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Isabelle Huppert
Cast · Known for The Piano Teacher
Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Described as "one of the best actresses in the world", she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. Nominated for a record sixteen César Awards, she has won two. Among other accolades, she has received six Lumières Award nominations, more than any other person, and won four. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her second on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century. Huppert's first César nomination was for the 1975 film Aloïse. In 1978, she won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for The Lacemaker. She went on to win two Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival, for Violette Nozière (1978) and The Piano Teacher (2001), as well as two Volpi Cups for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, for Story of Women (1988) and La Cérémonie. Her other films in France include Loulou (1980), La Séparation (1994), 8 Women (2002), Gabrielle (2005), Amour (2012), and Things to Come (2016). Among international film's most prolific actresses, Huppert has worked in Italy, Russia, Central Europe, and in Asia. Her English-language films include: Heaven's Gate (1980), The Bedroom Window (1987), I Heart Huckabees (2004), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013), Louder Than Bombs (2015), Greta (2018), and Frankie (2019). In 2016, Huppert garnered international acclaim for her performance in Elle, which earned her a Golden Globe Award, an Independent Spirit Award and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won Best Actress awards from the National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, for both Elle and Things to Come. Also a prolific stage actress, Huppert is the most nominated actress for the Molière Award, with seven nominations. She made her London stage debut in the title role of the play Mary Stuart in 1996, and her New York stage debut in a 2005 production of 4.48 Psychosis. She returned to the New York stage in 2009 to perform in Heiner Müller's Quartett, and in 2014 to star in a Sydney Theatre Company production of The Maids. In 2019, Huppert starred in Florian Zeller's The Mother at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York. Description above from the Wikipedia article Isabelle Huppert, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Annie Girardot
Cast · Known for The Novices, The Piano Teacher
Annie Girardot (25 October 1931 – 28 February 2011) was a French actress. She began performing in 1955, making her film debut in Treize à table. Girardot won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti in 1956, and in 1977 won the César Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in Docteur Françoise Gailland. At the Venice Film Festival she won the Volpi Cup (Best Actress), in 1965 for Trois chambres a Manhattan. In 1992, she was the Head of the Jury at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival. In 2002, she was awarded the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Piano Teacher. She collaborated with director Michael Haneke again, in the 2005 film Caché. Another of her best known roles was as Nadia the prostitute in Luchino Visconti's epic Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960). Nadia's beauty drives a wedge between Rocco and his brother Simone (Renato Salvatori). In contrast to their violent on-camera relationship, Girardot and Salvatori married in 1962. They had a daughter, Giulia, and later separated but never divorced. Description above from the Wikipedia article Annie Girardot, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein (Polish: Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music written by a variety of composers and many regard him as one of the greatest Chopin interpreters of his time. He played in public for eight decades. Artur Rubinstein was born in Łódź, Congress Poland (part of the Russian Empire for the entire time Rubinstein resided there) on 28 January 1887, to a Jewish family. He was the youngest of seven children of Felicja Blima Fajga (née Heiman) and Izaak Rubinstein. His father owned a small textile factory. Rubinstein's birth name was to be Leo, but his eight-year-old brother claimed that "His name must be Artur. Since Artur X (a neighbour's son) plays the violin so nicely, the baby may also become a great musician!". Thus, he was called Artur, although in English-speaking countries, he preferred to be known as Arthur Rubinstein. His United States impresario Sol Hurok, however, insisted he be billed as Artur, and records were released in the West under both versions of his name. At age two, Rubinstein demonstrated absolute pitch and a fascination with the piano, watching his elder sister's piano lessons. By the age of four, he was recognised as a child prodigy. His father had a predilection for the violin and offered Rubinstein a violin; but Rubinstein rejected it because he thought his instinct was for harmony and polyphony. The Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, on hearing the four-year-old child play the piano, was greatly impressed, telling Arthur's family, "This boy may become a very great musician—he certainly has the talent for it... When the time comes for serious study, bring him to me, and I shall be glad to supervise his artistic education." On 14 December 1894, seven-year-old Arthur Rubinstein had his debut with pieces by Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. When he became ten years of age, Rubinstein moved to Berlin to continue his studies, and gave his first performance with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1900, at the age of 13. Joseph Joachim recommended Karl Heinrich Barth as the boy's piano teacher. As a student of Barth, Rubinstein inherited a renowned pedagogical lineage: Barth was himself a pupil of Liszt, who had been taught by Czerny, who had in turn been a pupil of Beethoven. In 1904, Rubinstein moved to Paris to launch his career in earnest, where he met the composers Maurice Ravel and Paul Dukas and the violinist Jacques Thibaud. He also played Camille Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 in the presence of the composer. Through the family of Juliusz Wertheim, whose understanding of Chopin's genius inspired Rubinstein, he formed friendships with the violinist Paul Kochanski and composer Karol Szymanowski. ... Source: Article "Arthur Rubinstein" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Linda Gehringer
