People who bear the surname Levine, a common Russian derivative of Levi, include:

A – J

Adam Noah Levine (b. 1979), an American rock/pop singer and guitarist

Adam Levine, former press aide for the Bush administration

Allan Levine (b. 1956), a Canadian writer

Amy-Jill Levine, a New Testament Scholar

Andrew Levine, (b. 1983) a founder of Wine Down, America premier wine tasting party

Anna Levine, a cast member of The Tracey Ullman Show

Bruce Levine, an American psychologist

Craig'Torbull'Levine, an American entrepreneur

Darren Levine, an American martial artist

David Levine (b. 1926), an American caricaturist

David D. Levine (b. 1961), an American science fiction writer

David K. Levine, an American economist

Dennis Levine (b. 1953), an American stock trader sentenced for perjury and securities fraud

Earl Levine, an American computer businessman

Esther Levine (b. 1970), a German born, New York based photographer

Eugen Levine, leader of the Bavarian Soviet Republic

Gail Carson Levine (b. 1947), an American author of young adult books

Gilbert Levine (b. 1948), an American conductor.

Herbert Levine, an American fashion designer

Ian Levine (b. 1953), a British songwriter, producer, and DJ

Irving R. Levine (1922-2009), an American journalist

Jack Levine (1915-2010), an American expressionist painter

James Levine (b. 1943), an American orchestral conductor and pianist

Jesse Levine, an American tennis player

Jerome Levine (1937-2006), an American mathematician

Joey Levine, an American songwriter, music producer and performer

John R. Levine, an American internet consultant

Joseph Levine (b. 1952), an American philosopher of mind

Joseph E. Levine (1905-1987), an American film producer

Judith Levine (b. 1952), an American political writer and civil libertarian

K – Z

Kate Levine, a voice actor

Ken Levine, a South African musician and songwriter

Ken Levine, an American computer game designer

Ken Levine, an American television and film writer and baseball announcer

Larry Jay Levine, an American federal prison consultant

Lena ("Lee") Levine (1903-1965), an American psychiatrist and gynecologist

Leon Levine (born 1938), an American retailer

Mark Levine (disambiguation)

Mark LeVine, an American historian

Michael A. Levine, a Los Angeles based composer

Michael E. Levine, an American lawyer

Michael Levine, an American publicist, best-selling author, and motivational speaker.

Mike Levine, a Canadian bassist and keyboardist

Naomi Levine, U.S. actor

Nir Levine, an Israeli football manager

Noah Levine, writer, son of Stephen Levine

Norman Levine (1923-2005), a Canadian short story writer

Peter A. Levine (b. 1942), an American psycho-physiological trauma theorist

Philip Levine (disambiguation), one of several people including

*Philip Levine (poet) (b. 1928), an American anarchist poet & professor of English

*Philip Levine (physician) (1900-1987), physician, researched blood groups

Raphael David Levine (b. 1938), an Israeli chemist

Ryan Stephen Levine (b. 1990), a Penn State Champion

Samm Levine (b. 1982), an American television and film actor

Samuel Levine (disambiguation)

Scott Levine, a computer criminal

Sherrie Levine (b. 1947), an American photographer

Stephen B. Levine (b. 1942), American psychiatrist

Stephen Levine (b. 1937), American poet, author and healer

Stewart Levine, an American record producer

Ted Levine (b. 1958), an American actor

Will Levine Student at Muhlenberg College

Zachary Levine (b. 1987), an American actor

See also

Levin, Lewin

Levi (disambiguation)

Anatol Lieven

Lieven

Levene

Category:Jewish surnames Category:Levitic surnames

Name	Adam Levine
Birth name	Adam Noah Levine
Landscape	Yes
Background	solo_singer
Born	March 18, 1979 Los Angeles, California, United States
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, drums, bass, piano
Genre	Alternative rock, funk rock, pop rock
Occupation	Musician, songwriter
Years active	1994-present
Label	A&M; Octone
Associated acts	Maroon 5, Kara's Flowers, Kanye West, Natasha Bedingfield, Ying Yang Twins, Alicia Keys, K'naan, Rihanna, Slash
Url	maroon5.com
Notable instruments	First Act Signature Beginner model

Adam Noah Levine (born March 18, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the frontman for the pop rock band Maroon 5.

Early life

Levine was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Patsy Noah and Fred Levine. His uncle is Slate writer and editor Timothy Noah. He has a brother, Michael., and a step-sister, Julia Bartolf Milne. Levine is of Jewish background on his father's and maternal grandfather's sides (his maternal grandmother is Protestant). When he was six, he made the winning shot of his local YMCA championship basketball game (on a team his father coached) with no time left on the clock. He has said that the incident changed his life and gave him the confidence to be successful.

Levine attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts Camp (Hancock, NY), where he played a lot of rock n'roll at the Rock Shop with several friends, including one or two members of the original band Kara's Flowers, most notably, Jesse Carmichael. He graduated from Brentwood School in 1997.

Original band Kara's Flowers

Having met at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, CA, the band released their first album entitled The Fourth World in 1997 as high school seniors. That same year the band appeared on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. The album had little success, and its only single, "Soap Disco", failed commercially. Disappointed with the results of their album, the band went on hiatus and went their separate ways.

Levine and bandmate Carmichael left Los Angeles to study at Five Towns College, a small music and performing arts school in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York. This was the first time the two Los Angeles natives were exposed to a completely different music scene, a cultural awakening for the young men. On MTV News, in 2002, Levine said, "That's when I started waking up to the whole hip hop, R&B; thing. We had friends named Chaos and shit. It was not Brentwood High."

Maroon 5 and mainstream success

During this time, Levine worked a two-week stint as a waiter at Johnny Rockets. After dropping out of Five Towns College, Levine and Jesse reunited with Mickey and Ryan, but added former Square guitarist, James Valentine in 2001. Renaming the band Maroon 5, Levine and his friends began to compile all of their newfound musical influences into their music. While Levine was working as a writer's assistant on the television show "Judging Amy," he spent time writing the lyrics about his ex-girlfriend, Jane. Those lyrics became the album "Songs About Jane." He is also featured in the song "Wild Horses" on Alicia Keys' third album Alicia Keys: MTV Unplugged. Over the next year, he co-wrote the track "Say It Again" on Natasha Bedingfield's album N.B.. He also performed the background vocals on this song. Most recently, Levine offered his talents on K'naan's newest album "Troubadour" in the song "Bang Bang."

Levine has made several notable comic appearances on television. During 2007, he appeared on the 33rd season premiere of Saturday Night Live in an SNL Digital Short called Iran So Far with Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen and Jake Gyllenhaal. Levine played himself while singing a humorous bridge to a "love song" for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2008, he appeared on Comedy Central's "Night Of Too Many Stars". Levine also had a cameo on Jimmy Kimmel Live for the night of stars and endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election.

In October 2008, Levine collaborated with First Act to create the First Act 222 Guitar, fashioned to Levine's specifications. The guitar was made available for purchase at Target retail stores.

Levine has stated in various interviews that he does not plan on continuing in Maroon 5 forever, and may stop after the tour for Maroon 5's probable third album.

Levine made a guest appearance as himself on the season three finale of 30 Rock.

In 2009, Levine recorded "Gotten", a song for Slash's first solo album Slash released in April 2010. "Gotten" was premiered at amazon.com on March 29, 2010.

Levine is also featured as a singer for his band's song "She Will be Loved" in the music rhythm game Band Hero. After which he is a playable character on any song on the game disc.

In February 2010, he was among approximately 80 musicians who sang on the charity-single remake of "We Are the World" called "".

Personal life

Levine's ex-girlfriend Jane is the muse behind the name of the band's debut album, Songs About Jane. In a 2004 interview, he claimed that she had not contacted him despite the success of the album. They have since made up, and by 2007, Levine referred to them as being "close friends".

Levine's stepmother and father own two fashion stores in California. In 2005, he and Ryan Seacrest of American Idol attended the inauguration of M. Fredric, his parents' second store, in Studio City.

Levine is a "car junkie", his favorite car being his 1971 Mercedes 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet.

In 2006, Levine broke his sternum while lifting weights, what he called "one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced."

In September 2010, Levine said on the Howard Stern Show he had been dating Sports Illustrated swimsuit and Victoria's Secret Russian model Anne Vyalitsyna seriously for about eight months. The couple met when Maroon 5 performed at the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue release party in Las Vegas.

Levine "strips naked for testicular awareness" for a centerfold in Cosmopolitan UK's February 2011 issue.

Further reading

Kimpel, Dan (2006), How They Made It: True Stories of How Music's Biggest Stars Went from Start to Stardom!. Location unknown:Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-634-07642-6

References

External links

Category:1979 births Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:American male singers Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:American pop singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singers Category:American singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American tenors Category:Blue-eyed soul singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Maroon 5 members Category:Musicians from California Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:Songwriters from California

Name	Alicia Keys
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Alicia Augello Cook
Alias	Lellow
Born	January 25, 1981
Origin	New York City, New York, United States
Instrument	Vocals, piano, keyboards, cello, synthesizer, vocoder, guitar, bass guitar
Genre	R&B;, soul, pop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, record producer, actress, music video director, author, poet
Years active	1997–present
Label	Columbia, Arista, J
Url

Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American recording artist, musician and actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began to play classical music on the piano. She attended Professional Performing Arts School and graduated at 16 as valedictorian. She later attended Columbia University before dropping out to pursue her music career. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records.

Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B; artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'". Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994.

Keys made guest appearances on several television series in the following years, beginning with Charmed. She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and went on to appear in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Her third studio album, As I Am, was released in the same year and sold six million copies worldwide, earning Keys an additional three Grammy Awards. The following year, she appeared in The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination at the NAACP Image Awards. She released her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009, which became Keys' first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom. Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Billboard magazine named her the top R&B; artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Life and career

1981–96: Early life

Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan, in New York City, New York. She is the only child of Teresa Augello, a paralegal and part-time actress, and Craig Cook, a flight attendant. Keys' mother is of Scottish, Irish and Italian descent, and her father is African American; Keys has expressed that she was comfortable with her biracial heritage because she felt she was able to "relate to different cultures". Her parents separated when she was two and she was subsequently raised by her mother during her formative years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. In 1985, Keys made an appearance on The Cosby Show at the age of four, where she and a group of girls played the parts of Rudy Huxtable's sleepover guests in the episode "Slumber Party". Throughout her childhood, Keys was sent to music and dance classes by her mother. She began playing the piano when she was seven and learned classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin. She graduated in three years as valedictorian at the age of 16.

In 1994 Keys met long-term manager Jeff Robinson after she enrolled in his brother's after-school program. The following year Robinson introduced Keys to her future A&R; at Arista Records, Peter Edge, who later described his first impressions to HitQuarters: "I had never met a young R&B; artist with that level of musicianship. So many people were just singing on top of loops and tracks, but she had the ability, not only to be part of hip-hop, but also to go way beyond that." Edge helped Robinson create a showcase for Keys and also got involved in developing her demo material. He was keen to sign Keys himself but was unable to do so at that time due to being on the verge of leaving his present record company. Keys signed to Columbia Records soon after.

1997–2000: Career beginnings

Keys signed a demo deal with Jermaine Dupri and So So Def Recordings, where she appeared on the label's Christmas album performing "The Little Drummer Girl". She also co-wrote and recorded a song entitled "Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)", which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1997 film, Men in Black. Following Davis to his newly formed J Records label, she recorded the songs "Rock wit U" and "Rear View Mirror", which were featured on the soundtracks to the films Shaft (2000) and Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), respectively.

2001–02: Songs in A Minor

Often considered her signature song, it describes the "ins and outs" of being in a relationship.|format=Ogg|pos=right}} , Germany, 2002]] Keys released her first studio album, Songs in A Minor, in June 2001. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 236,000 copies in its first week. The album sold over 6.2 million copies in the United States, where it was certified six times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It went on to sell over 12 million copies worldwide, establishing Keys' popularity both inside and outside the United States, where she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B; artist of 2001. The album's lead single, "Fallin'", spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's second single, "A Woman's Worth", peaked at number three on the same chart. The following year, the album was reissued as Remixed & Unplugged in A Minor, which included eight remixes and seven unplugged versions of the songs from the original.

Songs in A Minor led Keys to win five awards at the 2002 Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance, and Best R&B; Song for "Fallin'", Best New Artist, and Best R&B; Album; "Fallin'" was also nominated for Record of the Year. Keys became the second female solo artist to win five Grammy Awards in a single night, following Lauryn Hill at the 41st Grammy Awards. That same year, she collaborated with Christina Aguilera for the latter's upcoming album Stripped on a song entitled "Impossible", which Keys wrote, co-produced, and provided with background vocals. During the early 2000s, Keys also made small cameos in television series Charmed and American Dreams. It sold 4.4 million copies in the United States and was certified four times Platinum by the RIAA. It sold eight million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth biggest-selling album by a female artist and the second biggest-selling album by a female R&B; artist. The singles "You Don't Know My Name" and "If I Ain't Got You" both reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the third single, "Diary", entered the top ten. The fourth single, "Karma", was less successful on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 20. "If I Ain't Got You" became the first single by a female artist to remain on the Billboard Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs chart for over a year.

Keys won Best R&B; Video for "If I Ain't Got You" at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards; she performed the song and "Higher Ground" with Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder. Later that year, Keys released her novel Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics, a collection of unreleased poems from her journals and lyrics. The title derived from one of her poems, "Love and Chains" from the line: "I don't mind drinking my tears for water." She said the title is the foundation of her writing because "everything I have ever written has stemmed from my tears of joy, of pain, of sorrow, of depression, even of question". The book sold over US$500,000 and Keys made The New York Times bestseller list in 2005. The following year, she won a second consecutive award for Best R&B; Video at the MTV Video Music Awards for the video "Karma". Keys performed "If I Ain't Got You" and then joined Jamie Foxx and Quincy Jones in a rendition of "Georgia on My Mind", the Hoagy Carmichael song made famous by Ray Charles in 1960 at the 2005 Grammy Awards. That evening, she won four Grammy Awards: Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance for "If I Ain't Got You", Best R&B; Song for "You Don't Know My Name", Best R&B; Album for The Diary of Alicia Keys, and Best R&B; Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" for "My Boo" with Usher.

Keys performed and taped her installment of the MTV Unplugged series in July 2005 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. During this session, Keys added new arrangements to her original songs and performed a few choice covers. The session was released on CD and DVD in October 2005. Simply titled Unplugged, the album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with 196,000 units sold in its first week of release. The album sold one million copies in the United States, where it was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and two million copies worldwide. The debut of Keys' Unplugged was the highest for an MTV Unplugged album since Nirvana's 1994 MTV Unplugged in New York and the first Unplugged by a female artist to debut at number one. It remained at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult R&B; Airplay for 11 weeks.

Keys opened a recording studio in Long Island, New York, called The Oven Studios, which she co-owns with her production and songwriting partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers. The studio was designed by renowned studio architect John Storyk of WSDG, designer of Jimi Hendrix' Electric Lady Studios. Keys and Brothers are the co-founders of KrucialKeys Enterprises, a production and songwriting team who assisted Keys in creating her albums as well as create music for other artists.

2006–08: Film debut and As I Am

In 2006, Keys won three NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Song for "Unbreakable". She also received the Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In October 2006, she played the voice of Mommy Martian in the "Mission to Mars" episode of the children's television series The Backyardigans, in which she sang an original song, "Almost Everything Is Boinga Here". That same year, Keys nearly suffered a mental breakdown. Her grandmother had died and her family was heavily dependent on her. She felt she needed to "escape" and went to Egypt for three weeks. She explained: "That trip was definitely the most crucial thing I've ever done for myself in my life to date. It was a very difficult time that I was dealing with, and it just came to the point where I really needed to—basically, I just needed to run away, honestly. And I needed to get as far away as possible."

Keys made her film debut in early 2007 in the crime film Smokin' Aces, co-starring as an assassin named Georgia Sykes opposite Ben Affleck and Andy García. Keys received much praise from her co-stars in the film; Reynolds said that Keys was "so natural" and that she would "blow everybody away". In the same year, Keys earned further praise for her second film, The Nanny Diaries, based on the 2002 novel of the same name, where she co-starred alongside Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans. She also guest starred as herself in the "One Man Is an Island" episode of the drama series Cane.

Keys released her third studio album, As I Am, in November 2007; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 742,000 copies in its first week. It gained Keys her largest first week sales of her career and became her fourth consecutive number one album, tying her with Britney Spears for the most consecutive number-one debuts on the Billboard 200 by a female artist. The week became the second largest sales week of 2007 and the largest sales week for a female solo artist since singer Norah Jones' album Feels like Home in 2004. The album has sold nearly four million copies in the United States and has been certified three times Platinum by the RIAA. It has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. Keys received five nominations for As I Am at the 2008 American Music Award and ultimately won two. The album's lead single, "No One", peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs, becoming Keys' third and fifth number-one single on each chart, respectively. The album's second single, "Like You'll Never See Me Again", was released in late 2007 and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs. The album's third single, "Teenage Love Affair", peaked at number three on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

in Tokyo, Japan]]

"No One" earned Keys the awards for Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance and Best R&B; Song at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Keys opened the ceremony singing Frank Sinatra's 1950s song "Learnin' the Blues" as a "duet" with archival footage of Sinatra in video and "No One" with John Mayer later in the show. Keys also won Best Female R&B; Artist during the show. She starred in "Fresh Takes", a commercial micro-series created by Dove Go Fresh, which premiered during The Hills on MTV from March to April 2008. The premiere celebrated the launch of new Dove Go Fresh. She also signed a deal as spokesperson with Glacéau's VitaminWater to endorse the product, and was in an American Express commercial for the "Are you a Cardmember?" campaign. Keys, along with The White Stripes' guitarist and lead vocalist Jack White, recorded the theme song to Quantum of Solace, the first duet in Bond soundtrack history. In 2008, Keys was ranked in at number 80 the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists. She also starred in The Secret Life of Bees, a film adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's acclaimed 2003 bestseller novel of the same name alongside Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah, released in October 2008 via Fox Searchlight. Her role earned her a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards. She also received three nominations at the 2009 Grammy Awards and won Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance for "Superwoman".

