Image
SMT Newsletter
Volume 48, Issue 1
Officer Reports
From the Secretary
Mitchell Ohriner, Secretary
A list of motions approved by the Executive Board prior to the 2024 Annual Meeting.
Read More
![]()
It’s my great pleasure and honor to begin my term as the Secretary of the SMT, and I’m grateful to my immediate predecessor, Charity Lofthouse, for her years of service to the Society and for her kind assistance in the transition. Since her final report in the August 2024 Newsletter, the Executive Board has passed the following motions:
- Motion to approve the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Board held in May 2024 and September 2024.
- Motion to approve Baltimore as the location of the 50th (!) Annual Meeting in November 2027.
- Motion to adopt a new harassment policy.
- Motion to form an ad hoc committee to revise subvention grant language.
- Motion to adopt a change in publications award eligibility, specifying that all awards except the emerging scholar awards can be won more than once.
- Motion to adopt the 2024 Investment Directives Addendum.
Wishing you happy New Year,
–Mitchell Ohriner
Secretary
It’s my great pleasure and honor to begin my term as the Secretary of the SMT, and I’m grateful to my immediate predecessor, Charity Lofthouse, for her years of service to the Society and for her kind assistance in the transition. Since her final report in the August 2024 Newsletter, the Executive Board has passed the following motions:
- Motion to approve the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Board held in May 2024 and September 2024.
- Motion to approve Baltimore as the location of the 50th (!) Annual Meeting in November 2027.
- Motion to adopt a new harassment policy.
- Motion to form an ad hoc committee to revise subvention grant language.
- Motion to adopt a change in publications award eligibility, specifying that all awards except the emerging scholar awards can be won more than once.
- Motion to adopt the 2024 Investment Directives Addendum.
Wishing you happy New Year,
–Mitchell Ohriner
Secretary
Committee Reports
Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity
Carla Colletti, outgoing chair
Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity name change, annual meeting session recaps, and available services.
Read More
![]()
FIGE Mission and Name Change
The mission of the Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity (FIGE, pronounced “fig-ee”) is to promote gender equity and feminist scholarship in the field of music theory. The name change modernizes our identity as gender is no longer binary. It also clarifies our role in building an inclusive space within the Society.
Annual Meeting Recap
Building on the 2023 FIGE session that explored the foundation of feminist scholarship and the movement toward models of analysis in music scholarship that have been deemed “feminist,” the 2024 session featured music by women as well as an emphasis on analytical methods that were once considered “taboo” or “lesser than” other methods of analysis. Presentations by Douglas Rust on Daphne Oram’s Pulse Persephone, Stephen Rodgers on Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel, and Clare Eng on Teresa Teng’s pop songs asked participants to reconsider some of the ways in which we listen to and experience music.
The FIGE Brown Bag session was well-attended and offered participants an inclusive and welcoming space to discuss gender, gender discrimination, and professional bias related to gender along with strategies for dealing with these issues.
I would like to thank outgoing member Carissa Reddick (University of Northern Colorado) for her service and to welcome incoming members Lena Console and Fred Cruz Nowell. Finally, it is a pleasure to turn over the chairship to Cora Palfy (Washington & Jefferson College); FIGE is in excellent hands.
Services to Promote Gender Equity and Feminist Scholarship
The Proposal-Mentoring Program
This program pairs music theory graduate students and junior scholars who identify as female, non-binary, or trans with mentors who have served on national and international program committees and/or are music theorists whose paper proposals have consistently met with success.
The Virtual Research Group Program
This program establishes groups of 3–4 peers who identify as female, non-binary, or trans, at any rank (graduate student to senior scholar) who meet online. Groups will discuss writing goals and solutions to common writing problems and get feedback from one another on their writing. Between meetings, peers will share their work and edit the work of one fellow peer. Groups normally meet three times. Once a group has completed its meeting schedule, members may ask to be paired with an outside mentor. This person will bring fresh eyes to the project and offer tips on appropriate journals or publishers.
Professional Mentoring
The Professional Mentoring Program provides mentoring for any SMT member to confidentially discuss gender-related professional issues with volunteer mentors who have navigated similar situations in their own careers. Mentors are available to discuss a broad range of issues such as job searches, tenure and promotion, negotiation, work and family, harassment, discrimination, and others.
Facebook Group
We have a private Facebook page for the SMT Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity, with about 600 members. Please join us in the group, and if you're already in the group, invite your SMT friends!
Any suggestions or questions regarding FIGE or the services above may be sent to Cora Palfy, incoming chair of FIGE, at fige@societymusictheory.org.
