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Tuscan Sun Festival
The Tuscan Sun Festival is an annual music and lifestyle festival in Florence, the capital of Tuscany in Italy. ''The Independent'' called the festival “One of the Ten Best Summer Arts Festivals in Europe”.' Described by the ''International Herald Tribune'' as "a blend of Mozart and massages, Debussy and Dante, Tchaikovsky, and cuisine", the evening musical programme is balanced with daytime events including art exhibitions and culinary sessions with some of Tuscany’s chefs and winemakers. The Tuscan Sun Festival presents international soloists, conductors and chamber orchestras who perform in Florence's beautiful Teatro della Pergola. From 2012, the Tuscan Sun Festival also includes a film initiative called Tribeca Firenze. As of February 7, 2013, the official website and this article have had no updates since June 2012 and no indication of a 2013 event. History The Tuscan Sun Festival was founded in 2003 by Barrett Wissman, cellist Nina Kotova and writer Frances Mayes, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of Middle Ages, medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful House of Medici, Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Italian language, standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lang Lang
Lang Lang (; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese pianist who has performed with major orchestras around the world and appeared at many leading concert halls. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and many of the top American orchestras. In 2000, a ''Chicago Tribune'' music critic called him "the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent I have encountered in many a year of attending piano recitals." He was also a judge on the first two series of the British music competition television series '' The Piano''. Early life and education Lang Lang was born in Shenyang, China, in 1982 to a family of the Manchu Niohuru clan. His father Lang Guoren is a musician, playing the erhu. Both his father and mother, also a musician, were displaced to work on rice farms in the country during the Cultural Revolution, before Lang was born. The ''Tom and Jerry'' episode '' The Cat Concerto'', which feature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alberto Alfonso
Alberto Alfonso AIA is a founding principal and president of Alfonso Architects, an architecture firm located in Ybor City, Florida, United States. Born in Cuba, Alfonso was educated at the University of Florida where he received his M.A. He founded Alfonso Architects, Inc. with his brother Carlos and partner Angel del Monte. Alfonso's interest in modernist architecture developed at an early age as he was raised in the house of an architect: his father Carlos E. Alfonso, Sr. Alfonso, Sr. began his career in Havana, Cuba and left the country with his family in 1960 to begin a practice in Tampa, Florida. Alberto Alfonso received the 1987 Eduardo Garcia Award from the Florida Central chapter of The American Institute of Architects as well as firm of the year in 2003 and 2007. Recent projects recognized by the State of Florida AIA Design Awards program include design work for Tampa International Airport Airside C, Nielsen Media Research Global Technology Center, University of Sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman (; born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor. Life and career Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zukerman. He began his musical studies at age four, on the recorder. His father then taught him to play the clarinet and then the violin at age eight. Early studies were at the Samuel Rubin Academy of Music (now the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music). Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals learned of Zukerman's violin talent during a 1962 visit to Israel. Later that year, Zukerman moved to the United States to study at the Juilliard School under Stern and Ivan Galamian. He made his New York City performance debut in 1963. In 1967, he shared the Leventritt Prize with Korean violinist Kyung-wha Chung. His 1969 debut recordings—of the concerti by Tchaikovsky (with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati) and Mendelssohn (with the New York Philharmonic conduc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renée Fleming
Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano and actress, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards and has won five times. In December 2023, she was one of five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. Other notable honors have included the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur from the French government, Germany's Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden's Polar Music Prize and honorary membership in England's Royal Academy of Music. Unusual among artists whose careers began in opera, Fleming has achieved name recognition beyond the classical music world. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Anthony Tommasini, Tommasini, Anthony"For a Wary Soprano, Slow and Steady Wins the Race" ''The New York Times'', Sept ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nina Stemme
Nina Maria Stemme (born Thöldte, 11 May 1963) is a Swedish dramatic soprano opera singer. Stemme "is regarded by today's opera fans as our era's greatest Wagnerian soprano". In 2010, Michael Kimmelman wrote of one of Stemme's performances in Richard Wagner's opera ''Die Walküre'', "As for Brünnhilde, Nina Stemme sang gloriously. It's hard to recall anyone's sounding more commanding or at ease in the part, and that includes Kirsten Flagstad". Early life and education Born in Stockholm as Nina Maria Thöldte, she played piano and viola in her youth. She attended Adolf Fredrik's Music School, a high-profile song-and-chorus school in Stockholm. During a year as an exchange student at Langley High School (Fairfax County, Virginia), Langley High School in McLean, Virginia, she joined the school chorus, sang solos and won awards. She changed her last name to her mother's last name Stemme. Parallel to her studies of business administration and economics at the Stockholm University, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Unsworth
