title: Byron Howard

text: The first film Howard directed was the animated Disney film "Bolt", which was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In his role as co-director of the film with Chris Williams, Howard focused on character design and animation. Howard went on to direct the animated Disney films "Tangled" (2010, co-directed with Nathan Greno) and "Zootopia" (2016, co-directed with Rich Moore). He and Greno also co-directed and wrote the animated short "Tangled Ever After", which features supporting characters from "Tangled" and showed in theaters before the 2012 3D re-release of "Beauty and the Beast".


title: Byron Howard

text: After "Zootopia", Howard worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda on "Encanto". Howard co-directed the film, alongside "Zootopia" co-director Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith, while Miranda wrote songs for the project, which centered on a girl from a magical Colombian family who lacks magic herself.


title: Byron Howard

text: In the Fusion documentary "Imagining Zootopia", Howard mentioned he is openly gay and has been married since 1988.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen (born 7 August 1956) is a Costa Rican diplomat who has led national, international and multilateral policy negotiations. She was appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in July 2010, six months after the failed COP15 in Copenhagen. During the next six years she worked to rebuild the global climate change negotiating process, leading to the 2015 Paris Agreement, widely recognized as a historical achievement.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Over the years Figueres has worked in the fields of climate change, sustainable development, energy, land use, and technical and financial cooperation. In 2016, she was Costa Rican candidate for the United Nations Secretary General and was an early frontrunner, but decided to withdraw after garnering insufficient support. She is a founder of the Global Optimism group co-authored with Tom Rivett-Carnac of The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis (2020), and co-host of the popular podcast Outrage and Optimism.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Figueres was born in San José, Costa Rica. Her father, José Figueres Ferrer, was President of Costa Rica three times. Figueres' mother, Karen Olsen Beck, served as Costa Rican Ambassador to Israel in 1982 and was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1990 to 1994. The couple had four children. Figueres' older brother José Figueres Olsen, was also President of Costa Rica (1994–1998).


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Growing up in La Lucha, Figueres attended the local Cecilia Orlich grammar school. She moved to the German Humboldt Schule in the capital and later graduated from Lincoln High School. She travelled to England for a year of A Level studies before entering Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1979. As part of her studies in anthropology, she lived in Bribri, Talamanca, a remote indigenous village in the Southeastern plateau of Costa Rica for one year.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: She then went to the London School of Economics for a master's degree in social anthropology and graduated in 1981. Figueres' daughter Naima was born in Guatemala in March 1988, and daughter Yihana was born in Washington DC in December 1989.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Figueres began her public service career as Minister Counselor at the Embassy of Costa Rica in Bonn, West Germany, from 1982 to 1985.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Returning to Costa Rica in 1987, Figueres was named Director of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Planning. There she designed and directed the negotiation of comprehensive financial and technical cooperation programs with eight European countries, and supervised the evaluation of all national technical and financial assistance requests. She served as the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Agriculture between 1988 and 1990. She supervised the execution of 22 national programs involving training, credit and marketing.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: In 1989 Figueres moved with her husband to Washington DC, and for several years devoted herself to the upbringing of their two daughters. In 1994, Figueres re-entered professional life and became the Director of the Renewable Energy in the Americas (REIA) initiative, today housed at the Organization of American States (OAS).


title: Christiana Figueres

text: In 1995 Figueres founded and became the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the participation of Latin American countries in the Climate Change Convention. She worked there as executive director for eight years.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Representing the Government of Costa Rica, Christiana Figueres was a negotiator of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change 1995–2010. In 1997 she provided critical international strategy for achieving developing country support and approval of the Kyoto Protocol and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). From 2007 to 2009 she was Vice President of the Bureau of the Climate Convention, representing Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the years she chaired various international negotiations:


title: Christiana Figueres

text: In 2002 Figueres proposed a "Sectoral CDM" under which developing countries would be encouraged to develop regional or sectoral projects that could be the result of specific sustainable development policies. In 2005 she published a study proposing "programmatic CDM" whereby emission reductions are achieved not by one single site, but rather by multiple actions executed over time as the result of a government measure or a voluntary program.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: In December 2005 Figueres took the idea to the COP11 in Montreal, and achieved support for it on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. She then took the lead in negotiating the concept with the various groups of industrialized countries, finally attaining a Conference of the Parties (COP) decision to allow "programs of activities" in the CDM. Two years later, as member of the CDM Executive Board, she achieved consensus on the rules and procedures for the submission of "programs of activities" in the CDM.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: In 2008 and 2009 Figueres collaborated with private sector companies that aligned themselves with climate friendly goals. Figueres served as Senior Adviser to C-Quest Capital, a carbon finance company focusing on programmatic CDM investments. She was the Principal Climate Change Advisor to ENDESA Latinoamérica, the largest private utility in Latin America with operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. She was also Vice Chair of the Rating Committee of the Carbon Rating Agency, the first entity to apply credit rating expertise to carbon assets.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Following the failed COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, the UN Secretary General appointed Christiana Figueres as new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, starting her first term in July 2010. Upon starting the role, she advocated for a shift in strategy: moving from the top-down logic of the Kyoto Protocol to a bottom up logic based on national self interest in the context of scientific projections.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: During her tenure as Executive Secretary, she led the UN Climate Change Secretariat's delivery of six consecutive yearly global negotiation sessions, culminating in the historical Paris Agreement in December 2015. Her engagement and close collaboration with yearly rotating presidencies (Mexico, South Africa, Qatar, Poland, Peru and France) provided the necessary framework and continuity that allowed every annual negotiation to build incrementally solid ground of common purpose.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Under the presidency of Patricia Espinosa (Mexico) COP16 in 2010 marked a radical departure from the previous conference in Copenhagen, delivering a comprehensive package infrastructure to assist developing nations including the Green Climate Fund, the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism, and the Cancun Adaptation Framework.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: At COP17 held in Durban in December 2011, governments committed for the first time to collectively develop a new universal climate change agreement by 2015 for the period beyond 2020. Connie Hedegaard, the EU's top climate official, played a pivotal role to change the course of negotiations.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: The work toward that global legal framework was initiated at COP18 Doha in November 2012, at the same time as the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol was adopted under the Doha Amendment. At COP19 in Warsaw in 2013 governments continued to work toward the global framework but also adopted a rulebook for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and a mechanism to address loss and damage caused by long-term climate change impacts. Gathering in Lima for COP20 at the end of 2014, governments defined the core elements of the upcoming agreement, and agreed on the ground rules to submit national contributions in the run up to the 2015 negotiation. From then on, Figueres' efforts were focused on raising the ambition of the emerging agreement to ensure that it would be science based and long lasting.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: COP21 held in Paris in December 2015 is widely recognized as a historic achievement. With the leadership of the United Nations Secretary-General and President Hollande of France, and beating previous records of Head of State gatherings on one day, 155 Heads of State came together to send a strong political signal of support for an ambitious and effective agreement. On the final day under the presidency of Laurent Fabius the 195 governments which are Parties to the Climate Change Convention unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement, with the goal of accelerating the intentional transformation of the global economy toward low carbon and high resilience. Figueres and the French hosts had made sure the major negotiation obstacles were resolved before the start of the Agreement.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: Figueres spent much of her tenure approaching key stakeholders beyond governments by engaging technology providers, financial institutions including insurance companies, the science community, faith groups, youth and women's groups, and other members of society, encouraging them to partake in the global efforts to address climate change. In 2013, she addressed the World Coal Association, commented that the coal industry faces business continuation risks, but inviting them to be a part of the global solution.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: After her tenure as Executive Secretary, Figueres worked as convenor of Mission 2020 and served as chair of the Advisory Board of "The Lancet" Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change. She is a founder of the Global Optimism group, co-author of the book The Future We Choose and co-host of the popular podcast Outrage and Optimism. Other activities include:


title: Christiana Figueres

text: On 7 July 2016, Christiana Figueres became the official Costa Rican candidate for the United Nations Secretary General. She was an early frontrunner, but decided to withdraw in September after garnishing insufficient support in the third and fourth round of voting.


title: Christiana Figueres

text: During the UN Secretary General debate held by Al Jazeera, Christina Figuerres raised her hand when the candidates were all asked who thought victims of cholera deserved an apology. The UN's role in the Haiti cholera outbreak has been widely discussed and criticized. The UN peacekeepers may have been the proximate cause for bringing cholera to Haiti. Thirty-seven human rights organizations signed a UN Secretary General accountability pledge asking the candidates to take action on two human rights violations that have damaged the United Nations' image: failing to provide remedies for victims of cholera in Haiti, and sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. Despite her stance at the UNSG debates, her office declined to support the pledge."


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Louis Jourdan (born Louis Robert Gendre; 19 June 1921 – 14 February 2015) was a French film and television actor. He was known for his suave roles in several Hollywood films, including Alfred Hitchcock's "The Paradine Case" (1947), "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948), "Gigi" (1958), "The Best of Everything" (1959), "The V.I.P.s" (1963) and "Octopussy" (1983). He played Dracula in the 1977 BBC television production "Count Dracula".


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan was born Louis Robert Gendre in Marseille, France, in 1921, one of three sons of Yvonne (née Jourdan) and Henry Gendre, a hotel owner. He was educated in France, Turkey, and the UK, and studied acting at the École Dramatique. While there, he began acting on the professional stage, where he was brought to the attention of director Marc Allégret, who hired him to work as an assistant camera operator on "Entrée des Artistes" ("The Curtain Rises").


