Paul Friedlander, Ph.D., Professor of Music Emeritus, California State University, Chico, is an educator, scholar, activist and musician. He founded the CSU, Chico Music Industry Program, preceded by positions at UOP Conservatory of Music and the University of Oregon. His early curricula focused upon understanding the source, nature, and importance of rock-rooted popular music within its social and political contexts. His later work engaged the artist’s relationship to the music industry at a time of monumental tectonic shifts in structure.

 

He is author of “Rock and Roll: A Social History,” (Westview/Perseus) and has conducted research and spoken in China, India, Australia, South Africa, Cuba and Europe as well as the United States. As a musician, he has sung with Pete Seeger’s Children’s Chorus at Town Hall, played bluegrass banjo at southern music festivals, hit notes with New York homeboys The Chapters, played folk music in Moscow’s Gorki Park and rock and rolled across the U.S.A.

 

His lifelong commitment to justice and peace spans the period from his attendance at the 1963 March on Washington and pro-peace activities of the Vietnam era to current work with local Northern California progressive coalitions for human rights and a legacy of health and survival for future generations.