News releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1/15/03
CONTACT: Mary Carbine, (608) 262-6578, mccarbine@facstaff.wisc.edu

NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: To download high-resolution photographs for this story, please visit: http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/sidran.html

SIDRAN TO BE SPRING ARTIST IN RESIDENCE AT UW-MADISON

MADISON-Renowned Madison musician Ben Sidran will be the spring 2003 Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence. The residency will showcase Sidran's well-known talents as a musical artist and performer as well as his perhaps less well-known expertise as a scholar of jazz and Jewish music.

A UW-Madison alumnus and longtime Madison resident, Sidran has been a major force in the modern day history of jazz and rock & roll, and in the fields of music production, publishing, scoring for films, composition and historiography. He has played keyboards with or produced such artists as Steve Miller, Mose Allison, Diana Ross, Boz Scaggs, Phil Upchurch, Tony Williams, Jon Hendricks, Richie Cole and Van Morrison. Sidran composed the musical score for films such as the award-winning documentary "Hoop Dreams" (1994), and his own most recent CD, the Grammy-nominated "Concert for Garcia Lorca (Go Jazz, 2000)."

Perhaps less well-known is Sidran's legacy as a scholar who holds a doctorate from the University of Sussex and who is the author of several books, including "Black Talk: How The Music of Black America Created A Radical Alternative To The Values of Western Literary Tradition" (1970/80) and "Talking Jazz; An Illustrated Oral History" (1992). His latest book, "Ben Sidran: A Life in the Music" (a memoir) will be published in March by Cooper Square Press.

While at UW-Madison, Sidran will teach the course Jewish Popular Music in America: Berlin to Kravitz. The following public events also will be offered during his residency:

• Thursday, Jan. 30, 7 p.m. Sidran will speak on "Jewish Music and the American Dream," Mitchell Theatre, Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave. Free; seating on a first-come basis. Reception follows. Information: (608) 265-4763.

• Saturday, Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m. Henry Sapoznik Klezmer Trio, Music Hall, 925 Bascom Mall (Bascom Hill and Park Street). Discover the joy of traditional Jewish music. Led by award-winning author, radio and record producer and klezmer pioneer Henry Sapoznik (banjo/vocals), the trio features fiddler Marlene "Cookie" Segelstein and bassist/tubist Mark Rubin. Together, they create an intimate and powerfully creative environment where dynamics of traditional Yiddish instrumental music are explored and developed. Free; seating on a first-come basis. Made possible by the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies through the Conney Family Fund. Information: (608) 265-4763.

• Thursday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m. Orpheum Stage Door Theatre, 216 State St. Screening of the acclaimed documentary Hoop Dreams (1994, 170 min.), with introduction and post-film question-and-answer session with Sidran. This Oscar-nominated film won awards including National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle awards for Best Documentary and a Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. Free; seating on a first-come basis. Information: (608) 265-4763.

Prior to the screening, at 4 p.m., Sidran will give a talk to the university community on composing the original score for Hoop Dreams at a Communication Arts film colloquium, 4070 Vilas Hall.

• Saturday, April 12, 8 p.m., Ben Sidran and Friends: A Jazz Tribute to Jewish Popular Music in America, Wisconsin Union Theater, 800 Langdon St. Internationally renowned jazz pianist Sidran is joined by acclaimed musicians in a jazz celebration of Jewish music in America, from Tin Pan Alley and Irving Berlin to Bob Dylan and Steely Dan's Donald Fagen. Among his friends (and family) are Howard Levy, Gil Goldstein, Bob Malach, Lynette Margulies and Leo Sidran. Tickets: General public, $30; Union members, $29; UW-Madison students, $14.50. Information: (608) 262-2201 or visit www.wut.org.

Sidran's residency is sponsored by the School of Music and the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies through the Conney Family Fund, and co-sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts. For more information, contact the Center for Jewish Studies at (608) 265-4763 or visit Arts on Campus at www.arts.wisc.edu.
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