, an interactive series of lessons for beginning flute students of all ages. He received the 2014 Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award, Galway has been married three times. His first marriage, to a Frenchwoman, produced a son and he married his second wife, Anna Renggli, a daughter of a well-known Swiss architect, in 1972, and moved from Berlin to Lucerne, Switzerland, her hometown. The couple had twin daughters and a son, in 1978 he recorded for her an instrumental version of John Denvers Annies Song
38.
Nigel Kennedy
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Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist and violist. He made his career in the classical field, and has more recently performed in jazz. Kennedys grandfather was Lauri Kennedy, principal cellist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and his grandmother was Dorothy Kennedy, Lauri and Dorothy Kennedy were Australian, while their son, the cellist John Kennedy, was born in England. While in England, John developed a relationship with an English pianist, Scylla Stoner, but they ultimately divorced, and John returned to Australia. Nigel Kennedy has about 30 close relatives in Australia, whom he visits whenever he tours there, Nigel Kennedy was born in Brighton. A boy prodigy, as a ten-year-old he would pick out Fats Waller tunes on the piano after hearing his stepfathers jazz records, at the age of seven, he became a pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music. He later studied at the Juilliard School in New York City with Dorothy DeLay, at the age of 16, Kennedy was invited by leading jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli to appear with him at New Yorks Carnegie Hall. He made his debut in 1984 with Elgars Violin Concerto. His subsequent recording of Vivaldis The Four Seasons with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1989 sold over two copies and earned a place as one of the best-selling classical recordings ever. The album remained at the top of the UK classical charts for over a year, Kennedy published his autobiography, Always Playing, in 1991. He then withdrew completely from public performance, at which point he made the album Music in Colours with Stephen Duffy and he returned to the international concert platform five years later. In 1997, he received an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music at the BRIT Awards, in other music genres, Kennedy recorded a cover of Jimi Hendrixs Fire for the 1993 album Stone Free, A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The same year, he made an appearance on Robert Plants solo album Fate of Nations on the track Calling to you, in 1999, Sony Classical released The Kennedy Experience, which featured improvisational recordings based on Hendrix compositions. In 2000, he recorded Riders on the Storm, The Doors Concerto, an orchestral version of Doors songs, including Strange Days, LA Woman, The End. On 27 November 2000, Kennedy joined rock group The Who at the Royal Albert Hall to play the solo in the song Baba ORiley. Kennedy also played on several tracks – notably Experiment IV – by British singer-songwriter Kate Bush and he was featured on two of Sarah Brightmans songs for her 2003 album Harem. He has explored Klezmer music with the Polish jazz band Kroke, in late 2005, Kennedy recorded his first album for the jazz label Blue Note Sessions, with Ron Carter on double bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums and saxophonist Joe Lovano. Kennedy returned to the 2008 Proms after an absence of 21 years, performing Elgars Violin Concerto and he also plays the viola, and has recorded Sir William Waltons Viola Concerto
39.
Julian Lloyd Webber
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Julian Lloyd Webber is a British cellist, conductor and the principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire. Julian Lloyd Webber is the son of the composer William Lloyd Webber. He is the brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The composer Herbert Howells was his godfather, Lloyd Webber was educated at three schools in London, at Wetherby School, a pre-prep school in South Kensington, followed by Westminster Under School and University College School. He then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, Lloyd Webber made his professional debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in September 1972 when he gave the first London performance of the cello concerto by Sir Arthur Bliss. He was described in The Strad as the doyen of British cellists, several CDs are of short pieces for Universal Classics including Made in England, Cello Moods, Cradle Song and English Idyll. Lloyd Webber premiered the recordings of more than 50 works, inspiring new compositions for cello from composers as diverse as Malcolm Arnold, Joaquín Rodrigo James MacMillan, and Philip Glass. His recording of the Glass concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Gerard Schwarz was released on the Orange Mountain label in September 2005, in May 2001, he was granted the first buskers licence on the London Underground. Demonstrating his involvement in education, he formed the Music Education Consortium with James Galway. As a result of lobbying by the Consortium, on 21 November 2007. In 2008, the British Government invited Lloyd Webber to be Chairman of its In Harmony programme which is based on the Venezuelan social programme El Sistema, the government- commissioned Henley Review of Music Education reported, There is no doubt that they have delivered life-changing experiences. In July 2011 the founder of El Sistema in Venezuela, José Antonio Abreu, Lloyd Webber now chairs the charity Sistema England. In October 2012 he led the Incorporated Society of Musicians campaign against the implementation of the EBacc which proposed to remove Arts subjects from the core curriculum, in February 2013 the Government withdrew its plans. In May 2009, Lloyd Webber was elected President of the Elgar Society in succession to Sir Adrian Boult, Lord Menuhin, in April 2014, Lloyd Webber was awarded the Incorporated Society of Musicians Distinguished Musician Award at their annual conference. In September 2014, the charity Live Music Now announced Lloyd Webber as its public spokesman. On 28 April 2014, he announced his retirement from public performance as a cellist because of a disc in his neck. In March 2015, he was announced as principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire, Lloyd Webber received the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in 1998 and a Classic FM Red Award for outstanding services to music in 2005. He won the Best British Classical Recording in 1986 at the Brit Awards for his recording of Cello Concerto with Sir Yehudi Menuhin and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