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Allegret then cast Jourdan in what should have been his first movie, "Le Corsaire" in 1939 opposite Charles Boyer. Filming was interrupted by the Second World War and was never resumed.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan was too young for army service and was hired by Marcel L'Herbier to appear in "La Comédie du bonheur" (1940) in Rome. He was making "Untel Père et Fils" in that city when Italy declared war on France.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: He returned to France, and appeared in "Premier rendez-vous" (1941) with Danielle Darrieux, shot in Paris. He spent a year on a work gang. Jourdan was ordered to make German propaganda films, which he refused to do, and fled to join his family in unoccupied France.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: There he started making movies again, ten films in two years. They included several for Allegret: "Parade en sept nuits" (1941); "L'Arlésienne" (1942) with Raimu, "The Beautiful Adventure" (1942); "Les Petites du quai aux fleurs" (1944); "Twilight" (1944). He was in "The Heart of a Nation" (1943) with Raimu; "La Vie de Bohème" (1945).


title: Louis Jourdan

text: His father was arrested by the Gestapo; months later he escaped, and joined the French Resistance, along with his family. "I was given work to do and I did it", said Jourdan later of his time in the resistance. "I worked on illegal leaflets, helping to print and distribute them." After the liberation of France in 1945, he returned to Paris with his childhood sweetheart, Berthe Frédérique (nicknamed "Quique"). They married in 1946.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Cited by author James McKay as the "epitome of the suave Continental", Jourdan was spotted in a French film by a talent scout working for David O. Selznick, who offered the actor a contract in March 1946.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: His first American film was "The Paradine Case" (1947) starring Gregory Peck. The movie is a drama directed by Alfred Hitchcock, who did not want Jourdan cast as the valet in the film. He appeared in a theatre production of "Ghosts" in Los Angeles.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan frequently argued with Selznick, who put him on suspension a number of times for refusing roles.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Selznick announced Jourdan and Alida Valli for "Rupert of Hentzau" but the film was not made. Neither was "Trilby" which Selznick said Jourdan would appear in with Valli and Rossano Brazzi or "If This Be My Heart" with Valli and Robert Mitchum.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: With Joan Fontaine, Jourdan starred in the Max Ophüls film "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948). David Thomson in 2010 observed how his performance as Stefan Brand altered as the character aged over the extended period of the film's narrative: "I notice how his way of talking has changed. The younger Stefan was boyish, eager and open. Ten years later, the man is filled with self-loathing and fake ironies." It was a "signature performance" from Jourdan, Thomson wrote in "Have You Seen?", he was "handsome yet a touch empty; romantic yet not entirely there." John Houseman, the film's producer, "felt he lacked sex appeal, but that shortcoming serves very well as his defect of memory," a significant element of the film's plot. In Hollywood, Jourdan became friends with several stars who shared his love of the game of croquet.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Enterprise borrowed him for "No Minor Vices" (1948), a box office flop. It was released by MGM, who borrowed Jourdan to appear in "Madame Bovary" (1949).


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Selznick announced him for "The Frenchman and the Bobbysoxer" a sequel to "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" but it was not made. Selznick sold his interest in Jourdan for one film to Warner Bros.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: All Jourdan's Hollywood films had lost money. He decided to buy out his contract with Selznick for $50,000.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: At 20th Century Fox, Jourdan played the lead in a remake of "Bird of Paradise" (1951). The studio kept him on to appear in "Anne of the Indies" (1951), directed by Jacques Tourneur. He was announced for the romantic male lead in the Fox remake of "Les Miserables" but ended up not appearing in the film.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: He was in a comedy, "The Happy Time" (1952). He was reunited with Joan Fontaine for "Decameron Nights" (1953) then returned home to France to make "Rue de l'Estrapade" (1953).


title: Louis Jourdan

text: After appearing in "Three Coins in the Fountain" (1954), Jourdan made his Broadway début in the lead role in the Billy Rose stage adaptation of André Gide's novel, "The Immoralist".


title: Louis Jourdan

text: He returned to Broadway for a short run in 1955, and also that year he made his American TV début as Inspector Beaumont in the TV series "Paris Precinct". In 1956, he appeared in the film "The Swan" playing the role of "Dr Nicholas Agi" along with Grace Kelly and Sir Alec Guinness for MGM. This was Kelly's last film, and lost money at the box office. More popular was "Julie" (1956) a thriller where Jourdan tormented Doris Day.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: He returned to France to play the male lead in "The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful" (1956) with Brigitte Bardot as the lead actress, and "Escapade" (1957). In Britain he appeared in a swashbuckler, "Dangerous Exile" (1957).


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan appeared in his biggest hit playing the romantic lead alongside Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier in the film version of the novella by Colette, "Gigi" (1958). This film won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He enjoyed another hit with "The Best of Everything" (1959), an all star romance in the vein of "Three Coins in the Fountain". He also appeared in a variety show on TV, "An Evening with Louis Jourdan".


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan was going to follow it in a remake of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" in England for Terence Fisher. "It's a terrific change of pace for me," he said. However he did not appear in the final film, "The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll".


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan co-starred with Frank Sinatra, Chevalier and Shirley MacLaine in the musical "Can-Can" (1960). He travelled to Italy to appear in a peplum film, "Amazons of Rome" (1961). Then it was back to France to star in a version of "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1961), a massive hit in France. "Disorder" (1962) was an Italian-French comedy, "Mathias Sandorf" (1963) was based on a novel by Jules Verne.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan also sang in the Alan Jay Lerner/Barton Lane stage musical, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" (1965), at least during its out-of-town tryout at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. He was replaced as leading man by John Cullum before the show reached Broadway.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: He supported Ann-Margret in "Made in Paris" (1966) for MGM, then returned to Europe: "The Sultans" (1967), "To Commit a Murder" (1967), "Cervantes" (1967). "To Die in Paris" (1968) was a US TV movie and "A Flea in Her Ear" (1968) a Hollywood financed farce.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: There were more TV movies: "Fear No Evil" (1969), "Run a Crooked Mile" (1970), "Ritual of Evil" (1970), "The Great American Beauty Contest" (1973). In later years, Jourdan also appeared on television, including 1977's "Count Dracula" for the BBC and as a murderous food critic in the 1978 "Columbo" episode "Murder Under Glass".


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan later played Anton Arcane in the movie "Swamp Thing" (1982) and in its sequel "The Return of Swamp Thing" (1989).


title: Louis Jourdan

text: During the 1970s, Jourdan recorded a series of spoken word albums of the "Babar the Elephant" books that were released by Caedmon Records.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: In 1983, Jourdan played the villainous Kamal Khan in the James Bond movie "Octopussy". He said at the time he earned most of his money over the past ten years doing commercials:


title: Louis Jourdan

text: He played the role of French educator, historian and Baron, Pierre de Coubertin (1863–1937), in "", a May 1984 NBC TV (2-part) mini-series about the 1896 Summer Olympics and the American team member/discus thrower from Baltimore, Robert Garrett (1875–1961). His last film role was eight years later in "Year of the Comet" (1992).


title: Louis Jourdan

text: On Jourdan married his childhood sweetheart, Berthe Frédérique. The marriage produced one child, Louis Henry Jourdan, born on 6 October 1951, and lasted until her death in 2014. Louis Henry Jourdan died of a narcotics overdose at the age of 29 on 12 May 1981; his body was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: After his retirement from acting in 1992 Jourdan lived in Los Angeles. In July 2010 he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, an honor that he received accompanied by friends, including Sidney Poitier and Kirk Douglas.


title: Louis Jourdan

text: Jourdan died at his home in Beverly Hills on 14 February 2015 at the age of 93. His body was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.


title: Vickers VC10

text: The Vickers VC10 is a mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long-distance routes from the shorter runways of the era and commanded excellent hot and high performance for operations from African airports. The performance of the VC10 was such that it achieved the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a subsonic jet airliner of 5 hours and 1 minute, a record that was held for 41 years, until February 2020 when a British Airways Boeing 747 broke the record at 4 hours 56 minutes due to Storm Ciara. Only the supersonic Concorde was faster. The VC10 is often compared to the larger Soviet Ilyushin Il-62, the two types being the only airliners to use a rear-engined quad layout. The smaller business jet Lockheed JetStar also has this engine arrangement.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Although only a relatively small number of VC10s were built, they provided long service with BOAC and other airlines from the 1960s to 1981. They were also used from 1965 as strategic air transports for the Royal Air Force, and ex-passenger models and others were used as aerial refuelling aircraft. The 50th anniversary of the first flight of the prototype VC10, G-ARTA, was celebrated with a "VC10 Retrospective" Symposium and the official opening of a VC10 exhibition at Brooklands Museum on 29 June 2012. The type was retired from RAF service on 20 September 2013. It has been succeeded in the aerial refuelling role by the Airbus Voyager. VC10 K.3 ZA147 performed the final flight of the type on 25 September 2013.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Although privately owned, Britain's aviation industry had been government-managed in practice, particularly during the Second World War. Design and manufacture of transport aircraft had been abandoned to concentrate on production of combat aircraft with Britain's transport aircraft needs being met by the provision of US aircraft through Lend-Lease. In 1943, the Brabazon Committee introduced command economy-style principles into the industry, specifying a number of different types of airliners that would be required for the post-war years, though it assumed that US dominance in transport aircraft would translate into leadership in long-range airliners and conceded in principle that the industry might have to cede the long-range market to US makers.


