If Henry Sapoznik has his way, Madison will become the capitol of “Yiddishland” during a three-day “<a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/IAR/sapoznik/events.html">KlezKamp Road Show</a>,” a celebration of klezmer music and Yiddish folk arts Saturday–Monday, April 18–20. <div id="story_image_1259" class="inline-content photo right" style="width: 100px;"> <img src="http://www.news.wisc.edu/story_images/0000/1259/2Sapoznik.jpg" alt="Henry Sapoznik." /> Sapoznik. </div> KlezKamp is part of Sapoznik’s stay on campus as the spring <abbr title="University of Wisconsin">UW</abbr>–Madison <a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/">Arts Institute</a> <a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/IAR/">Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence</a>. The event will feature concerts by national and local klezmer performers as well as workshops, films, lectures and a dance party. Sapoznik, award-winning author, scholar, record and radio producer, and performer of traditional Yiddish and American music, is credited with the late 20th century revival of klezmer, traditional Yiddish music from Eastern European shtetls. Klezmer isn’t “Hava Nagila” or “Fiddler on the Roof” — it’s roots music that can be raw and wild, jazzy and bluesy, or plaintive and prayerful. “To say that ‘Fiddler’ represents klezmer culture is to say that ‘Brigadoon’ represents Scottish culture,” laughs Sapoznik. Whatever its mood, klezmer is contagious and embraces the language, history and culture of the people who lived it. <div id="story_image_1261" class="inline-content photo right" style="width: 200px;"> <img src="http://www.news.wisc.edu/story_images/0000/1261/sapoznik_poster_only_Page_1_Image_0001.jpg" alt="KlezKamp poster." /> Madison will become the capitol of “Yiddishland” during a three-day “KlezKamp Road Show,” a celebration of klezmer music and Yiddish folk arts Saturday–Monday, April 18–20. </div> Klezmer is just one aspect of Yiddish culture being studied in a class Sapoznik is teaching as part of his residency, “Yiddish-American Popular Culture 1890–1950.” Using period media such as 78 <abbr>rpm</abbr> recordings, cartoons, films and radio broadcasts, the class is examining how the nascent and vibrant culture of East European Jews arriving in American at the end of the 19th century interacted with, influenced and portrayed simultaneously emerging American popular culture. “Academia was the last place I expected klezmer to end up,” says Sapoznik. He says no two students in his class have the same background and not all are Jewish. Surprisingly, there are no music majors, but theater, Spanish and art are represented. There are also some Jewish adults from the community auditing the class. A seasoned lecturer and teacher, Sapoznik says his past students usually had some knowledge of or experience with Yiddish cultural references. Not so here. “I had to throw my syllabus out the window. I am learning as much as they are,” says Sapoznik. Sapoznik has his students conducting original research, much as he did when he was learning about klezmer culture and music. “I sent them to my sources, and I am so proud of them. This is not airless, dusty history; this is a tactile, volatile folk culture that is still within living history,” says Sapoznik. “They are learning how to question received wisdom. We must understand people without dehumanizing them by creating new stereotypes. I want my students to learn how to interpret cultures,” says Sapoznik. Sapoznik, too, has received a lot of wisdom over the years. Klezmer was traditionally passed down to younger generations from older musicians teaching the young, ensuring new guardians of a culture. But by the 1970s, interest in klezmer had faded and there were few in line ready to keep the cultural threads alive. Sapoznik, though, was smitten by folk culture and started out learning the ways of country and bluegrass music. Life took a different course when one of his bluegrass mentors asked him, “Don’t none of your people [Jews] have their own music?” He realized he had been ignoring his own traditions. “Klezmer was so everyday,” says Sapoznik. When he first started learning klezmer, Sapoznik couldn’t get enough. “I loved being the worst musician on the bandstand because I knew I was surrounded by greatness, and everywhere I turned there was something to learn. Now I’m one of the old guys,” he laughs. “I’ve toured the world many times, been to the Grammys, but my students here are giving me one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.” The upcoming KlezKamp will be the first held in the Midwest. For 24 years, some 20,000 people from all over the world have attended Sapoznik’s KlezKamps held each year in the northeastern United States. The event includes concerts, lectures, workshops and a dance party. He knows it will be a challenge, but he hopes to build an orchestra in a day. An opening concert featuring the KlezKamp Roadshow Orchester, along with local artists Yid Vicious and the Madison Yiddish Choir, will be held at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, in Morphy Hall at the Mosse Humanities Building. On Sunday, April 19, activities include a screening of a silent film, “His