Ray Dolby, founder of Dolby Laboratories, dies

PORTLAND: Ray Dolby, an American inventor and audio pioneer who founded Dolby Laboratories, has died at the age of 80. The company said yesterday that Dolby died in his home at San Francisco. He had been living with Alzheimer's disease for several years and was diagnosed with acute leukemia this summer. Dolby founded his namesake company in 1965 and grew it into an industry leader in audio technology. His work in noise reduction and surround sound led to the creation of a number of technologies that are still used in music, movies and entertainment today. "Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary," Kevin Yeaman, president and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, said in a statement. Yeaman said that Dolby invented an entire industry around being able to deliver a sound experience. His work spanned helping to reduce the hiss in cassette recordings to bringing "Star Wars" to life on the big screen in Dolby Stereo. Dolby held 50 US patents and won a number of notable awards for his life's work, including several Emmys, two Oscars and a Grammy. He was awarded the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the US and the Royal Academy of Engineers in the UK, among many more honors. In 2012, the theatre that serves as home to the Academy Awards was renamed the Dolby TheatreSM and the Ray Dolby Ballroom was named in his honor. "Ray really managed to have a dream job," said Dagmar Dolby, his wife of 47 years. "Because he could do exactly what he wanted to do, whichever way he wanted to do it, and in the process, did a lot of good for many music and film lovers. And in the end, built a very successful company." Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon, and his family eventually moved to the San Francisco Peninsula. It was there that he started his professional work at Ampex Corp. working on videotape recording systems while he was still a student. After graduating from Stanford University, he left Ampex to study at Cambridge University. Following his time as a United Nations adviser in India, he returned to England and founded Dolby in London. In 1976 he moved to San Francisco where the company established its headquarters. CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

V.Dakshinamoorthy passes away at 94

Music composer V.Dakshinamoorthy 

(വി ദക്ഷിണാമൂര്‍ത്തി)passes away at 94

Top-notch music director V Dakshinamurthy, who composed music for hundreds of film songs in Malayalam and other southern languages over the last seven decades, died here today, industry sources said.He was 94 and was keeping indifferent health for some time. He breathed his last at his residence in Mylapore. Endearingly called as "Swamy" by the film fraternity and his fans, Dakshinamurthy's songs stood out on account of their He served the industry for a period of over six decades during this period; more than 50 singers of three generations sang tunes set by him. 

His songs are known for the classical touch. He was a person, who nurtured both the Carnatic as well as Malayalam music. He has to his credit about 859 songs that were composed by him over seven decades of his service to the world of Music. Few of the films in which he composed music include Navalokam, Seetha, Viyarppinte Vila, Sri Guruvayoorappan, Kadamattathachan and Indulekha. 

About Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy
• He debuted as a Music composer in the a Malayalam movie Nalla Thanka (Nalla Thankal in Tamil) in 1950
• He was born in Alappuzha district of Kerala on 22 December 1919
• He was the guru to singers and music directors like P. Leela, P. Susheela (he introduced her in Malayalam films in 1960 in film Seetha), Kalyani Menon and Ilayaraja
• He was the proud recipient of Kerala State Film Award for best music director in 1971
• In 1998, he received the Kerala State Film Award for Lifetime Achievement


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Pope Playing Piano

Julian Clef : A Pianist from Kerala

Julian Clef - pianist

JULIAN CLEF was born on the 28th July 1990 in the state of Kerala, India. He was “spotted” in India by Mrs. Linda John who recognised that he had exceptional talent & needed to be assessed by eminent pianists who could advise on his potential.

He received no formal piano training until 2006 when he was accepted by Chetham’s School of Music, in Manchester. Since then he has been studying piano under the direction of Murray McLachlan. In spite of his limited resources in India, Julian pressed ahead with the development of his skills and with the help of his father, undertook many concert performances in front of admiring audiences. Of particular note was a “piano marathon” when he played at the age of 12 for a period of 12 hours to promote the issue of peace.

In May 2005, at the age of 14 Julian came to England to perform in the Rotary Young Musicians Concert in Derby. He took part in the Mansfield Music Festival the same year and won the trophy for the piano open class.

Very early in Julian’s career, international concert pianist Benjamin Frith concluded “Julian has a musical and pianistic maturity well beyond his years. He gives performances of great beauty, without mannerism or distortion. Already very experienced, he is totally composed on stage and he possesses a remarkably relaxed technique with which he brings the music so vividly to life”.

Julian has recently graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a B.Mus (Hons) Degree & is now studying in the RNCM for his Masters with Professor Dina Parakhina. He has also recently returned from Prague after a successful concert at the Dvorak festival.

He has performed in many venues around India & across the UK including Buckingham Palace, St. Martin in the Fields & the Foundling Museum in London, Leeds College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and St. David’s Hall in Cardiff & the Pump room in Bath. He has attended Chetham’s International Festival for Pianists for the past five years and in September 2007 he visited Norway to perform in the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival and in the Edvard Grieg Museum at Troldhaugen. He gave solo recitals in Hamburg in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

He has appeared as soloist with Nottingham Youth Orchestra at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, with the Heisenberg Ensemble at St. Andrew’s University. Julian has benefitted from lessons and Masterclasses from leading international concert pianists including Bernard Roberts, Peter Donohoe, Bruce Morrison, Noriko Ogawa, Yonty Solomon, Leon McCauley, Nadia Lasserson, John Lill and Colleen Athparia. The highlight of 2012 thus far was an invitation to Julian in July to have Masterclasses from the legendary Andras Schiff at Beethoven Haus in Bonn, Germany. This culminated in Julian performing at a concert in the great master’s house.

Amongst his other appearances, Julian has been delighted to perform as guest pianist with the highly-regarded Mansfield-based Cantamus Girls’ Choir (directed by Pamela Cook MBE), the twice-gold World Choir Olympics champions.

He has taken part in and won prizes in many competitions. Julian won the EPTA (European Piano Teachers’ Association) UK Piano Competition in 2007, the 2008 Beethoven Junior Inter-Collegiate UK competition held in London by the BPSA (Beethoven Piano Society of Europe) and the William Mathias Festival competition in 2009.

In 2010 he was the winner of the RNCM Concerto auditions which enabled him to perform the BARTOK Concerto No. 2 with the RNCM Orchestra. Julian won the RNCM Gold Medal in 2011.

In September 2011 he performed at the Rising Stars series in Canmore, Canada and in the Gift of Music series at High River near Calgary, Canada where he was very well received. In March 2012 Julian performed the Rachmaninov No.2 Concerto to great acclaim with Berkshire’s Crowthorne Symphony Orchestra. He appears with Nottingham Symphony Orchestra in November 2012. 

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