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The culture of Europe might better be described as a series of multiple cultures. Whether it is a question of North as opposed to South; West as opposed to East; Orthodoxism as opposed to Protestantism as opposed to Catholicism as opposed to Secularism; many have claimed to identify cultural fault lines across the continent. There are many cultural innovations and movements, often at odds with each other, such as Christian proselytism or Humanism. Thus the question of "common culture" or "common values" is far more complex then it seems to be.

The foundation of European culture was laid by the Greeks, strengthened by the Romans, stabilized by Christianity, reformed and modernized by the fifteenth-century Renaissance and Reformation and globalized by successive European empires between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. Thus the European Culture developed into a very complex phenomenon of wider range of philosophy, Christian and secular humanism, rational way of life and logical thinking developed through a long age of change and formation with the experiments of enlightenment, naturalism, romanticism, science, democracy, and socialism. Because of its global connection, the European culture grew with an all-inclusive urge to adopt, adapt and ultimately influence other trends of culture. As a matter of fact, therefore, from the middle of the nineteenth century with the expansion of European education and the spread of Christianity, European culture and way of life, to a great extent, turned to be "global culture," if anything has to be so named (Vide. Sailen Debnath, "Secularism: Western and Indian," Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi).

European Art[link]

• Painting

The oldest known cave paintings are at the Chauvet Cave (France) dating from about 32,000 years ago.^[1] The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from antiquity. Until the mid 19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and Classical modes of production, after which time more modern, abstract and conceptual forms gained favor. Developments in Western painting historically parallel those in Eastern painting, in general a few centuries later. African art, Islamic art, Indian art, Chinese art, and Japanese art each had significant influence on Western art, and, eventually, vice-versa.

• Sculpture

The earliest European sculpture to date portrays a female form, and has been estimated at dating from 35,000 years ago. See Classical sculpture, Ancient Greek sculpture, Gothic art, Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Modernism, Postminimalism, found art, Postmodern art, Conceptual art.

• Music
  • Classical Music : Important classical composers from Europe include Hildegard von Bingen, Guillaume de Machaut, Pérotin, Guillaume Dufay, Orlande de Lassus, Jean-Baptiste Lully, J.S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Schoenberg, Bartok, Nielsen, Sibelius, Prokofiev, Puccini, Debussy, Rossini, Ravel, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Penderecki. Luciano Pavarotti was a contemporary popular opera singer. Orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra are considered to be amongst the finest ensembles in the world. The Salzburg Festival, the Bayreuth Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms are major European classical music festivals, and International Chopin Piano Competition is the world's oldest monographic music competition.
  • Folk Music : Europe has a wide and diverse range of indigenous music, sharing common features in rural, travelling or maritime communities. Folk music is embedded in an unwritten, aural tradition, but was increasingly transcribed from the nineteenth century onwards. Many classical composers used folk melodies, and folk has influenced some popular music in Europe.
  • Popular Music : Europe has also imported many different genres of music, mainly from America, ranging from Blues, Jazz, Soul, Pop, Rap, Hip-Hop, R'n'B and Dance. The UK has been most successful in re-exporting this type of music and also creating many of its own genres via notable movements including the British Invasion, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (that has been compared to Beatlemania.^[2]) and Britpop. Some major UK acts include The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Elton John, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Sex Pistols, Eric Clapton, The Clash, Van Morrison, Dire Straits, The Police, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, George Michael, Pet Shop Boys, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, The Who, Eurythmics, Dusty Springfield, The Cure, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Oasis, Radiohead, Coldplay, Muse, Gorillaz, Robbie Williams, Seal, Bee Gees, Spice Girls, UB40, Adele, Jessie J Amy Winehouse... Other popular European musicians are U2 (Ireland), Björk (Iceland), ABBA (Sweden), a-ha (Norway), Andrea Bocelli (Italy), Julio Iglesias (Spain), Nana Mouskouri (Greece/France), Kati Wolf (Hungary), Boney M. (Germany), Daft Punk (France), Charles Aznavour (France), Johnny Hallyday (France), Modern Talking (Germany), Scorpions (Germany), Rammstein (Germany), Ace of Base (Sweden), t.A.T.u. (Russia), Enya (Ireland), James Last (Germany), Doda (Poland), Jean Michel Jarre (France), Aqua (Denmark/Norway), Rasmus Seebach (Denmark), Roxette (Sweden). Main festivals: Glastonbury (UK), Wacken (Germany), Benicassim (Spain), Roskilde (Denmark). EMI is the largest European music company.

• Architecture

Neolithic architecture : Born in the Levant, Neolithic architecture spread to Europe. The Mediterranean neolithic cultures of Malta worshiped in megalithic temples. In Europe, long houses built from wattle and daub were constructed. Elaborate tombs for the dead were also built. These tombs are particularly numerous in Ireland, where there are many thousand still in existence. Neolithic people built long barrows and chamber tombs for their dead and causewayed camps, henges flint mines and cursus monuments., Architecture of ancient Greece, Roman architecture, Medieval architecture, Renaissance architecture, Baroque architecture, Beaux-Arts architecture, Expressionist architecture, Stalinist architecture, Deconstructivism.

