301. Sister Talk: Stephen Margulies (31:28)

Date:
1995/2000
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Stephen Margulies, curator of works on paper at the Bayly Art Museum, discusses the Sally Mann's photography exhibit and her life.

306. Interview with Fred Gray (1:21:52)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Footage of exteriors of houses (and William Elwood) until 8:55. Then civil rights attorney Fred Gray discusses Alabama lawyers, Arthur Shores, and becaming a lawyer in order to try civil rights cases. Gray had to go to law school outside of Alabama as African American schools in Alabama didn't offer what he wanted. He taught himself Alabama state law while in Ohio. Gray describes developing strategies for his civil rights cases. He also talks about the Montgomery bus boycott. Part two. Mr. Gray recalls his 1954 defense of an African American juvenile arrested on Montgomery bus (before the Rosa Parks arrest). Gray talked to Rosa the day before she was arrested and represented her in court. Mr. Gray remarks that Montgomery bus cases like Browder v. Gayle were the first major application of Brown's meaning. Gray describes the difficulty of registering African American voters because registrars would go missing, even after the courts ordered them to register African Americans. To avoid the impact of African American voters, Alabama redrew Tuskegee boundaries to include only white people. Mr. Gray explains Tuskegee gerrymandering and Gomillion v. Lightfoot. Part three. Mr. Gray goes over details of Gomillion v. Lightfoot, recalls how Tuskegee Institute was no longer within the city of Tuskegee because of the new boundaries. Mr. Gray discusses Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, a school discrimination case that managed to include all public schooling in Alabama. Gray explains how litigating the rights of students in order to end segregation also meant dealing with the rights of teachers. Although the Alabama African American teachers associations weren't part of the original suit, they joined the case. Part four. Mr. Gray acknowledges the Bicentennial of the Constitution in 1987, and he discusses how the Constitution was not written to include African Americans. It is the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and various civil rights acts that make the Constitution a living document for African Americans. Gray talks about the Tuskegee Civic Association and gives a lot of credit to local banker Allan Parker. Mr. Gray also covers rehearsing the Gomillion case and the immediate result of Gomillion.

307. Sister Talk: Elisabeth Ladenson (27:55)

Date:
1999-10
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Elisabeth Ladenson, professor of French and comparative literature at Columbia University, discusses her book Proust's Lesbianism that focuses on the metaphors and symbols in Marcel Proust's novels.

308. Interview with William T. Coleman (52:39)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Attorney and former Secretary of Transportation William Coleman reveals the story behind his clerkship appointment to Justice Frankfurter, what Frankfurter was like as a justice, and his experiences being a clerk at the Supreme Court. He discusses other justices, like Black, and their relationships with Frankfurter. Mr. Coleman declares it a tragedy that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments did not protect African Americans. He says that Charles Houston, William Hastie, and Thurgood Marshall were the ones who plotted civil rights cases' winning strategy. Part two. Mr. Coleman regrets that the Houston, Hastie, Marshall strategy was not being taught in law schools in the 1980s. He proposes it's because most people still don't see African Americans as being intelligent, well-educated strategists. Mr. Coleman describes dealing with racism throughout his life and in the '80s. He talks about South Africa, the Bob Jones University case, and the counsel fee case. Part three. Mr. Coleman discusses the importance of Brown v. Board of Education, how law reflects changes in society, and the Constitution and the right to privacy. He says the Constitution was always supposed to grow, and not stay static. At 8:25 still of photos in Coleman's office.

310. Sister Talk: Lisa Lindquist Dorr (27:17)

Date:
1998-06
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Lisa Lindquist Dorr, fellow at the Carter Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, discusses her project concerning black on white rape in Virginia from 1900 to 1960s.

