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MET Orchestra
Biography
Thrilling audiences with more than 200 performances each season, the MET Orchestra is one of the world’s great performing ensembles, both on stage and in the opera pit. Since its founding in 1883, the MET Orchestra’s performances have encompassed not only the entire opera repertoire, but symphonic and chamber programs at Carnegie Hall, international tours, and countless musician activities outside of the Metropolitan Opera House. The MET Orchestra has grown in the past four decades into an ensemble noted by singers, critics, conductors, and audiences as one of today’s most stylistically versatile and musically satisfying orchestras.
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Elīna Garanča
Biography
Elīna Garanča is a Latvian opera singer. She was born into a musical family in Riga, Latvia. She began her professional career as a resident artist with the Südthüringischer Staatstheater in Meiningen, followed by the Opera in Frankfurt am Main and Wiener Staatsoper, in each theatre appearing in numerous leading roles.
Since then, Elīna has established herself as one of the music world’s major stars through her performances with leading opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world. She has captured critical and popular acclaim for her beautiful voice, intelligent musicianship, and compelling stage portrayals.
Among other roles, she is particularly famed for her portrayal as Bizet’s Carmen which she has sung in the majority of leading theatres, like Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía Valencia, or Metropolitan Opera to critical acclaim; the NY Times named her “the finest Carmen in 25 years…”. The Met Carmen production was broadcasted in more than 1,000 movie theatres worldwide and is one of the most viewed and successful “Live in HD” performances of the Metropolitan Opera.
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Billy Wilder
Biography
Billy Wilder, born Samuel Wilder; (22 June 1906 - 27 March 2002) was an Austrian-born director, screenwriter and producer who is regarded as one of the most successful filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Today he is best known for his comedies, although he also directed dramas and film noirs. Wilder is one of only five people who have won Academy Awards as producer, director, and writer for the same film (The Apartment).
Wilder's career began in Germany, where he worked as a writer for comedy films from 1930. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, he emigrated to the United States, where he continued to write screenplays, including Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939) and Howard Hawks' Ball of Fire (1941). From the early 1940s, Wilder was allowed to film his own screenplays and thus made a name for himself as a director. Initially, his greatest successes included predominantly dramatic film noirs such as Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Ace in the Hole (1951). It was only then that he increasingly turned to comedy, including Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954) and The Seven Year Itch (1955), although he made a small detour to courtroom drama with Witness for the Prosecution (1957). With Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) he made his most famous and probably most successful comedy films, the latter even receiving five Oscars. In One, Two, Three (1961), Wilder dealt with the conditions of the time in his former adopted country, Germany, and made the successful romantic comedy Irma la Douce (1963). In the two decades that followed, Wilder made seven more films, which were less well received by critics and audiences, although the German-French drama Fedora (1978) is viewed somewhat more favorably today by predominantly pretentious film experts. Some time later, Wilder was under discussion as director for Schindler's List, which he had wanted as the end of his long career, but ultimately had to turn it down due to his advanced age.
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Brian Bennett
Biography
Brian Laurence Bennett, OBE (born 9 February 1940) is an English drummer, pianist, composer and producer of popular music. He is best known as the drummer of the UK rock and roll group the Shadows. He is the father of musician and Shadows band member Warren Bennett.
Bennett was born in Palmers Green, North London, England. Educated at Hazlewood Lane School, Palmers Green, London and Winchmore Council School, he finished school at the age of sixteen to play drums in a Ramsgate skiffle group performing for holiday makers. After returning to London he became the in-house drummer at The 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho and was a regular performer on Jack Good's TV show Oh Boy!
He then became a member of Marty Wilde's Wildcats in 1959. After a successful period with the Wildcats, during which he appeared on their instrumental record without Wilde (recorded as the Krew Kats), "Trambone", he backed Tommy Steele for some of his London stage performances.
In October 1961 he joined Cliff Richard and the Shadows as the replacement for Tony Meehan. The Shadows were known for their instrumental songs, mainly; Apache (1960), F.B.I. (1961), Wonderful Land (1962), and Foot Tapper (1963), among many others. The band split up briefly between 1968 and 1973, but was reformed by Marvin, Welch and Bennett.
He stayed with the group throughout all of their subsequent line-ups, and in May 2005 took part in the Shadows' European tour. During a show in Reykjavík, Iceland he sustained what was thought to be a minor injury to a finger. A splinter from a drumstick pierced under his fingernail on his right hand, he removed it with a pair of old pliers and applied a plaster. A few days later after arriving in Paris, France he was in so much pain he called a doctor. The doctor diagnosed a bad infection and recommended Bennett go to hospital immediately. Thinking it would be a short visit he attended only to find out that it would involve a minor, but very painful, operation to remove the poison. He was due to be playing on stage that evening and had already missed the soundcheck. He arrived at the theatre 15 minutes before the show with his right-hand bandaged and still numb from the anesthetic. He managed to play for the whole show using an altered playing style.
In addition to his work with the Shadows he has also appeared in Cliff Richard's backing band and plays piano and occasionally vibraphone.
In 1967, Bennett released a solo album of jazz music, entitled Change of Direction, in mono and stereo (neither charted). This was the first solo album by a member of the Shadows. In the 1970s, music by Bennett was selected for several Radley Metzger films, including Barbara Broadcast and The Opening of Misty Beethoven. ...
