The Juilliard School
Alice Tully Hall in Juilliard School building.
Location
60 Lincoln Center Plaza New York, NY
Information
Type	Private
Established	1905
President	Joseph W. Polisi
Enrollment	Approximately 800 college, Approximately 290 Pre-College
Campus	Urban
Information	212-799-5000
Website	http://www.juilliard.edu

The Juilliard School /ˌdʒuːliˈɑrd/ located in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established during 1905. It is identified informally as simply "Juilliard," and currently trains about 800 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music.

History[link]

During 1905 the Institute of Musical Art was initiated on the premise that the United States did not have a premier music school and too many students were going to Europe to study music.^[1] At its formation, the Institute was located in Manhattan at Fifth Avenue and 12th Street. During its first year, the institute enrolled 500 students. It relocated during 1910 to Claremont Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. During 1920, the Juilliard Foundation was created, named after textile merchant Augustus D. Juilliard, who bequeathed a substantial amount of money for the advancement of music in the United States. During 1924 the foundation purchased the Vanderbilt family guesthouse at 49 East 52nd Street to start the Juilliard Graduate School.^[2] During 1926 it merged partially with the Institute of Musical Art with a common president, the Columbia University professor John Erskine. The schools had separate deans and identities. The conductor and music-educator Frank Damrosch continued as the Institute's dean, and the Australian pianist and composer Ernest Hutcheson was appointed dean of the Graduate School. During 1937, Hutcheson succeeded Erskine as president of the two institutions, a job he had until 1945. As of 1946, the combined schools were named The Juilliard School of Music. The president of the school at that time was William Schuman, the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music. During 1951, the school added a dance division, directed by Martha Hill.

William Schuman graduated from Columbia's Teachers College (BS-1935, MA-1937) and attended the Juilliard Summer School during 1932, 1933 and 1936. While attending Juilliard Summer School, he developed a personal dislike for traditional music theory and ear training curricula, finding little value in counterpoint and dictation. Soon after being selected as president of The Juilliard School of Music during 1945, William Schuman created a new curriculum termed "The Literature and Materials of Music" (L&M) designed to be taught by composers. L&M was Schuman's reaction against more formal theory and ear training, and as a result did not have a formal structure. The general mandate was "to give the student an awareness of the dynamic nature of the materials of music." The quality and degree of each student's education in harmony, music history or ear training was dependent on how each composer-teacher decided to interpret this mandate. Many questioned the quality of L&M as a method to teach the fundamentals of music theory, ear training and history.

William Schuman resigned his job as president of Juilliard after being elected president of Lincoln Center during 1962. Peter Mennin, another composer with directorial experience at the Peabody Conservatory, was elected as his successor. Mennin made significant changes to the L&M program—- ending out ear training and music history and hiring the well known pedagogue Renée Longy to teach solfège. During 1968, Mennin hired John Houseman to manage a new Drama Division, and during 1969 oversaw Juilliard's relocation from Claremont Avenue to Lincoln Center and shortened its name to The Juilliard School.^[3][4]

Dr. Joseph Polisi became president of Juilliard during 1984 after Peter Mennin died. Polisi's many accomplishments include philanthropic successes, broadening of the curriculum and establishment of dormitories for Juilliard's students. During 2001, the school established a jazz performance training program. During September 2005, Colin Davis conducted an orchestra which combined students from the Juilliard and London's Royal Academy of Music at the BBC Proms, and during 2008 the Juilliard Orchestra embarked on a successful tour of China, performing concerts as part of the Cultural Olympiad in Beijing, Suzhou, and Shanghai under the expert leadership of Maestro Xian Zhang.

