Arts and Culture / News

Band of alums goes global

Kinetix performing at TEDxDU 2011.

The Denver band Kinetix, a group of DU student musicians-turned-celebrities, have been selected for inclusion in the TEDx Global Music Project.

The video of the group’s performance at TEDxDU 2011 in May appears on the Global Music Project’s website, a compilation of the best musical performances from more than 1,700 TEDx events around the world. The initiative is independently organized by a group of TEDx licensees.

Four founding members of the band — Eric Blumenfeld (BA music ’07), Josh Fairman (BA music ’06), Jordan Linit (BA music ’06) and Adam Lufkin (BA music ’08)— are DU alumni. Drummer Pete Koopmans is a product of Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

The band’s third album, Let Me In, broke into the iTunes hot 200, peaking at No. 47. The band stopped in Denver during a national tour to perform at the May 13 TEDxDU event.

Additionally, biology Professor Todd Blankenship’s TEDxDU talk will be featured as part of TED-ED, a new initiative being developed by TED. The primary goal of TED-ED is to assemble an archive of remarkable educational videos, each under 10 minutes long, designed to catalyze learning around the globe.

Blankenship’s talk, “Why We’re Long: The Biology of Shape,” will be used by TED-ED organizers as an example of the type of talk they will solicit from TEDx organizers worldwide.

“Todd’s engaging presentation of complicated science in a way that was easy to follow, coupled with his clear enthusiasm and passion, resulted in the quintessential TED-ED Talk — literally,” says TEDxDU producer Carole Kitchell.

Videos of all of the 2011 TEDxDU talks are now available at www.tedxdu.com. Members of the DU community are encouraged — in the spirit of TED’s devotion to “ideas worth spreading” — to share the videos with colleagues, friends, and via social media in order to maximize their impact.

TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. At TED conferences, leading scientists, philosophers, entrepreneurs and artists present their ideas in 18 minutes or less. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. DU hosted its first TEDx event in 2010.

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