University of Wisconsin-Madison

Walker is a multi-hyphenate contemporary dance and performance artist. Rooted in “Resistance Aesthetics,” Walker’s work draws upon the danced rituals, mas traditions, and embodied performance history of the African diaspora. The founding artistic director of OMAI/First Wave, Walker developed the First Wave Process. His research intersects dance choreography for the concert stage with collaborations with visual and performance artists for museum, alternate spaces, professional theatre, and video/film.

Dan Cavanagh is a composer and pianist who has garnered numerous awards in both areas. In 2023 he was awarded 2nd Prize in the American Prize for Composition in the Wind Symphony/Band Category. He received a 2009 gold medal prize from the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition, and in 2017 he was awarded a Special Judges’ Citation in the American Prize for Chamber Music Composition. As a composer Cavanagh has been commissioned to write for Latin Grammy-winning AfroBop Alliance, the legendary Patti LaBelle, and a wide range of classical and jazz performers across North America and Europe. He has released five jazz recordings as a leader, including Pulse and Heart of the Geyser on Seattle’s OA2 Records, and two recordings with Minnesota-based vibraphonist Dave Hagedorn, Horizon and 20 Years. His most recent recording with James Miley and John Hollenbeck was released on Japan’s S/N Alliance Records in November 2022 to critical acclaim. His music can be heard on many other recordings both classical and jazz. His film scoring work can be heard in the documentary The Beat Hotel, a film exploring the hotel in Paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s where the beat poets, led by Allen Ginsberg, lived and created much of their famous work.

Cavanagh continues to be commissioned and programmed around the world, with recent performances by the Dallas Wind Symphony, the UT Arlington Wind Symphony, bassoonist Laura Bennett Cameron, duality (Vanessa Sielert and Catherine Anderson), Tracy Cowden and Tabatha Easley, the John Brown Big Band, and many more. Cavanagh’s compositions for wind symphony and saxophone/piano are published by Murphy Music Press, and his works for jazz big band are published by UNC Jazz Press, Sierra Music Publications, and E-Jazz Lines.

Cavanagh has performed extensively in North America and Europe as a pianist, and he has also performed in Asia and Central America. He has appeared in concert with Grammy-winners Irma Thomas, Adonis Rose, and Joe McCarthy and a wide number of jazz artists across the world. He has been a finalist in the EuropaFest Jazz Contest in Bucharest, Romania, and in the Jacksonville Jazz Festival Piano Competition. Cavanagh is the Pamela O. Hamel/Board of Advisors Director of the Mead Witter School of Music and Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to his time at UW-Madison he held numerous appointments at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he served for eighteen years. From 2015-2020, he served as the Co-Chair of Region VI for the Society of Composers, Inc., an international organization dedicated to new and contemporary music and composers. Cavanagh serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Dallas Winds, a five-time Grammy nominated professional Wind Symphony, and serves on the boards of the Madison Symphony Orchestra at the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Beth attended UW-Eau Claire for her undergraduate degree. She then earned an MFA in Theatrical Design from the University of Minnesota and became interested in higher education administration leading her to complete her PhD from the University of Minnesota in Educational Policy and Administration. She took her evaluation skills learned in her PhD program to the Science Museum of Minnesota where she worked in Evaluation and Visitor Learning and Exhibit Production over the next five years. Beth then became an Assistant Professor of Speech and Theatre at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. After a few more years, Beth moved to Madison where she worked at UW-Madison’s School of Education as a Policy and Planning Analyst in the Dean’s Office. In this role, she worked with departments to create new programs, conduct program reviews, and develop assessment plans while managing school-wide data requests and data reporting to external agencies. Beth is professionally interested in topics such as the management of creativity, arts integration in curricula, and transdisciplinary research. In her free time, Beth likes reading, hiking, painting, gardening, traveling, and attending museums.

Marina Kelly is an educator who works at the intersection of democratic education, creativity and collaboration. An alumna of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Marina was awarded her Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) in 1996 and her Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) from the Art Department in 2012. Marina’s work at the UW-Madison has included teaching foundations level visual arts courses, including an online course in digital storytelling as well as interdisciplinary arts seminars for creative arts learning community students. One of Marina’s greatest passions is teaching a community based movement course, Creating Dance Through Structured Improvisation at the Hancock Center for Movement Arts and the Madison Circus Space. Marina’s current research interests include Mettler-based group improvisation and somatic teaching practices. Marina is proud to be part of the URS community where, together, we practice critical thinking while fostering a love of lifelong learning.

Angela Richardson, MFA, is a performer, visual artist, and educator. In addition to maintaining her own interdisciplinary studio practice, she works for the Wisconsin School of Business to help students and faculty understand the relationship of creative thinking to innovation in business.

Richardson coordinates arts-based learning activities for the School as part of the Arts Business Initiative—providing curricular consult, hands-on instructional delivery, and student advising. For the WSB Learning Commons renovation project, she led ‘artful engagement’ design efforts to curate the space.

As a teaching artist, she’s led classes at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Center for Healthy Minds, Madison Children’s Museum, Madison Public Library, and many other community organizations. Richardson holds a split appointment on campus and also works as a program manager at the Division of the Arts.

She was selected as a ’20-’21 Morgridge Fellow to take part in a community-engaged scholarship (CES) cohort with UW’s Morgridge Center for Public Service.