title: Vickers VC10

text: During the 1950s, the government required the aviation industry to consolidate: in consequence only two engine makers were left by 1959: Rolls-Royce and Bristol Siddeley. In 1960, the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) encompassed Vickers, Bristol and English Electric's aviation interests, whilst Hawker Siddeley built on de Havilland's heavy aircraft experience and Westland consolidated helicopter manufacture. The British government also controlled route-licensing for private airlines and also oversaw the newly established publicly owned British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) long-range and British European Airways (BEA) short and medium-range airlines.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In 1951, the Ministry of Supply asked Vickers-Armstrongs to consider a military troop/freight development of the Valiant V bomber with trans-Atlantic range as a successor to the de Havilland Comet. The concept interested BOAC, who entered into discussion with Vickers and the RAF. In October 1952, Vickers were contracted to build a prototype which they designated the "Type 1000" (Vickers V-1000), followed in June 1954 by a production order for six aircraft for the RAF. The planned civil airliner was known as the "VC7" (the seventh Vickers civil design). Development was prolonged by the need to meet the RAF's requirements for short take-off and a self-loading capability. Work started on the prototype but by 1955 the aircraft's increased weight required a more powerful engine, causing BOAC to question the engine development cycle. In 1955, the government cancelled the RAF order in a round of defence cuts. Vickers and the Ministry of Supply hoped that BOAC would still be interested in the VC7 but they were reluctant to support the production of another British aircraft following delays in the Britannia programme and the crashes involving the de Havilland Comet.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Though BOAC had ordered modified Comet 4s, it viewed the type as an intermediate rather than a long term type. In 1956, BOAC ordered 15 Boeing 707s. These were oversized and underpowered for BOAC's medium-range Empire (MRE) African and Asian routes, which involved destinations with "hot and high" airports that reduced aircraft performance, notably between Karachi and Singapore, and could not lift a full load from high-altitude airports like Kano or Nairobi. Several companies proposed a suitable replacement. De Havilland offered the DH.118, a development of the Comet 5 project while Handley Page proposed the HP.97, based on their V bomber, the Victor. After carefully considering the routes, Vickers offered the VC10. Crucially, Vickers was the only firm willing to launch its design as a private venture, instead of relying on government financing.


title: Vickers VC10

text: The VC10 was a new design but used some production ideas and techniques, as well as the Conway engines, developed for the V.1000 and VC7. It had a generous wing equipped with wide chord Fowler flaps and full span leading edge slats for good take-off and climb performance; its rear engines gave an efficient clean wing and reduced cabin noise. The engines were also further from the runway surface than an underwing design, an important factor in operations from rough runways such as those common in Africa; wide, low-pressure tyres were also adopted with this same concern in mind. The VC10 was capable of landing and taking off at lower speeds than the rival 707 and its engines could produce considerably more thrust, providing good 'hot and high' performance, and was considered to be a safer aircraft.


title: Vickers VC10

text: The onboard avionics and flight-deck technology were extremely advanced, a quadruplicated automatic flight control system (a "super autopilot") was intended to enable fully automatic zero-visibility landings (though the autoland system did not work smoothly and finally was removed from the Super VC10s.). Capacity was up to 135 passengers in a two-class configuration. Vickers designer Sir George Edwards is said to have stated that this plane was the sole viable option unless he were to reinvent the 707 and, despite misgivings on operating cost, BOAC ordered 25 aircraft. Vickers calculated that it would need to sell 80 VC10s at about £1.75 million each to break even so, apart from BOAC's 25, another 55 remained to be sold. Vickers offered a smaller version, the VC11, to BEA for routes like those to Athens and Beirut but this was rejected in favour of the Hawker Siddeley Trident.


title: Vickers VC10

text: The aircraft featured Powered Flight Control Units an early type of Electro-hydraulic actuator; these were produced by Boulton Paul.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Vickers revamped its production plans to try to achieve break-even point with 35 sales at £1.5 million each, re-using jigs from the Vickers Vanguard. On 14 January 1958, BOAC increased its order to 35, with options for a further 20 aircraft, the largest civil order ever placed in Britain at that time; these were to have smaller 109-seat interiors and more first-class seating. As the BOAC order alone reached the break-even point, the reuse of Vanguard jigs was abandoned and new production jigs made. To offer greater economy, Vickers began work on the "Super 200" development of the VC10 with more powerful Conway engines and a 28 feet (8.1 m) longer fuselage offering up to 212 seats, 23 more than the Boeing 707-320 series.


title: Vickers VC10

text: By January 1960, Vickers was experiencing financial difficulties and was concerned that it would not be able to deliver the 35 VC10s without making a loss. It offered to sell ten Super 200s to BOAC at £2.7 million each only to find that BOAC was unconvinced it had a role for the already ordered 35 VC10s and doubted the airline's ability to fill all 200 seats. The whole project looked to be facing cancellation prior to government intervention, supporting Vickers with an order for Super 200s being placed on 23 June 1960. The Super 200 extension was cut down to 13 ft (3.9 m) for the finalised "Super VC10" (Type 1150), the original design retrospectively becoming the "Standard VC10" (Type 1100).


title: Vickers VC10

text: In accordance with its contracts with Vickers, in May 1961, BOAC amended its order to 15 Standard and 35 Super VC10s, eight of the Supers having a new combi configuration with a large cargo door and stronger floor; in December the order was reduced again to 12 Standards. By the time deliveries were ready to begin in 1964, airline growth had slowed and BOAC wanted to cut its order to seven Supers. In May, the government intervened, placing an order for VC10s as military transports to absorb over-production. This lengthy, well-publicised trouble eroded market confidence in the type. BOAC chairman Gerard d'Erlanger and managing director Sir Basil Smallpeice resigned, defending the opinion that the airline was a profit-making company, not a sponsor of indigenous aircraft. BOAC's incoming chairman Sir Giles Guthrie was also anti-VC10; he proposed that the Vickers programme be shelved in favour of more 707s.


title: Vickers VC10

text: The prototype Standard, G-ARTA, rolled out of the Weybridge factory on 15 April 1962. On 29 June, after two months of ground, engine and taxi tests, it was first flown by Vickers' Chief Test Pilot G.R. 'Jock' Bryce, Co-Pilot Brian Trubshaw and Flight Engineer Bill Cairns from Brooklands to Wisley for further testing. By the end of the year, two more aircraft had been flown. Flight tests revealed a serious drag problem, which was addressed via the adoption of Küchemann wingtips and "beaver tail" engine nacelle fairings, as well as a redesigned basal rudder segment for greater control effectiveness; these aerodynamic refinements considerably elongated the testing process. The certification programme included visits to Nairobi, Khartoum, Rome, Kano, Aden, Salisbury and Beirut. A VC10 flew across the Atlantic to Montreal on 8 February 1964.


title: Vickers VC10

text: By this point, 7 of the original 12 Standards were complete and the production line was preparing for the Supers. A Certificate of Airworthiness was awarded on 23 April 1964 and the plane was introduced to regular passenger service between London and Lagos on 29 April. By the end of 1964, all production requirements had been fulfilled; Vickers (now part of BAC) retained the prototype. The first Super VC10 was first flown from Brooklands on 7 May 1964. Although the Super was ostensibly a minor development of the Standard with an extra fuel-tank in the fin, testing was prolonged by the need to move each engine pair 11 in (27 cm) outboard as well as up and giving them a 3-degree twist. This redesign resolved tailplane buffeting and fatigue issues incurred by operating the thrust reversers. The two inboard engines could have thrust reversers installed (such as on military VC10s), matching the 707. There was 3.0% more wing area with the leading edge extension reducing aspect ratio and wing root thickness/chord ratios, improving low speed lift and reduced high Mach drag.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Later VC10 developments included the testing of a large main-deck freight-door and fitting new wing leading edges featuring a part-drooped, four-per-cent chord extension over the inboard two-thirds and a drooped, extended-chord wing-tip that allowed more economical high-altitude flying. (This mimicked the 1961 aerodynamics of the similar-looking but significantly different Il-62.) Further developments proposed included freighter versions, one with front-loading like the C-124 Globemaster II. Efforts focused on getting a BOAC order for a 250-seat "VC10 Superb", a move away from the VC10's initial MRE role into the area targeted by the DC-8 Super Sixties. The VC10 would have needed an entirely new double-deck fuselage, which raised emergency escape concerns, and the design failed to attract orders.


title: Vickers VC10

text: A total of 12 Type 1101 VC10s were purchased in 1964–65, followed by 17 Type 1151 Super VC10s in 1965–69. The VC10 became an immensely popular aircraft in the BOAC fleet with both passengers and crew, being particularly praised for its comfort and low cabin-noise level. BOAC (and later British Airways) obtained higher load factors with the VC10 than with the 707 or any other aircraft in its fleet. Operational experience soon resulted in the deletion of the inboard thrust-reversers due to continued tailplane buffeting despite the engine repositioning. One BOAC Super VC10 was lost during the Dawson's Field hijackings in 1970.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Ghana Airways ordered three VC10s in January 1961: two to be fitted with a cargo door, known as Type 1102. The first was delivered in November 1964 and the second in May 1965; the third was cancelled. Ghana Airways leased one aircraft to Tayaran Assharq Alawsat (Middle East Airlines; MEA), destroyed at Beirut during an Israeli raid in December 1968. The other was retired from service in 1980. MEA also leased the prototype aircraft that Vickers had kept until 1965, leased from Freddie Laker's charter airline.


