Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: June 21, 2020
By: Laura Deni
CLICK HERE FOR COMMENT SECTION

MUSICAL OLIVER! CELEBRATES 60th ANNIVERSARY

Oliver! the British musical, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens premiered in the West End on June 30, 1960, enjoying a long run, and successful lengthy mountings on Broadway, tours and revivals, after being brought to the US by producer David Merrick in 1963.

Oliver! was the first musical adaptation of a famous Charles Dickens work to become a stage hit.

The musical premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on January 6, 1963 and closed on November 14, 1964 after 774 performances.

The original Broadway cast album features an exceptional bonus track - an interview with Musical Director Donald Pippin recorded February 26, 2003 at Voice Works Dound Station in New York City. Edited by Steven Garrin.

That interview in itself is a reason to purchase the CD.

Pippin has a glorious, melodious voice. You could listen to him speak for hours. However, in this bonus tract Pippin hilariously discloses what it was like for him when every stage mother was chasing him. Pippin received nightly dinner invitations from mothers who wanted to be alone with him - so they could promote their daughters.

He offers fascinating insights into the making of the production including:

Getting the job
The recording sessions
What a musical director has to know with children in the cast - Shirley Temple
Differences between the London and New York productions
The Pit and the Producer, winning the Tony Award.

Of course there is also the music - created by Lionel Bart, orchestrated by Eric Rogers. Music Contractor: Morris Stonzek; Assistant Conductor: Robert McNamee.

Olivier! Broadway Cast Recording on RCA. Recording engineer Dave Hassinger. Overall recording supervised by George R. Marek.

Many songs are well known to the public. Oliver! was one of eight UK musicals featured on Royal Mail stamps, issued in February 2011.

Lionel Bart received the Tony Award for Best Original Score.

Major London revivals played from 1977–1980, 1994–1998, 2008–2011 and on tour in the UK from 2011–2013. Additionally, its 1968 film adaptation, directed by Carol Reed, was highly successful, winning six Academy Awards including Best Picture. Although Dickens' novel has been called antisemitic in its portrayal of the Jew Fagin as evil, the production by Bart (himself a Jew) was more sympathetic and featured many Jewish actors in leading roles: Ron Moody (Ronald Moodnick), Georgia Brown (Lilian Klot), and Martin Horsey.

Oliver! has become one of the most popular school musicals.

The show launched the careers of several child actors, including Davy Jones, later of The Monkees; Phil Collins, later of Genesis; Alan Paul, later of The Manhattan Transfer; and Tony Robinson, who later played the role of Baldrick in the television series Blackadder. The singer Steve Marriott (Small Faces, Humble Pie) also featured in early line-ups, eventually graduating to the role of Artful Dodger in the West End production.

Lionel Bart

Oliver! made Roger Bart rich.

He was described by Andrew Lloyd Webber as "the father of the modern British musical".

An untrained, selftaught songwriter, he never learned to read or write music, instead tapping out tunes on the piano with a single finger, and singing into a tape recorder for others to orchestrate.

At his peak he was also among Britain’s top songwriters, penning hit for the likes of Shirley Bassey, Anthony Newley, Tommy Steele (Rock with the Cavemen, top 20 in 1957) and Cliff Richard (Living Doll, #1 in 1959). In 1957 he won three Ivor Novello Awards, four more in 1958 and two in 1960. He also wrote the famous James Bond theme, From Russia with Love (1964).

Cockney composer/lyricist Lionel Bart's life was of Dickens and Shakespearean proportions.

He died a washed up a depressed alcoholic desperate to make ends meet - with a surprising will.

At the height of his success the flamboyant Bart was earning £16 ($19.77) a minute - that's £23,000 ($28,419.) a day.

He hosted lavish parties at his Kensington London mansion Kubla Khan, where guests included Muhammad Ali, Rudolf Nureyev, Marlene Dietrich, Liberace, The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones and The Beatles.

Guests could help themselves to the contents of two punchbowls: one brimming with cocaine, the other filled with £20 and £50 notes. "It's only money," Bart would say. "So take it," according to the Express.

He also had homes in New York, Malibu, Jamaica and Tangiers, and holidayed with Princess Margaret in Mustique.

He had a nose job, took riding lessons and drove a customised sports car with a car phone - a rare, high priced luxury back then.

