Bernie Taupin News

From September 4-14, 2014, Houston Ballet launches its 45th season with the company premiere of John Neumeier's three-act ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream. The ballet is based on Shakespeare's lighthearted play of the same name and follows the hijinks and hilarity that ensues when a well-intentioned plan with a love potion goes awry. Created in 1977, A Midsummer Night's Dream has served as Mr. Neumeier's calling card, being seen as one of his most joyous and popular creations. Houston Ballet is the first American ballet company to perform the famous work and it is the first piece by Mr. Neumeier to enter the Houston Ballet repertoire.

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, announced today that it has appointed Jody Gerson as Chairman and CEO of the company's music publishing division, Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), effective January 1, 2015.

April 26, 2014 marks the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth. In honor of this milestone in world culture, Houston Ballet will present dance interpretations of great Shakespearean works by choreographers from three continents: a lavish new production of Romeo and Juliet by Stanton Welch; the company premiere of John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a revival of John Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew.

Last night, the legendary CHITA RIVERA wowed the packed Marriot Marquis ballroom for the 45th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Gala. She was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation as she sang a medley from WEST SIDE STORY, which included 'A Boy Like That' and the show-stopping 'America', in a program designed to mix past and future sounds.

The exhibition will be punctuated by a selection of works by guest artists, Nigel Daly, C. Gregory Gummersall, Marisa Howenstine, Stephanie Bell May, Sela Ward, and Estella Warren. The exhibition will run from May 20 - June 18, with a VIP Preview on May 17. Hal Buckner's simple, aluminum cut sculptures recount the elegant simplicity of contour drawings, yet culminate in a complete, seemingly voluminous forms. Often life-sized in scale, the surfaces of his works are painted matte black to provide contrast and to highlight the drawn-line element. Once installed, light casts dramatic shadows on the walls, adding volume and depth. Buckner is a professor emeritus of Pierce College in Tacoma, Washington and has taught sculpture at a collegiate level for over 25 years. He currently lives and works in Southampton, NY. Ramsey Dau: Highlighted in Modern Painters 25 Artists to Watch December 2013 and is currently living in Los Angeles. 'My work is really about tension,' says Dau, a largely self-taught painter. He has painted small, highly detailed street scenes of the urban landscape-kung-Fu studios or the El Chubasco bar in Echo Park-as well as neo-Pop canvases that combine politically charged text-shout-outs to Grover Norquist and Ruth Bader Ginsburg-with images of Homer Simpson and Mickey Mouse. Kim Gottlieb-Walker is an American photographer living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past 45 years, she has built a distinctive portfolio that includes some of the most notable musicians and personalities of the '60s and '70s, including her candid photographs of Bob Marley and other iconic members of the Reggae movement. Many of her photos are in the current Bob Marley Collectors Edition of Rolling Stone Magazine. Dana Louise Kirkpatrick is known for her bold, large-scale paintings and drawings which reference themes such as popular culture, religion, war, race, poverty, love and sex. Kirkpatrick's sure, confident line work oscillates between being hard and dark or shaky and scrawling, dependent on the attitude of each piece. She studied Fine Arts at Georgetown University, graduating with honors in 2001 and receiving the DaVinci Medal for Excellence in Studio Art and the Misty Dailey Award for Outstanding Work in Studio Art. Kirkpatrick's work is in a large number of important private collections. Victor Matthews's paintings and sculptures convert urban city street grids into metropolises of softened-white, celebrating what has been and what can still be. Born in Brooklyn in 1963, Matthews draws inspiration from every day objects and happenings of urban New York and transforms the chaos into serene, yet stunning story-like interpretations. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions in the US and abroad, including the 48th Venice Biennale, Museum Sala Uno (Rome), the Boca Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum (Venice) and The Sculpture Center (New York). His work can be found in museums and important private collections worldwide. Brendan Murphy's work focuses on the genuine cultivation of beauty by utilizing color and movement to confront life's experiences. Working primarily with large format canvas, Murphy's paintings display an effortless blending of gouache, oil, and acrylic paint to create floating backgrounds, moving pieces, and a push/pull multi-dimensional visual experience. Murphy has shown his work in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Calgary, Houston, and Buenos Aires. His work can be seen in over 500 private and public art collections internationally. Bernie Taupin: Stemming from his world famous career as a lyricist Taupin incorporates words and language in to his artistic works. Taupin has no set pattern or definitive style. He claims it is hard to conform when there are so many options. Taupin sees his art as a visual extension of what he has spent his life creating through words 'The imagination, in my estimation, is the most powerful tool the artist possess enabling us to conjure up beautiful distraction for the ears and eyes.' He has been busy touring with his art exhibitions all across the US. Taupin born in the United Kingdom currently resides in California. His works are included in many significant collections worldwide. Federico Uribe is a conceptual artist resorting to the language of pop art through the use of objects of daily life. He creates sculptures, which are not sculpted but constructed, and weaved, in all kinds of different ways, curious and unpredictable, repetitive and almost compulsive. They follow the classics canons of figurative and abstract art, but the result is absolutely unusual, whimsical, of enormous efficacy and communicability. Federico Uribe has had over 20 solo shows to date, including exhibitions in London, Padova, Italy, his hometown of Bogota and his 2013 installation, 'Fantasy River' at the Hudson River Museum in New York. For more information please contact: KM Fine Arts: Ana M. Hollinger, Director & Managing Partner P: 310. 854. 0540 E: director@kmfinearts.com www.kmfinearts.com