• Literature

Europe has produced some of the most prominent or popular fiction writers of all time : Homer, Sappho (Greece) Virgil, Dante Alighieri Umberto Eco (Italy) François Rabelais, Alexandre Dumas, Racine, Molière, Voltaire, Jules Verne, Marcel Proust, Daniel Pennac, Albert Camus, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (France) Miguel de Cervantes, Rosalía de Castro, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Javier Marías, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Almudena Grandes (Spain) Luís de Camões, José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago (Portugal) William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jane Austen, H. G. Wells, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, Beatrix Potter, D. H. Lawrence, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, John Milton, Terry Pratchett, Mary Shelley, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Agatha Christie, Daniel Defoe, Alan Moore, Rudyard Kipling (U.K) Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, J. M. Barrie, Walter Scott (Scotland) Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Sholokhov, Anton Chekhov, Alexander Pushkin (Russia) C. S. Lewis, Bram Stoker, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett William Butler Yeats (Ireland) Brothers Grimm, Anne Frank, Patrick Süskind (Germany) Joseph Conrad, Czesław Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Witold Gombrowicz, Henryk Sienkiewicz, (Poland) Franz Kafka (Czech Republic) Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark) Sigrid Undset, Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun (Norway) Nikolai Gogol, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko (Ukraine) Stieg Larsson (Sweden)

• Performing arts

See Western art history, dance, drama, and circus arts.

• Film

In 1897, Georges Méliès established the first cinema studio on a rooftop property in Montreuil, near Paris. Some notable European film movements include German Expressionism, Italian neorealism, French New Wave, Polish Film School, New German Cinema, Portuguese Cinema Novo, Czechoslovak New Wave, Dogme 95, New French Extremity, and Romanian New Wave. The cinema of Europe has its own awards, the European Film Awards. Main festivals : Cannes Film Festival (France), Berlin International Film Festival (Germany). The Venice Film Festival (Italy) or Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, is the oldest film festival in the world.

• Video Game

Some of the most popular games of all time come from Europe: the Grand Theft Auto (series), Tomb Raider, Cossacks: European Wars, The Settlers, The Patrician, Brain Challenge, Block Breaker Deluxe, Europa Universalis.

Science[link]

• CERN ( /ˈsɜrn/; French: [sɛʀn]) : The European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the birthplace of the World Wide Web and home of the world's largest machine : the Large Hadron Collider. It is the world's largest particle physics laboratory, situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, established in 1954. In November 2010, the collisions obtained were able to generate the highest temperatures and densities ever produced in an experiment, creating a "mini-Big Bang" a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.^[3]
• ESA : The European Space Agency's space flight program includes human spaceflight, mainly through the participation in the International Space Station program, the launch and operations of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon, Earth observations, science, telecommunication as well as maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana and designing launch vehicles. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching and further developing this launch vehicle.

Europe has produced some of the greatest scientists, inventors and intellectuals in history. Germany; Albert Einstein, Johannes Kepler, Johannes Gutenberg, Gottfried Leibniz, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Max Planck, Karl Benz. United Kingdom; Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Robert Hooke, Michael Faraday, James Joule, Edward Jenner, John Dalton, George Stephenson, Florence Nightingale, George Cayley, Frank Whittle, Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking, Tim Berners Lee, James Watt, Alexander Fleming, Alexander Graham Bell, John Logie Baird, James Clerk Maxwell, Adam Smith. Russia: Dmitri Mendeleev, Nikolai Lobachevsky, Mikhail Lomonosov, Lev Landau, Aleksandr Butlerov, Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Nikolay Basov. France; Pierre Abelard, Michel de Montaigne, Louis Pasteur, Antoine Lavoisier, Henri Becquerel, René Descartes, Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, the Montgolfier brothers, Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Léon Foucault, Auguste and Louis Lumière, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, Jacques Lacan, Luc Montagnier, Albert Jacquard. Italy; Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Evangelista Torricelli, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alessandro Volta, Guglielmo Marconi, Enrico Fermi. Poland; Nicolaus Copernicus, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Rudolf Weigl. Greece: Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy. Hungary: Ottó Bláthy, Leó Szilárd, Edward Teller, Ányos Jedlik. Austria: Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Boltzmann. Ireland; Lord Kelvin, Robert Boyle. Sweden; Alfred Nobel, Anders Celsius. Denmark; Niels Bohr. Serbia; Mihajlo Pupin, Milutin Milanković. Switzerland; Carl Jung.

