Music Conference

Sounds of Two Worlds:
Music as a Mirror of Migration
to and from Germany

September 13 and 14, 2002
Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Free and open to the public

Presenters' Biographies

Philip V. Bohlman, the author of numerous books and articles, is currently a professor of music and a member of the Jewish Studies committee at the University of Chicago.

Alan Burdette received a Ph.D. in folklore/ethnomusicology from Indiana University where he wrote his dissertation on a German-American singing society. He currently is an adjunct associate professor at Indiana University.

Ursula Hemetek is professor of ethnomusicology at the Institut für Volksmusikforschung at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Geraldine Laudati is the director of the Mills Music Library at the UW-Madison. She also serves as curator of the library's Tams-Witmark/Wisconsin collection.

Jim Leary earned a Ph.D. in Folklore and American Studies from Indiana University (1977) and is currently director of the Folklore Program at the UW-Madison.

Scott Lopas has worked in radio since high school. Following his graduation from UW-Oshkosh, he began a full-time career in the field, eventually purchasing and serving as manager of WTKM AM & FM in Hartford, Wisconsin.

Mark L. Louden received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in Germanic linguistics. He is currently an assistant professor in the German Department and is acting director of the Max Kade Institute.

B. Venkat Mani, who joined the faculty of the German Department at the UW-Madison last year, received his Ph.D. at Stanford University in 2001.

Rita Ottens is a post-graduate research student in the Music Department at City University, London, where she currently is researching her dissertation, “The Place of Yiddish Music in Berlin since 1989: Issues in Cultural Identity and Ideology.” [Website: http://www.rubin-ottens.com]

Pamela Potter (Ph.D. Yale) joined the UW-Madison faculty in 1997 with a joint appointment in German and musicology. Her interests include music and culture in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, German intellectual history, and the impact of Germany on American musical life and scholarship.

Ann Reagan is a professor of music history at the United States Air Force Academy. She has written on German-American musical societies in nineteenth-century Milwaukee.

Joel Rubin holds a doctorate in music from City University, London. An internationally acclaimed performer of Jewish instrumental klezmer music, Rubin has led the Joel Rubin Jewish Music Ensemble (USA/Italy/Hungary) since 1994. [Website: http://www.rubin-ottens.com]

Helmut G. Schmahl is assistant professor in the History Department of the University of Mainz, Germany. He has worked extensively on the history of German immigration to America in the nineteenth century and was a visiting professor at the UW-Madison during the spring 2002 semester.

Steve Sundell serves as curator of the Wisconsin Music Archives, a special collection in the Mills Music Library at the UW-Madison. His publications include Wisconsin Music: An Annotated Bibliography as well as several articles.

Christoph Wagner grew up in Balingen, Württemberg (Germany). He received his Ph.D. from the Pädagogische Hochschule in Esslingen and Karlsruhe, with concentrations in German and History. He currently devotes his time to music journalism and music production.