FIGE Mission and Name Change
The mission of the Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity (FIGE, pronounced “fig-ee”) is to promote gender equity and feminist scholarship in the field of music theory. The name change modernizes our identity as gender is no longer binary. It also clarifies our role in building an inclusive space within the Society.
Annual Meeting Recap
Building on the 2023 FIGE session that explored the foundation of feminist scholarship and the movement toward models of analysis in music scholarship that have been deemed “feminist,” the 2024 session featured music by women as well as an emphasis on analytical methods that were once considered “taboo” or “lesser than” other methods of analysis. Presentations by Douglas Rust on Daphne Oram’s Pulse Persephone, Stephen Rodgers on Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel, and Clare Eng on Teresa Teng’s pop songs asked participants to reconsider some of the ways in which we listen to and experience music.
The FIGE Brown Bag session was well-attended and offered participants an inclusive and welcoming space to discuss gender, gender discrimination, and professional bias related to gender along with strategies for dealing with these issues.
I would like to thank outgoing member Carissa Reddick (University of Northern Colorado) for her service and to welcome incoming members Lena Console and Fred Cruz Nowell. Finally, it is a pleasure to turn over the chairship to Cora Palfy (Washington & Jefferson College); FIGE is in excellent hands.
Services to Promote Gender Equity and Feminist Scholarship
The Proposal-Mentoring Program
This program pairs music theory graduate students and junior scholars who identify as female, non-binary, or trans with mentors who have served on national and international program committees and/or are music theorists whose paper proposals have consistently met with success.
The Virtual Research Group Program
This program establishes groups of 3–4 peers who identify as female, non-binary, or trans, at any rank (graduate student to senior scholar) who meet online. Groups will discuss writing goals and solutions to common writing problems and get feedback from one another on their writing. Between meetings, peers will share their work and edit the work of one fellow peer. Groups normally meet three times. Once a group has completed its meeting schedule, members may ask to be paired with an outside mentor. This person will bring fresh eyes to the project and offer tips on appropriate journals or publishers.
Professional Mentoring
The Professional Mentoring Program provides mentoring for any SMT member to confidentially discuss gender-related professional issues with volunteer mentors who have navigated similar situations in their own careers. Mentors are available to discuss a broad range of issues such as job searches, tenure and promotion, negotiation, work and family, harassment, discrimination, and others.
Facebook Group
We have a private Facebook page for the SMT Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity, with about 600 members. Please join us in the group, and if you're already in the group, invite your SMT friends!
Any suggestions or questions regarding FIGE or the services above may be sent to Cora Palfy, incoming chair of FIGE, at fige@societymusictheory.org.
Committee on LGBTQ+ Issues
Vivian Luong, chair
In collaboration with the Scholars for Social Responsibility Interest Group (SSRIG) and Project Spectrum, the Standing Committee on LGBTQ+ Issues organized our 2024 special session around the work of Jacksonville-based queer, trans, Black, and Brown activists. In anticipation of how the location of the conference would affect our membership’s attendance, this session was presented in a hybrid format. Invited speakers included GeeXella (Duval Folx), Elias Joseph (Jacksonville SDS and Girls Rock Camp Jacksonville), Sara Mahmoud (Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network and… Read More
In collaboration with the Scholars for Social Responsibility Interest Group (SSRIG) and Project Spectrum, the Standing Committee on LGBTQ+ Issues organized our 2024 special session around the work of Jacksonville-based queer, trans, Black, and Brown activists. In anticipation of how the location of the conference would affect our membership’s attendance, this session was presented in a hybrid format. Invited speakers included GeeXella (Duval Folx), Elias Joseph (Jacksonville SDS and Girls Rock Camp Jacksonville), Sara Mahmoud (Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network and Jacksonville Community Action Committee), and Angie Nixon (co-owner Cafe Resistance and member of Florida House of Representatives, 13th district). The session began with a workshop led by GeeXella on community building. The second half of the session then featured a conversation with all of our invited speakers as well as Vivian Luong (chair of the standing committee) and Steve Lett (chair of SSRIG) on local life-affirming practices that resist Florida's state-level violence against trans and queer folks, and how these practices relate to national and global struggles towards liberation. We also created and distributed copies of a zine featuring local queer organizations and businesses.
Our standing committee would like to thank the SMT and Project Spectrum for their generous support for this event. We would also like to thank (in alphabetical order) Steven Lett, Christina Misaki Nikitin, Toby Rush, and Chris Segall for their assistance in making this hybrid event possible. The SMT Standing Committee on LGBTQ+ is always open to suggestions for future events and ways to support queer members and scholarship, which you can send to lgbtq@societymusictheory.org.