People,” at 6 p.m. in the Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall; and a dance party at 8 p.m. at Temple Beth El, 2702 Arbor Drive. Steve Weintraub will be on hand to lead instruction in traditional Yiddish dances. A closing concert featuring Ben Sidran and Marilyn Lerner will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 20, at Morphy Hall. Some workshops on the schedule include “The Story of Yiddish: ‘Born to Kvetch,’” “Vocal Sources of Yiddish Music,” “Old-time Yiddish Dance,” and “The Hows and Whys of a Klezmer Band.” All KlezKamp events are free and open to the public, but pre-registration for the workshops is required. For more information on Sapoznik’s residency, the <abbr title="University of Wisconsin">UW</abbr>–Madison Arts Institute, a complete list of KlezKamp events and to register for workshops, visit <a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/IAR">Interdisciplinary Arts Residency</a>. If Henry Sapoznik has his way, Madison will become the capitol of “Yiddishland” during a three-day “KlezKamp Road Show,” a celebration of klezmer music and Yiddish folk arts Saturday–Monday, April 18–20. 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The <a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/index.php">Arts Institute</a> is pleased to welcome artist in residence Fred Ho to the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall. Ho is a one-of-a-kind revolutionary Chinese American baritone saxophonist, composer, writer, producer, political activist and leader of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra. Ho is breaking new ground in the world of contemporary music while remaining committed to political and social transformation. For two decades, he has innovated a new American multicultural music embedded in the most soulful and transgressive forms of African American music, with musical influences of Asia and the Pacific Rim. In addition to founding the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in 1982 and the Monkey Orchestra in 1990, Ho co-founded the Brooklyn Sax Quartet in 1997. Most recently in 2005, he founded Caliente! Circle Around the Sun, featuring poets Magdalena Gomez and Raul Salinas. As an innovator in the field of Asian American Studies, Ho helped found the East Coast Asian Students Union, the Asian American Resource Workshop and the Asian American Arts Alliance. He is co-editor with Ron Sakolsky of "Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution," which won the 1996 American Book Award, and lead editor of "Legacy to Liberation: Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian/Pacific America." His "Wicked Theory Naked Practice" is forthcoming, and his co-edited anthology with Bill Mullen, "Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans," has just been published by Duke University Press. Ho's numerous awards include the McKnight Foundation Composer/Residency award, five Rockefeller Foundation grants, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, three New York Foundation for the Arts Music Composition fellowships, the 1988 Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Musicians Conference, and the 1987 Harvard University Peter Ivers Visiting Artist award. While at UW-Madison, Ho will teach an intercultural course on "Revolutionary Afro Asian Spoken Word and Performance." Ho will work with students to develop a performance integrating music, song, spoken word and dance inspired by African Asian, African American, and Asian American histories and struggles. Other activities include: <ul> <li>At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1, Ho will participate in a panel on "Afro Asian Activism and the Avant Garde Aesthetic" with other UW-Madison faculty and staff. A reception and signing of his new book "Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans" will follow in the lobby. The event is free and open to the public. It will be held in Room L140 of the Chazen Museum of Art, 800 University Ave. For more information, call (608) 263-2246.</li> <li>At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, Ho will present "Revolutionary Earth Music and Performance: People and the Planet before Profit!" at the Wisconsin Union Theater, featuring his Afro Asian Music Ensemble from New York, a new work by UW-Madison students, and a collaborative work with UW-Madison Dance Program staff Peggy Choy. The event is free and open to the public. The Union Theater is located at the Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. Call (608) 262-2201 for information.</li> <li>In addition, lectures by Professor Bill Mullen on "Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans" and by Melanie West on "Interactive Hip-Hop as a Portal to Math and Science Literacy" will take place on campus, and on- and off-campus outreach demonstrations by Ho's UW-Madison students will be scheduled. Dates and times are to be announced. </li> </ul> Updated information will be available <a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/air/ho/index.htm">here</a>. The <a href="http://www.clusters.wisc.edu/clusters/show/52">Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program</a> brings innovative artists to campus to teach semester-long, interdepartmental courses and to publicly present their work for campus and community audiences. Ho is co-sponsored by the Asian American Studies Program and the School of Music. Subsidiary co-sponsors include the Dance Program, the Department of Theatre and Drama, and the Department of Afro-American Studies. The Arts Institute is pleased to welcome artist in residence Fred Ho to the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall. Arts Institute brings musician, composer, activist Fred Ho to campus 15553 2008-09-04T00:00:00-05:00

