Category: people

Bosworth, who was part of the Actors Studio with Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroes, gave up acting to write instead – and write she did, about Diane Arbus, Jane Fonda, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, and herself. – The New York Times

Burmann, who died of renal failure after testing positive for COVID-19, was “a revered ballet master and teacher who trained generations of dancers, including Alessandra Ferri, Julio Bocca, Maria Kowroski and Wendy Whelan.” His advanced class drew students from all over the dance world, and he “was a part of ‘so many of our histories — across the world and across disciplines,’ recalled Ms. Whelan, the former New York City Ballet principal who is now the company’s associate artistic director.” – The New York Times

McKinnell was a 26-year-old graduate student and a teaching assistant for architect Gerhard Kallmann when the city hall competition arose. Their “heroically sculptural and democratically open design for Boston City Hall catalyzed the city’s urban revival in the late 1960s and embodied the era’s idealism and civic activism.” – The New York Times

The influence of Schnitzer – whose name is on the Oregon Symphony’s hall – on the Portland and Pacific Northwest arts scene can hardly be overstated. “Schnitzer was a towering cultural figure in Portland and the Pacific Northwest, giving many millions of dollars over several decades to the Portland Art Museum, other cultural organizations, health and medical organizations including Oregon Health and Science University, and Jewish causes. With her husband, fellow philanthropist Harold Schnitzer, who died in 2011, she helped shape Portland’s cultural scene: Between 1993 and Harold’s death they donated more than $80 million to various causes. Their naming gift helped transform downtown Portland’s run-down Paramount Theatre into what became the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, home of the Oregon Symphony, much of the White Bird dance series, and other performances.” – Oregon ArtsWatch

Rocca and five others, former classmates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, “came together under the sway of influences as disparate as Dubuffet, Native American art, hand-painted store signs, the Sears catalog and the natural-history displays at the Field Museum to create a rambunctious form of painting and sculpture that tacked hard against prevailing orthodoxies.” – The New York Times

Withers broke out nationally with “Ain’t No Sunshine,” which he also wrote and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. Fueled by a melancholic groove and soulful vocal, it won the Grammy for Bests R&B son\g and launched a relatively brief but memorable career. – Deadline

“[He] was revered for the technical aplomb that enabled him to combine intricate runs, full chordal accompaniment and even his own walking bass lines. His rock-solid rhythmic footing and broad harmonic understanding were hallmarks of a warmly understated style that always drew attention to the song he was playing, rather than the playing itself.” – NPR

“[A] pianist and educator, [he] became the guiding force behind a late-20th-century resurgence in jazz. … Photogenic, erudite and fabulously talented, Mr. Marsalis’s children and many other young jazz musicians he had taught — including Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison Jr., Harry Connick Jr. and Nicholas Payton — became the leaders in a burgeoning traditionalist movement, loosely referred to as the Young Lions.” – The New York Times

She helped create the series Live From Lincoln Center, Dance in America, and Live From the Metropolitan Opera. And in 4½ years as PBS’s senior vice president for programming in the late 1970s (she was then the highest-ranking woman in American television), she convinced the various local member stations to carry the same prime-time programming for four evenings a week — giving PBS a national identity as a network for the first time. – The New York Times