Linda Gehringer most recently appeared at the Goodman in The Crowd You're in With during the the 2008/2009 Season. Her New York credits include The Atlantic Theater Company productions of 10x20 and Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow which she originated at South Coast Repertory. Other South Coast Repertory credits include the world premieres of Julia Cho’s The Piano Teacher, Horton Foote’s Getting Frankie Married—and Afterwards, Keith Reddin’s But Not For Me, Richard Greenberg’s The Naked Girl on the Appian Way, Annie Weisman’s Hold Please and the West Coast premieres of The Retreat from Moscow, Peter Hedges’ Good as New, as well asDoubt, Hamlet and All My Sons, among others. Regional credits include roles in productions at La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe Theater, Arena Stage, Centerstage, Huntington Theatre Company, New York Stage and Film, Berkshire Theatre Festival and seven seasons at Dallas Theatre Center. Ms. Gehringer’s television credits include Weeds, Without a Trace, Gilmore Girls, Cold Case, The West Wing, Frasier, Ally McBeal, The Practice, The Larry Sanders Show, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and four seasons on Evening Shade. Film credits include As Good as It Gets. She has received numerous critical awards and holds an MFA from The University of Minnesota.
Zak Orth
Cast · Known for Romeo + Juliet
Zak Orth (born October 15, 1970) is an American comedic actor known for his roles in Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, Melinda and Melinda, In and Out, and Music and Lyrics. He also appeared as a man haunted by psychic visions named Roy in an episode of the Fox series Fringe. Orth was born Adam Zachary Orth in Libertyville, Illinois, the son of Jane, a piano teacher, and Robert Orth, an opera singer. He is good friends with the members of the comedy group Stella and has appeared in many of their short films, as well as their 2005 TV Series. He is also known for his brief role in Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet playing the character Gregory. He is scheduled to be in the upcoming film Vamps with Alicia Sliverstone. He is also one half of The Doilies, a comedic musical group, with Michael Showalter.
Ruth Barrett
Composer · Known for Law & Order: Organized Crime, The Girlfriend, The Terminal List
Ruth Barrett (born 1976) is a British film score composer. Her film score credits include Harry Brown,Twenty8k, and City of Tiny Lights. Her television score credits include The Sister, Bloodlands, Bodyguard,The Durrells,Collateral, Legacy, Law & Order: Organized Crime, and Victoria. For her work on Victoria, Barrett was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series. Barrett was born in Roehampton, London in 1976. She became interested in film and television music at a very young age while watching 1980s reruns of 1970s American television shows. She cites 1978s The Incredible Hulk, Queen's 1980 Flash Gordon Soundtrack, and a number of commercials broadcast throughout the 1980s as childhood inspirations that piqued her interest in music. In her early teens she began improvising compositions around classical pieces with piano teacher and early mentor Nigel Crouch. Ruth went on to study music at Cambridge University, and then music composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She broke into the television industry composing for advertising pitches. Her first full time role was in post-production for ITV, which allowed her to build key relationships with producers and directors, while gaining practical experience composing for documentaries. Barrett also met her future husband, "sound engineer, electronic music aficionado, composer and synth super-geek", Ruskin Williamson while working there. After leaving ITV, she freelanced at Strongroom Studios where she began working with her future mentor and collaborator Martin Phipps. This allowed her to further her industry experience, develop her contacts, and led directly a commission for her first drama score.
Gregor Hološka
Cast · Known for Promise
Gregor Hološka (* July 10, 1977, Myjava) is a Slovak actor and voice actor. je to boss He spent eight years playing the piano. After finishing elementary school, he studied at the gymnasium. Subsequently, he studied acting at VŠMU. In addition, he spent a year studying French and visual arts. After graduating from VŠMU, he applied for an audition at the Ján Palárik Theater in Trnava. He was a member of this theater for 14 years. During that time, he also appeared in the Aréna and Pavle Országh Hviezdoslav theaters on the Small Stage in Bratislava. In addition to acting in theaters and TV series, he also works as a dubbing actor. Gregor Hološka comes from an artistic family, as his father is an artist, his mother is a Slovak language teacher, his sister is a painter and his brother is a sculptor.
