Gary Graffman is a piano virtuoso who recently lost control of his right hand due to an injury incurred while playing years earlier. Before his injury, Graffman was known for his interpretation of Romantic composers. Graffman is currently learning and performing piano concertos for the left hand, teaching, and focusing on his art collecting hobby. Graffman also wrote a memoir "I Really Should Be Practicing."
Composer Steve Reich is known as a prominent "minimalist." Reich joins the show to discuss that term, his own career and influences, and whether he is the "safe" avant-garde composer.
Albert Race Sample's autobiography "Racehoss: Big Emma's Boy" describe his experiences growing up as the son of a black prostitute and gambler and one of her white clients. Sample later ended up in "Retrieve" a unit of the Texas Prison System, which Race describes as sadistic.
Michael Bennett won a Pulitzer Prize for the musical "A Chorus Line," which he conceived, choreographed, and directed. He, himself, began his career as a Broadway dancer before choreographing musicals such as "Promises, Promises," "Company," and "Follies." Bennett's latest show is "Dreamgirls."
Tom and Dick Smothers are known as the "Smothers Brothers," a musical comedy duo that began by satirizing the folk acts of their day. Their popularity in the 1960s led to a Sunday night variety show. The show, with its topical content, often clashed with censors, and in 1969, the brothers were fired. The Smothers Brothers reunited in 1980.
Artie Shaw is a legendary big bandleader and clarinetist. His band was one of the most popular of the 1940s. Since then Shaw has written books, worked as a film producer, and retired from playing. in 1980 he organized a new band to play his works and arrangements.
Merce Cunningham is an influential choreographer and dancer. He began studying tap as a child before moving on to modern dance, and he joined the Martha Graham Company in 1939. He eventually formed his own company in 1953, and his work has rejected certain dance conventions such as story, emotion, and choreographing to coincide to the music. Cunningham often works with composer John Cage as well as modern artists. Cunningham says he is interested in movement for its own sake.
Humorist, writer, and storyteller Garrison Keillor is the host of the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," which is inspired by the Grand Ol' Opry and takes place in the fictional place of Lake Woebegone, Minnesota. His latest book is "Lake Woebegone Days."
Writer and novelist Edmund White's books include "States of Desire: Travels Through Gay America," "The Joy of Gay Sex," and "A Boy's Own Story." White's work often candidly discusses gay life. White moved from the Midwest to New York where he was active in the Gay Liberation Movement, and now lives in Paris. His latest novel, "Caracole," is about a young, heterosexual male.
Charlie Haden is one of the foremost bass players in contemporary jazz. In the 1950s Haden was a part of the first Ornette Coleman Quartet, which was the center of a jazz revolution. He has been involved with both avant-garde and mainstream jazz ever since. In the 1960s he formed the Liberation Music Orchestra, whose pointed political references were controversial. Haden re-formed the Orchestra in 1983 and their latest album is "The Ballad of the Fallen." Haden also plays with the band Old and New Dreams, made-up of Coleman alumni.
Cy Coleman started his career as a jazz pianist and club owner before moving on to writing pop songs that were recorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Coleman then started composing Broadway musicals, including "Sweet Charity." Coleman now produces and owns a music publishing company.
Phil Donahue started his eponymous television talk show in 1967 in Dayton, Ohio. Today, it is the most popular talk show on daytime t.v. The show includes celebrity interviews, but also tackles controversial social issues, and heavily involves its audience. Donahue's latest book is "The Human Animal," which surveys what experts have to say about human nature, and is a companion to a t.v. series of the same name. Donahue joins the show to discuss his career, his conversion from a chauvinist to a feminist, and being a single parent.
Playwright, actor, and screenwriter Wallace Shawn wants his theater work to be shocking and confrontational, but he is best known for the 1981 film he wrote, "My Dinner with Andre." Shawn's latest play is "Aunt Dan and Lemon."
Raymond McNally studies vampires in folklore, literature, and film. He is a professor of Romanian and Eastern European History at Boston College. His books include "In Search of Dracula" and "Dracula was a Woman." He discusses the man who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, Vlad Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler.
David Halberstam is a journalist and author who won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Vietnam War for The New York Times. Two of his recent books examine American values as expressed through sports: "The Breaks of the Game," about basketball, and his latest "The Amateurs," about rowing.
George Segal is known for his realistic, life-sized sculptures made by wrapping his models in plaster-soaked bandages. His commission for outdoor art have often be controversial. He joins the show to discuss his life and career.
Baseball legend Mickey Mantle played for the New York Yankees his entire career, from 1951-1968. Mantle grew up in small Oklahoma town, but his personal life, including drinking and abandoning his family, did not always live up to his all-American image. Mantle's new autobiography is "The Mick."
Pianist and singer Bobby Short is a master of American popular song, singing classics from the likes of Porter, the Gershwins, Berlin, and Sondheim. He has the been playing at Cafe Carlyle in New York since 1968. He reached a new generation when he was in an ad for Revlon's Charlie perfume.
Dick Cavett is a television talk show host, comedian, and writer. He's had shows on ABC, public television, and cable television. He began his career writing jokes for Jack Parr and Johnny Carson. He is known for his esoteric guest and "intellectual" style.
James Farmer was one of the most prominent leaders of the fight for African American civil rights. Farmer participated in sit-ins in Chicago in 1942, and co-founded C. O. R. E. in 1943. He was involved in the Freedom Rides, and later focused on economic and political discrimination. He was briefly the Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for President Nixon, but quit after a year. Farmer currently teaches and consults of minority affairs. His autobiography is titled "Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement."