In collaboration with the Scholars for Social Responsibility Interest Group (SSRIG) and Project Spectrum, the Standing Committee on LGBTQ+ Issues organized our 2024 special session around the work of Jacksonville-based queer, trans, Black, and Brown activists. In anticipation of how the location of the conference would affect our membership’s attendance, this session was presented in a hybrid format. Invited speakers included GeeXella (Duval Folx), Elias Joseph (Jacksonville SDS and Girls Rock Camp Jacksonville), Sara Mahmoud (Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network and Jacksonville Community Action Committee), and Angie Nixon (co-owner Cafe Resistance and member of Florida House of Representatives, 13th district). The session began with a workshop led by GeeXella on community building. The second half of the session then featured a conversation with all of our invited speakers as well as Vivian Luong (chair of the standing committee) and Steve Lett (chair of SSRIG) on local life-affirming practices that resist Florida's state-level violence against trans and queer folks, and how these practices relate to national and global struggles towards liberation. We also created and distributed copies of a zine featuring local queer organizations and businesses.
Our standing committee would like to thank the SMT and Project Spectrum for their generous support for this event. We would also like to thank (in alphabetical order) Steven Lett, Christina Misaki Nikitin, Toby Rush, and Chris Segall for their assistance in making this hybrid event possible. The SMT Standing Committee on LGBTQ+ is always open to suggestions for future events and ways to support queer members and scholarship, which you can send to lgbtq@societymusictheory.org.
Committee on Workshop Programs
Betsy Marvin, chair
Report of the Committee on Workshop Programs.
Read More
![]()
The SMT Workshop Programs are a stimulating way to explore new topics and to interact meaningfully with SMT colleagues whom you may not have known before. The Peer Learning Program is intended to encourage “thinking together,” in the spirit of the Mannes Institute, founded by Wayne Alpern and active from 2001–11. The 2024 PLP workshops were led by Megan Long (Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music) exploring “A Toolkit for Analyzing Sixteenth-Century Polyphony” and by Daniel K. L. Chua (The University of Hong Kong) and Alex Rehding (Harvard University) on “Hitchhiker’s Guide to IMTE (Intergalactic Music Theory of Everything).” The Graduate Student Workshops, also founded by Alpern, were led in 2024 by Chris Stover (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University) on “Global Music Theory (as an Insurgent Practice)” and Daphne Tan (University of Toronto) on “Music Psychology and the Ideas of Ernst Kurth.” Please join me in thanking these workshop leaders and my fellow 2024 committee members (Nancy Rogers, chair; Landon Morrison, and Maryam Moshaver).
The 2025 members of the Committee on Workshop Programs include Lori Burns, Ed Klorman, Mariusz Kozak, and myself. We have met and chosen an exciting slate of workshop leaders for 2025. Our invitations have been extended, and we await confirmation of titles and topics. Watch smt-announce for further details and information about how to apply. If you have not participated in a Workshop, consider applying in 2025!
The SMT Workshop Programs are a stimulating way to explore new topics and to interact meaningfully with SMT colleagues whom you may not have known before. The Peer Learning Program is intended to encourage “thinking together,” in the spirit of the Mannes Institute, founded by Wayne Alpern and active from 2001–11. The 2024 PLP workshops were led by Megan Long (Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music) exploring “A Toolkit for Analyzing Sixteenth-Century Polyphony” and by Daniel K. L. Chua (The University of Hong Kong) and Alex Rehding (Harvard University) on “Hitchhiker’s Guide to IMTE (Intergalactic Music Theory of Everything).” The Graduate Student Workshops, also founded by Alpern, were led in 2024 by Chris Stover (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University) on “Global Music Theory (as an Insurgent Practice)” and Daphne Tan (University of Toronto) on “Music Psychology and the Ideas of Ernst Kurth.” Please join me in thanking these workshop leaders and my fellow 2024 committee members (Nancy Rogers, chair; Landon Morrison, and Maryam Moshaver).
The 2025 members of the Committee on Workshop Programs include Lori Burns, Ed Klorman, Mariusz Kozak, and myself. We have met and chosen an exciting slate of workshop leaders for 2025. Our invitations have been extended, and we await confirmation of titles and topics. Watch smt-announce for further details and information about how to apply. If you have not participated in a Workshop, consider applying in 2025!
Fundraising and Development Committee
Christopher Segall, chair
When I became Chair of the Fundraising and Development Committee last year, I learned three things.
First, the revenue that SMT receives from membership dues and conference registration fees only covers about 60% of our expenses.
