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+--- Thread: Obituaries (/thread-59.html)
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-12-2020
Glenn Beckert, Chicago Cubs second baseman:
Glenn Alfred Beckert (October 12, 1940 - April 12, 2020) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League as a second baseman for the Chicago Cubs for nine seasons from 1965 to 1973 before ending his career with the San Diego Padres in 1975.[1][2]
![[Image: 180px-Glenn_Beckert.jpeg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glenn_Beckert.jpeg)
Beckert was drafted from [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_College]Allegheny College as an amateur free agent by the Boston Red Sox in 1962, then selected by Chicago Cubs from Red Sox in the first-year minor league draft.[3] He spent three years in the minors as a shortstop, where he led the Pacific Coast League in putouts and assists in 1964.[4] Following the sudden death of Cubs second baseman, Ken Hubbs in 1964, the Cubs brought Beckert to the major leagues as their second baseman for the 1965 season.[4]
Beckert played nine seasons as the Cubs' second baseman.[1] During his entire Cub tenure, he played alongside shortstop Don Kessinger.[4] Beckert led the National League in assists during his rookie year, and went on to become a four-time All-Star.[1] He was a tough batter, leading the league five times in fewest strikeouts per at bats.[4] In 1968, he led the league in runs and won the National League Gold Glove Award for second baseman.[5][6] He had his best offensive season in 1971 when he had a .342 batting average to finish third in the National League batting championship behind Joe Torre and Ralph Garr.[7]
After the 1973 season, he was traded along with Bobby Fenwick to the San Diego Padres for Jerry Morales.[3] Beckert was a utility infielder and pinch hitter with the Padres before being released in May 1975.[8] He is an inductee in the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.[9]
In an 11-year career, Beckert played in 1,320 games, accumulating 1,473 hits in 5,208 at bats for a .283 career batting average along with 22 home runs and 360 runs batted in. He posted a .973 career fielding percentage.[1]
Beckert died April 12, 2020.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beckert
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-12-2020
As with Al Kaline, the cause of death of Glenn Beckert was not announced.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-12-2020
golfer Doug Sanders
George Douglas Sanders (July 24, 1933 – April 12, 2020) was an American professional golfer who won 20 events on the PGA Tour and had four runner-up finishes at major championships.
Born into a poor family in Cedartown, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta,[1] Sanders was the fourth of five children and picked cotton as a teenager. The family home was near a nine-hole course and he was a self-taught golfer.[2]
Sanders accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Florida in Gainesville,[2] where he played for the Gators golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition in 1955.[3] In his single year as a Gator golfer, Sanders and the team won a Southeastern Conference (SEC) championship and earned a sixth-place finish at the NCAA championship tournament—the Gators' best national championship finish until that time.[3] Sanders won the 1956 Canadian Open as an amateur—the only amateur ever to do so—and turned professional shortly thereafter.[4] Sanders was the last amateur to win on the PGA Tour until Scott Verplank in 1985.
Sanders had thirteen top-ten finishes in major championships, including four second-place finishes: 1959 PGA Championship, 1961 U.S. Open, 1966 and 1970 British Opens. In 1966, he became one of the few players in history to finish in the top ten of all four major championships in a single season, despite winning none of them. He took four shots from just 74 yards as the leader playing the final hole of the 1970 British Open at St Andrews, missing a sidehill 3-foot (0.9 m) putt to win, then lost the resulting 18-hole playoff by a single stroke the next day to Jack Nicklaus.[5] His final victory on tour came in June 1972 at the Kemper Open, one stroke ahead of runner-up Lee Trevino.[6]
Sanders is remembered for an exceptionally short, flat golf swing — a consequence, it appears, of a painful neck condition that radically restricted his movements.[5]
He was a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1967, which won in Houston.
Sanders was a stylish, flamboyant dresser on the golf course, which earned him the nickname "Peacock of the Fairways."[5] Esquire magazine named Sanders one of America's Ten Best Dressed Jocks in August 1972.[7]
Sanders identified himself as the lead character, a playboy PGA Tour golfer, in the golf novel Dead Solid Perfect, by Dan Jenkins.[8]
Since retiring from competitive golf, Sanders has been active in his own corporate golf entertainment company and has for nearly 20 years, sponsored the Doug Sanders International Junior Golf Championship in Houston, Texas. From 1988 to 1994, he also sponsored the Doug Sanders Celebrity Classic.
He died in his adopted hometown of Houston, Texas, on 12 April 2020.[9]
Sanders was a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame,[10] Georgia Sports Hall of Fame,[4] and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.[1] He was also inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."[11]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Sanders
RE: Obituaries - sbarrera - 04-13-2020
Mathemtician John Conway
John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Horton_Conway
https://www.i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/13614-john-conway-dies-from-coronavirus.html?fbclid=IwAR1gBbpVIVfDX-tfqurn2op5FZECJ6tz0_AtTsHipHxJoZagXn0a7TZbARg
John Conway Dies From Coronavirus
Sunday, 12 April 2020
John Conway, the mathematician who will be forever known to many programmers as the man who invented The Game of Life, died on April 11, 2020 at the age of 82, a victim of COVID-19.
John Horton Conway, who was Emeritus Professor at Princeton University, New Jersey was a mathematician with many and broad interests. In 1981 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and his nomination described him as a:
A versatile mathematician who combines a deep combinatorial insight with algebraic virtuosity, particularly in the construction and manipulation of “off-beat” algebraic structures which illuminate a wide variety of problems in completely unexpected ways. He has made distinguished contributions to the theory of finite groups, to the theory of knots, to mathematical logic (both set theory and automata theory) and to the theory of games (as also to its practice).
According to Princeton University Conway's proudest achievement was the invention of new system of numbers, the surreal numbers—a continuum of numbers that include not only real numbers but also the infinitesimal and the infinite numbers, noting:
When he discovered them in 1970, the surreals had John wandering around in a white-hot daydream for weeks.
His surreal numbers inspired a mathematical novel by Donald Knuth, which includes the line:
“Conway said to the numbers, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’”
He also invented a naming system for exceedingly large numbers, the Conway chained arrow notation.