His London home boasted a full-scale cinema, an oak-lined sauna, a black glass bathroom and a throne shaped toilet that flushed to the strains of Handel's water music, according to the Express.

In a foolish move he sunk his entire fortune into Twang!!, a 1965 Robin Hood musical. To fund the ill fated project Bart, who owned the rights to Oliver! sold the rights to entertainer Max Bygraves for a mere £350 ($432). Bygraves later sold them on for £250,000 ($308,000). It has been estimated that over the decades the sale cost Bart £100million ($123million) in lost income.

Twang!! garnered savage reviews, played to empty houses and closed after just 43 performances. And Bart went down with it.

Bart's support system was a vodka bottle.

According to published reports, his 1969 musical La Strada, based on Fellini's film classic, flopped so badly he was forced to sell his Kensington mansion, amid lawsuits from interior decorators suing over unpaid work. By 1972 he declared himself bankrupt with debts of £73,000 ($90,200).

Bart lived off funds borrowed from friends.

Drunk-driving arrests in 1975 and 1983 cost him his driving licence. Bart was forced into a cheap, west London flat. He stopped drinking but not before he had severely damaged his liver.

Bart's final savior was theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh, who has acquired half ownership to Oliver! He successfully revived Oliver! in the West End in 1994. In exchange for additional music and lyrics Mackintosh gave Bart a small profit percentage that kept him from literally living in a sidewalk gutter.

"After his world came tumbling down, Bart once said: "Do you know why I never committed suicide? Because I would simply hate to be found in any condition other than utter splendor."

In failing health, Bart was admitted to Hammersmith Hospital in West London where he died on April 3, 1999, of liver cancer. He was 68.

When his will was located it was discovered that Bart had squirred away $1.23million which he bequeathed to friends and family, and to help launch a foundation inspired by his own woes: a charity for struggling actors and musicians.

Oliver! Tract Numbers:
Prologue / Overture – Orchestra
Food, Glorious Food - The Boys
Oliver! - Mr. Bumble, Mrs. Corney, Oliver Twist and the Boys
I Shall Scream - Mrs. Corney and Mr. Bumble
Boy For Sale - Mr. Bumble
Where Is Love? - Oliver Twist
Consider Yourself - The Artful Dodger, Oliver Twist and Crowd
You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two - Fagin, Oliver Twist and Boys
It's A Fine Life - Nancy and Bet
I'd Do Anything - The Artful Dodger, Nancy, Oliver Twist, Bet and Fagin
Be Back Soon - Fagin, The Artful Dodger, Oliver Twist and Boys
Oom- Pah-Pah - Nancy and Company
My Name - Bill Sikes
As Long As He Needs Me - Nancy
Who Will Buy - Oliver Twist - chorus
Reviewing The Situation - Fagin
As Long As He Needs Me (Reprise) - Nancy
Reviewing The Situation (Reprise) - Fagin
Finale (Company)
(Note: the Broadway recording drops That's Your Funeral and the Act Two reprise of Oliver!)

Bonus Tracks:
That's Your Funeral by Barry Humphries, Paul Whitsun-Jones, Sonia Fraser
You've Got To Pick a Pocket or Two by Ron Moody, Keith Hamshere, Boys
Reviewing the Situation by Ron Moody
As Long As He Needs Me sung by Pattti LuPone
Interview with Donald Pippin.

Broadway Delux Collector's Edition issued by RCA Victor.
Original Broadway cast as heard on the recording:
Bruce Prochnik as Oliver Twist - Willoughby Goddard as Mr. Bumble the Beadle - Hope Jackman as Mrs. Corney the Matron - Ruth Maynard as Old Sally a pauper - Barry Humphries as Mr. Sowerberry the Undertaker - Helena Carroll as Mrs. Sowerberry wife of Mr. Sowerberry - Cherry Davis as Charlotte Sowerberry daughter of the Sowerberry's - Terry Lomax as Noah Claypool - Clive Revill as Fagin - Michael Goodman as The Artful Dodger - Georgia Brown as Nancy - Alice Playten as Bet - Danny Sewell as Bill Sikes - Geoffrey Lumb as Mr. Brownlow - John Call as Dr. Grimwig - Dortha Duckworth as Mrs. Bedwin.

