Tag Archives: George

Deere & Company, PGA TOUR Agree To Six-Year Extension

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John Deere Classic to run through 2016
MOLINE, Illinois, Deere & Company and the PGA TOUR today announced a six-year extension of Deere’s title sponsorship of the John Deere Classic, as well as a two-year extension of its official marketing agreement with the TOUR, continuing both through 2016.
The announcements were made jointly by Jim Field, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Deere, and Rick George, Chief of Operations for the PGA TOUR, during a press conference at Deere & Company World Headquarters in Moline.
Sponsorship of the John Deere Classic has been beneficial for our business said Field. Not only are we able to highlight our excellent equipment and services to a global audience but more importantly, raise millions of dollars for charity in the Quad City area.
In addition, this agreement gives us an opportunity to extend our agreement as the Official Equipment Supplier; Official Landscape Product Supplier; and Official Golf Course Equipment Leasing Company for the PGA TOUR Field added.
John Deere has been title sponsor of its hometown tournament since 1998. The John Deere Classic has an estimated yearly economic impact of more than $25 million on the Quad Cities area, and since 1998 has generated $30 million for charity. Last month, 500 checks totaling $4.63 million were delivered to local charities from the 2009 tournament.
We are extremely pleased that Deere & Company will continue its title sponsorship of the John Deere Classic, which continues to have such a tremendous economic and charitable impact upon the Quad Cities area George said. Although the tournament is not held in one of the major markets on TOUR, it continues to be one of the leaders in charitable giving, which speaks volumes for the work that is done by tournament director Clair Peterson and his staff, plus the impact of Deere’s sponsorship and its overall support.
We’re also excited to extend our multi-faceted marketing partnership, which in large part provides a great benefit to our TPC facilities through the use of John Deere equipment George added.
A marketing partner of the TOUR since 1998, Deere will remain the Official Golf Course Equipment Supplier of the PGA TOUR. John Deere equipment is used at all TOUR-owned Tournament Players Club golf courses through the partnership, including TPC Deere Run, host site of the John Deere Classic since 2000. John Deere Credit also will continue as the Official Golf Course Equipment Leasing Company of the PGA TOUR and John Deere Landscape as the Official Landscape Product Supplier of the PGA TOUR.
TPC Deere Run, which was developed in partnership between the TOUR and Deere & Company, is located in Silvis, IL, two miles from Deere’s World Headquarters.
We are very pleased that John Deere has extended the relationship that began in 1998 with what was then an unprecedented nine-year agreement Peterson said.
Since then, John Deere has proven to be one of the great title sponsors on TOUR. It has helped us present an event like it presents its products – with quality, class and integrity. Knowing that the event will remain and flourish through 2016 will also allow the scores of local supporters and thousands of volunteers to plan proactively for the future. Most important, it guarantees the tournament’s charity dollars will continue to flow to the more than 500 organizations that benefit from the John Deere Classic each year

Source: WEBWIRE

British Conductor and Harpsichordist Nicholas Kraemer Leads Chicago Symphony Orchestra Dec. 10-12

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British conductor and harpsichordist Nicholas Kraemer returns to Symphony Center to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in a program highlighting three composers of the 18th centuryTelemann, Haydn and Mozartas well as 20th-century master Richard Strauss.

Performances are Thursday, Dec. 10, at 8pm, Friday, Dec. 11, at 1:30pm and Saturday, Dec. 12, at 8pm.

Well known as an authority of Baroque and Classical period music, Nicholas Kraemer is equally successful leading music by composers of the 20th century and today; his repertoire ranges from Vivaldi and Monteverdi to Britten and Musgrave.

Kraemer, familiar to Chicago audiences as principal guest conductor of Music of the Baroque, made his CSO debut in November 2007 with works by Handel, Haydn and Telemann, earning critical acclaim for his stylish, lively interpretations.

His December concerts contain Haydns Symphony No. 88one of the composers finest and the first in which he uses trumpets and timpani in a slow movement; Mozarts spirited Divertimento in D Major, K. 131; selections from Telemanns second volume of imaginative Tafelmusik, which Kraemer will lead from the harpsichord; and Strauss elegiac Metamorphosen, composed at the end of World War II as a heartfelt lament on the destruction of his beloved opera houses and cultural monuments of Germany.

Nicholas Kraemer began his career as a harpsichordist and soon moved from playing Baroque continuo at the back of the orchestra to directing from the keyboard at the front. While performing with the English Chamber Orchestra in the 1970s, his repertoire widened to encompass the 19th and 20th centuries.

He formed Raglan Baroque Players in 1978 and served as its music director, and he held conducting posts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra and London Bach Orchestra.

In addition to his current position with Music of the Baroque, he is permanent guest conductor of the Manchester Camerata in England.

Kraemer regularly conducts ensembles, orchestras and opera companies throughout the world, including the Hall Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and National Orchestra of Wales, Berlin Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan.

Upcoming debuts include the West Australian Symphony and Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Committed to working with young musicians, Kraemer has directed orchestras and choirs of Venezuelas El Sistema programs and has led master classes at the Aspen Music Festival; he regularly conducts the Northern Sinfonias Young Sinfonia and in 2010 will lead Handels Belshazzar in a collaboration of the Manchester Camerata and the Royal Northern College of Music.

His discography includes dozens of concertos by Vivaldi with both the City of London Sinfonia and Raglan Baroque Players; music of Locatelli, Tartini and Pergolesi as well as Handels Rodelinda with Raglan Baroque Players; several works by Thea Musgrave with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; and choral works by Scarlatti, Mozart, Handel and Haydn.

He also has contributed to several feature films, most notably as Baroque music director for The Madness of King George.&/

Source: Chicago Press Release

Virgin Books to publish memoir by multi award-winning ‘Master of the Musical’

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Virgin Books have acquired the UK & Commonwealth rights (exc. Canada) in a two volume memoir by the composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim. US rights have been sold to Alfred A. Knopf by Stephen Sondheim’s long-time agent, Helen Brann of The Helen Brann Agency, Inc., whose British co-agent, Sara Menguc, has concluded the deal for UK and Commonwealth rights with Virgin.
Sondheim is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards, including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (received 2008), many Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described as ’ a genius whose work has changed the form of musical theatre’. From his concept musical Company to A Little Night Music to Sweeny Todd, Sondheim’s innovation continues to break the mould.
His career has spanned over half a century and his lyrics have entered the musical canon and popular culture. For the first time, those lyrics are being collected together along with rare and personal memories from his life that only Sondheim can tell, offering fans and aspiring songwriters keen insights into his writing process.
Sondheim’s most famous scores also include Sunday in the Park with George, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Follies, Into the Woods, Assassins and Passion, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy.
These two beautifully produced companion volumes will be rich with history, gossip and delightful details, bringing us back to a time when theatre was truly one of the pillars of culture. Unique, behind-the-scenes images will accompany the text, along with many personal photographs of Sondheim with his contemporaries and collaborators.
Sondheim will be celebrating his 80th birthday in 2010, and there will be countless celebrations throughout the theatre community, acknowledging the achievements of a man whose work is still regularly being revived all over the world.
Insightful, poignant, sometimes scathing, and often funny, these unique and definitive memoirs will be an instant classic for lovers of music and theatre alike. The first volume, Finishing the Hat will be published in autumn 2010, the second volume, Look, I Made a Hat, will follow in 2011. Stephen Sondheim will be in the UK for promotion at publication.

Source: WEBWIRE