Here’s a moment that a certain formerly absurdly hormonal teenage girl had been looking forward to for some time. As had many others in the audience, to judge from the rapturous applause that greets Sting as he takes the TED stage. He plays some songs from his upcoming Broadway musical, The Last Ship. It’s the story […]
At the end of Session 1: Liftoff! at TED2014, DJ and producer Mark Ronson drops the TED Talk intro into a million tiny little pieces. Hair slicked to one side, Ronson mutters self-disparagingly about following Nicholas Negroponte, Chris Hadfield and Ziauddin Yousafzai: “Now I know what it feels like to follow Led Zeppelin, the Stones […]
Jonny Mizzone didn’t come from Alabama with a banjo on his knee. No, this 11-year-old virtuoso hails from the state of New Jersey, where he and his two older brothers discovered the magic of bluegrass legends J.D. Crowe, Ralph Stanley, Clarence White and Earl Scruggs through YouTube. When he was eight years old, Mizzone posted […]
Musical relief in this session comes courtesy of the British pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum, supported by his brother Ben on bass and Brad Webb on drums. The first song, he tells us, “is about a boy at school who couldn’t get noticed by any of the girls, so he decided to become very […]
“I started writing songs to be heard, to get attention. In life, being understood is really important to me,” says Lissie in a near-whisper into the microphone. “I write songs to process my emotions, and when we tour it’s cool to see other people process their emotions with my songs.” And with that, she and […]
“Before we came on stage, I asked him, ‘What are you going to play?’ and he replied, ‘I don’t know.’” So TED curator Chris Anderson introduces the Israeli pianist Yaron Herman, who comes onto the TEDGlobal stage to play music to soothe the slightly jangled nerves of the audience. (What with the beaver mourning the loss […]
At age 14, violin virtuoso Ji-Hae Park was accepted to a prestigious music conservatory in Mainz, Germany – even though the school only accepted students 16 and older. By the time she was 17, a German foundation had lent Park a rare Guarneri violin to play, worth millions. But Park’s early fame took its toll. […]
We’ve seen a number of “the young” of the conference’s theme in this session of TED2013. Now, to play us off out into the night are Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, a trio of brothers from New Jersey, the youngest of whom became a YouTube sensation in 2011 when he was only eight years old. “They’re […]
TED playlists are collections of talks around a topic, built for you in a thoughtful sequence to illuminate ideas in context. This weekend, two new playlists are available: “Design of useful things” and “Maestros, if you please … !” Maestros, if you please … ! These 7 extraordinary maestros bring you into the world of […]