Category: people

“The hypocrites in charge, not a one of whom I know, say they are doing this to ‘honor’ me. What they are doing is trying to drown me in their own bad taste, and are embarrassing me beyond endurance.” – The Guardian

The Nobel laureate talks about politics, law, race/ethnic relations, and corruption in both his erstwhile adopted country (the U.S.) and his native land (Nigeria); about what went wrong in South Africa and which sub-Saharan countries are doing well; and about the time he personally desegregated a hotel pool in Atlanta. – New York Review of Books

She had had quite a life even before she became the first superstar virtuoso of an electronic instrument: she was a child prodigy on the violin who toured with her pianist sister until injury (and a screaming Leopold Auer) derailed her, she happened on Leon Theremin and his invention at a party at the Plaza Hotel, and she turned down his marriage proposal. – Tablet

Although he was never a household name, anyone with a record collection almost undoubtedly owns one of Blaine’s songs. By his own count, he played on more than 6,000 tracks over the course of his career. – BBC

Richardson’s grandest and most acclaimed project was his multivolume biography of Pablo Picasso, the first part of which was published in 1991. (Two more volumes have been put out since; a fourth is expected to follow, though a publication date has not yet been set.) In 2008, Richardson was asked what made his biography different from books on the painter. He told Artinfo, “The fact that I knew him well and he opened up to me.” – ARTnews

“[He was] a Columbia University literary scholar who became an early champion of ‘popular’ fiction within the academy and worked as a critic, editor and novelist, most notably with the grisly satire Confessions of a Lady-Killer … But he was probably best known for helping to spearhead the study of popular fiction in the classroom, and for his frequent — and frequently acerbic — reviews and essays on contemporary literature.” – The Washington Post

“As a symphonic conductor, he held posts with the Belgian National Orchestra (1969-73), Cincinnati SO (1980-86) and SWR Symphony Baden-Baden and Freiburg (1986-89). He also served as a Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1978-81). He retired from conducting 2014. His service to contemporary music was immense and he championed works by György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Hans Werner Henze, Betsy Jolas, Isang Yun and Henri Pousseur, as well as earlier 20th-century masters.” – Gramophone

He served as principal cellist with the Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and was a widely admired teacher, and he’s best remembered for a still-legendary 1960 performance at Carnegie Hall of Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo with the NBC Symphony under Leopold Stokowski. – The Strad

Let one of his most famous contestants explain. Ken Jennings, owner of the longest win streak on Jeopardy, writes, “When the cameras stop rolling, Alex is a looser, even goofy presence. He takes studio audience questions at every break, sometimes slipping into funny accents or even bits of soft-shoe.” Maybe keep those cameras rolling next time, Jeopardy? – The New York Times

McCracken, author of the new novel The Bowlaways (and quite a few other novels and short stories), explains her character Bertha: “I was thinking about the ways in which women give up things in order to exist in the world. And you have to have delusions of grandeur in order to be grand, but women are not expected to be grand.” – The Guardian (UK)