Londoners:
Jed Allen, Barbara Bossert, Jack Davison, James Glenn, Lesley Hunt, John M. Kimbro, Michael Lamont, Allan Lokos, Dodie Marshall, Richard Miller, Moose Peting, Ruth Ramsey, Nina Reiter, Ray Tudor, and Maura K. Wedge.

Workhouse boys and Fagan's Gang:
Johnny Borden - Eugene Endon - Bryant Fraser - Randy Gaynes - Bobby Gold - Sal Lombardo - Christopher Month - Patrick O'Shaughnessy - Alan Paul - Barry Pearl - George Priolo - Robbie Reed - Christopher Votos.

E-Book

Soft back Book

Broadway To Vegas is supported through advertising and donations. Priority consideration is given to interview suggestions, news, press releases, etc from paid supporters. However, no paid supporters control, alter, edit, or in any way manipulate the content of this site. Your donation is appreciated. We accept PAYPAL.

Thank you for your interest.

E-Book

Soft back Book

This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

ART AND ABOUT

THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME Fame continues to celebrate African American Music Appreciation Month with new archival content from its Vault, a Juneteenth playlist, and, a new social justice exhibit opening in mid-July.

The Rock Hall’s new exhibit, It’s Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope, and Empowerment spotlights how musical artists have channeled the power of rock & roll to respond to racism all along. It showcases artists and musical moments that have rocked the world with expression of rage, hope and empowerment through artifacts and captured through the lenses of influential African American photographers Bruce Talamon, Howard Bingham, Bob Douglas, Chuck Stewart, and others.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Chuck Berry, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Little Richard, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin were trailblazers in speaking for the cause of dignity and equality. But it didn’t end there. In every generation, artists have elevated the conversation about race, equality, justice and peace – including Public Enemy, N.W.A., Tupac Shakur, Janelle Monae, Rage Against the Machine, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar, and Beyoncé.

In celebration of last Friday's Juneteenth, the Rock Hall put together a “Juneteenth: Songs of Freedom, Voices of Change” playlist that can be heard inside the museum, on its Rock Boxes and on its Spotify channel. The Rock Hall in Cleveland, Ohio continues to unveil digital content from its Vault as part of its African American Music Appreciation Month celebration. T A catalog of unforgettable performances and moments from funk and R&B greats can be located on Rock Hall’s YouTube channel.

E-Book

Soft back Book

SWEET CHARITY

MUSIC CARES has appointed Laura Segura as the organization's new Executive Director. Effective immediately, Segura will lead this four-star charity that offers industry members a safety net of services including assistance for financial, medical and personal health issues.

MusiCares is the charitable foundation established 30 years ago by the Recording Academy to help safeguard the health and well-being of the music community. Serving as the incoming Executive Director, Segura will oversee an annual budget of $17M, and a staff that encompasses development, fundraising and delivery of health and financial aid programs. The staff includes a highly experienced team of licensed clinical social workers, substance abuse counselors, and health and human services professionals that work directly with musicians and industry members. The organization has achieved a four-star rating from non-profit rating agency Charity Navigator for its financial health, accountability and transparency. MusiCares also maintains a strong efficiency ratio with a significant percentage of every dollar raised going directly to programs that aid community members in need.

"Segura shifts from her previous role as Vice President of Membership & Industry Relations for the Recording Academy, where she spearheaded the restructuring of the organization's 12-chapter system, and increased outreach and industry relations efforts. Having led the nearly 60-person Membership department spread across the country, Segura assumes her new role at MusiCares with a deep understanding of the specific needs and circumstances facing this community. She also brings significant fundraising and development experience to the position, gained both from her prior position at the Recording Academy, as well as previous posts."

Earlier this spring, the Recording Academy and MusiCares established a special COVID-19 Relief Response to help music community members impacted by the pandemic. MusiCares raised $20 million and provided thousands of music creators and industry professionals with emergency assistance. If you wish to support our efforts to assist music professionals in need, visit: https://www.grammy.com/MusiCares/CoronavirusReliefFund.

BALLET HISPANICO continues to celebrate 50 years of uniting people through dance with Noche Unidos on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 from 7:30-8:15pm EDT on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. All are welcome to view the show. Donations are optional.

