Category: people

Did Boston University musicology professor John Daverio try to end his life in the same way as one of his great heroes, Robert Schumann? Daverio’s body surfaced in the Charles Monday night after he had been missing since March 16. Daverio wrote the 1997 biography ‘Robert Schumann: Herald of a New Poetic Age’, which of course mentions the brilliant, disturbed composer’s attempt to commit suicide at age 44 by throwing himself into the Rhine…”

“At heart, JP Getty II was a scholar manque. His greatest passion was his collection of rare books, which included a number of priceless medieval manuscripts; and only recently he paid Oriel College, Oxford, £3.5 million for a First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays. He absorbed himself not only in the texts and their provenance, but also in the practical art of fine book-binding. He was a cinema buff and an authority on the work of Howard Hawks and Charlie Chaplin; his video library was vast. He also had a wide knowledge of music. At the other end of the scale, Getty was an inveterate watcher of television soap operas, with a particular affection for the Australian series Neighbours.”

Every professional requires proper training, and luthiers, the mysterious perfectionists who construct the violins, violas, and cellos used by the world’s musicians, are no exception. But your average university doesn’t offer a major in fingerboard shaving, or even a seminar in perfling. So where do budding luthiers turn for instruction in their craft? A surprising percentage turn to the teaching shop of a single man. In fact, the proliferation of American luthiers is largely due to the efforts of one Peter Prier, of Salt Lake City.

A body pulled from Boston’s Charles River this week has been positively identified as that of musicologist John Daverio, who disappeared last month. Daverio was a professor at Boston University, and was considered one of the world’s leading authorities on the music of Robert Schumann. Medical authorities say that Daverio drowned, but the circumstances surrounding his death are still a mystery, with his colleagues and friends dismissing the possibility of suicide.

Art critic Robert Hughes has admitted guilt in the car accident he caused in Australia in 1999. “A Perth court fined him A$2,500 (£960, $1,500) after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm. Prosecutors said Hughes was driving on the wrong side of the road when the crash happened. But he said he does not remember anything about the head-on accident 120 km (75 miles) south of Broome.”

A British television show has created a stockmarket out of celebrities. Viewers “give real celebrities a ‘share price’ and ‘invest’ in them by predicting whether their ‘stock’ will rise or fall. ‘Celebdaq’ (its awkward name stems from Nasdaq) was created for the British Broadcasting Corp. last summer as a Web site, but this year it has also become a controversial Friday night TV show on the new digital channel BBC3, which is targeting an audience aged 25 to 34. The show has the look of a financial news channel. The stock value of some 250 celebrities – actors, musicians, sportsmen and the famous-for-being-famous – crawls across the bottom of the screen like tickertape. Stars have their own abbreviations: SALHAY is Salma Hayek, SANBUL is Sandra Bullock.”

Charlotte Church’s holiday in Hawaii has been ruined by a terrible telephone row with her mother. Heading abroad with her ‘disreputable’ boyfriend, Steven, Charlotte was photographed at the airport in a pink T-shirt which read: ‘My Barbie is a Crack Whore’. This didn’t play too well with Mum back home.”

Daniel Libeskind is a brilliant architect. But he has one other skill that is almost as developed. He’s a salesman. “Sales is the right word, because we live in the marketplace, not only in terms of selling and buying but in the marketplace of ideas. It’s a democratic city, democratic country, and that’s how civic projects get developed. They’re certainly not going to be done in an ivory tower somewhere – take it or leave it. Either you interact and communicate what you’re doing or you’re really cynical and should not be involved in civic art.”

American playwright Arthur Miller has been chosen to receive the presitgious Jerusalem Prize. “The prize, awarded every two years, singles out literary achievements in the field of freedom of the individual in society, the prize committee said in a statement.”

Conductor John Eliot Gardiner “heads the list of most recorded, and most awarded, musicians in history. He has wealth, a knighthood, a captivating wife, charisma. At home in several languages and an accomplished historian, he is also infuriatingly brainy. Put another way, he is ambitious, self-centred, workaholic, privileged, caustic. Human nature is not always generous to those who win.”