Christian Ingebrigtsen
He was born into a musical family. His father Stein Ingebrigtsen was the biggest selling recording artist in Norway in the 1970s. At the age of three, Christian joined his father on tour. He learned to play the violin at six, and later started playing the piano and guitar. At school he concentrated on music and drama, and eventually played the piano at local events and at church. At 16 he started composing his own songs, and as an exchange student in Kentucky in the U.S. he participated in musicals, talent contests and held his own concerts. In 1995 he was given the state award Kentucky Colonel, something he shares with the likes of Bing Crosby, Colonel Sanders and Winston Churchill. In 1996 Ingebrigtsen got into the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), where he studied song-writing and production. In 1998 he was one of 2500 auditioning for a new boyband. A teacher at LIPA recommended Ingebrigtsen to manager Tim Byrne working on putting together the group, and he became the third member of A1, who after becoming a quartet, signed a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1999.
Gabriel Yared
Composer · Known for City of Angels, The Lover
Gabriel Yared (born 7 October 1949) is a Lebanese-French composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Yared scored the French films Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. He later worked on English-language films, particularly those directed by Anthony Minghella. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award for his work on The English Patient (1996) and was nominated for both The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003). When Yared was 7, his father sent him to an accordion teacher. Two years later Yared stopped his accordion lessons and started music theory and piano lessons. Although he was not necessarily a gifted pianist, Yared was interested in reading music. When Yared was 14, his piano teacher died and Yared replaced him as the organist of Université Saint-Joseph. Yared used the university's library to read the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, and many other composers. This extensive reading inspired his first original composition, a piano waltz. Yared gained a degree in law and did not formally study music at the university level until he traveled to France in 1969 to attend the École Normale de Musique de Paris as a non-registered student. There he learned the rules of music composition from Henri Dutilleux. At the end of 1971, Yared went to Brazil to visit his uncle and was asked by the president of the World Federation of Light Music Festivals to write a song to represent the Lebanese in the Rio de Janeiro Song Festival. The song he composed went on to win first prize. While in Brazil, he also performed with a small orchestra. Yared subsequently said that his time in Brazil greatly influenced his work. In 1975, he arranged the album Minacantalucio for the popular Italian singer Mina. He then went back to France, where he met and collaborated with the Costa Brothers, Jacques Dutronc, Françoise Hardy, Charles Aznavour, Mireille Mathieu, and numerous other musicians. This was a prolific period for the composer and he wrote nearly 3,000 pieces over a span of about six years. His contributions included a number of radio and TV jingles, such as TF1 news jingles and an episode on the series In the Tracks of. Yared is best known for his collaborations with the late Anthony Minghella. His first collaboration with Minghella was the 1996 film The English Patient, which was highly acclaimed and won him an Oscar for Best Original Score. He composed the scores for all of Minghella's subsequent films and the music for the television series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, co-created by Minghella and Richard Curtis. Aside from his work with Minghella, Yared scored a number of other films, including Betty Blue (1986), Map of the Human Heart (1992), City of Angels (1998), Message in a Bottle (1999), Autumn in New York (2000), The Next Best Thing (2000), Possession (2002), and Bon Voyage (2003). He had a notable collaboration with René Laloux in the late 1980es on Gandahar and How Wang-fo was saved produced at the SEK Studio in North Korea. Cassandra Clare reported in August 2012 that Yared was tapped to compose the score for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. However, he was eventually replaced on the project by Atli Örvarsson. ... Source: Article "Gabriel Yared" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Chiharu Shigematsu
Cast · Known for Clevatess
Chiharu Shigematsu (重松 千晴, Shigematsu Chiharu, born May 20, 1990) is a Japanese voice actor from Tokyo who is affiliated with Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society (Haikyo). He graduated from Air Agency voice actor training school. After leaving Air Agency, he joined Haikyo on January 1, 2021. His voice type is tenor. Before becoming a voice actor, he was a kindergarten teacher, and it was the children there that inspired him to become a voice actor. His special skills are ghost stories and childcare. His hobbies are playing the piano, baking, singing, and drawing illustrations.
