Category: people

The French architect also designed the Olympic Pool and the vélodrome for the Olympics, a building that has become the Montréal Biodôme. The stadium was controversial at the time, and has stayed controversial – and costly – ever since. But the mayor who asked him to design these 1976 Olympics buildings had a different view. “‘Taillibert is the kind of architect who built the cathedrals of ancient times,’ said [Jean] Drapeau, calling Taillibert’s designs ‘poems in concrete.'” – CBC

The two named plaintiffs seek to represent a class of more than 100 former female students at Studio 4. Their complaint alleges that Studio 4 set out to “create a steady stream of young women to objectify and exploit.” The complaint also contends that the school was “designed to circumvent California’s ‘pay for play’ regulations,” which prohibit making actors pay for auditions. – NPR

“He got hooked on the idea that movie title sequences could be more than just ‘book covers,’ as he once described it, and he parlayed that concept into a 50-year career designing title sequences for more than 500 movies … [and] scores of television shows” — from The Searchers to the Godfather series and from The Dick Van Dyke Show to Dallas. – Los Angeles Times

Marrow was a lifelong champion for the arts. She began working at the Getty in 1983 as a publications coordinator, and went on to serve in various high-ranking roles. Her longest and most sustained position came as the director of what was initially called the Getty Grant Program in 1984. Now known as the Getty Foundation, the program gives out significant funding to institutions, historians, and conservators around the world. – ARTnews

“Kancheli’s work became known in the West as early as the 1970s — his Fourth Symphony, “In Memoria di Michelangelo,” was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1978 — but it was in the 1990s in particular that important international champions of his music emerged, including the ECM record label as well as conductors Dennis Russell Davies and Kurt Masur, violinist Gidon Kremer, violists Kim Kashkashian and Yuri Bashmet and Kronos Quartet, among others.” – NPR

“[She] painted bold, colorful works, often inspired by nature or music, and traveled in the same circles as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and other artists who were redefining painting in the years after World War II. … [But her] vivid description [of Pollock] conveys what women trying to make a name for themselves in that world were facing.” – The New York Times

“On February 4, 1960, the Associated Press ran her obituary. It read, ‘Zora Neale Hurston, author, died in obscurity and poverty.’ And with those words, syndicated in The New York Times and in papers from Jamaica to California, a new set of myths formed. Some listed her age at 57, others 58. After all, depending on what suited her, she told people she was born in 1901, 1902, or 1903 — in Eatonville, Florida. But as it turned out, none of this was true.” – The Bitter Southerner

Introduced by Ed Sullivan as “the greatest I’ve ever seen in his field,” Nelson, with his puppet sidekicks Danny O’Day and Farfel the hound dog, performed on television variety shows and in nightclubs, but he — they — became most famous for humorous commercials for Texaco and Nestlé’s Quik. – The New York Times

“Ms. Norman, who found acclaim as well as a recitalist and on the concert stage, was one of the most decorated of American singers. She won five Grammy Awards, four for her recordings and one for lifetime achievement. She received the prestigious Kennedy Center Award in 1997 and the National Medal of Arts in 2009.” Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb called her “one of the greatest artists to ever sing on our stage.” – The New York Times

“Chris was a collector, and a collector of unexpected things: meteorites, records, guns. He started collecting composers’ signatures when he was a kid and amassed what I imagine is the largest private collection of composers’ autographs in the world. He knew how much I loved Brahms ( because we argued about Brahms regularly) and gave me his Brahms autograph last week…kind hearted to the end.” – NewMusicBox