The evening includes nine virtual world premiere performances featuring Ballet Hispánico Company dancers and students, new works created remotely in the past weeks by world renowned choreographers Michelle Manzanales, Andrea Miller, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Pedro Ruiz, Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Nancy Turano, and Eduardo Vilaro; and celebrity appearances including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rita Moreno, Gloria Estefan, Norman Lear, Pacquito D'Rivera, Arturo O'Farrill, and other Latinx artists. A highlight of the evening will be performances by Ballet Hispánico School of Dance students Julienne Buenaventura and Ruby Castillo, Nuestro Futuro scholarship recipients in BH's La Academia program, works choreographed by Kiri Avelar and Rodney Hamilton.

The pre-recorded show will include new works set remotely on the dancers by prominent choreographers. The choreographers are social distancing in locations around the world, and the dancers are across the country, yet the beauty of dance transcends the distance between them.

Funds raised during the show will provide artists, students, and communities of color a platform for their voices.

BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY PRESENTS BSC Bash: On With The Show!, a free virtual party and fundraiser, which will be streamed on Saturday, June 27 at 7:30 pm at Barrington Stage Co and on BSC’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

BSC Bash will feature special performances by Alexandra Silber, Elizabeth Stanley, Alysha Umphress, Jordan Craig, Alan H. Green, and Jeff McCarthy, with appearances from BSC artists Joshua Bergasse, Darren Cohen, Mark H. Dold, Robert La Fosse, Jeffrey Page, John Rando, Debra Jo Rupp, Mark St. Germain, and Shannon Tyo. Darren Cohen also serves as Musical Director.

All proceeds raised will benefit BSC’s Next Act, a critical funding campaign. All contributions support BSC's vital mission to produce top-notch theatre in the Berkshires, and to engage our community with vibrant, inclusive educational outreach program.

LONDON MUSICAL THEATRE ORCHESTRA'S FIRST CHARITY SINGLE We Need You Now, will be released on Friday June 26. The song is from King, a musical by the late Martin Smith, which tells the story of the extraordinary life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and which LMTO performed in concert to great critical acclaim at the Hackney Empire in 2018.

We Need You Now is performed by Cedric Neal and the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, and is conducted by Freddie Tapner. All profits from the single will be donated to the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, which works to tackle inequality of opportunity in the UK by helping young people overcome disadvantage and discrimination.

We Need You Now is one of four songs from King recorded in 2019 as part of an EP, which will be released later this year.

We Need You Now will be available to download and stream across all digital music platforms from Friday, June 26, 2020.

.

SPREADING THE WORD

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC (A2IM) and BILLBOARD have teamed to Introduce New Changes to Top Independent Albums Chart.

Weekly ranking to be more inclusive of independently-owned labels and will be recognized as the official album chart of A2IM.

In its mission of advocacy for the independent music world: the organization and music industry giantBillboard will modify the inclusion parameters for the Top Independent Albums chart, expanding the “independent” definition to allow for more independently-owned labels to appear on the ranking. With this modification, the chart will be acknowledged as the official album chart of A2IM.

Starting with the Billboard chart dated July 18 (tracking week of July 3 to July 9), labels which are independently-owned and control their masters, yet are distributed directly through a major label group (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment or Warner Music Group), will be eligible for charting on Top Independent Albums. The Top Independent Albums chart ranks the most popular independent albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which comprises traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA), as compiled by Nielsen Music/MRC Data.

Currently, only labels distributed independently or through the indie arm of a major label group (i.e. Caroline, INgrooves, Alternative Distribution Alliance, The Orchard) are eligible to appear on Top Independent Albums. With this change, long-standing independently-owned labels such as Curb Records, Big Machine Records Group, Concord, Disney Music Group, and others will now appear on the chart.

A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of more than 700 independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America's creative class that represents America's diverse musical cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry's U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry sector.

The organization's board of directors consists of the following: Laura Ballance - Merge Records, Glen Barros – Exceleration Music Partners, Tony Kiewel - Sub Pop Records, Lisa Levy - Robbins Entertainment, Rosie Lopez - Tommy Boy, Martin Mills - Beggars Group, Jason Peterson - GoDigital Media Group, Thaddeus Rudd - Mom & Pop, Darius Van Arman - Secretly Group, Zena White - Partisan Records, and Victor Zaraya - RT Industries.

CLIFF RICHARD live streaming in a free show over Royal Albert Hall's YouTube channel and Facebook on Sunday, June 21, 2020.

92Y & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY PRESENT Homeland: Alex Gansa, Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin in conversation with Seija Rankin online on Thursday, June 25, 2020.