Philosophy[link]

European philosophy is a predominant strand of philosophy globally, and is central to philosophical enquiry in America and most other parts of the world which have fallen under its influence. Christian thought is a huge influence on many fields of European philosophy (as European philosophy has been on Christian thought too), sometimes as a reaction; the Greek schools of philosophy in antiquity provide the basis of philosophical discourse that extends to today.

Perhaps one of the most important single philosophical periods since the classical era were the Renaissance, the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment. There are many disputes as to its value and even its timescale. What is indisputable is that the tenets of reason and rational discourse owe much to René Descartes, John Locke and others working at the time.

Other important European philosophical strands include: Analytic philosophy, Protestantism, Christian Democracy, Communism, Conservatism, Constructionism, Deconstructionism, Empiricism, Epicureanism, Existentialism, Fascism, Humanism, Idealism, Internationalism, Liberalism, Logical positivism, Marxism, Materialism, Monarchism, Nationalism, Perspectivism, Platonism, Positivism, Postmodernism, Rationalism, Relativism, Republicanism, Romanticism, Scepticism, Scholasticism, Social Democracy, Socialism, Stoicism, Structuralism, Thomism, Utilitarianism, Spenglerism.

Religion[link]

The Eurobarometer Poll 2005^[4] found that, on average, 52% of the citizens of EU member states state that they "believe in God", 27% believe there is some sort of spirit or life force while 18% do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force. 3% declined to answer.

Christianity has been the dominant feature in shaping up European culture for at least the last 1700 years. Modern philosophical thought has very much been influenced by Christian philosophers such as St Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus.

The most popular religions of Europe are the following:

• Christianity
  • Catholicism: Countries^{[citation needed]}with significant Catholic populations are Portugal, Spain, Poland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland, Scotland (UK), Northern Ireland (UK), Italy, Malta, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia and Lithuania. There are significant Catholic minorities in the Netherlands, southern Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, western and central Belarus, western Ukraine, Hungarian-speaking Romania, parts of Russia, the Latgale region of Latvia, Croatian-speaking Bosnia and Herzegovina, England (UK) and Wales (UK), and indeed small minorities in most of the other European countries.
  • Eastern Orthodoxy: The countries with significant Orthodox populations^{[citation needed]} are Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine.
  • Protestantism: Countries with significant Protestant populations^{[citation needed]} are Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. There are significant minorities in France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, and indeed small minorities in most European countries.
• Islam: Countries with significant Muslim population^{[citation needed]} are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Kosovo in Serbia, several republics of Russia and Crimea in Ukraine. There are significant minorities in Cyprus, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Also, as of 2005^[update], about 5% of the EU identify themselves as Muslims, with many Muslim immigrants in Germany, the UK, Sweden and France.^{[citation needed]}

Other minor religions exist in Europe, some brought by migrants, including:

• Judaism, mainly in France, United Kingdom, and Russia.^{[citation needed]}
• Hinduism, mainly among Indian immigrants in the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}
• Buddhism, thinly spread throughout Europe, yet it is in Kalmykia in Russia.
• Indigenous European pagan traditions and beliefs, many countries.^{[citation needed]}
• Rastafari, communities in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and elsewhere.^{[citation needed]}
• Sikhism and Jainism, both mainly among Indian immigrants in the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}
• West African Vodun and Haitian Vodou (Voodoo), mainly among West African and black Caribbean immigrants in the United Kingdom and France.
• Traditional African Religions (including Muti), mainly in the United Kingdom and France.^{[citation needed]}

Cuisine[link]

The cuisines of Western countries are diverse by themselves, although there are common characteristics that distinguishes Western cooking from cuisines of Asian countries and others. Compared with traditional cooking of Asian countries, for example, meat is more prominent and substantial in serving-size. Steak in particular is a common dish across the West. Similarly to some Asian cuisines, Western cuisines also put substantial emphasis on sauces as condiments, seasonings, or accompaniments (in part due to the difficulty of seasonings penetrating the often larger pieces of meat used in Western cooking). Many dairy products are utilized in the cooking process, except in nouvelle cuisine. Wheat-flour bread has long been the most common sources of starch in this cuisine, along with pasta, dumplings and pastries, although the potato has become a major starch plant in the diet of Europeans and their diaspora since the European colonization of the Americas.

Clothing[link]

The earliest definite examples of needles originate from the Solutrean culture, which existed in France from 19,000 BC to 15,000 BC. The earliest dyed flax fibers have been found in a cave the Republic of Georgia and date back to 36,000 BP. See Clothing in ancient Rome, 1100–1200 in fashion, 1200–1300 in fashion, 1300–1400 in fashion, 1400–1500 in fashion, 1500–1550 in fashion, 1550–1600 in fashion, 1600–1650 in fashion, 1650–1700 in fashion, Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.

