After fleeing Czechoslovakia following the 1968 Soviet invasion, he made an international career. He was music director/chief conductor of the Cologne Radio Symphony (1970-74), the NDR Radiphilharmonie in Hannover (1980-1983), the Milwaukee Symphony (1986-1995), New Jersey Symphony (1993-2002), and, in a triumphant return to his homeland, the Czech Philharmonic (2003-2007). - NJArts.net
“To everyone who read that article, I want to answer the question that’s probably on your mind: Underneath all that pomade, is Hasan Minhaj just a con artist who uses fake racism and Islamophobia to advance his career? Because after reading that article, I would also think that.” - The Hollywood Reporter
Within the contemporary art world, Mr. Irwin’s work on human attention and perception — he called it, with a nod to scientific research, an “inquiry” into perception — was highly influential; he won a MacArthur “genius” award in 1984. - The New York Times
"Dubbed the first Black action hero, Roundtree became one of the faces of the 1970s blaxploitation movement when he starred as the street-smart New York sleuth." He appeared in more than a dozen other features and several television series. - The Hollywood Reporter
"(Zelia Nuttall) was the first to decode the Aztec calendar and identify the purposes of ancient adornments and weapons. She untangled the organization of commercial networks and transcribed ancient songs. … Having taught herself Nahuatl, she was the first to transcribe and translate ancient manuscripts." - Smithsonian Magazine
"Over the years, Mr. Lutvak wrote several musicals that were staged in regional theaters and Off-Off-Broadway. But none were nearly as successful as A Gentleman’s Guide.' … The show opened in November 2013 and ran for 905 performances over more than two years," winning four Tony Awards. - The New York Times
The former Italian prime minister, who died in June, bought many of the paintings and sculptures from late-night telesales programmes. Managing the extensive collection is proving a headache for his descendants. - BBC
Anderson wrote approximately 4,000 pieces for the Times. He "combined a historian’s learnedness with an enthusiast’s ardor for what was new and surprising." - The New York Times
Justine Triet, director of Anatomy of a Fall, spoke out against French film funding after she won the Palme d'Or at Cannes - and then her film wasn't chosen for France's nominee to the Academy Awards. - The Observer (UK)
Swift is that rare artist who’s been rolling along, picking up new fans and keeping the old, during her long career. Just as Taylor has reinvented herself, giving some lyrics little tweaks in her re-recordings, different iterations of me, and everyone, have had our own evolutions. - Washington Post
"The son of a Bronx pool-hall owner and numbers runner, Mr. Patrick was raised in a milieu sprinkled with the grifters, hustlers and mobsters who would eventually become characters in his novels, which also included Family Business (1985) and Smoke Screen (1999)." - The New York Times
“I should be slowing down, I know, but each time I try to slow down something happens, and I have to get on the trail again. You see, I am deprived of that sense of inner tranquility once I turn my back on a situation." - Literary Hub
“Steve Rubin did more for music criticism than anybody — first, in the searching articles he wrote as a young man; later, as a brilliant editor and meticulous judge of talent; and then as the founder and guiding force behind the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism." - San Francisco Classical Voice
"Bley was a force in jazz even before she made her first albums, her compositions recorded by notable modernists of the 1960s. … (She became) the pianist behind some of the most beloved compositions in the jazz canon, who recorded over two dozen albums between 1966 and 2019." - NPR
“In an era of cancellation and defenestration we sometimes forget that we cannot go on like this and that we have been here before. We know this because our greatest writers and artists have addressed this question in their own times." - Variety
