13 March 2006

Scotland gets New York talking

Jazz legend Dr Billy Taylor, veteran journalist Lewis Lapham, radio host Leonard Lopate, gallery director Marc Pachter, and cultural commentator Todd Gitlin in conversation with leading Scots at venues across New York starting April 3.

Provocative discussions, intriguing conversations and remarkable performances are expected from a new transatlantic public program created by Scotland’s leading universities to celebrate Tartan Week in New York.

The universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, along with The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, are collaborating with the pioneering New School in the heart of Greenwich Village, CUNY Graduate Center, and Hunter College to present a three-part series to get New Yorkers talking about Scotland. The collaboration is an important one for Scotland as all three New York institutions have well established public cultural programs.

The Scotland Conversations New York (3-4 April 2006) will focus a twenty-first century lens on The Scottish Enlightenment - the great cultural flowering of the eighteenth-century when Scottish intellectuals like David Hume and Adam Smith changed the way we think about the world. The series will explore the ideas and influences of the Enlightenment on the founding fathers of America, and their contemporary relevance in culture and politics.

Leading American voices appear alongside some of Scotland’s most distinguished scholars and thinkers. Grammy Award-nominated jazz pianist and educator Dr Billy Taylor, and the director of Washington’s National Portrait Gallery Marc Pachter discuss the arts and the pursuit of happiness on April 3 with the Scottish literary critic Professor Cairns Craig from the University of Aberdeen, and architectural historian Professor Charles McKean from the University of Dundee.

One of New York’s most celebrated radio broadcasters Leonard Lopate leads a discussion on April 4 on the changing face of patriotism from eighteenth-century Scotland to living in the post 9/11 world. Panellists will include the veteran journalist and editor emeritus of Harper’s Magazine Lewis Lapham, controversial cultural commentator Todd Gitlin, European political analyst Professor Bill Miller from the University of Glasgow, and best-selling Scottish historian Professor Tom Devine, who outsold Harry Potter in Scotland, from the University of Edinburgh.

The Scotland Conversations New York opens on Monday April 3 with a free lunchtime performance from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama at the Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center on Fifth Avenue across from the Empire State Building. Introduced by the virtuoso trumpeter John Wallace and principal of the RSAMD, the concert includes a rich programme by Scottish and American composers including Aaron Copland and James MacMillan. RSAMD musicians also feature in the evening programs on the arts and patriotism.

Leonard Forman, Chair of The Scotland Conversations, and Special Adviser at the University of Aberdeen, said: “We are proud to present this program for Tartan Week in a public partnership with such distinguished New York institutions and the British Council USA.

"Our aim is to raise the profile of Scotland’s universities in New York as hothouses for generating intellectual debate and ideas, and in so doing introducing Scotland to a whole new public audience."

"Scotland’s universities were at the centre of The Scottish Enlightenment, and so it is fitting that we use it as the theme for our inaugural program in America."

The organisers hope that The Scotland Conversations will become a regular fixture on the Tartan Week calendar and are exploring the prospect of welcoming American colleagues back to Scotland to continue the transatlantic dialogue.

Tickets and information:

Unless otherwise stated, tickets are $10 for general public and $5 for students and seniors. Tickets are available direct from the venues. For the latest information on The Scotland Conversations, visit www.scotlandconversations.org

Schedule

The Scotland Conversations New York:
Opening Event: Simple Gifts
Monday 3 April 2006, 1pm, Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue (34st), Admission free by reservation.
Students from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama make their New York debut with a rich programme of Scottish and American music including works by Aaron Copland and James MacMillan. Presented by the virtuoso trumpeter and principal of the RSAMD John Wallace. Admission free by reservation at www.scotlandconversations.org. All remaining tickets will be available at the door 60 minutes before the performance. Co-sponsored by Wolfson Center for National Affairs, The New School; CUNY Graduate Center; and the British Council USA. Supported by The Scottish Executive.