During 1999, The Juilliard School was awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[5]

During 2007, the school received 2,138 applications for admission, of which 162 were admitted for a 7.58% acceptance rate.^[6] For the fall semester of 2009, the school had an 8.0% acceptance rate.^[7] In 2011, the school accepted only 5.5% of applicants.^[8]

Juilliard manuscript collection[link]

In 2006 Juilliard received a trove of precious music manuscripts from the billionaire collector and financier Bruce Kovner. The collection includes autograph scores, sketches, composer-emended proofs and first editions of major works by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, Ravel, Stravinsky, Copland and other masters of the classical music canon. Many of the manuscripts had been unavailable for generations. Among the items are the printer's manuscript of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, complete with Beethoven's hand-written amendments, that was used for the first performance in Vienna in 1824; Mozart's autograph of the wind parts of the final scene of The Marriage of Figaro; Beethoven's arrangement of his monumental Große Fuge for piano four hands; Schumann's working draft of his Symphony No. 2; and manuscripts of Brahms's Symphony No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 2. The entire collection has since been digitized and can be viewed online.^[9]

Programs[link]

The schools offers courses in dance, drama, and music. The dance division, Juilliard Dance, was established during 1951 by William Schuman with Martha Hill as its director. It offers a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) or a Diploma. Juilliard Drama was established during 1968 by the actor John Houseman and Michel Saint-Denis. Its acting program offers four-year courses for BFA, Master of Fine Arts (MFA), or, on request, a diploma. The Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program offers one-year, tuition-free, graduate fellowships. Juilliard Music is the largest of the school's divisions. Available degrees are Bachelor of Music or Diploma, Master of Music, Doctor of Musical Arts, and Artist Diploma in certain subjects, including Jazz Studies, Music Performance, and Opera Studies. Academic majors are brass, collaborative piano, composition, guitar, harp, harpsichord, historical performance, jazz studies, orchestral conducting, organ, percussion, piano, strings, voice/opera, woodwinds. The Juilliard Vocal Arts department now incorporates the former Juilliard Opera Center. All Bachelor and Master courses require credits from the Liberal Arts course; Joseph Polisi is a member of the Liberal Arts faculty.

Pre-college division[link]

The Pre-College Division teaches students enrolled in elementary, junior high, and high school. The Pre-College Division is conducted every Saturday from September to May in The Juilliard Building at Lincoln Center.

All students study solfège and music theory in addition to their primary instrument. Vocal majors also must study diction and performance. Similarly, pianists must study piano performance. String, brass and woodwind players as well as percussionists also participate with orchestra. The pre-college has two orchestras, the Pre-College Symphony (PCS) and the Pre-College Orchestra (PCO). Placement is by age. Students may elect to study conducting, chorus, and chamber music.

The Pre-College Division began as the "Preparatory Department", part of the Institute for Musical Art. It is now named the Pre-College Division, with Olegna Fuschi as its first director. The Fuschi/Mennin partnership allowed the Pre-College Division to thrive, affording its graduates training at the best artistic level (with many of the same teachers as the college division), as well as their own commencement ceremony and diplomas. In conformity with Fuschi, directors of Juilliard's Pre-College Division included Linda Granito and composer Dr. Andrew Thomas. The current Artistic Director of Juilliard's Pre-College Division is pianist Yoheved Kaplinsky, who is also the chairperson of the piano department of the Juilliard School.

Performing ensembles at Juilliard[link]

Morse Hall, one of the performing spaces inside the Juilliard School

The Juilliard School has a variety of ensembles, including chamber music, jazz, orchestras, and vocal/choral groups. Juilliard's orchestras include the Juilliard Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the Juilliard Theater Orchestra and the Conductors' Orchestra. The Axiom Ensemble is a student directed and managed group dedicated to well-known 20th century works.

In addition, several ensembles of Juilliard Faculty, termed Resident Ensembles, perform frequently at the school. These groups include the Juilliard String Quartet, the American Brass Quintet, the New York Woodwind Quintet, and Juilliard Baroque.

Fundraising[link]

The Juilliard Second Century Fund aims to raise $300 million to enable The Juilliard School to sustain its importance for performing arts education well into the school’s next century. The tuition expected for 2011 is about $48,670 for the school year. Expanded and renamed on Juilliard’s 100th anniversary, the fund supports six components that will help Juilliard continue to recruit the world’s best young artists and faculty, offer educational programs that maintain the quality of a Juilliard education, and increase the size and functionality of Juilliard's physical plant.

Fundraising specifically targeted to the Pre-College Division began during 2004 with a benefit concert given by The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony. The event raised $90,000 to establish a Pre-College Parents' Association Scholarship Fund. During 2005, Juilliard produced its own benefit concert for the Pre-College Division featuring its own students directed by faculty member Itzhak Perlman and hosted by entertainer Bill Cosby to add to this fund.

