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ITV News
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ITV News
Stage school founder Sylvia Young, who helped discover Amy Winehouse, dies aged 86
Stage school founder Sylvia Young, who helped discover the likes of Rita Ora and Amy Winehouse, has died at the age of 86. Her daughter, West End star Frances Ruffelle, confirmed the news on social media. She paid tribute to her mum, describing her as a "true visionary". "She gave young people from all walks of life the chance to pursue their performing arts skills to the highest standard. "Her rare ability to recognise raw talent and encourage all her students contributed to the richness of today's theatre and music world, even winning herself an Olivier Award along the way. "She believed hard work with a bit of luck brought success, and she was an example of that herself." The theatre school founder was awarded an OBE in 2005 for her services to the arts industry. She helped to launch the careers of many stars, including presenter Denise Van Outen, Busted's Matt Willis, and McFly's Tom Fletcher. Former student and podcast host Giovanna Fletcher said she was "heartbroken." "My life would not be what it is without Sylvia Young," she said. "I am heartbroken to hear that Sylvia is no longer with us. I owe her so much love and gratitude. My heart goes to her husband Norman, her family, and all who knew her. " Presenter Tony Blackburn said he was "so sorry to hear Sylvia Young has passed away." "She was a very lovely lady who I have had the privilege of knowing for many years."
Scottish Sun
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Sylvia Young dead: Stage school pioneer who helped discover Amy Winehouse, Rita Ora and Billie Piper dies aged 86
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A STAGE school pioneer who discovered stars including Amy Winehouse, Rita Ora and Billie Piper has died aged 86. Sylvia Young passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by family. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 3 Sylvia Young pictured with Eva Longoria at the Noble Gift Gala Credit: Getty 3 Sylvia has sadly died aged 86 3 The pioneer founded Sylvia Young Theatre School in London Credit: Alamy Her daughter, Frances Ruffelle, confirmed the sad news with a touching tribute. The West End star said: "Our mum was a true visionary, she gave young people from all walks of life the chance to pursue their performing arts skills to the highest standard. "Her rare ability to recognise raw talent and encourage all her students, contributed to the richness of today's theatre world, even winning an Olivier award herself along the way. "She believed hard work with a bit of luck brought success and she was an example of that herself. "Above all she leaves the memory of an East End girl who's worked hard to achieve her goals, took hold of life and lived it to the full. "Her family were everything to her, her wonderful husband, Norman, our dad and her grandchildren, Eliza, Nat, Phoenix and Coral and her great grandson, Felix. "We share her love with her wide and inclusive family, her friends, her students, you all meant the world to her." Tributes have poured in for Syliva, who founded the £14,400 a year theatre school in London. Radio star Tony Blackburn wrote: "So sorry to hear Sylvia Young has passed away. She founded the Sylvia Young Theatre School which has been responsible for starting so many careers in TV and Theatre. "She was a very lovely lady who I have had the privilege of knowing for many years. She will be sadly missed. R.I.P Sylvia." Actor Sadie Frost added: "What a woman, what a family, what a legacy! "Sending everyone so much love and support - I am here if you need me. "She was always so lovely to me and will cherish memories forever." The Sylvia Young started off holding part time classes in the east end of London. It attracted a larger client base and re-located to Marleybone. Eventually, the theatre school's success saw it move to a converted church in Westminster. It is co-ed and offers both academic and vocational classes for students aged 10 to 16 years. Famous SYTS students include Amy Winehouse, Denise Van Outen, Billie Piper, former Spice Girl Emma Bunton, Alex Pettyfer, Isabel Hodgins, Kara Tointon, Lacey Turner and McFly member Tom Fletcher. Busted bassist Matt Willis, The Saturdays' Vanessa White, and The Wanted member Nathan Sykes, also attended the school. Sylvia leaves behind her two daughters, Frances Ruffelle and Alison Ruffelle, as well as her granddaughter, singer Eliza Doolittle. The theatre school founder was appointed an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2005 for her services to the arts industry. More to follow... For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video. Like us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun.
