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 Actors and Others for
Animals is a California 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation. It is dedicated to
eliminating pet overpopulation, ensuring the care and protection of pet
companions and improving the quality of life economically challenged,
disadvantaged and undeserved pet guardians by providing referral and financial
assistance for spay/neuter and veterinary medical procedures together with other
animal/human bond enriching programs. For more information visit www.actorsandothers.com
 The Roar Foundation, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which
exists solely to support The
Shambala Preserve. Our mission is to educate the public about the dangers of
private ownership of exotic animals. Huge numbers of exotic dangerous animals
are bred and sold in the United States for illegal purposes. Private ownership
presents a grave danger to the public and is cruel and unfair to these animals.
More stringent legislation is needed to prohibit breeding and selling. We are
actively involved in legislating this on federal and state levels.
Prior to
1983 I had been rescuing the exotic felines since 1972. Up to the present, The
Shambala Preserve has given sanctuary to over 235 exotic felines - lion, tiger,
cougar, black and spotted leopard, serval, bobcat, Asian leopard cat, snow
leopard, cheetah, lynx, tigon, liger and African elephant. All have come to the
Preserve after confiscation by authorities, such as California Fish and Game,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, SPCA and Humane Societies. They are from
roadside zoos and private citizens who realize they have purchased an animal
they can no longer handle.
The exotic cat trade is a huge business. According
to US. Fish and Wildlife it is on a par with illegal drugs. Once an animal is
brought to Shambala, it remains here for the remainder of its life. As a true
sanctuary, we do not buy, breed, sell, trade, or subject them to commercial use.
Our only purpose is to allow these magnificent animals to live out their lives
with care, understanding and dignity. Each has the best human, nutritional,
medical, emotional and mental care possible.
There are many ways you can
support The Roar Foundation: become a Member of the Roar Foundation, Adopt a
Wild One, provide an item from the Shambala Wish List; attend a Safari Tour:
visit The Trading Post, become a volunteer, attend one of our hugely popular and
unique Sunset Safaris, and for a truly memorable experience, spend an entire
night in one of Shambala’s authentic African Tents! All of these help to further
Shambala’s educational efforts and support our mission. One special weekend a
month, we hold the Safaris where Shambala opens the gates to the public for a
small admission fee (by reservation only). All guests must be 18-yrs or older.
Please come visit us and support our beautiful Wild Ones. For more information
visit www.Shambala.org
 The National
Association to Protect Children is a national pro-child, anti-crime membership
association. We are founded on the belief that our first and most sacred
obligation as parents, citizens and members of the human species is the
protection of children. PROTECT is a bipartisan pro-child, anti-crime lobby
whose sole focus is making the protection of children a top political and policy
priority at the national, state and local levels. In 2002, following a
successful national volunteer effort to moderize North Carolina's incest law,
the National Association to Protect Children (known as PROTECT) was established.
PROTECT was the first single-issue lobby in America dedicated exclusively to the
protection of children. We began operations in January of 2003. The next year, a
charitable arm, then called Promise to Protect, was created, conducting very
modest operations until 2008. In 2011, both organizations underwent strategic
restructuring. Promise to Protect was renamed the National Association to
Protect Children, and our original pro-child, anti-crime lobby kept the name
PROTECT For more information visit www.PROTECT.org
In association
with H.E.R.O. Child-Rescue Corps is comprised of an elite group of
wounded veterans who will be taking to a new battlefield in November, by working
with federal law enforcement to locate and rescue children from sexual
exploitation and abuse. In this short video, members of the H.E.R.O.
Child-Rescue Corps members explain their new mission at http://vimeo.com/m/77349698
We
are offering an interview with Donelle Dadigan, the god daughter of MGM music
legend Jose' Iturbi’s, who along with the Grammy nominated icon, Michael
Feinstein, have just released “FROM HOLLYWOOD TO THE WORLD,” the rediscovered
recordings by pianist and conductor José Iturbi in a richly illustrated
16-CD book edition
Jose’
Iturbi was the FIRST artist to sell a million Records, receive one of the
earliest stars on the walk of fame, as well as himself in multiple MGM movies,
worked with Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr, Gene Kelly, Esther
Williams and many others.