During April 2009, it was announced that the Music Advancement Program (MAP) would be curtailed due to budget reductions. After strong opposition to the reductions, the program, which helps inner-city children get music lessons, was then reinstated after several donors pledged money to support it.

People[link]

Notable alumni[link]

Notable faculty[link]

See also[link]

Dance portal

• List of Juilliard School people
• Curtis Institute of Music

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Ten Years of American Opera Design at the Juilliard School of Music, Published by New York Public Library, 1941.
• The Juilliard Report on Teaching the Literature and Materials of Music, by Juilliard School of Music. Published by Norton, 1953.
• The Juilliard Review, by Richard Franko Goldman, Published by Juilliard School of Music, 1954.
• The Juilliard Journal, Published by The Juilliard School, 1985.
• Nothing But the Best: The Struggle for Perfection at the Juilliard School, by Judith Kogan. Published by Random House, 1987. ISBN 0-394-55514-7.
• Guide to the Juilliard School Archives, by Juilliard School Archives, Jane Gottlieb, Stephen E. Novak, Taras Pavlovsky. Published by The School, 1992.
• Juilliard: A History, by Andrea Olmstead. Published by University of Illinois Press, 2002, ISBN 0-252-07106-9.
• A Living Legacy: Historic Stringed Instruments at the Juilliard School, by Lisa Brooks Robinson, Itzhak Perlman. Amadeus Press, 2006. ISBN 574671464.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Juilliard School

• Official website
• The Juilliard School – its history at 100

Coordinates: 40°46′26″N 73°58′59″W / 40.773871°N 73.983178°W / 40.773871; -73.983178

Ed Sullivan
Sullivan in 1955
Born	Edward Vincent Sullivan (1901-09-28)September 28, 1901 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	October 13, 1974(1974-10-13) (aged 73) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Television host Writer
Years active	1932–1973
Spouse	Sylvia (m. 1930–1973)

Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 (a total of 23 years), which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S. broadcast history.^[1]

In 1996, Ed Sullivan was ranked #50 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time".^[2]

Early life and career[link]

Sullivan was born in New York City, New York, the son of Elizabeth F. (née Smith) and Peter Arthur Sullivan, a customs house employee.^[3] He was of Irish descent.^[4] A former boxer, Sullivan began his media work as a newspaper sportswriter for The New York Evening Graphic.^[5] When Walter Winchell, one of the original gossip columnists and the most powerful entertainment reporter of his day, left the newspaper for the Hearst syndicate, Sullivan took over as theatre columnist. His theatre column was later carried in The New York Daily News. His column, 'Little Old New York', concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip, as Winchell's had and, like Winchell, he also did show business news broadcasts on radio. Again echoing Winchell, Sullivan took on yet another medium in 1933 by writing and starring in the film Mr. Broadway, which has him guiding the audience around New York nightspots to meet entertainers and celebrities. Sullivan soon became a powerful starmaker in the entertainment world himself, becoming one of Winchell's main rivals, setting the El Morocco nightclub in New York as his unofficial headquarters against Winchell's seat of power at the nearby Stork Club. Sullivan continued writing for The News throughout his broadcasting career and his popularity long outlived that of Winchell.

Television[link]

Sullivan with Cole Porter on Toast of the Town in 1952.

In 1948, the CBS network hired Sullivan to do a weekly Sunday night TV variety show, Toast of the Town, which later became The Ed Sullivan Show. Debuting in June 1948, the show was broadcast from CBS Studio 50, at 1697 Broadway (at 53rd Street) in New York City, which in 1967 was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater (and is now the home of The Late Show with David Letterman).^[6]

Television critics gave the new show and its host poor reviews.^[7] Harriet Van Horne alleged that "he got where he is not by having a personality, but by having no personality." (The host wrote to the critic, "Dear Miss Van Horne: You bitch. Sincerely, Ed Sullivan."^[8]) Sullivan had little acting ability; in 1967, 20 years after his show's debut, Time magazine asked "What exactly is Ed Sullivan's talent?"^[8] His mannerisms on camera were so awkward that some viewers believed the host suffered from Bell's palsy.^[8] Time in 1955 stated that Sullivan resembled

a cigar-store Indian, the Cardiff Giant and a stone-faced monument just off the boat from Easter Island. He moves like a sleepwalker; his smile is that of a man sucking a lemon; his speech is frequently lost in a thicket of syntax; his eyes pop from their sockets or sink so deep in their bags that they seem to be peering up at the camera from the bottom of twin wells.^[7]