Times
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years review — a master rights some wrongs
Andy Goldsworthy is imaginative, inventive, poetic, hard-working, big-hearted and brave. He has been making art for 50 years. Nature loves him, people who have seen his work in books love him, people who go to his exhibitions love him, I love him, my wife loves him, and so do my kids. But for reasons we need to go into, the art establishment does not. Indeed, it ignores him. He has never been nominated for the Turner prize. He's not in the Royal Academy. He hasn't received an MBE or an OBE, let alone been knighted or damed like the Gormleys, Kapoors or Emins. He has never had a show at the Tate or the Hayward. No one has asked him to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale. For 50 years Goldsworthy has been making art that touches the heart and delights the eye. But the art establishment can't see it. Why? One reason is that his work is centred on the landscape, and the art establishment, these days, is an urban beast. Sheep don't fret about their identities. Trees don't remember the empire. Farmers don't express themselves with their clothing as relentlessly as Leigh Bowery did, night after night, club after club, in the posthumous show he had recently at Tate Modern. Another problem is the delightful nature of Goldsworthy's art: that it is so easy to love. The gorgeous patterns he finds in autumn leaves, the magical moments he creates with nature's simplest materials, the ecstatic understanding he has of the joy of colour are not neurotic enough to appeal to the art world's tastes. It sees itself as a complex ally of the ego, not a joyous buddy of the id. It hungers for difficulty, rigour, unpleasure. So my advice to the commissars of the art establishment, to Tate directors and Serpentine curators, is to get yourselves to Edinburgh and visit Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years at the Royal Scottish Academy. It's a look at the whole of his lengthy career, but also a statement show that seems determined to stamp out the rumour that he's a softie. The real Andy Goldsworthy — hardcore, thoughtful, mysterious — is being encouraged to emerge. It begins spectacularly with a long and shaggy sheepskin rug running down the centre of the posh stairs that welcome us to the Royal Scottish Academy. Infused with the stony rigour of the Scottish Enlightenment, carved out of local granite, the posh stairs speak of privilege and rank, politeness and empire. Goldsworthy's rug, meanwhile, ascending shaggily step by step, speaks of muddy fields and the dirty bottoms of sheep. Two worlds are colliding, and societal sparks are flying. The attack continues with the next sight, a filigree of delicate lines stretching between the portentous Doric columns that loom over the entrance. What is it? A silk hanging? A beaded embroidery? As you get closer, you finally recognise it: barbed wire. From many fields and with many patinas. For the first time in its unpleasant history, the vicious outdoor fencing has been woven by an industrious spider into a curtain of fragile beauty. • Like nature itself, the show keeps switching moods. Gravestones, a lumpy gallery full of rocks that appear to have emerged from beneath the floor, like the biblical prophecy about the resurrection of the dead at the End of Days, is doomy and gothic. It's made out of stones dug up in the cemeteries of Dumfries and Galloway. But Sheep Paintings, two panels of cosmic swirlings with a perfect circle at their centre, feels druidically mystical, like that installation with the setting sun at Tate Modern by Olafur Eliasson. Goldsworthy's solar discs were actually created by the muddy feet of sheep feeding around a perfectly circular food trough. In his student days Goldsworthy worked on a farm, where he learnt a respect for labour and inherited an appreciation for the seasons. Despite their many moods, his installations are invariably centred on a simple piece of geometry: a circle, a square, a line. Oak Passage seems, from its first angle, to be an impenetrable tangle of branches. But as you walk round you see that its centre is dissected by a miraculously straight path. Man and nature are doing their thing in evident harmony. Most readers will know Goldsworthy's work from the sumptuous photography books he produced in the 1990s. They were popular and are, I suspect, the chief reason the art world took against him: it dislikes crowd-pleasers. Some of those images are on show here as well — a mysterious zigzag in the earth created with the feathers of a heron; a bottomless hole in a tree fashioned from autumn leaves. Rather than shining glossily in a coffee table book, they hang coolly on the gallery walls, part of a thoughtful photographic encapsulation in which the rigour that went into their production is easier to note. They remain beautiful — what a nose he has for the intensity of nature's colours — but their ambition to record a fleeting moment is much more evident. The job of this gorgeous photography is to record a natural performance that would otherwise be lost. All through the event there's a feeling that the artist is trying to right some wrongs: a sense of correction. Here, finally, the truth is being projected that he is, at heart, a minimalist: a lover of geometry's simplest order. But where most minimalists are urbanites, searching for industrial precision with industrial materials, he's a rural minimalist who finds order and simplicity in nature. If it's not there, he inserts it into the chaos. And like all great landscape artists — and he's certainly one of those — he's bringing the outdoors indoors. It's a traditional British ambition. It deserves far greater recognition that it has hitherto received.
