Medellin's inclusive orchestra transforms perceptions of disability through music
The program brings young adults with Down syndrome, severe autism, and other cognitive disabilities into the spotlight, proving that talent knows no limits.
Main image: Townsville Bulletin
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The Sun
27-06-2025
- The Sun
‘Mission: Impossible' composer Lalo Schifrin dies aged 93
LOS ANGELES: Famed composer Lalo Schifrin, who created themes for a host of hit Hollywood films and television shows -- including the instantly recognizable 'Mission: Impossible' score -- died Thursday aged 93, US media reported. Born in Argentina, Schifrin blended the influences of his classical and symphonic training with jazz and modern sounds in his diverse and vast oeuvre, which includes the scores for around 100 films, some of them the best-known of their generation. His death was confirmed by his son, Ryan Schifrin, to several entertainment trade publications. Schifrin's work for film includes 'The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and 'Bullitt' (1968), both with Steve McQueen, Paul Newman's 'Cool Hand Luke' (1968), and Clint Eastwood's 'Dirty Harry' (1971). He also created the score to the 1960s 'Mission: Impossible' television series, which inspired the theme of the massive film franchise starring Tom Cruise. A pipe-smoker in his younger years and bespectacled with a mane of silver hair later, he was also a highly respected international orchestra conductor and jazz pianist. Boris Claudio Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires on June 21, 1932 into a musical family, his father Luis Schifrin being the concert master of the city's Philharmonic Orchestra for 25 years. He learned piano at a young age, developing an extensive knowledge of classical music. His introduction in his teens to jazz and the American sound -- through its greats such as Charlie Parker, George Gershwin and Louis Armstrong -- was like a conversion, he would say later, and set his life on a new course. After training in Paris, Schifrin returned to Buenos Aires and set up his own big band, with a performance notably impressing jazz legend trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. 'So after we finished, Dizzy came to me and said, did you write all these charts? And I said, yes. Would you like to come to United States? I thought he was joking. He wasn't,' Schifrin recounted to NPR in 2007. 'I wouldn't be here had it not been for that moment,' he told the US radio. Schifrin moved to the United States in 1958 and became a US citizen over a decade later. In Hollywood, television producer Bruce Geller asked him to create scores for his television series 'Mission: Impossible' (1966) and 'Mannix' (1969). Geller's brief was for 'a theme that's exciting, promising, but not too heavy' and anticipates the action to follow, Schifrin told NPR in 2015. Geller said that when 'people go to the kitchen and get a Coca-Cola, I want them to hear the theme and say, Oh, this is 'Mission: Impossible',' he recounted. The score he delivered earned Schifrin two Grammy music awards in 1967, adding to two for the albums 'The Cat' (1964) and 'Jazz Suite On The Mass Texts' (1965). Shifrin received several Academy Award nominations for his film work including for 'Cool Hand Luke.' In 2018, he received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, presented by Eastwood.
Focus Malaysia
08-06-2025
- Focus Malaysia
Medellin's inclusive orchestra transforms perceptions of disability through music
An innovative initiative at Medellín's Philharmonic Orchestra is breaking barriers in Colombia. The program brings young adults with Down syndrome, severe autism, and other cognitive disabilities into the spotlight, proving that talent knows no limits. Main image: Townsville Bulletin
Malay Mail
01-05-2025
- Malay Mail
Breaking barriers: Peruvian actors with Down syndrome challenge norms with ‘Hamlet' performance in London
LONDON, May 1 — It's one of William Shakespeare's most existential questions, 'To be or not to be?' Now a group of globe-trotting Peruvian actors with Down syndrome are tackling it head-on, breaking down prejudice and barriers. Cristina Leon, Jaime Cruz and Manuel Garcia are members of the eight-strong group that performed Hamlet at London's Barbican centre last week. 'This play shows... there are no barriers, that we can do lots of things, and people must open their eyes to the fact that we can do anything they ask us,' Leon, 32, told AFP. The project was launched seven years ago born out of Cruz's dreams of becoming an actor. He was working as an usher in the Teatro La Plaza in Lima and had never thought that his Down syndrome was an obstacle in life. Octavio Bernaza, a member of the Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza perform during a dress-rehearsal of their production 'Hamlet' at The Barbican Theatre in London, UK on April 24, 2025, ahead of their London premiere. — Reuters pic 'I have always wanted to be an actor. One day there was an event (at the Lima theatre) in which you had to introduce yourself, and I said my name and said I was an actor,' the 30-year-old said. He added that he wanted to overcome 'prejudices, myths and barriers'. His words inspired the theatre's artistic director Chela de Ferrari, who has now adapted the masterpiece for the eight actors and brought it to the land of Shakespeare's birth. 'He really caught my attention, and I thought to myself I really need to have a more in-depth discussion with him,' she told AFP. 'We went to a cafe, and while we were talking I had a vision of him wearing the prince's crown and I thought about the meaning that Jaime could bring to Hamlet's famous words 'To be or not to be',' she said. (From left) Diana Gutierrez, Manuel Garcia, Cristina Leon Barandiaran and Octavio Bernaza, all members of the Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza perform during a dress-rehearsal of their production 'Hamlet' at The Barbican Theatre in London April 24, 2025, ahead of their London premiere. — Reuters pic 'Form of resistance' A casting session was organised and seven other actors were chosen for the group. 'Jaime made me face my own prejudices, my deep ignorance about the reality. I think what the public experiences mirrors exactly what happened to me,' de Ferrari said. Three years ago, the group was invited to visit Spain, and since then they have toured the world. The show had a sold-out run at the Edinburgh International Festival last year, with The Guardian praising the cast's interpretation of the tragedy of the Danish prince as 'upbeat', adding it 'oozes charm, humour and imagination'. 'I don't think it's the only play with actors with Down syndrome, but I don't think other groups have travelled as much,' de Ferrari said. This year, the group of five men and three women will also be performing in Brighton in southern England as well as 35 other towns and cities, including Seoul, Melbourne, Toronto in Canada, and New York and Chicago in the United States. They act in Spanish with surtitles in other languages for local non-Spanish speaking audiences. 'In today's society everyone puts up limits. They tell us all the time that we cannot do things,' said Garcia, 32. 'With what we are seeing in the world, attacks on certain values such as diversity, it's a good moment to present these projects. It's also a form of resistance,' added de Ferrari. 'Instead of rejecting people who have speech problems or stutter, we embrace this diversity,' she said proudly. — AFP