In an interview with Blender magazine, Keys allegedly said "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other, 'gangsta rap' didn't exist" and went on to say that it was created by "the government". The magazine also claimed she said that Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were "essentially assassinated, their beefs stoked by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing". Later that year, Keys was criticized by anti-smoking campaigners after billboard posters for her forthcoming concerts in Indonesia featured a logo for the A Mild cigarette brand sponsored by tobacco firm Philip Morris. She apologized after discovering that the concert was sponsored by the firm and asked for "corrective actions". In response, the company withdrew its sponsorship.

2009–present: The Element of Freedom, marriage and motherhood

.]] Keys and manager Jeff Robinson signed a film production deal to develop live-action and animated projects with Disney. Their first film will be a remake of the 1958 comedy Bell, Book and Candle and will star Keys as a witch who casts a love spell to lure a rival's fiancé. Keys and Robinson also formed a television production company called Big Pita. Keys and Robinson will develop live-action and animated projects from their company, Big Pita and Little Pita, with Keys as producer, thespian, banner spearheading soundtrack and music supervision.

Keys collaborated with record producer Swizz Beatz to write and produce "Million Dollar Bill" for Whitney Houston's seventh studio album, I Look to You. Keys had approached Clive Davis for permission to submit a song for the album. Keys also collaborated with recording artist Jay-Z on the song "Empire State of Mind" from his 2009 album, The Blueprint 3. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became her fourth number-one single on that chart. Swizz Beatz announced in May 2009, that he and Keys have been romantically involved. The Boston Globe reported "Swizz and his estranged wife, Mashonda, are currently embroiled in a bitter divorce. He has always denied reports Alicia was to blame for the breakdown of his marriage".

The following month, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Keys with the Golden Note Award, an award given to artists "who have achieved extraordinary career milestones". She collaborated with Spanish recording artist Alejandro Sanz for "Looking for Paradise", which topped the Hot Latin Songs chart. Keys released her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom, in December 2009. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 417,000 copies in its first week. As part of the promotional drive for the album, she performed at the Cayman Island Jazz Festival on December 5, the final night of the three day festival which will be broadcast on Black Entertainment Television (BET). The album's lead single, "Doesn't Mean Anything", has peaked at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, The Element of Freedom became Keys' first album to top the UK Albums Chart.

In May 2010, a representative for Keys and Swizz Beatz confirmed that they were engaged and expecting a child together. During the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the couple took part of a union and had the unborn child blessed in a Zulu ceremony, which took place in the Illovo suburb of South Africa. Keys and Swizz Beatz held a wedding celebration on the French island of Corsica on July 31, 2010. Keys gave birth to a son, Egypt Daoud Dean, on October 14, 2010 in New York City.

Musical style

An accomplished pianist, Keys incorporates piano into a majority of her songs and often writes about love, heartbreak and female empowerment. Keys' style is rooted in gospel and vintage soul music, supplemented by bass and programmed drumbeats. She heavily incorporates classical piano with R&B;, soul and jazz into her music. She began experimenting with other genres, including pop and rock, in her third studio album, As I Am, transitioning from neo soul to a 1980s and 1990s R&B; sound with her fourth album, The Element of Freedom. Patrick Huguenin of the New York Daily News stated that her incorporation of classical piano riffs contributed to her breakout success. The Independent described her style as consisting of "crawling blues coupled with a hip-hop backbeat", noting that her lyrics "rarely stray from matters of the heart". Blender magazine referred to her as "the first new pop artist of the millennium who was capable of changing music."

Keys has a vocal range of a contralto, which spans three octaves. Often referred to as the "Princess of Soul", others feel that her voice is "emotionally manufactured" at times and that she pushes her voice out of its natural range. Hunkin characterized Keys' opening performance as a "headbanging, hip-gyrating performance" and her energy as "high-octane energy most bands save for their closing finale". At the end of her two-hour performance, fans "screamed, stomped and begged for a second encore". Throughout her career, Keys has won numerous awards and is listed on the Recording Industry Association of America's best-selling artists in the United States, with 15 million certified albums. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and has established herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.

Philanthropy

concert]] Keys is the co-founder and Global Ambassador of Keep a Child Alive, a non-profit organization that provides medicine to families with HIV and AIDS in Africa. Keys and U2 lead singer Bono recorded a cover version of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up", in recognition of World AIDS Day 2005. Keys and Bono's version of the song was retitled "Don't Give Up (Africa)" to reflect the nature of the charity it was benefiting. She visited African countries such as Uganda, Kenya and South Africa to promote care for children affected by AIDS. Her work in Africa was documented in the documentary Alicia in Africa: Journey to the Motherland and was available in April 2008.

Keys has also donated to Frum tha Ground Up, a non-profit organization that aids children and teenagers with scholarships. She performed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the worldwide Live 8 concerts to raise awareness of the poverty in Africa and to pressure the G8 leaders to take action. In 2005, Keys performed on and , two benefit programs that raised money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. In July 2007, Keys and Keith Urban performed The Rolling Stones' 1969 song "Gimme Shelter" at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the American leg of the Live Earth concerts.

Keys performed Donny Hathaway's 1973 song "Someday We'll All Be Free" at the televised benefit concert following the September 11 attacks. She participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert which took place at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2007, along with other various artists. She recorded a theme song for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. She joined Joss Stone and Jay-Z on the effort, which served as a theme song for Obama's campaign. For her work, Keys was honored at the 2009 BET Awards with the Humanitarian Award. Keys performed the song "Prelude to a Kiss", retitled "Send Me an Angel", from her 2007 album As I Am for the "" telethon in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Discography

;Studio albums

Songs in A Minor (2001)

The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003)

As I Am (2007)

The Element of Freedom (2009)

;Live albums

Unplugged (2005)

Tours

Songs in A Minor Tour (2001–2002)

Verizon Ladies First Tour (2004)

The Diary Tour (2005)

As I Am Tour (2008)

The Freedom Tour (2010)

Filmography

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See also

List of artists who reached number one in the United States

List of awards and nominations received by Alicia Keys

List of honorific titles in popular music

References

Further reading

External links

Alicia Keys at Billboard.com

Category:1981 births Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Actors from New York City Category:African American female singers Category:African American singer-songwriters

Category:American composers Category:American contraltos Category:American film actors Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American music arrangers Category:American music video directors Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American pianists Category:American record producers Category:American rhythm and blues keyboardists Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:American soul keyboardists Category:American soul singers Category:American television actors Category:Grammy Award winners Category:J Records artists Category:Living people

Category:Neo soul singers Category:People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan Category:Rhythm and blues pianists Category:Singers from New York City Category:World Music Awards winners

Birthname	Samuel Franklin Levine
Birthdate	March 12, 1982
Birthplace	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Yearsactive	1997—present

Samuel Franklin "Samm" Levine (born March 12, 1982) is an American television and film actor. He is known for his portrayal of Neal Schweiber on NBC's short-lived Freaks and Geeks and PFC Hirschberg in the hit 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.

Levine was born in Chicago, Illinois, but raised in Fort Lee, New Jersey. His father is a dentist (just like the father of his character, Neal Schweiber, in Freaks and Geeks). Levine is the youngest member of the New York Friars' Club. He added an extra 'M' to his name because his actors guild already had a listing for a 'Sam Levine'.

Levine has been cast as a character in the sixth and final season of ABC's Lost only as a small role that was written for him by the Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. Lindelof has apparently for the last six years been saying, 'I'm going to write you something on the show'. He was then cast as a clerk in the twelfth episode called "Everybody Loves Hugo."

Levine is also the sidekick on the internet talk show Kevin Pollak's Chat Show.

Filmography

Movies

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

Following Tildy (2002)

Strippers Pole (2002)

After School Special (2003)

Club Dread (2004)

Frenching (2004)

Pulse (2006)

Life Is Short (2006)

Sydney White (2007)

Made for Each Other (2009)

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009)

Ollie Klublershturf vs the Nazis (2009) (Post-Production)

Drones (2010)

Anderson's Cross (2010)

Columbus Circle (2010) (completed)

Sunday Punch (2010) (completed)

No Man's Land (2011) (Pre-Production)

TV Movies

Homeward Bound (2002)

The Mayor (2003)

Television

One Life to Live (1 episode, 1997)

Freaks and Geeks (18 episodes, 1999-2000)

Life's Too Short (2000)

Ed (2 episodes, 2000)

The Trouble with Normal (1 episode, 2000)

Spin City (1 episode, 2000)

Yes, Dear (1 episode, 2000)

Freedom (1 episode, 2000)

Bette (1 episode, 2001)

Just Shoot Me! (1 episode, 2001)

The Steve Harvey Show (2 episodes, 2001)

Boston Public (1 episode, 2001)

Undeclared (2 episodes, 2001)

Raising Dad (1 episode, 2002)

Maybe It's Me (2 episodes, 2002)

What I Like About You (1 episode, 2002)

The Drew Carey Show (1 episode, 2002)

That's So Raven (1 episode, 2003)

That '70s Show (1 episode, 2003)

Regular Joe (2 episodes, 2003)

Fillmore! (3 episodes, 2002-2004)

Johnny Bravo (1 episode, 2004)

I'm with Her (1 episode, 2004)

Quintuplets (1 episode, 2004)

Life As We Know It (4 episodes, 2004)

Eve (1 episode, 2005)

How I Met Your Mother (1 episode, 2005)

