Stanley Clarke in Artist Talk on March 19

SMC to Host BroadStage Artist-in-Residence Stanley Clarke in Artist Talk
on March 19

SANTA MONICA, CA — Santa Monica College (SMC) hosts four-time GRAMMY® Award-winning bassist, recording artist, and composer Stanley Clarke for a free Artist Talk focused on the Business of Music. Clarke, who is BroadStage’s Artist in Residence, will be joined by GRAMMY® nominee and USC Music Professor Patrice Rushen, and Nurit Siegel Smith, Executive Director of the Music Forward Foundation. SMC Music Faculty member, Frederick “Keith” Fiddmont will moderate the conversation.

The presentation is free for the general public and students, and will be held at 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, March 19, in the BroadStage Music Hall at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street (at Santa Monica Boulevard), Santa Monica. RSVP at the link here.

Clarke, a founding member of one of the first jazz fusion bands, Return to Forever, brought the bass guitar into prominence in jazz-related music. His 4EVER Band, an homage to the original group with Chick Corea, will perform at BroadStage Main Stage on March 30 @ 7:30 PM.

The Artist Talk is sponsored and presented in a partnership between the SMC Music Department and BroadStage. 

More information is available by calling the SMC Music Department at 310-434-4323 or on the BroadStage website at www.broadstage.org.

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About Santa Monica College:

Santa Monica College is a California Community College accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). For 33 consecutive years, SMC has been California’s leading transfer college to UCLA, UC Berkeley, and other University of California campuses. The college also tops in transfers to the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University and is the top feeder west of the Mississippi to the Ivy League Columbia University. As the leading job trainer in Los Angeles’s Westside, the college offers robust career education opportunities, with over 110 degrees and certificates in traditional and emerging fields. SMC provides news and cultural enrichment through its NPR radio station KCRW (89.9 FM), the Eli & Edythe Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center, and lifelong learning through distinctive programs such as its Emeritus Program for older adults.

About BroadStage:

BroadStage gathers artists, thinkers and audiences to celebrate our shared humanity and expand the role the arts play in the vitality of our diverse community. BroadStage is an industry-leading performing arts producer and presenter located on the Los Angeles’ Westside, providing a platform for the world’s most compelling artists working the theatre, dance and music, and multidisciplinary artforms. Building upon its first decade, the organization is rising to meet a rapidly evolving set of needs for artists, audiences, community and campus, with the aim to advance its role as an invaluable cultural resource and artistic ambassador for greater Los Angeles.

A beacon of Santa Monica College (SMC) – one of the country’s most progressive, diverse and accessible educational institutions – BroadStage harnesses the transformative power of the performing arts as essential to well-being and society. Established in partnership with SMC in 2008, both organizations are aligned on core values of creativity, learning, and belonging. With the leadership of Artistic and Executive Director Rob Bailis, BroadStage is strengthening its impact through a new artistic vision, an expanded venue footprint, and enhanced community activation. These activities invite a deeper relationship to the artists on our stage and to the work they passionately share.

About the Panelists:

Stanley Clarke is a four-time GRAMMY® Award Winner, obtaining “living legend” status during his over 50-year career as a bass virtuoso. He is the first bassist in history to double on acoustic and electric bass with equal ferocity and the first jazz-fusion bassist ever to headline tours, selling out shows worldwide. A veteran of over 45 albums, Clarke’s creativity has been recognized and rewarded in every way imaginable. In 2022 Clarke was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of its four new Jazz Master honorees, the highest honor that the United States bestows on jazz artists. He also was Rolling Stone’s very first Jazzman of the Year and bassist winner of Playboy’s Music Award for ten straight years. Clarke was honored with Bass Player Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and is a member of Guitar Player Magazine’s “Gallery of Greats.” In 2011 he was honored with the highly prestigious Miles Davis Award at the Montreal Jazz Festival for his entire body of work. Additionally, he is part of the permanent collection of musicians displayed at the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington DC. Clarke’s Pandemic work involved developing a YouTube web series, Stanley Clarke’s Bass Nation, which premiered in November 2020.

Patrice Rushen is an award-winning musician and composer who is also one of the most sought after artists in the music industry. She is a classically trained pianist who originally found success in the 70’s and 80’s with her signature fusion of jazz, pop and R&B. During this era, she composed and recorded the hit song,   “Forget Me Nots,” which has been frequently covered and sampled by other artists.

Rushen is also a four-time GRAMMY® nominee who has composed scores for movies and television. She has been the first female musical director for many of the entertainment industry’s top award shows, which include the GRAMMY® Awards, the Emmy Awards, the People’s Choice Awards, the NAACP Image Awards and HBO’s “Comic Relief V.”

Considered one of the world's top jazz pianists, she has performed with many artists. Among them such esteemed names as Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Prince, Nancy Wilson, Ndugu Chancler, Carlos Santana, Christian McBride and Lee Ritenour. She is a record producer and an award-winning composer of symphonic music, some of which was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Rushen is the ”Ambassador of Artistry In Education” at Boston’s Berklee College of Music,  and has been the Chair of the Popular Music Program at USC’s Thornton School of Music from 2013 till 2023.

Rushen also spends time working with the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, NARAS “Grammy In The Schools” program and other organizations dedicated to establishing music education and mentorship programs for underprivileged youth.

Nurit Siegel Smith is the Executive Director of Music Forward Foundation, a national 501c3 organization part of the Live Nation Entertainment family with a mission to transform young lives, inspire careers, and champion a more inclusive music industry. Prior to Music Forward, she held key positions spanning two decades at various arts and entertainment organizations including SAG-AFTRA Foundation, and Grand Performances. Nurit’s work at Music Forward also entails managing charitable partnerships such as Crew Nation, a global relief fund that has granted $18M to music crew members around the world since 2020.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Californians for the Arts and California Arts Advocates.  Nurit is a UC Berkeley dance and theater graduate and her work as a performer/creator has been seen on TV, film, and on stages across the country.

Frederick “Keith” Fiddmont (moderator & SMC Faculty) is an artist and educator, leading the SMC Jazz Ensemble for over 20 years. He is a member of the award-winning Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and performed with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Bob Mintzer Big Band, and Ed Neumeister Big Band. Recorded and performed live with Stevie Wonder, Diana Krall, Marcus Miller, James Brown, Jennifer Holliday, and others.