In-person conference at UCLA, April 19-21, 2026
Jews’ longstanding involvement with film and television has drawn much attention from scholars and the general public alike, raising the question of the significance of Jewish heritage and Jewishness more broadly for these creative endeavors, both on screen and behind the scenes. Given the centrality of music to Jewish culture, this conference seeks especially to delve into the ways portrayals of Jewishness are reinforced or made more complicated through music and sound in screen culture. The conference will feature two keynote speakers: composer Sharon Farber, who will discuss her work in the contemporary film industry; and Michael Beckerman, UCLA’s new Dean of the Herb Alpert School of Music.
This event is made possible by the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Co-sponsors include the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities and the Michael & Irene Ross Program in Yiddish Studies. We also gratefully acknowledge the UCLA Leo and Elaine Krown Klein Endowed Chair for Music Performance Studies and its chair holder, Professor William Kinderman as well as the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, for their generous support of the Bas-Sheve performance.