Contemporary American Music Concert at ASU Feb. 28

A concert of contemporary American music, featuring ASU Herberger College School of Music faculty and students, will be held in conjunction with the 29th annual national conference of the Society of American Music (SAM).

The concert, which is free and open to the public, is (Friday) Feb. 28 at 8:00 p.m. in the School of Music’s Katzin Concert Hall. Three School of Music faculty members: pianists Baruch Meir and Madeline Williamson, and saxophonist Joseph Wytko will be featured, along with the LINKS percussion ensemble of New Mexico. Program selections include music by John Cage and New Mexico composer Ruth Lomon. The School of Music is located on the main ASU campus in Tempe at 40 East Gammage Parkway.

During the conference, influential folk musician and founder of the New Lost City Ramblers, Mike Seeger, will join the ranks of Leonard Slatkin, Oscar Peterson, Loretta Lynn and others March 1 when he becomes the 2003 Honorary Member SAM. Seeger has served on the Newport Folk Foundation board of directors (1964–1970) and has received several NEA grants for performance, a Smithsonian Institution Visiting Scholar Research Fellowship (1983) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1984). His latest recording on the Rounder label is the Grammy-nominated Third Annual Farewell Reunion, which features Bob Dylan, Maria Muldaur, David Grisman, Ralph Stanley, and Mike’s siblings, Peggy and Pete Seeger. 

On Saturday March 1, at 9:00 a.m., a workshop featuring Voices Across Time, a classroom resource guide that enhances secondary school curricula with recordings of historic American music, will take place. Geared to students in grades 8 through 12, the project addresses topics such as United/Divided (diversity and politics), War and Peace, Work, Home, Moving Along, Faith and Ideals. Voices Across Time is a project of the Stephen Foster Memorial at the University of Pittsburgh. Contact Mariana Whitmer, SAM@american-music.org or 412-624-3031, to reserve a seat. Admission is free.

In various locations nationwide, the Society for American Music annually gathers over 300 musical professionals for several days of scholarly and performance-oriented presentations ranging from classical to pop, historical to current, North and Central America to the Caribbean. The full conference program, with full- and one-day registration information, is available at 
http://www.american-music.org. Local contact for SAM is Karen Bryan, 480-727-7189, Karen.Bryan@asu.edu

Media Contact:
Mary Brennan
480-965-3587
mary.brennan@asu.edu