Judith Jamison
Judith Ann Jamison (born May 10, 1943) is an American dancer and choreographer. She is the artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Judith Jamison was born in 1943 to Tessie Brown Jamison and John Jamison Sr. and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her parents and older brother. Her father taught her to play the piano, and violin. She was exposed to the prominent art culture in Philadelphia from a very early age. At the age of six, she began her dance training at Judimar School of Dance. There she studied with Marion Cuyjet who became one of Jamison's early mentors. Under Cuyjet's tutelage, Jamison studied classical ballet, and modern dance. The Judimar studios were treated as a "holy place" and there was always a sense of performance and theatricality in Cuyjet's classes. By the age of eight, Jamison began dancing on pointe and started taking classes in tap, acrobatics, and Dunham technique (which was referred to as "primitive"). A few years later, Cuyjet began sending Jamison to other teachers to advance her dance education. She learned the Cechetti method from Antony Tudor, founder of the Philadelphia Ballet Guild, and studied with Delores Brown Abelson, a graduate of Judimar who pursued a performance career in New York City before returning to Philadelphia to teach. Throughout high school, Jamison was also member of numerous sports organizations, the Glee Club, and the Philadelphia String Ensemble. She studied Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a system that teaches rhythm through movement. At the age of 17, Jamison graduated from Judimar and began her collegiate studies at Fisk University. After three semesters there, she transferred to the Philadelphia Dance Academy (now the University of the Arts) where she studied dance with James Jamieson, Nadia Chilkovsky, and Yuri Gottschalk. In addition to her technique classes, she took courses in Labanotation, kinesiology, and other dance studies. During this time, she also learned the Horton technique from Joan Kerr, which required great strength, balance, and concentration. In 1992, Jamison was inducted into Delta Sigma Theta sorority as an honorary member. In 1964, after seeing Jamison in a master class, Agnes de Mille invited her to come to New York to perform in a new work that she was choreographing for American Ballet Theatre, The Four Marys. Jamison immediately accepted the offer and spent the next few months working with the company. When the performances ended and she found herself in New York without a job, Jamison attended an audition held by Donald McKayle. She felt that she performed very poorly in the audition and claimed, "I felt as if I had two left feet." However, a few days later, a friend of McKayle's, Alvin Ailey, called Jamison to offer her a place in his company – Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. ... Source: Article "Judith Jamison" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, (22 April 1916 – 12 March 1999) was an American-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the great violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius, considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari. Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York City to a family of Lithuanian Jews. Through his father Moshe, he was descended from a rabbinical dynasty. In late 1919, Moshe and his wife Marutha (née Sher) became American citizens, and changed the family name from Mnuchin to Menuhin. Menuhin's sisters were concert pianist and human rights activist Hephzibah, and pianist, painter and poet Yaltah. Menuhin's first violin instruction was at age four by Sigmund Anker (1891–1958); his parents had wanted Louis Persinger to teach him, but Persinger refused. Menuhin displayed exceptional musical talent at an early age. His first public appearance took place as an accompanist to another child prodigy, pianist Viola Walters, at the Imperial Theater’s Golden Hour Saturday matinee on January 21, 1921. Menuhin was five years old at the time. Two years later, when he was seven years old, Menuhin appeared as solo violinist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 1923. Persinger then agreed to teach him and accompanied him on the piano for his first few solo recordings in 1928–29. Julia Boyd records: " On 12 April 1929 it [the Semperoper] cancelled its advertised programme to make way for a performance by the twelve-year-old Yehudi Menuhin. That night he played the Bach, Beethoven and Brahms violin concertos to an ecstatic audience ... The week before, Yehudi had played in Berlin with the Philharmonic under Bruno Walter to an equally rapturous response." A newspaper critic said of his Berlin performance: "There steps a fat little blond boy on the podium, and wins at once all hearts as in an irresistibly ludicrous way, like a penguin, he alternately places one foot down, then the other. But wait: you will stop laughing when he puts his bow to the violin to play Bach's violin concerto in E major no.2." When the Menuhins moved to Paris, Persinger suggested Menuhin go to Persinger's old teacher, Belgian virtuoso and pedagogue Eugène Ysaÿe. Menuhin did have one lesson with Ysaÿe, but he disliked Ysaÿe's teaching method and his advanced age. Instead, he went to Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu, under whose tutelage he made recordings with several piano accompanists, including his sister Hephzibah. He was also a student of Adolf Busch in Basel. He stayed in the Swiss city for a bit more than a year, where he started to take lessons in German and Italian as well. According to Henry A. Murray, Menuhin wrote: "Actually, I was gazing in my usual state of being half absent in my own world and half in the present. I have usually been able to "retire" in this way. I was also thinking that my life was tied up with the instrument and would I do it justice?" — Yehudi Menuhin, personal communication, 31 October 1993. ... Source: Article "Yehudi Menuhin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Art Blakey
Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1940s in the big bands of Fletcher Henderson and Billy Eckstine. He then worked with bebop musicians Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. In the mid-1950s, Horace Silver and Blakey formed the Jazz Messengers, a group that the drummer was associated with for the next 35 years. The group was formed as a collective of contemporaries, but over the years the band became known as an incubator for young talent, including Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Lee Morgan, Benny Golson, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Johnny Griffin, Curtis Fuller, Chuck Mangione, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Cedar Walton, Woody Shaw, Terence Blanchard, and Wynton Marsalis. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz calls the Jazz Messengers "the archetypal hard bop group of the late 50s". Blakey was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1981). Posthumously, he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 1998 and 2001). He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Blakey was born on October 11, 1919, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, probably to a single mother who died shortly after his birth; her name is often cited as Marie Roddicker, or Roddericker, although Blakey's own 1937 marriage license shows her maiden name to have been Jackson. His biological father was Bertram Thomas Blakey, originally of Ozark, Alabama, whose family migrated northward to Pittsburgh sometime between 1900 and 1910. Blakey's uncle, Rubi Blakey, was a popular Pittsburgh singer, choral leader, and teacher who attended Fisk University. Blakey was raised with his siblings by a family friend who became a surrogate mother. According to Leslie Gourse's biography, the surrogate mother / family figure was Annie Parran and her husband Henry Parran Sr. The stories related by family and friends, and by Blakey himself, are contradictory as to how long he spent with the Parran family, but it is clear he spent some time with them growing up. Blakey received some piano lessons at school but also was self-taught. By seventh grade, according to several sources, Blakey was playing music full-time and had begun to take on adult responsibilities, playing the piano to earn money and learning to be a band leader. He switched from piano to drums at an uncertain date in the early 1930s. An oft-quoted account of the event states that Blakey was forced at gunpoint to move from piano to drums by a club owner, to allow Erroll Garner to take over on piano. The veracity of this story is called into question in the Gourse biography, as Blakey himself gives other accounts in addition to this one. The style Blakey assumed was "the aggressive swing style of Chick Webb, Sid Catlett and Ray Bauduc". ... Source: Article "Art Blakey" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Gail Matthius
Cast · Known for Animaniacs
Gail Matthius is an American actress, voice actress and comedian. She was a cast member of NBC's Saturday Night Live during its critical and ratings low point at the time (the 1980–1981 season headed by Jean Doumanian), and co-anchored the Weekend Update segment with Charles Rocket in 1981. Matthius had worked as a comedian in Los Angeles appearing at The Comedy Store before successfully auditioning for Doumanian's cast. In 2015, the magazine Rolling Stone ranked Gail Matthius at, out of 141 cast members, the 74th best of Saturday Night Live, calling her, "A flicker of hope in the Saturday Night Live 1980 debacle, with a sharp valley girl mall-chick character named Vickie. Matthius and Vickie both deserved better." Matthius played the following recurring characters on SNL: Vicki, a valley girl who, along with her friend, Debbie (played by Denny Dillon) annoyed people with their persistent questions and shallow statements. Roweena, a Midwestern-accented hairdresser who often has a neurotic, middle-aged woman named Nadine (played by Denny Dillon) as a frequent customer. Francis Lively, wife to Charles Rocket's Phil Lively, a fellow game show host who lives life at home as if it were just another game show. Her celebrity impersonations included: Brooke Shields, in a parody of the racy Calvin Klein TV ads that featured her, Irene Cara, Nancy Reagan and Mary Cunningham. Following her stint on SNL, Matthius appeared in the short-lived British/American sketch show Assaulted Nuts and the syndicated sketch comedy series Laugh Trax (where she revived her valley girl Vicki character from SNL). She did a good deal of voice acting for animated shows from the late 1980s into the 1990s, including Bobby's World (with Laugh Trax co-star Howie Mandel), Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Bump in the Night and The Tick, often using the voice of her valley girl and Roweena characters from Saturday Night Live (in characters such as Martha, who sounds like Roweena, and Shirley the Loon from Tiny Toon Adventures). She also is a member of the Spolin Players Improv comedy troupe and acts as a drama and theater coach and teacher in Pacific Palisades, CA for various acting studios including Theatre Palisades. She continues to perform as an improv and drama theater actress. In 2016, Matthius appeared in the play For Piano and Harpo by Dan Castellaneta. (Source: Wikipedia)
Hiromi Uehara
Hiromi has been taking classical piano lessons since the age of six, and her teacher also encouraged her understanding of jazz. At twelve, she performed with an orchestra for the first time. At 14, she played with the Czech Philharmonic. At 17, she met Chick Corea and recorded an improvisation for two pianos with him. After further experience, including composing commercials for Nissan, she moved to the United States in 1999 to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Among her mentors at Berklee was Richard Evans, who teaches orchestration. Her debut with the Telarc record label was facilitated by Ahmad Jamal. Richard Evans co-produced her first record, which she recorded before she even graduated. It achieved gold status in Japan in 2003. In 2007, she married Japanese fashion designer Yasuhiro Mihara, and she performed live at Mihara's fashion show in Paris that same year.
Hélène Desputeaux
Creator · Known for Caillou
Hélène Desputeaux is a teacher, writer and illustrator born in Quebec, 1959. She has a bachelor's degree in visual arts from Laval University and a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Quebec in Montreal. She was also a scholarship recipient of the Canadian Music Competitions in piano from 1969 to 1972. She has produced more than a hundred children's books since 1983. She is particularly known for her illustrations of Caillou from 1989 to 1995, before being embroiled in a dispute that sought to make her lose control of her works.
Leo Solomon
Leo Solomon is an award-winning actor with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in acting & theater performance from the Actors Studio Drama School in New York and is a Finalist to become a Lifetime member at the world renowned The Actors Studio where he studies with Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons; a former student and protege of legendary acting teacher and founder of the Method Acting - Lee Strasberg. Leo is conversational in Dari/Farsi, Hindi, Spanish, and French. Leo and his seven brothers grew up in Minnesota and all attended the University of Minnesota, graduating with 18 degrees between them, ranging from PHDs to JDs, MDs and MBAs. Leo is also passionate about playing classical piano. Recognized notably for his recurring role as Rahim on Veep (HBO), his TV credits include Homeland, Blue Bloods, NCIS, Lie to Me and he's won several awards in various feature films under the Best Lead Actor category. Leo's recent performances on Broadway includes performing a reading of Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain by award winning writer Jamil Jan Kochai at The Symphony Space, and Off-Broadway in Sex Work Sex Play by Caytha Jentis.
Helen Schneider
Helen Schneider (born December 23, 1952) is an American singer and actress working mainly in Germany. Helen Leslie Schneider was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of Dvora and Abraham Schneider. Schneider studied piano before forming her own blues band and playing in venues throughout New England and New York. She has had a varied career in music, theater, recording, literature and film. Between 1978 and 1984, she achieved success as a rock singer in Germany; her song "Rock 'n' Roll Gypsy" reached the top 10 record charts and she received a Gold Record Award and shared the Goldene Europa Award with John Lennon. In 1980 she toured with the German rock legend Udo Lindenberg. She played one of the leads in the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers, which has since gained a huge cult following, especially in Germany, where Schneider has name recognition. In 1987, she began her theater career at the Theater des Westens in Berlin playing Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret. From 1995 to 1998, she performed as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard by Andrew Lloyd Webber. From 1999 to 2001, she performed as Eva Perón in the musical Evita at the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele. In 2014 she starred as Judy Garland in the European production of End of the Rainbow. She received enormous acclaim for her one-woman performance pieces: A Walk on the Weill Side, A Voice and A Piano, and Verwandlungen. In 2006 she received the DIVA – German Entertainment Prize for her lifetime achievements. In 2007, Schneider returned to the recording business. She recorded three CDs with Edel Music. For "Dream a Little Dream" she received a golden CD award in jazz. In 2015, she signed with the independent record label SPV. She recorded her first original album in 30 years: "Collective Memory", with music composed by her guitarist, Jo Ambros, and lyrics written by her colleague and book co-author, Linda Uruburu. In 2017 this team followed up with Helen's latest album entitled: "Movin' On". After a few successful Master Classes in 2018 Helen joined the teaching staff of Stage School Hamburg as a teacher of "Song Interpretation". Source: Article "Helen Schneider" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Jessica Jaymes
Born in Anchorage, Alaska to a Czechoslovakian and French mother and a Seminole father who was an under cover DEA agent and patrolmen. In her early years mastering honors art, classical piano and impeccable writing skills, she developed a strong desire to become a school teacher. She attended college. At the early age of 18 she graduated college and began teaching grade 4,5, and 6, ages 9-12. Even though Jessica genuinely enjoyed teaching in April of 2001 she decided to pursue a career in movies, modeling and entertainment. She immediately landed the lead roll in Playboy TV's "Totally Busted", catapulting her to instant stardom. Soon after she started doing hardcore movies. She passed away in 2019 from a seizure after years of alcohol abuse.
