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John Drummond (arts Administrator)
Sir John Richard Gray Drummond (25 November 1934 – 6 September 2006) was a British arts administrator who spent most of his career at the BBC. He was described by Rodney Milnes of ''Opera'' magazine as "one of the most formidable figures in the arts world of the UK for 40 years".Milnes, R. "Obituary: Sir John Drummond". ''Opera'', November 2006, pp. 1311-1312. Early life Drummond was born in London, the son of a Scottish Sea Captain in the British India line and an Australian singer, principally of ''lieder''. He spent much of his childhood in Bournemouth, being evacuated to the resort at the beginning of World War II, spending hours in the public library absorbing all he could on creative arts, and also attending concerts by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was educated at Canford School on a scholarship (becoming head boy) and, during his National Service in the Navy, he studied Russian on the course at Bodmin. On a major open scholarship, gained in 1953, he read H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodney Milnes
Rodney Milnes Blumer OBE (26 July 1936 – 5 December 2015) was an English music critic, musicologist, writer, translator and broadcaster, with a particular interest in opera.Rodney Milnes. ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. He wrote under the professional name of Rodney Milnes. Life and career Milnes was born in Stafford, where his father was a surgeon. He learnt the piano as a child, to the level of playing the early Beethoven sonatas, and later recalled accompanying a fellow Oxford student in ''Winterreise'' at the Holywell Music Room. Wheatcroft, Geoffrey. Rodney Milnes, 1936-2015. ''Opera'', Vol 67 No 2, February 2016, p140-145. Milnes attended Rugby School and studied history at Christ Church, Oxford University. He was a member of the Oxford University Opera Club, taking part in '' The Fair Maid of Perth'' in 1955 (with Dudley Moore among the first violins and David Lloyd-Jones in the chorus),Rodney remembered (letters). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marlowe Society
The Marlowe Society is a Cambridge University theatre club for Cambridge students. It is dedicated to achieving a high standard of student drama at Cambridge. The society celebrated its centenary over three years (2007–2009) and in 2008 there was a production by the society of a version of ''Comus'' written by Australian poet and playwright John Kinsella. History The Marlowe Society was founded in 1907 by Justin Brooke and other students, with the intention of performing historical plays that were relatively unknown, as Christopher Marlowe, the Society's namesake, was himself a lesser-known contemporary of Shakespeare's. Brooke and his fellow students were reacting against Victorian theatre and decided to revive the presentation of Shakespeare in Cambridge, not performed there since 1886.The Cambridge University Mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirit Of The Age (1975 TV Series)
''Spirit of the Age'' is a 1975 documentary series of "Eight films on eight centuries of British Architecture". It was broadcast on BBC 2 between 31 October 1975 and 19 December 1975 as the BBC's contribution to the Council of Europe's European Architectural Heritage Year. Each episode examined a different era of British architecture was presented by an expert in his field. It was series produced by the arts specialist John Drummond. Its title music was a specially-composed fanfare by the Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Arthur Bliss. A book of the same name was published to accompany the television series by BBC Books in 1975, later reprinted in 1992. The series was repeated in May 1976, when a studio discussion "In Search of the Spirit of the Age" featuring Alec Clifton-Taylor and John Julius Norwich was broadcast to introduce the series. The first episode, presented by Alec Clifton-Taylor Alec Clifton-Taylor (2 August 1907 – 1 April 1985) was an English architectural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathleen Ferrier
Kathleen Mary Ferrier, CBE (22 April 19128 October 1953) was an English contralto singer who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the classical works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar. Her death from cancer, at the height of her fame, was a shock to the musical world and particularly to the general public, which was kept in ignorance of the nature of her illness until after her death. The daughter of a Lancashire village schoolmaster, Ferrier showed early talent as a pianist, and won numerous amateur piano competitions while working as a telephonist with the General Post Office. She did not take up singing seriously until 1937, when after winning a prestigious singing competition at the Carlisle Festival she began to receive offers of professional engagements as a vocalist. Thereafter she took singing lessons, first with J.E. Hutchinson and later with Roy Henderson. Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Ring Des Nibelungen
