Arts Institute brings musician, composer, activist Fred Ho to campus

The Arts Institute is pleased to welcome artist in residence Fred Ho to the University of Wisconsin–Madison this fall.

Ho is a one-of-a-kind revolutionary Chinese American baritone saxophonist, composer, writer, producer, political activist and leader of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra. Ho is breaking new ground in the world of contemporary music while remaining committed to political and social transformation. For two decades, he has innovated a new American multicultural music embedded in the most soulful and transgressive forms of African American music, with musical influences of Asia and the Pacific Rim. In addition to founding the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in 1982 and the Monkey Orchestra in 1990, Ho co-founded the Brooklyn Sax Quartet in 1997. Most recently in 2005, he founded Caliente! Circle Around the Sun, featuring poets Magdalena Gomez and Raul Salinas.

As an innovator in the field of Asian American Studies, Ho helped found the East Coast Asian Students Union, the Asian American Resource Workshop and the Asian American Arts Alliance. He is co-editor with Ron Sakolsky of “Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution,” which won the 1996 American Book Award, and lead editor of “Legacy to Liberation: Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian/Pacific America.” His “Wicked Theory Naked Practice” is forthcoming, and his co-edited anthology with Bill Mullen, “Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans,” has just been published by Duke University Press.

Ho’s numerous awards include the McKnight Foundation Composer/Residency award, five Rockefeller Foundation grants, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, three New York Foundation for the Arts Music Composition fellowships, the 1988 Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Musicians Conference, and the 1987 Harvard University Peter Ivers Visiting Artist award.

While at UW–Madison, Ho will teach an intercultural course on “Revolutionary Afro Asian Spoken Word and Performance.” Ho will work with students to develop a performance integrating music, song, spoken word and dance inspired by African Asian, African American, and Asian American histories and struggles. Other activities include:

• At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1, Ho will participate in a panel on “Afro Asian Activism and the Avant Garde Aesthetic” with other UW–Madison faculty and staff. A reception and signing of his new book “Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans” will follow in the lobby. The event is free and open to the public. It will be held in Room L140 of the Chazen Museum of Art, 800 University Ave. For more information, call (608) 263-2246.
• At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, Ho will present “Revolutionary Earth Music and Performance: People and the Planet before Profit!” at the Wisconsin Union Theater, featuring his Afro Asian Music Ensemble from New York, a new work by UW–Madison students, and a collaborative work with UW–Madison Dance Program staff Peggy Choy. The event is free and open to the public. The Union Theater is located at the Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. Call (608) 262-2201 for information.
• In addition, lectures by Professor Bill Mullen on “Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans” and by Melanie West on “Interactive Hip-Hop as a Portal to Math and Science Literacy” will take place on campus, and on- and off-campus outreach demonstrations by Ho’s UW–Madison students will be scheduled. Dates and times are to be announced.

Updated information will be available here.

The Arts Institute Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program brings innovative artists to campus to teach semester-long, interdepartmental courses and to publicly present their work for campus and community audiences. Ho is co-sponsored by the Asian American Studies Program and the School of Music. Subsidiary co-sponsors include the Dance Program, the Department of Theatre and Drama, and the Department of Afro-American Studies.