For the latest updates from students and faculty on activities in musicology, theory, and composition, please visit our new website! https://academicmusiciowa.sites.uiowa.edu ..read more

We look to spring for warmth, life, and, hopefully, some much-needed sunny weather. Over the past few weeks, we’ve also witnessed a gaggle of conference presentations and publications from graduate students. Hearty congratulations to all who shared new work, organized conferences, and supported their peers! Publications: Cody Norling (PhD Musicology) and Dr. Marian Wilson Kimber coauthored a review of digital archives for The Journal of the American Musicological Society. Check out their review of The Metropolitan Archives, Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century, and R ..read more

Last semester, ethnomusicologist Trevor Harvey played a critical role in coordinating Esteban and the Children of the Sun, a multimedia performance envisioned and composed by former Director of Jazz Studies at Iowa, John Rapson, who passed away in July 2021. This intensely collaborative endeavor brought together local musicians, far-flung friends, faculty, students, and Iowa alumni to explore through performance the astonishing life of Esteban de Azemmour, an African man who journeyed across North America in the sixteenth century. We invite you to learn more about the significance of this pro ..read more

On February 8, come savor a multi-course meal of music research. Each presenter will offer a ten-minute morsel. If Music Is a Language, Does It Have Sentences?  Mathew Arndt, Music Theory  Discursive Constructions of Musical Ability   Adam G. Harry, Music Education  Melody in Sign Language Music  Anabel Maler, Music Theory  “It’s up to the women”: Women’s Peace Songs for Eleanor Roosevelt  Marian Wilson Kimber, Musicology  Music-Based Mindfulness Practices for Stress-Related Symptoms and Disorders  Abbey Dvorak, Music Therapy  How to Writ ..read more

Rebekah Erdman Congratulations to Musicology PhD student Rebekah Erdman, who won the National Opera Association’s 2021 Scholarly Paper Competition! Her paper, “The Immortal Hour of the English Choral Drama,” discusses the popularity and reception of the choral drama The Immortal Hour by British composer Rutland Boughton (1878-1960). Rebekah has been invited to present her paper at the NOA’s national conference in Houston in January 2023 and to publish her paper in Opera Journal. Rebekah is now the fourth Iowa student to win the competition. Previous winners include alumni Lisa Mumme (MA, Music ..read more

By Student Contributor Anastasia Scholze Anastasia Scholze is an MA student in Musicology. She holds a BA with an emphasis in Voice Performance from the University of Iowa. Her research interests include film music, women in music, and surrealism. Recently, she has worked as an ICRU Fellow with Dr. Nathan Platte on the film music podcast Sounding Cinema, and as the Classical Music Intern for Interlochen Public Radio, where she helped research and produce The Interlochen Collection. Outside of the classroom, Anastasia enjoys hiking, listening to podcasts, and playing guitar and ..read more

Professor Marian Wilson Kimber Pianist Natalie Landowski (Western Illinois University) Sunday, October 24, 2021 – 7:30pmStark Opera Studio, Voxman Music Building University of Iowa School of Music Livestream: https://music.uiowa.edu/about/live-stream-concert-schedule The duo Red Vespa, consisting of musicology professor Marian Wilson Kimber and pianist Natalie Landowski of Western Illinois University will return to the concert stage this week to present a recital of musical readings by American women composers. Wilson Kimber explored the brief, comic spoken-word pieces in her 2017 book,&nb ..read more

Sarah Suhadolnik’s work with colleague Monica Hershberger is featured in the new, open-access collection Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the 21st Century (eds. Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol Oja). Digital access to the entire book is free, and you can check out Sarah and Monica’s chapter, “Music, Travel, and Circuitous Reflections of Community,” here ..read more

Iowa’s spring semester concluded in mid-May, just in time for students and faculty to share recent projects at three different conferences. Iowa Musicology Day (May 22) brought together a coalition of Iowa students from several disciplines. John Tappen (MA, American Studies) presented a paper titled “The US Army’s Sonic Campaign for Neoliberal Militainment.” Anastasia Scholze (BA, Voice, incoming MA in Musicology) shared her research on the art and ethics of vocal dubbing in West Side Story (1961). Rebekah Erdman (PhD, Musicology) spoke on Rutland Boughton’s opera The Immortal Hour and the le ..read more

Dr. Wilson Kimber recently joined Stephen Rodgers (University of Oregon) and Christopher Reynolds (UC Davis) for a conversation on American women’s song of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The discussion draws from Dr. Wilson Kimber’s recent work on Women’s Song Forum and her book (and related performances) from The Elocutionists: Women, Music, and the Spoken Word. Thanks to IDAGIO and the Hampsong Foundation for hosting the gathering and posting the discussion ..read more