Agnes Martin *III 22 1912 — The Life You Give

Agnes Martin, born March 22 1912, in Macklin, Sask., Canada, was a painter. She moved to the U.S. in 1931 and became a U.S. citizen in 1950. She studied at Columbia University and taught at the University of New Mexico. In 1958 she had her first solo exhibition. Martin was a prominent exponent of geometric… Continue reading Agnes Martin *III 22 1912 — The Life You Give

Ornette Coleman *III 9 1930 — The Life You Give

Ornette Coleman, born Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman, on March 9, 1930, in Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A., is the jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who was the principal initiator and leading exponent of free jazz in the late 1950s. Coleman began playing alto, then tenor saxophone as a teenager and soon became a working musician in… Continue reading Ornette Coleman *III 9 1930 — The Life You Give

Grace Bumbry *I 4 1937 — The Life You Give

Grace Bumbry is a pioneering Mezzo & Soprano. Few mezzo-sopranos have successfully made the transition to becoming top sopranos. Grace Bumbry managed that. She was also a major figure in helping black singers find their rightful place on the opera stage in an era where segregation ran rampant.Born on Jan. 4, 1937, the mezzo was… Continue reading Grace Bumbry *I 4 1937 — The Life You Give

Frank Sinatra *XII 12 1915 — The Life You Give

Frank Sinatra, born December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, was a singer, and motion-picture actor who, through a long career and a very public personal life, became one of the most sought-after performers in the entertainment industry; he is often hailed as the greatest American singer of 20th-century popular music. The Aristipposian Poetcelebrates the… Continue reading Frank Sinatra *XII 12 1915 — The Life You Give

María Callas *XII 2 1923 — The Life You Give

Maria Callas, born Maria Cecilia Sophia Anna Kalogeropoulos, December 2, 1923, in New York, New York, U.S.A., is the operatic soprano who revived classical coloratura roles in the mid-20th century with her lyrical and dramatic versatility.Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants and early developed an interest in singing. Accompanied by her mother, she left… Continue reading María Callas *XII 2 1923 — The Life You Give

Love is out of our control

It is for this reason that for years I have avoided defining it, or, at least have refused to see it within the commonly given personified contexts. I can no longer trust societal and human habits of conceptualizing surroundings, and existence, as we succumb to language and communication by the use of single words as… Continue reading Love is out of our control

The Life You Give: Samuel Beckett *1906

Samuel Beckett, born Samuel Barclay Beckett, on April 13, 1906, in Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland, was author, critic, and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He wrote in both French and English and is perhaps best known for his plays, especially En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot).Samuel Beckett was born… Continue reading The Life You Give: Samuel Beckett *1906

The Life You Give: André Previn *1929

Known as a successful classical conductor, jazz pianist, and composer of jazz, classical, and film music, André Previn frequently bridged the gap between popular and so-called "serious" music, and in doing so broadened the horizons of both. A German-American who fled Nazi Germany with his family in his youth, he went on to win four… Continue reading The Life You Give: André Previn *1929

The Life You Give: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *April 1 1755

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, born Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, on April 1, 1755, in Belley, France, was lawyer, politician, [judge, violinist}, and author of a celebrated work on gastronomy, Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste).Brillat-Savarin followed the family profession of law. A deputy of the Third Estate at the Estates-General of 1789, he was forced to flee the… Continue reading The Life You Give: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *April 1 1755

The Life You Give: Henry Cowell *1897

Of all the early twentieth century American musical revolutionaries, perhaps composer Henry Cowell wielded the most vivid and far-reaching influence. Born in 1897 to a rural California family, Cowell began to study the violin at age five, though his parents' hopes of creating a prodigy on the instrument remained unfulfilled when the lessons had to… Continue reading The Life You Give: Henry Cowell *1897

Opera in Black — The Soul is Unbound

The soul is unbound.This has been my observation for decades, and has become a motivation for my analytical thoughts on a number of levels.Two examples leading to my observation are found in film. An unlikely friendship develops in prison between a white right wing extremist and a black, in “American History X”. In “Green Book”,… Continue reading Opera in Black — The Soul is Unbound

The Virtuous Black XV: William Grant Still

William Grant Still, born May 11 1895, in Woodville, Mississippi, U.S.A., was composer and conductor, and the first African American to conduct a professional symphony orchestra in the United States. Though a prolific composer of operas, ballets, symphonies, and other works, he was best known for his Afro-American Symphony (1931). Still was brought up by… Continue reading The Virtuous Black XV: William Grant Still

The Life You Give: Bertolt Brecht *1898

Bertolt Brecht, born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, on February 10 1898, in Augsburg, Germany, is the poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes.Until 1924 Brecht lived in Bavaria, where he was born, studied medicine… Continue reading The Life You Give: Bertolt Brecht *1898

o·blige /əˈblīj/

An obligation has a source. It may be an internal power, it may be an external one. Ideally, having and feeling obliged ought to be from an internal standpoint, as the character wants standing purity in being self. That which I do wishes to coincide with what is expected of me by my peers and… Continue reading o·blige /əˈblīj/

The Life You Give: Trisha Brown *1936

Happy Birthday, Trisha Brown! Born November 25, 1936, Aberdeen, Washington, U.S.A, dancer and choreographer whose avant-garde and postmodernist work explores and experiments in pure movement, with and without the accompaniments of music and traditional theatrical space. Brown studied modern dance at Mills College in Oakland, California (B.A., 1958). Her style began developing after she met… Continue reading The Life You Give: Trisha Brown *1936