Emanuel Vardi, Israeli-born American violist, died from cancer he was , 95

Emanuel Vardi  an Israeli-American violist, was considered to have been one of the great viola players of the 20th century, died from cancer he was , 95.

(21 April 1915  – 29 January 2011)

Early life

Emanuel Vardi was born April 21, 1915 in Jerusalem. His mother, Anna Joffa Vardi, had a piano studio with many students and started Emanuel on piano at about age 3. His father, Joseph Vardi had a violin studio and also started his son out on his instrument at about the age of 3. The family came to the United States in 1920 via Paris, France, aboard a ship called ""the Asia" to escape the pogroms in the Middle East.
He continued studying both piano and violin until about age 7, when he forwent piano to focus on violin. He played Mozart's Fantasy in D-minor at a recital at age 9. The next day the New York Herald Tribune came out with an article by Charles Isaacson where he said, "Keep a lookout for this future pianist".
At age 12, his father found out about the Juilliard School, and filled out a submission form which was accepted. Then when they showed up for the audition, the jury expected his father to play. But his father pointed to Emanuel and said "no, he will be the one playing". They accepted Emanuel, but since the age limit was 16, he was sent to the Institute of Musical Art, where he studied under Constance Seeger, mother of folk singer Pete Seeger.

Around age 14, Constance got him into the private Walden School, since the public schools wouldn't allow him sufficient daily practice time. She arranged for him to have 2 to 3 hours of practice daily. While there he was dubbed Mani by one of his teachers, Mr. Hill.
About age 15, Emanuel dropped out of school for a time as a sort of teenage rebellion and lived with his friend Zack Baratz. Constance noticed he wasn't in school, coaxed him to return to his studies and then he was invited to return to Juilliard.

Career

In 1942, Vardi received the “Recitalist of the Year” award from the New York music critics for the best New York recital following his Town Hall debut.
He had the distinction of being asked to perform a solo recital at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.
Vardi is one of one two violists in the world to have ever given a solo recital in Carnegie Hall.
He taught at the Manhattan School of Music and Temple University.
In crossing musical genres of classical and jazz, he toured and performed with jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong and Al Hirt.
In the early 1960s, Vardi worked for Audio Fidelity Records in New York as producer.
In 1985, Vardi was featured in a full-length article in Strad Magazine, and in 2003 he was honored with a lengthy interview in the American Viola Society Journal, with his painting “Homage to a Great Violist” appearing on the front cover.
Due to an accident in 1993, Vardi lost the use of his shoulder, forcing him to retire from the viola. After his accident Vardi continued with his painting and art endeavors. Emanuel Vardi died at the age of 95 on January 29th of 2011.

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Raymond Cohen, British violinist died he was , 91.

Raymond Cohen  was an English classical violinist died he was , 91..



(27 July 1919 - 28 January 2011)

Biography

Early life and education

Born in 27 July 1919 in Manchester into a musical family (his father being his first violin teacher) and educated at Manchester Grammar School. At the age of fifteen he won the Adolph Brodsky scholarship to the Manchester College of Music. There he studied with Henry Holst, former leader of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and was soon recognized as a soloist of extraordinary promise. It was not long before he began playing in the Halle Orchestra as their youngest ever member.

Career

Two summers were spent leading an orchestra in Blackpool where he gained an enormous amount of experience and pleasure playing music ranging from "The White Horse Inn" to Beethoven symphonies and appearing twice a week as soloist. With the war looming, and whilst still at college, he appeared as soloist in concerts and broadcasts throughout the North of England; and to crown all this, at the age of 19 he played the Bach, Mendelssohn and Brahms concertos with the Halle Orchestra in one memorable evening. A few weeks later he was in the army.
He spent 6 years in the Royal Corps of Signals Band, playing the clarinet but still practising the violin at every available opportunity, learning new repertoire, and even playing the odd movement of a violin concerto (Mendelssohn's in e minor) with the Band. By the time he was demobilized, he had a repertoire of nearly 40 violin concertos. Whilst still in uniform he won the first Carl Flesch International Violin Competition. This brought him to the notice of the musical world and soon led to concerts and recitals all over Britain and Europe.
By this time he was living in London, and alongside his solo career, was always in demand as a chamber music player and orchestral leader as well as a teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music and continues to teach privately. He was leader of the Goldsborough Orchestra (later to become the English Chamber Orchestra) and led most of the country's leading chamber orchestras as well as the Philharmonia, the London Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestras. In 1959, at the invitation of Sir Thomas Beecham, he was appointed leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He held that position for six years. One of the highlights of that period was his appearance as soloist at the Royal Festival Hall with the RPO and Beecham in the Goldmark concerto.
During the six years as leader he was still in demand as soloist and after leaving the orchestra he extended this area of his career. He appeared as soloist and recitalist with his wife Anthya Rael, in countries as far flung as the USA, New Zealand, Russia, and South Africa, as well as appearing frequently in Britain and Europe. He was soloist with such conductors as Barbirolli, Sargent, Kletski, Kempe, Monteux, Boult and Beecham, and among his "firsts" were the first performance in Britain of the Kabalevsky concerto and the Shostakovich sonata, the first performance of the Skalkottas concerto in the composer's native Greece (Athens Festival), the first artist to appear on British television playing a violin concerto (the Mendelssohn), and the first performance on video in England of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Marriage and children