Still Standing (2 episodes, 2005-2006)

My Name Is Earl (1 episode, 2006)

Entourage (1 episode, 2006)

Veronica Mars (1 episode, 2006)

Family Guy (1 episode, 2006)

Derek and Simon: The Show (2 episodes, 2007)

Hank (1 episode, 2009)

Lost (1 episode, 2010)

Vamped Out (6 episodes, 2010)

Naught for Hire (2010) TV series (Pre-Production)

Written Works

Strip Poker (1999)

References

External links

Bio on Freaks and Geeks official website

Category:1982 births Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois

James Lawrence Levine (; born June 23, 1943) is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of July 2009 he has conducted more than 2,456 Met performances. In 1997, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Early years

Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to a musical family: his maternal grandfather was a cantor in a synagogue, his father was a violinist, who led a dance band, and his mother was an actress. He began to play the piano as a small child. At the age of 10, he made his concert debut as soloist in Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 at a youth concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Levine subsequently studied music with Walter Levin, first violinist in the LaSalle Quartet. In 1956 he took piano lessons with Rudolf Serkin at the Marlboro Music School, Vermont. In the following year he began studies with Rosina Lhévinne at the Aspen Music School. After graduating from Walnut Hills High School, the acclaimed magnet school in Cincinnati, he entered the Juilliard School of Music in New York City in 1961, and took courses in conducting with Jean Morel. He graduated from the Juilliard School in 1964 and joined the American Conductors project connected with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

From 1964 to 1965, Levine served as an apprentice to George Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra and then served as assistant conductor until 1970. That year, he also made his debut as guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra at its summer home at Robin Hood Dell. He made his debut in that same year with the Welsh National Opera and the San Francisco Opera. In June, 1971, he was called in at the last moment to substitute for another conductor in the season opener of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Ravinia Festival; the program was the Symphony no. 2, "Resurrection," of Gustav Mahler. This concert began a long association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: two years later, in 1973, he was appointed music director of the Ravinia Festival, and he held the position until 1993. In 1990, at the request of Roy E. Disney, he arranged the music and conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the soundtrack of Fantasia 2000, released by Walt Disney Pictures. He also served as music director with the Cincinnati May Festival (1974–1978).

Metropolitan Opera career

Levine made his Metropolitan Opera debut in June 1971 in a festival performance of Tosca. His success led to further appearances and to his appointment as its principal conductor in 1973. He then became music director in 1976. In 1983, he served as conductor and musical director for the Franco Zeffirelli screen adaptation of La Traviata, which featured the Met orchestra and chorus members. He became the company's first artistic director in 1986, and relinquished the title in 2004.

Under his leadership, the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and chorus has become one of the finest operatic ensembles in the world, punctuated by the regular concert series for the orchestra and chamber ensembles he began at Carnegie Hall. On his recent appointment as General Manager of the Met, Peter Gelb emphasized that James Levine would be welcome to remain as long as he wanted to direct music there. His present contract runs through the 2010/2011 season.

At the Met, Levine has led numerous new productions of works of Mozart, Verdi, Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Gioachino Rossini, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Kurt Weill, Claude Debussy, Alban Berg, and George Gershwin. For the 25th anniversary of his Met debut, Levine conducted the world premiere of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby, commissioned especially to mark the occasion.

Levine has led the Metropolitan Opera on many domestic and international tours. The company broadcasts several live television and simulcast film productions yearly, and live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts every Saturday afternoons around the world each season from December to April.

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Levine first conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in April 1972. In October 2001, Levine was named music director of the BSO, effective with the 2004–2005 season, with an initial contract of five years, becoming the first American-born conductor to head the BSO. He now divides his time between New York and Boston. Thus, for the first time in living memory, the same conductor was in charge of the country's leading opera house and a major orchestra. In Europe, Herbert von Karajan performed a similar feat in the 1950s as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and director of the Vienna Staatsoper.

One unique condition that Levine negotiated was increased flexibility of the time allotted for rehearsal, allowing the orchestra additional time to prepare more challenging works. Since the start of his tenure, the orchestra has also established an "Artistic Initiative Fund" of about US$40 million to fund the more expensive of Levine's projects.

One criticism of Levine during his BSO tenure is that he has not attended many orchestra auditions. A 2005 article reported that Levine had attended two out of 16 auditions during his tenure up to that time. Levine himself has responded that he has the ability to provide input on musician tenure decisions after the initial probationary period, and that it is difficult to know how well a given player will fit the given position until that person has had a chance to work with the orchestra: "My message is the audition isn't everything."

Another 2005 report stated that during Levine's first season as music director, the greater workload from the demands of playing more unfamiliar and contemporary music has increased physical stress with some of the BSO musicians. Levine and the players met to discuss this, and he agreed to program changes to lessen these demands. Levine has received general critical praise for revitalizing the quality and repertoire since the beginning of his tenure.

Levine's current BSO contract is through 2012. In April 2010, in the wake of Levine's continuing health problems, it emerged that Levine had not officially signed this contract extension at the time of that announcement, so that Levine is currently the BSO's music director without a signed contract.

Conducting in Europe

Levine's Boston Symphony contract limits his guest appearances with American orchestras. However, Levine has conducted regularly in Europe, with the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and at the Bayreuth Festival. Levine has also been a regular guest with the Philharmonia of London and the Dresden Staatskapelle. Since 1975, he has also conducted regularly at the Salzburg Festival and the annual July Verbier Festival. From 1999 to 2004, Levine was chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic orchestra, and was credited with improving the quality of instrumental ensemble during his tenure.

Levine also performs regularly in chamber music ensembles and as an accompanist in Lieder recitals.

Work with Student Orchestras and Mentorships

Levine has initiated the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, a professional training program for graduated singers with, today, many famous alumni.

Levine is Conductor Laureate of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the annual music festival based in Verbier, Switzerland, and has led that orchestra since it was inaugurated in 2000. It was Levine's first long-term commitment to a student orchestra since his Met-musicdirectorship. The Verbier Festival's website describes Levine as “not only an esteemed conductor and an inexhaustible source of inspiration to the orchestra, but also a passionate teacher.” Levine himself has said in a 2004 interview:

"At my age, you are naturally inclined towards teaching. You want to teach what you have learned to the next generation so that they don't have to spend time reinventing the wheel. I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment."

Since 2005 Levine has also served as Music Director of the Tanglewood Music Center, a summer academy of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for student instrumentalists and singers. He conducts concerts with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, opera performances with the latter and student singers and gives master classes for singers and conductors.

Conductors he has helped and influenced through his musical mentoring include Marco Armiliato, James Conlon, John Keenan and, most currently, Jens Georg Bachmann.

Health problems

Levine has experienced recurrent health issues in recent years, including sciatica and what he has called "intermittent tremors". On March 1, 2006, Levine fell onstage during a standing ovation after a performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and tore the rotator cuff in his right shoulder, leaving the remaining subscription concerts in Boston to his assistant conductor at the time, Jens Georg Bachmann. Later that month, Levine underwent surgery to repair the injury. He returned to the podium on July 7, 2006, leading the BSO at Tanglewood.

Levine withdrew from the majority of the Tanglewood 2008 summer season, because of surgery required to remove a kidney with a malignant cyst. On September 29, 2009, it was announced that Levine would undergo emergency back surgery for a herniated disk. He missed some three weeks of engagements, including a season opening performance at Carnegie Hall with the BSO, performances of Tosca at the Met, and regular BSO subscription concerts.

In March 2010, the BSO announced that Levine would miss the remainder of the Boston Symphony season because of back pain. The Metropolitan Opera also announced, on April 4, 2010, that Levine was withdrawing from the remainder of his scheduled performances for the season. According to the Met, Levine was required to have "corrective surgery for an ongoing lower back problem." Levine returned to conducting duties at the Met and the BSO at the beginning of the 2010/11 season.

Recordings

Levine can be seen and heard in many audio and video recordings. Levine has recorded extensively with many orchestras and especially often with the Metropolitan Opera. His performance of Aïda with Leontyne Price, her last in opera, was preserved on video and may be seen at the Met's own online archive of performances. Of particular note are his performances of Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen. A studio recording made for Deutsche Grammophon in 1987–1989 can be found on compact disc and a 1989 live performance of the Ring is available on DVD.

Honors

James Levine was named Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity’s 1979 recipient of the Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1979 at its national convention in Evansville, Indiana. He was initiated as a member of the Fraternity's Alpha Alpha National Honorary chapter in 1979.

References

External links

Category:1943 births Category:American classical pianists Category:American conductors (music) Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Jewish classical pianists Category:Juilliard School of Music alumni Category:Living people Category:Metropolitan Opera Category:Musicians from Cincinnati, Ohio Category:Music directors (opera) Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Kennedy Center honorees

Name	Shepard Fairey
Caption	Shepard Fairey
Birthname	Frank Shepard Fairey
Birthdate	February 15, 1970
Birthplace	Charleston, South Carolina
Field	Public art, Stenciling
Training	Rhode Island School of Design
Works	Andre the Giant has a PosseObey GiantHopeRock the Vote

Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" (…OBEY…) sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His work became more widely known in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, specifically his Barack Obama "HOPE" poster. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Early life

Shepard Fairey was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, Strait Fairey, is a doctor, and his mother, Charlotte, a Realtor. Fairey became involved with art in 1984, when he started to place his drawings on skateboards and T-shirts.

