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Whitney Museum of American Art

(Encyclopedia)Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York City, founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney with a core group of 700 artworks, many from her own collection. The museum was an outgrowth of the Whi...

Adler, Larry

(Encyclopedia)Adler, Larry (Lawrence Cecil Adler) ădˈlər [key], 1914–2001, American harmonica player, b. Baltimore. Adler, whose career spanned seven decades, is generally credited with elevating the harmonica...

Levine, James

(Encyclopedia)Levine, James Lawrence, 1943–2021, American conductor, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. . Levine’s parents were both performers; his father had been a bandleade...

Dutilleux, Henri

(Encyclopedia)Dutilleux, Henri, 1916–2013, French composer, b. Angers; studied (1933–38) Paris Conservatory, received (1938) the Grand Prix de Rome. After serving in World War II, he was a pianist, teacher, arr...

Falla, Manuel de

(Encyclopedia)Falla, Manuel de mänwĕlˈ dā fäˈlyä [key], 1876–1946, Spanish composer; pupil of Felipe Pedrell. In Paris from 1907 to 1914, he met Debussy, Dukas, and Ravel, and was to some extent influenced...

Truffaut, François

(Encyclopedia)Truffaut, François fräNswäˈ trüfōˈ [key], 1932–84, French film director and critic. Known in his early 20s as a writer for the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, he was noted...

Vaughan Williams, Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Vaughan Williams, Ralph, 1872–1958, English composer, considered the outstanding composer of his generation in England. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1894 and studied composition ...

Wilson, August

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, August, 1945–2005, American playwright and poet, b. Pittsburgh as Frederick August Kittel, Jr. Largely self-educated, Wilson first attracted wide critical attention with his Broadway debut, ...

Taylor, Cecil

(Encyclopedia) Taylor, Cecil, 1929-2018, African-American jazz pianist, composer, and poet, b. Queens, N.Y. A child prodigy on the piano, Taylor studied at the N.Y. ...

King, Carole

(Encyclopedia) King, Carole, 1942-, American singer-songwriter, b. New York, N.Y., as Carole Joan Klein. King enjoyed two separate careers; in the early ‘60s, she ...