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment present the fifth and final production in its 2013-1014 season of shows with the Los Angeles regional theatre premiere of one of the most beloved musicals of all time, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, the Tony award-winning, LES MISERABLES, music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, with musical direction by John Glaudini, choreography by Dana Solimando and directed by Brian Kite.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the seminal, 1973 breakthrough album, has been remastered and will be issued on CD, vinyl, limited-edition yellow vinyl, and in a box set featuring recordings of “Live at Hammersmith 1973” on CD

January and February have seen sell-out performances at the Crazy Coqs and March and April look set to continue the trend.

To celebrate the forthcoming reissue of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John's seminal 1973 breakthrough album to be released March 25, a previously unseen archive video for his classic love song “Harmony” will be released today

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the seminal, 1973 breakthrough album, has been remastered and will be issued on CD, vinyl, limited-edition yellow vinyl, and in a box set featuring recordings of “Live at Hammersmith 1973” on CD

January and February have seen sell-out performances at the Crazy Coqs and March and April look set to continue the trend.

Having aired in the U.K. on ITV in September, Alfred Haber, president of Alfred Haber Television, Inc. (AHTI), announced today that the company has been appointed exclusive distributor with worldwide rights for the recently taped ITV special BRITs Icon: Elton John.

GRAMMY award-nominated and Songwriters Hall Of Fame Inductee, Gordon Lightfoot performs his '50 Years on the Carefree Highway Tour' at The Colonial Theatre tonight, November 8 at 8pm.

GRAMMY award-nominated and Songwriters Hall Of Fame Inductee, Gordon Lightfoot performs his '50 Years on the Carefree Highway Tour' at The Colonial Theatre on Friday, November 8 at 8pm.

Broadcast Music, Inc. tonight presented the BMI Icon Award to music legend John Lydon at the 2013 BMI London Awards. Music industry guests filled London's Dorchester Hotel to celebrate the U.K., European and Asian songwriters, producers and publishers of the most-performed songs on United States radio and television in the past year.

Rollingstone.com reports that Tony Award winner Cyndi Lauper is among this year's nominees for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Legendary artist Elton John returns to the stage in a concert that includes his greatest hits as well as songs from his new album, Diving Board. In this clip he performs 'Rocket Man' and 'I'm Still Standing.' Elton John IN CONCERT premieres tonight, October 5 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings). Get a sneak peek below!

Ben Babylon, the 15-year-old son of the late Guy Babylon, who was Elton John's Grammy-winning keyboardist and arranger, is among special guests scheduled to perform at The Elton Expo in Las Vegas in October.

Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, whose career has spanned 50 years and produced numerous #1, Top 10 and Top 40 hits, including 'If You Could Read My Mind,' Carefree Highway' and 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,' will appear at the Gallo Center for the Arts at 7:30 pm tonight, September 30.

Elton John and his band will return to Detroit's Joe Louis Arena on Friday, November 29. The 13-city tour will feature iconic hits and classic album tracks from throughout his incredible five-decade career, as well as a selection of new songs from his highly-anticipated album, The Diving Board, which was released by Capitol Records on September 24.