Sport[link]

Europe's influence on sport is enormous. Indeed, it is difficult to think of a modern sport, apart from basketball and related sports, that does not have its origins in Europe. European sports include:

• Association football, which has contested origins between United Kingdom and Italy (where Benito Mussolini insisted the game be called by the name Calcio). What is uncontestable is that the oldest association is The Football Association of England (1863) and the first international match was between Scotland and England (1872). It is now the world's most popular sport and is played throughout Europe.
• Cricket has its origins in south eastern Britain. It's popular throughout England and Wales, and parts of Netherlands. It is also popular in other areas and also played in Northwest Europe. It is however very popular worldwide, especially in Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Indian subcontinent.
• Cycling, which is immensely popular as a means of transport, has most of its sporting adherents in Europe, particularly Western Europe. Tour de France is the world's most watched live annual sporting event. The bicycle itself is probably from France (see History of the bicycle).
• The discus throw, javelin throw and shot put have their origins in ancient Greece. The Olympics, both ancient and modern, have their origins too in Europe, and have a massive influence globally.
• Field Hockey as a modern game, began in 18th Century Britain with Ireland having the oldest federation. It is popular in Western Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Australia and East Asia. Ice hockey, popular in Europe and North America may derive from this sport.
• Golf, one of the most popular sports in Europe, Asia and North America, has its origins in Scotland, with the oldest course being at Musselburgh.
• Handball, which is popular in Europe and elsewhere, has its origins in antiquity. The modern game is from Northern Europe with Germany having been involved in both the first women's and men's internationals.
• Rugby League and Rugby Union which both have similar origins to football. Rugby Union is the older of the two codes and has rules that date from 1845 (see articles: History of rugby league and History of rugby union). They acrimoniously split in the late 19th century over the treatment of injured players. Rugby league gradually changed its laws over the next century with the end result that today both sports have little in common, apart from the basics. They have both been carried abroad by colonization, particularly to many former British colonies. American Football and Canadian Football are derivatives of rugby.
• Tennis which originates from United Kingdom and related games such as Table Tennis derive from the game Real Tennis which is from France. It is popular throughout the world.

In addition, Europe has numerous national or regional sports which do not command a large international following outside of emigrant groups. These include:

• Alpine Wrestling in Switzerland.
• Bandy in Russia, Sweden and Finland
• Basque Pelota in parts of Spain and France, and which has been brought to the Americas by emigrants.
• Bullfighting in Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France near the Spanish Border.
• Gaelic Football in Ireland, which influenced Australian football rules.
• Gaelic Handball (Ireland) which was taken to the United States in the form of American Handball.
• Hurling in Ireland.
• Korfbal in the Netherlands and Belgium.
• Pesäpallo (Boboll) in Finland
• Pétanque, Boules, Petanca, Calitx, Irish Road Bowling, Skittles, Bocce, and Bowls and others are variations of bowling games which are popular throughout western Europe and have been spread around the world.
• Rounders from Britain^[5][6] now popular in northwest Europe from which Baseball derives.
• Shinty in Scotland, United Kingdom, which influenced ice hockey in Canada (see also Shinny).
• Trotting in southern Europe.

Some sporting organisations hold European Championships.

• European Cricket Council
• European Rugby Cup (Club/Regional competition)
• European SC Championships
• FIRA - Association of European Rugby
• IIHF
• Mitropa Cup
• Rugby League European Federation - European Nations Cup
• Sport in the European Union
• UEFA

Some sport competitions feature a European team gathering athletes from different European countries. These teams uses the European flag as an emblem. The most famous of these competitions is the Ryder Cup in golf.

European Capital of Culture[link]

Each year since 1985 one or more cities across Europe are chosen as European Capital of Culture.

Symbols[link]

• European symbols

See also[link]

• Compendium of cultural policies and trends in Europe
• Cultural policies of the European Union
• Europalia
• European Culture
• Europeanisation
• Romano-Germanic culture
• Westernization

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Culture of Europe

• Eurolinguistix.com
• Europe.org.uk - online European culture magazine (EU London Office)
• TheEuropeanLibrary.org, The European Library, gateway to Europe's national libraries
• Europeana.eu European Digital Library
• Europa.eu, EU Culture Portal (archived)

Androulla Vassiliou Ανδρούλλα Βασιλείου
European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Maroš Šefčovič (Education, Training, Culture and Youth) Leonard Orban (Multilingualism)
European Commissioner for Health
In office 3 March 2008 – 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Markos Kyprianou
Succeeded by	John Dalli (Health and Consumer Policy)
Personal details
Born	(1943-11-30) 30 November 1943 (age 68)
Political party	United Democrats
Spouse(s)	George Vassiliou
Alma mater	Middle Temple
Profession	Lawyer

Androulla Vassiliou (Ανδρούλλα Βασιλείου; born 30 November 1943) is a Cypriot and European politician who was the European Commissioner for Health, confirmed by the European Council on 3 March 2008.^[1] Since February 2010, she has been the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. Vassiliou is very active in social and cultural fields particularly within the UN and EU. In Cyprus she has held many important posts and is on the Board of many public and private companies.