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John Williams (guitarist)
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John Christopher Williams is an Australian virtuosic classical guitarist renowned for his ensemble playing as well as his interpretation and promotion of the modern classical guitar repertoire. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category with fellow guitarist Julian Bream for Julian, guitar historian Graham Wade has said, John is perhaps the most technically accomplished guitarist the world has seen. In 1952, the moved to England, where he attended Friern Barnet Grammar School. Williams was initially taught guitar by his father, who was an accomplished guitarist, from the age of 11, Williams attended summer courses with Andrés Segovia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. Later, he attended the Royal College of Music in London, from 1956 to 1959, upon graduation, he was invited to create such a department. He took the opportunity and ran the department for its first two years, Williams has maintained links with the college ever since. Williams first professional performance was at the Wigmore Hall in London on 6 November 1958, since then, he has been performing throughout the world and has made regular appearances on radio and TV. He has extended the repertoire by commissioning guitar concertos from composers such as Stephen Dodgson, André Previn, Patrick Gowers, Richard Harvey, Williams has recorded albums of duets with fellow guitarists Julian Bream and Paco Peña. Williams is a professor and honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Williams mostly uses Greg Smallman guitars, after using Spanish Fleta during the 1970s and he also plays a guitar by Paulino Bernabe II. Williams notes that students preoccupied with fingerings and not notes, much less sounds, some are able to play difficult solo works from memory, although Williams is best known as a classical guitarist, he has explored many different musical genres. Between 1978 and 1984 he was a member of the fusion group Sky and he is also a composer and arranger. The duet featured on the album and the film version of the show – bringing Williams to the broader attention of the rock audience. Williams recorded Cavatina by Stanley Myers, the piece originally included only the first few measures but, at Williams request, it was rewritten for guitar and expanded by Myers. After this transformation it was used for a film, The Walking Stick, in 1973, Cleo Laine wrote lyrics and recorded it as the song He Was Beautiful accompanied by Williams. The guitar version became a hit single when it was used as the theme tune to the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter. Williams and his wife, Kathy, reside in London. He has a daughter Kate, now a jazz pianist
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Ray Charles
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Ray Charles Robinson, known professionally as Ray Charles, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called Brother Ray and he was often referred to as The Genius. Charles was blind from the age of seven and he pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records. He also contributed to the integration of music, rhythm and blues and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records. While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a record company. Charles cited Nat King Cole as an influence, but his music was also influenced by country, jazz, blues. In the late forties, he became friends with Quincy Jones and their friendship would last till the end of Charless life. Frank Sinatra called him the true genius in show business. In 2002, Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Billy Joel observed, This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. Robinson was the son of Bailey Robinson, a laborer, at the time, she was a teenage orphan making a living as a sharecropper. They lived in Greenville, Florida, with Robinsons mother and his wife, the Robinson family had informally adopted Aretha, and she became known as Aretha Robinson. When she, scandalously, became pregnant by Bailey, she briefly left Greenville late in the summer of 1930 to be family members in Albany, Georgia. After that, mother and child returned to Greenville, and Aretha and he was deeply devoted to his mother and later recalled her perseverance, self-sufficiency, and pride as guiding lights in his life. His father abandoned the family, left Greenville, and took another wife elsewhere, in his early years, Charles showed a fondness about mechanical objects and would often watch his neighbors working on their cars and farm machinery. Charles and his mother were always welcome at the Red Wing Cafe, pitman would also care for Rays brother George, to take the burden off Aretha. George drowned in Arethas laundry tub when he was four years old, Charles started to lose his sight at the age of four or five, and was completely blind by the age of seven, apparently as a result of glaucoma. Destitute, uneducated and still mourning the loss of George, Aretha used her connections in the community to find a school that would accept a blind African-American student. Despite his initial protest, Charles attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf, Charles further developed his musical talent at school, and was taught to play the classical piano music of J. S
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