Born on December 26, 1937, in Liverpool, England, his interest in mathematics emerged at a very early age. He could recite the powers of two when he was four years old and developed the ability to calculate the day of the week for any given date, a skill he later refined as his Doomsday algorithm. At age eleven when asked by his school headmaster what he wanted to do with his life, he replied: “I want to read mathematics at Cambridge.” And so he did, receiving his Bachelors from Gonville and Caius College in 1959, and his doctorate in 1964. He remained at Cambridge until 1987 when he joined Princeton as John von Neumann Professor in Applied and Computation Mathematics, a position he still held, with Emeritus status since 2013.
Over his long career, he made significant contributions to many fields of mathematics. In group theory, he worked on the classification of finite simple groups, discovered the Conway groups, and was the primary author of the ATLAS of Finite Groups (1986).
![[Image: conwaypi.jpg]](https://www.i-programmer.info/images/stories/News/2016/Mar/A/conwaypi.jpg)
He is perhaps most widely known for his contributions to combinatorial game theory, a theory of partisan games. We have an enthusiastic recommendation for his series of books, Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, coauthored with Elwyn Berlekamp and Richard Guy. Additionally, he wrote On Numbers and Games, which lays out the mathematical foundations of this theory and, with Richard Guy, The Book of Numbers (1996), which attracted the accolade:
a delightful look at numbers and their roles in everything from language to flowers to the imagination.
Conway was the inventor of several games, the most celebrated of which, his Game of Life, in an early example of a cellular automaton which we discuss in detail in The Meaning of Life.
As we reported back in 2014, see Does John Conway Hate Life, the popularity of GOL had been something of a millstone to to Conway himself - he regretted the way it overshadowed his other, more important, achievements. However, in the first of two Numberphile videos included in that report, his attitude softened and in the second of them he explains how he thought it up. We have another of his Numberphile videos in Look And Say Numbers And Conway's Constant.
If you want to know more about this remarkable, and remarkably entertaining, mathematician his biography by Siobhan Roberts, Genius at Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway, was published in 2016 and to mark its publication Numberphile has another video, that literally takes you inside John Conway.
John Conway passed away at his home in New Jersey on April 11, three days after developing the high fever typical of corona virus. The news of his death came from Card Colm Mulcahy, Professor of Mathematics at Spelman College, who tweeted:
John Horton Conway has died.
Sigh.
One of the most unique mathematicians and human beings who ever lived.
Responding, in another tweet, Siobhan Roberts recorded her tribute:
Fare thee well, John Horton Conway — math’s most charming and ingenious rascal. I’ll miss him.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-16-2020
Lee Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American composer and alto saxophonist.
He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's association with the cool jazz movement of the 1940s and 1950s includes participation in Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool sessions and his work with pianist Lennie Tristano. He was one of relatively few alto saxophonists of this era to retain a distinctive style, when Charlie Parker exerted a massive influence. Like other students of Tristano, Konitz improvised long, melodic lines with the rhythmic interest coming from odd accents, or odd note groupings suggestive of the imposition of one time signature over another. Other saxophonists were strongly influenced by Konitz, such as Paul Desmond and Art Pepper.
He died during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic due to complications brought on by COVID-19.
![[Image: 220px-Lee_Konitz.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lee_Konitz.jpg)
Konitz was born on October 13, 1927, in Chicago to Jewish parents of Austrian and Russian descent. At the age of eleven, Konitz received his first clarinet. However, he later dropped the instrument in favor of the tenor saxophone. He eventually moved from tenor to alto. His greatest influences at the time were the swing big bands he and his brother listened to on the radio; hearing Goodman on the radio was what prodded him to ask for a clarinet. He improvised on the saxophone before learning to play standards.[1]
Konitz began his professional career in 1945 with the Teddy Powell band as a replacement for Charlie Ventura. A month later, the band broke up. Between 1945 and 1947, he worked intermittently with Jerry Wald. In 1946, he met pianist Lennie Tristano, and the two men worked together in a small cocktail bar. His next substantial work was with Claude Thornhill in 1947 with Gil Evans arranging and Gerry Mulligan as a composer.[2][3]
He participated with Miles Davis in a group that had a brief booking in September 1948 and another the following year, but he recorded in 1949 and 1950; the sides were collected on the Birth of the Cool album. The presence of Konitz and other white musicians in the group angered some black jazz players because many were unemployed at the time, but Davis rebuffed their criticisms.
Konitz stated he considered the group to belong to Gerry Mulligan. His debut as leader also came in 1949 with sides collected on the album Subconscious-Lee. (Prestige, 1955).[4] He turned down an opportunity to work with Goodman in 1949, a decision he regretted.[3] Parker lent him support on the day Konitz's child was born in Seattle, Washington, while he was stuck in New York City. The two were good friends, not the rivals some jazz critics made them out to be.[1]
In the early 1950s, Konitz recorded and toured with Stan Kenton's orchestra, but he continued to record as a leader. In 1961, he recorded Motion with Elvin Jones on drums and Sonny Dallas on bass. This spontaneous session consisted entirely of standards. The loose trio format aptly featured Konitz's unorthodox phrasing and chromaticism.
![[Image: Lee-konitz.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lee-konitz.jpg)
Lee Konitz playing in Aarhus, Denmark
In 1967, Konitz recorded The Lee Konitz Duets in configurations that were often unusual for the period (saxophone and trombone, two saxophones). The recordings drew on nearly the entire history of jazz from Louis Armstrong's "Struttin' with Some Barbecue" with valve trombonist Marshall Brown to two free improvisation duos: one with a Duke Ellington associate, violinist Ray Nance, and one with guitarist Jim Hall.
Konitz contributed to the film score for Desperate Characters (1971). In 1981, he performed at the Woodstock Jazz Festival, which was held in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Creative Music Studio.