title: Vickers VC10

text: British United Airways (BUA) ordered two combi versions (Type 1103) in 1964, receiving them in October that year. When BOAC ceased VC10 operations to South America, BUA took them over, purchasing Ghana Airways' cancelled third aircraft in July 1965 (Type 1103). The prototype aircraft was purchased from Vickers/BAC by Freddie Laker and converted from Type 1101 to Type 1109 in 1968. It was initially leased to Middle East Airlines, but returned to Laker in 1969. This particular aircraft never flew in Laker livery as it was sold on to British United to join their existing fleet. The prototype was damaged beyond economical repair in a landing accident at Gatwick in 1972 and the others were sold in 1973–74. One saw further service with Air Malawi, being retired in 1979, and another was sold to the Sultan of Oman as VIP transport and has been preserved at Brooklands since its retirement in 1987. One aircraft went to the Royal Aircraft Establishment for equipment tests and was retired in 1980.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Nigeria Airways had planned to buy two VC10s but cancelled the order for financial reasons; they leased a BOAC aircraft from 1969, but it was destroyed in a landing accident at Lagos in November that year. The final VC10 was one of the five Type 1154 Super VC10s built for East African Airways between 1966 and 1970. Of these, one was destroyed in a takeoff accident at Addis Ababa in 1972, and the other four were retired in 1977 and returned to BAC, subsequently being purchased by the RAF. After the last aircraft was delivered in February 1970, the production line closed, 54 airframes having been built. The 707 and Douglas DC-8, with their superior operating economics, had encouraged many of the world's smaller airports to extend their runways, thus eliminating the VC10's main advantage.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Marketing overtures were made elsewhere, particularly in Mexico, Argentina, Lebanon, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, and Romania, often fronted by British politicians. The final serious enquiry for VC10s came from the Chinese CAAC Airlines in 1971. It was confirmed in 1972 but by then the production equipment had been broken up. Czechoslovakia, Romania and China eventually purchased the Ilyushin Il-62.


title: Vickers VC10

text: BOAC's successor British Airways (BA) began retiring their Super VC10s from trans-Atlantic flights in 1974, mainly due to the 1973 oil crisis, and using them to displace standard VC10s. Ten of the eleven surviving standard models were retired in 1974–75. Of these, five were leased to Gulf Air until 1977–78, then purchased by the RAF. One was leased to the Government of Qatar for VIP transport until 1981 when it was purchased by the RAF as an instructional airframe. The Government of the United Arab Emirates used another for similar purposes until 1981; it is preserved at Hermeskeil, Germany. The other three were traded in to Boeing as partial payment on new aircraft, and were scrapped at Heathrow. The last standard VC10 in BA service, G-ARVM, was retained as a stand-by for the Super VC10 fleet until 1979. It was preserved at RAF Cosford in the British Airways Museum collection; its condition deteriorated after BA withdrew funding, being reduced to a fuselage in 2006 before being moved to the Brooklands Museum.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Retirement of BA's Super VC10 fleet began in April 1980 and was completed the following year. After failing to sell them to other operators, British Airways sold 14 of the 15 survivors to the RAF in May 1981 (the other went for preservation at Duxford Aerodrome). The VC10 served its intended market for only a decade and a half. Written down and amortised by the 1970s, it could have continued in airline service much longer despite its high fuel consumption, but high ground-noise levels sealed its fate. Hush-kitting the Conways was considered in the late 1970s, but rejected on grounds of cost.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In 1960, the RAF issued Specification 239 for a strategic transport, which resulted in an order being placed by the Air Ministry with Vickers in September 1961 for five VC10s. The order was increased by an additional six in August 1962, with a further three aircraft cancelled by BOAC added in July 1964. The military version (Type 1106) was a combination of the Standard combi airframe with the more powerful engines and fin fuel tank of the Super VC10. It also had a detachable in-flight refuelling nose probe and an auxiliary power unit in the tailcone. Another difference from the civil specification was that all the passenger seats faced backwards for safety reasons.


title: Vickers VC10

text: The first RAF aircraft, designated "VC10 C Mk.1", often abbreviated to "VC10 C.1", was delivered for testing on 26 November 1965; deliveries to No. 10 Squadron began in December 1966 and ended in August 1968. The VC10s were named after Victoria Cross (VC) medal holders, the names were displayed above the forward passenger door. During the 1960s, the VC10s of No. 10 Squadron operated two regular routes, one to the Far East to Singapore and Hong Kong, and the other to New York. By 1970, roughly 10,000 passengers and 730,000 lb of freight were being carried monthly by the VC10 fleet.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In addition to the strategic transport role, the VC10 routinely served in the aeromedical evacuation and VIP roles. In its VIP role, the aircraft was commonly used by members of the British Royal Family, such as during Elizabeth II's bicentennial tour of America, and by several British Prime Ministers; Margaret Thatcher reportedly insisted on flying by VC10. The aircraft proved capable of being flown non-stop by two flight crews, enabling several round-the-world flights, one such VC10 circumnavigated the globe in less than 48 hours.


title: Vickers VC10

text: One aircraft (XR809) was leased to Rolls-Royce for flight testing of the RB211 turbofan between 1969 and 1975. On return to the RAF, it was discovered that the airframe was distorted, possibly due to the power difference between the RB211 on one side and the Conways on the other. It was considered uneconomical to repair and was partially scrapped, part of the airframe retained for load training.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In 1977, studies began into converting redundant commercial VC10s into aerial refuelling tankers; the RAF subsequently issued a contract to British Aerospace to convert five former BOAC VC10s and four former East African Airways Super VC10s, designated "VC10 K.2" and "VC10 K.3" respectively. During conversion, extra fuel tanks were installed in the former passenger cabin; these increased the theoretical maximum fuel load to 85 tons/77 tonnes (K.2) and 90 tons/82 tonnes (K.3), the Super VC10's fin fuel tank making the difference. In practice, the fuel load was capped by the maximum take-off weight before the tanks were full. Both variants featured a pair of wing-mounted refuelling pods and a single centreline refuelling point, known as a Hose Drum Unit (HDU), installed in the rear freight bay; nose-mounted refuelling probes were also fitted.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Conversion of K.2, K.3 and K.4 tankers took place at British Aerospace's Filton site. The K.3s had a forward freight door, facilitating the insertion of five upper fuselage tanks in the main fuselage; the K.2s lacked forward freight doors, thus a section of the upper fuselage was dismantled to insert the five upper tanks. In the K.2 and K.3 conversions, extensive floor reinforcement was installed to support the additional weight imposed by the five fuel tanks.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In 1981, 14 former BA Super VC10s were purchased and stored for spare parts. In the early 1990s, to help the VC10 fleet replace the recently retired Handley Page Victor tankers, five of the stored aircraft were converted to "VC10 K.4" tankers. Shortly after entering service, extensive wing tank corrosion was discovered on the lower wing surfaces; this was attributed mainly to the storage method used prior to conversion, the wing tanks had been defuelled and filled with water as ballast. Extensive wing tank corrosion rectification work, including tank replacement, often took place during major services. The K.4 conversions, as with the K.2, lacked forward freight doors, thus it was decided that there would be no internal refuelling tanks fitted. The K.4 had identical refuelling equipment to the K.2 and K.3, but lacked the extra fuselage fuel tanks and retained the same fuel capacity as a Super VC10.


title: Vickers VC10

text: During the 1980s and early 1990s, the 13 surviving C.1s were equipped with wing-mounted refuelling pods (HDUs) and re-designated as "VC10 C.1K" two-point tanker/transports. No extra tanks were fitted, the fuel load remaining at 80 tons (70 tonnes). The conversions were undertaken by FR Aviation Limited based at Hurn Airport, near Bournemouth. The in-flight refuelling probe was an original feature on the aircraft, but had been removed during the 1970s and 1980s due to lack of use; the probes were refitted prior to the conversion. Replacing the Conway engines with IAE V2500 was studied but was not found to be cost-effective.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In 1982, VC10 C.1s formed a part of the airbridge between RAF Brize Norton and Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island during Operation Corporate, the campaign to retake the Falkland Islands. VC10s were also used in a more unconventional sense – the Avro Vulcan bombers that participated in Operation Black Buck had been rapidly retro-fitted with the Dual Delco Carousel navigation system of the Super VC10s, enabling effective open-ocean navigation. A pair of VC10s were also painted with Red Cross markings and used for casualty evacuation from neutral Uruguay during the conflict.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In 1991, 9 K.2s and K.3s were deployed to bases in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman as part of Operation Granby, the UK's contribution to the First Gulf War. A total of 5,000 flight hours across 381 sorties were flown in the theatre, flying both aerial refuelling and logistical missions in support of coalition forces in combat with the occupying Iraqi forces in Kuwait. VC10s remained stationed in the region throughout the 1990s, supporting allied aircraft enforcing no-fly zones over parts of Iraq, and during the 1998 Airstrikes on Iraq.


title: Vickers VC10

text: During the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, VC10 tankers were stationed at bases in Southern Italy to refuel NATO aircraft in the theatre, as part of "Operation Allied Force". The VC10s allowed Tornado GR.1 fighter-bombers stationed at RAF Bruggen to conduct long-range strike missions against targets inside Serbia.


title: Vickers VC10

text: In 2001, Oman-based VC10s were used in some of the first missions of the war in Afghanistan, refuelling US carrier-based aircraft carrying out strikes on Afghan targets. The VC10s provided air transport missions in support of British and allied forces stationed in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, codenamed Operation Veritas. VC10s remained on long term deployment to the Middle East for twelve years, ending just before the type's retirement.


title: Vickers VC10

text: During the 2003 invasion of Iraq by an American-led coalition, a total of nine VC10s were deployed to the theatre under Operation Telic. In the aftermath of the invasion, multiple VC10s were commonly stationed in Iraq; in addition to logistics operations, more than a thousand casualties of the conflict were evacuated to Cyprus by VC10s. In June 2009, the remaining VC10s were withdrawn from Iraq, along with most other British military assets.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Between 2000 and 2003, the remaining K.2s were retired and scrapped. The surviving K.3s served as tanker/transports with No. 101 Squadron at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire and the single remaining K.4 supported No. 1312 Flight at RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. In January 2010, VC10 passenger operations were temporarily suspended while an airworthiness review was carried out.


