Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone, known professionally as Sophia Loren, is an Italian actress, active in her native country and the United States. With a career spanning over 70 years, she was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest stars of classical Hollywood cinema.
Napa County is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county's territory were given to Lake County in 1861.
Lang Lang is a Chinese pianist who has performed with major orchestras around the world and appeared at many leading concert halls. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and many of the top American orchestras. In 2000, a Chicago Tribune music critic called him "the biggest, most exciting young keyboard talent I have encountered in many a year of attending piano recitals."
The Russian National Orchestra was founded in Moscow in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. It was the first Russian orchestra to perform at the Apostolic Palace, Vatican and in Israel.
Brian Culbertson is an American smooth jazz/R&B/funk musician and producer. His instruments include the synthesizer, piano and trombone.
The Napa Valley Wine Train is a privately operated excursion train that runs between Napa and St. Helena, California. Much of the rail line parallels State Route 29 after leaving the City of Napa and passes the towns of Yountville, Rutherford and Oakville. The route passes by many of the region's vineyards and wineries located in Napa County. The Wine Train is operated by the Napa Valley Railroad.
Nina Kotova is an American cellist of Eastern European descent. As well as being a versatile artist and an established composer she is a recording artist who performs both as a soloist with major orchestras and as a chamber musician.
El Perro del Mar is a musical project that was founded in December 2003 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The sole member of El Perro del Mar, Sarah Assbring, initially started as an MP3/CD-R artist and released her first songs through Hybris Records. Her music could originally have been described as melancholic indie pop, but in recent years she is noted for being a "chameleon" with "every visual, sound, costume, and so on painstakenly thought out" for consecutive albums.
Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts was a non-profit museum and educational center in downtown Napa, California, dedicated to wine, food and the arts of American culture. The center, planned and largely funded by vintners Robert and Margrit Mondavi, was open from 2001 to 2008. The 78,632-square-foot (7,305.2 m2) museum had galleries, two theaters, classrooms, a demonstration kitchen, a restaurant, a rare book library, and a 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) vegetable and herb garden; there it hosted wine and food tasting programs, exhibitions, films, and concerts. The main and permanent exhibition of the museum, "Forks in the Road", explained the origins of cooking through to modern advances. The museum's establishment benefited the city of Napa and the development and gentrification of its downtown.
Margrit Biever Mondavi (néeKellenberger; August 2, 1925 – September 2, 2016) was a Swiss-born American businesswoman. She was vice president of Cultural Affairs at Robert Mondavi Winery which she joined in 1967. Under her direction, Robert Mondavi Winery developed original cultural and culinary arts programs. She was the wife of Robert Mondavi and worked with him in many of his philanthropic activities including the founding of the museum Copia. She played a key role in securing the downtown Napa location for the center, which opened in November 2001. She died of stomach cancer on September 2, 2016.
C3 Presents is a concert promotion, event production and artist management company based in Austin, Texas. C3 also produces several multi-day festivals including Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin Texas, Two Step Inn Music Festival in Georgetown Texas, Voodoo Music + Arts Experience in New Orleans, and Lollapalooza in Chicago along with its six international editions. Since 2014, C3 has been owned by parent company Live Nation Entertainment.
Mexican wine and wine making began with the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, when they brought vines from Europe to modern day Mexico, the oldest wine-growing region in the Americas. Although there were indigenous grapes before the Spanish conquest, the Spaniards found that Spanish grapevines also did very well in the colony of New Spain (Mexico) and by the 17th century wine exports from Spain to the New World fell. In 1699, Charles II of Spain prohibited wine making in Mexico, with the exception of wine for Church purposes. From then until Mexico’s Independence, wine was produced in Mexico only on a small scale.
The Tuscan Sun Festival is an annual music and lifestyle festival in Florence, the capital of Tuscany in Italy. The Independent called the festival “One of the Ten Best Summer Arts Festivals in Europe”.
Taormina Film Fest (TFF) is an annual Italian film festival that takes place at Taormina, Sicily, Italy in July. It was established in 1955 in Messina, and in 1957 became Rassegna Cinematografica Internazionale di Messina e Taormina, until it moved permanently to Taormina in 1971. It had a succession of names before adopting its current name.
Carlo Ponti Jr. is an Italian orchestral conductor working in the United States. He is the son of late film producer Carlo Ponti Sr. and Italian actress Sophia Loren, and the older brother of film director Edoardo Ponti.
Festival Napa Valley is a music, food, wine and lifestyle festival held in Napa Valley, California. It is presented by Napa Valley Festival Association, a nonprofit corporation governed by a board of vintners and local leaders.
The Festival of Friends is an annual three-day free summer music festival held in Gage Park in Hamilton, Ontario, on the first weekend in August.
BottleRock Napa Valley is an annual music festival held at the Napa Valley Expo in Napa, California.
Michael Polenske is a Malaysian entrepreneur, gallery owner, and vintner. He is the founder of the Bespoke Collection and Blackbird Vineyards. He serves as creative director, chairman and founder of the Bespoke Collection. Polenske has been profiled in Forbes, the San Francisco Chronicle, Food & Wine, the Robb Report, Town & Country and Departures.
The Culinary Institute of America at Copia is a branch campus of the private culinary college the Culinary Institute of America. The CIA at Copia, located adjacent to the Oxbow Public Market in downtown Napa, California, opened its doors in 2016. The CIA venue provides food- and wine-related courses to visitors. The CIA at Copia and The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone make up the school's California branch.