311. Technosonics XX - Concert II Old Cabell Hall (1:15:04)

Date:
2020-02-22
Summary:
Concert II Saturday February 22, 2020 at 8:00 pm Old Cabell Hall featuring Olivia Block Zipper Music - Judith Shatin Cameron Church and Nelly Zevitz, zippers Max Tfirn, controller A Chinese Triptych - Juan Carlos Vasquez Sonic Physiography of a Time-Stretched Glacier - Matthew Burtner for percussion and computer, I-Jen Fang, percussion palimpsest | erasedGavotte (Himno de los durmientes II or Los Olvidados) -Omar Fraire Reverie - Leah Reid Locked In - Michele Zaccagnini I-Jen Fang, percussion October, 1984 - Olivia Block Concert II — Program Notes Zipper Music — Judith Shatin Zipper Music is scored for 2 amplified zipper players with interactive electronics performed by either 1 or 2 MIDI controllists, each operating a Max patch. Composer/technologist Max Tfirn created the Max patch in consultation with me, a process with a great deal of delightful experimentation. Zipper Music forms part of my Quotidian Music series, embracing the musicality afforded by everyday objects, and creating accessible opportunities for performers who do not have traditional musical training. The zipper score consists of icons on a time-line grid, with specific symbols for one to four pulls, as well as a variety of symbol groupings and movement indications. There are also theatrical directions for the players as they interact with one another. The controllist(s) score consists of a line on a time-grid, whose thickness LMH (low, medium or high) indicates levels of processing, with additional shapes designed to suggest degree of sharpness and suddenness of knob and slider change. A flat line indicates amplification without further processing. The piece is performable using a wide variety of controllers. Ideally, they should include multiple knobs for each of 4 – 7 sliders plus a master gain slider. However, it can easily be performed with fewer. A Chinese Triptych — Juan Carlos Vasquez A Chinese Triptych was composed with recordings from an extensive sound documentary made by the composer in the Chinese cities of Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai, Wuxi, Harbin, and Beijing. The piece overlaps sonic events from the rural, the industrial, and the digital China in a single flowing musical discourse, attempting to represent the full range of highly contrasting ways of living in China. The piece lasts exactly 6 minutes, a number that is given in China the connotation of events “flowing smoothly.” The form and proportion of the parts are inspired by the triptych, an art format comprised of three thematically-interrelated parts in which the middle panel is usually the largest. Sonic Physiography of a Time-Stretched Glacier — Matthew Burtner Sonic Physiography of a Time-Stretched Glacier (2014) was commissioned by Brandon Bell with support from the Presser Music Award. The music was created from a recording of Alaska’s Root Glacier. The unique and visceral presence of glaciers is disappearing across the planet because we live in a time of ice melting. Sonic Physiography of a Time-Stretched Glacier tries to stop the glacial melt through signal processing by freezing time, suspending the listener between droplets and a single droplet of melting ice. palimpsest | erased Gavotte (Himno de los durmientes II or Los Olvidados) — Omar Fraire As an exercise in the act of destruction as a creative input, I took Bach’s Gavotte en Rondo from the English Suite II and tried to play it as fast as possible, depressing the keys but trying not to hit the strings. This piece was the first one I learned on the piano; the exercise allowed me to realize how our compositional narratives read the tradition. The notion of removing what is supposed to be music, reveals a kind of unwanted sound activity that belongs more to the encounter of my body with the sound object. And of course, some notes appear but more like accidents. Reverie — Leah Reid Reverie is an acousmatic composition that leads the listener through an immersive fantasy centered around deconstructed music boxes. The work is comprised of eight sections that alternate between explorations of the music boxes’ gears and chimes. In the work, the music boxes’ sounds are pulled apart, exaggerated, expanded, and combined with other sounds whose timbres and textures are reminiscent of the original. As the piece unfolds, the timbres increase in spectral and textural density, and the associations become more and more fantastical. Gears are transformed into zippers, coins, chainsaws, motorcycles, and fireworks, and the chimes morph into rainstorms, all sizes of bells, pianos, and more. Locked In — Michele Zaccagnini This piece is written around the idea of rhythms oscillating around regular and irregular pulses. In particular, the different parts are generated by applying the idea of "non-linear sequencing," i.e., distorting the playback of a regular pattern by applying a non-linear time-line. There is no large structure in this piece, rather it is a collection of Etudes. October, 1984 — Olivia Block October, 1984 is a composition for found microcassette tape, electronically processed breath, organelle, field recordings, piano, and descending tones. Each emerging sound follows the envelope of the preceding sound, conveying a circular progression of aural cause and effect. In the logic of this sound world, breath causes a flood of water, piano causes descending tones. These processes accumulate over time into a roiling, unwieldily storm. Many of the lowest sounds are experienced in the body as vibrations. Through the course of sonic events, October, 1984 emphasizes themes related to time, loss, and memory.

314. Clarendon County, S.C., Locations (56:46)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Journalist John Norton describes the education situation in Clarendon County, South Carolina. At 7:18, footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including rural roads, Liberty Hill Church, cotton gin. Part two. Footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including cotton picking. Part three. Footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including cotton picking, cemetery and church, sunset.

316. Oral History Interview with Neil McBride (1:02:00)

Date:
2020-06-09
Main contributors:
McBride, Neil
Summary:
Oral history interview with Neil McBride, class of 1970, over Zoom in Charlottesville, VA, and Knoxville, TN. McBride discusses the UVA student strike in May 1970 over the Vietnam War, and his participation as a legal marshal.