title: Vickers VC10

text: Following the 2006 North Korean nuclear test, a pair of VC10s were dispatched to Okinawa, Japan to undertake nuclear debris tests; this unusual task was performed using specialised sampling pods which replace the refuelling pods equipped as standard. During Operation Ellamy, Britain's contribution to the 2011 military intervention in Libya, a small number of VC10s were dispatched to bases in the Mediterranean and were used to refuel NATO strike aircraft being used in the theatre.


title: Vickers VC10

text: The VC10 and Lockheed TriStar tanker/transports were replaced in RAF service by the Airbus A330 MRTT Voyager under the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft Project. The type's final flights in RAF service took place on 20 September 2013, the final refuelling sortie was followed by a tour of the UK. On 24 September, ZA150 made its last flight to Dunsfold Aerodrome for preservation at the Brooklands Museum, while ZA147 arrived at Bruntingthorpe on 25 September.


title: Vickers VC10

text: All servicing of the RAF fleet of VC10s was undertaken at RAF Brize Norton in a purpose-built hangar. Known as "Base Hangar", when built in 1969 it was the largest cantilever-roofed structure in Europe; a quarter of a mile in length with no internal supports. Up to six VC10s could be positioned inside with adequate room remaining for working space around each aircraft. During the late 1980s, plans to move major servicing to RAF Abingdon near to RAF Brize Norton were considered. Abingdon was closed and a new facility was built at RAF St Athan, in South Wales – "1 Air Maintenance Sqn" (1 AMS); the first aircraft to undergo major servicing at the facility entered in January 1993.


title: Vickers VC10

text: After the closure of the British Aerospace factories at Brooklands/Weybridge and Hatfield, responsibility of design and all commercial activity transferred to British Aerospace (now BAE Systems) Manchester, Woodford and Chadderton sites. In the mid-1990s, when the design of detailed components was subcontracted, the design team transferred from Woodford to Chadderton. In 2003, responsibility for the commercial procurement of all spares items was undertaken by BAE Systems, at BAE Systems Samlesbury. The Chadderton site maintained responsibility for the MoD contracts for project managing modifications; major repairs and major maintenance being carried out at RAF St Athan.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for "The Faerie Queene", an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552; however, there is still some ambiguity as to the exact date of his birth. His parenthood is obscure, but he was probably the son of John Spenser, a journeyman clothmaker. As a young boy, he was educated in London at the Merchant Taylors' School and matriculated as a sizar at Pembroke College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he became a friend of Gabriel Harvey and later consulted him, despite their differing views on poetry. In 1578, he became for a short time secretary to John Young, Bishop of Rochester. In 1579, he published "The Shepheardes Calender" and around the same time married his first wife, Machabyas Childe. They had two children, Sylvanus (d. 1638) and Katherine.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: In July 1580, Spenser went to Ireland in service of the newly appointed Lord Deputy, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton. Spenser served under Lord Grey with Walter Raleigh at the Siege of Smerwick massacre. When Lord Grey was recalled to England, Spenser stayed on in Ireland, having acquired other official posts and lands in the Munster Plantation. Raleigh acquired other nearby Munster estates confiscated in the Second Desmond Rebellion. Sometime between 1587 and 1589, Spenser acquired his main estate at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork. He later bought a second holding to the south, at Rennie, on a rock overlooking the river Blackwater in North Cork. Its ruins are still visible today. A short distance away grew a tree, locally known as "Spenser's Oak" until it was destroyed in a lightning strike in the 1960s. Local legend claims that he penned some of "The Faerie Queene" under this tree.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: In 1590, Spenser brought out the first three books of his most famous work, "The Faerie Queene", having travelled to London to publish and promote the work, with the likely assistance of Raleigh. He was successful enough to obtain a life pension of £50 a year from the Queen. He probably hoped to secure a place at court through his poetry, but his next significant publication boldly antagonised the queen's principal secretary, Lord Burghley (William Cecil), through its inclusion of the satirical "Mother Hubberd's Tale". He returned to Ireland. He was at the centre of a literary circle whose members included his lifelong friend Lodowick Bryskett and Dr. John Longe, Archbishop of Armagh.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: In 1591, Spenser published a translation in verse of Joachim Du Bellay's sonnets, "Les Antiquités de Rome", which had been published in 1558. Spenser's version, "Ruines of Rome: by Bellay", may also have been influenced by Latin poems on the same subject, written by Jean or Janis Vitalis and published in 1576.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: By 1594, Spenser's first wife had died, and in that year he married a much younger Elizabeth Boyle, a relative of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. He addressed to her the sonnet sequence "Amoretti". The marriage itself was celebrated in "Epithalamion". They had a son named Peregrine.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: In 1596, Spenser wrote a prose pamphlet titled "A View of the Present State of Ireland". This piece, in the form of a dialogue, circulated in manuscript, remaining unpublished until the mid-seventeenth century. It is probable that it was kept out of print during the author's lifetime because of its inflammatory content. The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally "pacified" by the English until its indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, if necessary by violence.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: In 1598, during the Nine Years' War, Spenser was driven from his home by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill. His castle at Kilcolman was burned, and Ben Jonson, who may have had private information, asserted that one of his infant children died in the blaze.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: In the year after being driven from his home, 1599, Spenser travelled to London, where he died at the age of forty-six – "for want of bread", according to Ben Jonson; one of Jonson's more doubtful statements, since Spenser had a payment to him authorised by the government and was due his pension. His coffin was carried to his grave in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey by other poets, who threw many pens and pieces of poetry into his grave with many tears. His second wife survived him and remarried twice. His sister Sarah, who had accompanied him to Ireland, married into the Travers family, and her descendants were prominent landowners in Cork for centuries.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Thomas Fuller, in "Worthies of England", included a story where the Queen told her treasurer, William Cecil, to pay Spenser one hundred pounds for his poetry. The treasurer, however, objected that the sum was too much. She said, "Then give him what is reason". Without receiving his payment in due time, Spenser gave the Queen this quatrain on one of her progresses:


title: Edmund Spenser

text: This story seems to have attached itself to Spenser from Thomas Churchyard, who apparently had difficulty in getting payment of his pension, the only other pension Elizabeth awarded to a poet. Spenser seems to have had no difficulty in receiving payment when it was due as the pension was being collected for him by his publisher, Ponsonby.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: "The Shepheardes Calender" is Edmund Spenser's first major work, which appeared in 1579. It emulates Virgil's "Eclogues" of the first century BCE and the "Eclogues" of Mantuan by Baptista Mantuanus, a late medieval, early renaissance poet. An eclogue is a short pastoral poem that is in the form of a dialogue or soliloquy. Although all the months together form an entire year, each month stands alone as a separate poem. Editions of the late 16th and early 17th centuries include woodcuts for each month/poem, and thereby have a slight similarity to an emblem book which combines a number of self-contained pictures and texts, usually a short vignette, saying, or allegory with an accompanying illustration.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Spenser's masterpiece is the epic poem "The Faerie Queene". The first three books of "The Faerie Queene" were published in 1590, and the second set of three books was published in 1596. Spenser originally indicated that he intended the poem to consist of twelve books, so the version of the poem we have today is incomplete. Despite this, it remains one of the longest poems in the English language. It is an allegorical work, and can be read (as Spenser presumably intended) on several levels of allegory, including as praise of Queen Elizabeth I. In a completely allegorical context, the poem follows several knights in an examination of several virtues. In Spenser's "A Letter of the Authors", he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in allegorical devises", and that the aim behind "The Faerie Queene" was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Spenser published numerous relatively short poems in the last decade of the sixteenth century, almost all of which consider love or sorrow. In 1591, he published "Complaints", a collection of poems that express complaints in mournful or mocking tones. Four years later, in 1595, Spenser published "Amoretti and Epithalamion". This volume contains eighty-eight sonnets commemorating his courtship of Elizabeth Boyle. In "Amoretti", Spenser uses subtle humour and parody while praising his beloved, reworking Petrarchism in his treatment of longing for a woman. "Epithalamion", similar to "Amoretti", deals in part with the unease in the development of a romantic and sexual relationship. It was written for his wedding to his young bride, Elizabeth Boyle. Some have speculated that the attention to disquiet, in general, reflects Spenser's personal anxieties at the time, as he was unable to complete his most significant work, "The Faerie Queene". In the following year, Spenser released "Prothalamion", a wedding song written for the daughters of a duke, allegedly in hopes to gain favour in the court.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanza, in several works, including "The Faerie Queene". The stanza's main metre is iambic pentameter with a final line in iambic hexameter (having six feet or stresses, known as an Alexandrine), and the rhyme scheme is . He also used his own rhyme scheme for the sonnet. In a Spenserian sonnet, the last line of every quatrain is linked with the first line of the next one, yielding the rhyme scheme . "Men Call you Fayre" is a fine Sonnet from Amoretti. The poet presents the concept of true beauty in the poem. He addresses the sonnet to his beloved, Elizabeth Boyle, and presents his courtship. Like all Renaissance men, Edmund Spenser believed that love is an inexhaustible source of beauty and order. In this Sonnet, the poet expresses his idea of true beauty. The physical beauty will finish after a few days; it is not a permanent beauty. He emphasises beauty of mind and beauty of intellect. He considers his beloved is not simply flesh but is also a spiritual being. The poet opines that he is beloved born of heavenly seed and she is derived from fair spirit. The poet states that because of her clean mind, pure heart and sharp intellect, men call her fair and she deserves it. At the end, the poet praises her spiritual beauty and he worships her because of her Divine Soul.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Though Spenser was well-read in classical literature, scholars have noted that his poetry does not rehash tradition, but rather is distinctly his. This individuality may have resulted, to some extent, from a lack of comprehension of the classics. Spenser strove to emulate such ancient Roman poets as Virgil and Ovid, whom he studied during his schooling, but many of his best-known works are notably divergent from those of his predecessors. The language of his poetry is purposely archaic, reminiscent of earlier works such as "The Canterbury Tales" of Geoffrey Chaucer and "Il Canzoniere" of Francesco Petrarca, whom Spenser greatly admired.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: An Anglican and a devotee of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, Spenser was particularly offended by the anti-Elizabethan propaganda that some Catholics circulated. Like most Protestants near the time of the Reformation, Spenser saw a Catholic church full of corruption, and he determined that it was not only the wrong religion but the anti-religion. This sentiment is an important backdrop for the battles of "The Faerie Queene".


