On Demand
Survival Kit Archive
April 2004
Shirley Verrett
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Shirley Verrett would probably feel more at home in La Scala, The Paris Opera or Covent Garden than a cabin in the Yaak Valley. Acclaimed as one of the worlds greatest opera stars, both as a mezzo-soprano, and as a soprano, she’s sung the roles of Carmen, Norma, Medea, Aida, Tosca, Princess Eboli, Lady Macbeth, and many others, in all the major opera houses of the world. The Italian press even dubbed her "The Black Maria Callas." But she has graciously agreed to imagine a retreat far from the drama and glamour of the opera world, and to reveal the contents of her cultural survival kit.
Barry Levison
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Barry Levinson’s most personal films - Diner, Tin Men, Avalon and Liberty Heights - have been love songs to his hometown of Baltimore, nostalgic looks at a way of life long gone. And although he has gone on to write, direct, and produce more than five dozen films, including Rain Man, The Natural, Good Morning Vietnam, Bugsy and Wag the Dog, he keeps returning to his native city, with the acclaimed TV series Homicide: Life on the Street and recently, a novel, Sixty-Six. I wonder if he’d like to spend his retreat in a cabin in the Maryland woods within hiking distance of Baltimore. Maybe we’ll find out when we see what he’s got in his Survival kit.
George Shearing
Sunday, April 11, 2004
In George Shearing’s autobiography, Lullaby of Birdland, he writes that “living in a world in which sound plays the most important role has always been a great stimulus to me as a musician.” The British-born pianist has never let his inability to see interfere with one of the longest and most prolific careers in jazz history. His quintet has been called “the most popular jazz group on the planet”, so popular that Jack Kerouac even called him “Old God Shearing” in On the Road. Let’s find out what he would consider the essentials for his survival kit.
Eugenia Zuckerman
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Eugenia Zuckerman has excelled in so many different fields of endeavor her friends have dubbed her “Superwoman”; not only is she a celebrated flutist with dozens of recordings, she’s also the arts correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, the artistic director of the Vail Valley Music Festival, and she’s published both novels and non-fiction. I get the feeling that if we send her out to the wilderness not only will she organize the caribou and elk into a world-class orchestra, she’ll probably also discover a cure for cancer among the native plants in her spare time. Let's see what’s in her Survival Kit.