The Scotland Conversations New York:
The Arts and the Pursuit of Happiness
Monday April 3, 7pm-9pm, The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, East 68th Street (Between Park and Lexington Avenues), $10 ($5), (Box Office: 212 772 4448)
Distinguished director of Washington' s National Portrait Gallery Marc Pachter chairs a fascinating evening on the arts and the pursuit of happiness from the creative age of The Scottish Enlightenment in the eighteenth-century to the emergence of jazz and much more in modern-day America. Featuring legendary Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and educator Dr Billy Taylor, Scottish literary critic Cairns Craig from the University of Aberdeen, former architecture correspondent for The (London) Times Charles McKean from the University of Dundee, and performers from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Other speakers to be announced. Co-sponsored by Wolfson Center for National Affairs, The New School; CUNY Graduate Center; and the British Council USA. Supported by The Scottish Executive.

The Scotland Conversations New York:
Is Patriotism History?
Tuesday April 4 2006, 7pm-9pm, followed by Reception,
The Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 66 West 12th Street (Between 5th and 6th Avenues), New York, $10 ($5), (Box Office: 212 229 5488)
Leonard Lopate, Host, The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, explores the changing face of patriotism from the age of The Scottish Enlightenment in the eighteenth-century to living in the post 9/11 world. Featuring Lewis Lapham, editor emeritus of America’s leading political and cultural journal Harper's Magazine, outspoken cultural commentator and writer Todd Gitlin, author of a controversial new book The Intellectuals and The Flag, best-selling Scottish historian, Tom Devine, who outsold Harry Potter in Scotland, and the European political commentator Bill Miller. Plus, a special performance by The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Co-sponsored by Wolfson Center for National Affairs, The New School; CUNY Graduate Center; and the British Council USA. Supported by The Scottish Executive.

About The Scotland Conversations

The Scotland Conversations is a new public program created and presented by the internationally renowned universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in association with prestigious American partners.

Supported by The Scottish Executive, the Scotland Conversations aims to help build cultural and scholarly partnerships between Scotland and America through ongoing creative and intellectual collaboration. The program makes its US debut in New York in April 2006 to celebrate Tartan Day, and to mark the 50th anniversary year of the American-Scottish Foundation, the 150th anniversary of Caledonian Club of New York and the 250th anniversary of the St Andrew's Society of New York State.

The Scotland Conversations New York inaugural program will feature leading Scottish and American speakers, and will appeal to a broad range of residents and visitors alike interested in the history of ideas, the arts, music and much more.

About Tartan Week

The US Senate designated April 6 as National Tartan Day in 1998 to honour "the outstanding contribution of millions of Scottish-Americans to our great nation" and the House of Representatives passed a similar resolution in 2005. The significance of April 6 dates back to the 1320 signing of the Declaration of Arbroath, which, it has been argued, was the model for the American Declaration of Independence. New York City has celebrated Tartan Day since 1999 and, every year, the amount of activities here has increased to the point that it is now referred to as Tartan Week. For more information on Tartan Week 2006, visit www.tartanweekny.com

Further information on The Scotland Conversations, contact:

Joan Concannon, University of Dundee
Tel: 01382 344000

or

Leonard Forman, University of Aberdeen
Tel: 01224 273842

For further information on Tartan Week, contact:

David Hamilton
Scottish Executive
Tel: 0131 244 2056

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Tom Devine - best-selling Scottish historian
Tom Devine is the Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh. His best-selling book The Scottish Nation: 1700-2000, outsold Harry Potter in Scotland, and his most recent book Scotland's Empire was made in a major BBC television series. A fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he was made an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 2005.

Charles McKean - architectural writer and historian
Charles McKean is Professor of Scottish Architectural History at the University of Dundee. A former Chief Executive of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and architecture critic of The (London) Times, his books include The Scottish Thirties and Edinburgh: Portrait of a City. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of Arts.

Cairns Craig - Scottish literary critic
Cairns Craig is Professor in Scottish and Modern Literature and Director of the world’s first Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. A leading critic on national cultures, his books include the groundbreaking History of Scottish Literature, The Modern Scottish Novel and Out of History. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

John Wallace - virtuoso trumpeter
John Wallace is the Principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. A virtuoso trumpet player, he performed at the wedding of Prince Charles and the late Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, and went on to gain an international reputation as a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia. He has premiered works by Sir Malcolm Arnold and James MacMillan, and has appeared with many conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin and the late Giuseppe Sinopoli. A fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he was made an OBE in 1995.