Konitz worked with Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, Attila Zoller, Gerry Mulligan, and Elvin Jones. He recorded trio dates with Brad Mehldau and Charlie Haden, released by Blue Note, as well as a live album recorded in 2009 at Birdland and released by ECM in 2011 with drummer Paul Motian. Konitz became more experimental as he grew older and released a number of free jazz and avant-garde jazz albums, performing with many younger musicians. His album with saxophonist/vocalist Grace Kelly was given 4 1/2 stars by Michael Jackson in Down Beat magazine.[5]
He had heart problems regularing surgery in the past.[6] He was scheduled to appear at Melbourne's Recital Centre in 2011 for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, but he canceled due to illness.
In August 2012, Konitz played to sell-out crowds at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village as part of Enfants Terribles, a collaboration with Bill Frisell, Gary Peacock, and Joey Baron. Days after his 87th birthday in 2014, he played three nights at Cafe Stritch in San Jose, California, with the Jeff Denson Trio, improvising on the old standards he favors.[7]
Konitz died at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City on April 15, 2020, as a result of pneumonia brought on by coronavirus.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Konitz
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Konitz#cite_note-8]
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-16-2020
actor Brian Dennehy
Brian Manion Dennehy[2] (July 9, 1938 – April 15, 2020) was an American actor of film, stage, and television. A winner of one Golden Globe, two Tony Awards and a recipient of six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, he gained initial recognition for his role as Sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood (1982). He had roles in numerous films including Gorky Park (1983), Silverado (1985), Cocoon (1985), F/X (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), Romeo + Juliet (1996), and Knight of Cups (2015). Dennehy won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role as Willy Loman in the television film Death of a Salesman (2000).
According to Variety, Dennehy was "perhaps the foremost living interpreter" of playwright Eugene O'Neill’s works on stage and screen. He had a decades long relationship with Chicago's Goodman Theatre where much of his O'Neill work originated.[3]
Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah (Manion) and Edward Dennehy, a wire service editor for the Associated Press.[4] He had two brothers, Michael and Edward.[5][6] He was of Irish ancestry and was raised Catholic.[7][8] The family relocated to Long Island, New York, where Dennehy attended Chaminade High School in the town of Mineola.[9]
A football scholarship paved the way to Columbia University in New York City, where he played football, earned a BA in history, became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and played rugby union for Old Blue RFC. He went on to graduate studies in dramatic arts at Yale University. Prior to pursuing acting Dennehy worked as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in their Manhattan office in the mid 1970s.[10]
Film[edit]
Dennehy was primarily known as a dramatic actor. His breakthrough role was as the overzealous sheriff Will Teasle in First Blood (1982) opposite Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo.
His earlier films included several comedies, like Semi-Tough with Burt Reynolds (in which he portrayed a pro football player), Foul Play with Chevy Chase, and 10 with Dudley Moore (as a Manzanillo bartender). He later portrayed a corrupt sheriff in the western Silverado and an alien in Cocoon, both released in 1985.
Memorable supporting parts featured Dennehy in such films as Split Image (1982), Legal Eagles (1986), F/X: Murder By Illusion (1986), Presumed Innocent (1990), F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991) and Prophet of Evil (1993)
Dennehy gradually became a valuable character actor but also achieved leading-man status in the thriller Best Seller (1987) co-starring James Woods. He also starred in the Peter Greenaway film The Belly of an Architect, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 1987 Chicago International Film Festival. Commenting upon this unusual venture, Dennehy said, "I've been in a lot of movies but this is the first film I've made."
He went on to star as Harrison in the Australian film The Man from Snowy River II in 1988.
One of his most well-known roles came in the 1995 Chris Farley-David Spade comedy Tommy Boy as Big Tom Callahan. He also was reunited with his 10 co-star Bo Derek in Tommy Boy, in which she played his wife.
Dennehy had a voice role in the animated movie Ratatouille as Django, father of the rat chef Remy. He appeared as the superior officer of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the 2008 cop drama Righteous Kill and as the father of Russell Crowe in the 2010 suspense film The Next Three Days.
Dennehy starred as Clarence Darrow in Alleged, a film based on the Scopes Monkey Trial, the famous court battle over the teaching of evolution in American public schools.[11]
Dennehy began his professional acting career in small guest roles in such 1970s and 1980s series as Kojak, Lou Grant, Dallas, Dynasty, and Hunter. He also appeared in an episode of Miami Vice during the 1987–88 season.
![[Image: 220px-Brian_Dennehy_DF-SD-05-12671.jpg]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Dennehy_DF-SD-05-12671.jpg)
Dennehy portrayed Sergeant Ned T. "Frozen Chosen" Coleman in the television movie [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rumor_of_War_(miniseries)]A Rumor of War (1980) opposite Brad Davis. He continued to appear in such high-profile television films as Skokie (1981), Split Image (1982), Day One, (1989), A Killing in a Small Town (1990) opposite Barbara Hershey. He also played the title role in HBO's Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story.
Dennehy had a lead role as fire chief/celebrity dad Leslie "Buddy" Krebs in the short-lived 1982 series Star of the Family. Despite his star power, that show was canceled after a half a season.
Dennehy was nominated for Emmy Awards six times for his television movies. He was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for his performance as John Wayne Gacy in To Catch a Killer, and he was nominated that same year in a different category, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie, for The Burden of Proof (1992). Other Emmy nominatations were for his work in A Killing in a Small Town, Murder in the Heartland (1993) and for the Showtime cable TV movie Our Fathers (2005), which was about the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. In 2000, Dennehy was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie for a television presentation of his performance as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman which he had performed on Broadway. The performance did, however, precipitate a Golden Globe Award.
He starred in the popular crime drama Jack Reed TV movies. He also appeared as a recurring character in the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!.
Dennehy was parodied in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and an episode of The Simpsons.
In January 2007, he starred in the episode "Scheherazade" of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as a retired criminal who wants to reconnect with his daughter and admit his crimes before dying of a terminal disease thus eventually clearing a wrongfully imprisoned inmate. In April 2008, Dennehy guest-starred as a Teamster boss in an episode of 30 Rock.
