Word: ho
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...Fred Ho ’79—baritone saxophonist, composer, band leader, political activist, and Marxist—is a pretty remarkable guy. He aspires to create multicultural and deeply political music by blending avant-garde jazz and African American music with Asian influences, and he actively fuses his roles as an artist and political activist to create a uniquely expressive identity for himself. Last Friday, Ho was honored with the Fall 2009 Harvard Arts Medal, which is awarded by the Office for the Arts to an alumni “who has made a special contribution...
Since his beginnings as a self-taught musician, Ho has been pushing the boundaries of jazz, which he calls “quote-unquote jazz,” referencing the term’s origin as a racial slur. He merges African American music with Chinese opera and uses Duke Ellington-style swing in musicals and operas featuring female vampires, mythical monkeys, and now, green earth monsters. His music is arresting, indefinable, and unquestionably dramatic, aggressive in its motifs but always expansive in tone...
...Ho, combining musical messages with social emancipation is a vital part of his identity. Growing up as an Asian American in Amherst, Mass. in the 1960s, he says, “I’d faced racism ever since the day I’d become conscious as a young kid at age three.” “I was hit with the tidal wave of Black Power and the Black Arts movement,” he says of his teenage years. African American music and culture gave him a way to understand his Asian American identity...
Liberation is an important concept for Ho; his first original composition to be performed by the Harvard Jazz Bands was “Liberation Genesis,” which he created in 1975 as an already prolific undergraduate musician. It was also during his time at Harvard that he became a Marxist, which he still remains today. “I don’t consider myself a Marxist with a capital ‘M,’” he says. “I believe that it’s not a dogma, it?...
Another notable mention is senior Cheng Ho of football, a true warrior that managed to break through the toughest defensive lines in the Ivy League before a devastating injury cut his senior season short. Junior Emma Markley, leading scorer and rebounder for the Crimson women’s basketball team last year, also calls Leverett home...