Marissa Orjalo
Marissa Orjalo is an award-winning Filipina-Canadian multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. She began acting at the age of five, with film & television credits including ReGenesis, The Smart Woman Survival Guide, and Going Up. Marissa is a respected actor, composer, singer, playwright, teacher, and academic within the Toronto theatre community. Marissa is a trained classical opera singer and classical piano player with the Royal Conservatory of Music. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto & Sheridan College's Theatre and Drama Studies Program. Marissa furthered her studies with a Master of Arts, supported by the Joseph Armand Bombardier 2021 SSHRC award, researching Filipinx theatre methodologies in Canadian rehearsal rooms. She additionally completed Stratford Festival's Birmingham Conservatory in 2024. Alongside her acting endeavors, Marissa is also the Artistic Producer at fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company and is also an Artist Educator at Studio 180 Theatre.
Jacqueline du Pré
Jacqueline du Pré, was born into a middle-class English family in Oxford on 26 January 1945. Hers was a musical household, and at the age of four the young Jackie was famously struck by the sound of a cello playing on the radio. She told her mother, ‘I want to make that sound'. Cello and piano lessons followed with her mother Iris, a concert pianist and, by all accounts, an inspirational teacher who turned her children’s music lessons into a journey of play and discovery. She moved on to lessons with the celebrated cellist William Pleeth (whom she nicknamed her ‘cello-daddy’) at the age of 10. At the age of 17 she astonished audiences and critics with her fiery performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, a work that has remained synonymous with her name ever since. Du Pré embarked on a glittering international career, performing and recording with fellow young musical stars such as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim, whom she married in 1967. But just six years later in 1973 the increasing ill health she had begun to experience was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. She was just 28 when her playing career came to an end, but she continued, while she was able, to teach and give masterclasses. She died in October 1987 at the age of 42.
Robby Haynes
Robby Haynes is a multi-talented self styled actor, script writer & director starring in Fighting Talk , Space Bandits: Fight for Extant and appearing in Disney blockbuster live action remakes Will Smith Aladdin (2019) (2019) and Artemis Fowl (2020). The fact is, Robby was born and grew up in North London, UK in the mid-70s. It was difficult enough without being black, one of four siblings in a single parent (Catherine Sargeant) household struggling to make ends meet. The only escape from his impoverished existence was discovering at eleven years old, the joys of the theatre attached to his brand new secondary school. Robby finally found creative, expressive freedom there where he could hone and develop his chosen craft. He met some good, fun-loving friends, the teachers gravitated towards him, nurtured and encouraged him to explore his musical (piano, trumpet, drums, guitar) technical (lighting, effects, sound) writing, directing and acting abilities, appearing in every theatre production throughout his education. Completely immersed in the entertainment industry, Robby is now directing his debut films 'Fighting Talk' and 'Space Bandits: Fight For Extant'. He is an accomplished writer, actor, award-winning producer and casting agent, often spotted lurking on film and TV locations searching for emerging talents. He is firmly established in the film and music industry and is also known for music artists tour management, video producing and directing. Robby is kind but driven and passionate about his way of life. He can be tough and straight-talking on set but, when asked, he is honest in his opinions. His wish is to impart his industry knowledge to those that show similar traits, as his mentors did for him whilst growing up. Robby lives & works in London and Hertfordshire.