Alex Gansa, creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Homeland, and stars Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin join Entertainment Weekly’s Seija Rankin to reflect on the show’s Emmy-winning 8-season run. They discuss Carrie Mathison and Saul Berenson’s inimitable relationship, bringing spycraft to life, and what we’re all supposed to do now that it’s all come to an end.

ACT ONE free streaming for two weeks the Lincoln Center 2014 production written and directed by James Lapine and from the autobiography by Moss Hart. A cast of 22 played over 40 parts in this funny, heartbreaking and suspenseful portrait of legendary writer/director Moss Hart. Featuring ?Tony Shalhoub and Santino Fontana as Hart at different stages of his life, and Andrea Martin as a pivotal figure in Hart's early life.

It will be available to stream for free for two weeks beginning last Friday, June 19 at 8:00pm ET on Lincoln Center's YouTube channel, Facebook page, and on Lincoln Center at Home.

RED BULL THEATER streams RemarkaBull Podversation with Kate Burton. This free event can be viewed by anyone through a variety of livestreams and on Facebook Live.

RemarkaBull Podversations are informal, online conversations that investigate approaches to essential passages from the Shakespearean and Jacobean canon - and beyond with some of the finest actors working in the classical theater today. Previous guests have included Lisa Harrow, Elizabeth Marvel, and Michael Urie.

On Monday June 22nd, three-time Tony and Emmy Award-nominee Kate Burton will join host Nathan Winkelstein, Red Bull’s Associate Producer, for a conversation focused on Prospero’s famous ending soliloquy from Shakespeare’sThe Tempest. Burton performed the role of Prospera in 2018 at The Old Globe in San Francisco under the direction of Joe Dowling. She’ll read passages from the play and discuss her thoughts on the text, character, and gender in Shakespeare.

They’ll take questions through Facebook LIVE, too. Red Bull will also be selecting a few individuals to appear as part of the broadcast.

DOWNTON ABBEY NEVER MORE? during the June Sunday's marathon of Downton Abbey, PBS keeps announcing that it would be the last time PBS ever aired the famed series.

LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Magician/comedian Wayne Alan who owns The Historic North Theatre and Performing Arts Center in Danville, VA is the provider of these jokes.

The worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades.

The doctor says, "I have some good news and some bad news. But don't worry, I'll give the good news to your widow."

I went to the doctor this morning and told him I felt run down. 'Why do you feel that?' he asked. 'Because,' I replied, 'I've got tire marks on my legs.'"

This is a challenging time to start a new business but one lady wants to open a dentist office/manicure salon. She is fighting tooth and nail to make it happen.

My husband is terrible. All I asked for was $100 for the beauty salon. He took a long look at me and gave me $300.

E-Book

Soft back Book

THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG), the national organization for theatre, has announced that Daniel Banks has been awarded the Alan Schneider Director Award. The Award was established in honor of Alan Schneider's significant contribution to theatre in the U.S. and his lifelong commitment to the development of career opportunities for freelance directors. It is designed to identify and assist exceptionally talented mid-career freelance directors whose achievements have been demonstrated through work in specific U.S. regions or territories, but who may not be known more widely or recognized nationally.

Banks is the co-director of DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization dedicated to dialogue and healing through the arts, engaging topics of representation, identity, and heritage. He is currently working on The Secret Sharer (recipient of the 2019 MAP Fund Award), an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella, considered an early LGBTQ+ text, exploring fragility, tenderness, and intimacy in times of danger. Daniel is founder of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative, promoting youth self-expression and leadership.

Recent recipients of the Alan Schneider Director Award include: May Adrales (2018), Kimberly Senior (2016), Liesl Tommy (2014), Bart DeLorenzo (2012), and Anne Kauffman (2010).

GRAMMY MUSEUM GRANT PROGRAM has announced that $200,000 in grants will be awarded to 13 recipients in the United States to help facilitate a range of research on a variety of subjects, as well as support a number of archiving and preservation programs.

"The Grammy Museum Grant Program to date has awarded more than $7.5 million to more than 400 grantees," said Michael Sticka, President of the Grammy Museum. "The initiatives announced today exemplify the Museum's mission to uphold music's value in our lives and shared culture."

