The Sound of Summer Fades Away

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 13 June 2025 > Celebrate

Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ songwriter, died on 12 June. The band symbolised a California dream of sun, surf and sand and rivalled the Beatles for the coolest band of the 1960s. Three of the band were brothers, with Brian, the eldest, born in 1942. They grew up in Hawthorn, California. Both parents were amateur … Continue reading “The Sound of Summer Fades Away”

Basquiat, Music and Warhol

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 08 June 2023 >

Everybody (or almost everyone) has heard of Andy Warhol, but not all students will be familiar with Jean-Michel Basquiat, a New York artist whose lively and colourful paintings are on display in Paris, either paired with music or in a display of works produced with Warhol. These two exhibitions are not only windows into his … Continue reading “Basquiat, Music and Warhol”

Tina Turner : A Star is Dead

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 26 May 2023 > In the News

Tina Turner, celebrated for her incomparable voice, electrifying stage presence, and resilient spirit, passed away on Wednesday 24 May at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich. She was 83. Turner durably marked the music industry. Born Anna Mae Bullock on 26 November , 1939, in Nutbush, Tennessee, to a poor sharecropping African-American family, Tina … Continue reading “Tina Turner : A Star is Dead”

Exhibitions: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Music and Warhol

Posted by Speakeasy News > Tuesday 09 May 2023 > Shine Bright Collège Shine Bright Lycée What's On

Two exhibitions in Paris celebrate the life and legend of the first African-American artist to become an international star. Jean-Michel Basquiat, an African-American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, was born in New York in 1960. He began spray painting graffiti slogans on walls and doorways in the city’s Lower East Side in 1979. … Continue reading “Exhibitions: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Music and Warhol”

Assessing musicals with 4e euro

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 19 January 2023 > Pedagogy

Our challenge last year was to get 4e students interested in musicals! As we couldn’t take them abroad on an exchange, we felt like taking “a bit of abroad” to them, through musicals. You can read what we planned to do here, and below you’ll find our conclusions about what worked and what didn’t. Though … Continue reading “Assessing musicals with 4e euro”