The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music has received $1.5 million from the Lowell Milken Family Foundation to establish the Lowell Milken Fund for American Jewish Music. The school—as an academic partner to the Milken Archive of Jewish Music in Santa Monica, California—will use the fund to advance and advocate for the field of American Jewish music by contributing to research, scholarship, and programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels, while presenting concerts and symposia to engage and educate the community. The newly appointed academic director of the fund is Mark Kligman. The fund’s inaugural program, American Culture and the Jewish Experience in Music, will be held in November. The three-day conference, to be co-presented with the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, will feature performances of new compositions, panel discussions, and lectures on heritage, innovation, and interactivity. “There has never been a concerted effort to significantly research or study American Jewish music,” Kligman said. “With the establishment of this fund, Jewish music—and its history and development—will be given the attention it deserves as an integral part of the American music experience.”
Posted April 19, 2017