Legal career[link]

Between 1961 and 1964 Vassiliou studied law at Middle Temple Inn of Court (London, United Kingdom) and then between 1964 to 1966 she studied international affairs at the London Institute of World Affairs (United Kingdom). She then returned to Cyprus in 1968 to practice law while acting as legal advisor to the Standard Chartered Bank and then the Bank of Cyprus (also being on the board of various corporations). In 1988 she ended her legal practice when her husband, George Vassiliou, became President of Cyprus.

Political career[link]

Vassiliou was elected to the House of Representatives of Cyprus in 1996, for the Movement of United Democrats, and re-elected in 2001 until 2006. During this time she served on the European Affairs Committee and the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Cyprus and the EU She was also an Alternate Representative of the Cyprus to the European Convention which drew up the European Constitution.

Between 2001 and 2006 she was Vice President of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, and the chairperson of the European Liberal Women's Network.

In February 2008 Vassiliou was nominated to succeed Markos Kyprianou as European Commissioner for Health. In 3 March 2008 she took over from him in the European Commission and faced a hearing before the European Parliament in early April 2008; she was approved on 9 April 2008 by 446 to 7 with 29 abstentions.^[2] Under the Second Barroso Commission, from February 2010, she was given the portfolio of Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.

Other activities and personal life[link]

Since 2002 she has been chairperson of the board of trustees of the Cyprus Oncology Centre and she has also been President of the Cyprus Federation of Business and Professional Women since 1996.

She was involved in the United Nations Association of Cyprus, being elected as President of it for four consecutive terms, participated in numerous human rights conferences. In 1991 she was elected President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations and re-elected for two terms before being made an honorary president.

She is married to Dr George Vassiliou, former President of Cyprus, with whom she has three children. Her hobbies are music, walking, swimming and reading. She speaks Greek, English and moderate French.

References[link]

• Nomination of Mrs Androulla Vassiliou as successor to Mr Markos Kyprianou, European Commission 28/02/08

External links[link]

• Androulla Vassiliou Official Media Gallery
• Website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/vassiliou/index_en.htm#position_3

v t e Barroso Commission I (2004–2009) Joaquín Almunia · Catherine Ashton6 · José Manuel Barroso1 · Jacques Barrot2 · Joe Borg · Karel De Gucht9 · Stavros Dimas · Benita Ferrero-Waldner · Ján Figeľ10 · Franco Frattini2, 5 · Mariann Fischer Boel · Dalia Grybauskaitė7 · Danuta Hübner8 · Siim Kallas2 · László Kovács · Neelie Kroes · Meglena Kuneva3 · Markos Kyprianou4 · Peter Mandelson6 · Charlie McCreevy · Louis Michel9 · Leonard Orban3 · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding · Olli Rehn · Paweł Samecki8 · Maroš Šefčovič10 · Algirdas Šemeta7 · Vladimír Špidla · Antonio Tajani2, 5 · Androulla Vassiliou4 · Günter Verheugen2 · Margot Wallström2 1 = President. 2 = Vice President. 3 = Served from 1 January 2007. 4 = Vassiliou replaced Kyprianou on 3 March 2008. 5 = Tajani replaced Frattini on 18 June 2008. 6 = Ashton replaced Mandelson on 3 October 2008. 7 = Šemeta replaced Grybauskaitė on 1 July 2009. 8 = Samecki replaced Hübner on 4 July 2009. 9 = De Gucht replaced Michel on 17 July 2009. 10 = Šefčovič replaced Figeľ on 1 October 2009.

v t e Barroso Commission II (since 2010) Joaquín Almunia2 · László Andor · Catherine Ashton2 · Michel Barnier · José Manuel Barroso1 · Dacian Cioloş · John Dalli · Maria Damanaki · Štefan Füle · Máire Geoghegan-Quinn · Kristalina Georgieva · Karel De Gucht · Johannes Hahn · Connie Hedegaard · Siim Kallas2 · Neelie Kroes2 · Janusz Lewandowski · Cecilia Malmström · Günther Oettinger · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding2 · Olli Rehn · Antonio Tajani2 · Androulla Vassiliou · Maroš Šefčovič2 · Algirdas Šemeta 1 = President. 2 = Vice President.

Anton Perich is an American Filmmaker, photographer and video artist, born in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in 1945. He lives and works in New York since 1970.^[1]

Biography[link]

From 1965 to 1970, he lived in Paris and became close to Lettrist Group (lettrism) (Isidore Isou, Maurice Lemaître), but also with French film underground milieu (Piero Heliczer, Michel Auder, Raphaël Bassan, Slobodan Pajic, Pierre Clémenti). For that period, he changed his name and became Antoine Perich, because Anton was not familiar a name in France.^[2][3] He was among the first activists to present, every week, programs of avant-garde and underground films in the American Center in Paris.