Education

In 1988, he graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy, and in 1992, Fairey graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration.

Career

In addition to his successful graphic design career, Fairey also DJ's at many clubs under the name DJ Diabetic and Emcee Insulin, as he has diabetes. Fairey's first art museum exhibition, aptly named Supply & Demand alongside his book, was in Boston at the Institute of Contemporary Art in the summer of 2009.

Fairey sits on the advisory board of Reaching to Embrace the Arts, a not-for-profit organization that provides art supplies to disadvantaged schools and students. Fairey resides in Los Angeles with his wife Amanda and daughters Vivienne and Madeline.

Fairey created the "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign in 1989, while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). This later evolved into the "Obey Giant" campaign, which has grown via an international network of collaborators replicating Fairey's original designs. As with most street artists, the Obey Giant was intended to inspire curiosity and cause the masses to question their relationship with their surroundings. The Obey Giant website says: "The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker." The website later goes on to contradict this statement however by saying that those who are familiar with the sticker simply find humor and enjoyment from its presence. Those who actually try to look deeper into its meaning only burden themselves and often end up condemning the art as an act of vandalism from an evil, underground cult. Originally intended to garner fame amongst his classmates and college peers, Fairey states "At first I was only thinking about the response from my clique of art school and skateboard friends. The fact that a larger segment of the public would not only notice, but investigate, the unexplained appearance of the stickers was something I had not contemplated. When I started to see reactions and consider the sociological forces at work surrounding the use of public space and the insertion of a very eye-catching but ambiguous image, I began to think there was the potential to create a phenomenon." In a manifesto he wrote in 1990, and since posted on his website, he links his work with Heidegger's concept of phenomenology. His "Obey" Campaign draws from the John Carpenter movie "They Live" which starred pro wrestler Roddy Piper, taking a number of its slogans, including the "Obey" slogan, as well as the "This is Your God" slogan. Fairey has also spun off the OBEY clothing line from the original sticker campaign. He also uses the slogan "The Medium is the Message" borrowed from Marshall McLuhan. Shepard Fairey has also stated in an interview that part of his work is inspired by other street artists.

After graduation, he founded a small printing business in Providence, Rhode Island, called Alternate Graphics, specializing in t-shirt and sticker silkscreens, which afforded Fairey the ability to continue pursuing his own artwork. While residing in Providence in 1994, Fairey met American filmmaker Helen Stickler, who had also attended RISD and graduated with a film degree. The following spring, Stickler completed a short documentary film about Shepard and his work, titled "Andre the Giant has a Posse". The film premiered in the 1995 New York Underground Film Festival, and went on to play at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. It has been seen in more than 70 festivals and museums internationally.

Fairey was a founding partner, along with Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff, of the design studio BLK/MRKT Inc. from 1997–2003, which specialised in guerilla marketing, and "the development of high-impact marketing campaigns". Clients included Pepsi, Hasbro and Netscape The agency produced the cover work for the Black Eyed Peas' album Monkey Business and the poster for the film Walk the Line. Flogging Molly's CD/DVD Whiskey on a Sunday, the Led Zeppelin compilation Mothership and Anthrax's The Greater Of Two Evils.

In 2004, Fairey joined artists Robbie Conal and Mear One to create a series of "anti-war, anti-Bush" posters for a street art campaign called "Be the Revolution" for the art collective "Post Gen". "Be the Revolution" kicked off with a night of performances featuring Z-Trip, Ozomatli and David J at the Avalon in Hollywood. Fairey also co-founded Swindle Magazine along with Roger Gastman.

In 2005 he collaborated for a second time with Z-Trip on a limited edition 12-inch featuring Chuck D entitled "Shock and Awe." In 2005 Fairey also collaborated with DJ Shadow on a box set, with t-shirts, stickers, prints, and a mix CD by Shadow. In 2005 also, he was a resident artist at the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. Also in 2005 Fairey contributed the artwork for the posters, cover art, and graphics for the biopic of Johnny Cash, Walk The Line. In 2006, Fairey contributed eight vinyl etchings to a limited-edition series of 12" singles by post-punk band Mission of Burma, and has also done work for the musical group Interpol.

The book Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey was released in 2006. In 2008, Philosophy of Obey (Obey Giant): The Formative Years (1989–2008), edited by Sarah Jaye Williams, was published by Nerve Books UK, and praised by Fairey. -themed art at an official installation at the Makiki Skate Park]] In June 2007, Fairey opened his one man show entitled "E Pluribus Venom", at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery. The show made the arts section front page in The New York Times.

Fairey donated original cover art to the 2008 album , produced for Iraq War documentary Body of War. Proceeds from the album benefit non-profit organization Iraq Veterans Against the War.

In 2008 Fairey teamed up again with Z-Trip to do a series of shows in support of then presidential candidate Barack Obama entitled Party For Change. Fairey also designed posters for the British goth band Bauhaus.

In September 2008, Shepard opened his solo show titled "Duality of Humanity" at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. His third solo show with the gallery featured one hundred and fifty works, including the largest collection of canvases pieces in one show that he's done.

Fairey was arrested on February 7, 2009, on his way to the premiere of his show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts, on two outstanding warrants related to graffiti. He was charged with damage to property for having postered two Boston area locations with graffiti, a Boston Police Department spokesman said. His arrest was announced to party goers by longtime friend Z-Trip who had been performing at the ICA premiere at Shepard Fairey's request.

On April 27, 2009, Fairey put three signed copies of his Obama inauguration posters up on eBay, with the proceeds of the auction going to the One Love For Chi foundation, founded by the family of Deftones bassist Chi Cheng following a car accident in November 2008 that nearly claimed Cheng's life.

Lance Armstrong will ride a Trek Madone styled by Fairey in the Giro d'Italia, which begins May 9, in Venice, Italy.

The Hope poster

Fairey created a series of posters supporting Barack Obama's 2008 candidacy for President of the United States, including the iconic "HOPE" portrait.The New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl called the poster "the most efficacious American political illustration since 'Uncle Sam Wants You'". Fairey also created an exclusive design for Rock the Vote. Because the Hope poster had been "perpetuated illegally" and independently by the street artist, the Obama campaign declined to have any direct affiliation with it. Although the campaign officially disavowed any involvement in the creation or popularization of the poster, Fairey has commented in interviews that he was in communication with campaign officials during the period immediately following the poster's release. Fairey has stated that the original version featured the word "PROGRESS" instead of the word "HOPE," and that within weeks of its release, the campaign requested that he issue (and legally disseminate) a new version, keeping the powerful image of Obama's face but captioning it with the word "HOPE". The campaign openly embraced the revised poster along with two additional Fairey posters that featured the words "CHANGE" and "VOTE".

Fairey distributed 300,000 stickers and 500,000 posters during the campaign, In February 2008, Fairey received a letter of thanks from Obama for his contribution to the campaign. The letter stated:

with Fairey poster of Obama.]]

On November 5, 2008, Chicago posted banners throughout the downtown business district featuring Fairey's Obama "HOPE" portrait.

Fairey created a similar but new image of Barack Obama for Time Magazine, which was used as the cover art for the 2008 Person of the Year issue. The original iconic "HOPE" portrait was featured on the cover of Esquire Magazine's February 2009 issue, this time with a caption reading, "WHAT NOW?" Shepard Fairey's influence throughout the presidential election was a factor in the artist himself having been named a Person of the Year for 2008 by GQ. It was unveiled and put on display on January 17, 2009.

During his December 8th, 2010 appearance on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert asked Fairey how he felt about having done the "HOPE" portrait of Obama and how "that hope was working out for him now?" to which Fairey replied: "You know, I'm proud of it as a piece of grassroots activism, but I'll just leave it at that"

Legal issues with appropriation and fair use

Fairey has come under criticism for appropriating others' artwork into his own while failing to obtain permission and to provide attribution for the work used. Fairey has threatened to sue artists for the same technique. Austin, Texas graphic designer Baxter Orr did his own take on Fairey's work in a piece called Protect, with the iconic Obey Giant face covered by a SARS respiratory mask. He started selling prints through his website marketed as his own work. On April 23, 2008, Orr received a signed cease-and-desist order from Fairey's attorneys, telling him to pull Protect from sale because they alleged it violated Fairey's trademark. Fairey threatened to sue, calling the designer a "parasite".

In 2009, it was revealed that the HOPE poster was based on a copyrighted photograph taken in April 2006 by Mannie Garcia while on assignment for the Associated Press (AP), which wants credit and compensation for the work. However, Garcia believes that he personally owns the copyright for the photo, and has said, "If you put all the legal stuff away, I’m so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it's had." Fairey has said that his use of it falls within the legal definition of fair use. Lawyers for both sides were discussing an amicable agreement. In February 2009, Fairey filed a federal lawsuit against the Associated Press, seeking a declaratory judgment that his use of the AP photograph was protected by the fair use doctrine and so did not infringe their copyright. In October 2009 Shepard Fairey admitted to trying to deceive the Court by destroying evidence that he had used the photograph alleged by the AP. His lawyers announced they were no longer representing him, and Laurence Pulgram, an intellectual property lawyer stated that the revelation definitely put Mr. Fairey's case "in trouble". In May 2010, a judge urged Fairey to settle.

