Broadway music director Paul Gemignani has been the musical director of almost every Stephen Sondheim work over the last 30 years. His other productions include Kiss Me, Kate, Crazy for You, and High Society. Next Sunday Gemignani will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Tony Awards.
Darren Star is the creator and executive producer of the HBO series, Sex and the City which begins its fourth season on June 3rd. The series stars Sarah Jessica Parker as a columnist in New York City who chronicles the mating habits of single New Yorkers. Much of her material comes from her life and that of her three closest friends. STAR is also the creator of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place.
El Tiempo is one of Columbia's leading dailies. Enrique Santos Calderon will talk about putting out a newspaper under the threat of kidnapping, torture or death from leftist guerillas and right wing paramilitary groups. In Columbia, more journalists have been killed in the past five years than in any other country.
Dr Barron Lerner writes of how science and culture influenced the battle with breast cancer in the new book, The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America. (Oxford) He writes of how the once-accepted practice of the radical masectomy gave way to lumpectomy and radiation and of how women activists helped alter the way doctors treated their patients and their cancers.
Linguist Geoff Nunberg responds to listeners comments about his anachronism piece a few weeks ago and the popular use of the word –gay— referring to homosexuals.
Food Editor for the Los Angeles Times, Russ Parsons. He examines the science of cooking in his new book, How to Read a French Fry: and other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science.
Historian David Mccullough is the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Truman. His new book is the biography of founding father and second President of the United States. The book is John Adams.
Dancer/Choreographer Mark Morris. Early in his career, Morris performed with a variety of companies. In 1980, he founded the Mark Morris Dance Group creating over 90 works for the troupe. He has also staged over a dozen commissions for other ballet companies, including the San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre. From 1988-1991, Morris was Director of Dance for the national opera house of Belgium in Brussels. Morris was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1991, and he is the subject of a biography by Joan Acocella (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Conductor Benjamin Zander, of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been called "a Pied Piper" of classical music and "one of music's evangelists." His passionate performances have earned him quite a following. Through his teaching and his pre-concert discussions, he has tried to spread his love of classical music to a wider public. He has conducted the Boston Philharmonic for over 20 years. He leads the Philharmonia Orchestra on a new CD Mahler: Symphony No. 5 and he has a new book, The Art of Possiblity: Transforming Professional and Personal Life.
Astronaut Jim Newman. Dr Newman has logged many days in space, including many space walks. In 1998 he was a member of one of the first crews to work on the International Space Station, Endeavor. He'll talk about what it was like doing construction in space. Next year, NEWMAN will go back to space to work on and repair the Hubble Telescope.
Documentary filmmakers Chris Hegedus & Jehane Noujaim. Their new film Startup.com is a Cinema Verite look at the rise and fall of an internet startup company. The film premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and is now opening in theaters. Hegedus has been making documentaries with veteran filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker for over 20 years. Their films include, The War Room, which chronicles Bill Clintons presidential campaign. Startup.com is Jehane Noujaims first feature film.