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and his oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Marsalis is the only musician to have won a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical categories in the same year. Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1961, and grew up in the suburb of Kenner. He is the second of six sons born to Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and Ellis Marsalis Jr., a pianist and music teacher. He was named after jazz pianist Wynton Kelly. Branford Marsalis is his older brother and Jason Marsalis and Delfeayo Marsalis are younger. All three are jazz musicians. While sitting at a table with trumpeters Al Hirt, Miles Davis, and Clark Terry, his father jokingly suggested that he might as well get Wynton a trumpet, too. Hirt volunteered to give him one, so at the age of six Marsalis received his first trumpet. Although he owned a trumpet when he was six, he did not practice much until he was 12. He attended Benjamin Franklin High School and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He studied classical music at school and jazz at home with his father. He played in funk bands and a marching band led by Danny Barker. He performed on trumpet publicly as the only black musician in the New Orleans Civic Orchestra. After winning a music contest at fourteen, he performed Joseph Haydn's trumpet concerto with the New Orleans Philharmonic. Two years later he performed Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Bach. At seventeen, he was one of the youngest musicians admitted to Tanglewood Music Center. Marsalis applied to only two music colleges, the Juilliard School and Northwestern University. He was accepted to both schools and chose to attend the former. In 1979, he moved to New York City to attend the Juilliard School for a Bachelor of Music in trumpet performance, leaving in 1981 without earning a degree. He intended to pursue a career in classical music. In 1980, he toured Europe as a member of the Art Blakey band, becoming a member of The Jazz Messengers and remaining with Blakey until 1982. He changed his mind about his career and turned to jazz. He has said that years of playing with Blakey influenced his decision. He recorded for the first time with Blakey and one year later he went on tour with Herbie Hancock. After signing a contract with Columbia, he recorded his first solo album. In 1982, he established a quintet with his brother Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Charnett Moffett, and Jeff "Tain" Watts. When Branford and Kenny Kirkland left three years later to record and tour with Sting, Marsalis formed a quartet, this time with Marcus Roberts on piano, Robert Hurst on double bass, and Watts on drums. After a while, the band expanded to include Wessell Anderson, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, Herlin Riley, Reginald Veal, and Todd Williams. ... Source: Article "Wynton Marsalis" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
György Sebők
György Sebők (November 2, 1922 – November 14, 1999) was a Hungarian-born American pianist and professor at the Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. He was known worldwide as a soloist with major orchestras, a recitalist on four continents, a recording artist, and for his master classes, visiting professorships, and the Swiss music festival he organized in Ernen. He was born in Szeged, Hungary on November 2, 1922. Sebők gave his first solo piano recital at age 11. At 14, he played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 under conductor Ferenc Fricsay—a performance upon which he would reflect many years later. He enrolled in the Franz Liszt Academy at the age of 16, under the guidance of Zoltán Kodály and Leo Weiner. After graduating, he gave concerts for ten years throughout Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. He won the Grand Prix du Disque in 1957. Sebők was listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Music, the National Register of Prominent Americans, and other biographical dictionaries. He received numerous honors, including the Cross of Merit of the Hungarian Government, La Medaille de la Ville de Paris, Echelon Vermeille, and, in 1996, Kulturpreis des Staates Wallis, (Prix de Consecration). Also in 1996, the French Government bestowed on him the decoration Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1949, he was named professor of music at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest. After the Hungarian revolt of 1956, he settled in Paris. Encouraged by his cellist friend János Starker, at the age of forty, he went to Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, starting what is considered to be the most productive phase of his career. Jeremy Denk dedicated his memoir "Every Good Boy Does Fine: A Love Story in Music Lessons" to Sebők, and wrote about the profound impact that Sebők had upon his musical upbringing and career. Sebők was a guest professor of the Berlin Hochschule der Kunste (HDK) in Germany, there teaching master classes twice a year. He was also an honorary life member of Tokyo's Toho School of Music, and a regular guest teacher at the Banff Centre for Arts; the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium, the School of Music in Barcelona, and the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart. In 1974 he founded and organized annual summer master classes in Ernen, Switzerland for pianists and 'other instruments', and the following year he was a member the jury for the first Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition. He also founded and directed the "Festival der Zukunft" in Ernen in 1987, which is to this day carrying his legacy with growing numbers of concertgoers. The city's officials made him an honorary citizen—only their third in 800 years. ... Source: Article "György Sebők" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.