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The private-equity tycoon Stephen A. Schwarzman, backed by an array of mostly western blue-chip companies with interests in China, is creating a $300 million scholarship for study in China that he hopes will rival the Rhodes scholarship in prestige and influence. The programme, whose endowment represents one of the largest single gifts to education in the world and one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever in China, was announced by Mr. Schwarzman in Beijing on Sunday. The Schwarzman Scholars programme will pay all expenses for 200 students each year from around the world for a one-year master’s programme at Tsinghua...

But surely, I push him, Bach could give Trump a valuable lesson in humility; if he asked you to do a private performance . . . ? “Would I play for him on his deathbed? No,” Ma says. “I operate on the premise that absolutely anybody can change, and I also recognise that it’s possible that somebody may never change . . . I also think, just by observing the performance arts world, huge ego is very often matched by huge insecurity.”

Obama, Hu toast 'strategic mutual trust' at state dinnerBy Christina Wilkie - 01/19/11 10:30 PM ET President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao toasted U.S. and Chinese collaboration and mutual interests on Wednesday night at a festive state dinner for 225 guests at the White House. Their toasts marked the high point of an evening notable for its strict adherence to the protocol and symbolism valued in Chinese culture, but which, at the same time, managed to fulfill the Chinese delegation's request for a thoroughly American dinner party. Guests dined on a meal of pear salad, lobster, ribeye steak and...

Duke University president Richard Brodhead, who abandoned his own students and took the word of a prostitute before knowing the facts in the infamous Duke Lacrosse case, has served as co- chairman of an allegedly bipartisan group convened by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to investigate the value of the humanities in the college curriculum. Members of the quango included filmmakers Ken Burns and George Lucas, musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Emmylou Harris, actor John Lithgow and retired Supreme Court justice David Souter -- an odd assortment to be called on to interpret academic trends. Said Brodhead in a...

Dan Riehl explores  a charity headed by Professor "Skip" Gates which takes in a lot of money, pays out very little, mostly to his colleagues and assistants at Harvard, was late filing the necessary papers and lists as its office the house Gates rents from Harvard. Perhaps as Ann Althouse suggested yesterday on her blog there was something in his home that Gates did not want the police to see. Crowley says that Gates's "tone" was "peculiar." And I'm wondering why the question "Is there anybody in the home with you?" would have upset him so much. It could have...

WASHINGTON -- Whether you loved or hated the classical music played at President Barack Obama's inauguration, what you heard was a recording made two days earlier unless you were sitting within earshot of the celebrated performers. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill made the decision a day before Tuesday's inauguration after a sound check to use a previously recorded audio tape for the broadcast of the ceremonies.

It's not exactly Watergate but Barack Obama's inauguration was back in the dock today after it emerged that the quartet of classical musicians who ushered him on to the steps of the Capitol were faking it. In a report headlined "The Frigid Fingers Were Live, but the Music Wasn't", The New York Times said that the four, including the violinist Itzhak Perlman, had already recorded their contribution two days earlier and played along just for show. A spokeswoman for the congressional committee, which organised the inauguration, the biggest and most costly in history, told the newspaper that the musicians could...

They're calling it the great musical cover-up, news that Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman and the rest of their Inauguration Day ensemble pre-recorded their music for fear that cold temperatures would force their instruments out of tune. The renowned musicians did play live -- but only those closest could hear it, and that probably didn't include President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama or their daughters, Malia and Sasha. The Ticket has to say, they did sound marvelous.

Aretha Franklin and Yo-Yo Ma will perform at President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration festivities Jan. 20, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) announced today.

WASHINGTON -- Post-9/11 security rules aimed at stopping terrorists from entering America are keeping artists, musicians and others out as well, renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma told a congressional committee Tuesday. With a growing number of foreign artists canceling their U.S. performances -- last week Britain's Halle Orchestra called off its American tour citing prohibitive visa fees and requirements -- Ma said America is in danger of losing meaningful cultural exchanges. "Bringing foreign musicians to this country and sending our performers to visit them is crucial," Ma, a U.S. citizen born in France to Chinese parents, told the House Government...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Radio station suspends pro-English ad The Associated Press 6/1/2004, 7:35 p.m. ET WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A radio station temporarily suspended broadcasts of a commercial for a Republican congressional candidate who rails against illegal immigration but then signs off in Spanish, including the salutation "Yo, Gringo!" WSJS-AM said it made the decision over the holiday weekend because it was unclear if the sponsor was clearly identified in the otherwise-English ad for candidate Vernon Robinson. The ad contends the prevalence of Spanish spoken in the United States can make English-speaking Americans feel like they're in "The Twilight Zone." Only the final...

<p>New Yorkers who walk into the oak-paneled Carnegie Club on West 56th Street will encounter a now unfamiliar scent--cigar smoke. The club, which is one of a few legal cigar bars in a city gone smoke-free, has nostalgia written all over it: musty bookshelves, waitresses who don't carry the drinks themselves but are followed by tuxedoed men who perform that service, and, most of all, Cary Hoffman and the Stan Rubin Orchestra.</p>