Second, many of SMT’s initiatives that help its members directly are funded through donations. This includes conference livestreaming, family care and travel grants, dissertation fellowships, publication support, membership and journal subsidies for students and undersupported scholars, and more.
Third, SMT does not actively… Read More
When I became Chair of the Fundraising and Development Committee last year, I learned three things.
First, the revenue that SMT receives from membership dues and conference registration fees only covers about 60% of our expenses.
Second, many of SMT’s initiatives that help its members directly are funded through donations. This includes conference livestreaming, family care and travel grants, dissertation fellowships, publication support, membership and journal subsidies for students and undersupported scholars, and more.
Third, SMT does not actively solicit donations from external sources. Our fundraising is driven by SMT members.
Before I became Development Chair, I didn’t quite realize all of this. In fact, I always balked at SMT’s requests for donations. I already pay hundreds of dollars for membership and to attend the conference. Why is SMT asking for more? Surely, many SMT members feel the same way.
But now I see things differently. The fees that SMT charges are actually the minimum they can be to sustain our Society. Our most important initiatives require additional support. Some members are in the privileged position to be able to afford more than the minimum. Those members can support the equitable mission of ensuring that everyone in our Society can participate and benefit from our resources and opportunities.
The Fundraising and Development Committee’s messaging this past year relied on two cornerstone values: wealth redistribution and community belonging. We recognize that not everyone is in the same financial situation, and not everyone has felt valued and included in the Society. We’ve tried to appeal to those who feel most comfortable donating—comfortable in both senses of the word—to help make things better for everyone.
In 2024, I was fortunate to lead an engaged committee that shares these values: Andrew Davis, Leah Frederick, and Executive Board members Jan Miyake, Nora Engebretsen, and Jennifer Diaz. Jan charged us with establishing an annual fundraising cycle. We made solicitations for Giving Tuesday, the end of the calendar year, Valentine’s Day (through a limerick penned by our esteemed President), a month-long June campaign, and the SMT Annual Meeting.
The June campaign was generously funded by Mary Wennerstrom, Professor Emerita at Indiana University and the founding Secretary of SMT. We called it the Incorporation Day Campaign, as it concluded on the anniversary of the June 30, 1978, ratification of the SMT Articles of Incorporation. Mary pledged $25 for every donation made during the month of June. We shared video clips from an interview that Jennifer conducted, where Mary reminisced about the early days of SMT and explained why supporting the Society is important to her. The campaign raised over $12,000, a considerable success for a usually quiet time of the donating year.
Looking forward, the committee plans to replicate our solicitation cycle in 2025. We welcome fundraising ideas from SMT members. Please reach out! One goal for the year is to increase small donations. We hope to emphasize that every dollar counts, and that it’s incredibly helpful for graduate students and junior scholars who can comfortably do so to add a $5 donation to their membership or registration.
SMT members are a generous bunch. Our committees, our journals, our conferences are all run by a community of volunteers. You donate your time—as you are able, when you feel valued—to help improve our community. You set up livestream cameras, review travel grant and dissertation fellowship applications, share your research with others, so that those who cannot easily travel to the conference due to disability, cost, or family care can participate equitably, and so that early-career, underrepresented, and international scholars can be welcomed into the field. These initiatives rely not only on volunteering, but also on the financial support of SMT members.
In the year ahead, we hope to remind you that your contributions help shape the future of our community.
We accept your gifts with gratitude. Donations may be made via the SMT website.
When I became Chair of the Fundraising and Development Committee last year, I learned three things.
First, the revenue that SMT receives from membership dues and conference registration fees only covers about 60% of our expenses.
Second, many of SMT’s initiatives that help its members directly are funded through donations. This includes conference livestreaming, family care and travel grants, dissertation fellowships, publication support, membership and journal subsidies for students and undersupported scholars, and more.
Third, SMT does not actively solicit donations from external sources. Our fundraising is driven by SMT members.
Before I became Development Chair, I didn’t quite realize all of this. In fact, I always balked at SMT’s requests for donations. I already pay hundreds of dollars for membership and to attend the conference. Why is SMT asking for more? Surely, many SMT members feel the same way.
But now I see things differently. The fees that SMT charges are actually the minimum they can be to sustain our Society. Our most important initiatives require additional support. Some members are in the privileged position to be able to afford more than the minimum. Those members can support the equitable mission of ensuring that everyone in our Society can participate and benefit from our resources and opportunities.
