Yedidyah Syd Smart

Yedidyah Syd Smart World Community Through the Language of Music Syd Smart’s life has been a path of using music to create community. He began studies in music appreciation as a child in Cleveland from his mother’s vast record collection. Percussion training came from his father and older brother. Other major teachers include: Chief Bey, Milford Graves, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Babatunde Olatunji, Steve Barrios, Ibrahima Camara, Jose Luis Quintana/”Changuito”, Angel Sanchez/”Cepillo” and Deraldo Ferreira. Syd majored in Music Education at Central State University and in 1973, received a Black Music Fellowship to teach and study at Bennington College in Vermont, where he completed his B. A. Degree. He was the founder of “Friends of Great Black Music”, a Boston based organization established in the early 1970’s to support local artists involved in the music in the African and African-American Diasporas. Syd is co-founder of Boston’s annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, now in its thirty-fourth year and the world’s oldest living tribute to this master. Syd has extensive experience composing for dance and with Joan Green, he co-founded the “Children’s Dance Project” which eventually expanded to become the “Cambridge Performance Project”. a city wide performing arts program. Syd was awarded a “Dance Belt Award” by the Mayor of the City of Cambridge for constant and long standing support of the movement arts community. With Stan Strickland, Syd annually co-conducted “Sound and Movement in Nature”, a workshop offered by the Expressive Therapies Division of Lesley University. In 1992, Syd was a resident performing Artist at the World Exposition, “Expo 92”, in Seville, Spain. While there, he also began curriculum development of an Integrated Thematic Unit on Andalusian culture for third and fourth graders in the Cambridge Public Schools. He was part of a team of curriculum developers for a soon to be published curriculum that integrates African Drumming with mathematic concepts. Syd holds a Masters Degree in Education from Lesley University and has taught instrumental music in the Cambridge Public Schools. He was the Education Manager and Learning Center Director for Mars Music, a a national retail chain and largest provider of private music instruction in America. Syd’s performance experience includes: Karamu House, Art of Black Dance and Music, Rod Rodgers Dance Co., Boston Art Ensemble, Sam Rivers, Bill Dixon, Jimmy Lyons, in Spain With Juan Oliva, Angel de Jesus, and in Africa with the “Kampala Jazz Allstars. Syd is most recently known for his work with Stan Strickland and “Express Yourself”, New Language Collaborative, Samba Viva, Ann Silverman Band, The Teffilah Band of Beth El Temple Center, and action painter, Nancy Ostrovsky.


 

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