The magazine concluded, however, that "Yet, instead of frightening children, Ed Sullivan charms the whole family."^[7] Sullivan appeared to the audience as an average guy who brought the great acts of show business to their home televisions. ("Ed Sullivan will last", comedian Fred Allen said, "as long as someone else has talent",^[7] and frequent guest Alan King said "Ed does nothing, but he does it better than anyone else in television."^[8]) He had a newspaperman's instinct for what the public wanted, and programmed his variety hours with remarkable balance. There was something for everyone.^[7] A typical show would feature a vaudeville act (acrobats, jugglers, magicians, etc.), one or two popular comedians, a singing star, a hot jukebox favorite, a figure from the legitimate theater, and for the kids, a visit with puppet "Topo Gigio, the little Italian mouse." The bill was often international in scope, with many European performers augmenting the American artists.^[8]

Sullivan had a healthy sense of humor about himself and permitted—even encouraged—impersonators such as John Byner, Frank Gorshin, Rich Little and especially Will Jordan to imitate him on his show. Johnny Carson also did a fair impression, and even Joan Rivers imitated Sullivan's unique posture. The impressionists exaggerated his stiffness, raised shoulders, and nasal tenor phrasing, along with some of his commonly used introductions, such as "And now, right here on our stage...", "For all you youngsters out there...", and "a really big shew" (his pronunciation of the word "show"). Will Jordan portrayed Sullivan in the films I Wanna Hold Your Hand, The Buddy Holly Story, The Doors, Mr. Saturday Night, Down with Love, and in the 1979 TV movie Elvis.^[9]

In 1963, Ed Sullivan appeared as himself in the film Bye Bye Birdie.

Sullivan, the starmaker[link]

Ed Sullivan congratulates Izhak Perlman after a concert at Tel-Aviv, in 1958.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Sullivan was a respected starmaker because of the number of performers that became household names after appearing on the show. He had a knack for identifying and promoting top talent and paid a great deal of money to secure that talent for his show.

When Elvis Presley became popular, Sullivan was wary of the singer's bad-boy style and said that he would never invite Presley on his program. However, Presley became too big a name to ignore, and Sullivan scheduled him to appear on September 8, 1956. In August, however, Sullivan was injured in an automobile accident that occurred near his country home in Southbury, Connecticut. Sullivan had to take a medical leave from the series and missed the Elvis Presley show. Charles Laughton wound up introducing Presley on the Sullivan hour.^[10] After Sullivan got to know Presley personally, he made amends by telling his audience, "This is a real decent, fine boy."^[11]

Sullivan's failure to scoop the TV industry with Presley made him determined to get the next big sensation first. In 1964, he achieved that with the first live American appearance of The Beatles, on February 9, 1964, the most-watched program in TV history to that point and still one of the most-watched programs of all time.^[12] The Beatles appeared three more times on the Sullivan show in person, and submitted filmed performances later. Sullivan struck up such a rapport with the Beatles that he agreed to introduce them at their momentous Shea Stadium concert on August 15, 1965. The Dave Clark Five, heavily promoted as having a "cleaner" image than the Beatles, made 13 appearances on the Sullivan show, more than any other UK group.

Unlike many shows of the time, Sullivan asked that most musical acts perform their music live, rather than lip-synching to their recordings. Some of these performances have recently been issued on CD.^[13] Examination of performances show that exceptions were made, as when a microphone could not be placed close enough to a performer for technical reasons. An example was B.J. Thomas' 1969 performance of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", in which actual water was sprinkled on him as a special effect. In 1969, Sullivan presented the Jackson 5 with their first single "I Want You Back", which ousted the B. J. Thomas song from the top spot of Billboard's pop charts.

Sullivan, shown here dressed up in a clown suit, hosted the 1972 special Clownaround.