The Fundraising and Development Committee’s messaging this past year relied on two cornerstone values: wealth redistribution and community belonging. We recognize that not everyone is in the same financial situation, and not everyone has felt valued and included in the Society. We’ve tried to appeal to those who feel most comfortable donating—comfortable in both senses of the word—to help make things better for everyone.
In 2024, I was fortunate to lead an engaged committee that shares these values: Andrew Davis, Leah Frederick, and Executive Board members Jan Miyake, Nora Engebretsen, and Jennifer Diaz. Jan charged us with establishing an annual fundraising cycle. We made solicitations for Giving Tuesday, the end of the calendar year, Valentine’s Day (through a limerick penned by our esteemed President), a month-long June campaign, and the SMT Annual Meeting.
The June campaign was generously funded by Mary Wennerstrom, Professor Emerita at Indiana University and the founding Secretary of SMT. We called it the Incorporation Day Campaign, as it concluded on the anniversary of the June 30, 1978, ratification of the SMT Articles of Incorporation. Mary pledged $25 for every donation made during the month of June. We shared video clips from an interview that Jennifer conducted, where Mary reminisced about the early days of SMT and explained why supporting the Society is important to her. The campaign raised over $12,000, a considerable success for a usually quiet time of the donating year.
Looking forward, the committee plans to replicate our solicitation cycle in 2025. We welcome fundraising ideas from SMT members. Please reach out! One goal for the year is to increase small donations. We hope to emphasize that every dollar counts, and that it’s incredibly helpful for graduate students and junior scholars who can comfortably do so to add a $5 donation to their membership or registration.
SMT members are a generous bunch. Our committees, our journals, our conferences are all run by a community of volunteers. You donate your time—as you are able, when you feel valued—to help improve our community. You set up livestream cameras, review travel grant and dissertation fellowship applications, share your research with others, so that those who cannot easily travel to the conference due to disability, cost, or family care can participate equitably, and so that early-career, underrepresented, and international scholars can be welcomed into the field. These initiatives rely not only on volunteering, but also on the financial support of SMT members.
In the year ahead, we hope to remind you that your contributions help shape the future of our community.
We accept your gifts with gratitude. Donations may be made via the SMT website.
Program Committee
Maryam A. Moshaver
November 2024 SMT Annual Meeting: Program Chair's report and demographic information.
Read More
![]()
The 2024 SMT Program Committee included Maryam Moshaver (chair), Mariusz Kozak, Tomoko Deguchi, Kyle Adams, Brad Osborn, Somangshu Mukherji, Guy Capuzzo, and Jan Miyake (ex officio). The committee first met during the 2023 conference to plan for the upcoming year and to discuss ideas for a keynote, or plenary event. Stephen Rodgers, Chair of the 2023 Program Committee joined us to answer our questions, share his experience, and offer invaluable advice. We held our subsequent committee meetings via Zoom, over a total of 16 hours in April and early May 2024. I am especially grateful to all the members of the Program Committee for their generosity, ingenuity, and humour in constructing and providing titles for so many of the sessions. In some instances, we were able to group papers in unconventional combinations that foregrounded interconnectedness of ideas and cultures in our field in new and subtle ways.
Professor Vijay Ayer (Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts, Harvard University) kindly accepted our invitation to deliver the conference’s Keynote Address; his paper was titled “What’s Left of Music Theory?”
In the 2024 meeting, in addition to the traditional Poster session, we introduced a new category of Public Music Theory Poster Exhibit. The intention here, besides continuity with the 2023 Plenary Session’s focus on the theme of public music theory, was to invite the local community to attend the Poster Exhibit, which featured topics of interest to high school teachers and students of the Jacksonville area. Special thanks are due to Michael Buchler (Past President) and Amelia Abouljoud (SMT intern and conference assistant) for their tireless work in reaching out to the local schools and educators and encouraging their engagement with SMT. A second objective for introducing this new category was to provide members with an opportunity for deeper exploration of the potentials for communication and interaction specific to the Poster genre of presentation.
The Program Committee reviewed 339 proposals including 316 single- or joint-authored papers, 18 integrated sessions, and 5 alternative format sessions. From these proposals, 155 were accepted: 18 were Posters, ten of which doubled also in the 18 Public Music Theory Poster Exhibit presentations. The overall acceptance rate for the proposals was 45.7%.
Since ConfTool, the system SMT currently uses to review proposals, does not automatically gather demographic information for all submissions, the demographical data presented below reflects only the accepted proposals. The data includes the individual presenters from the integrated and alternative-format sessions. For this reason, the number of presenters (181) exceeds the number of accepted proposals (155).