He moved to New York in 1970, became friends with Andy Warhol and contributed as a photographer to Warhol’s Interview. He also worked as a busboy at the legendary Max's Kansas City, where he photographed the scene as an ongoing art performance every night, along with exhibiting the photos on the walls.

In 1977-78, he designed and built an electric painting machine, an early predecessor of the inkjet printer. The development of this machine made Anton a pioneer of electric-digital-computer art.^[4]

In 1978, he founded NIGHT as a interactive "gallery space" for his photography and the nightly activities at places such as Studio 54. In 2006, he had a video retrospective at the Anthology Film Archives, in New York.

Notes[link]

1. ^ http://www.gallerydenovo.com/html/ArtistBio.asp?artnum=44
2. ^ http://www.fabernett.com/cgi-bin/fab455/46081.html?id=HSDvtL78
3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1501350/
4. ^ website retrieved 12th Sept 2011

References[link]

• Revisiting Max's, Sanctuary for the Hip, by Randy Kennedy September 05, 2010, Two coming exhibitions shed new light on the glory days of Max's Kansas City, an oasis for artists in the 1960s and '70s

External links[link]

• Perich's Biography
• Perich's bio and works
• Perich's Painting machine
• Perich's Interview

Jonny Greenwood
Background information
Birth name	Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood
Born	(1971-11-05) 5 November 1971 (age 40) Oxford, England
Genres	Electronic music Classical music[1][2] Art rock Ambient music Alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, composer, score composer, multi-instrumentalist
Instruments	Guitar, electronic keyboard, piano, synthesizer, viola, violin, drums, percussion, glockenspiel, ondes Martenot, sampler, Mellotron, banjo, organ, accordion, bass guitar, harmonica, recorder, trumpet
Years active	1985–present
Labels	XL, TBD, Sanctuary, Nonesuch
Associated acts	Radiohead, The Weird Sisters
Website	www.radiohead.com
Notable instruments
Fender Telecaster Plus Fender Starcaster Ondes Martenot

Jonathan Richard Guy "Jonny" Greenwood (born 5 November 1971) is an English musician and composer best known as a member of the English rock band Radiohead. Noted for his aggressive playing style,^[3] Greenwood is consistently named as one of the greatest guitarists of the modern era.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]} Beyond his primary roles as the band's lead guitarist and keyboardist, Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist and also plays viola, harmonica, glockenspiel, ondes Martenot, banjo and drums, and works with computer-generated sounds and sampling; he is also a computer programmer and writes music software used by Radiohead.

Outside his work with Radiohead, Greenwood wrote the soundtracks for the films Bodysong (2003), There Will Be Blood (2007), Norwegian Wood (2010) and We Need To Talk About Kevin (2010), and serves as composer-in-residence for the BBC Concert Orchestra. He is the younger brother of Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood.

Career[link]

Radiohead[link]

Greenwood had begun studying music and psychology at Oxford Brookes University when Radiohead, then known as On A Friday, signed a recording contract with EMI in 1991. He left the university shortly after. While Greenwood is the only member of Radiohead to have been classically trained on any instrument (he took viola lessons as a child), he is also the only band member without a university degree.

Greenwood's influence on Radiohead's recording and writing can be heard in many songs, as he usually takes the traditional lead-guitarist role. For a while, Greenwood wore an arm brace due to a repetitive strain injury attributed to his "aggressive" way of playing the instrument, often billed as "abusive guitar". He has said that "It's like taping up your fingers before a boxing match."^[12]

Greenwood is often credited as the second major influence on songwriting in Radiohead, next to Thom Yorke. He wrote the music for the closing tracks of OK Computer ("The Tourist"), Kid A ("Motion Picture Soundtrack"), Amnesiac ("Life in a Glasshouse") and Hail to the Thief ("A Wolf at the Door"). He also wrote the intro, chorus and outro sections of the song "Subterranean Homesick Alien" from the OK Computer album, as well as the "rain down" section of "Paranoid Android". According to Yorke, the track "Just" from The Bends was "a competition by me and Jonny to get as many chords as possible into a song". An example of Greenwood's versatility is his use of the Ondes Martenot, which is featured on songs such as "The National Anthem" and "How to Disappear Completely" from the album Kid A, and "Pyramid Song" from the album Amnesiac. The song "Where I End and You Begin" from Hail to the Thief, which also features the instrument, was dedicated to the memory of Jeanne Loriod, a pioneer of the Ondes.

Greenwood and Yorke also collaborated on the song "Arpeggi" which is a piece in a classical style centered around arpeggios for voice, Ondes, and orchestra. It was performed with the London Sinfonietta and Arab Orchestra of Nazareth at the Ether Festival in March 2005;^[13] the song would later be adapted for the full band to play in 2006, rearranged for guitar. A studio version (closer to the full band version than the orchestral version) appeared on the album In Rainbows as "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi".