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Spenser was called "the Poet's Poet" by Charles Lamb, and was admired by John Milton, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Lord Byron, Alfred Tennyson and others. Among his contemporaries Walter Raleigh wrote a commendatory poem to "The Faerie Queene" in 1590, in which he claims to admire and value Spenser's work more so than any other in the English language. John Milton in his "Areopagitica" mentions "our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas". In the eighteenth century, Alexander Pope compared Spenser to "a mistress, whose faults we see, but love her with them all."


title: Edmund Spenser

text: In his work "A View of the Present State of Irelande" (1596), Spenser discussed future plans to establish control over Ireland, the most recent Irish uprising, led by Hugh O'Neill having demonstrated the futility of previous efforts. The work is partly a defence of Lord Arthur Grey de Wilton, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1580, and who greatly influenced Spenser's thinking on Ireland.


title: Edmund Spenser

text: The goal of the piece was to show that Ireland was in great need of reform. Spenser believed that "Ireland is a diseased portion of the State, it must first be cured and reformed, before it could be in a position to appreciate the good sound laws and blessings of the nation". In "A View of the Present State of Ireland", Spenser categorises the "evils" of the Irish people into three prominent categories: laws, customs and religion. According to Spenser, these three elements worked together in creating the supposedly "disruptive and degraded people" who inhabited the country. One example given in the work is the Irish law system termed "Brehon law", which at the time trumped the established law as dictated by the Crown. The Brehon system had its own court and methods of punishing infractions committed. Spenser viewed this system as a backward custom which contributed to the "degradation" of the Irish people. A particular legal punishment viewed with distaste by Spenser was the Brehon method of dealing with murder, which was to impose an "éraic" (fine) on the murderer's family. From Spenser's viewpoint, the appropriate punishment for murder was capital punishment. Spenser also warned of the dangers that allowing the education of children in the Irish language would bring: "Soe that the speach being Irish, the hart must needes be Irishe; for out of the aboundance of the hart, the tonge speaketh".


title: Edmund Spenser

text: He pressed for a scorched earth policy in Ireland, noting its effectiveness in the Second Desmond Rebellion:


title: Edmund Spenser

text: "'Out of everye corner of the woode and glenns they came creepinge forth upon theire handes, for theire legges could not beare them; they looked Anatomies [of] death, they spake like ghostes, crying out of theire graves; they did eate of the carrions, happye wheare they could find them, yea, and one another soone after, in soe much as the verye carcasses they spared not to scrape out of theire graves; and if they found a plott of water-cresses or shamrockes, theyr they flocked as to a feast… in a shorte space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentyfull countrye suddenly lefte voyde of man or beast: yett sure in all that warr, there perished not manye by the sworde, but all by the extreamytie of famine ... they themselves had wrought.'"


title: Edmund Spenser

text: Washington University in St. Louis professor Joseph Lowenstein, with the assistance of several undergraduate students, has been involved in creating, editing, and annotating a digital archive of the first publication of poet Edmund Spenser's collective works in 100 years. A large grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities has been given to support this ambitious project centralized at Washington University with support from other colleges in the United States.


title: Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II

text: On 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck twice and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000. Ağca converted to Roman Catholicism in 2007.


text: In 1979 "The New York Times" reported that Agca, whom it called "the self-confessed killer of an Istanbul newspaperman" (Abdi İpekçi, editor of the Turkish newspaper Milliyet), had described the Pope as "the masked leader of the crusades" and threatened to shoot him if he did not cancel his planned visit to Turkey, which went ahead in late November 1979. The paper also said (on 28 November 1979) that the killing would be in revenge for the then still ongoing attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which had begun on 20 November, and which he blamed on the United States or Israel.


text: Beginning in August 1980, Ağca, under the alias of Vilperi, began criss-crossing the Mediterranean region, changing passports and identities, perhaps to hide his point of origin in Sofia, Bulgaria. He entered Rome on 10 May 1981, coming by train from Milan. According to Ağca's later testimony, he met with three accomplices in Rome, one a fellow Turk and two Bulgarians, with the operation being commanded by Zilo Vassilev, the Bulgarian military attaché in Italy. He said that he was assigned this mission by Turkish mafioso Bekir Çelenk in Bulgaria. According to Ağca, the plan was for him and the back-up gunman Oral Çelik to open fire on the pope in St. Peter's Square and escape to the Bulgarian embassy under the cover of the panic generated by a small explosion.


text: On 13 May, Ağca sat in the square, writing postcards and waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed through a crowd of supporters, Ağca fired four shots at 17:17 with a 9mm Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol, and critically wounded him. He fled the scene as the crowd was in shock and disposed of the pistol by throwing it under a truck, but was grabbed by Vatican security chief Camillo Cibin, a nun, and several spectators who prevented him from firing more shots or escaping, and he was arrested. Two bullets hit John Paul II; one of them in his torso, narrowly missing vital organs, and a second hit his left index finger. Two bystanders were also injured: Ann Odre, of Buffalo, New York, was struck in the chest, and Rose Hall was slightly wounded in the arm. The Pope was immediately rushed to the hospital while the authorities combed the site for evidence. Çelik panicked and fled without setting off his bomb or opening fire.


text: Ağca was sentenced in July 1981 to life imprisonment for the assassination attempt, but was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in June 2000 at the Pope's request. He was then extradited to Turkey, where he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi and two bank raids carried out in the 1970s. Despite a plea for early release in November 2004, a Turkish court announced that he would not be eligible for release until 2010. Nonetheless he was released on parole on 12 January 2006. However, on 20 January 2006, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that his time served in Italy could not be deducted from his Turkish sentence and he was returned to jail. Ağca was released from prison on 18 January 2010, after almost 29 years behind bars.


text: Following the shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to "pray for my brother [Ağca] ... whom I have sincerely forgiven." In 1983, he and Ağca met and spoke privately at Rome's Rebibbia Prison, where Ağca was being held. Ağca reportedly kissed the Pope's ring at the conclusion of their visit; some mistakenly thought the Pope was hearing Ağca's confession. The Pope was also in touch with Ağca's family over the years, meeting his mother in 1987 and his brother, Muezzin Ağca, a decade later.


text: Although Ağca was quoted as saying that "to me [the Pope] was the incarnation of all that is capitalism", and attempted to murder him, Ağca developed a friendship with the pontiff. In early February 2005, during the Pope's illness, Ağca sent a letter to the Pope wishing him well.


text: Several theories exist concerning Ağca's assassination attempt. One, which was initially propagated in the American media and strongly advocated since the early 1980s by Michael Ledeen and Claire Sterling among others, was that the assassination attempt had originated from Moscow and that the KGB had instructed the Bulgarian and East German secret services to carry out the mission. The Bulgarian Secret Service was allegedly instructed by the KGB to assassinate the Pope because of his support of Poland's Solidarity movement, seeing it as one of the most significant threats to Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman instead term this as the spread of "disinformation as news" in their book "Manufacturing Consent" (1988), as they say there was no evidence to support this claim, while Wolfgang Achtner of "The Independent" dubbed it "one of the most successful cases—certainly the most publicized—of disinformation."


text: Ağca himself has given multiple conflicting statements on the assassination at different times. Attorney Antonio Marini stated: "Ağca has manipulated all of us, telling hundreds of lies, continually changing versions, forcing us to open tens of different investigations". Originally, Ağca claimed to be a member of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but they denied any ties to him.


text: Following the assassination attempt, Ağca made claims while in custody that prior to the attempt he had made several trips to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he claimed to have had contacts with a Bulgarian agent in Rome whose cover was the Bulgarian national airline office. Soon after the shooting, Sergei Antonov, a Bulgarian working in Rome for "Balkan Air", was arrested based on Ağca's testimony and accused of being the Bulgarian agent who masterminded the plot. In 1986, after a three-year trial, he was found not guilty.


text: According to the CIA's chief of staff in Turkey, Paul Henze, Ağca later stated that in Sofia, he was once approached by the Bulgarian Secret Service and Turkish mafiosi, who offered him three million German marks to assassinate the Pope. Some writers, including Edward S. Herman, co-author with Frank Brodhead of "The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection" (1986), and Michael Parenti, believed Ağca's story was dubious as Ağca made no claims of Bulgarian involvement until he had been isolated in solitary confinement and visited by Italian Military Intelligence (SISMI) agents. On 25 September 1991, former CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman (now Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy) claimed that his colleagues, following orders, had falsified their analysis to support the accusation. He declared to the US Senate intelligence committee that "the CIA hadn't any proof" concerning this alleged "Bulgarian connection".


text: Neither the Severino Santiapichi court nor the investigation by judge Franco Ionta found evidence that SISMI planted Ağca's story. A French lawyer, Christian Roulette, who authored books blaming Western intelligence agencies for the assassination attempt, testified in court that the documentary evidence he referred to actually did not exist.


