Menon Dwarka
As the founder of MPD Culture Consultants, Menon Dwarka (he/him/his) is an arts leader with over 25 years of experience in executive director, artistic director, and community arts leadership positions in both Canada and the United States. Dwarka's expertise lies in leveraging technology to create diverse programming and administrative spaces, while also applying a post-colonial lens to IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Success) initiatives.
Dwarka has successfully guided arts and culture organizations of all scales, including grassroots organizations such as Toronto's 918 Bathurst Centre, where he served as both Artistic and Executive Director. He has also been a valued board member for organizations such as the Canadian Opera Company, where he was chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee. In the United States, Dwarka led the music departments at the 92nd Street Y and Harlem School of the Arts and served as the Executive Director of the Greenwich House Music School. As Senior Vice President of Arts Consulting Group, Dwarka completed IDEAS audits for the Winnipeg Symphony, ArrayMusic, and the Toronto Musicians Association.
Dwarka is a public speaker and has been featured on platforms including CBC Television, WBAI Radio, TVOntario's The Agenda, and The Walrus Talks. His expertise is also showcased through regular appearances on Sesame Street. He was a part of the inaugural cohort of the Banff/Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Lab and served on the City of Toronto's Economic Development and Culture's Strategic Planning Committee, a group specifically formed to advise the City on the creation of Toronto's 2018-2022 Culture Plan.
Dwarka holds BMus and MMus degrees in Music Composition from the University of Toronto, and was an ABD Ph.D. candidate at SUNY Stony Brook.
Appearance:
GIVEN A CHANCE - Concert and Discussion
Allen Shawn
Composer Allen Shawn (born 1948) grew up in New York City and moved to Vermont in 1985 to be on the music faculty of Bennington College. His teachers included Leon Kirchner, Earl Kim, Nadia Boulanger, and Jack Beeson. His works include a Symphony, Concertos for Piano, Violin and Oboe, two Cello Concertos, and a Double Concerto for Clarinet and Cello; music for string orchestra and other large ensembles; four Chamber Operas; choral, vocal and chamber music; eight Piano Sonatas and many additional piano works, including music for piano four-hands and two pianos. His music is published by Galaxy Music/E.C.Schirmer aomng other publishers. Recordings of his work include five CDs of piano music, three of chamber music, his Piano Concerto, performed by Ursula Oppens with the Albany Symphony, conducted by David Alan Miller works performed by the Palisades Virtuosi the Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of the East. Additional recordings include the Chamber Opera The Music Teacher, with a libretto by his brother, playwright Wallace Shawn; Three Dance Portraits performed by the piano duo ZOFO (Sono Luminus); Improvisations with bassist Michael Bisio, and his recent solo piano Improvisation Diary 2020. An active pianist, Shawn is also the author of four books: Arnold Schoenberg’s Journey; Wish I Could Be There; Twin; and Leonard Bernstein-An American Musician.
Appearance:
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”
Judith Lochhead
Judith Lochhead is a music scholar whose work focuses on music cultures of the present from multiple perspectives: performance practices, artist-led research, music criticism, music analysis, and music history. Some recent publications include: Sound and Affect: Sound, Music, World, eds. Lochhead, Eduardo Mendieta, and Stephen Decatur Smith (2021); “On Kaija Saariaho’s Microsonology,” Oxford Handbook on Spectral Music (2022); “Timbre Realities,” Oxford Handbook on the Phenomenology of Music (2023); and “Multiplicities, Truth, Ethics: A Queering Analysis of Chaya Czernowin’s Anea Crystal,” Queer Music Theory (2023). Lochhead is a Professor of Critical Music Studies at Stony Brook University.
Appearances:
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”
GIVEN A CHANCE - Concert and Discussion
Gail Newman
Gail Newman is the Harold J. Henry Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Williams College. She has published widely on language, narrative, and subjectivity in German Romanticism, contemporary Austrian literature, and psychoanalysis. Her forthcoming book, co-authored with Mari Ruti, engages with creativity in our contemporary world.
Appearance:
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”