317. (Un)healthy Appalachia? (1:00:47)

Date:
2015-09-23
Main contributors:
University of Virginia. School of Medicine
Summary:
Southern Appalachia often provides a folksy backstory to our national mythology—a tale of coal miners, moonshining, bluegrass, and ballads. But Appalachia is a real place that figures fundamentally in this country's heritage and destiny. Its rugged mountains are rich in natural resources while its remote communities are home to some of the nation's most fiercely proud people and most persistent poverty. This region has endowed American culture—and the University of Virginia—with a wealth of gifts and innovations but itself faces staggering difficulties. Embracing Appalachia is challenging, especially now, as the coal industry disappears and crises of poor health, environmental degradation, and poverty deepen. This Medical Center Hour with West Virginia coalfields native David Gordon probes our particular connections to Appalachia and how the enduring tragedy of this place is a “canary in the coalmine” for the rest of our nation. Is "healthy Appalachia" possible? What will it take? What must we do? Co-presented with the Center for Global Health, Institute for the Humanities and Global Cultures (Global South Initiative), Department of Public Health Sciences, and Healthy Appalachia Institute

318. A playwright takes on medical malpractice and forgiveness (1:01:59)

Date:
2013-01-30
Main contributors:
University of Virginia. School of Medicine
Summary:
Deborah Salem Smith's acclaimed play Love alone is the story of what happens after a routine medical procedure goes tragically wrong. A medical malpractice lawsuit ensues, and the lives of both the patient's family and the doctor charged with her care are transformed. The play tracks the fallout in both homes. It is a portrait of how each family grieves and heals. These questions were central in the construction of the plot: Is forgiveness a single act or a daily act? Is it unconditional? Who has the right to forgive? Does forgiveness require remorse or an apology by the offender? Do lawsuits empower victims and thus aid the grieving process, or do they disrupt grieving? Does proving negligence make a victim more prepared to forgive? What does a lawsuit mean for the doctor sued, and for his or her personal journey of recovering from the unexpected death of a patient? George Bernard Shaw famously quipped, "We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession." What are the implications and burdens of such faith? This Medical Center Hour explores Love Alone with the playwright and local actors but also with a physician who has written on doctors' efforts to deal with their own mistakes. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture

319. Oral History Interview with Robert Olson (45:17)

Date:
2020-02-05
Main contributors:
Olson, Robert
Summary:
Oral history interview with Robert W. “Bob” Olson, class of 1970. Olson discusses the events surrounding the UVA student strike in May 1970 against the Vietnam War, and his participation in the events as a legal marshal.

320. Oral History Interview with Gerald MacFarlane (1:23:35)

Date:
2020-02-21
Main contributors:
MacFarlane, Gerald
Summary:
Oral history interview with Gerald J. MacFarlane, class of 1970, at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. MacFarlane discusses events surrounding the UVA student strike in May 1970 against the Vietnam War, and his participation as a legal marshal.

321. Oral History Interview with Daniel Sullivan (1:00:31)

Date:
2020-02-19
Main contributors:
Sullivan, Daniel
Summary:
Oral history interview with Dan Sullivan, class of 1970. Sullivan discusses the events surrounding the UVA student strike in May 1970 against the Vietnam War, and his participation in the events as a legal marshal.

322. Oral History Interview with Paul Taddune (34:07)

Date:
2020-02-05
Main contributors:
Taddune, Paul
Summary:
Oral history interview with Paul Taddune, class of 1971, in his law office in Aspen, Colorado. Taddune discussed his time attending UVA Law School and the impact of the Vietnam War on students.

323. Oral History Interview with Robert Schwartz (1:04:00)

Date:
2024-06-21
Main contributors:
Schwartz, Robert
Summary:
Oral history interview with Robert “Bob” (Elmo) Schwartz, class of 1980, in-person, on June 21, 2024. Schwartz discussed his experiences as an openly gay student at UVA Law prior to the founding of Lambda Law Alliance; his work as treasurer of the undergraduate school’s Gay Student Union; and his memories playing for the North Grounds Softball League.

324. Oral History Interview with Michael Graetz (1:08:00)

Date:
2025-03-27
Main contributors:
Graetz, Michael
Summary:
Oral interview of Michael Graetz, class of 1969, alum and former professor at UVA Law. Graetz discusses his time as a student and professor at the Law School.

325. Technosonics XX - Concert I at The Bridge PAI (1:18:27)

Date:
2020-02-21
Main contributors:
McIntire Department of Music
Summary:
Concert I Friday, February 21, 2020 at 8:00 pm The Bridge PAI featuring Ryoko Akama David Tudor’s Rainforest IV Sound Art Students Violinguistics Three Blind MICE Dark Parts Becky Brown Remembering with Objects Heather Frasch & Ted Coffey Deep Map #1 Michele Zaccagnini Interruptions in an Endless Expanse Max Tfirn (shimatsu) Ryoko Akama Rainforest IV — Sound Art Students Installation by David Tudor 1973 Realized by students of Sound Art in Practice Rainforest IV by David Tudor runs found sounds through found objects. By sending sounds through materials, the resonant nodes of the materials are released, creating a new kind of sound that blends the sounds and objects together. According to Tudor, the concept for the piece grew out of a “dream-vision of an orchestra of loudspeakers, each speaker being as unique as any musical instrument.” The students designed or chose their own objects, decided on which sounds and came to a consensus about placement. Participants are encourage to move around the installation and explore the sounds close up. They can carefully touch the objects to feel the vibrations as well as listen more closely. Violinguistics — Three Blind Mice Violinguistics: Electro-acoustic phonetic reduplication through violin morphologies of formant-shifting nonconcatenative morphemes Dark Parts — Becky Brown A liminal space is a liminal space is a lmnial spa ce i paace A limin s pa li mna space is space is space is a liimin lnaa spi liminal liminal spsp ANimal speci le scepim nillima ellaminis cesna alimin aces laces animal special alleminiam asp case is a kn i. A kn i. A kn i. A liminal spa is ce f. A kni. f. F. F> Remembering with Objects — Ted Coffey & Heather Frasch Duo Coffey and Frasch will realize this text score by Frasch which maps personal connections among memory, places, and self — and the objects that remind us of those things. Deep Map #1 — Michele Zaccagnini The piece is a recent development of a practice I am developing that I named “deep mapping”: deep mapping is an approach that allows the composer to store and render musical data into visuals by “catching” the data at its source, at a compositional stage. The advantages of this approach are: accuracy and discreteness in the representation of musical features; computational efficiency; and, more abstractly, the stimulation of a practice of audiovisual composition that encourages composers to envision their multimedia output from the early stages of their work. In particular, this piece explores ways of rendering synchronicity between same or similar patterns so that when synchronization actually happens, one can experience it not only aurally but visually. Interruptions in an Endless Expanse — Max Tfirn Interruptions in an Endless Expanse is a composition for interactive electronics, including various drone synths, guitar pedals, sequencers, and live coding. The composition takes shape through a series of long, drone sounds that slowly morph into one another. As the piece progresses, new sounds are introduced that break away from what was previously heard culminating in sonic disorder. Interruptions in an Endless Expanse takes its name from the idea of a made-up scenery being endless to the eye. Looking in any direction gives the viewer the same sight. While the environment changes, the endless expanse seems to go unchanged. It is only when the observer takes a deeper look around that the details start to change and the surroundings take a helter-skelter, eldritch turn. (shimatsu) — Ryoko Akama i.e. beginning + ending management dealing settlement cleaning up getting rid of (usually bad) end result This is the fifth of her solo performance series, shimatsu, with contraptions made out of found objects and simple electronic devices, creating a subtle, sometimes violently silent, listening situation.

326. Sister Talk: Karen Holt (28:24)

Date:
1999-01
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Karen Holt, director of the Equal Opportunity Office at the University of Virginia, discusses Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education focusing on peer-to-peer sexual harassment.

327. Interview with George R. Ferguson (20:15)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Mr. Rader recalls his support of public schooling in Virginia during Massive Resistance in order to sustain economic development within the commonwealth. At 5:30, interview with George R. Ferguson begins. Mr. Ferguson recounts the lawsuit brought by the Charlottesville NAACP to desegregate schools immediately following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Court proceedings continued into 1958, when the judge assigned several black children to attend otherwise white schools in Charlottesville. The commonwealth then closed schools in Charlottesville under the policy of Massive Resistance. Mr. Ferguson describes how the Boatwright committee of the Virginia General Assembly harassed Charlottesville NAACP members.

333. Interview with Modjeska Simkins (1:22:07)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Civil rights activist Modjeska Simkins discusses her childhood in South Carolina and the influence of her grandmother, who was a slave. She tells vivid stories of her family's ordeals with slavery and post-Civil War freedom and discrimination. Part two. Ms. Simkins shares stories about her family's experience with racial discrimination. She talks about people using the Bible to support their prejudices and why she quit the church. She explains the power structure among rich white people, poor white people, and African Americans. She recalls when NAACP lawyers like Thurgood Marshall would come down to South Carolina to try a case and stay in her house because they couldn't stay in any hotels. She tells how African American schools didn't have buses or fuel for heat. Part three. Ms. Simkins talks about her education. She recalls encounters with the Ku Klux Klan and her fearless attitude toward the Klan. She returns to a discussion of the power structure in the South, both when she was a child and in 1985. She expresses her opinion of Robert Bork. Part four. Ms. Simkins talks about her work with the NAACP. She talks about the salary case, transportation case, and the vote case in South Carolina. Her home was the center of South Carolina civil rights legislation in a way because out-of-town African Americans could only stay in private homes. The militia was called out in South Carolina; she remembers cannons on Statehouse grounds. She chats about Judge J. Waites Waring and Thurgood Marshall.

340. Interview with John Lewis (1:29:37)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Morgan, Charles, 1930-2009, Kulish, Mykola
Summary:
Part one. Attorney Charles Morgan and US Congressman John Lewis discuss many topics, including: Alabama legally disenfranchising African Americans with voting registration requirements like the poll tax and literacy tests; Reynolds v. Sims, the one-man, one-vote case; Bull Connor; Lewis being jailed because he was with an interracial group using public transportation; Lewis being beaten in Montgomery; Freedom Rides; the voter registration drive; Brown v. Board of Education; the importance of the Christian Church, the one place where African Americans could have control; Lewis meeting Dr. King and Rev. Abernathy. Part two. Morgan and Lewis continue their conversation, agreeing that in spite of symbols like the Confederate Flag flying over the Alabama Capitol, things are better because African Americans are allowed into positions of power. They discuss the racism deeply embedded in American society, as well as the most important aspect of the civil rights movement, its law-based nonviolence. Lewis recalls his involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the difficulties he had meeting with white activists like Morgan because it was against the law. Part three. Morgan and Lewis describe the 1960s civil rights movement as a family, especially on the inside, and its informal, organic progress. They say that historians ignore Charles Hamilton Houston because they are ignorant of much of history. They review Sweatt v. Painter. Part four. Morgan and Lewis remark upon Charles Houston and suggest that integration is still, in the 1980s, in the embryonic stage. Lewis reminisces about the Sears and Roebuck catalog being his wish book as a child; he wanted to buy incubator to have chickens because he used to preach to the family's chickens. The two men talk about the Voter Education Project and the vote as a tool of liberation. They say that voter registration really did work because white politicians started speaking to African Americans and, at low levels of government, African Americans were starting to get elected. Part five. The relationship between Lewis and Morgan is discussed. Footage of Lewis walking to Capitol building to cast vote, then exiting the Capitol building after vote. Footage of Congressional office building.h

341. Interview with Louis L. Redding (1:47:06)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Higginbotham, A. Leon (Aloyisus Leon), 1928-1998
Summary:
Part one. Civil rights attorney Louis Redding recalls his family, childhood, and going to Brown University. Part two. Mr. Redding tells his family’s history at Brown. After Harvard Law School, he returned to still segregated Delaware to practice law. Immediately, he tried to abolish separation based on race in courtrooms. He discussed the Parker case, its background, African American admission to University of Delaware, and Judge Collins Seitz. Part three. Redding says that he would not have filed the Parker case if he didn't know that Judge Collins Seitz would get the case. In Gebhart v. Belton, the public school case, Redding used testimony from psychology and sociology experts about how separate but equal was inherently detrimental to African American children. He also comments on Jack Greenberg, Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, and the day the Brown v. Board of Education decision was announced. Part four. The day the Brown decision became public, Redding heard the news on the radio while driving and crashed into the car in front of him. Mr. Redding discusses the Burton case, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, William Hastie, William Robert Ming. He also tells how John W. Davis, the lawyer defending separate but equal, wept during arguments in front of the Supreme Court in the Brown case. Part five. Charles Hamilton Houston. Advice to young lawyers. At 9:00 until end, still photos.

342. Sister Talk: Gweneth West (27:51)

Date:
1998-11
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Gweneth West, associate professor in the drama department at the University of Virginia, discusses the practice of Costume Design and its connection to historical and cultural contexts.

343. Sister Talk: Holly Hoffman (29:34)

Date:
1997-05
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Holly Hofman, owner of Living Yoga Charlottesville, discusses her journey to yoga and the reasons behind her practice.

344. Interview with Herbert O. Reid (1:06:44)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A
Summary:
Part one. Civil rights attorney Herbert Reid recalls his childhood in Wilson, North Carolina, and his family. He remembers hearing Charles Houston speak at his high school. His parents were involved in the formation of an NAACP chapter in Wilson, and Walter White stayed at his house when he was a little boy. He mentions Roscoe Pound's influence on Houston, but he asserts that Houston formed his own ideas of the function of the law and the social order. At Howard Law School, students and faculty called these ideas the Houstonian school of jurisprudence. Part two. Mr. Reid arrived at Howard Law School in 1947, when the whole school was immersed in preparing civil rights cases. He says that the early planning and pleadings in the Brown v. Board of Education cases involved work by both students and faculty. Mr. Reid worked on Bolling v. Sharpe with James Nabrit. He also worked on covenant cases. Mr. Reid discusses his work on Hobson v. Hansen concerning equal facilities and disparate treatment in 1967. He also mentions Powell v. McCormack. Part three. Mr. Reid talks about his student Governor Douglas Wilder and his client Mayor Marion Barry. He talks about his involvement with the Consolidated Parents Group in DC. Mr. Reid believes that enforcing equal rights helps our democracy become accepted overseas. He also states that the effects of deprivation during the separate but equal era continue to plague the African American community.

346. Sister Talk: Martha Nussbaum (30:01)

Date:
1995/2000
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Martha Craven Nussbaum discusses her book "Love's Knowledge" and her work as an expert witness on Colorado's Amendment 2 dealing with sexual orientation and state laws.