text: "Le Monde diplomatique" alleged that Abdullah Çatlı, a leader of the Grey Wolves, had organised the assassination attempt "in exchange for the sum of 3 million German Marks" for the Grey Wolves. In Rome, Catli declared to the judge in 1985 "that he had been contacted by the BND, the German intelligence agency, which would have promised him a nice sum of money if he implicated the Russian and Bulgarian services in the assassination attempt against the Pope". According to colonel Alparslan Türkes, the founder of the Grey Wolves, "Catli has cooperated in the frame of a secret service working for the good of the state".


text: According to Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera", documents recovered from former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian and East German agents with the Stasi to co-ordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards. However, Markus Wolf, former Stasi spy-master, has denied any links, and claimed the files had already been sent in 1995.


text: In March 2006, pending national elections, the controversial Mitrokhin Commission, set up by Silvio Berlusconi and headed by "Forza Italia" senator Paolo Guzzanti, supported once again the Bulgarian theory, which had been denounced by John Paul II during his travel to Bulgaria. Senator Guzzanti claimed that "leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt", alleging that "the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul" because of his support for Solidarity, relaying "this decision to the military secret services" (and not the KGB). The report's claims were based on recent computer analysis of photographs that purported to demonstrate Antonov's presence in St Peter's Square during the shooting and on information brought by the French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, a controversial figure whose last feat was to indict Rwandese president Paul Kagame, claiming he had deliberately provoked the 1994 Rwandan genocide against his own ethnic group in order to take power. According to "Le Figaro", Bruguière, who is in close contacts as well with Moscow as with Washington, D.C., including intelligence agents, has been accused by many of his colleagues of "privileging the reason of state over law."


text: Both Russia and Bulgaria condemned the report. "For Bulgaria, this case closed with the court decision in Rome in March 1986", Foreign Ministry spokesman Dimitar Tsanchev said, while also recalling the Pope's comments during his May 2002 visit to Bulgaria. Senator Guzzanti said that the commission had decided to re-open the report's chapter on the assassination attempt in 2005, after the Pope wrote about it in his last book, "Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums". The Pope wrote that he was convinced the shooting was not Ağca's initiative and that "someone else masterminded it and someone else commissioned it". The Mitrokhin Commission also claimed Romano Prodi, a former Prime Minister of Italy, was the "KGB's man in Italy".


text: At the end of December 2006, Mario Scaramella, one of the main informers of senator Guzzanti, was arrested and charged, among other things, of defamation. Rome's prosecutor Pietro Salvitti, in charge of the investigations concerning Mario Scaramella, cited by "La Repubblica", showed that Nicolò Pollari, head of SISMI, the Italian military intelligence agency and indicted in the "Imam Rapito affair", as well as SISMI n°2, Marco Mancini, arrested in July 2006 for the same reason, were some of the informers, alongside Mario Scaramella, of senator Paolo Guzzanti. Beside targeting Romano Prodi and his staff, this "network", according to Pietro Salvitti's words, also aimed at defaming General Giuseppe Cucchi (current director of the CESIS), Milan's judges Armando Spataro, in charge of the Imam Rapito case, and Guido Salvini, as well as "La Repubblica" reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, who discovered the Yellowcake forgery affair. The investigation also showed a connection between Scaramella and the CIA, in particular through Filippo Marino, one of Scaramella's closest partners since the 1990s and co-founder of the ECPP, who lives today in the US. Marino has acknowledged in an interview an association with former and active CIA officers, including Robert Lady, former CIA station chief in Milan, indicted by prosecutor Armando Spataro for having coordinated the abduction of Abu Omar, the "Imam Rapito affair".


text: In 2009, journalist and former army intelligence officer John Koehler published "Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union's Cold War Against the Catholic Church". Mining mostly East German and Polish secret police archives, Koehler claims the attempt was "KGB-backed" and gives details.


text: On 26 June 2000, Pope John Paul II released the "Third Secret of Fatima" in which he said that Ağca's assassination attempt was the fulfilment of this Secret. 13 May (the date of the assassination attempt) is the anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to the three children of Fatima, something the Pope has always regarded as significant, attributing his survival on that day to her protection. Some doubt the Church's full disclosure of the contents of this Secret, believing that it actually predicted the Apocalypse. While in prison on remand, Ağca was widely reported to have developed an obsession with Fatima and during the trial claimed that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ and called on the Vatican to release the Third Secret.


text: On 31 March 2005, just two days prior to the Pope's death, Ağca gave an interview to the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica". He claimed to be working on a book about the assassination attempt. "La Repubblica" quoted Ağca claiming at length that he had accomplices in the Vatican who helped him with the assassination attempt, saying "the devil is inside Vatican's wall". He also said:


text: Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared at age 15 on 22 June 1983. Anonymous phone calls offered her release in exchange for the release of Ağca. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was alleged to be part of the kidnapping, although no charges were ever laid.


text: Ağca subsequently denied having made such claims following the publication of the interview. In 2010 Ağca asserted that Cardinal Agostino Casaroli had been behind the assassination attempt. However, when Ağca published his memoirs in 2013, his story changed completely, writing that the Iranian government and Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the assassination attempt on John Paul II.


text: The A. J. Quinnell novel "In the Name of the Father" describes the aftermath of the plot to assassinate the Pope. Church leaders are shocked to discover that the attempt was orchestrated by the highest levels of the Kremlin.


text: On the online timeline of the 2004 alternate history mockumentary "", in which the Confederate States of America wins the American Civil War and annexes the rest of the United States, an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II still occurs. However, it occurs in New York City rather than in St. Peter's Square. The assailant, a Baptist from Tennessee named Maynard Brimley, shoots the Pope and kills a bystander. Although the Pope visits Brimley in prison to forgive him for his actions, Brimley is tried and executed, partly to appease international pressure.


text: The Tom Clancy novel "Red Rabbit" incorporates the assassination attempt, following the "Moscow origin" theory.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, and a Soul Train Music Award.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: A native of Portland, Oregon, Spalding began playing music professionally in her childhood, performing as a violinist in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon at age five. She was later both self-taught and trained on other instruments, including guitar and bass. Her proficiency earned her academic scholarships to Portland State University and the Berklee College of Music, both of which she attended, studying music.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding released her first album, "Junjo", in 2006 on the Spanish label Ayva Musica, after which she signed with the independent American label Heads Up, who released her 2007 self-titled album. Her third studio album, "Chamber Music Society" (2010), was a commercial success, charting at number 34 on the "Billboard 200", and resulting in Spalding winning her first Grammy Award for Best New Artist; Spalding was the first jazz artist to win in this category. She saw further acclaim for her fourth release, "Radio Music Society" (2012), which earned the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, as well as the track "City of Roses" winning for Best Arrangement, Instrument and Vocals.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: After spending the following several years performing as a supporting band player, Spalding released her fifth studio album, a funk rock-inspired concept album titled "Emily's D+Evolution", co-produced by Tony Visconti, on Concord Records. The following year, she released the album "Exposure", which was limited to 7,777 copies. Her subsequent sixth studio record, "12 Little Spells", was released in 2019, and peaked at number one on "Billboard's Top Jazz Albums". The album also saw Spalding nominated for two Grammy Awards, winning in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In addition to writing and performing music, Spalding has also worked as an instructor, first at the Berklee College of Music, beginning at age 20. In 2017, Spalding was appointed professor of the Practice of Music at Harvard University. In 2018, Spalding received an honorary doctorate of music from her alma mater, Berklee College of Music, and served as commencement speaker at the ceremony.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Esperanza Emily Spalding was born October 18, 1984, in Portland, Oregon, to an African American father and a mother of Welsh, Native American, and Hispanic descent. She was raised in the King neighborhood of northeast Portland, a neighborhood at that time known for gang violence. Her mother raised Spalding and her brother as a single parent. During her childhood, Spalding suffered from juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and as a result spent much of her elementary school years being home-schooled, though she also attended King Elementary School in northeast Portland. During this period, Spalding found the opportunity to pick up instruction in music by listening to her mother's college professor, who instructed her mother in jazz guitar. Spalding said that she sometimes accompanied her mother to classes, sat listening under the piano, then at home repeated what the teacher had played. Spalding remained in the King neighborhood of Portland until age ten, when she relocated with her family to the suburbs of Portland.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding's mother took note of her daughter's musical proclivity when Spalding was able to reproduce Beethoven by ear on the family's piano at a young age. Spalding herself credited watching classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" as an integral part of her childhood, and it inspired her to pursue music. By the time Spalding was five, she had learned to play the violin and began performing professionally with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. She remained with the group until she was 15 years old, and left as concertmaster. Though she has been described as a musical prodigy, Spalding has denounced this title, commenting in 2010: "I am surrounded by prodigies everywhere I go, but because they are a little older than me, or not a female, or not on a major label, they are not acknowledged as such."


