

On behalf of the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music MTNA Collegiate Chapter and the keyboard area, we would like to welcome you to our first annual DEIB Festival. This festival seeks to create a safe and brave space for all, celebrating music by historically marginalized and underrepresented composers and artists. We hope you will join us for this wonderful line-up of events.
Jess Johnson
Professor of Piano and Pedagogy
Mead Witter School of Music
Featured Events
Join the Fun
New Experiences
Engaging and Interesting
Achieving the mission together



Program
chronological order
Lunchtime talk/Q &A
with Prof. Kuang Hao Huang
February 21, 2022
1:00-2:30 pm
Collins Recital Hall
Topics: Building a musical career in today's generation, collaborating with topnotch musicians and living composers, interpreting new music, what should "social justice" mean to musicians, how to be a musician for the community and how to be in charge of an arts organization.
Masterclass with Prof. Kuang Hao Huang
February 21, 2022
3:30-5:00 pm
Collins Recital Hall
Masterclass with Kuang Hao Huang with selected students. Works by underrepresented, living composers, and systematically and historically marginalized composers are highly encouraged for both solo and collaborative music.
Shared Recital with
Prof.Kuang Hao Huang and Students
February 21, 2022
6:30 pm
Mead Witter Concert Hall
Prof. Kuang Hao Huang and students who participated in the masterclass will have a shared recital. Works will be by underrepresented, living and systematically and historically marginalized composers.
Songs of Protest & Injustice
February 23, 2022
7:30 pm
Mead Witter Concert Hall
The Chamber Percussion Ensemble —directed by Prof. Di Sanza —alongside guest artist Paul Rowe will feature works by Frederic Rzewski & Darian Thomas —Songs of Protest & Injustice.
When Music Speaks and Moves: A Poetry-Dance- Music Concert
February 24, 2022
6:00 pm
Mead Witter Concert Hall
The concert will offer not only performances but also multi-sensory experience. Music students will be collaborating with student choreographers from the UW Dance Department, in coordination with the department's music director, Timothy Russell. Dance students will create and choreograph a piece to a solo /duo work by underrepresented, living and systematically and historically marginalized composers. Related poems will be recited before each performance.
Leslie Damaso with Mr.Chair and Special Guest Sahada Buckley
February 26, 2022
7:30 pm
Collins Recital Hall
Leslie Damaso with the jazz ensemble Mr. Chair and special guest Sahada Buckley present Sirena, a story that hearkens back to myth, set within contemporary arrangements of kundiman, songs of love and freedom from the Philippines. A way of healing through the power of art, music and language, this is an act of preservation and a celebration of the people and with the people who help us to live.
DEIB Recital
March 1, 2022
6:00 pm
Collins Recital Hall
UW Students & alumni will play works by underrepresented, living, suppressed and systematically & historically marginalized composers to bring diverse musical experiences to the community.
Community Outreach Concert
March 3, 2022
7:00 pm
Capitol Lakes
UW Students will play works by underrepresented, living, suppressed and systematically & historically marginalized composers to bring diverse musical experiences to the community.
Closing Ceremony: Jessica Johnson
Piano Recital
March 4, 2022
8:00 pm
Collins Recital Hall
A celebration of 21st-century works by women performed on an alternatively-sized keyboard.
The program features four world world premieres with three of the four composers in attendance. All works on the program are written in the 21st century. The four new commissions were recently written for Jessica Johnson (designated with “world premiere”). The three composers will be talking briefly about their works prior to the performance.