Generously funded by the Recording Academy, the Grammy Museum Grant Program provides funding annually to organizations and individuals to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the recorded sound heritage of the Americas for future generations, in addition to research projects related to the impact of music on the human condition. In 2008, the Grant Program expanded its categories to include assistance grants for individuals and small to mid-sized organizations to aid collections held by individuals and organizations that may not have access to the expertise needed to create a preservation plan. The assistance planning process, which may include inventorying and stabilizing a collection, articulates the steps to be taken to ultimately archive recorded sound materials for future generations.

Scientific Research Grantees

Ryerson University— Toronto: Awarded: $20,000
Older adults often face formidable challenges to psychological and social well-being, including depression and loneliness. Group singing appears to mitigate some of these core challenges. This project will assess the impact of group singing on the psychosocial wellbeing of older adults. It will also clarify the neurobiological underpinnings of these benefits. These findings may help promote non-pharmaceutical methods for supporting well-being in older adults.

Music and Health Sciences Research Collaboratory, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto — Toronto: Awarded: $20,000
The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of the Val66Met BDNF polymorphism, a genetic mutation associated with deficits in motor learning, in a sample of musicians versus the general population. This will give insight into the roles of genes (the Val66Met polymorphism) and music training on brain plasticity. Should musicians with the polymorphism exist, this serves as possible evidence for effective compensatory motor learning strategies.

Princeton University — Princeton, New Jersey: Awarded: $19,758
Previous work has revealed a hierarchy of brain regions that organize acoustic input at multiple timescales, but less is known about how the brain organizes information during the production of sound. Researchers will ask expert pianists to play musical pieces, which will have been structurally manipulated at different timescales, in the fMRI scanner. This will enable the investigation of diverse questions regarding motor planning, prediction, and learning in the context of naturalistic music performance.

The Research Foundation for the SUNY, University at Albany — Albany, New York: Awarded: $19,320
Prior studies have found that speakers of a tone language (TL), in which pitch changes alter word meaning, show advantages in music perception. To control for culture and second language experience, University at Albany researchers Ron Friedman and Lauren Clemens will examine this effect with speakers of Copala Triqui, an indigenous Mexican TL, and newly test whether TL use influences the perception of musical emotion. Results will inform the development of training programs to enhance linguistic and musical skills.

University of Oregon — Eugene, Oregon: Awarded: $20,000
This project explores the link between empathic social processing and music emotion recognition. By examining neural activation that overlaps when people make inferences about both social and musical stimuli, this project will help to explain how music connects people to others through neurobiological architecture that helps people understand and process the social world. Results may inform novel treatment for people with social cognitive impairment, such as autism.

Preservation Assistance Grantees

Experimental Sound Studio — Chicago: Awarded: $5,000
Experimental Sound Studio will create an integrated plan for digitization and online dissemination of the Malachi Ritscher Collection, which contains more than 4,000 live recordings documenting the diverse underground music scene at the turn of the 20th century.

Texas Folklife — Austin, Texas: Awarded: $5,000
Texas Folklife has an extensive archive of audio recordings and related material of Texas folk and traditional arts performances, field recordings, and artist interviews dating from 1984. For this project, they will identify potential project partners, update catalog records, and develop a long range plan for digitization, long-term storage, backup, widespread dissemination, and accessibility of the overall collection.

Preservation Implementation

Freight & Salvage — Berkeley, California: Awarded: $20,000
From an existing archive of 2,500-plus recordings, this project will focus on transferring 600 hours of recorded music by digitizing data from formats at the greatest risk of deterioration and by showcasing the influential traditional/roots musicians who performed at Freight & Salvage coffeehouse (1969–1989). They will disseminate the digitized archives through a partnering internet library that provides free access to musicians, researchers, and the public.

The Kitchen Sisters Productions — San Francisco: Awarded: $11,461
The Kitchen Sisters will catalog, digitize, preserve, and ultimately make publicly available the many music-centered stories and related recorded material in the Kitchen Sisters Archive, a collection of some 7,000 hours of interviews, oral histories, music, and field recordings — a deep archive of American story, music and cultural expression gathered across 40 years from the Peabody Award-winning NPR series, podcasts and stories.

Missouri State University Libraries— Springfield, Missouri: Awarded: $18,000
The Ozark Jubilee Digitization Project, a collaborative effort between the Missouri State University Libraries and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, will continue the processes of digitizing, describing, and providing free public access to a series of rare kinescopes of the Ozark Jubilee, a live, nationally broadcast, weekly country music program on ABC-TV originating from Springfield, Missouri. The program aired from January 1955 until September 1960.