Sullivan appreciated African American talent. He paid for the funeral of dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson out of his own pocket. He also defied pressure to exclude African American musicians from appearing on his show. One of Sullivan's favorite and most frequent acts was The Supremes, who appeared 17 times on the show, helping to pave the way for other Motown acts to appear on the show such as The Temptations, The Four Tops, and Martha and the Vandellas.

At a time when television had not yet embraced country and Western music, Sullivan was adamant about featuring Nashville performers on his program. This insistence paved the way for shows such as Hee Haw and variety shows hosted by country singers like Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell.

The act that appeared most frequently through the show's run was the Canadian comedy duo of Wayne & Shuster, making 67 appearances between 1958 and 1969.

Sullivan also appeared as himself on other television programs, including an April 1958 episode of the Howard Duff and Ida Lupino CBS sitcom, Mr. Adams and Eve. On September 14, 1958 Sullivan appeared on What's My Line? as a mystery guest, and showed his comedic side by donning a rubber mask. In 1961, Sullivan was asked by CBS to fill in for an ailing Red Skelton on The Red Skelton Show. Sullivan took Skelton's roles in the various comedy sketches; Skelton's hobo character "Freddie the Freeloader" was renamed "Eddie the Freeloader."

Personality[link]

There was another side to Sullivan: he could be very quick to take offense if he felt he had been crossed, and could hold a grudge for a long time. This could sometimes be seen as a part of his TV personality. Jackie Mason, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, and The Doors became intimately familiar with Sullivan's negative side.

On November 20, 1955, Bo Diddley was asked by Sullivan to sing Tennessee Ernie Ford's hit "Sixteen Tons". Diddley sensed the choice of song would end his career then and there, and instead sang his #1 hit "Bo Diddley". He was banned from the show.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets had first appeared on the Sullivan show in 1957, singing two songs and making a favorable impression on Sullivan. He invited the band to make another appearance in January 1958. Sullivan thought their record hit "Oh, Boy!" was too raucous and ordered Holly to substitute another song. Holly had already told his hometown friends in Texas that he would be singing "Oh, Boy!" for them, and told Sullivan as much. Sullivan was unaccustomed to having his instructions disobeyed. When the band was summoned to the rehearsal stage on short notice, only Holly was in their dressing room. Sullivan said, "I guess The Crickets are not too excited to be on The Ed Sullivan Show," to which Holly, still annoyed by Sullivan's attitude, replied, "I hope they're damn more excited than I am." Sullivan, already bothered by the choice of songs, was now even angrier. He cut the Crickets' act from two songs to one, and when introducing them mispronounced Holly's name, so it came out vaguely as "Buddy Hollett." In addition, Sullivan saw to it that the microphone for Holly's electric guitar was turned off. Holly tried to compensate by singing as loudly as he could. The band was received so well that Sullivan was forced to invite them back for a third appearance. Holly's response was that Sullivan did not have enough money. Footage of the performance survives; photographs taken that day show Sullivan looking angry and Holly smirking and perhaps ignoring Sullivan.

In 1963, Bob Dylan was set to appear on the show, but network censors rejected the song he wanted to perform, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", as potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Refusing to perform a different song, Dylan walked off the set at dress rehearsal. Sullivan, who had approved the song at a previous rehearsal, backed Dylan's decision. The incident resulted in accusations against the network of engaging in censorship. This was not the first incident of apparent network censorship on Sullivan's show. In 1956, Sullivan flew to Europe and was able to film an interview with Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, and Helen Hayes on the set of the film Anastasia. When he arrived home, Sullivan learned he would not be able to air the Bergman material from it.^[10]

Jackie Mason was banned from the series in October 1964 (the ban was removed a year and a half later, and Mason made his final appearance on the show). During a taping of Mason's monologue Sullivan, off camera, gestured that Mason should wrap things up, as the show was suddenly shown live following an abbreviated address by President Lyndon Johnson, which was expected to preempt the entire show.^[14] The nervous Mason told the audience, "I'm getting two fingers here!" and made his own frantic hand gesture: "Here's a finger for you!" Videotapes of the incident are inconclusive as to whether Mason's upswept hand was intended to be an indecent gesture, but Sullivan's body language immediately afterward made it clear that he was convinced of it, despite Mason's panic-stricken denials later.^[15] Sullivan later invited Mason back for a return engagement, but the notoriety of the "finger" incident lingered with the studio audience.