Critical response

Fairey was questioned about criticism surrounding his use of images from social movements, specifically images created by artists of color, in an interview with Liam O'Donoghue for Mother Jones. O'Donoghue later posted an article, titled "Shepard Fairey’s Image Problem", on several independent media sites. The article explored Fairey's use of copyright protected images while at the same time defending his copyright protected works from being used by other artists and corporations. Fairey cited his collaboration with Public Enemy, his funding of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and his six-figure charitable contributions for Darfur assistance as counterpoints to the charges of exploitation. "I challenge anybody to fuck with that, know what I mean," Fairey stated. "It's not like I'm just jumping on some cool rebel cause for the sake of exploiting it for profit. People like to talk shit, but it's usually to justify their own apathy. I don't want to demean anyone's struggles through casual appropriation of something powerful; that's not my intention."

Erick Lyle has accused Fairey of cynically turning graffiti culture into a self-promoting ad campaign. On the other hand, San Diego Union-Tribune art critic Robert L. Pincus says Fairey's work "is political art with a strong sense of visual style and emotional authenticity. Even in times when political art has ebbed, Fairey's has just the right balance of seriousness, irony and wit to fit the mood of the moment." The Walrus contributor Nick Mount wrote "Following the example set by gallery art, some street art is more about the concept than the art. 'Fuck Bush' isn’t an aesthetic; it’s an ethic. Shepard Fairey’s Obey Giant stickers and Akay’s Akayism posters are clever children of Duchamp, ironic conceptual art." However, Stephen Heller of The New York Times suggested that Fairey’s political art is not any more unique than political art from the past, yet compares, in fact and in equal terms, to political art created by Andy Warhol.

In a review of "E Pluribus Venom" at Jonathan LeVine Gallery for The New York Times art critic Benjamin Genocchio stated that Fairey’s art comes off as “generic” despite the range of mediums and styles used by the artist. Genocchio went on to say that it was tempting to see Fairey’s art as just another luxury commodity.

The director of Ad Hoc Art, Andrew Michael Ford, has stated for the New York Times that Fairey‘s practice does not “match up“ in the minds of people who view his work. Ford suggests that some people will view Fairey’s work as “very commercial”. In his criticism of Fairey’s art he went on to suggest that Fairey is “ripe” for criticism because he profits off of politically and socially charged works. Ford stated that despite his criticism he is a fan of Fairey work.

Mark Vallen, Lincoln Cushing, Josh MacPhee, and Favianna Rodriguez have documented how Fairey has appropriated work by Koloman Moser, Ralph Chaplin, Pirkle Jones, Rupert Garcia, Rene Mederos, Félix Beltrán, Gary Grimshaw, among others. For instance, in his critique, "Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey", the artist Mark Vallen dissects various pieces of Fairey's work, proving them to be directly plagiarized from the work of other artists. Although Jamie O'Shea takes that criticism to task for a "nearly ubiquitous lack of understanding of the artist’s use of appropriated imagery in his work and the longstanding historical precedent for this mode of creative expression" in addition to being masked in a thin "veneer of obvious envy in most cases."

Art critic Brian Sherwin lashed out at O’Shea’s criticism of Mark Vallen by saying that O’Shea’s SUPERTOUCH article was nothing more than “damage control”. Sherwin questioned the intentions of O’Shea’s support for Fairey. Sherwin pointed out that Fairey is a SUPERTOUCH author as well as a business associate of O’Shea. Sherwin suggests that O’Shea has a “vested” interest in making sure that Fairey is viewed positively by the public since he has curated art exhibits involving Fairey and has wrote extensively about Fairey. Sherwin wrote that O’Shea once served as editor in chief for Juxtapoz and has worked as a creative director hired by corporate art collections as a corporate liaison for acquisitions. Sherwin concluded that the public will “question the artist who says to question everything” regardless of O’Shea’s Mark Vallen “damage control” on SUPERTOUCH. Sherwin implied that O'Shea's critique of Vallen was selective because key negative facts about Fairey's history were left out in the article. The dispute between Sherwin and O’Shea was cited by Dan Wasserman on The Boston Globe’s "Out of Line".

Bloggers have criticized Fairey for accepting commissions from corporations such as Saks Fifth Avenue, for which his design agency produced illustrations inspired by Constructivism and Alexander Rodchenko. Fairey defends his corporate commissions by saying that clients like Saks Fifth Avenue help him to keep his studio operational and his assistants employed. "I consider myself a populist artist," Fairey says. "I want to reach people through as many different platforms as possible. Street art is a bureaucracy-free way of reaching people, but T-shirts, stickers, commercial jobs, the Internet – there are so many different ways that I use to put my work in front of people."

Appearances in other media

Fairey designed the cover for the books Woodstock Experience by Michael Lang, Dan Garson, Henry Diltz (Genesis Publications, 2009)), A Heartbeat and A Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears. (Basic Books/Nation Books, 2009) by Antonino D'Ambrosio and the cover of the Smashing Pumpkins album Zeitgeist, Led Zeppelin's Mothership, Sage Francis's Li(f)e, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers The Live Anthology and, in 2010, Stone Temple Pilots Stone Temple Pilots (album).

He designed the album cover for will.i.am's second solo album Must B 21.

On January 19, 2009, Fairey created a Google Doodle for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. On January 20, 2009, Fairey made a radio appearance on the Fresh Air program from WHYY, an NPR affiliate, discussing his "Hope" poster, the official Obama inauguration poster and his many arrests (14 times) in connection with the installation of his "street" works. On February 26, 2009, he was again a guest on Fresh Air discussing the Associated Press lawsuit over the Obama Hope poster. On February 11, 2010, Stephen Colbert debuted a poster on The Colbert Report that was designed in collaboration with Fairey. The poster, created for Colbert's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics, depicts Colbert wearing a crown of leaves, carrying an Olympic torch and riding an eagle, with the catchphrase, "Vancouver 2010: Defeat the World".

RASH, Video Documentary 2005. 17 minute interview conducted in April 2003 with Shepard Fairey in Sydney Australia. Includes footage of Shepard and partner Barbara installing a paste up wall in a gallery side event at Semi Permanent conference in Sydney. Rash – Scratch it and it Spreads

Fairey's iconic Obey logo appears in several levels of the Tony Hawk's Underground 2 video game.

The "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" is also a stock spray image in Valve's popular video game title CounterStrike (v1.6, the spray wasn't included in CounterStrike: Source)

Fairey features heavily in the Banksy movie Exit Through the Gift Shop, which documents the birth of Mr. Brainwash.

Along with artists Frank Stella and Andres Serrano, Fairey appeared on The Colbert Report on December 8, 2010. As part of a segment with comedian Steve Martin, Fairey sprayed his Obey logo on a portrait of Colbert.

References

Further reading

''Mayday: The Art of Shepard Fairey Gingko Press; First edition (December 10, 2010)

E Pluribus Venom by Shepard Fairey (2008) Gingko Press.

Philosophy of Obey (Obey Giant): The Formative Years (1989–2008), edited by Sarah Jaye Williams (2008), Nerve Books UK.

Obey: Supply & Demand, The Art of Shepard Fairey by Shepard Fairey (2006), Gingko Press.

Beautiful Losers (film)

External links

in 2009 in 2008

Interview on Huffington Post

Interview with Manuel Bello

Shepard Fairey: Inspiration Or Infringement? NPR, February 26, 2009

Example/Selected Artworks By Shepard Fairey

Short Film of Shepard Fairey Working In His Studio (Watch)

Category:American graffiti artists Category:American graphic designers Category:Contemporary artists Category:Lowbrow pop surrealism artists Category:Album-cover and concert-poster artists Category:Rhode Island School of Design alumni Category:1970 births Category:Artists from South Carolina Category:People from Charleston, South Carolina Category:Graphic designers Category:Art in the Greater Los Angeles Area Category:Living people Category:Images of Barack Obama

Jonathan A. Levine (born 18 June 1976 in New York City) is an American film director and screenwriter.

Biography

Levine won the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival for his film The Wackness. In January 2010, it was announced that he will direct a project entitled Warm Bodies. It is based on a novel with the same name from writer Isaac Marion

Director

Shards (2004)

Love Bytes (2005)

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)

The Wackness (2008)

Live with It (2010)

Warm Bodies (TBA)

Education

MA - American Film Institute

BA - Brown University

Elementary school - St. Bernard's School, New York City

References

External links

Category:1976 births Category:Living people Category:American film directors Category:American screenwriters Category:People from New York City

Name	Joey Levine
Background	solo_singer
Origin	United States
Genre	Pop, Bubblegum pop, Psychedelic pop, Psychedelic rock, jingles
Occupation	Music producer, songwriter, musician
Years active	1966–present
Associated acts	The Ohio Express, The Third Rail, Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, Reunion

Joey Levine is an American prolific singer, songwriter and producer of pop music who has been active since 1966. He sang lead vocals on several charted Top-40 pop singles, including "Run Run Run" by The Third Rail (1966), "Yummy Yummy Yummy" by The Ohio Express (1968), "Quick Joey Small" by Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus (1968) and "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" by Reunion (1974). He specialized in what was known as "bubblegum pop" music.