Dennehy guest-starred in a 2009 episode of Rules of Engagement as the father of the main character, Jeff.[12]
Dennehy also narrated many television programs.[13] He narrated Canadian-Irish docudrama Death or Canada.[14][15]
Dennehy was set to star in the Amazon Studios series Cocked which will costar Jason Lee, Dreama Walker, Diora Baird, and Sam Trammell.
Dennehy starred as Elizabeth Keen's grandfather on the NBC series The Blacklist.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-22-2020
Thomas William Lester (September 23, 1938 – April 20, 2020) was an American actor and evangelist. He was best known for his role as Eb Dawson on the television show Green Acres. He appeared in two feature animal films, Gordy and Benji.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lester
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-23-2020
COVID-19... still killing.
[/url]Elizabeth Warren
@ewarren
[url=https://twitter.com/ewarren]
·
11h
My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from coronavirus on Tuesday evening. He joined the Air Force at 19 and spent his career in the military, including five and a half years off and on in combat in Vietnam. He was charming and funny, a natural leader.
![[Image: _PdQZTfB?format=jpg&name=small]](https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1253327421966675970/_PdQZTfB?format=jpg&name=small)
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-25-2020
Harold Reed (80), singer (bass)-songwriter for the Statler Brothers from 1955 (founding) to 2002 (close)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Statler_Brothers
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-27-2020
A reminder of people passing out of existence: Holocaust survivors.
Henri Kichka (14 April 1926 – 25 April 2020) was a Belgian survivor of the Nazi concentration camps.[1] He was the only member of his family to have survived the deportation of Jews out of Belgium.
In the 1980s, he began speaking on the importance of the memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazis. In 2005, he wrote his autobiography, Une adolescence perdue dans la nuit des camps, prefaced by Serge Klarsfield. He is the father of cartoonist Michel Kichka.
Henri's father was Josek Kichka, born in Skierniewice, Poland on 13 August 1898. In 1918, Josek fled the rise of antisemitism, but was imprisoned by Germany on the way. After he was freed, he settled in Brussels. Henri's mother, Chana Gruszka, was born in Kałuszyn, Poland on 15 December 1899. She arrived in Belgium in 1924. The couple renounced their Polish nationality and lived as stateless people.
The oldest child, Henri Kichka was born on 14 April 1926 in Brussels. His sister, Bertha, was born on 30 August 1927, and Nicha was born on 27 October 1933. In 1935, the family moved to Saint-Gilles. The family was moderately active with their local synagogue. In school, Kichka learned French, Yiddish, and German. He was forbidden from learning Polish.
In May 1940, Kichka's family was stunned by the Nazi invasion of Belgium. His father decided to take the family to France during the 1940 exodus. They arrived in Toulouse, and then settled in Revel. They were then forced by the Milice to settle in a refugee camp in Agde. They moved to several different camps under the Vichy Regime, and were then released to Paris.
On 1 August 1942, Kichka's sister, Bertha, received her summons to Mechelen for compulsory labor. The family accompanied her to the train station, and it would be the last time they saw her. Bertha Kichka was murdered upon arrival at Auschwitz in August 1942. The rest of the family was deported in the 9th Convoy of 12 September 1942. Kichka and his father were assigned to work on a railroad, and his mother, aunt, and sister were killed at Auschwitz on 14 September 1942.[2] Henri and Josek were moved from camp to camp, performing compulsory labor. Henri was liberated on 30 April 1945, but Josek died a few days earlier after having a foot amputated.[3]
Kichka was sent to the airport in Weimar, where he stayed for 17 days, and was then transported back to Belgium by a truck. He weighed 39 kg. He stayed at a reception center in Uccle and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He stayed at Brugmann Hospital in Alsemberg for 16 months. He joined an orphanage on 30 August 1946. He was the only child there who had survived the concentration camps, with the rest of them having been Hidden Children. He then rented an apartment with his friend, Beno Linzer and began as a leather worker. In 1947, he joined the Union sportive des jeunes Juifs.[4]
On 9 April 1949, Kichka married Lucia Swierczynski. He obtained Belgian nationality in 1952, and his life returned to normal. He would later write that his adolescence was lost in the concentration camps. He had four children with Lucia: Khana, Michel, Irène, and Charly. They had nine grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Lucia died on 22 September 2001.
Until the early 1980s, Kichka did not discuss what he had endured. After his retirement, he became a speaker on the Holocaust, passing on his testimony to young students and taking part in numerous commemorative journeys to Auschwitz.[5]
Henri Kichka died on 25 April 2020 at the age of 94 in Brussels due to COVID-19.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Kichka
RE: Obituaries - Eric the Green - 04-27-2020
Let's try this one again.
Kenneth Gilbert, OC FRSC (December 16, 1931 – April 16, 2020) was a Canadian harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, and music educator.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Gilbert
Gilbert studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal under Yvonne Hubert (piano) and Gabriel Cusson (harmony and counterpoint). He also studied the organ privately with Conrad Letendre in Montréal. In 1953 he won the Prix d'Europe for organ performance, an award which enabled him to pursue studies in Paris, France with Nadia Boulanger (composition), Maurice Duruflé (organ), Ruggero Gerlin (harpsichord), Gaston Litaize (organ), and Sylvie Spicket (harpsichord) from 1953–1955. He later studied the harpsichord privately under Wanda Landowska.
Gilbert made his first recordings with the Canadian label Baroque Records Co. of Canada Ltd. in 1962 – an all J.S. Bach program, followed by several more solo harpsichord recordings of music by Bach, another of Rameau, and several chamber music albums with other Canadian artists: Mario Duschenes (flute & recorder), Steven Staryk (violin), Jacques Simard (oboe), as well as French flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. As organist, he recorded an album of works by Boehm, Buxtehude and Walther on two Casavant-built instruments in Quebec. (All of these recordings were subsequently reissued on Orion Master Recordings in the U.S.A.) In 1983 he recorded a two-CD selection from the Montreal Organ Book on the Hellmuth Wolff organ at McGill University for the Canadian label Analekta.
