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Efrem Kurtz
Efrem Kurtz (russian: Ефрем Курц; November 7, 1900June 27, 1995) was a Russian conductor. Life and career Kurtz was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the Saint Petersburg conservatory with Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Tcherepnin, among others. He then pursued graduate studies at Riga University and the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. He later was a pupil of Arthur Nikisch in Leipzig. Kurtz made his conducting debut in Berlin in 1921 while a student at the Stern Conservatory when he substituted for an ill Nikisch to accompany the dancer Isadora Duncan on tour. This led to a number of concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic. From 1924 to 1933 he conducted the Stuttgart Philharmonic, and in 1928, Kurtz was engaged by Anna Pavlova to accompany her dancing, which he did until her death in 1931. From 1933 to 1941 he was conductor of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, touring with them extensively. His work in Monte Carlo included conducting the premiere of ''Gaîté ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Goodwin
Trevor Noël Goodwin (25 December 1927 – 27 March 2013) was an English music critic, dance critic and author who specialized in classical music and ballet. Described as having a "rare ability to write about music and dance with equal distinction", for 22 years Goodwin was Chief music and dance critic for the ''Daily Express''. He held criticism posts at many English newspapers, including the ''News Chronicle'', ''Truth'' and ''The Manchester Guardian'' among others; from 1978 to 1998 he also reviewed performances for ''The Times''. Goodwin wrote an early history of the Scottish Ballet and was coauthor for two books: ''London Symphony: Portrait of an Orchestra'' with Hubert J. Foss and a ''Knight at the Opera'' with Geraint Evans. Life and career Trevor Noël Goodwin was born on 25 December 1927 in Fowey, Cornwall, England, UK. Published in print on 8 April 2013, p. 49 Born to a seafaring family, Goodwin was sent to the Royal Merchant Navy School (now the Bearwood House) in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kansas City Philharmonic
The Kansas City Symphony (KCS) is a United States symphony orchestra based in Kansas City, Missouri. The current music director is conductor Michael Stern. The Symphony performs at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, located at 1601 Broadway Boulevard. History Kansas City's first symphony orchestra was the Kansas City Symphony, formed in 1911 for Carl Busch. It ceased operations at the start of World War I, as many of the musicians were sent to War. Kansas City's second symphony orchestra was the Kansas City Philharmonic, founded in 1933 and dissolved in 1982. Only months later, seeing the necessity for a new symphony orchestra, businessman and philanthropist R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. founded the Kansas City Symphony. Kemper chose a group of other prominent Kansas Citians, including Hallmark Cards Chairman and CEO Donald J. Hall, Sr. and H&R Block co-founder Henry W. Bloch, to be the founding trustees; together, the first board established the Symphony's initial endowment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer. Bloch was a preeminent artist in his day, and left a lasting legacy. He is recognized as one of the greatest Swiss composers in history. As well as producing musical scores, Bloch had an academic career that culminated in his recognition as Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley in 1952. Biography Bloch was born in Geneva on July 24, 1880 to Jewish parents. He began playing the violin at age 9, and began composing soon after. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. He then traveled around Europe, moving to Germany (where he studied composition from 1900–1901 with Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt), on to Paris in 1903 and back to Geneva before settling in the United States in 1916, taking US citizenship in 1924. He held several teaching appointments in the US, where his pupil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major composer. Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera ''Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'' was initially a success, but eventually was Muddle Instead of Music, condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk. In 1948 his work was #Second denunciation, denounced under the Zhdanov Doctrine, with professional consequences lasting several years. Even after his censure was On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, rescinded in 1956, performances of his music were occasionally subject to state interventions, as with his Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich), Thirteenth Symphony (1962). Shostakovich was a m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as '' Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority.The Greater London Authority consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The London Mayor is distinguished fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elaine Shaffer
Elaine Shaffer (October 22, 1925 – February 19, 1973) was an American flutist and principal of the Houston Symphony Orchestra between 1948 and 1953. Biography Elaine Shaffer was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania. She attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and was the prize student of William Kincaid, the 'grandfather' of the majority of flutists in the United States. That he willed his platinum flute to her makes his regard for her talent evident. Kincaid was her only formal flute teacher; prior to that, she was entirely self-taught, according to an interview with Shaffer's widowed husband, Efrem Kurtz, published in the National Flute Association Newsletter in the 1980s. Shaffer played for a season as second flute in the Kansas City Philharmonic (1947–1948). Apparently she was not shy — she really did not want to accept the position, though she had been recommended by an oboist in the orchestra, Laila Storch — and she held out not only for more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million residents within the city limits, over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 21.5 million residents in the metropolitan area. The city covers an area of , while the urban area covers , and the metropolitan area covers over . Moscow is among the world's largest cities; being the most populous city entirely in Europe, the largest urban and metropolitan area in Europe, and the largest city by land area on the European continent. First documented in 1147, Moscow grew to become a prosperous and powerful city that served as the capital of the Grand Duchy that bears its name. When the Grand Duchy of Moscow evolved into the Tsardom of Russia, Moscow remained the political and economic center for most of the Tsardom's history. When th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Pritchard (conductor)
Sir John Michael Pritchard, (born Stanley Frederick Pritchard, 5 February 1918 – 5 December 1989) was an English conductor. He was known for his interpretations of Mozart operas and for his support of contemporary music. Life and career Pritchard was born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a musical family. His father, Albert Edward Pritchard, was a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra. The young Pritchard was educated at the Monoux School and studied violin, piano, and conducting in Italy.Ponsonby, Robert"Pritchard, Sir John Michael (1918–1989)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 4 November 2007 Pritchard, as a conscientious objector, refused to serve in the Second World War, but was in any case unfit on medical grounds. In 1943 he took over the semi-professional Derby String Orchestra and was its principal conductor until 1951. He joined the music staff of Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1947 and was appointed chorus mas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, is the UK's oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra. In addition to the orchestra, the organisation administers the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company and other choirs and ensembles. It is involved in educational and community projects in Liverpool and its surrounding region. It is based in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, an Art Deco concert hall built in the late 1930s. History 19th century The organisation has its origins in a group of music amateurs in the early 19th century. They had met during the 1830s in St Martin's Church under the leadership of William Sudlow, a stockbroker and organist; their main interest was choral music.Spiegl, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macbeth (1948 Film)
''Macbeth'' is a 1948 American drama historical film adaptation by Orson Welles of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Macbeth'', with Welles in the lead role. Jeanette Nolan co-stars as Lady Macbeth. Plot In fog-dripping, barren and macabre settings, 11th-century Scottish nobleman Macbeth is led by an evil prophecy and his ruthless yet desirable wife to the treasonous act that makes him king. But he does not enjoy his newfound, dearly-won kingship. Restructured, but all the dialogue is Shakespeare's. Production In 1947, Orson Welles began promoting the notion of bringing a Shakespeare drama to the motion picture screen. He initially attempted to pique Alexander Korda's interest in an adaptation of ''Othello'', but was unable to gather support for the project. Welles switched to pushing for a film adaptation of ''Macbeth'', which he visualized in its violent setting as "a perfect cross between ''Wuthering Heights'' and ''Bride of Frankenstein''." Teaming with producer Charles K. Fel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. While in his 20s, Welles directed high-profile stage productions for the Federal Theatre Project, including an adaptation of ''Macbeth'' with an entirely African-American cast and the political musical '' The Cradle Will Rock''. In 1937, he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941, including ''Caesar'' (1937), an adaptation of William Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar''. In 1938, his radio anthology series ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' gave Welles the platform to find international fame as the director and narrator of a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel ''The War of the Worlds'', which caused s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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