Kathryn Grayson film soprano dies at 88

Kathryn Grayson, whose beauty and lilting soprano voice brightened such popular MGM musicals of the 1940s and '50s as "Anchors Aweigh," "Show Boat" and "Kiss Me Kate," has died. She was 88. MORE in Wiki Bio
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Art Van Damme

Art Van Damme (April 9, 1920 in Norway, Michigan – February 15, 2010) was a jazz accordionist who had many popular albums for Columbia Records in the mid 20th Century. In the Wikipedia bio it is noted he began playing the accordion at age nine and started classical study when his family moved to Chicago in 1934. In 1941 he joined Ben Bernie's band as an accordionist. He adapted Benny Goodman's music to the accordion. From 1945 to 1960 he worked for NBC, performing on The Dinah Shore Show, Tonight, The Dave Garroway Show and other radio and TV shows with Garroway. He recorded 130 episodes of the 15-minute The Art Van Damme Show for NBC Radio. MORE
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Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova

(Russian: Ирина Константиновна Архипова) (2 January 1925 – 11 February 2010) was a Russian mezzo-soprano, and later contralto, opera singer. She sang leading roles first in Russia at the Sverdlovsk Opera and the Bolshoi Theater, and then throughout Europe and in the United States.

Before switching to voice, she studied architecture. She studied at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1954 she debuted in Sverdlovsk, and was made a member of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1956. She was named a People's Artist of the USSR ten years later.

Arkhipova was at the height of her career in the 1960s and 1970s, during which time she was an international star, interpreting both Russian and Italian repertoire. Her technique was irreproachable, and she had great expressive power. She has been compared with Christa Ludwig. One of her most celebrated roles is as Marfa in Khovanshchina by Modest Mussorgsky, as recorded with Boris Khaikin in 1972.

She died in Moscow on 11 February 2010, aged 85.[1]

Johnny Dankworth

Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE (20 September 1927 – 6 February 2010), known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist. He was the husband of jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, who survives him; they married in 1958.