Gilbert performed for the Peabody Mason concert series in 1974. He died on April 16, 2020 at the age of 88.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-28-2020
Bernard Gersten (January 30, 1923 – April 27, 2020) was an American theatrical producer. Beginning in the 1960s through the early 2000s, Gersten played a major role in shaping American drama and musical theatre.
From 1960 to 1978, Gersten worked with Joseph Papp as associate producer at the New York Shakespeare Festival. After leaving the NYSF, he served as executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater from 1986 until he retired in 2013, where (with Gregory Mosher, then with Andre Bishop) he oversaw over 150 productions.
In addition to receiving the Antoinette Perry Award (The “Tony Award”) for Lifetime Achievement in 2013, Gersten was the recipient of fifteen Tony Awards for his productions.
He died from pancreatic cancer on April 27, 2020 at age 97.[1]
Gersten was the son of Henrietta (Henig) Gersten and Jacob Israel Gersten, a garment worker and chauffeur. Gersten grew up in Newark, New Jersey in a traditional Jewish immigrant household, crowded with relatives, his father Jacob holding the position of secretary at the local synagogue. Like his cohort, Joseph Papp, Gersten came to the theater from an unsophisticated middle-class background.[2]
As a teenager, Gersten became interested in theater and acting during his time at West Side High School. [3] Gersten was attending Rutgers University as the United States entered World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the quartermaster corps and was stationed in Hawaii. He transitioned into special services after attending a performance on a base of Macbeth featuring the theater stars Maurice Evans (a Captain) and Dame Judith Anderson. Working on productions in the military, he developed his skills as a stage manager and producer.[2][3]
After World War II, Gersten got his Equity card and began his professional career when Maurice Evans asked him to become the Assistant Stage Manager of the US tour of “GI Hamlet” – starring Evans. Following his first professional gig, Gersten joined the Actor's Lab in Los Angeles, where he met his future colleague and co-producer, Joseph Papp.[2][4] In the late 1950s, Gersten was hired by John Houseman to work as a stage manager at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. He was active as a Broadway production stage manager at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. His last job was as a Production Stage Manager (PSM) to the first performances of Funny Girl starring Barbra Streisand. [2][3]
During the late 1940s and the 1950s, Gersten was politically active. He attended meetings of the Communist Party and worked on union organizing. Both he and Joseph Papp worked on behalf of Vice President Henry A. Wallace’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1948 (as the candidate of the Progressive Party). He was also active on behalf of the plight of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. In time, Gersten was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Commission and was required to appear before the committee in 1958. Gersten pled the 5th. (Papp was also brought before the committee.) Though he was threatened with dismissal, Gersten did not lose his job because both John Houseman and Katharine Hepburn spoke on his behalf.[2][5]
In 1960, Joseph Papp invited Gersten to work with him at the New York Shakespeare Festival. The job as associate producer became a full-time job in 1964. This began a long partnership during which Papp and Gersten established the New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF) at the old Astor Library downtown while presenting a series of significant productions. During his tenure at the NYSF, it would become the pre-eminent non-profit theater in the United States. (Gersten would also produce at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont and Mitzi E. Newhouse (prior to 1973 the Forum) theaters during NYSF’s tenure there between 1974 and 1977.) [2][4][5]
The eighteen year Papp/Gersten regime at the NYSF would usher in a bold new era of playwriting and musical theater. Significant dramatists such as Liz Swados, David Rabe, Sam Shepard, Michael Bennett, Richard Foreman and John Guare as well as major stage stars including James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, Sam Waterston Edward Herrmann and Al Pacino, George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst (not to mention the visual artist Paul Davis), got their first national attention at the NYSF. [4] Productions during this period alo included dozens of plays by William Shakespeare and free theater in Central Park. Notable productions during the Papp/Gersten era include an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hair, That Championship Season, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, Streamers, Buried Child and the crowning achievement of the NYSF during this period: the musical: A Chorus Line.[2][4][5]
In 1968, Gersten married Cora Cahan, at the time touring as a dancer with various modern dance companies. (With Eliot Feld, Cora Cahan would establish and serve as executive director of Eliot Feld's dance company, Feld Ballet. In 1982, Cora and Eliot conceived and created the Joyce Theater. Since 1990, Cora has been President of The New 42nd Street, a non-profit organization generated by the city and the state as part of the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project.) The Gerstens have two children, Jenny Cahan Gersten and Jilian Cahan Gersten.
Perhaps Gersten's most significant contribution to the American theater was his realization that a non-profit theater could produce commercially. In what he has described as a ‘eureka moment’ [2] he found a way to free the New York Shakespeare Festival and later the Lincoln Center Theater from dependency on commercial producers when moving a show to Broadway. Through this innovative approach to underwriting production, beginning with moving Two Gentlemen of Verona to Broadway in 1971, (and particularly with the success of A Chorus Line), the fortunes of the New York Shakespeare Festival grew enormously. Gersten's approach would change the course of non-profit institutions nationally and especially in New York City.
In 1978, Gersten and Papp went their separate ways when Gersten insisted that the NYSF produce Michael Bennett’s Ballroom. Papp fired Gersten, whereupon Gersten went on to independently produce Ballroom (as well as John Guare’s Bosoms and Neglect) on Broadway later that year.[4][5]
In 1979, Gersten was invited by Francis Ford Coppola to come work for his new Zoetrope Studios as Executive Vice President of Creative Affairs. During his tenure at Zoetrope, Gersten would serve as Executive Producer of Francis Ford Coppola’s One From the Heart, as well as three other films. He also acted as Co-Producer of the live-orchestra presentations throughout the world of Abel Gance’s film Napoléon.[2] After leaving Zoetrope, Gersten was recruited by Radio City Music Hall to serve as their Vice President to produce live original content. A highlight of his two and a quarter year tenure, was a massive production of Porgy and Bess, (featuring a 90-strong company).
In 1984, the Vivian Beaumont Theater, a component of the larger Lincoln Center performing arts complex, had been dark for four years. A board of directors headed by former New York Mayor John V. Lindsay decided to try one more time to activate the theater which had been built and established in the mid-sixties, but failed to establish itself as a viable theatrical venue.[3] (This period includes the four years in which the NYSF produced at Lincoln Center.)
