Alex North

Alex North (December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first jazz-based film scores), Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award.

Early life

North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania to Russian Jewish parents.

Career

North managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song, "Unchained Melody". Nominated for fifteen Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only two film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other being Ennio Morricone. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).

His best-known film scores include A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Viva Zapata!, The Rainmaker, Spartacus, The Misfits, Cleopatra, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dragonslayer and Under the Volcano. His music for The Wonderful Country makes use of Mexican and American motifs.

Ludovico Einaudi

Ludovico Einaudi OMRI (Italian: [ludoˈviːko eiˈnaudi]; born 23 November 1955) is an Italian pianist and composer. He trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan and under composer Luciano Berio in the early 1980s. Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, and soon began incorporating other styles and genres—including pop, rock, world music, and folk music.

Einaudi composed the scores for a number of films and trailers, including The Intouchables and I'm Still Here, the TV miniseries Doctor Zhivago, and Acquario in 1996, for which he won the Grolla d'oro for best soundtrack. He has also released a number of solo albums of piano and orchestra, notably I Giorni in 2001, Nightbook in 2009, and In a Time Lapse in 2013. Taranta Project, a collaborative album, was released in May 2015, and Elements was released in October 2015.

Early life and education

Einaudi was born in Turin, Italy. His father, Giulio Einaudi, was a publisher working with authors like Italo Calvino and Primo Levi, and his grandfather, Luigi Einaudi, was President of Italy between 1948 and 1955. His mother played the piano to him as a child. He started composing his own music as a teenager, first writing by playing a folk guitar.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (on the building itself called the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. The Center, which opened September 8, 1971, produces and presents theater, dance, ballet, orchestral, chamber, jazz, popular, and folk music, in addition to multi-media performances for all ages.

It is the busiest performing arts facility in the United States and annually hosts approximately 2,000 performances for audiences totaling nearly two million; Center-related touring productions, television, and radio broadcasts welcome 20 million more. Now in its 44th season, the Center presents the greatest examples of music, dance and theater; supports artists in the creation of new work; and serves the nation as a leader in arts education. With its artistic affiliate, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Center's achievements as a commissioner, producer, and nurturer of developing artists have resulted in over 200 theatrical productions, dozens of new ballets, operas, and musical works.

Armin van Buuren

Armin van Buuren (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɑrmɪn vɑn ˈbyːrə(n)]; born 25 December 1976) is a Dutch trance producer, DJ and radio personality.

Since 2001, Van Buuren has hosted a weekly radio show called A State of Trance, which currently has more than 20 million weekly listeners in 74 countries on over 150 FM radio stations. This radio show propelled him to stardom and helped cultivate an interest in trance music around the world.

Van Buuren has won a number of accolades. He has been ranked the World No. 1 DJ by DJ Magazine in their annual Top 100 DJs fan poll a record of five times, 4 years in a row. He is currently ranked World No. 4 on DJ Magazine's list for 2015. In 2014, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for his single "This Is What It Feels Like" featuring Trevor Guthrie, which makes him the fourth trance artist ever to receive a Grammy nomination. In the United States, he holds the record for most entries (21) on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. His 2008 studio album, Imagine, entered the Dutch album chart at No. 1, a first for a trance artist in Dutch music history.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Dutch: Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, pronounced [ˌkoːnɪnklək kɔnˈsɛrtxəbʌu̯ɔrˌkɛst]) is a symphony orchestra in the Netherlands, based at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). In 1988, Queen Beatrix conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra. It is considered one of the world's leading orchestras, having topped numerous polls.

History

The Concertgebouw opened on 11 April 1888. The Concertgebouw Orchestra was established several months later, and gave its first concert in the Concertgebouw on 3 November 1888, conducted by the orchestra's first chief conductor, Willem Kes.

1888–1945: Kes and Mengelberg

Kes served as the orchestra's chief conductor from its 1888 founding to 1895. In 1895, Willem Mengelberg became chief conductor and remained in this position for fifty years, an unusually long tenure for a music director. He is generally regarded as having brought the orchestra to a level of major international significance, with a particular championing of such then-contemporary composers as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss.