Noam Braslavsky
Noam Braslavsky( born 1961) is an Israeli artist and curator who lives and works in Berlin.
Franz Schuh (writer)
Franz Schuh( born March 15, 1947) is an Austrian novelist, literary critic and, above all, essayist in the tradition of Karl Kraus and Alfred Polgar.
Schuh was born, and lives, in Vienna, where, just like his predecessors, he prefers to write in one of the traditional coffeehouses.
David Ji
David Longfen Ji is an American businessman who co-founded Apex Digital, an electronics manufacturer.
In 2004, he was arrested in China following a dispute with Sichuan Changhong Electric, a supplier owned by the city of Mianyang and the province of Sichuan.
Changhong accused him of defrauding them through bad checks.
Ji was taken, according to an account by his lawyer, to the senior management and told, "I decide whether you live or die."
He has been held in China without charges.
Ji's case highlighted an "implicit racism" in dealings with American businessmen.
As a U.S. citizen he was not granted the same treatment by authorities as non-ethnically Chinese businessmen sharing the same nationality.
Georg Melchior Kraus
Georg Melchior Kraus( 26 July 1737, in Frankfurt am Main – 5 November 1806, in Weimar) was a German painter.
A student of Johann Heinrich Tischbein, he was also a teacher himself( his pupils included Ferdinand Jagemann), as well as an entrepreneur and friend of Goethe.
He was a co-founder of the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar with Friedrich Justin Bertuch in 1776.
Brian Salesky
Brian Salesky is an American conductor of operatic and orchestral music.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Indiana University, he also studied at The Juilliard School.
In the fall of 1978, Salesky first appeared at the New York City Opera, conducting" Naughty Marietta".
He went on to lead" La traviataRigoletto"( with Pablo Elvíra)," Falstaff"( with Donald Gramm and Muriel Costa- Greenspon, in Sarah Caldwell's production), the world premiere of Stanley Silverman's" Madame AdareCarmenLes contes d' Hoffmann", etc., with the company.
In 1980, the City Opera production of" La cenerentola" was televised over PBS, with Salesky leading Susanne Marsee, Rockwell Blake, and Alan Titus, to much acclaim.
In Europe, Salesky has conducted at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu(" L'elisir d'amore", with Alfredo Kraus), and then led concerts with Kraus and Renata Scotto, in Madrid and Granada.
Elsewhere, he has appeared with Opera Australia(" Adriana Lecouvreur"), the Spoleto Festival(" Falstaff"), Chicago Lyric Opera(" Simon Boccanegra"), Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Opera, Dayton Opera, Knoxville Opera Company as well as the opera companies of Washington and Montana.
He has also led many symphony orchestras.
On Broadway, Salesky conducted the revival of" Man of La Mancha", with Raúl Juliá, in 1992.
As of 2005, he is Executive Director and Conductor of the Knoxville Opera Company.
Friedrich Justin Bertuch
Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch( 30 September 1747 – 3 April 1822) was a German publisher and patron of the arts.
He co-founded the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar with the painter Georg Melchior Kraus in 1776.
He was the father of the writer and journalist Karl Bertuch.
Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Piergiorgio Odifreddi( born 13 July 1950, in Cuneo) is an Italian mathematician, logician and aficionado of the history of science, who is also extremely active as a popular science writer and essayist, especially in a perspective of philosophical atheism as a member of the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics.
He is philosophically and politically near to Bertrand Russell and Noam Chomsky.
Melchior Hoffmann (composer)
Georg Melchior Hoffmann( c. 1679 – 6 October 1715) was a Baroque composer who was influential as the leader at the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig.
His compositions have been mistaken for those of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner
Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner( 1625- 1705) was a German Baroque painter.
He became a pupil of the painter Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, and spent 15 years in Italy.
Schmidtner is known for his altarpieces in churches near his home in Augsburg.
Hedi El Kholti
Hedi El Kholti( born February 24, 1967, in Rabat, Morocco) is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles.
He is co-editor of Semiotext( e) alongside Chris Kraus and Sylvère Lotringer.
He was partner at the now defunct Dilettante Press and currently edits Semiotext( e) ’s ‘ occasional intellectual journal ’" Animal Shelter".
He is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design.

Question: Are Georg Melchior Kraus and Noam Braslavsky of the same nationality?
Answer: no