The billionaire musicals mogul has pledged £15,000 to the Mayor’s Music Fund in London to help young musicians from deprived backgrounds.

He has also given £10,000 to Scottish Opera for the training of two repetiteurs.

Worthy causes.

Rob Wasserman, who has died at 64, longed to join the double-bass section of the San Francisco Symphony, but the teaching at SanFran Conservatory put him off.

‘I had these crusty old teachers that wanted to see things done a certain way, and I drove them crazy,’ he told Guitar.com. ‘I held my bow wrong and really sawed at the strings. I started coming up with my own approach to tonality, using an almost Indian sitar feel in moving from note to note. Basically everything that was interesting to me was going to make me not a very successful orchestral player.’

He went on to play bass guitar for Lou Reed, Jerry Garcia, Stephane Grapelli and Van Morrison.

Cashmere toilet paper?

Garry Marshall, who has died at 81, directed reams of popular films and TV series, none more impactful than the 1990 Julia Roberts-Richard Gere vehicle Pretty Woman in which a hedge-funder takes a prostitute to the opera to watch La Traviata.

Aside from his blockbuster screen career, Garry found time to direct opera. Grand Duchess opened the Los Angeles Opera’s 2005 season and in 2008 he directed L’Elisir d’Amore at San Antonio Opera.

Four hand with Martha Argerich on ZDF TV.