Pianist Bill Charlap, artistic director for Jazz in July 2010, recently sat down with us to discuss his vision and history with this special series.
In the video above, hear him recall the first time he played in Jazz in July, what makes Jazz in July so special, and the influence Dick Hyman had over him and the festival. “I remember very fondly the first time that I played at Jazz in July, when Dick Hyman was artistic director,” Charlap told us. “I was 20 years old, it was 1987, and I was one of four pianists: Dick Hyman, Roger Kellaway, Marian McPartland and myself. Boy, I was terrified. I was in awe of these people, and I still am.”
And now, 23 years later, he is the artistic director.
For more information on the series and the individual concerts, or to purchase tickets, visit 92Y.org/Jazz online.
Tzipi Livni: “I will be prime minister. It’s about the future of my state.”
As leader of the Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni is one of Israel’s most prominent and influential political figures. She recently answered questions for the New York Times:
You’re the leader of the centrist Kadima Party, which is an opposition party. Yet you don’t sound very opposed to the views of the ruling party.
On the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself, there is no opposition in Israel.
Have you met frequently with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud party?
Netanyahu is my next meeting.
When does his term expire?
About three years from now.
Do you think he will be pushed out before his term ends, as often happens in Israeli politics?
If he does the right thing, he has a future, but in order to do the right thing, he needs to make new decisions, new policy and a completely different coalition. Otherwise the Israelis are going to change the government.
By “right thing,” do you mean he needs to move beyond his longstanding aversion to a two-state solution?
Yes, he said a few months ago that he supported this idea of two nation-states, and now we are at the beginning of the proximity talks. This is going to be tested by decisions, not by words. It’s going to be tested in the near future.
You lost to him in the race for prime minister last year. Will you run again?
I will be prime minister. It’s about the future of my state.
It’s been a few weeks since we last posted a How To video, but we’ve got another one for you today with 92Y May Center instructor Alicia Principe instructing you on the basics of pilates.
If you’ve missed any previous How To videos, you can watch all of them in this handy playlist.
Here is a selection from our personal favorite, the short story You Destroyed Everything, by Meredith Turits:
My earliest memory of my sister is breaking her arm on a seesaw. We were two or three, and I was angry that she wouldn’t keep up the rocking motion. The fragmented recollection has me stomping up to her and using my entire body to push her to the grass in our backyard. I remember my mother, miraculously home at the time, chastising me, sending me back inside, and then ordering the nanny to get Anaïs to the hospital. This is the sequence my mind has woven over time, that I’ve pieced back together from the stories told at family holidays, the photo albums, and the small scar from where the cast dug into her toddler arm. But the sound of her screaming when she hit the ground, her tender bones breaking because I pushed too hard — that’s something I can’t possibly forget.
I have little clips of memories that follow, ones that become entire films as we age in their scenes. Of course we clung to each other from the start; not only were we bound by blood, but the only markers that made us separate people were our differing first names and genders. Mix a brother-sister bond with a birthday separated by only seconds, absent parents, and enough money to buy whatever form of happiness was on tap, and the subsequent interaction isn’t rocket science. It was as natural and expected as anything else on the planet. To find out it wasn’t — well, I was never told otherwise.
Our parents were young, loaded, and deep into their careers in international finance, as well as their self-absorbed storybook romance. My father, American with a mother from France, and my mother, French Canadian, had met in business school in Montreal, married quickly, and planted their shallow roots. When they were barely thirty, Anaïs and I happened accidentally, but our births didn’t stop their business ventures and European trysts.
Read the rest of that story, and more than a dozen other incredible works, in Podium, Issue 8.
Facebook
Twitter
eNews
As leader of the Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni is one of Israel’s most prominent and influential political figures. 