The
José Iturbi set #19439836502 has been submitted in the following categories for
GRAMMY consideration:
BEST HISTORICAL ALBUM,
Producers: Michael Feinstein, Robert
Russ, Donelle Dadigan
Engineers: Nancy Conforti, Jennifer
Nulsen, Andreas K. Meyer
BEST ALBUM NOTES
Author: Michael Feinstein
BEST PACKAGING - BOXED OR LIMITED
EDITION
Producers: Michael Feinstein, Robert
Russ, Donelle Dadigan
Designer: Donelle Dadigan/Michael
Feinstein/(EC:KO) Communications /Jochen Rudelt/Marvin J Deitz/
Please
review the materials below and let us know if you require any additional
materials or have interest in speaking to Ms Donelle Dadigan about her
experiences with her famous godfather.
FROM HOLLYWOOD TO THE WORLD
The
Rediscovered Recordings by
Pianist and Conductor José Iturbi
in a richly illustrated 16-CD book edition
Once upon a time in the 1940s and 1950s in America, classical music and
its stars were a natural part of many big Hollywood movies.
This golden age saw the creation of famous musical hits
such as Anchors Aweigh with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra
or That Midnight Kiss with Mario Lanza, in which a
spirited piano virtuoso and conductor always played himself: José
Iturbi. Nowadays known only to connoisseurs and aficionados, the native
Spaniard was at the time, along with Oscar Levant (An American in
Paris), one of the most commercially successful classical artists in
Hollywood. When the film A Song to Remember was released
in 1945, for example, Iturbi’s recording of a Chopin Polonaise sold
800,000 copies. Shortly thereafter, his recording company,
RCA Victor, paid him over $118,000 in semiannual royalties – a record
at the time. And Iturbi’s passion wasn’t just for music: he completed
1,400 hours of flying as a pilot, enjoyed riding motorcycles fast,
and excelled as an amateur boxer. This edition is a tribute to an era when
classical music from films made its journey around the world. It
contains all the recordings made by José Iturbi and his sister Amparo Iturbi
for RCA Victor from 1933 to 1955, painstakingly restored and
remastered from the original records and tapes, including numerous
previously unreleased recordings. The 188-page coffee-table
book includes a detailed biographical essay by “Ambassador for the
American Songbook” and producer of this set Michael Feinstein, extensive
documentation with photographs and facsimiles from the José Iturbi
Foundation archives, and a complete session and release discography.
-
The complete RCA Victor Recordings by José
Iturbi from 1933 to 1953, including his piano duo recordings
with sister Amparo Iturbi as well as Amparo Iturbi’s
solo recordings on 16 CDs, restored and remastered from the
original lacquer discs and analogue tapes using high-resolution 24 bit/192
kHz mastering technology with about 95% of the recordings appearing on CD
for the first time and 23 pieces previously unreleased.
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A new, captivating essay by
GRAMMY®-nominated singer, pianist, and music anthropologist Michael
Feinstein on the life and work of José Iturbi.
-
Complete session discography as well a
complete documentation of José Iturbi’s commercial releases on 78rpm
and LP.
-
Photo book with previously
unseen photos and facsimiles from the Iturbi Archives in
Hollywood.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Temperamental, volatile Spanish-born pianist and conductor José Iturbi was
a child prodigy, giving piano recitals by the age of seven
and supplementing the family income by playing for up to 14
hours daily at a silent cinema theatre. He was an honors graduate from
the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris, and, by the age of 24, occupied
Franz Liszt’s former post as leader of the piano department of the
Geneva Conservatory. In 1928, he made his London début as a concert
pianist and the following year played Beethoven’s G major Concerto to
great critical and audience acclaim under Leopold Stokowski’s direction
in Philadelphia.