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The Arts Institute has selected the recipients of its 2008 awards in the arts. Honorees will be recognized at a program and reception on May 2. Following is a list of the honorees: Stacey Barelos, graduate student, School of Music, David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts. Barelos received master's degrees in piano performance and composition from Bowling Green State University before coming to UW-Madison, where she is pursuing her doctor of musical arts degree in piano performance. While at Madison, she has won the UW-Madison Beethoven Competition as a performer and the UW-Madison Concerto Competition as a composer. She frequently tours, performing and presenting music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including compositions of her own. Patricia Boyette, professor, Department of Theatre and Drama, Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts. Boyette is a professional actor and director and leads those disciplines in the Department of Theatre and Drama, where she has taught since 1992. She has appeared in major roles in regional theaters across the country and is currently an associate artist with Madison Repertory Theatre. This fall she will appear in the Madison Repertory Theatre and University Theatre co-production of "The Greeks." <ul> </ul> Boyette's "Beckett Project," a performance research project supported by her 2001 Arts Institute Creative Arts Award, has received national and international acclaim. She performed in and directed several Beckett plays in Los Angeles, London, Ireland, Austria, Wales and in Madison. In 2006 she performed and directed local actors in Singapore in several of Beckett's later plays (in English and Mandarin), and in 2007 she was a keynote speaker/performer at an international Beckett symposium in Tokyo. Derrick Buisch, associate professor, Department of Art, Vilas Award. Buisch is an associate professor of painting. His recent showings include contributions to the 2007 Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and solo shows in Grand Rapids, Mich., at Mississippi State University, and the Wisconsin Academy Gallery. <ul> </ul> In recent years he has been a visiting artist at the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Milliken University in Decatur, Ill., and UW-Eau Claire. Laurie Beth Clark, professor, Department of Art, Arts Institute Creative Arts Award. Artist, scholar and educator, Clark has taught courses in video, installation and performance art since 1985. She has served as vice provost for faculty and staff programs since 2004 and was the founding coordinator of the Visual Culture Cluster. <ul> </ul> She recently completed "The Everyday Life of Objects," a virtual environment for which she interviewed more than 200 people about what they keep and why. "Veracity," a video that addresses the performance of credibility through the testimony of women working in "truth professions" about their relationships with their late fathers, appeared as part of the 2007 Wisconsin Triennial. Clark has focused on memory and memorialization in site-specific projects such as "Versteckte Kinder," honoring children who survived the Holocaust, and "Halteschtellen," representing the memories of children who grew up alongside atrocities. Charles Dill, professor, School of Music, Vilas Award. Dill joined the faculty in 1989, where he is a professor of musicology. He has contributed articles to the publications Studies in Music History, Cambridge Opera Journal, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Journal of the American Musicological Society, and the collections "French Musical Thought, 1600-1800" and "Operatic Migrations: Transforming Works and Crossing Boundaries." <ul> </ul> Dill is the recipient of several awards from the Graduate School Research Committee and has received Eugene M. Bolz Fellowships. His teaching-related awards include four Wisconsin/Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Awards and a Lilly Teaching Fellowship. He is currently a fellow in the University of Wisconsin Teaching Academy. Chele Isaac, graduate student, Department of Art, David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts. Isaac will receive a master of fine arts degree in May. She has exhibited work widely in Wisconsin, including at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Wisconsin Film Festival, the Overture Center for the Arts, the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and several galleries and performance spaces throughout the Midwest. As an MFA student, Isaac has focused primarily on video and sound installations that she