Category: people

“[A] beloved national hero in Mozambique, [he] was one of the few African artists to gain substantial worldwide recognition while staying in Africa … He had cosmopolitan tastes; his knowledge of global art was wide; and he was a born performer who composed music, sang songs in five languages and periodically broke into spontaneous dancing.”

The “chief art critic of The Independent for the last 13 years and a respected illustrator in his own right, has died after a battle with cancer which he chronicled with characteristic candour.”

“An acoustical engineer responsible for the sound in many of the most prominent concert halls, theaters and auditoriums in the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan.”

“Peter Martins, the ballet master in chief of the New York City Ballet and one of the city’s leading artistic figures, was arrested at a checkpoint on New Year’s Day and charged with driving while intoxicated, the Westchester County police said Wednesday evening.”

“Left homeless after his life and radio career were ruined by drugs and alcohol, Williams has been offered a job by the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, and the 53-year-old is being pursued by NFL Films and others for possible work. Williams and his compelling tale became an online sensation after The Columbus Dispatch posted a clip of him demonstrating his voiceover skills while begging by the side of the road.”

Tom Service found the composer “to be the exact opposite of the forbidding, taciturn figure that looms out of some of his photos. There was laughter, humour and generosity in the way he spoke about his compositional and existential struggles, and even his religious feelings.”

Says the MacArthur-winning pianist/composer/essayist/poet and gay Catholic convert: “I think actually the Church has a lot to teach everyone about the beauty of human sexuality. If you think about it, the idea of sex as a sacramental thing is wildly exciting. It would enliven the bedrooms of the Western world if they actually took it on board.”

Yoweri Museveni, now 65 and president for 24 years, started doing rap as a way to appeal to young voters during his current election campaign. But his performances have caught on, with heavy radio play, a YouTube video that gets thousands of hits each day, and (of course) ringtones.

“Mr. Hillyer was the last of the original members of the Juilliard String Quartet to commit to the project, and in some ways he had the most to lose. … [He] at the time was a 32-year-old violinist with a solid job: he was in his fourth year as a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky.”

“Barbra Streisand has met with Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents to discuss starring as Rose, the mother of all stage mamas, in a film version of their 1959 musical Gypsy.”