He arrived in New York in October of 1929 and made his US début on the
11th – less than two weeks before the stock market crashed on
Wall Street – performing to “thunderous ovations” with
the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. Esquire reported:
“Before he had played many bars, the orchestra musicians were
whispering to their partners and the audience had settled into a
death-like quiet. When he arose the deafening uproar assured him he had
run neck-to-neck with the winged steed Pegasus.” On his return in
1930, the demand for tickets at his Carnegie Hall recital was such that
several hundred chairs had to be placed on the stage. The New
York Times critic rhapsodized over “arpeggios which seemed to glow and
melt in the atmosphere like clouds of golden incense” and remarked on
“beauty and reverie conveyed with such an intelligence, proportion,
objectivity … The melodies were sensuously sung. The audience was
rapturous.”
Nearly three decades later José Iturbi’s concerts in America were still
packed. He was as warmly received at California’s Chino State Prison,
where inmates begged for Debussy’s Clair de lune, as he was at
the White House in Washington DC, where Harry Truman demanded an obscure
Chopin waltz. Pianists as dissimilar as William Kapell, Thelonious
Monk and Julius Katchen were infatuated by his Mozart playing.
Iturbi signed with Victor in 1933 and over the next two decades recorded
music by Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann,
Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Chabrier, Saint-Saëns, Falla, Debussy, Albéniz,
Rachmaninoff and Milhaud. The repertoire included concertos
and solo pieces, as well as works for two pianos, with and without
orchestra, in which he was joined by his sister Amparo Iturbi, a famous
pianist in her own right who frequently appeared with her brother.
His and her solo albums as well as their duet recordings are all included
in Sony Classical’s new Iturbi box.
Iturbi enjoyed an almost pop star-like status and became the only
classical artist of his day to win two gold records. In 1946, RCA-Victor
paid Iturbi the record sum of $118,029 for six months royalties,
primarily for his recording of Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat (the record
went on to sell 2 million copies by 1974). From the 1950s until just prior
to his death in 1980, Iturbi continued to draw large audiences
worldwide. He regularly went on tour (his last from 1976 to 1977),
travelling up to 50,000 miles a year between continents.
Iturbi’s private life was as hectic as his work schedule. He had married
in 1916, but his wife died tragically just 12 years later. From the 1930s,
he frequently dated movie stars even before his own involvement with
Hollywood. He was a man of contradictions. A speed freak, Iturbi used to
ride his motor bike and assorted sports cars with reckless abandon.
When they weren’t fast enough, he would get aboard his own aircraft,
“El Turia”. By 1946 he had logged 1,400 flying hours, frequently
travelling across entire continents between recitals.
José Iturbi was one of the great concert pianists and conductors of the
20th century. The proof is contained in this special collection of
the complete RCA Victor recordings made by José himself and by his
sister, the concert pianist Amparo Iturbi. It is an important contribution
toward the preservation and restoration of their original
masters, bringing them to listeners worldwide, both now and for
generations to come. The set captures José Iturbi’s historic and
compelling performances in state-of-the-art remastering, and includes a
one-of-a-kind picture book packed with information, nostalgic
photographs and helpful captions highlighting José and Amparo Iturbi’s
lives and careers, including their sold-out concerts, those amazing
MGM musicals, and more. I know that the wonderful text and photos
will surely put a knowing smile on your face, as will the
many reminiscences that these remastered – and in some cases
never-before-heard – recordings will evoke.
Donelle Dadigan / President and Co-founder of the José
Iturbi Foundation & President and Founder of The Hollywood Museum
In the 21st century, the general conception of concert pianists has
changed in the eyes of the public and thus it is hard to understand
by contemporary standards the tremendous fame and influence
Jose Iturbi enjoyed. Working on the restoration of his recordings for
this collection was a staggering experience, not only because of the
enormity of his recorded output, but also due to an otherworldly artistry
and high level of discipline that propelled him to dizzying heights of
popularity. It became clear that music was his God and made everything
else possible. The passion he had in life, sometimes resulting in
provocative headlines, was the fuel for his art. The magnetism of that
passion still resounds in the recordings. His music lives, and I am
excited for new generations to discover what makes him essential and
enduring.
– Michael Feinstein / Founder of The Great American
Songbook Foundation
For
interviews, press, high res photos and official biography
please send an email to harlan@bhbpr.com
or call 626.296.3757
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