When The Byrds performed on December 12, 1965, David Crosby got into a shouting match with the show's director. They were never asked to return.^[16][17]

On January 15, 1967 The Rolling Stones were told to change the chorus of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's spend some time together". Lead singer Mick Jagger complied, but deliberately called attention to this censorship by rolling his eyes and mugging when he uttered the new words.^[18] Shortly, after the performance, the Stones went backstage, and came back on stage, dressed in Nazi uniforms with swastikas, which caused an angry Sullivan to tell them to go back to their dressing rooms and change back into their performing outfits, however, the Stones left the studio and Sullivan banned the group from ever appearing on his show again.^{[19][Full citation needed][page needed]} Nonetheless, the Stones appeared on the show one final time on November 23, 1969.^[20]

The Doors were banned on September 17, 1967 after they were asked to remove the lyric "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" from their song "Light My Fire" (CBS censors believed that it was too overt a reference to drug use). The band was asked to change the lyric to "girl we couldn't get much better". Morrison sang the original lyric.^[21]

Moe Howard of the Three Stooges recalled in 1975 that Sullivan had a memory problem of sorts: "Ed was a very nice man, but for a showman, quite forgetful. On our first appearance, he introduced us as the Three Ritz Brothers. He got out of it by adding, 'who look more like the Three Stooges to me'."^[22] Joe DeRita, who worked with the Stooges after 1959, had commented that Sullivan had a personality "like the bottom of a bird cage."^[23]

Diana Ross later recalled Sullivan's forgetfulness during the many occasions The Supremes performed on his show. In a 1995 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman (which is filmed in Ed Sullivan Theater), Ross stated, "he could never remember our names. He called us 'the girls'." ^[24][25]

In a 1990 press conference Paul McCartney recalled meeting Sullivan again in the early 1970s. Sullivan apparently had no idea who McCartney was. McCartney tried to remind Sullivan that he was one of The Beatles but Sullivan obviously could not remember and, nodding and smiling, simply shook McCartney's hand and left.

Politics[link]

Sullivan, like many American entertainers, was pulled into the Cold War fervor of the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1949, Sullivan booked dancer Paul Draper to appear on Toast of the Town. However, Draper’s scheduled appearance in January 1950 was met with opposition from Hester McCullough, a woman who involved herself in the hunt for subversives. McCullough accused Draper of sympathizing with the communist party, and although Draper denied the accusation, McCullough demanded that Sullivan’s lead sponsor, the Ford Motor Company, cancel Draper’s appearance. Despite McCullough’s protest, Draper was a guest on Toast of the Town, as was originally scheduled. After the program was broadcast, Ford received over a thousand angry letters and telegraphs in response to Draper’s appearance. Consequently, Sullivan was obligated to write a letter of apology to Ford’s advertising agency, Kenyon & Eckhardt, promising to never again move forward with such a controversial guest. Meanwhile, Draper was forced to move to Europe to earn a living.^[26]

Another guest who never appeared on the show because of the controversy surrounding him was legendary African-American singer-actor Paul Robeson, who, at the time of the Draper incident, was undergoing his own troubles with the industry's hunt for supposed Communist sympathizers.

After the Draper incident, Sullivan began to work closely with Theodore Kirkpatrick of the anti-communist Counterattack newsletter. Sullivan would check with Kirkpatrick if a potential guest had some "explaining to do" about his politics. Sullivan wrote in his June 21, 1950 New York Daily News column that "Kirkpatrick has sat in my living room on several occasions and listened attentively to performers eager to secure a certification of loyalty."^[27] Jerome Robbins, in his PBS American Experience biography, claimed that he was forced to capitulate to the House Un-American Activities Committee, identifying eight Communist sympathizers and disgracing himself among his fellow artists, allegedly because Sullivan threatened to reveal Robbins's homosexuality to the public.

Later years and death[link]

In the fall of 1965, CBS began televising the weekly programs in color. Although the Sullivan show was seen live in the Central and Eastern time zones, it was taped for airing in the Pacific and Mountain time zones. Most of the taped programs (as well as some early kinescopes) were preserved, and excerpts have been released on home video.

