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Chauviré, Yvette

(Encyclopedia)Chauviré, Yvette, 1917–2016, French ballerina. She joined the corps de ballet of the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1931, was made a principal dancer in 1937, and attained the rank of étoile in 1941. Chau...

Grillparzer, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Grillparzer, Franz fränts grĭlˈpärtsər [key], 1791–1872, Austrian dramatist. His work combines German classicism and exuberant lyricism. Considered Austria's greatest playwright, he wrote Der T...

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

(Encyclopedia)Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1895, gave its first concert the following year under the direction of Frederic Archer. Victor Herbert was the chief conductor from 1898 to 1904; he was succe...

van Zweden, Jaap

(Encyclopedia)van Zweden, Jaap yäp vän zvāˈdĕn [key], 1960–, Dutch conductor and violonist, b. Amsterdam. An accomplished violonist, he was appointed concertmaster of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestr...

abbey

(Encyclopedia)abbey, monastic house, especially among Benedictines and Cistercians, consisting of not less than 12 monks or nuns ruled by an abbot or abbess. Many abbeys were originally self-supporting. In the Bene...

Quinn, Edmond Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Quinn, Edmond Thomas, 1868–1929, American sculptor and painter, b. Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with Thomas Eakins, and in Paris. His monumental work is marked...

Modjeska, Helena

(Encyclopedia)Modjeska, Helena məjĕˈskə [key], 1844–1909, Polish actress who achieved fame in the United States primarily for her Shakespearean interpretations. After initial acclaim in Warsaw, she emigrated ...

Wyatt, Sir Francis

(Encyclopedia)Wyatt, Sir Francis, 1588–1644, English colonial governor of Virginia. Married to a niece of Sir Edwin Sandys of the London Company, he went to Virginia as governor in 1621, taking with him the first...

Sakmann, Bert

(Encyclopedia)Sakmann, Bert, 1942–, German biophysicist, M.D. Univ. of Göttingen, Germany, 1974. He has been a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen since 1974. Sakmann r...

Sandys, George

(Encyclopedia)Sandys, George, 1578–1644, English poet and traveler, b. Yorkshire, son of Archbishop Edwin Sandys. He was educated at Oxford and in 1610 began an extended tour of Europe and the Middle East, which ...