Barry Unsworth FRSL (10 August 19304 June 2012) was an English writer known for his historical fiction. He published 17 novels, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel '' Sacred Hunger''. Biography Unsworth was born on 10 August 1930 in Wingate, a mining village in County Durham, England, to a family of miners. His father first entered the mines at age 12 and ordinarily Unsworth would have followed him as a miner. However, when his father was 19, he travelled to the United States for a few years and on returning to Britain entered the insurance business and thus began moving his family up the economic ladder and out of the mines. "He rescued my brother and me from that long chain of continuity that happens in mining villages," Unsworth said. He graduated from the University of Manchester in 1951, and lived in France for a year teaching English. He also travelled extensively in Greece and Turkey during the 1960s, lecturing at the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu (; ; born 7 September 1965) is a Romanian soprano, especially known for her performances in the operas of Puccini and Verdi, widely recognised by critics and opera lovers as one of the greatest sopranos of all time. Embarking her career in 1990, she made her Royal Opera House and Vienna State Opera debuts in 1992, followed by New York's Metropolitan Opera debut in 1993. She was catapulted to international stardom after starring as Violetta in Verdi's '' La traviata'' at Covent Garden in 1994. Her signature roles include Mimì in ''La bohème'', Magda in '' La rondine'', the title roles in ''Tosca'' and '' Adriana Lecouvreur''. She had performed frequently with French tenor Roberto Alagna, whom she first met in 1992 and married in 1996, in concerts and opera productions until their eventual divorce in 2013. Her voice is described as "...the most instantly recognizable and interesting soprano voice of our time. A liquid instrument of great lyrical beauty with gl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Tornatore
Giuseppe Tornatore (born 27 May 1956) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the directors who brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema.Katz, Ephraim, "Italy," ''The Film Encyclopedia'' (New York: HarperResource, 2001), pp. 682-685. In a career spanning over 30 years he is best known for directing and writing drama films such as ''Everybody's Fine (1990 film), Everybody's Fine'', ''The Legend of 1900'', ''Malèna (film), Malèna'', ''Baarìa (film), Baarìa'' and ''The Best Offer''. His most noted film is ''Cinema Paradiso'', for which Tornatore won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He has also directed several advertising campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana. Tornatore is also known for his long-standing association with composer Ennio Morricone, who composed music for thirteen Tornatore feature films since 1988. Life and career Born in Bagheria, near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at leas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1996, the Academy Honorary Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Honorary César in 2019. He was named by ''Time'' as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. Appearing onstage in the late 1950s, Redford's television career began in 1960, with appearances on ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' in 1961 and '' The Twilight Zone'' in 1962. His greatest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband in Neil Simon's '' Barefoot in the Park'' (1963). Redford made his film debut in '' War Hunt'' (1962). He gained success as a leading man in films such as '' Barefoot in the Park'' (1967), ''Butch Cassidy and the Su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio Pappano
Sir Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959) is an English-Italian conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Royal Opera House and chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Early life Pappano was born in Epping, Essex. Pappano's family had relocated to England from Castelfranco in Miscano near Benevento, Italy, in 1958, and at the time of his birth his parents worked in the restaurant business. His father, Pasquale Pappano, was by vocation a singing teacher. When Pappano was 13 years old, he moved with his family to Connecticut. After musical training in piano, composition, and conducting, he became a rehearsal accompanist at the New York City Opera at the age of 21. Career Pappano attracted the attention of fellow pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, and became his assistant at the Bayreuth Festival. He worked in Barcelona and Frankfurt, and served as an assistant to Michael Gielen. Pappano's first conducting appearance at Den Norske Opera wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Netrebko
Anna Yuryevna Netrebko (; born 18 September 1971) is a Russian and Austrian operatic soprano who has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera and La Scala. Netrebko is one of the few Russian performers to achieve international success, along with Alla Pugacheva and t.A.T.u. Discovered and promoted by Valery Gergiev, she began her career at the Mariinsky Theatre, collaborating with the conductor in the theater and performances elsewhere. She was noticed globally after playing Donna Anna in Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' at the 2002 Salzburg Festival. She had been known for her rendition of lyric and coloratura soprano roles yet later proceeded into heavier 19th-century romantic roles, such as Leonora in '' Il trovatore'' and the role of Lady Macbeth in ''Macbeth''. Since 2016, she has turned her focus to verismo repertoire. She has been an exclusive artist for Deutsche Grammophon since 2003. She has won multiple Echo Klassik Awar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