often locates outside of formal exhibition spaces. Sarah Marty, outreach specialist, Division of Continuing Studies and the Arts, Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell Award in the Arts. With an undergraduate degree in music education and master's degrees in both curriculum and instruction and arts administration, all from UW-Madison, Marty had campus connections before entering her current position. She has coordinated the Rhinelander School of the Arts, the Wisconsin High School Theatre Festival and Wisconsin Theatre Auditions and Technical Interviews. <ul> </ul> Marty is passionate about arts outreach. She worked with the Madison Repertory Theatre and the University Theatre to start the Wisconsin Wrights New Play Project and is involved in the Madison Early Music Festival, Four Seasons Theatre, the Edgewood High School Drama program, Madison Opera and the UW Varsity Band Spring Concert. She is a member of the Madison Wind Ensemble, past member of the Madison Opera Chorus and teaches private music lessons Lorrie Moore, professor of creative writing, Department of English, Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts. Moore has taught at UW-Madison since 1984 and has been a full professor since 1991. Her works include novels ("Anagrams" and "Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?") and story collections ("Self-Help," "Like Life" and "Birds of America"). She is also a frequent contributor to literary publications. <ul> </ul> Her many honors include a National Endowment for the Arts award, an Ingram Merrill Foundation grant, Guggenheim and Lannan Foundation fellowships, the Prix de Rome, guest editorship of "The Best American Short Stories," the Rea Award for the Short Story and the PEN/Malamud Award for the Short Story. Moore was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2006. The Arts Institute has selected the recipients of its 2008 awards in the arts. Arts Institute honors faculty, staff for contributions to campus 15045 2008-04-17T00:00:00-05:00

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Ale&scaron; Březina, a Prague-based musicologist, composer and film collaborator, will visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison Wednesday-Sunday, April 23-27. Březina will give a series of lectures during the week and will present several screenings of films for which he has composed music. Březina's lectures will explore his compositions for stage and screen, as well as his work on the important 20th century Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, on whom he is a world authority. His lectures will be as follows: <ul> <li>Wednesday, April 23, 4 p.m., Room 1221, Mosse Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St.: "Introduction to Bohuslav Martinů and Martinů Research."</li> <li>Thursday, April 24, 2 p.m., Room 2441, Mosse Humanities Building, "Martinů Institute and its Projects." 4 p.m., Room 4070, Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., screening of "Musíme si pomáhat (Divided We Fall)."</li> <li>Friday, April 25, 1 p.m., "Oral History on Martinů." 2:30 p.m., screening of the documentary "Martinů and the USA." Both events will be held in Room 1121 of the Mosse Humanities Building.</li> <li>Saturday, April 26, 1-3 p.m., "Film Compositions of Ales Březina," with question-and-answer session. 3-5 p.m., screening of "Horem pádem (Up and Down)." 5 p.m., public reception. All will be held at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.</li> <li>Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m., Room 1217 Mosse Humanities Building, "Ales Brezina's Chamber Opera 'Tomorrow Will...'" </li> </ul> Březina's residency is sponsored by the UW-Madison <a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/index.php">Arts Institute</a> and the <a href="http://www.music.wisc.edu/">School of Music.</a> Partners include the <a href="http://www.creeca.wisc.edu/">Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia</a> (CREECA); the departments of <a href="http://commarts.wisc.edu/">Communication Arts</a>, <a href="http://slavic.lss.wisc.edu/">Slavic Languages</a> and <a href="http://history.wisc.edu/">History</a>; and the <a href="http://www.bus.wisc.edu/centers/bolz.htm">Bolz Center for Arts Administration</a>. Aleš Březina, a Prague-based musicologist, composer and film collaborator, will visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison Wednesday-Sunday, April 23-27. Martinů expert Aleš Březina to visit Madison 14856 2008-03-03T00:00:00-06:00

