Actor Ray Liotta is dead
Ray Liotta in an October 2019 recording at the New York Film Festival.
rbl. The actor Ray Liotta died unexpectedly at the age of 67 on Thursday night. The former “Goodfellas” star was in the Dominican Republic for filming.
He died in his sleep, reports the “TMZ” portal, citing a source close to the actor. The cause of death is currently unknown.
Liotta had his breakthrough role as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. But the actor was also seen in “Field of Dreams”, “Cop Land”, “Corrina Corrina” and “Blow”.
In 2005 he received an Emmy for his role as Charlie Metcalf in the episode “Time of Death” of the television series “Emergency Room”.
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1954, Liotta spent the first six months in an orphanage before being adopted by a married couple. He spent a lot of time in school doing sports until he was in a play in the school theater towards the end of high school. He then studied acting at the University of Miami. After graduating, he landed his first major role in the soap «Another World».
Joya Marleen is the big winner of the Swiss Music Awards
In the morning Joya Marleen was still taking her Matura exam, in the evening she won the coveted concrete block of the Swiss Music Awards three times.
tsf. St. Gallen native Joya Marleen is the big high-flyer at the 15th Swiss Music Awards (SMA). The 19-year-old singer-songwriter was nominated for the first time in three categories and actually won three times on Wednesday evening (May 25) in Zug’s Bossard Arena, as the Swiss Music Awards announced.
Joya Marleen received an SMA award for Best Female Act and SRF 3 Best Talent. But she also delivered the best song of the year: her debut single “Nightmare” was voted best hit by the TV audience via live voting.
Another winner of the evening was the dialect musician Kunz. The Lucerne native, who was nominated twice, won the concrete block in the two categories Best Male Act and Best Album.
In the Best Group category, Brandão Faber Hunger beat Büetzer Buebe (Gölä & Trauffer) and Loredana & Mozzik. The Geneva singer Danitsa was voted Best Act Romandie for the second time and the Best Crushing Newcomer went to Zian from Basel.
The Aargau band Mnevis received the Artist Award. This prize is awarded by the musicians themselves.
The Tribute Award was posthumously honored by Endo Anaconda, four months after his death at the age of 66. The Swiss singer-songwriter and writer Andreas Flückiger, better known as Endo Anaconda, shaped the Swiss music scene for three decades with Stiller Has. His last respects were paid to him with a moving clip. (Read a detailed article here.)
Change at the Theater am Hechtplatz
The Theater am Hechtplatz, which opened in 1959, is about to be renovated. After that, the line will be reoccupied again.
cmd. · Dominik Flaschka, the long-time director of the Theater am Hechtplatz in Zurich, will step down from his position at the end of August 2022. Ariane Russi, who will manage the Theater am Hechtplatz for the next two years, will succeed him on an interim basis. This is what the city of Zurich writes in a press release.
Dominik Flaschka ran the Theater am Hechtplatz for twenty years. With plays such as “The Show Must Go Wrong”, “Ost Side Story” or “Ewigi Liebi” he celebrated successes in Switzerland and abroad and has received several awards for his work as an author and director, including the Swiss Theater Prize, the Prix Walo and the German Musical Theater Prize.
As the city announced, Flaschka’s position will initially be filled for a limited period of two years, as no suitable candidate could be found after the job advertisement and selection process. Ariane Russi, who is taking over the management on an interim basis, was a member of the management team at the cabaret theater “La Capella” in Bern for two years. Ariane Russi has been working as a freelance cultural manager since 2017.
The city plans to completely refurbish and operationally adapt the theater’s listed premises in 2023 and 2024. In the course of this, the position will be re-advertised.
European Culture Prize is awarded in Zurich
The Ukrainian violinist Illia Bondarenko receives the European Cultural Forum’s Young Talent Prize, which is endowed with 10,000 euros.
(pd)/rep. · The European Culture Prize, donated by the European Culture Forum, will be awarded in Zurich for the first time this year. The Zurich Tonhalle will be the venue for the award gala for the first time on September 24th. The Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich is both the host and the award winner in 2022. Cellist Sol Gabetta, the Duo Yello and actor Mario Adorf will also be awarded a Taurus, among others. The price is undoped.