In 1953 he married the pianist Anthya Rael. She had come from her native South Africa to study with the legendary pianist and teacher Illona Kabos. They have two children; Gillian is a violinist and Robert, an internationally renowned cellist. Raymond and Robert have given duo recitals and appeared together in the Brahms Double concerto; Anthya joined them to form the Cohen Trio. in 1993 Raymond was featured in a BBC radio programme called "The Musical World of Raymond Cohen" in which the entire family took part.

Discography

RAYMOND COHEN AND ANTHYA RAEL Beethoven Ten Sonatas for Violin and Piano Op.12,23,24,30,47,96 Meridian Records
Dvorak Four Romantic Pieces CRD Records
THE COHEN TRIO Dvorak The Complete Piano Trios Op21,26,65,90 CRD Records

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Sushil Kumar Dhara, Indian revolutionary died he was , 99.

Sushil Kumar Dhara was a revolutionary in British India and a political leader after Indian independence in 1947died he was , 99..

(2 March 1911 – 28 January 2011)

Dhara was born on 2 March 1911 in Tikarampur (near Tamluk) in Mahisadal in the present Purba Medinipur district. He was involved in political activities from his school days.^[1] Dhara was entrusted the portfolios of war and home in Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (Tamralipta National Government) formed during the `42 movement. He also commanded Vidyut Bahini (the lightning brigade) of the parallel Government in Tamluk.^[2] In 1944 the government of British India declared a reward of ten thousand Rupees for Dhara's apprehension, dead or alive. He spent 12 years 4 months in jails in British India.^[1]
He won several elections after independence of India, including the Mahisadal seat to West Bengal state assembly in 1962, 1967, 1969 and 1971.^[3] He had served as minister in the state government.^[1]
Dhara was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977 from Tamluk constituency.^[4] In the 1980s he moved away from active politics and involved himself in social work.^[1]
Sushil Kumar Dahra died on 28 January 2011 in Mahishadal, only 5 weeks before he was to turn 100.

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Dariush Homayoon, Iranian politician and journalist, Minister of Information and Tourism (1977–1978) died he was , 82

Daryoush Homayoun  was an Iranian journalist, author, intellectual, and politician  died he was , 82. He was the Minister of Information and Tourism in the cabinet of Jamshid Amouzegar, founder of the daily newspaper Ayandegan, and one-time high-ranking member of the Rastakhiz party. In exile he became one of the founders of the Constitutionalist Party of Iran. He was famous for his analytical writings and largely impartial assessment of history. His outspoken manner, criticizing the Islamic Republic with harsh tones, but also directing his criticism at the Pahlavi policies, earned him respect of many, while at the same time creating many enemies. He was one of the most influential Iranian opposition leaders in exile.

(27 September 1928 – 28 January 2011)

Youth

Homayoun was born in Tehran on 27 September 1928 and began his involvement in the political sphere at the age of fourteen. In his younger years he was member of several Iranian parties, generally with nationalist views opposing the rise of leftist ideas and the influence of the Tudeh party, such as SUMKA. He began as a supporter of Mohammad Mossadegh but was imprisoned during Mossadegh's premiership.

Journalistic and political career

In the years following 1953, Homayoun finished his university studies, obtaining a doctorate in political science from the University of Tehran. He worked at the Iranian daily Ettelaat and later founded the highly successful daily newspaper Ayandegan. In the cabinet of Jamshid Amouzegar, he became the minister of information and tourism. Following the events leading up to the Iranian Revolution, he was arrested in the autumn of 1978, together with many other former officials whom the monarchy tried to use as scapegoats in order to prevent its own eventual downfall. He escaped prison on February 12, 1979, just after the revolution, and went into hiding. Fifteen months later, he left Iran through the border with Turkey and went to Paris.

Exile

In exile, Homayoun, was an influential political analyst, writer, and opposition leader. In the nineties he initiated and helped create the Constitutionalist Party of Iran, a political party seeking to establish a liberal democrat Iran.

Death

Daryoush Homayoun died on 28 January 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland at the age of 82.

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Megan McNeil, Canadian singer, died from adrenal cancer she was , 20.

