Media Contact: Priscilla Hunter 312-344-7805 or Micki Leventhal 312-344-7383
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2006
CHICAGO, IL - The music produced by the peoples of African descent encompasses an enormous range of genres and styles. The music has influenced - and has been influenced by - countless cultures and has served as a major vehicle for creative and cultural expression in the African Diaspora. The upcoming concert by the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble (New BMRE) will celebrate a vast selection of these traditions including African gourds and the roots of black banjo and fiddle traditions, classic gospel, jazz and the world premiere of three new works for chamber orchestra.
The New BMRE, the performance organization of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago, will present this special evening concert celebrating the black musical experience at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15 at The Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park, Chicago. Tickets are $15-$40 and are available online at www.harristheaterchicago.org or at 312-334-7777. (Group sales: 877-447-7849.)
Program includes:
•Vocal performances by Maggie Brown of blues, gospel, Negro spiritual and jazz and by the Boyer Brothers (Horace and James) of classic gospel.
•A special demonstration on the development of the banjo from African gourd instruments and the subsequent development of the blues song. Featuring Cheik Hamala Diabate (ngoni), James Leva (banjo and fiddle), Mike Seeger and Joe Thompson (perhaps the only surviving practitioner of the black short-bow fiddle tradition).
•Music of New Orleans, including Edmond Dede (a "Creole of color" who expatriated to France in the 19th century), and 1920s blues and jazz as performed by Sippy Wallace and Louis Armstrong.
The New BMRE concert is the public event of the 2006 Conference on Black Music Research which is presented jointly with the 32nd Annual Conference of the Society for American Music. Developed and hosted by the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at Columbia College Chicago, the Conference on Black Music Research will welcome scores of musicians and ethnomusicologists to the city to explore such scholarly topics as Black Women's Activism through Music, Black Music in Italy, Diasporal Connections in Black Music of the Americas, John Coltrane and Black America's Quest for Freedom and Researching and Teaching Black Music. For more information on the conference visit www.cbmr.org.
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The New BMRE concert is supported in part with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art, The Chicago Community Trust and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. American Airlines is the official carrier of the CBMR.
The public is also invited to visit "Gifts of New Orleans Music and Culture," an exhibition mounted by the CBMR as a component of Columbia's African-American Heritage Celebration 2006. The exhibition runs through February 17 in the Glass Curtain Gallery, 1104 S. Wabash. Visit http://cspaces.colum.edu for more information.
The Center for Black Music Research was founded in 1983 by Samuel A. Floyd Jr. in recognition of a need for an integrated approach to the study of black music that encompasses the arts and humanities as well as social, political and historical approaches to scholarship. The CBMR documents, collects, preserves and disseminates information about black music in all parts of the world and promotes understanding of the common roots of the music, musicians and composers of the global African Diaspora. The CBMR presents public lectures, performances and symposia throughout the year as well as hosting international conferences and publishing two scholarly journals, a monograph series, a number of newsletters and a book series with the University of California press. In addition, the CBMR works with the Chicago Public Schools to provide classroom teachers in the system's Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Schools with scholarship and pedagogy on the history and contribution of the music of the African Diaspora. The CBMR is a research unit of Columbia College Chicago and its programs have been funded by a number of major foundations and giving agencies. Visit www.cbmr.org for more information.
Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805 or Micki Leventhal 312.344.7383
For Immediate Release
6 January 2005
Chicago, IL--After an extensive search, Columbia College Chicago has appointed Kevin Doherty (45), CPA, JD controller, announced Columbia President, Dr. Warrick L. Carter and Vice President of Finance, Mike DeSalle.
Prior to joining Columbia, Doherty was associate vice president of finance and controller at Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago. In 1998, while he studied for the Illinois Bar Exam, he briefly served as a consultant for University of Chicago Hospitals.
From March 1992 to January 1998 Doherty held positions as acting controller, associate controller and manager of accounting, respectively at City College of Chicago. As acting controller he was responsible for the accounting management of the district with a $280 million budget, as well as coordinating and managing the direction and objectives of the financial offices and a staff of 45.
Doherty began his career in finance as manager of accounting at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division in 1992.
He holds professional memberships with the Illinois CPA Society, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Illinois Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
Doherty holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. In 1998 he received a juris doctorate from DePaul College of Law.
He and his wife reside in Lemont, Illinois.
Media contact: Priscilla L. Hunter, 312.344.7805 or Micki Leventhal 312.344.7383
For Immediate Release
6 January 2005
Chicago, IL--Chicago native Renetta McCann (49), chief executive officer of Starcom Media VestGroup (SMG), has been elected to Columbia College Chicago's board of trustees, announced Dr. Warrick L. Carter. In October 2005 McCann was named CEO of SMG--the world's largest media planning and buying agency. She is credited with developing SMG into one of the advertising industries top strategic planning "think tanks."
McCann began her career in advertising in 1978 when she joined Chicago's Leo Burnett agency as a client service trainee. A year later she rose through the ranks to become Burnett's first African American media supervisor. She then became the first African American vice president in 1988, and, in 1989, the first to be named media director. As media director, McCann handled a variety of clients including Sony, Keebler, McDonald's and Dewar's.
In 1995 she was named senior vice president and, in 1998, she was promoted to managing director and was part of the management team that led the launch of Starcom as an independent media company.
As Leo Burnett merged with D'Arcy, she became CEO of SMG/The Americas. In this position McCann was responsible for the operation of the largest region encompassing four media brands: Starcom, MediaVest, GM Planworks and StarLink, which included markets the United States, Canada and Latin America.
She is the recipient of numerous Effies and Cannes Lions awards. In 2002 she was named "Corporate Executive of the Year" by Black Enterprise magazine as well as being selected by Ebony as one of the "57 Most Intriguing Blacks." She has been recognized by Advertising Age, Business Week and Chicago magazine; in 2003 Essence named her as one of "50 Women Who are Changing the World."
McCann attended Holy Cross Elementary School, St. Phillip Neri School and graduated from Aquinas Dominican High School in 1974. She attended Northwestern University and earned a bachelor's degree in speech in 1978. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two children.