Gender
- Man 111/181 (61%)
- Woman 42/181 (23%)
- Unknown 12/181 (6.6%)
- Other: 8/181 (3.9%)
- Prefer not to answer 5/181 (2.7%)
- Gender Neutral 3/181 (1.65%)
Race and Ethnicity
- White 106/181 (58.5%)
- Asian 29/181 (16%)
- Unknown 21/181 (11.6%)
- Some other race, ethnicity, or origin: 18/181 (9.9%)
- Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish 5/181 (2.7%)
- Black or African-American 1/181 (<1%)
- Middle Eastern or North African 1/181 (<1%)
Professional status
- Full Professor 17/181 (9.4%)
- Student 51/181 (21%)
- Assistant Professor 38/181 (20.9%)
- Associate Professor 35/181 (19.3%)
- Lecturer/Instructor 13/181 (7%)
- Other 13/181 (7%)
- Unknown 8/181 (4.4%)
- Independent Scholar 6/181 (3.3%)
I am deeply grateful to the members of the Program Committee for their generous contributions in time and expertise, and for their collegiality and patience in the long collaboration process that created the 2024 program. My special thanks go to Jan Miyake and Jennifer Diaz for their admirable attention to detail, unflagging support, and gentle persuasion.
Maryam A. Moshaver
The 2024 SMT Program Committee included Maryam Moshaver (chair), Mariusz Kozak, Tomoko Deguchi, Kyle Adams, Brad Osborn, Somangshu Mukherji, Guy Capuzzo, and Jan Miyake (ex officio). The committee first met during the 2023 conference to plan for the upcoming year and to discuss ideas for a keynote, or plenary event. Stephen Rodgers, Chair of the 2023 Program Committee joined us to answer our questions, share his experience, and offer invaluable advice. We held our subsequent committee meetings via Zoom, over a total of 16 hours in April and early May 2024. I am especially grateful to all the members of the Program Committee for their generosity, ingenuity, and humour in constructing and providing titles for so many of the sessions. In some instances, we were able to group papers in unconventional combinations that foregrounded interconnectedness of ideas and cultures in our field in new and subtle ways.
Professor Vijay Ayer (Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts, Harvard University) kindly accepted our invitation to deliver the conference’s Keynote Address; his paper was titled “What’s Left of Music Theory?”
In the 2024 meeting, in addition to the traditional Poster session, we introduced a new category of Public Music Theory Poster Exhibit. The intention here, besides continuity with the 2023 Plenary Session’s focus on the theme of public music theory, was to invite the local community to attend the Poster Exhibit, which featured topics of interest to high school teachers and students of the Jacksonville area. Special thanks are due to Michael Buchler (Past President) and Amelia Abouljoud (SMT intern and conference assistant) for their tireless work in reaching out to the local schools and educators and encouraging their engagement with SMT. A second objective for introducing this new category was to provide members with an opportunity for deeper exploration of the potentials for communication and interaction specific to the Poster genre of presentation.
The Program Committee reviewed 339 proposals including 316 single- or joint-authored papers, 18 integrated sessions, and 5 alternative format sessions. From these proposals, 155 were accepted: 18 were Posters, ten of which doubled also in the 18 Public Music Theory Poster Exhibit presentations. The overall acceptance rate for the proposals was 45.7%.
Since ConfTool, the system SMT currently uses to review proposals, does not automatically gather demographic information for all submissions, the demographical data presented below reflects only the accepted proposals. The data includes the individual presenters from the integrated and alternative-format sessions. For this reason, the number of presenters (181) exceeds the number of accepted proposals (155).
Gender
- Man 111/181 (61%)
- Woman 42/181 (23%)
- Unknown 12/181 (6.6%)
- Other: 8/181 (3.9%)
- Prefer not to answer 5/181 (2.7%)
- Gender Neutral 3/181 (1.65%)
Race and Ethnicity
- White 106/181 (58.5%)
- Asian 29/181 (16%)
- Unknown 21/181 (11.6%)
- Some other race, ethnicity, or origin: 18/181 (9.9%)
- Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish 5/181 (2.7%)
- Black or African-American 1/181 (<1%)
- Middle Eastern or North African 1/181 (<1%)
Professional status
- Full Professor 17/181 (9.4%)
- Student 51/181 (21%)
- Assistant Professor 38/181 (20.9%)
- Associate Professor 35/181 (19.3%)
- Lecturer/Instructor 13/181 (7%)
- Other 13/181 (7%)
- Unknown 8/181 (4.4%)
- Independent Scholar 6/181 (3.3%)
I am deeply grateful to the members of the Program Committee for their generous contributions in time and expertise, and for their collegiality and patience in the long collaboration process that created the 2024 program. My special thanks go to Jan Miyake and Jennifer Diaz for their admirable attention to detail, unflagging support, and gentle persuasion.
Maryam A. Moshaver
Student Presentation Award Committee
Chris White
2024 SMT Student Presentation Awards
Read More
![]()
The Student Presentation Award Committee is happy to announce that Tori Vilches (Indiana University) has won this year's award for her paper, "'Sex Sells': A Decolonial Analysis of Purplewashing and Sexual Narrative in the Women of Reggaetón". We also selected three papers for honorable mention, including "Alfabeto, punto, and diapason: the guitar as an instrument of music theory in seventeenth-century Iberia" by Juan Patricio Saenz (Harvard), Sam Falotico's (Eastman) “What’s in an OP?”: Narrative, KonoSuba, and the 3/4 Prechorus", and "Fantasy and Formenlehre in Imperial Japan" by Rina Sugawara (University of Chicago).
Many thanks to the committee members for their service: Rachel Short, Andrew Chung, John Peterson, and Chelsey Hamm. And, of course, many thanks to the all the students who submitted their work!
The Student Presentation Award Committee is happy to announce that Tori Vilches (Indiana University) has won this year's award for her paper, "'Sex Sells': A Decolonial Analysis of Purplewashing and Sexual Narrative in the Women of Reggaetón". We also selected three papers for honorable mention, including "Alfabeto, punto, and diapason: the guitar as an instrument of music theory in seventeenth-century Iberia" by Juan Patricio Saenz (Harvard), Sam Falotico's (Eastman) “What’s in an OP?”: Narrative, KonoSuba, and the 3/4 Prechorus", and "Fantasy and Formenlehre in Imperial Japan" by Rina Sugawara (University of Chicago).
Many thanks to the committee members for their service: Rachel Short, Andrew Chung, John Peterson, and Chelsey Hamm. And, of course, many thanks to the all the students who submitted their work!
Journal Reports
Music Theory Spectrum
Laura Emmery, Editor-in-Chief, Music Theory Spectrum
Congratulations to Carmel Raz on her 2024 Emerging Scholar Award-winning article published in Music Theory Spectrum 44(1).
Read More
![]()
The editorial team of Music Theory Spectrum congratulates Carmel Raz on her 2024 SMT Emerging Scholar Award for her article, "To 'Fill Up, Completely, the Whole Capacity of the Mind': Listening with Attention in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland," published in Music Theory Spectrum 44/1 (Spring 2022). We are pleased to announce that Oxford University Press will make this article free to view for one month.
A leading journal in the field and an official publication of the Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum features articles on a wide range of topics in music theory and analysis and welcomes interdisciplinary articles revealing intersections with topics in other fields.
The editorial team of Music Theory Spectrum congratulates Carmel Raz on her 2024 SMT Emerging Scholar Award for her article, "To 'Fill Up, Completely, the Whole Capacity of the Mind': Listening with Attention in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland," published in Music Theory Spectrum 44/1 (Spring 2022). We are pleased to announce that Oxford University Press will make this article free to view for one month.
A leading journal in the field and an official publication of the Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum features articles on a wide range of topics in music theory and analysis and welcomes interdisciplinary articles revealing intersections with topics in other fields.
Interest Group Reports
Sam Falotico and Ruixue Hu
At SMT's 2024 Annual Meeting, the Analysis of World Musics Interest Group (AWMIG) held its annual meeting jointly with the Timbre and Orchestration Interest Group on Friday, November 8, at 7:15 AM. The meeting included presentations by Esthantha Peiris, Annie Y. Liu, and Nathan Lam, which were followed by a lively group discussion.
Members of the AWMIG meet via Zoom every-other month with our sister group, the SEM Analysis Interest Group. We generally have one person present their research (at various stages of development) during these meetings. We… Read More
At SMT's 2024 Annual Meeting, the Analysis of World Musics Interest Group (AWMIG) held its annual meeting jointly with the Timbre and Orchestration Interest Group on Friday, November 8, at 7:15 AM. The meeting included presentations by Esthantha Peiris, Annie Y. Liu, and Nathan Lam, which were followed by a lively group discussion.
Members of the AWMIG meet via Zoom every-other month with our sister group, the SEM Analysis Interest Group. We generally have one person present their research (at various stages of development) during these meetings. We would love to see you there at the next one! We are in the process of revitalizing our HCommons page—where we plan to post information on our bi-monthly meetings—so feel free to join there! If you have any questions, please email our co-chairs, Ruixue Hu (rhu14@u.rochester.edu) and Sam Falotico (sfalotic@u.rochester.edu).