By 1971, the show's ratings had plummeted. In an effort to refresh their lineup, CBS cancelled the program along with some of its other longtime shows. Sullivan was angered by this so greatly that he refused to do a final show, although he remained with the network in various other capacities and hosted a 25th anniversary special in 1973.

In early September 1974, X-rays revealed that Sullivan had advanced esophageal cancer. Only his family was told, however, and as the doctors gave Sullivan very little time, the family chose to keep the diagnosis from him. Sullivan, still believing his ailment to be yet another complication from a long-standing battle with ulcers, died five weeks later, on October 13, 1974, at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital.^[28] His funeral was attended by 3,000 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York on a cold, rainy day. Sullivan is interred in a crypt at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Personal life[link]

Sullivan was engaged to champion swimmer Sybil Bauer, but she died of cancer in 1927 at the age of 23.^[29] He was married to the former Sylvia Weinstein from April 28, 1930, until her death on March 16, 1973. They had one daughter, Betty Sullivan (who married the Ed Sullivan Show's producer, Bob Precht). Sullivan was in the habit of calling Sylvia after every program to get her immediate critique.

Sullivan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Leonard, John, The Ed Sullivan Age, American Heritage, May/June 1997, Volume 48, Issue 3
• Nachman, Gerald, Ed Sullivan, December 18, 2006.
• Maguire, James, Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan, Billboard Books, 2006
• Bowles, Jerry, A Thousand Sundays: The Story of the Ed Sullivan Show, Putnam, 1980
• Barthelme, Donald, "And Now Let's Hear It for the Ed Sullivan Show!" in Guilty Pleasures, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974

External links[link]

Biography portal

• The Official Ed Sullivan Show Website
• Ed Sullivan at the Internet Movie Database
• Ed Sullivan at TVGuide.com
• Overview of Ed Sullivan's life
• The Ed Sullivan Show – Rock 'n' Roll Classics

David Afkham (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, 1983)^[1][2] is a German conductor.

Biography[link]

Afkham was born in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) in 1983^[3] and started his music education at age 15 at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, where he studied piano with James Avery^[4] and in 2002 he won the Jugend Musiziert competition. In 2007 he finished his conducting studies with Nicolás Pasquet at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt" in Weimar.^[5]

In 2008 David Afkham won the first prize of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition^[6] and became the assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra^[7][8] and assistant of Valery Gergiev. Since 2010 he is also the assistant conductor of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.^[2]

He has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Chicago Civic Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Jenaer Philharmonie, Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, Bamberg Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar^[1][5] and served as assistant of Bernard Haitink with the Royal Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony orchestras,^[2][7] assistant guest conductor of the Baden-Wurttemberg Youth Orchestra and principal conductor of the KHG-Symphony-Orchestra Freiburg.^[9]

He is a conducting fellow of the Richard Wagner Association in Bayreuth, Germany.^[4]

He is the brother of Micha Afkham, violist with the Berlin Philharmonic.

References[link]

Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE (born 10 October 1946) is a Jamaican-born British operatic bass.

Early life[link]

He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole songs. He was also inspired by the American singer and civil rights activist, Paul Robeson. He was a founding member of the Jamaica Folk Singers, sang with the Jamaica Amateur Operatic Society and trained at the Jamaican School of Music. In a passing visit to Jamaica, Evelyn Rothwell (wife of conductor Sir John Barbirolli) heard him sing and suggested that he go to study in London. Instead, his father bought him a one-way ticket to New York, because "the flight was cheaper". He won a scholarship and continued his studies with celebrated bass Giorgio Tozzi at the Juilliard School.

Career[link]

In May 1971, White made his debut as the runaway slave Jim in the Juilliard American Opera production of Hall Overton's opera, Huckleberry Finn. He next appeared with New York City Opera in 1974 as Colline in La bohème. In 1976, he made his London opera debut with English National Opera as Seneca in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, having starred with Leona Mitchell that year in the first truly complete recording of Porgy and Bess. He has since sung at the Met, Covent Garden, Paris Bastille, the opera houses of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the major European cities as well as the Festivals at Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg.