Gersten, at the time working for Alexander Cohen on Broadway and teaching as an adjunct professor of theater administration at Columbia University, was invited to act as a consultant on the board. He proposed a way to organize the Beaumont and was hired as Executive Producer alongside Gregory Mosher who was hired as Artistic Director to lead the new entity “Lincoln Center Theater”. Under Mosher and Gersten, the Vivian Beaumont and the Mitzi E. Newhouse theaters, moribund for nearly a decade, flourished. More than twenty productions followed in quick succession over the next five years, including several major successes (see Lincoln Center Theater). In 1991, Mr. Mosher announced that he would leave LCT to pursue other projects.
In 1991, Gersten invited Andre Bishop to take over as Artistic Director. (Bishop's tenure would begin in 1992). (After Gersten's retirement, Bishop would have the title of Producing Artistic Director). The long list of successes at Lincoln Center Theater would grow under their partnership. For almost twenty years, Mr. Gersten and Mr. Bishop produced an award-winning series of top shelf theatrical productions, sparing no expense to achieve the most exacting artistic results. A number of plays produced at Lincoln Center Theater, would move to Broadway (or be produced directly for Broadway). Muscular, precise, and visually striking theater became the hallmark of Lincoln Center Theater.[6] [7]
Bernard Gersten produced over 150 productions at LCT, including a revival of John Guare’s House of Blue Leaves and premiere of Six Degrees of Separation, Wendy Wasserstein’s Sisters Rosenzweig, Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, Ngema's Sarafina, David Mamet’s Speed the Plow, Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia and a revival of South Pacific. Under Gersten, the Lincoln Center Theater championed the work of Spalding Gray, John Guare, Edward Albee, Tom Stoppard and Wendy Wasserstein among the dozens of playwrights, composers, and directors who worked there, including Gerald Gutierrez, Jerry Zaks, Susan Stroman, Daniel Sullivan, Bartlett Sher and Graciele Daniele.[3][6][7]
Prior to retirement from LCT, Gersten helped implement the fundraising, design, and construction of the new Claire Tow Theater atop the Vivian Beaumont.
Gersten implemented a new custom license plate for New York State featuring the slogan ‘State of the Arts.’ Income from this custom license plate supports the New York State Council on the Arts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Gersten
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-29-2020
Lynn Harrell (January 30, 1944[1] – April 27, 2020) was an American classical cellist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Harrell
Harrell was born to musician parents in New York City: his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie McAlister Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of nine, he began cello studies. When he was 12, his family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he studied with Lev Aronson. After attending Denton High School, Harrell studied at the Juilliard School in New York with Leonard Rose and then at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Orlando Cole.[2] In 1961, when he was 17, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as part of a Young People's Concert.[3][4]
In 1960, when Harrell was 15, his father died of cancer. In November 1962, when he was 18, his mother died from injuries sustained from a two-vehicle crash while traveling from Denton to Fort Worth with pianist Jean Mainous to perform a recital; she was violinist in residence (faculty) at the University of North Texas College of Music.[5]
Just before his mother died, in April 1962, Harrell had withdrawn from Denton High School in his junior year to advance to the semifinals of the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.[6]
After losing his mother, as Harrell put it, "I moved around to different family friends' houses with my one suitcase and cello until [after] I was 18, when I joined the Cleveland Orchestra. In part, I got that job because [its conductor] George Szell knew my father through their collaboration at the Metropolitan Opera." Harrell was the principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1964 to 1971.[7]
Harrell made his recital debut in New York in 1971,[8] and a year later played at a Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert. In a review of that concert, Harold C. Schonberg of The New York Times declared that "it would be hard to overpraise the beautiful playing" of Harrell, adding "this young man has everything".[9] For the rest of his life, he continue to perform internationally as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras. Also in 1971, he began his teaching career at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music. He went on to teach at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School. He served as the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute from 1988–1992. From 1986–1993, he held the post of "Gregor Piatigorsky Endowed Chair in Violoncello" at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles; he was only the second person to hold the title, following Piatigorsky himself.[8] He was on the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University from 2002 to 2009.[10]
Harrell previously played a 1720 Montagnana cello he bought with the proceeds of his parents' estate and also a 1673 Antonio Stradivarius cello that belonged to the late British cellist Jacqueline du Pré. His last instrument was a 2008 cello by Christopher Dungey.[11]
From 1985–1993 he held the International Chair for Cello Studies at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London and in 1993 he became Principal of the RAM, a post he held until 1995.[12]
On April 7, 1994, he appeared at the Vatican with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gilbert Levine in the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah. The audience for this historic event, which was the Holy See's first official commemoration of the Holocaust, included Pope John Paul II and the Chief Rabbi of Rome.[13]
In 2001, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra established the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition in his honor. The competition is open to string players and pianists, ages 8 to 18, from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.[3]
Harrell died on April 27, 2020, at the age of 76. A cause of death was not disclosed.[14]
In 2002, Harrell married violinist Helen Nightengale, a former student; the couple had two children, Hanna and Noah. Harrell and Nightengale also founded HEARTbeats, which "strives to help children in need harness the power of music to better cope with, and recover from, the extreme challenges of poverty and conflict."[15][16][2] He had twin children from his first marriage to the journalist and writer Linda Blandford—Kate, an actress and yoga teacher, and Eben, a journalist, both of whom live and work in London.[8]
In 2012, Harrell was kicked out of the Delta Frequent Flyer program after eleven years. Harrell always bought a second seat for his multimillion-dollar cello, usually at full fare. Delta claimed that Harrell could not accrue miles for these purchases. In a letter, they terminated his membership, confiscated all existing miles and awards in his account, and banned him for life.[17]
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-29-2020