Solo work and current projects[link]

In 2003, Greenwood released his first solo album, Bodysong (2003), the soundtrack for the movie of the same title by filmmaker Simon Pummell. Bodysong also features contributions from his brother Colin on bass.

Jonny Greenwood was hired by the BBC as composer in residence to the BBC Concert Orchestra in May 2004, a job which gave him the opportunity to compose several pieces for symphony orchestra, piano and/or Ondes Martenot: smear, Piano for Children and Popcorn Superhet Receiver. smear premiered in 2004, and on 23 April 2005 Greenwood premiered his new work commissioned by BBC Radio 3, with music performed live by the BBC Concert Orchestra in London.^[14] The printed music for smear, Popcorn Superhet Receiver, Doghouse, Suite from Norwegian Wood and 48 Responses to Polymorphia (see below) is available from Faber Music Ltd in London. smear has also been recorded by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Martyn Brabbins and was Greenwood's recorded debut in the genre. Popcorn Superhet Receiver and 48 Responses to Polymorphia have also been released commercially.

Greenwood won the Radio 3 Listeners' Award at the 2006 BBC British Composer Awards^[15] for his piece, "Popcorn Superhet Receiver". The piece was inspired by radio static and the elaborate, dissonant tone clusters of Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. It can be streamed from a BBC website.^[16] Upon winning the award Greenwood received £10,000 from the PRS Foundation towards a commission for a new orchestral work.^[17]

A fan of dub reggae,^[18] Greenwood released a compilation in collaboration with Trojan Records, entitled Jonny Greenwood Is The Controller in March 2007. This is the latest in Trojan’s Artist Choice Jukebox series, to which DJ Spooky and Don Letts have already contributed.^[19] Trojan Records provided Greenwood with its extensive catalog of songs, of which he chose 17.^[20] The title is a play on the first track on the collection, entitled "Dread Are The Controller", by Linval Thompson. The album contains tracks by artists such as Derrick Harriott, Gregory Isaacs, The Heptones and many more.

Greenwood composed the score for the 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, from director Paul Thomas Anderson. The soundtrack contains excerpts from "Popcorn Superhet Receiver". His work as the composer for this film was highly acclaimed by reviewers and earned him an award at the Critics' Choice Awards. On January 21, 2008, however, the score was declared ineligible for an Academy Award nomination under a rule that prohibited "scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music."^[21][22] On 4 February 2008 it was announced that Greenwood had won the trophy for Best Film Score in the Evening Standard British Film Awards for 2007.^[23] In its 2009 end-of-decade round-up Rolling Stone magazine named the film the best of the decade and cited Greenwood's score as a major element in its success, "redefining what is possible in film scores".

In 2008, Greenwood wrote the theme music for Adam Buxton's comedy pilot meeBOX,^[24] and collaborated with Israeli rock musician Dudu Tasa on Tasa's Hebrew-language single "What a Day".^[25]

In February 2010, Greenwood debuted a composition entitled "Doghouse" at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios. In an interview following the performance, Greenwood and conductor Robert Ziegler revealed that the composition would be extrapolated into a score for the upcoming film Norwegian Wood directed by Anh Hung Tran, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Haruki Murakami. Greenwood described the writing of the piece to the BBC, "I wrote this piece mostly in hotels and dressing rooms while touring with Radiohead. This was more practical than glamorous — lots of time sitting around indoors, lots of instruments about — and aside from picking up a few geographical working titles, I can’t think that it had any effect where, on tour, it was written." The premiere of the entire score took place on 19 March 2010.^[26]

In 2011, Greenwood composed the score for the film adaptation of Lionel Shriver's novel We Need to Talk About Kevin.^[27] He is also set to compose the score for Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming picture The Master. This will be the second collaboration between the two.^[28]

On March 13, 2012, Greenwood and Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki released an album together on the Nonesuch label. It includes Greenwood's "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" and a new string orchestra work, "48 Responses to Polymorphia" (a homage to Penderecki's "Polymorphia" of 1961).^[29]

Musical influences[link]

Greenwood is greatly influenced by jazz and classical music; his favourites include Lee Morgan and Miles Davis. He is a major fan of the Mo' Wax label (onetime home of Blackalicious, DJ Krush, DJ Shadow and Dr. Octagon). Along with other Radiohead band members, he loves Krautrock band Can and Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Greenwood has stated that his all time favourite piece of music is Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, a gigantic piece for orchestra that features an Ondes Martenot, an instrument he discovered as a teenager.^[30] According to one of his entries on Radiohead's blog Dead Air Space, Greenwood has become a dub reggae aficionado, listening as of late 2005 to little else. Greenwood has also shown considerable interest in little known South African Post Punk band, Atom Band.