Megan McNeil  was a Canadian singer from North Delta, British Columbia, Canada died from adrenal cancer she was , 20.. She was the only child of Dave and Suzanne McNeil and was diagnosed in 2006 with Adrenalcortical Carcinoma, a rare type of adrenal cancer when she was just 16. She studied at Seaquam Secondary and graduated   in  2008. She also attended Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey   for  Sciences. She beat cancer three times, but succumbed during her   fourth  battle.[1]

(September 7, 1990 – January 28, 2011)

"The Will to Survive"

   Megan McNeil gained media attention when she recorded a charity single written by her entitled The Will to Survive[2] as a tribute to tens of thousands of cancer-fighting children and youth. The lyrics include:

  Here’s to the fight

  Here’s to the fighters

  Here’s to the brave that take this on

  Here’s to the lost souls

  Here’s to the new hope

  We’ll keep on keeping on

Megan   McNeil wrote the lyrics in 2006 just 2 months after being  diagnosed   with cancer. The song was recorded in 2010 at Nimbus School of    Recording Arts with producer Garth Richardson.[3] The song was arranged by Ryan McMahon. A music video was shot by    director Tash Baycroft. The proceeds from the single went to childhood    cancer organizations.

Death

She died on January 28, 2011 in the company of family and friends after battling the disease for 4 years.[4]

In popular media

• Her   story touched millions across Canada and the United States  through   many media appearances in promoting childhood cancer awareness  and the   British Columbia Childhood Cancer Parents' Association (BCCCPA)  and The   James Fund[5] charities. She also appeared in features in Europe.[6]
 
• CTV Television Network's program Canada AM selected McNeil's story one of the best of 2010
 
• CBC News selected hers as the most inspirational story of the year in Canada

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Dame Margaret Price, British soprano, died from heart failure she was , 69.

 Dame Margaret Berenice Price, DBE  was a Welsh soprano died from heart failure she was , 69..

(13 April 1941 – 28 January 2011)[1]

Early years

Price was born in Blackwood, Wales. Born with deformed legs, she was operated on at age four and suffered pain in her legs the rest of her life. She often looked after her younger brother John who was born with a mental handicap.^[2] The family had ties in Cardigan and north Pembrokeshire and often spent their summer holiday in Moylegrove .^[3]

Her father, a talented amateur pianist, was opposed to a musical career, and hence she never attended a young Eisteddfod and was aiming for a career as a biology teacher. She was educated at Pontllanfraith Secondary School, near Caerphilly. At 15, her school music teacher organised an audition with Charles Kennedy Scott, who convinced her to study with him at Trinity College of Music in London and obtained a scholarship for her. Over the next few years, Price was trained as a mezzo soprano.^[2][4]

Career

After graduation, she joined the Ambrosian Singers, performing with them on the soundtrack of the 1961 Charlton Heston film El Cid.^[2]
Unrecognised through the normal channel of competitions, she was championed by her now-converted father, who wrote to opera houses to arrange auditions. As a result, Price made her operatic debut in 1962, singing Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Welsh National Opera.^[2]
After her father wrote to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1962, she auditioned and was turned down twice by musical director Georg Solti who said that she "lacked charm".^[2] However, she was accepted as an understudy, thanks to casting director Joan Ingpen, and she formed of a close personal and professional relationship with composer James Lockhart.^[2] Solti added a rider to her contract, stating that she should never expect to sing lead in the main house, so she sang minor roles as a mezzo.^[2] Her breakthrough came in 1963 when Teresa Berganza cancelled a performance and Price got the chance to take over as her nominated understudy, again in the role of Cherubino, a performance that made her famous overnight.^[4]
After that, Lockhart convinced Price to take further singing lessons to improve her technique and develop the luminous high range that made her one of the most popular lyric sopranos of the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1967, she performed with Benjamin Britten’s English Opera Group in The Impresario, and as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1968, critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor called her singing “brilliant, flexible and large scale” as Constanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Glyndebourne.^[2]
As Price did not enjoy travelling, she always kept a "home" stage, where she stayed and performed for the majority of each year. Initially this was Covent Garden, but from 1971 she made Germany her base, initially at Cologne Opera where she made her debut in Don Giovanni, and latterly the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where she lived until retirement in 1999.^[4] Price hence formed a professional relationship with Otto Klemperer, who conducted her first recording of a major role in a complete opera - Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte. The 1972 recording established Price as a Mozart specialist.^[5]
In the years that followed, Price appeared as a guest at important opera houses. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1985 as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello.
In 1989 she appeared in the WNO production of Salome at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, in a performance attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales.^[6]

Repertoire

Price was most famous for her Mozart portraits, especially Fiordiligi, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the Contessa in The Marriage of Figaro (after having sung Cherubino and Barbarina at the beginning of her career), and Pamina in The Magic Flute. Additionally, she sang Verdi roles, such as Amelia (Un ballo in maschera, a role she also recorded with Luciano Pavarotti), Elisabetta (Don Carlos) and Desdemona (Otello), her debut role at the Met, as well as Aida (also with Pavarotti in San Francisco, which was preserved on video), Richard Strauss's Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea.
Price was also very active as a lieder singer, equally at home in the romantic idiom of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann or Richard Strauss and the Second Viennese School.
During her career, Price made many recordings of operas and of lieder. One of her most famous recordings is the Isolde in Carlos Kleiber's complete recording of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, a role she never sang on stage. She was a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera.