Source: Article "Brian Bennett" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Christopher Jenner Cole
Biography
Christopher has been in the performing arts for over 13 years in both factual and drama based productions. He graduated from The Academy Drama School and more recently has studied film making at The MET Film School and The New York Film Academy. Christopher has over 10 years forum theatre and facilitating experience. He is a powerful actor and excellent at improvisational work. He qualified as a teacher in 1991 from Greenwich University in London and reached the top of his profession in 1999, a Headteacher(Principle) a position he held for 10 years and won 2 major awards for. He still however could deny his passion and love for the performing arts and has worked on over 30 productions in the last 2 years. He has had major roles in films, plays and commercials working with some very well known directors, such as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Mike Newell, Marc Forster , Sasha Wares and Michael Patrick Jann. In addition to his many performance credits, Christopher has worked on projects and campaigns with the following companies Apple Mac, British Telecom, City of London Police Force, Norvatis, Cadburys, BBC, ITV, Home Office, HM Treasury, English FA and Hewlett Packard. He has two films submitted to Cannes last year, 'Dora' 28 Films and 'Four Hours' Jaffa Entertainment. He has worked on new plays and more traditional works including many Shakespeare productions, performing at The Royal Court and many fringe venues. He has also appeared at the V&A Museum and Catford Broadway in The American Off-Broadway production 'Tell Hell I Aint' Coming', also as 'Doctor Justice' in the TV series 'Road To FA Cup' He has also directed films, music videos and promo after studying at the Met film School in London and The New York Film Academy in Manhattan.
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Maudie Edwards
Biography
Elizabeth Maud Edwards (16 October 1906 – 24 March 1991), professionally known as Maudie Edwards, was a Welsh actress, radio broadcaster, comedian, dancer and singer. She started her career in theatres in Swansea and moved on to films even appearing alongside Frank Sinatra at the London Palladium. She is best remembered for having spoken the first line of dialogue in the British soap opera, Coronation Street, and playing Elsie Lappin, the first-ever owner of the corner shop in the first two episodes. Those first words were "Now the next thing you've got to do is get a signwriter in".
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Catherine Lacey
Biography
From Wikipedia
Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904 – 23 September 1979) was an English actress of stage and screen.
She made her film debut in 1938 as the secretive nun who wears high heels in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes, but was credited as Catherine Lacy. She was subsequently cast in major films like I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), The October Man (1947), Whisky Galore! (1949), The Servant (1963) and The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966), in which she played Queen Elizabeth I. In 1966/67 she played in two notable horror films, as a malevolent fortune-teller in The Mummy's Shroud and as Boris Karloff's insane wife in Michael Reeves' The Sorcerers. For the latter she won a 'Silver Asteroid' award as Best Actress at the Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival in 1968.
Eight years earlier she received the Guild of TV Producers and Directors award as Actress of the Year. Her television debut, in 1938, was in a BBC production of The Duchess of Malfi; her last appearance, in 1973, was in the Play for Today instalment Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.
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Nour El-Sherif
Biography
Egyptian actor. He was born in the Caliph in Cairo, and his father passed away, and he was one year old at the time. Acting began at the school, where he joined the acting team, and was a player in the football cubs at Zamalek Club. After he obtained high school, he joined the College of Commerce, then left it and joined the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts, and obtained a diploma from the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts in 1967 with distinction and was ranked first. He married actress Bossi in 1972 and has two daughters, Sarah and Mai, who separated in 2006 and then returned in 2015. During his studies at the institute, he knew the artist Saad Ardash, who nominated him to work with him in a small role in the backstreets play, then director Kamal Eid chose him to act in the play Romeo And Juliet, and during the rehearsals he got to know the artist Adel Imam, who nominated him for director Hassan Al-Imam to present him in the film Qasr Al-Shawq, and for this role he received a certificate of appreciation and was the first award he received. He directed the stage for the first time on the Hanager theater with the play The Priest, and he also directed the one-time cinematography with the film The Two Lovers. He has won a number of awards for many of his cinematic works from a number of festivals.
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Adam Paroussos
Biography
Adam Paroussos is a composer, sound designer and performer for film and performance. His work investigates the boundaries between composition and sound design, drawing inspiration from the natural world and improvisation. A self-taught composer, working with both experimental and traditional techniques, Adam's process often involves finding musical ideas within mechanical objects, field recordings, tape samples, animals, electronic processing, folk instruments, synthesizers and more. His musical style has a somewhat handmade and organic quality as if spooling out of the ground or unraveling from the sky. There is a sense that the sounds are alive reacting with and against the film, both resonating and distorting within the storytelling.
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Kathryn Walker
Biography
Kathryn Walker (born January 9, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American theater, television and film actress. She was with Douglas Kenney for many years until his death in 1980 at the age of 32, and was married to singer James Taylor from 1985 to 1995. In 2008 Kathryn Walker published a novel, A Stopover in Venice (Knopf, ISBN 0-307-26706-7).
She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wells College in Aurora, New York and was a Fulbright Scholar in music and drama.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Kathryn Walker licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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