Levine produced records for Super K Productions, run by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz, who released many charting single records in the late 1960s for the likes of The Ohio Express, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, and The Music Explosion. Levine sang lead for various groups of studio musicians whose songs were released under the name of actual groups of musicians, or sometimes the groups did not exist at all outside the studio.

Starting in the early 1970s, Levine began working on jingles for television commercials, as well as singing on them, with one of his most well-remembered jingles being "Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut" for Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars.

Levine founded Crushing Enterprises in New York City in 1969 and continues to write music for commercials and television. Popular campaigns from the past include: “Pepsi - The Joy Of Cola”, “Gentlemen Prefer Hanes”, “Just For the Taste of It - Diet Coke”, “Orange you smart, (for drinking Orange Juice)”, “Come See the Softer Side of Sears”, “Heartbeat of America - Chevy”, “Dr Pepper - You Make the World Taste Better”, “You Asked For It, You Got It, Toyota,” "Who's that Kid With the Oreo Cookie," and "This Bud's For You" for Anheuser-Busch. Most recently he wrote the current Budweiser anthem, "This Is Budweiser, This Is Beer." In addition, Levine has also contributed songs, some of them with his 1960's bubblegum pop sound, to the PBS series Dragon Tales.

External links

http://www.crushingmusic.com

http://home.comcast.net/~bubblegumusic/levine.htm

The Ohio Express

References

Category:American songwriters Category:American musicians Category:American record producers Category:Jingle writers Category:Living people

Name	Joe Navarro
Caption	Joe Navarro speaking at Pop!Tech
Birth date	1953
Occupation	Author, Professional Speaker, Ex-FBI Agent and Supervisor
Education	B.S.M.A.
Alma mater	Brigham Young University (BYU)Salve Regina University (SRU)
Spouse	Thryth
Website	http://www.jnforensics.com

Joe Navarro (born 1953) is an author, public speaker and ex-FBI agent and supervisor. Joe specializes in the area of nonverbal communication or body language and has authored numerous books including, What Every Body is Saying and Louder than Words.

Background

Joe Navarro came to the USA at age 8 with his family shortly after the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba. After earning a B.S. degree in Justice Administration (BYU) and subsequently a Master of Arts in International Relations (SRU), Joe worked as an FBI special agent and supervisor in the area of counterintelligence and behavioral assessment for 25 years. He is one of the original founding members of the FBI’s elite Behavioral Analysis Program and he also served as a SWAT Team Commander and Bureau Pilot. Since retiring from the FBI, Navarro writes books and lectures to share his knowledge of human behavior. He is presently on the adjunct faculty at Saint Leo University and has lectured multiple times at the Harvard Business School. Since 2003 Navarro has been a consultant to the State Departments and is a fellow with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research.

In 2005 Navarro got involved in the World Series of Poker Academy, training players on poker tells after a chance meeting with Annie Duke on a Discovery Channel program about detecting lies. He continues to teach classes on poker tells for the WSOP Academy and from 2008-1010 was a regular contributor to Bluff Magazine. Since 2009, Navarro has been a regular contributor to Psychology Today Magazine (Spycatcher blog) and authored “Every Body’s Talking” as a Special for the Washington Post.

Books

Navarro is the author of five books. What Every Body is Saying, Navarro’s best-known body language book, has sold well over 150,000 copies worldwide since its first publication in 2008 and has been translated into 16 languages. His most recent book, Louder Than Words, was elected as one of Six Best Business Books to Read for Your Career in 2010 by Wall Street Journal’s Digital Network, FINS. Navarro is also the author of Hunting Terrorists, Advanced Interviewing Techniques and Read ‘Em and Reap, as well as a series of short booklets available as e-books, written exclusively for Amazon Kindle.

Education Initiatives

In 2009 Navarro partnered with Nightingale-Conant, the world’s largest producer of self-improvement audio programs and produced The Power of Body Language. He also launched an online course in 2009 to share his knowledge with others on how to observe, decode and utilize nonverbals in their personal and professional life. This was undertaken for the benefit of those who could not travel to attend his seminars.

Honors

Security/Counterintelligence Investigator of The Year Award, Presented at the 24th Annual Awards Banquet, Washington DC, by the Association of Federal Investigators (December 7th, 1990).

US Army commendation issued by Lt. General Robert W. Noonan for “…dedication to duty, initiative and leadership abilities…in some of the most significant espionage cases in Army’s history.” Presented June 1, 2003, Tampa, Florida.

Bibliography

Schafer, John and Joe Navarro (2004) Advanced Interviewing Techniques; Proven Strategies for Law Enforcement, Military, and Security Personnel. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois. ISBN 0-398-07444-5.

Navarro, Joe (2005) Hunting Terrorists: A Look at The Psychopathology of Terror. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois. ISBN 0-398-07594-8.

Navarro, Joe (2006) Read ‘Em and Reap. Harper Collins, Pub. ISBN 978-0-06-119859-5.

Navarro, Joe (2008) What Every Body is Saying. Harper Collins, Pub. Reap. Harper Collins, Pub. ISBN 978-0-06-143829-5.

Navarro, Joe “Every Body’s Talking,” Special to Washington Post, June 24, 2008 F1.

Navarro, Joe (2010) Louder Than Words: Take Your Career from Average to Exceptional with the Hidden Power of Nonverbal Intelligence. Harper Collins, Pub. ISBN 978-0-06177139-2.

External links

Official site: http://www.jnforensics.com

Blog on Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/spycatcher

Interview of Joe Navarro by CNN:

Publisher Harper Collins' Author Profile:

References

Category:Living people Category:Federal Bureau of Investigation Category:Nonverbal communication Category:Body language Category:1953 births

Jessye Norman (born September 15, 1945) is an American opera singer. Norman is one of the most admired contemporary opera singers and recitalists, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music. A true dramatic soprano with a majestic stage presence, Norman is associated in particular with the roles of Aïda, Cassandre, Alceste, and Leonore. Norman is known for the direct and emotionally expressive qualities of her singing and for her formidable intellectual understanding of the music and its style, as well as first-rate musicianship. According to Curt Sanburn in Life, Norman on stage creates the perception of one who "veritably looms behind her lyrics." Norman's public manner combines an apparent hauteur with flashes of disarming humor, putting her squarely in the venerable operatic tradition of the Diva, to the extent that many credit her as the inspiration for the title character in the 1981 French film Diva.

Life and career

Early life and musical education

Jessye Mae Norman was born on September 15, 1945 in Augusta, Georgia to Silas Norman, an insurance salesman, and Janie King-Norman, a school teacher. She started listening to recordings of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price whom Norman credits as being inspiring figures in her career. While at Howard, Norman sang in the university chorus and as a professional soloist at the Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ, while studying voice with Carolyn Grant. In 1965, along with 32 other female students and 4 female faculty, she became a founding member of the Delta Nu Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota. In 1966, she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. After graduating in 1967 with a degree in music, she began graduate-level studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and later at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which she earned a Masters Degree in 1968. During this time Norman studied voice with Elizabeth Mannion and Pierre Bernac.

In subsequent years Norman performed with various German and Italian opera companies appearing often as princesses or other noble figures. Norman was exceptional at portraying a commanding and noble bearing. This ability was partly due to her uncommon height and size, but more so as a result of her unique, rich, and powerful voice. Norman's range was uncommonly wide, encompassing all female voice registers from contralto to high dramatic soprano.

Mid-career (1980-89)

In October 1980 Norman returned to the operatic stage in the title role of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Hamburg State Opera in Germany. Norman made her United States opera début in 1982 with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, appearing in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex as Jocasta and in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas as Dido. In 1987, Norman joined the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Herbert von Karajan in possibly the greatest rendition of the Liebestod from "Tristan und Isolde" by Wagner in a historical concert (luckily filmed and recorded audio by Deutsche Grammophone) at the Salzburg Festival. The concert was then repeated some weeks later in Berlin, with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Over the years Norman has not been afraid to expand her talent into less familiar areas. In 1988 she sang a concert performance of Poulenc's one-act opera La Voix Humaine ("The Human Voice"), based on Jean Cocteau's 1930 play of the same name. That same year Norman also performed at the Hong Kong Cultural Center opening and gave a recital at Taiwan's National Concert Hall. In 2006, Norman collaborated with the modern dance choreographer, Trey McIntyre, for a special performance during the summer at the Vail, Colorado Dance Festival. :* Aïda, Aïda (Verdi) :* Alceste, Alceste (Gluck) :* Ariadne, Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss) :* Armida, Armida (Haydn) :* Carmen, Carmen (Bizet) :* Cassandre, Les Troyens (Berlioz) :* Countess Almaviva, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) :* Dido, Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) :* Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni (Mozart) :* Elisabeth, Tannhäuser (Wagner) :* Elle, La voix humaine (Poulenc) :* Elsa, Lohengrin (Wagner) :* Emilia Marty, The Makropulos Affair (Janáček) :* Giulietta, The Tales of Hoffman (Offenbach) :* Hélène, La belle Hélène (Offenbach) :* Idamante, Idomeneo (Mozart) :* Isolde, Tristan und Isolde (Wagner) (Act II in Concert) :* Jocasta, Oedipus rex (Stravinsky) :* Judith, Bluebeard's Castle (Bartók) :* Kundry, Parsifal (Wagner) :* Giulietta di Kelbar, Un giorno di regno (Verdi) :* Leonore, Fidelio (Beethoven) :* Madame Lidoine, Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc) :* Marguerite, La damnation de Faust (Berlioz) :* Medora, Il Corsaro (Verdi) :* Pénélope, Pénélope (Fauré) :* Phedra, Hippolyte et Aricie (Rameau) :* Rosina, La vera costanza (Haydn) :* Salome, Salome (Richard Strauss) :* Salome, Hérodiade (Massenet) :* Santuzza, Cavalleria rusticana (Pietro Mascagni) :* Sélica, L'Africaine (Meyerbeer) :* Sieglinde, Die Walküre (Wagner) :* Third Norn, Götterdämmerung (Wagner) :* Woman, Erwartung (Schoenberg)

Oratorio and orchestral parts performed

These are among the notable oratorio and orchestral parts that Norman has performed. Norman, however, refuses to place any labels on her voice.

