|
from the Queen City of Ohio to the Queen City of North Carolina… We look forward to welcoming you to Charlotte, North Carolina, in March 2012 for the Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference of the Society for American Music! Founded at the intersection of two Native American trading paths in the mid-18 th century, Charlotte was named after Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a name perhaps familiar to music historians as a patron of the London Bach, Johann Christian Bach. During the American Revolution, the city of Charlotte offered so much resistance to British forces that General Cornwallis declared Charlotte “a hornet's nest of rebellion.” As North Carolina's largest city, Charlotte has long been a leading city of the New South, going through a period of industrialization with textile mills before becoming an important hub for the financial industry. Since the nineteenth century, Charlotte has fostered not only operas and concert hall music, but it has also been a major location for country, blues, and gospel music. In the fifteen years leading up to World War II, the presence of paved highways, the increase in textile factories, and the geographically wide radio broadcasting of the station WBT led to Charlotte becoming a major recording center, with performers like the Carter Family, Bill Monroe, and the Golden Gate Quartet all making recordings in Charlotte. James Brown recorded “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag” in a Charlotte studio in 1965. The Program Committee has planned a fascinating series of sessions, poster papers, seminars, and lecture-recitals. In keeping with our southern setting, there will be sessions on “Song in the Antebellum South,” “Sacred Tunebooks,” “The Steel Guitar,” “The Banjo,” and “Southern Rock and Soul.” Other papers will consider children, social dance, political theater, and Frank Zappa—though unfortunately not all at the same time—as well as a typically rich and diverse array of sessions and poster papers on many other topics. The Cultural Diversity Committee has programmed a special roundtable discussion for Friday morning titled “The Black Composer Speaks: A Cross-Generational Discussion of the Advancement of the Afro-Classical Aesthetic,” with noted composers T.J. Anderson, Adolphus Hailstork, and Anthony Kelley joining moderator Tammy Kernodle and followed by a lecture-recital of songs by Anderson and Hailstork. For the third year now, the program includes two seminars: “ Musicians and Disability ” (Moderator: Kendra Preston Leonard; Respondent; Joseph Straus) and “ Music on/in Television ” (Moderator: James Deaville). As in previous years, the papers for these seminars will be made available in advance through the SAM website, beginning in mid-January. When you register for the conference, you will receive a password that provides access to the seminar documents, which will appear as .pdf files. Davidson College, the host for this year's conference, is especially excited to be welcoming the SAM conference to its campus for the late afternoon and evening of Thursday, March 15. Four paper sessions will begin at 5:30 on Davidson's campus, to be followed by a reception and the Sacred Harp sing. Later that evening, you are all invited to attend the GospelSHOUT! performance, which will feature several gospel musical traditions including the high-energy trombone shout band music of the United House of Prayer for All People, a musical relative of New Orleans style jazz. Buses will be available throughout the afternoon and evening for transportation between the conference hotel and Davidson's campus. An array of Friday afternoon excursions await visitors eager to sample a range of Charlotte's local flavor. There's a guided tour of Charlotte's new museum of 20 th -century art (the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art), a walking tour of uptown Charlotte with a special emphasis on Charlotte's musical history, and a visit to the Charlotte Motor Speedway, one of the most important NASCAR racetracks. All of these carry modest fees and require advance registration; please consult the conference website for more information about each. For those wishing to venture out on their own, the conference hotel is within a short walk of several other notable museums, including the Mint Museum (and its world famous Craft + Design collection), the award-winning Levine Museum of the New South, a hands-on science museum currently running an exhibition on mummies (Discovery Place), the Harvey B. Gantt African-American Art and Cultural Center, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The Society for American Music is pleased and excited to be inducting North Carolina native Doc Watson as its newest Honorary Member on Friday, March 16. An iconic figure in the folk-music revival, Watson has been both a preserver of old-time Appalachian music and an innovator whose influence manifests itself in country, folk, and bluegrass styles. Mr. Watson plans to be present at a ceremony that will include remarks by SAM members Ron Pen, Kip Lornell, and Greg Reish. Mid-March is a lovely time to visit Charlotte, with mild weather and average daily highs in the 60s, along with strong possibilities for a sunny afternoon in the 70s. Check out the website for more details and updates on what to see and do. On behalf of the Local Arrangements Committee and the Program Committee, we hope to see you in Charlotte for what is sure to be a memorable conference! Neil Lerner
|