Belfast Telegraph
21 hours ago
- General
- Belfast Telegraph
Education Minister pays tribute to ‘remarkable' former Co Down principal following passing
John Wilkinson had been in teaching for more than three decades, 19 years of which were spent at Dromore High School. Mr Wilkinson was awarded an OBE in 2013 for his contributions to education in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. While principal, he helped lead the Co Down school to recognition for academic excellence and it was designated as a Specialist School for Science. Education Minister Paul Givan paid his respects to the senior education figure who 'dedicated his life to serving others and shaping the lives of young people across Northern Ireland'. The DUP MLA said: 'Throughout his long and distinguished career, John embodied the very best of our education system — professionalism, compassion, and a deep commitment to excellence. He approached every role with humility, wisdom, and a quiet strength that earned the respect and admiration of colleagues, pupils, and the wider community. 'In recognition of his outstanding contribution to education, John was awarded an OBE in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours List — a richly deserved honour that reflected the esteem in which he was held. 'John's legacy is one of quiet but profound influence — a legacy that will be felt for generations. A devout Christian who served as Clerk of Session in First Dromore Presbyterian he will be remembered not only for his many achievements, but for the values he lived by and inspired in others. 'My thoughts are with his family and all who knew and respected him at this difficult time, especially Hazel, Jonathan and Joanna." Beyond the school gates, Mr Wilkinson was also on the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) where he was Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and Interim Vice-Chair of Council. Mr Wilkinson was also a Non-Executive Director with the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. The Co Down man is survived by his wife, Hazel, children, Jonathan and Joanne, and grandchildren Oscar, Darcie, Maisie and Kasie.
Scotsman
a day ago
- Politics
- Scotsman
Tributes paid to former Edinburgh Conservative group leader Christine Richard
Tributes have been paid to former Edinburgh Tory group leader Christine Richard, who has died, aged 82. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Mrs Richard was a colourful and outspoken figure at the City Chambers, a councillor for 12 years and group leader for four of these. Former Tory councillor Lindsay Walls said: "She was a very efficient woman, a good debater in the council chamber, very bubbly and had good connections - she knew a lot of people." Former councillor Christine Richard has died, aged 82 | supplied Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mrs Richard was first elected councillor for Murrayfield in 1984 and served as leader of the Tory group from 1989 until 1993. In 1992 she received an OBE for public service. And she stood unsuccessfully in the first elections for the Scottish Parliament as Tory candidate in East Lothian in 1999. But she later quit the party and joined Labour. She died peacefully on July 10. Her daughter Fiona Fahey was her carer for the last five years. Mrs Richard was born in Yorkshire to a Swiss father and an English mother. She went to Ilkley Grammar School, but instead of going on to university had to get a job and help look after the family after her father died. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She married her first husband, Len, a company chief executive, when she was 21. He was 17 years older and had three sons from his previous marriage. Fiona said: "She took on my dad's three children and then had me, so by 22, she was running a house, working, and had four children." The family moved around quite a bit and came to Edinburgh around 1970, when Len was appointed to printers Morrison & Gibb. Christine Richard with fellow Conservative Malcolm Rifkind on Calton Hill Edinburgh in May 1992. | TSPL Fiona said her mother was always quick to get involved in new situations. 'She very much plunged herself into whatever community she ended up in.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But a few years later the marriage broke up and she married stockbroker John Richard, who had four children, one of them now the Duchess of Northumberland. Mrs Richard was already active in the Conservative Party, as well as working. She held several posts as personal assistant, including to merchant banker Angus Grossart. And later she taught business skills and mentored women who were setting up their own businesses. Her election to Edinburgh District Council came just as Labour won control of the authority from the Conservatives, so she was in opposition all of her time on the council. But she played an energetic part in city politics, including enthusiastic support for the reopening of the former Empire Theatre as the Festival Theatre. Christine Richard was Tory group leader in Edinburgh from 1989 until 1993. Picture: Justin Spittle. | TSPL In 1992, she admitted making nuisance phone calls to her husband's ex-wife and was admonished by the court. An attempt to oust her as group leader failed, but she stood down from the post the following year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She left the Tories and joined Labour in 2002, when Tony Blair was prime minister. Fiona recalled: "She said she stayed in the same place but the parties moved.' She did not seek re-election under her new colours, but she did act as agent for the late Labour councillor Liz Maginnis at the 2007 council elections. And Fiona said another friend was the late Margo MacDonald. 'They had great fun together. They would always pretend to be the worst enemies, but they were the best of friends.' Mrs Richard owned a racehorse, Tre Bonkers, which Fionas said 'won a few trophies'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And after she left the council, she wrote a novel 'Whitewalls' - described as 'a Scottish family saga' - which was published in 2009. Fiona said her mother remained active, out and about, attending events and going to the ballet up until Covid, but after that 'never got back out on the road properly' though she remained 'very witty and chirpy and funny'. 'She did a lot of good, she was quite fearless, she lived her life to the full and she was a very kind, very generous woman. She was passionate about what she did and a real grafter. She was a real character, brimming with stories and very much loved.' The funeral will be at Warriston crematorium on Tuesday, August 5, at 2pm. And an event is planned for the Festival Theatre later in the year to celebrate her life.
