ANNOUNCING: NYU “Motown U” Free Conversation Series

This Fall, The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University is proud to commemorate Motown’s 50th anniversary year with a FREE eclectic conversation series on the famous record label, open to students and the general public.

NYU students also get to attend private, closed Motown events, and they can enroll in accredited courses on the label.

ABOUT MOTOWN

Started in 1959 in Detroit by budding entrepreneur Berry Gordy, Motown was boldly named “Hitsville USA,” serving as a label home to such artists as Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, The Jackson 5, the Four Tops, and many others. Motown changed the concept of the record label and redefined the very idea of entrepreneurship in recorded music, serving as core inspiration to artists from The Beatles to Beyoncé.

ABOUT THE SERIES

MOTOWN U kicked off on Thursday September 17th with REMEMBERING MICHAEL JACKSON, an exciting panel discussion celebrating the music and career of the pop superstar (who got his start on Motown in 1969 with The Jackson 5). The panel featured luminaries Spike Lee, Margo Jefferson and others.

The next event, held on October 9th and 10th: a rare conversation with Motown Artist Development co-founder MAXINE POWELL, now in her 90s. Ms. Powell will also perform a masterclass for NYU students demonstrating her artist training techniques. This event is produced in collaboration with NYU’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study.

The series will focus on lesser-known artists and executives associated with Motown, such as R&B superstar and Rick James protégée TEENA MARIE and songwriter-producer LEON WARE who famously penned the 1976 classic, I Want You album for Marvin Gaye.

MOTOWN COURSES

NYU students also have had the unique opportunity this Fall to enroll in a 14-week course, The Motown Legacy, taught by Harry Weinger, Grammy-winning reissue producer and Vice President at Universal Music Enterprises, where he helps oversee the Motown catalog. NYU Gallatin School professor and award-winning playwright Michael Dinwiddie is offering students a course entitled The Motown Matrix: Race, Gender and Class Identity in the Sound of Young America.

New York University’s Clive Davis Department Artistic Director Jason King, who is curating the MOTOWN U series, felt it was important for students to know more about the record label in its 50th Anniversary year. “Through brilliant music,” King remarked, “Motown helped integrate blacks and whites and rewrite the narrative of race and class in America. No serious student of music and the music business can afford not to know about Motown.”

RSVP AND SCHEDULING

The schedule and RSVP information for the rest of the series will be posted on this blog as the events unfold. Join our blog, Facebook and Twitter sites to be the first to find out about events.

Stay tuned!