347. Splinter Reeds - A concert of new works by graduate students in Composition & Computer Technologies (1:04:40)

Date:
2019-02-01
Summary:
Program 5_aerify arid conduits | InlandOutlines - Omar Fraire Triac - Ben Luca Robertson Musings - Aaron Stepp Convection - Juan Carlos Vasquez Centrifuge - Alex Christie in the event of my - Becky Brown Night Music - Christopher Luna-Mega About the Ensemble Splinter Reeds is the West Coast’s first reed quintet, comprising five innovative musicians with a shared passion for new mu- sic. The ensemble is committed to presenting top tier performances of today’s best contemporary composition, showcasing the vast possibilities of the reed quintet, commissioning new works, and collaborating with fellow musicians and artists. As a relatively new chamber music genre, the reed quintet is an evolutionary detour from the traditional woodwind quintet with the advantages of a more closely related instrument family. With approximately 20 professional reed quintets worldwide, Splinter Reeds is explicitly dedicated to cutting edge com- position and expanding the existing reed quintet repertoire through the development of new works by emerging and established composers. Splinter Reeds formed in 2013 with the coming together of five col- leagues highly active in multiple facets of the Bay Area’s vibrant music scene: Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Bill Kalinkos (clarinet), David Wegehaupt (saxophone), Jeff Anderle (bass clarinet), and Dana Jessen (bassoon). The sum of their wide ranges of experience – in settings including free jazz, improvisation, electronic music, pop, punk and metal as well as classical – has enabled them to rapidly zero in on a distinct aesthetic identity. Recent concert engagements have included performances at Chicago’s Constellation, the Mondavi Performing Arts Center, Berkeley Art Museum, Switchboard Music Festival, FeNAM (Sacramento), April in San- ta Cruz Festival of Contemporary Music, Center for New Music (San Francisco), and the Presidio Sessions series. Additionally, they have held residencies at Stanford, Chapman, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, UC- Davis and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The ensemble has received grant awards from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, the Zellerbach Fam- ily Foundation, and the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. Splinter Reeds is fiscally sponsored through the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. www.splinterreeds.com Program Notes 5_aerify arid conduits | InlandOutlines – Omar Fraire “ It is truly no feat to blow a tube, and therefore no one would think to gather an audience for the purpose of entertaining them with tube blowing. But if he should do so, and if he should succeed in his aim, then it cannot be a matter of mere tube blowing. Or alternatively, it is a matter of tube blow- ing, but as it turns out we have overlooked the art of tube blowing because we were so proficient at it that it is this new tube blower who is the first to demonstrate what it actually entails, whereby it could be even more effective if he were less expert in tube blowing than the majority of us. “ FDC oegf. Human as an artist, inventor, magician, curator, teacher, performer. After having deserted from two universities in México, he specializes in Sonology (Koninklijk Conservatorium - Holland) and holds a Master’s de- gree in Contemporary Art as auditor (Aguascalientes). His work is inserted into reality by transducing it and functions as an act of resistance. Enjoys collaborative work and his energies oscillate across fields of knowledges/arts. Creator of Punto Ciego Festival and artist of the Gug- genheim Aguascalientes, mostly self-taught although he holds an M.A. with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan and studies Ph.D. at UVA. Triac – Ben Luca Robertson “Triac” investigates self-regulating sonorities and the intersection between tuning and timbre. Through a recursive process of real-time analysis, re- synthesis, and intuitive mapping, the combinatory spectral attributes of the wind quintet and accompanying electronics guide both the tuning and temporal structure of the piece. Applying a mathematical model developed by Pantelis Vassilakis, the composer defines cumulative roughness between harmonic partials—an important feature in how we perceive consonance/ dissonance—as a deterministic function for designing a microtonal tuning system that is sympathetic to the most indelible qualities of each instrument. Guided by software programmed by the composer, the ensemble manipulates the intensity of individual partials, thereby minimizing or maximizing the listener’s perception of roughness as the piece unfolds. Akin to a “spectral thermostat,” this self-regulating system continually analyzes current conditions (e.g. cumulative spectral roughness), defines new roughness thresholds, calculates what conditions must change to match these thresholds, and directs performers to adjust pitch and dynamics accordingly. Ben Luca Robertson is a composer, experimental luthier, and co-founder of the independent record label, Aphonia Recordings. His work addresses an interest in autonomous processes, landscape, and biological systems— often supplanting narrative structure with an emphasis on the physicality of sound, spectral tuning systems, and microtonality. Growing up in the inland Pacific Northwest, impressions of Ponderosa pine trees, channel scablands, basalt outcroppings, and relics of boomtown decay continue to haunt his work. Ben holds an M.A. in Music Composition from Eastern Washington University, a B.A. from the Evergreen State College, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia. In the Summer of 2015, he was appointed to a guest research position at the Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interactions (TAUCHI) in Finland and recently collaborated with biolo- gists from the University of Idaho to sonify migratory patterns of Chi- nook Salmon. Ben’s work has been featured at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), Sound & Music Computing (SMC) Conference (Ireland), New York Re-embodied Sound Symposium, Third Practice, Magma, and Olympia Experimental Music Festival. Musings – Aaron Stepp “Musings” is an exploration of a piece of music that I love deeply, the Bach’s WTC, Book I, C Major prelude. It is an elegant, clean, and beautiful piece of music that I have a deep connection with. Witold Lutosławski describes listening to music as a composer being “schizophrenic,” listen- ing to and exploring the piece at the same time. I try to bring you along for that journey in my head (through the lovely performers on stage), and compose using the materials of the Bach. Think of the piece as a theme and variations, except the theme is a piece, and the variations occur as the piece unfolds. Aaron Stepp is a composer from Kentucky. He has completed commissions for TrioArsenal, Orchestra Enigmatic, Merrilee Elliott, KMEA 7th District Honors Band, Eva Legene, the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, Second/Cycle, and Duo Passionato. He has received performances at SEAMUS, the KMEA Conference, and in Berlin, New York City, Chicago, Riverside, Washington D.C., Quito, and at