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings — Washington, D.C.: Awarded: $20,000
Folkways Recordings will prepare and digitize approximately 400 audio reels and corresponding materials related to Arhoolie Records’ recordings of blues artists for preservation and online archival access.

Roulette Intermedium — Brooklyn, New York: Awarded: $10,000
This project will preserve, restore, catalog, and prepare for distribution and acquisition of 600 audio recordings captured between 2003–2011 at the legendary New York concert hall. These recordings are part of a 4,000-plus historic collection capturing significant achievements in contemporary music dating back to 1980 and continuing to this day. The archive mirrors the cultural and social transitions of the last 40 years, documenting singular achievements in American music.

The University of Pittsburgh Library System — Pittsburgh: Awarded: $11,461
The University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) will digitize and preserve 210 hours of performances from its Emerging Masters Collection, which documents the University of Pittsburgh Concert Series. The endangered recordings are currently housed on 395 open reel audio tapes. Once transferred to digital files, the recordings will be openly available to researchers worldwide on the ULS Digital Collections website.

E-Book

Soft back Book

This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

FINAL OVATION

DAME VERA LYNN the British singer whose songs provided hope for allied troops during World War II died Thursday, June 18, 2020 at her home in Ditchling, Sussex. She was 103.

She was best known for her songs, The White Cliffs of Dover and We'll Meet Again.

Dame Vera Margaret Lynn CH DBE OStJ was a British singer, songwriter and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were largely popular during the Second World War.

In 1941, Lynn married Harry Lewis, a clarinetist and saxophonist, and fellow member of Ambrose's orchestra whom she had met two years earlier. They had one child in March 1946, Virginia Penelope Anne Lewis (now Lewis-Jones). Her husband died in 1998. Lynn said her reason for only having one child was so that she could carry on working, and would have been unable to do so had she had more children. After the Second World War, Lynn and Lewis moved to Finchley, north London. Lynn lived next door to her daughter.

SIR IAN HOLM was a Tony and Olivier Award winningn English actor who died June 19, 2020 in a London hospital. He was treated for prostate cancer in 2001. He had been battling Parkinson's disease for a number of years. He was 88.

He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear.

Holm was an established star of the Royal Shakespeare Company before making an impact on television and film. In 1965, he played Richard III in the BBC serialization of The Wars of The Roses, based on the RSC production of the plays, in 1969 he played the lead in Dennis Potter's Moonlight on the Highway and gradually he made a name for himself with minor roles in films.

Holm's first film role to have a major impact was that of the treacherous android, Ash, in Ridley Scott's Alien.

In 1989, Holm was nominated for a BAFTA award for the TV series Game, Set and Match. Based on the novels by Len Deighton, this tells the story of an intelligence officer (Holm) who discovers that his own wife is an enemy spy. He continued to perform Shakespeare, and appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Henry V (1989) and as Polonius to Mel Gibson's Hamlet (1990). Holm was reunited with Kenneth Branagh in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), playing the father of Branagh's Victor Frankenstein.

Holm was nominated for an Emmy Award twice, for a PBS broadcast of a National Theatre production of King Lear, in 1999; and for a supporting role in the HBO film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells opposite Judi Dench, in 2001.

Holm was married four times: to Lynn Mary Shaw in 1955 (dissolved 1965); to Sophie Baker in 1982 (dissolved 1986); to actress Penelope Wilton, in Wiltshire, in 1991 (dissolved 2002); and to the artist Sophie de Stempel in 2003. He has two daughters from his first marriage (Jessica and Sarah-Jane), a son (Harry) from his second marriage; and a son and a daughter (Barnaby and Melissa) from his 15-year relationship with the photographer Bee Gilbert. He has six grandchildren: Tallulah Hall and Poppy Hall; Archie Holm Slack and Ellie Holm Slack; Edie Holm; and Teddy Holm.

Next Column: June 28, 2020
Copyright: June 21, 2020 All Rights Reserved. Reviews, Interviews, Commentary, Photographs or Graphics from any Broadway To Vegas (TM) columns may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, utilized as leads, or used in any manner without permission, compensation and/or credit.
Link to Main Page

---