Over the years Norman's technical expertise has been among her most critically praised attributes. In a review of one of her recitals at New York City's Carnegie Hall, New York Times contributor Allen Hughes wrote that Norman "has one of the most opulent voices before the public today, and, as discriminating listeners are aware, her performances are backed by extraordinary preparation, both musical and otherwise." Another Carnegie Hall appearance prompted these words from New York Times contributor Bernard Holland: "If one added up all the things that Jessye Norman does well as a singer, the total would assuredly exceed that of any other soprano before the public. At Miss Norman's recital ... tones were produced, colors manipulated, words projected and interpretive points made—all with fanatic finesse."

In 1995, Norman filed a $3 million suit against Classic CD magazine claiming that an article in the November 1994 issue depicted her "in a grotesque and exaggerated manner." Norman said the article, entitled "Deadlier Than The Male", mocked her speech in an effort "to ridicule and caricature her and all persons of African-American background and descent." After a five year battle, Norman eventually lost the lawsuit.

Honors and awards

In 1966 she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. In 1982 was awarded honorary doctorate from Howard University. In 1984 was awarded honorary doctorate from the Boston Conservatory of Music and the University of the South. In 1984 France's National Museum of Natural History named an orchid for her. In 1991 her home town, Augusta, Georgia, dedicated Riverwalk Augusta's amphitheater, named in her honor. Norman was a featured performer during the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. In December 1997, Jessye Norman was invested with the USA's highest award in the performing arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, making history as the youngest recipient in the Honors' 20-year existence. She is a lifelong member of the Girls Scouts of America as well as of Great Britain's Royal Academy of Music.

Won Amsterdam's Edison Award; and recording honors in Belgium, Spain, and Germany.

She was winner of an Ace Award from the National Cable Television Association for "Jessye Norman at Notre Dame." In 2009, Jessye Norman was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

References

Further reading

Gates, Henry Louis and Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks (eds.) (2004) "Norman, Jessye" African American Lives Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 629–631, ISBN 0-19-516024-X

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:African American female singers Category:American female singers Category:American opera singers Category:American sopranos Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Howard University alumni Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Operatic sopranos Category:People from Augusta, Georgia Category:University of Michigan alumni

Annie Duke (born Anne LaBarr Lederer; September 13, 1965) is a professional poker player and author who won a bracelet in the 2004 World Series of Poker $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event and was the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, where she earned the Winner-Take-All prize of $2,000,000. In 2010 she won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, earning a cash prize of $500,000 in addition to the title.

Personal life

Duke was born Anne LaBarr Lederer in Concord, New Hampshire, the daughter of Rhoda S. (née Spagenberg) and Richard Lederer, a writer and linguist who taught at St. Paul's School. Her brother, Howard Lederer, is also a professional poker player. Her sister, Katy Lederer, is an author and poet who wrote a book about the Lederer family, titled Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers. Duke has four children: Maud (1995), Leo (1998), Lucy (2000), and Nell (2002). She and Ben were divorced in 2004, but she did win a $500 wager made with fellow pro Steve Zolotow, who bet her that her marriage wouldn't last five years. In 2005 she and her children moved to the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Duke and her then new, Mediterranean-style home — with boyfriend, actor, and producer Joe Reitman — were featured in The New York Times article "At Home With Annie Duke" on January 19, 2006.

Poker

After leaving her academic work, Duke began playing poker in the legal card rooms in Billings, Montana. Before that time, one of her claims to poker fame was her 10th place finish in the 2000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event — one position short of the final table — while eight months pregnant with her third child.

In 2006, Duke won the second annual World Series of Rock Paper Scissors (WSORPS). The WSORPS is an annual charity tournament hosted by Phil Gordon at the World Series of Poker. The winner receives free entry into the WSOP Main Event and the proceeds are donated to Gordon's charity Bad Beat on Cancer.

Live poker

Tournaments

As of 2010, her total live tournament winnings exceeded $4,270,000. Her 38 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,128,951 of those winnings.

World Series of Poker

As of 2010, Annie holds the women's record for most "in the money" finishes at the WSOP, ranking 32nd overall with 38 cashes. In September 2004, Duke won $2,000,000 in the inaugural World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, a 10-player, winner-take-all invitational event. At the time, this victory was the most money paid in a single event to a female poker player. That record was broken by Annette Obrestad as a result of her victory in the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.

Duke has won one World Series of Poker bracelet, in Omaha HiLo, and more than three million dollars in tournament play. Nowadays she refuses to play in women's only tournaments, saying that "Poker is one of the few sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man, so I don't understand why there's a ladies only tournament."

In the Main Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, she finished in 88th place (out of 8,773 entrants) for $51,129 in winnings. She was one of two women left in the field when she was eliminated. (The remaining woman, Sabyl Cohen, later finished in 56th place for $123,699.)

Other notable tournaments

In 2010, Duke won the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. In a field of 64 top-ranked players, Duke defeated in order: Andy Bloch, Darvin Moon, Paul Wasicka, Jerry Yang, Dennis Phillips and Eric Seidel.

Online poker

Duke is an UltimateBet Cardroom Consultant and a member of Team UB.

Other poker activities

As well as competing, Duke writes and speaks on poker-related subjects, and promotes poker-related organizations. Since 2000, she has been a spokesperson for UltimateBet and has written many articles for the online poker website, mainly on Omaha HiLo. In 2005, Duke penned her autobiography, How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at The World Series of Poker.

On January 30, 2006, Duke became the first poker personality to appear on The Colbert Report. During the show, she talked about her book and what it's like to be a woman in a male-dominated event. In 2006, The Game Show Network (GSN) premiered a television special titled Annie Duke Takes on the World, which features Duke playing against amateur poker players. Duke has also made appearances on the Ultimate Blackjack Tour playing Elimination Blackjack.

Annie Duke has appeared on NBC's Poker After Dark three times but has not won.

Along with Phil Hellmuth Jr., Duke is a coach on Fox Sports Network’s Best Damn Poker Show, which is sponsored by the poker site UltimateBet.

WSOP Poker Academy

Annie Duke is a teacher at the WSOP Poker Academy poker school. She appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show and donated a WSOP Academy Experience Package which was auctioned off to benefit the Humane Society.

Other ventures

In addition to poker, Duke is involved with various other ventures. On December 1, 2006, Duke appeared as a member of the Mob on the NBC program, 1 vs. 100. She correctly answered every question and was the only celebrity who wasn't eliminated. She returned for the next few weeks, answering her questions correctly. She reappeared on the Christmas Day episode on December 25, answering a total of 35 consecutive questions correctly during her time on 1 vs. 100, making her the longest running mob member in the history of the show to that point. Duke returned on February 9, 2007 under special "Last Man Standing" rules where the game continued until only one person remained. She survived to reach the final five of 100 contestants, before she, along with three of the other four mob members including Ken Jennings, were eliminated.

On March 24, 2008, Duke appeared on the NBC show Deal Or No Deal to support a contestant named Mary Beth Holtzheimer who, after taking a $341,000 deal from the bank with only two cases left, found her case #13 had the $1,000,000. Annie gave Mary Beth an offer earlier that included a dinner with herself, Mary Beth, and her fiance John Salmieri; private lessons; and an invitation to attend an All Ladies Poker league if the bank's offer was accepted, but it was not.

In 2009, she appeared on the Donald Trump reality television show, Celebrity Apprentice. Throughout the season, each celebrity raised money for a charity of his or her choice. Duke raised more money for her charity, Refugees International, than any other contestant. Of the field of 16 competitors, Duke survived to compete in the finale against her primary rival throughout the show, Joan Rivers. Duke's fund-raising donations were more than triple those of Rivers'. However, total donations were only one of five criteria adjudged in the final task, and Rivers was ranked superior in three out of the five, placing Duke in second place overall.

Bibliography

Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker (2005) ISBN 1594630127

Notes

External links

Official site

July 2004 Columbia College article

Poker Source Online interview

PokerLizard.com interview

Hossli.com interview

July 2009 USA Today Q&A;

Category:1965 births Category:American gambling writers Category:American memoirists Category:American poker players Category:The Apprentice (U.S. TV series) contestants Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Female poker players Category:Jewish American sportspeople Category:Living people Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:People from Portland, Oregon Category:People from Billings, Montana Category:St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:World Series of Poker bracelet winners Category:National Heads-Up Poker Championship winners