 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Richard WangQuick Contacts email the dept. of performing arts email the music dept. email the theater dept.
UIC Department of Performing Arts |
Associate Professor Emeritus, 
Richard Wang, Associate Professor Emeritus of music, was the department's resident jazz scholar, historian, and all-around jazz authority, and the director of the UIC Jazz Ensemble since 1973. A native of Chicago's South Side, he grew up with this uniquely American art form, playing trumpet professionally by the time he was fifteen and haunting the now legendary clubs and theatres where jazz flourished in the 1930s and '40s. Speaking of the Regal Theatre on 47th Street, he describes it as "the center of the musical world for me at that time." And he points out that Chicago has played a unique role in jazz history; today "it is a living museum of jazz. You can go to clubs almost any night and hear jazz in any of the important styles--that's amazing. Maybe you could also do that in New York. You can't do it in New Orleans or Kansas City. But you can do it here." Wang's work in reconstructing Ellington's musical comedy "Jump for Joy" for performance by the Pegasus Players, brought him considerable fame, including prominent mention in Newsweek and US. News and World Report. And in 1990, for the annual Chicago Jazz Festival, he produced the Midwest premiere of Charles Mingus' "Epitaph," a complex, multi-movement work that combines gospel, blues, and a whole range of jazz styles within the extended forms of Duke Ellington. The National Endowment for the Humanities recognized Wang's scholarship with two research grants, as has the Illinois Arts Council. His articles have appeared in Black Music Research Journal, Musical Quarterly, Jazz Educators Journal, and in the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. He has lectured at the Terra Museum of American Art, the Block Gallery of Northwestern University, and the Field Museum of Natural History. Wang is past president of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, which programs the Chicago Jazz Festival. The Institute arranges concerts, collects archival materials, and offers educational programs—all designed to increase awareness and appreciation for jazz and of Chicago's unique role in its history. |
