OLIVER LAKE NAMED COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE AT BLOOMFIELD
COLLEGE
March 6, 2000, Bloomfield, NJ -- Meet The Composer, a national organization that fosters the creation, performance and appreciation of new music, has named renowned saxophonist Oliver Lake of Montclair as the recipient of a $100,000 grant for a three-year residency at Bloomfield College. The award was announced at “Collaborations In Diversity,” a performance of dance, music and poetry by students from several local schools, at the College’s Robert V. Van Fossan Theatre on February 28.
Bloomfield College’s residency with Mr. Lake is one of five selected from across the nation. The other composers who have been awarded New Residencies grants are Jon Wang and Francis Wong (the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Oakland, CA), Nathaniel Stookey (The North Carolina Symphony, Raleigh, NC), Dwight Andrews (Prince Music Theater, Philadelphia, PA), and Ernest Dawkins (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL).
Oliver Lake is a composer, instrumentalist, poet and theatrical performer who has collaborated with actors, directors, choreographers and poets. He is self-produced, directs his own record label, and is a co-founder of the Black Artists Group in St. Louis and the World Saxophone Quartet. Recently, he composed Broken In Parts, a critically acclaimed music-theatre work which incorporates actors, singers, spoken word artists, and dancers. In January, he was a featured performer at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The Meet The Composer residencies are designed to integrate American composers into the fabric of community life. Meet The Composer is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, with additional support from The Ford Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Rockefeller Foundation, The Virgil Thomson Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mr. Lake’s residency will help integrate the arts into the entire curriculum, raise the level of Bloomfield College’s public offerings, and aid the College’s continuing efforts to broaden and strengthen its community partnerships. Through “Collaborations In Diversity,” Bloomfield College and Oliver Lake have already begun work with Montclair’s Renaissance School, the Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, Sharron Miller’s Academy for the Performing Arts, and Newark’s Discovery Charter School. In the future, Lake plans to partner with the groups for concerts, workshops, master classes, solo and ensemble theatre works, staged readings, and works-in-progress.
At the same time, Lake will work with Bloomfield College students, conducting master classes and acting as a mentor to student composers in the Music Technology program.
Founded in 1868, Bloomfield College is a four-year, co-educational institution offering programs in the liberal arts and pre-professional studies. The College enrolls students born in more than 50 countries and has earned recognition for its academic and co-curricular programs and for its mission - to prepare students to attain academic, personal and professional excellence in a multicultural and global society.