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding also played oboe and clarinet in her youth before discovering the double bass while attending The Northwest Academy, a performing arts high school to which she had won a scholarship. She began performing live in clubs in Portland as a teenager, securing her first gig in a blues club at the age of 15, when she could play only one line on bass. One of the seasoned musicians with whom she played invited her to join the band's rehearsals, which led to regular performances spanning almost a year. According to Spalding, this served as a chance for her to learn and sharpen her abilities as a musician. When she was 15 or 16 years old, Spalding joined the local indie rock/pop group Noise for Pretend as a singer and lyricist. Although she had taken a few private voice lessons, which taught her how to project her voice, she said that her primary singing experience at the time had come from singing in the shower. Her desire to perform live evolved naturally out of the compositional process, when she would sing and play simultaneously to see how melody and voice fit together, but she acknowledges that performing both roles together can be challenging.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding dropped out of The Northwest Academy at the age of 16, and after completing her GED, enrolled on a music scholarship in the music program at Portland State University, where she remembers being "the youngest bass player in the program." Although she lacked the training of her fellow students, she feels that her teachers nevertheless recognized her talent. She decided to apply to Berklee College of Music on the encouragement of her bass teacher, and did well enough in her audition to receive a full scholarship. In spite of the scholarship, Spalding found meeting living expenses a challenge, so her friends arranged a benefit concert that paid her airfare. Spalding's savings did not last long and she considered leaving music for political science, a move jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny discouraged. He told her that she had "the 'X Factor'" and could make it if she applied herself.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Gary Burton, Executive Vice President at Berklee, said in 2004 that Spalding had "a great time feel, she can confidently read the most complicated compositions, and she communicates her upbeat personality in everything she plays."


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Ben Ratliff wrote in "The New York Times" in 2006 that Spalding's voice is "light and high, up in Blossom Dearie's pitch range, and [that] she can sing quietly, almost in a daydream" and that Spalding "invents her own feminine space, a different sound from top to bottom." Spalding was the 2005 recipient of the Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship. Almost immediately after graduation from college later the same year, Spalding was hired by Berklee College of Music to teach bass performance and private lessons, becoming one of the youngest instructors in the institution's history, at the age of 20. As a teacher, Spalding tries to help her students focus their practice through a practice journal, which can help them recognize their strengths and what they need to pursue.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Her debut album, "Junjo", was released in April 2006 by Ayva Music. It was created to display the dynamic that she felt among her trio. Though "Junjo" was released solely under her name, Spalding considers it a group effort.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: When asked in 2008 why she plays the bass instead of some other instrument, Spalding said that it was not a choice, but the bass "had its own arc" and resonated with her. Spalding has said that, for her, discovering the bass was like "waking up one day and realizing you're in love with a co-worker." By the time she randomly picked up the bass in music class and began experimenting with it, she had grown bored with her other instruments. Her band teacher showed her a blues line for the bass that she later used to secure her first gig. After that, she went in to play the bass daily and gradually fell in love.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Ratliff wrote in 2008 that one of Spalding's central gifts is "a light, fizzy, optimistic drive that's in her melodic bass playing and her elastic, small-voiced singing," but that "the music is missing a crucial measure of modesty." He added, "It's an attempt at bringing this crisscrossing [of Stevie Wonder and Wayne Shorter] to a new level of definition and power, but its vamps and grooves are a little obvious, and it pushes her first as a singer-songwriter, which isn't her primary strength."


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Pat Metheny said in 2008 it was immediately obvious "that she had a lot to say [...] she has that rare 'x' factor of being able to transmit a certain personal kind of vision and energy that is all her own." Andrés Quinteros wrote in the Argentinian periodical "26Noticias" in 2008 that Spalding is one of the greatest new talents on the jazz scene today. Patti Austin hired Spalding to tour with her internationally after Spalding's first semester at Berklee, where Spalding supported the singer on the Ella Fitzgerald tribute tour "For Ella".


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In 2008, Spalding recalled the tour as educational, helping her learn to accompany a vocalist and also how to sustain energy and interest playing the same material nightly. She continued to perform with Austin periodically for three years. During the same period, while at Berklee, Spalding studied under saxophonist Joe Lovano, before eventually touring with him. They began as a trio, expanding into a quartet before joining quintet US5 and traveling across the United States from New York to California. As of 2008, she was also in the process of developing several courses for students at Berklee, including one learning harmony and theory through transcribing. Due to touring commitments, Spalding stopped giving classes at Berklee. She resides in both New York City and Austin, Texas.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: "Esperanza" is Spalding's second studio album. After Spalding's Grammy win in February 2011, the album entered the "Billboard" 200 at 138. With "Esperanza", Spalding's material was meant to be more reflective of herself as an artist, with musicians selected to best present that material. Ed Morales from PopMatters wrote that "Esperanza" is "a sprawling collage of jazz fusion, Brazilian, and even a touch of hip-hop." Siddhartha Mitter wrote in "The Boston Globe" that Spalding's singing was noticeably different in "Esperanza", making it more mainstream and attractive to a broader audience.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In December 2009, at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies, Spalding performed at Oslo City Hall in honor of the 2009 Laureate U.S. President Barack Obama, and again at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert the following day. She was personally selected by Obama, as per the tradition of having one laureate-invited-artist perform.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding was also the featured final act for the opening night of the 2009 Park City Jazz Festival in Park City, Utah. She closed the show with a number along with bass artists Brian Bromberg and Sean O'Bryan Smith, who also performed earlier that day. As a tribute to Prince, Spalding was invited to sing along with Patti LaBelle, Alicia Keys and Janelle Monáe. Spalding performed the 1987 hit single "If I Was Your Girlfriend".


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In 2011, Spalding collaborated with Tineke Postma on the track "Leave Me a Place Underground" from the album "The Dawn of Light". She also collaborated with Terri Lyne Carrington on the album "The Mosaic Project", where she features on the track "Crayola". Spalding also sang a duet with Nicholas Payton on the track "Freesia" from the 2011 album "Bitches of Renaissance".


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: "Chamber Music Society" is the third album by Spalding. After her surprise Grammy win, the album re-entered the "Billboard" 200 at number 34 with sales of 18,000. A video was made for the song "Little Fly". The song is a poem by William Blake set to music by Spalding. A vinyl version of the album was released in February 2011. Commenting on the album, NPR Music's Patrick Jarenwattananon wrote that, "the finished product certainly exudes a level of sophisticated intimacy, as if best experienced with a small gathering in a quiet, wood-paneled room."


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In February 2012, Spalding performed at the 84th Academy Awards, singing the Louis Armstrong standard "What a Wonderful World", alongside the Southern California Children's Chorus to accompany the video montage that celebrated the film industry greats who died in 2011 and early 2012.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: "Radio Music Society" is Spalding's fourth studio album, released by Heads Up International in March 2012. Spalding hoped this album would showcase jazz musicians in an accessible manner suitable for mainstream radio.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In November 2013, Spalding released a single "We Are America" to protest the Guantánamo prison camps, with cameo performances by Stevie Wonder and Harry Belafonte. In 2015, she appeared on the "NOVA" production "The Great Math Mystery", talking about the connection between music and mathematics.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In March 2016, Spalding released her fifth studio album, "Emily's D+Evolution", a concept album featuring a funk rock sound. The album was co-produced by Spalding with longtime David Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti. On the album, Spalding sings through the alter ego of Emily, which is her middle name. In an interview, Spalding stated that Emily "is a spirit, or a being, or an aspect who I met, or became aware of. I recognize that my job... is to be her arms and ears and voice and body". The album and corresponding tour featured musicians Matthew Stevens on guitar, Justin Tyson and Karriem Riggins on drums.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In July 2017, Spalding was appointed a Professor of the Practice of Music at Harvard University. Five months later, in December, Spalding released "Exposure", which is her sixth studio album. For this project, she embarked on a creative experiment beginning on September 12, 2017, setting out to create the album from start to finish in 77 consecutive hours, while streaming the whole creative process live on Facebook. Once completed, she released 7,777 limited edition recordings of the album. The packaging of the physical album included a piece of the original notepaper Esperanza used to write the lyrics and music, allowing those who witnessed the process to own a piece of the creation itself, directly from the source. About the experiment, Spalding stated that the live aspect of it forced her to be more creative, because there was no option to return to the same thing and try again.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: From October 7–18, 2018, Spalding released twelve tracks—one per day—that together form her seventh studio album, "12 Little Spells". Each "spell" was accompanied by a music video released on her YouTube channel and correlates to a singular body part. Spalding described the album's experimental structure as a result of her gradual distancing from the title of an "artist", gravitating towards a concept-driven identity. On January 27, 2020, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: In 2020 and 2021, Spalding worked with Wayne Shorter on a new operatic work titled "Iphigenia", with Spalding writing the libretto. The opera premiered in select locations on both coasts of the United States in the fall of 2021 and in February 2022.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: On September 24, 2022, National Sawdust hosted the premier of the opera, "A Good of Her Own Making," by Spalding and Jojo Abot.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding has an interest in the music of other cultures, including that of Brazil, where she once spent a month learning Portuguese. She has said that the melody and language of songs in Portuguese are inextricably connected. She sings in several languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding was mentored by Thara Memory. She has cited jazz bassists Ron Carter and Dave Holland as important influences on her music—Carter for the orchestration of his playing and Holland for the way his compositional method complements his personal style. She has described the saxophone player Wayne Shorter, and singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento, as heroes. She has also mentioned her preference for the music of Brazil.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: Spalding has said she loves fusion music and was influenced by a "wonderful arc that started 40 years ago [in 2008] where people kept incorporating modern sounds into their music." Spalding, who has expressed a desire to be judged for her musicianship rather than sex appeal, believes that female musicians must take responsibility to avoid oversexualizing themselves. In addition, to write original music, musicians must read and stay informed about the world. She has said she models her career on those of Madonna and Ornette Coleman, and also cited Joni Mitchell as a major musical inspiration. Spalding says that her mom was and will always be her role model.


title: Esperanza Spalding

text: During her time as a student at Berklee she began dating fellow student and jazz trumpeter Christian Scott. They were in a relationship for four years. In a 2016 interview, Spalding stated she had residences in Brooklyn, New York, and Hillsboro, Oregon, the latter being where her family resides. She is a practitioner of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) tradition of Nichiren Buddhism.