William Miller - European political commentator
William Miller is the Edward Caird Professor of Politics at the University of Glasgow. An acknowledged expert in political behaviour in Eastern and Western Europe and a regular broadcaster and commentator, his most recent work examines Islamophobia and national identity in Britain before and after 9/11. His books include (ed) Anglo-Scottish Relations: from 1900 and Beyond. He is a fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Leonard Lopate - Host, The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC
Leonard Lopate is one of New York City's most venerated interviewers and host of The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC, America’s most listened to public radio station which reaches over one million listeners each week. Last year, he celebrated twenty years of bringing some of the greatest minds from an astonishing array of backgrounds to the WNYC air-waves. Over the years has interviewed an impressive range of celebrity guests from the worlds of politics, the arts, and science. He appears regularly as an interviewer and moderator at New York’s most prestigious cultural venues from the 92nd Street Y to the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the New School, and for international writer’s organisation, PEN.

Marc Pachter - Director, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC
Marc Pachter is the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. During a distinguished career at the Smithsonian, he has served as the Gallery’s chief historian and assistant director as well as a counsellor to the Secretary of the Institution, and acting director of the National Museum of American History. A frequent commentator for CBS ("Nightwatch"), the Voice of America, and C-SPAN, he is also regarded as the Smithsonian’s “master interviewer”. He has conducted public interviews for television broadcast with many distinguished Americans including Clare Boothe Luce, William L Shirer, Walter Cronkite, Eleanor Dulles, Charlton Heston, Agnes de Mille, Katharine Graham and Senators J William Fulbright and Charles Mathias. Marc Pachter has authored or edited a number of books including Abroad in America: Visitors to the New Nation, Champions of American Sport, Documentary History of the Supreme Court, Telling Lives: The Biographer's Art, A Gallery of Presidents.

Lewis Lapham - Editor Emeritus, Harper’s Magazine
Lewis Lapham is Editor Emeritus of one America’s oldest political and cultural journals, Harper’s Magazine. Lapham served as editor of the magazine from 1976, after having worked for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune. He will continue to write his award-winning Notebook column for Harper’s as well as editing a new journal about history. His most recent books include With the Beatles, and Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy. His collections of essays including Fortune’s Child, Money and Class in America, Imperial Masquerade, Hotel America, Waiting for the Barbarians 30 Satires, and Theater of War prompted the New York Times to liken him to H L Mencken, and Vanity Fair to suggest a strong resemblance to Mark Twain. His writing has appeared in Life, Commentary, National Review, Yale Literary Magazine, ELLE, Fortune, Forbes, American Spectator, New York Times, Maclean's, The Observer (London), and the Wall Street Journal. Lapham’s documentary film The American Ruling Class, was premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, and he was author and host of America’s Century, broadcast on PBS in the United States and in the UK on Channel Four, and host of the weekly PBS series, Bookmark.

Dr Billy Taylor - Grammy-nominated jazz pianist
Dr Billy Taylor is one of America’s most influential jazz ambassadors. A Grammy-nominated artist, his career spans over 60 years. His mentor was Art Tatum and through the 1940s and 50s he played the legendary New York clubs with the likes of Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. He has performed with many of the great giants of jazz including Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. His career as a broadcaster and educator is no less impressive from arts correspondent for CBS television's "Sunday Morning" program to his pioneering educational work on jazz in schools and universities across America. Billy Taylor has composed well over 300 songs but his most well-known composition is “I Wish That I Knew (How It Would Feel to Be Free)”. Among many awards and honours he holds a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award and a Grammy-nomination for his recording Homage (featuring the Turtle Island String Quartet).

Todd Gitlin - American sociologist and journalism professor
Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University. As a student in the 1960s he helped organise the first national demonstration against the Vietnam War. He is the author of eleven books including The Sixties, a finalist in the Robert F Kennedy Book Award, and The Twilight of Common Dreams - both Notable Books in the New York Times Book Review. His latest book The Intellectuals and The Flag argues for a renewed sense of patriotism among the intellectuals on the left. A sought critic, broadcaster and writer, Todd Gitlin is on the editorial board of Dissent is and the North American editor of openDemocracy.net.

For more information contact:

Roddy Isles
Head of Press
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk