Willie Colón plays a tribute concert to Ismael Miranda, in New York on June 8, 2009. Colón, a trombonist, singer and bandleader whose driving energy and mischievous bad-boy image helped make him a luminary of New York City music, and whose 1978 collaboration with Rubén Blades, “Siembra,” was one of the top-selling salsa albums of all time, died on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. He was 75. (Chad Batka/The New York Times) By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR and ADAM BERNSTEIN Willie Colón, a tr

Composer Alberto Guidobaldi (Facebook via Coralia [Coro de Concierto de la Universidad de Puerto Rico]) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR Sunday afternoon at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music will keep the competitive juices flowing along with the Academy Awards and other measures of excellence. Student awards for the Miramar institution’s “2025 Interdepartmental Competition” will be presented along with an entertaining program, according to information provided by R

Hungarian composer Bela Bartok in 1927 (Wikipedia) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR In a striking potpourri of precedent-breaking modern music, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) will unveil three unique pieces this Saturday, with the help of Costa Rican guest conductor Norman Gamboa and Coral Lirica de Puerto Rico directed by native islander Jo-Anne Herrero. Gamboa, who has directed several orchestras in the Southwest United States, is considered one of the outs

Matt Groening, creator of “The Simpsons,” at his production office in Santa Monica, Calif., June 26, 2018. (David Banks/The New York Times) By DARRYN KING A few years ago at the airport, Matt Groening was steered into the Transportation Security Administration’s secondary screening line and told to remove the contents of his luggage. Then he heard a child’s laugh ring out, in the unmistakable taunting tones of “Simpsons” bully Nelson Muntz: “Ha-ha.” “I don’t know if it was j

Robert Duvall at his farm in northern Virginia, July 14, 2010. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times) By CLYDE HABERMAN Robert Duvall, who drew from a seemingly bottomless reservoir of acting craftsmanship to transform himself into a business-focused Mafia lawyer, a faded country singer, a cynical police detective, a bullying Marine pilot, a surfing-obsessed Vietnam commander, a mysterious Southern recluse and scores of other film, stage and television characters, died on Sunday.

Sly Dunbar. Rolling Stone ranked him No. 65 in its list of the 100 greatest drummers of all time and, because he was widely sampled, “quite possibly the world’s most recorded musician. By CLAY RISEN Sly Dunbar, who as the drumming half of the Jamaican rhythm duo Sly and Robbie brought driving, rock-influenced beats to the island’s reggae sound while also playing with some of the biggest names in rock music, including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and Madonna, died last Monday at his

“In Our Blood” By ERIK PIEPENBURG A new year brings thrillers galore, with evil emerging from a pandemic, a summer camp and a rideshare app. ‘No More Time’ Death, isolation and conspiracy theories are just three of the pandemic-era horrors that drive this eerie thriller, the debut feature from writer-director Dalila Droege. To escape city life, a couple (Jennifer Harlow and Mark Reeb) drive until they reach a mostly deserted mountain town, one of many such communities barely

A couple gets married live onstage as singer Bad Bunny performs during the Super Bowl LX halftime show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. Antonio Reyes spent a week rehearsing his part of the show, when a real-life couple married. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR Bad Bunny’s 13-minute Super Bowl performance took viewers on a vivid journey through Puerto Rico — its colorful neighborhoods, bustling streets and proud cultur

By DERRICK BRYSON TAYLOR and MATT STEVENS Catherine O’Hara, the film and television actress best known for her roles in “Schitt’s Creek,” “Home Alone” and “Beetlejuice,” died of a pulmonary embolism with an underlying cause of rectal cancer, according to a death certificate that was released Monday. O’Hara died Jan. 30 at age 71 at Saint John’s Health Center, a hospital in Santa Monica, California. No other underlying causes of death were listed on the certificate, which said

Maria Antonia Cay, known as Toñita, who is well known among Puerto Ricans in New York City as the owner of the Caribbean Social Club, a popular gathering place in Brooklyn, at the club on July 20, 2023. Toñita was briefly the star of the halftime show at Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif., as the guest of her friend Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny. (José A. Alvarado Jr./The New York Times) By SANDRA E. GARCÍA There are not many places i