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By <a href="mailto:eawalkup@education.wisc.edu">Erica Walkup</a> <div style="float: right; margin-left: 15px; margin-bottom: 10px; width: 150px;"> <img src="http://www.news.wisc.edu/wisweek/11-Apr-2007/images/Ritschel_Ute_hs05.jpg" alt="Photo of Ute Ritschel" width="150" height="225" /> Ritschel </div> Artists have used nature as inspiration for centuries, creating beautiful landscapes and sculptures for museums and galleries around the world. But rarely has art been displayed in the place that often inspired it: the great outdoors. Ute Ritschel, one of the Arts Institute’s spring artists in residence, did a little bit of everything before bringing her work outside. With master’s degrees in acting and directing, she has a strong background in theater and performance art, and has studied anthropology, art history and arts administration in Europe and the United States. In 1995, Ritschel started curating exhibitions in private gardens in her hometown of Darmstadt, Germany, after growing tired of the commercial art world. Attracting thousands of visitors within two weeks, Ritschel extended this idea into the biennial “Internationaler Waldkunstpfad” (International Forest Art Path), inviting artists from various cultural backgrounds to live and create art in the Darmstadt forest. One of the artists at the first symposium in 2002 was Laurie Beth Clark, a UW–Madison art professor and associate vice chancellor for faculty and staff programs. Five years later, she was instrumental in bringing Ritschel’s vision to Wisconsin. “Laurie Beth was so excited about the project and really wanted it to come here,” Ritschel says. “Nature is so close to everybody in Wisconsin. People like to be outdoors, and I want them to see nature with a different point of view.” The theme for Ritschel’s 10-week residency is “Native/Invasive,” another topic on which she wants to shed a new light. “When I came here two years ago, I was seeing environmentalists talking about invasive species and it sounded so negative,” she says. “To me, to be invasive is not necessarily negative but something new. It’s important to think about all of the new and different layers and to accept them.” This subject will be explored in depth at the Forest Art Wisconsin conference at the Arboretum Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21. The conference, which is free and open to the public, will bring together artists, curators, foresters and environmentalists to discuss a variety of issues relating to the forest, focusing on its ecological, social and artistic aspects. “The diversity of the panels is quite amazing,” Ritschel says. “We want to really explore this connection between nature and art and bringing art outdoors.” The conference will set the stage for an artists’ symposium, much like those curated in Darmstadt, in the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest near Minocqua, Wis., May 29-June 15. Participating artists include the art department’s Nancy Mladenoff, John Hitchcock, Gail Simpson and Aristotle Georgiades, and environment, textiles and design associate professor Jennifer Angus. Ritschel hopes this exhibition will have the same effect on the forest’s visitors that her work has had in her native Germany. “Everybody knows [forest art] exists in Darmstadt,” she says. “It influences their thinking and that’s what I would like to do here, to impact people’s perception.” What can one expect to see in a forest art exhibition? Previous shows have included painted mushrooms, mirrors exposing otherwise hidden tree tops, and large plastic spheres in which visitors could sit and become part of the artwork. For the Raven Trail, Angus is creating large blue-and-black bugs that will invade the forest, and Georgiades and Simpson’s piece will include birdseed that the forest’s native inhabitants can eat. “Curating in alternative spaces is a hot idea in the art world; maybe we don’t need to be so reliant on a gallery,” says Megan Lotts, a project assistant for Forest Art Wisconsin. “Ute really looks outside of the box and takes this natural environment and renegotiates it. This project is for everyone; there is no cost to go on the trail and just enjoy art.” In addition to preparing for the inaugural Forest Art Wisconsin event, Ritschel has been busy teaching her course, Curatorial Practice-Alternative Places and Concepts. The interdisciplinary class focuses on the practical elements of curating a show, including writing proposals, securing funding and creating press materials. Students are encouraged to find unusual venues for their shows, which do not have to be in a forest. “Students are finding alternative spaces that attract their interests; they can do whatever they choose,” Ritschel says. One project involved a mandala on the ice in front of the Monona Terrace, and plans for a fashion show on city buses are in the works. “The students are really great and very excited about all of the projects.” After the symposium near Minocqua, Ritschel will return to Germany and continue her many projects there. Although the future of Forest Art Wisconsin remains unclear, she hopes the idea will live on long after she leaves. “For me, it is always important that whatever I start continues. Everything I do is a series; I am a strong believer of building one thing onto the next.” For more information on Ritschel and her residency, visit <a href="http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/air/ritschel/">http://www.arts.wisc.edu/artsinstitute/air/ritschel/</a>. Learn more about Forest Art Wisconsin at <a href="http://www.forestartwisconsin.com">http://www.forestartwisconsin.com</a>. In 1995, Ute Ritschel started curating exhibitions in private gardens in her hometown of Darmstadt, Germany Ritschel brings forest art to Wisconsin 13655 2007-04-10T00:00:00-05:00 2007-04-10T00:00:00-05:00

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