Category: people

A groundbreaking musician who had been one of only four women in the BSO in the mid-1960s, Ms. Schaefer was 95 when she died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on Jan. 31 in Sequim, Wash., where she lived in retirement with her older sister, a former cellist with the orchestra. – Boston Globe

“After beginning her artistic life as a painter, Ms. Pepper was known from the 1960s on as a sculptor of towering forms of iron, steel, earth and stone, often displayed outdoors. … [Yet her] work was suffused with a quicksilver lightness that belied its gargantuan scale.” – The New York Times

The male choral group had been active in South Africa for two decades when Paul Simon featured them on his 1986 album Graceland — after which they shot to international fame, won five Grammy Awards, and brought Zulu music to a global audience. – BBC

He founded the LA Review of Books. He argues for LA as the center of the book publishing industry. Now he’s written a novel as he follows the Kerouac school of writing. – Los Angeles Times

When journalists tried to pigeonhole her as a “new hot blonde” on the scene, well, Margot Robbie took control. “Robbie has refigured the terms of her agreement with the media. She’s done it gradually, without flash or announcement. … She’s simply refocused the public’s attention away from her body, and the image prefabricated for her in her breakout role in Wolf of Wall Street, and toward her talent and her work, which is shaped by the three goals she and her production team discuss at regular check-ins every month: quality, variety, longevity.” – Buzzfeed News

Freni had a “special claim on [the Italian] tradition, which valued bel canto principles of producing rich, unforced sound; of shaping even, lyrical lines across the range of a voice; and of sensitively matching sound to words.” – The New York Times

Conrad’s biggest part came as Jim West in a blend of James Bond and Westerns. His character “was dispatched on various secret missions on behalf of the government of President Ulysses S. Grant. West had his own personal train for traveling, an arsenal of quirky gadgets — exploding billiard balls, a pistol on a track hidden up his sleeve — and a partner (played by Ross Martin) who was adept at outlandish disguises.” – The New York Times

Rees, whose Pariah hit the indie scene hard in 2011 and whose 2017 Mudbound earned four Oscar nominations, “is placing a thick spread of bets, in the hope that she will soon be able to play as boldly as she wants” in Hollywood. “Rees said her strategy is to work on ‘five things at once and see which one sticks.’ Each time we talked, she was working on a new project. Once it was a television show about a black police officer in the South, set in the 1970s. Another time it was a potential collaboration with a black playwright. This is both a survival tactic designed to navigate the ever-changing tides of a mercurial entertainment industry and perhaps also a defense mechanism.” – The New York Times

Bean was on his way to meet his wife, who was ushering the show at the Pacific Resident Theatre in LA, when he was hit by two cars while crossing the street. The theatre canceled its performance. Bean, a veteran actor-comedian, had just written a new play and was beginning rehearsals at the Ruskin Theatre Group in Santa Monica. “‘He was so full of life at 91,’ [producer Sara] Newman said, adding that he often greeted colleagues with a new joke — ‘usually raunchy’ — and always had kind words for them.” – Los Angeles Times

A traditionalist maestro who led more than 400 performances at the Met, he had to wait a while before critics gave full credit to his gifts, but singers and orchestral players adored him. – The New York Times