Legacy[link]

Greenwood has inspired many with his guitar playing and style. He is also known for his aggressive guitar playing style. Guitarists such as Russell Lissack of the English rock band Bloc Party and many others cite Greenwood as an influence. Greenwood was also ranked number 60 in Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". When Rolling Stone Magazine updated their list in November 2011, Greenwood's rank had jumped to number 48.

Personal life[link]

In 1995 he married Israeli-born Sharona Katan, a visual artist whose work (credited as Shin Katan) appears on the covers of the Bodysong soundtrack as well as the There Will Be Blood soundtrack. Their first son, Tamir, was born in 2002 and the 2003 Radiohead album Hail to the Thief was dedicated to him. They also have a daughter named Omri, born in 2005, and a second son, named Zohar, who was born in February 2008.

Interests[link]

He listed his favourite video games on the band's website in 2010, cherishing Ico and spanning from 1984's Elite to 2010's Red Dead Redemption.^[31]

Equipment[link]

Electric Guitars[link]

Greenwood playing a Fender Starcaster.

• Fender Telecaster Plus, with a custom cut-off switch and special rewirings made by Greenwood and Plank (Radiohead's Guitar Technician). This guitar is equipped with Lace Sensor pickups.^[32]
• Fender Telecaster Standard converted into a Plus which also has a custom cut-off switch and Lace Sensor pickups
• 1975 Fender Starcaster, with Fender Wide Range pickups, can be heard predominantly on Kid A and Amnesiac, it is used for most Kid A and Amnesiac he plays guitar on live, and a few songs from OK Computer.^[33]
• A Gretsch G6119-1962HT Tennessee Rose HT.^[34]
• Gibson Les Paul HD.6X-Pro Digital.^[34]
• Gibson ES-335 (used on the acoustic tour in 2003)^[35]
• Rickenbacker 360 (used for The Daily Mail)

Greenwood currently uses Dean Markley Signature Series 10-46 strings.^[36]

Acoustic Guitars[link]

• Martin D-35^[36]
• Taylor Big Baby (played by both Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke in pictures from Dead Air Space)^[37]

Amplifiers[link]

• Vox AC30 (used for clean tones) ^[38]
• Fender Eighty-Five (solid-state amp, used for distorted tones)

Early on in Greenwood's career, he used a Fender Twin Reverb for clean tones.^[39] Greenwood's Fender Eighty-Five has frequently been misidentified as a Fender Deluxe 85. It has never been confirmed that he has toured, or recorded, with a Deluxe 85.

Effects (guitar)[link]

• Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
• Demeter 'The Tremulator' (early prototype of the Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator)
• DOD 440 Envelope Filter (modified to include an LED)
• DigiTech Whammy IV (replaced his old DigiTech WH-1 Whammy)
• BOSS OD-3 OverDrive (replaced his old BOSS SD-1 SUPER OverDrive)
• BOSS RE-20 Space Echo (replaced his old Roland RE-201 Space Echo)
• BOSS RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay
• Akai Headrush E1 or E2
• BOSS LS-2 Line Selector (A/B mode) (x4) (One for bringing in the Kaoss Pad into his setup and one for running his guitar through his Mac.)
• Marshall ShredMaster (leads to Fender Eighty-Five)
• Ernie Ball VP JR.
• BOSS FV-300L or FV-500L
• BOSS TU-12H Chromatic Tuner (from 'tuner out' on FV-300L)
• Roland FC-200 MIDI Foot Controller
• Mutronics Mutator (used in the studio)
• Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus (one on each board)

Keyboards[link]

• Analogue Systems RS8000 Integrator^[40]
• Analogue Systems RS8500X^[40]
• Analogue Systems French Connection^[41]
• Ondes Martenot^[40][42]
• Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
• Korg Prophecy^[39]
• Hammond XB2 Digital Organ
• Moog Rogue^[40]
• Moog Minimoog^[43]
• Dave Smith Prophet '08^[44]
• Mellotron M400^[36]
• Rhodes Suitcase Piano Mark I 73^[39]
• Fatar Keys CMS-161^[36]
• Roland PC-200
• Upright Piano
• Celeste^[36]

Effects (keyboard)^[36]

• BOSS RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay
• Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
• BOSS FV-300L
• BOSS LS-2 Line Selector
• Akai Headrush E1 or E2
• Demeter 'The Tremulator'
• Roland RE-201 Space Echo (activated via Vox egg footswitch)
• 3 laptops, manned by Jonny and band technician Russ Russell, running Kontakt 3, are used to trigger samples and keyboard sounds, played in realtime by Jonny and Colin. One laptop is placed by Jonny's other gear, the others being side of stage with Russ.

Other instruments[link]

• Accordion.^[45][46]

• Banjo on at least one live performance of the b-side "I Am A Wicked Child"^[47]

• Trumpet^[46]