various universities across the country. He recently finished a significant song cycle for Soprano and Flute named Stone Walls, based on the poetry of Charlottes- ville native Rebecca Morgan Frank. Upcoming projects include a collaboration with poet Annie Kim, a piece for American Trombone Quartet, a documentary score about women in India, and another collaboration with Rebecca Morgan Frank. Convection - Juan Carlos Vasquez “Convection” is a piece for ensemble and electronics that features a transference of spectral energy from one state of white noise into a final state featuring a single sustained pitch, in a way that resembles bulk displace- ment of sonic elements. This composition was written specially for the Splinter Reeds ensemble. Juan Carlos Vasquez is an award-winning composer, sound artist, and researcher from Colombia. His electroacoustic music works are per- formed constantly around the world and have been premiered in 28 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Vasquez has received creation grants and/or commissions by numerous institutions, including the Nokia Research Center, the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, AVEK (Promotion Center for Audiovisual Culture in Finland), the Finnish National Gallery, the University of Virginia, the Sibelius Birth Town Foundation, Aalto University, the Arts Promotion Centre in Finland and the CW+ in partnership with the Royal College of Music in London, UK, among others. Vasquez received his education at the Sibel- ius Academy (FI), Aalto University (FI), the University of Virginia (USA), and has taken courses with Andy Farnell, Miller Puckette, Marco Stroppa, Steven Stucky and Jonty Harrison, among others. As a researcher, Vasquez’ writings can be found at the Computer Music Journal and the proceedings of conferences such as the International Computer Music Conference, the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the International Sound and Music Computing Conference, and the International Conference on New Inter- faces for Musical Expression. Official website: www.jcvasquez.com Centrifuge – Alex Christie “Centrifuge” is about mass and gravity. The instruments exert force and pull on each other. Some exert more force than others, continually pulling the rest of the ensemble back to a center. This gravity creates an internal motion within the ensemble that in turn produces the slow, heavy motion of the full group. We simultaneously feel the weight of stasis and force of motion. Alex Christie makes acoustic music, electronic music, and intermedia art in many forms. His work has been called “vibrant”, “interesting, I guess”, and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day”. He has collaborated with artists in a variety of fields and is particularly interested in the design of power structures, systems of interference, absurdist bureaucracy, and indeterminacy in composition. He is currently based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Recently, Alex’s work has explored the ecology of performance in intermedia art and interactive electronic music. Through real-time audio processing, instrument building, light, video, and theater, Alex expands performance environments to offer multiple lenses through which the audience can experience the work. Alex has performed and presented at a variety of conferences and festivals whose acronyms combine to spell nicedinsaucesfeemmmmmogscabsplot. Alex serves as faculty, Director of Electronic Music, Director of Composers Forums, and Academic Dean at the Walden School of Music Young Musicians Program. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and Mills College and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia. Other interests include baseball and geometric shapes. in the event of my – Becky Brown When I was in high school, there was a block near me that had a Chinese restaurant, a big craft store, and a shoddy movie theater. When the Chinese place shut down, I realized none of the kids in the area after us would share the memory of trying to bring too many people to sit at one table, ordering the wrong thing off the menu, and then stressing about getting to a movie on time. That’s when I realized what aging felt like. The craft store and the movie theater shut down not long after. Becky Brown is a composer, harpist, artist, and web designer, interested in producing intensely personal works across the multimedia spectrum. She focuses on narrative, emotional exposure, and catharsis, with a vested interest in using technology and the voice to deeply connect with an audience, wherever they are. Depending on who you talk to, her music is “honest, direct and communicative,” “personal and raw,” or “took me to a place I didn’t want to go.” Brown has been the Technical Director of the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, and Assistant Technical Director for Third Practice and SPLICE Institute. Her music has been performed at SEAMUS, SCI National/Regional, Third Practice New Music Festival, Ball State New Music Festival, and in Beijing, China. Hold Still, her work for live art and electronics, was released on the New Focus Recordings label in 2017. Night Music – Christopher Luna-Mega All the musical materials performed by Splinter Reeds are derived from direct transcriptions and arrangements of recordings of the summer dusk and night sounds of insects and other creatures in a Virginia forest. Every movement in the piece is a fragment taken from the 40-minute original recording. The striking increase in density and loudness as dusk becomes night is the guiding formal principle of the piece. The recordings, featured in the electronics, were made with five simultaneous microphones in a pentagonal formation, at a distance of ~30 meters between each mic. Each of the five microphone analyses and transcriptions was assigned to an instrument (mic 1 to ob.; mic 2 to cl., etc.), rotating the pairings in each movement. The multi-channel recording sought an expanded listen- ing field resulting from the different microphone responses and placings. Among the various features of the night sounds, one particularly caught my ears: constantly microtonally morphing triads and their aggregates resulting from the superimposition of the multitude of crickets. Christopher Luna-Mega is a composer and improviser from Mexico City. He studied Composition at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México –UNAM (B.M.) and Mills College (M.A.), as well as Film/Com- munication Theory at the Universidad Iberoamericana –UIA, Mexico City (B.A.). His work analyzes sounds from natural and urban environments and translates them into notated music for performers and electronics. His music has been performed by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra, New Thread Quartet, Arditti String Quartet and JACK Quartet, among others. His music has been featured in festivals such as the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Seoul International Computer Music Festival (Gwanju), AgelicA (Bologna), Tectonics (Reykjavik), Tectonics (Glasgow), L’Off (Montreal), Avant X (Toronto), Mills Music Now (Oakland, CA), and the International Forum for New Music “Manuel Enriquez” (Mexico City). Luna-Mega is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia.

