It was just after Miguel Indurain’s reign over the Tour de France and just before Lance Armstrong’s dominance. Team Festina was battling with Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich’s Team Telekom; my friend rooted for Telekom, I rooted for Festina. I had just started to ride serious distances at serious speeds on a serious bike...
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Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, concentrating on International Relations, from Columbia University; Doctoral degree in Law, summa cum laude, from Harvard University; First African American president of the Harvard Law Review; Community organizer in Chicago; Lecturer on constitutional law at University of Chicago; Illinois State Senator from 1997 to 2004; United States Senator from...
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BBC Music Magazine reports on the Belgian Beethoven Academie Orchestra, which put itself up for sale on e-Bay: “If the Beethoven Academie closes, Belgium will lose one of its very few symphony orchestras – a move the Belgian musical world can ill afford.” Current bidding is up to 8,000 EUR, a bit much for...
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That’s it. An era ended last Saturday night. Daniel Barenboim’s final farewell concert ended with a 15-minute standing ovation. I saw musicians and audience members tear up during the ongoing applause in which Barenboim personally shook every musician’s hand. It was a hot and humid day on Saturday, a day officially proclaimed “Daniel Barenboim...
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This week has been a week of very little posting. Why? First of all, it’s Barenboim’s last week as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and we’re in the middle of his three farewell concerts. Yesterday’s program consisted of Elliott Carter’s Soundings, with Barenboim conducting from the keyboard, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 9....
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Besides the many wonderful free performances of the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus throughout the summer at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion that are worth visiting, there are many other renowned organizations that showcase Chicago’s cultural excellence in Millennium Park. Here are the ones I don’t want to miss (and all are free!): The Joffrey...
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I don’t quite know how to counter it either, but calling it bigotry, politics or untrue doesn’t do anything to revert support for the amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. said: “Marriage between one man and one woman does a better job protecting children better than any other...
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