The European Culture Prize is awarded annually at a gala in a European city. Previously, the awards were held in Bonn, Vienna, Amsterdam and Dresden. With the Taurus, a trophy in the shape of a bronze bull, the European Cultural Forum honors outstanding achievements by cultural workers. The fact that Switzerland is the venue for the gala for the first time sets “a special accent in the Alpine Republic, which is not a member of the EU but makes a very important contribution to European culture,” said Bernhard Reeder, Chairman of the Board of the European Cultural Forum and organizer. in a statement.
The hosts are the Tonhalle Orchestra under its music director Paavo Järvi. In addition to Sol Gabetta, the award-winning musicians include soprano Camilla Nylund, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and violinist Nigel Kennedy. In addition, Dieter Meier and Boris Blank from Yello as well as the actor Mario Adorf are honored for their life’s work. The then 92-year-old Adorf was born in Zurich.
The Ukrainian violinist Illia Bondarenko receives a Taurus as Young Artist of the Year. As an interpreter between baroque and jazz at home, Bondarenko recently became known to a larger audience when he sent a special message from a Kiev boiler room shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine: The 20-year-old played a Ukrainian folk song in which 90 musicians played 29 countries agreed. This young talent prize is the only award worth 10,000 euros.
The European Cultural Forum emerged from the support association of the European cultural foundation Pro Europa, which was founded in Dresden in 2011 on the initiative of the founding president of Pro Europa, Ernst Seidel. Members of the Board of Trustees of the European Cultural Forum, which nominates the prizewinners, include Dominique Meyer, director of La Scala in Milan, and violinist Daniel Hope, who is also artistic director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.
Previous winners include baritone Thomas Hampson, soprano Anja Harteros, painter Gerhard Richter and Prince Albert II of Monaco, actress Sophia Loren, fashion designer and environmental activist Vivienne Westwood, the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Scorpions.
Award in Italy for Mikhail Schischkin and Amélie Nothomb
Amélie Nothomb and Mikhail Schischkin accept the Premio Strega Europeo together in Turin.
Last Sunday, the Premio Strega Europeo, which was awarded for the ninth time, was presented at the Turin Book Fair. The Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb and the Russian author Mikhail Schischkin, who lives in Switzerland, jointly won the renowned prize ex aequo. They both received the same number of jury votes in the voting. Nothomb was awarded the prize for her novel «Primo sangue». Mikhail Shishkin was honored for the novel «Punto di fuga» (Eng. «Letters», 2012). Along with the two authors, their translators were also honored.
Blade Runner composer Vangelis dies
Greek composer Vangelis during a media conference in Athens in 2001.
(dpa) From a small Greek town to a world music star: Vangelis, whose real name is Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, was considered one of the pioneers of electronic pop music. He became world famous with catchy compositions for films such as “The Hour of the Victor”, “Blade Runner” or “1492 – The Conquest of Paradise”. Vangelis died in a French hospital on Tuesday, Greek media reported on Thursday evening, citing the musician’s lawyer.
“The mighty composer is dead,” headlined the newspaper To Proto Thema. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted: «This sad news means that the global music industry has lost the internationally renowned Vangelis, the protagonist of electronic sound. . .»
The headstrong genius’ career began in the 1960s, when the band Forminx made young Greeks go hysterical. Songs like “Jeronimo Yanka” and “Love Without Love” as well as “Our Last September” were the hits, the soul of the five-man combo was a boy with a distinctive beard: Evangelos Papathanassiou.
At the time, nobody could have guessed that the young musician from the central Greek port city of Volos would win the Oscar around 15 years later for composing the soundtrack for the film “Chariots of Fire” (“The Hour of the Victor”) and one day as one of the best-known musicians of the world would apply.
Vangelis actually wanted to be a painter and studied at the Academy in Athens. He taught himself music. In 1968 he moved to Paris and celebrated his first successes there with the Greek musicians Demis Roussos and Loukas Sideras. Together they formed the group Aphrodite’s Child. Vangelis composed the music for the LP “666”, which is considered a classic of progressive rock.
In 1973 Vangelis started his solo career and experimented with electronic music. After the Oscar for “Chariots of Fire” came success after success, including the soundtracks for “Blade Runner” and “1492 – The Conquest of Paradise”.
Read our obituary here.