Monday, April 12, 2004
Nile Rodgers is 2004 RISC speaker
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Nile Rodgers, a popular music composer for Sister Sledge (“We are Family”) and Diana Ross (“I’m Coming Out”) who is now the pioneering king of the video game soundtrack industry, is the keynote speaker for this year’s RISC Showcase at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 24 in Mitchell Auditorium in the Health Professions Center at the University of Southern Indiana. Rodgers recognized that music is becoming as integral to the video game experiences as soundtracks are to movies, and he is the go-to guy responsible for recent hits such as Microsoft Xbox’s Outlaw Volleyball and Halo, along with the next pop phenomenon Halo 2, being released in 2004. Rodgers advocates that people must stay true to their passions and work towards dreams one goal at a time. The lecture, free and open to the public, will cover his career, innovations in the music industry, and developing successful innovations and creativity. The primary audience will be USI students who are participating in the RISC Showcase. RISC stands for research, innovation, scholarship, and creativity, and the RISC Showcase provides an arena for undergraduates of all disciplines to present, demonstrate, or display their work to students, faculty, and the public. In December 2003 Rodgers received the New York Heroes Awards, which honors outstanding individuals whose creative talents and accomplishments cross all music boundaries and who are integral to the vitality of the music community. Applying his love for music to other walks of life, Rodgers is responsible for founding the We Are Family Foundation in response to the September 11 tragedies. A firm believer that nothing “lifts the spirit like song,” Rodgers had a vision to spread a positive vibe and use song to heal a troubled world. The musical career of Nile Rodgers is one of the most enduring and prolific in rock n’ roll. Starting with the first song he ever learned “A Day in the Life,” Rodgers has insured that his life and his music is anything but ordinary. Rodger’s signature is scrawled across an amazing array of music—from Madonna to Diana Ross, from David Bowie to Eric Clapton. Rodgers was born in September 1952. His background contributes almost as much to his success as his talent. Moving around a lot in his formative years, Rodgers used this experience to help him develop a palette of musical tastes. On Manhattan’s Lower East side, Jewish folk music, Latino harmonies and pure pop were the fare, while a move to the South Bronx exposed him to the Doo Wop of such favorites as the Isley Brothers and The Kingsman. The Northeast Bronx turned him on to classy crooners Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Mel Torme, and a stop in New York’s Greenwich Village opened his ears to the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, and Miriam Makeba. Rodgers picked up a guitar while still in school and there was no stopping the evident talent that quickly emerged. At the age of 19, Rodgers not only worked for Sesame Street, but was performing nightly as part of the house band for the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Rodgers continued to produce albums for artists such as Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Mick Jagger, and the B-52’s. He is also the man behind Madonna’s hit album and title track Like a Virgin. |
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