348. Interview with Stephen Wright (1:55:15)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A, Norton, James A. (James Adolphus)
Summary:
Part one. Dr. Stephen Wright, former president of Fisk University and prominent educator, is presented by James "Dolph" Norton for the Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. Dr. Wright delivers remarks concerning historically African American colleges and universities. He covers the emergence and growth of these schools. Part two. Dr. Wright says that the development of African American colleges in America has been influenced by seven events: publication of two Department of the Interior studies, "Negro Education" by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones in 1917 and "Survey of Negro Colleges and Universities" by Arthur Klein in 1928; accrediting African American institutions in the South in 1930, which enabled African American collegians to enter graduate school programs; the US Supreme Court's Gaines decision of 1938; the Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954; the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and the Adams v. Richardson case filed in 1970. Part three. Dr. Wright talks about public policy, student enrollment trends, and educational needs. He relates stories of African American educators' struggles for equal salaries in the 1930s in the South. The African American teachers made 50% of what white teachers did, with the same teaching certificate. Part four. Dr. Wright explains the effects of desegregation, especially concerning its impact on the fulfillment of the educational needs of African American students at traditionally African American schools. He addresses the special case of Berea College, which was integrated before Plessy v. Ferguson, and therefore had to be segregated after that court decision. It was reintegrated immediately after the Brown v. Board of Education decision. He talks about the influence of Myles Horton. Dr. Wright also discusses student financial aid programs and Rosenwald schools. Part five. Dr. Wright describes being an expert witness in desegregation cases in the South, especially Bulah v. Gebhart in Delaware, one of the cases combined to become Brown v. Board of Education. He evaluated the schools involved in the case and documented their differences. He also assisted NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyers during cross examinations, as in the Durham, N.C., city schools case. At 12:45, footage of different camera angles of Dr. Wright with no sound. At 15:33, interview resumes with discussion of higher education. Part six. Dr. Wright advocates for strong general education curricula, especially at the college level. He also describes the functions of boards of education, student assessments, and testing.

349. Sister Talk: Ellen Contini Morava (31:25)

Date:
1995/2000
Main contributors:
WTJU (Radio station : Charlottesville, Va.)
Summary:
Ellen Contini Morava, program chair of linguistics and professor of anthropology at the University of Virginia, discusses the different feminist moral stands on the Clinton White House's controversy.

350. Seminar on South Africa with Jack Greenberg (1:03:57)

Date:
2006
Main contributors:
Elwood, William A
Summary:
Part one. Law professor Jack Greenberg's class discusses executive governmental determination of states of emergencies, such as in South Africa during Apartheid and in the United States during Japanese-American internment in World War II. In 1987 states of emergency are called regularly in South Africa to detain people without reason in the name of public safety, to maintain the status quo, and to suppress the majority. Part two. What happens to democracy when the government alone has the power to declare a state of emergency? The class discusses the use of states of emergency as a way to suppress people and deny rights, preventative detention as an abuse of human rights, and using the courts in South Africa to fight the injustices of the states of emergency. Part three. How much does a democratically elected government insure adherence to human rights? The class also talks about the rights of the white minority in a future democratic South Africa. Part four. Examples of transitions to democracy.