In addition to covering a wide range of the bass-baritone roles in the standard repertoire by Mozart, Handel, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini and Wagner, White has also explored less traditional territory by appearing as Bluebeard in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, Golaud in Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande, Tchélio in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, the title role in Messiaen’s Saint François d'Assise, Nekrotzar in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Claggart in Britten's Billy Budd, John Adams’ El Niño, Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Creon in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Ivan in Khovanshchina.

In 2005 he sang Michael Tippett's A Child of our Time at the First Night of the Proms. His latest CD, entitled My Way, is on the Sony label.

His voice was heard as one of the operatic soloists in the Academy Award-winning motion picture Amadeus.

Among his most memorable roles are Mephistopheles in Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust and Porgy in Porgy and Bess.

A talented actor in non-singing roles as well, he has starred in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play Othello (1990), with Ian McKellen as Iago and Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona, and the Glyndebourne production (1993) of the opera Porgy and Bess. Both productions were directed by Trevor Nunn and both were videotaped for television. White also appeared with Cantamus Girls Choir in Harrogate, 2004.

Awards[link]

In 1977, the first stereo recording of Porgy and Bess, conducted by Lorin Maazel, in which White sang the role of Porgy, received a Grammy Award. White himself received the Gold Musgrave Medal of The Institute of Jamaica. In 1995 he was awarded the CBE and he was made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2004. In 2000, Sir Willard White was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit (OM), the third highest honour in the Jamaican honours system, for eminent international distinction in the performing arts. This entitles him to the prenominal style "The Hon".

Selected discography[link]

• Wagner: Die Walküre as Wotan with Eva Johansson, Robert Gambill, Lilli Paasikivi, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle, Festival Aix-en-Provence, DVD
• Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust as Mephistopheles with Veselina Kasarova, Paul Groves, Salzburg Festival, Sylvain Cambreling, DVD
• Porgy and Bess with Leona Mitchell, Barbara Hendricks, Florence Quivar, and others, the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Lorin Maazel. This is the first truly complete recording of Porgy and Bess ever made. Decca (London Records in the U.S.)
• The Paul Robeson Legacy. a collection of spirituals and ballads made famous by Paul Robeson, arranged specially for Willard White. Linn Records
• Willard White - A Gala Celebration: Carl Davis: Three Spirituals, On The Beach (Whitman), Copland: Old American Songs, opera arias by Mozart & Gounod, Bizet's Pearl Fishers Duet, & Broadway numbers including Some Enchanted Evening and Ol' Man River. With Bonaventura Bottone, tenor, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Carl Davis, conductor. RLCD 204
• Porgy and Bess with Cynthia Haymon, Harolyn Blackwell, The Glyndebourne Chorus and London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle. Another complete recording of the opera, and the basis for the 1993 television production. EMI.
• Mozart: Requiem with Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
• Handel: Messiah with Yvonne Kenny, Jean Rigby and Thomas Randle, with the Royal Choral Society and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes

Sources[link]

• BBC News, Knighthood for opera star White, 12 June 2004
• Deon P. Green, Willard White the new voice of Royal Northern College of Music, Jamaica Gleaner, November 5, 2008
• Michael White, The devil and the deep dark voice, Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2002

External links[link]

• Willard White at the Internet Movie Database

Rodney Jones (1950-) is an American poet and professor of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Jones was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award. His other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Peter I.B. Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Jean Stein Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Southeast Booksellers Association Award, and a Harper Lee Award.

Bibliography[link]

• The Story They Told Us of Light (1980)
• The Unborn (1985)
• Transparent Gestures (1989)
• Apocalyptic Narrative (1993)
• Things That Happen Once (1996)
• Elegy for the Southern Drawl (1999)
• Kingdom of the Instant: Poems (2004)
• Salvation Blues (2006) (winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, shortlisted for the 2007 International Griffin Poetry Prize)
• Imaginary Logic (2011)

External links[link]

• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
• Profile on Blackbird online journal Web site
• Announcement of Rodney Jones winning prestigious 2007 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award in Southern Illinois University Carbondale News
• The winter of his content - interview with Rodney Jones in seMissiourian.com News
• Rodney Jones, "An Absence I Know I Won't Reclaim". Southern Spaces, 22 January 2009.
• Video of Rodney Jones' reading at Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, CA, 3/9/09, as featured on www.Poetry.la
• Poetry Foundation biography

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