Martin Lovett OBE (3 March 1927 – 29 April 2020) was an English cellist, best known as the cellist with the Amadeus Quartet for 40 years, one of the leading quartets at the time.[1]
Lovett was born in London. When he was 11, his father, a cellist with the Hallé Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, gave him his first lessons. At age 15, he won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London.[2][3] He joined the Amadeus Quartet at the age of 19, in 1947, with violinists Norbert Brainin and Siegmund Nissel, and violist Peter Schidlof.[2][4] He was the only English player in the quartet of otherwise Austrian expatriates.[5] They remained together for 40 years, until the death of violist Schidlof in 1987, when they decided to disband.[4] They recorded many quartets,[1] including Beethoven's complete string quartets,[3] and also in 1968 Schubert's Quintet "The Trout", D. 667, with pianist Emil Gilels and double bassist Rainer Zepperitz.[6]
Since the end of the Amadeus Quartet, Lovett had been much in demand for performances with various chamber music groups including the Amadeus Ensemble.[2] He gave chamber music courses all over the world.[2] The Amadeus Summer Course, held each year at the Royal Academy of Music in London, was a highlight of this activity. He joined the Verdi Quartet for a 1989 recording of Schubert's String Quintet, D. 956.[7]
A former Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, he also acted as a judge in many international chamber music competitions.[2] As a quartet member, Lovett was awarded the OBE, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art.[3]
Lovett was married for 55 years to Suzanne Rosza, whom he met while they studied at the Royal College of Music.[2] He later remarried Dorinde Van Oort. He had two children, Sonia and Peter. He died in North London on 29 April 2020.[4][3][5]
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 04-29-2020
Hema Bharali[url=Hema Bharali][/url] (19 February 1919 – 29 April 2020) was an Indian freedom activist, social worker, Sarvodaya leader and Gandhian, known for her contributions for the empowerment of women and efforts towards the upliftment of the socially and financially challenged sections of the society.[1] She was reported to have been active during the relief operations in the wake of the earthquake in North Lakhimpur of Assam state in 1950 and in the development activities after the Sino-Indian War of 1962.[2] The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2005, for her contributions to Indian society.[3] A year later, she received the National Communal Harmony Award from the National Foundation for Communal Harmony, an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Home Affairs.[4]
Hema Bharali was born on 19 February 1919 in a family of Chutia ethnicity in the Northeast Indian state of Assam and is known to have taken to social work from an early age.[citation needed] She became active in the Indian freedom struggle and when the earthquake caused devastation in North Lakhimpur area in 1950, she took part in the relief operations.[2][5] A year later, she joined the Bhoodan movement launched by Vinoba Bhave in 1951 and became one of its leaders.[6] She was a part of the team, led by Vinoba Bhave, who were involved in the service of the victims of the war-torn area of Tezpur and stayed at Maitreyi Ashram of Bhave during the operations.[7] She has also been involved with the Padayatra in connection with the Bhoodan movement[citation needed] and was a founder member of the executive council of the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB).[8]
The Government of India included Bharali in the 2005 Republic Day Honours list for the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri.[3] In 2006, she was awarded the National Communal Harmony Award by the National Foundation for Communal Harmony of the Ministry of Home Affairs.[4] Three years later, she received the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Memorial Award for National Integration from the Government of Assam.[9] Bharali, a spinster by choice,[10] endured financial and health challenges in her 90s and received financial assistance from the State Government.[11] She lived in Guwahati, in Assam.[12] As of April 2016, she has continued to make public appearances.[13]
She died on 29 April 2020, at age 101.[14]
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 05-04-2020
Luke Patterson
2 hours ago
On Monday, Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Don Shula passed away at age 90.
Shula remains the NFL's all-time winningest head coach, presiding over the Miami Dolphins for 26 years and producing the only undefeated season (17-0) in the history of the league in 1972. He led the Dolphins to five Super Bowls and won two World Championships back-to-back.
Following his passing, the Dolphins issued a statement, calling Shula “the patriarch of the Miami Dolphins for 50 years.”
“He brought the winning edge to our franchise and put the Dolphins and the city of Miami in the national sports scene. Our deepest thoughts and prayers go out to Mary Anne along with his children Dave, Donna, Sharon, Anne, and Mike.”
A four-time AP Coach of the Year (1964, ’67, ’68, ’72) Shula won an NFL-record 347 games (including playoffs) as head coach of the Dolphins and Colts (Baltimore). He coached the Dolphins for two-and-a-half decades and the Colts (Baltimore) for seven years. When Shula retired from Miami in 1995, his NFL coaching experience totaled 33 years, compiling an overall coaching record of 347-173-6.
Hitting close to home, the Denver Broncos hired Don's son, Mike Shula, as the quarterbacks coach in January. In Denver, Shula has reunited with Pat Shurmur who accepted the offensive coordinator position offered to him by Vic Fangio. For the last two seasons, Shula was the OC of the New York Giants where Shurmur was head coach.
After being notified of Don Shula’s death, the Broncos publicly issued a statement to express their condolences.
“We join the NFL community in expressing our sincere condolences to the family of legendary Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach Don Shula.”
https://www.si.com/nfl/broncos/news/denver-broncos-mourn-the-passing-of-hall-of-fame-head-coach-don-shula
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 05-04-2020
Rosalind Elias (March 13, 1930 – May 3, 2020[1]) was an American mezzo-soprano who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera. She is best known for creating the role of Erika in premiere of Samuel Barber's Vanessa in 1958.
Elias made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Grimgerde in Wagner's Die Walküre, on February 23, 1954. She sang 687 performances of 54 roles there, including Bersi in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, the title role in Bizet's Carmen, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Laura in La Gioconda, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Siebel in Faust, Nancy in Martha, Cherubino and Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Marina in Boris Godunov, Fenena in Nabucco, Azucena in Il trovatore, Amneris in Aida, Charlotte in Werther, and The Witch in Hansel and Gretel. She created the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's opera Vanessa on January 15, 1958, and the role of Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra by the same composer, for the opening of new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, on September 16, 1966.
Elias also performed abroad, notably as La Cenerentola with Scottish Opera in 1970, as Carmen at the Vienna State Opera in 1972, and as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1975.