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibelungenlied''. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel" (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as the ''Ring'' cycle, Wagner's ''Ring'', or simply ''The Ring''. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the ''Ring'' cycle are, in sequence: * ''Das Rheingold'' (''The Rhinegold'') * '' Die Walküre'' (''The Valkyrie'') * '' Siegfried'' * '' Götterdämmerung'' (''Twilight of the Gods'') Individual works of the sequence are often performed separately, and indeed the operas contain dialogues that mention events in the previous operas, so that a viewer could watch any of them wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In 1937, anticipating Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca and the link between the U.K. and U.S. Decca labels was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group. The U.S. Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG (Universal Music Group). Label name The name dates back to a portable gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. The name "Decca" was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the word "Mecca" with the initial D of their log ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics and, being of Jewish background, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist. After the war, Solti was appointed musical director of the Bavarian Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence, and is therefore free of commercial advertising. It is a comparatively well-funded public-service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public-service networks worldwide. Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched (starting on 21 April 1964), and from 1 July 1967, Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour. It was envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming, and while this tendency has continued to date, most special-interest programmes of a kind previously broadcast on BBC Two, for example the BBC Proms, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Scott (BBC)
Robin Hugh Scutt (24 October 1920 – 7 February 2000), better known as Robin Scott, was a British broadcasting executive. He was the launch controller of BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 in 1967, and the controller of BBC2 television from 1969 to 1974. Early career Born Robin Hugh Scutt, he was educated at Bryanston School and read modern languages at Jesus College, Cambridge before joining the Intelligence Corps. He was discharged through illness in 1942, and joined the BBC. While in the BBC's French Service he commented on major events, including VE Day and VJ Day. During this time he changed his name to Scott, because his French contacts found his original name difficult to say. He moved into television in the late 1950s, and produced programmes including ''Miss World'', ''Come Dancing'' and ''It's a Knockout''. During this time he wrote the song " Softly, Softly", a British number one hit for Ruby Murray. Scott moved to the BBC Paris bureau in 1958, and was seconded to Trans-Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history documentary series forming the ''Life'' collection, a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth. Attenborough was a senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. First becoming prominent as host of ''Zoo Quest'' in 1954, his filmography as writer, presenter and narrator has spanned eight decades; it includes ''Natural World'', '' Wildlife on One'', the ''Planet Earth'' franchise, '' The Blue Planet'' and its sequel. He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black and white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolutions. Over his life he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including 3 Emmy Awards f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Day
Sir Robin Day (24 October 1923 – 6 August 2000) was an English political journalist and television and radio broadcaster. Day's obituary in ''The Guardian'' by Dick Taverne stated that he was "the most outstanding television journalist of his generation. He transformed the television interview, changed the relationship between politicians and television, and strove to assert balance and rationality into the medium's treatment of current affairs". Early life Day was born in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, the youngest of four children of William Day (c. 1885- c. 1948) a Post Office telephone engineer who became a GPO administrative manager, and his wife Florence. He received his early formal education at Brentwood School from 1934 to 1938, briefly attended the Crypt School, Gloucester, and later Bembridge School on the Isle of Wight. During World War II he received a commission into the British Army's Royal Artillery, with which he served from 1943. He was deployed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Dimbleby
Frederick Richard Dimbleby (25 May 1913 – 22 December 1965) was an English journalist and broadcaster, who became the BBC's first war correspondent, and then its leading TV news commentator. As host of the long-running current affairs programme ''Panorama'', he pioneered a popular style of interviewing that was respectful but searching. At formal public events, he could combine gravitas with creative insights based on extensive research. He was also able to maintain interest throughout the all-night election specials. The annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture was founded in his memory. Biography Early life Dimbleby was born near Richmond, Surrey, the son of Gwendoline Mabel (Bolwell) and Frederick Jabez George Dimbleby, a journalist. He was educated at The Mall School, Twickenham, and at Mill Hill School, and began his career in 1931 on the ''Richmond and Twickenham Times'', which his grandfather, Frederick William Dimbleby, had acquired in 1894. He then worked as a news ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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