[edit] Later years

Price retired to a 160-year-old farmhouse on Ceibwr Bay, part of Moylegrove near Cardigan, Ceredigion, overlooking the Irish Sea. From there, she successfully bred and showed Golden Retrievers, having the rear seats of her Chrysler removed to create what she termed a “dogmobile.”^[2] She came out of retirement once to perform at a Poppy day concert at her local church, something she later commented on: “It was the most nerve-racking occasion of my life. Never again will I sing in public.”^[2]
Price was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to music in 1993.^[7]
Price died on 28 January 2011 from heart failure at her home in Ceibwr, aged 69.^[2][3][4]

Honours

• Bayerische Kammersängerin^[4]
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 1982
• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), 1993

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Charlie Callas, American comedian and actor (Silent Movie, Switch) died he was , 83.

Charlie Callas  was an American comedian and actor most commonly known for his work with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin and his many stand-up appearances on television talk shows in the 1970s. He was also known for his role as Malcolm Argos, the restaurant owner and former con man, on the Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner television series Switch.
Tony Belmont, executive director of the National Comedy Hall of Fame in St. Petersburg, FL [1] said about Mr. Callas, "There were two things he could do that made his career, He could think very fast on his feet, and he had an unbelievable number of sounds that he made with his voice. He would tell a joke about two guys hunting. If you or I told it, the joke wasn't so funny. But Charlie made it hysterical by sticking in these sounds; so you would hear the gun cocking, the duck flying overhead, the explosion of the shotgun and then the duck falling and screaming all the way to the ground." ^[1]

(December 20, 1927 – January 27, 2011)   Life and career

Callas was born in 1927 in Brooklyn, New York as Charles Callias and served in the United States Army during World War II. He began his career as a drummer playing in groups with Bernie Cummins,^[2] Tommy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and Buddy Rich.^[3] He dropped a vowel from his legal name, Callias, when he took to the stage.
Callas was known for his rubbery face, trademark nervous chattering and dark comedy. His first television appearance was in 1963 on "The Hollywood Palace," and then soon was opening for Frank Sinatra in nightclubs around the country. He made nearly 50 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. On September 21, 1982 on The Tonight Show, Mr. Callas was "bombing" and Mr. Carson made a whistling sound of a bomb failing; in comic reaction, Mr. Callas "shoved" Mr. Carson. Mr. Carson was annoyed at the gesture and told Mr. Callas that he would never again appear on his show, and never did. ^[4]

He also appeared on The Andy Williams Show at various times as "Captain Weird", a parody of superheroes. Callas' only known dramatic role was that of a restaurant owner, Malcolm Argos, in the 1970s show, Switch. He was also a regular performer on The ABC Comedy Hour in 1972.^[3] He was a semi-regular on "The Flip Wilson Show" and co-host of the "The Joey Bishop Show."
His two most recent television appearances were on the Larry The Cable Guy's Christmas Spectacular (2007) and the Larry The Cable Guy's Star-Studded Christmas Extravaganza (2008).

Death

Charlie Callas died on January 27, 2011 from natural causes at age 83 in his home in Las Vegas, Nevada The Associated Press reported that he is survived by his sons, Mark and Larry. His wife, Evelyn, passed away at 80 in July 2010. ^[5]

Big break

Appearing on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show in 1965, one of the guests, Jerry Lewis, practically fell off his chair in hysterics as Callas performed his hunting routine. Lewis turned to Griffin and said he had to use Callas in his current project. The one appearance on the Griffin show landed Callas a role in the 1967 Lewis' film, The Big Mouth. Lewis recalled the story on his short lived 1984 talk show in which Callas served as his sidekick and performed the hunting routine. ^[6]

Filmography

• The Big Mouth (1967) — Rex
• Switch (TV) (1975–1978) — Malcolm Argos
• Silent Movie (1976) — Blindman
• Pete's Dragon (1977) (voice) — Elliott
• High Anxiety (1977) — Cocker Spaniel
• The Carepenters....Space Encounters (1978) - Charlie
• Legends of the Superheroes (1979) — Sinestro
• History of the World: Part I (1981) — Soothsayer
• Hysterical (1983) — Count Dracula
• The Dom DeLuise Show (TV) (1987) — Charlie
• Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) — Himself
• Silk Stalkings (TV) (1993) — El Cid
• Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) — Man in Straitjacket
• Horrorween 3D (2010)

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