In the realm of live broadcasting, Elias' performance as Bathsheba under the direction of Alfredo Antonini for CBS Television's premiere of Ezra Laderman's opera And David Wept, earned Ellias critical acclaim in 1971.[7][8][9]
She made numerous recordings, including Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro under Erich Leinsdorf, Preziosilla in La forza del destino and Laura in La Gioconda, both opposite Zinka Milanov, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Leonard Warren, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly twice, first opposite Anna Moffo in 1957, and then opposite Leontyne Price in 1962, Azucena in Il trovatore opposite Leontyne Price, Richard Tucker, Giorgio Tozzi, as well as Maddalena in Rigoletto, Meg Page in Falstaff (both under Georg Solti in 1963) and Judith in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. She was the mezzo/contralto soloist in concert works like Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette and the Verdi Requiem. The recording of 'Figaro' under Leinsdorf won a Grammy for Best Classical Performance, Opera Cast or Choral, at the Second Annual Grammy Awards, November 29, 1959.
In recent years, Elias has assumed the role of the Old Baroness in Vanessa, first performing the work at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and later at the Los Angeles Opera in 2004 and at the New York City Opera in 2007.[2]
Still in lustrous voice, Elias played the role of "Heidi Schiller" in a new revival of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical Follies, which ran at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from May 7, 2011 to June 19, 2011.[10] She made her Broadway debut when the musical transferred to Broadway in a limited engagement from August 2011 through January 22, 2012.[11]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Elias
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 05-06-2020
Florian Schneider-Esleben (7 April 1947[1] – after 7 April 2020) was a German musician best known as one of the founding members of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in November 2008.
Florian Schneider-Esleben founded Kraftwerk with Ralf Hütter in 1970.[4] They met in 1968 while studying at the Academy of Arts in Remscheid, then at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, playing improvisational music together in the ensemble Organisation.[4] Before meeting Hütter, Schneider had played with Eberhard Kranemann in the group Pissoff from 1967 to 1968.[5] From 1968 to 1969, Schneider played flute, with Hütter on Hammond organ, Kranemann on bass and Paul Lovens on drums.[6]
Originally, Schneider's main instrument was the flute, which he would treat using electronic effects,[7] including tape echo, ring modulation, pitch-to-voltage converters, fuzz and wah-wah, allowing him to use his flute as a bass instrument. He also played violin (similarly treated), electric guitar (including slide guitar), and made use of synthesizers (both as a melodic instrument and as a sound processor).[4] Later, he also created his own electronic flute instrument. After the release of Kraftwerk's 1974 album, Autobahn, his use of acoustic instruments diminished.[7]
David Bowie titled his "Heroes" instrumental track "V-2 Schneider" after Schneider,[8] and was heavily influenced by Kraftwerk's sound during his "Berlin period" in the late 1970s.[7]
Schneider, speaking in 1991, said: "I had studied seriously up to a certain level, then I found it boring; I looked for other things, I found that the flute was too limiting... Soon I bought a microphone, then loudspeakers, then an echo, then a synthesizer. Much later I threw the flute away; it was a sort of process."[2] Although he had limited keyboard technique, he apparently preferred to trigger the synth sounds through a keyboard (later, developments in sequencing limited the need for hands-on playing).[9]
Schneider's approach was concentrated on sound design (in an interview in 2005, Hütter called him a "sound fetishist")[10] and vocoding/speech-synthesis. One patented implementation of the latter was christened the Robovox, a distinctive feature of the Kraftwerk sound.[9] Hütter said of Schneider's approach:
Quote:He is a sound perfectionist, so, if the sound isn’t up to a certain standard, he doesn’t want to do it. With electronic music there’s no necessity ever to leave the studio. You could keep making records and sending them out. Why put so much energy into travel, spending time in airports, in waiting halls, in backstage areas, being like an animal, just for two hours of a concert? But now, with the Kling Klang studio on tour with us, we work in the afternoon, we do soundchecks, we compose, we put down new ideas and computer graphics. There’s always so much to do, and we do make progress.[10]
Schneider was also known for his comical, enigmatic interviews, although he only seldom gave permission to be interviewed.[11][12][13]
In 2015, Schneider and Dan Lacksman, with the help of Uwe Schmidt, released an electronic ode, "Stop Plastic Pollution", for ocean environment conservation as part of the "Parley for the Oceans" campaign.[14][15]
Schneider did not perform on any of the dates of the Kraftwerk 2008 world tour, with his last performance with the band being in November 2006 in Spain. His position onstage was subsequently filled by Stefan Pfaffe, an associate working for the band as a video technician.[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florian_Schneider
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 05-08-2020
Roy Horn, one of the pair of performers (Siegfried and Roy) of stage acts with lions and tigers and injured severely by one of them in 2003, has died of COVID-19.
RE: Obituaries - pbrower2a - 05-08-2020
One of the last verified crew of the Royal Air Force from the Battle of Britain:
William Terence Montague Clark, DFM, AE (11 April 1919 – 7 May 2020), known as Terry Clark, was a British nightfighter navigator/radar operator in the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1938 to 1945. He, along with John Hemingway, was one of the last two verified surviving aircrew of the Battle of Britain.[1][2][3]
He joined No. 615 Squadron at Kenley in March 1938 as an aircrafthand, then trained to be an aircraft gunner in Hawker Hectors on Army cooperation duties.[3]
He joined No. 219 Squadron at Catterick on 12 July 1940, later training on radar as a radio observer, flying in Bristol Beaufighters.[3]
On the night of 16/17 April 1941 Clark flew with the commanding officer of No. 219 Squadron RAF, Wing Commander T.G. Pike, when his own navigator was taken ill. They intercepted and destroyed a Ju88 and a He111 in the Guildford area.
During the night of 27/28 April, flying with Flying Officer D.O. Hobbis, his regular pilot, Clark assisted in the destruction of an unidentified enemy aircraft, on 1/2 June and 13/14 June they shot down He111's.
Clark was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, which was gazetted on 8 July 1941.
Clark died on 7 May 2020 at the age of 101.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Clark_(RAF_pilot)