Institute for Studies in American Music  

 

Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College


In collaboration with

the Conservatory of Music, Composer’s Forum, the Department of Africana Studies, the American Studies Program at Brooklyn College present:

                        

                                                        

Spring 2006

Music in Polycultural America

 

 

An Evening with Randy Weston

 

Brooklyn-born Composer and pianist Randy Weston is recognized today as one of the most innovative musicians of his generation.  A prolific composer, he is best known for his African–tinged big band jazz works and his collaboration with the black Gnawa musicians of Morocco.  2006 will be a year-long celebration of Weston’s his 80th birthday.

 

Tuesday, February 14, 6:30 pm  Levenson Recital Hall

Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage and Sound Recording

 

David Grubbs is an Assistant Professor in the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and a member of the college’s interdisciplinary PIMA program.  He is a 2005/6 grant recipient in Music-Sound from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.  His recent albums include “Two Soundtracks for Angela Bulloch” (Semishigure) and “Thiefth” (Blue Chopsticks), a collaboration with poet Susan Howe.  He is currently working on a book that charts the history of 1960s avant-garde composers through their recordings.

 

Monday, March 6, 1:45 pm  Student Center

 

Searching for the Folk

 

Photographer, film maker, and old-time musician John Cohen was a leading figure in the late 1950s/early 1960s folk music revival. As a founding member of the folk trio, the New Lost City Ramblers, he introduced urban audiences across America and Europe to traditional southern mountain music.  His photographs, ranging from portraits of traditional musicians to beat poets, are found in There Is No Eye: John Cohen Photographs (Powerhouse Books, 2001).  His Appalachian folk music projects include the critically acclaimed film, The High Lonesome Sound (1963/2002, Shanachie Video), and the audio recording, Mountain Music of Kentucky (1959/1996, Smithsonian Folkways).

 

Monday, March 20, 1:45 pm  Student Center, State Lounge

Cross-Cultural Collaborations - Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess

 

Ray Allen, Associate Professor of Music and American Studies at Brooklyn College, has written extensively on American vernacular music styles including gospel, West Indian carnival music, and the urban folk revival. George Cunningham, Professor of Africana Studies and American Studies at Brooklyn College, has written on issues of race and gender in African American culture. Cunningham and Allen are currently co-editing Porgy and Bess: An American Cultural Reader.

 

Wednesday, April 26, 12:15pm  Student Center, State Lounge

 

The Brooklyn College Student Center is located on Campus Road and East 27th Street.

For more information, please call ISAM at (718) 951-5655

 

ISAM home    Who we are       Contact us       ISAM Conferences and Lectures      
Fall 2002 Newsletter

Monographs       ISAM Web Documents       Newsletters       Links