— Ruixue Hu and Sam Falotico
At SMT's 2024 Annual Meeting, the Analysis of World Musics Interest Group (AWMIG) held its annual meeting jointly with the Timbre and Orchestration Interest Group on Friday, November 8, at 7:15 AM. The meeting included presentations by Esthantha Peiris, Annie Y. Liu, and Nathan Lam, which were followed by a lively group discussion.
Members of the AWMIG meet via Zoom every-other month with our sister group, the SEM Analysis Interest Group. We generally have one person present their research (at various stages of development) during these meetings. We would love to see you there at the next one! We are in the process of revitalizing our HCommons page—where we plan to post information on our bi-monthly meetings—so feel free to join there! If you have any questions, please email our co-chairs, Ruixue Hu (rhu14@u.rochester.edu) and Sam Falotico (sfalotic@u.rochester.edu).
— Ruixue Hu and Sam Falotico
Christoph Neidhöfer and Jamuna Samuel, co-chairs
Autographs and Archival Documents Interest Group
Read More
![]()
The Autographs and Archival Documents Interest Group (AADIG) held its annual meeting on Friday, November 8, during the 2024 SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. The session began with a short business meeting, where we announced that Jamuna Samuel was elected the new co-chair of the AADIG and thanked outgoing co-chair Philip Stoecker for his leadership over the last three years. The meeting then featured two lightning talks and a presentation by two librarians from Jacksonville. Zachary Bernstein (Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester) discussed “Pre-Compositional Rhythmic Structure and Dialectical Critique in Helmut Lachenmann’s Serynade” and Nathan Cobb (Shenandoah University) illuminated “L'étrangeté du son: Deconstructed Voices in Gérard Grisey’s Student Works.” In their presentation, Allison Crawford (Access Services Librarian at Jacksonville University) and Amy Feinstein (Librarian in the Special Collections Department at Jacksonville Public Library) shed light on the archival materials on Frederick Delius held in two collections in Jacksonville and on his connection to the city.
The AADIG promotes scholarship that is informed by the study of archival materials, broadly construed. To remain updated on all group activities we encourage everyone to see our AADIG Facebook and AADIG Knowledge Commons pages, as well as our AADIG webpage with SMT, where you can sign up for our email list.
The Autographs and Archival Documents Interest Group (AADIG) held its annual meeting on Friday, November 8, during the 2024 SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. The session began with a short business meeting, where we announced that Jamuna Samuel was elected the new co-chair of the AADIG and thanked outgoing co-chair Philip Stoecker for his leadership over the last three years. The meeting then featured two lightning talks and a presentation by two librarians from Jacksonville. Zachary Bernstein (Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester) discussed “Pre-Compositional Rhythmic Structure and Dialectical Critique in Helmut Lachenmann’s Serynade” and Nathan Cobb (Shenandoah University) illuminated “L'étrangeté du son: Deconstructed Voices in Gérard Grisey’s Student Works.” In their presentation, Allison Crawford (Access Services Librarian at Jacksonville University) and Amy Feinstein (Librarian in the Special Collections Department at Jacksonville Public Library) shed light on the archival materials on Frederick Delius held in two collections in Jacksonville and on his connection to the city.
The AADIG promotes scholarship that is informed by the study of archival materials, broadly construed. To remain updated on all group activities we encourage everyone to see our AADIG Facebook and AADIG Knowledge Commons pages, as well as our AADIG webpage with SMT, where you can sign up for our email list.
David Temperley
At SMT 2024 in Jacksonville, the Composition Interest Group (Clifton presented the first ever concert of works by SMT composers performed by SMT musicians.
Read More
At SMT 2024 in Jacksonville, the Composition Interest Group (Clifton Callender and David Temperley, co-chairs) presented the first ever concert of works by SMT composers performed by SMT musicians. The concert featured works by composed by Richard Drehoff Jr., Stephen Guerra, J. Daniel Jenkins, Jane Kozhevnikova, Victoria Malawey, Scott Murphy, and Dmitri Tymoczko, performed by Cynthia Folio (flute), Evan Jones (cello), Nathan Lam (clarinet), Paul Miller (violin), and Robert Wells (piano). The concert was attended by approximately 175 people. The CIG is very grateful to the Local Arrangements Committee for providing music stands, to the SMT subvention committee for financing the grand piano rental, to the Eastman theory department for subsidizing printing of the program, and (especially) to Jennifer Diaz for her help and support with many aspects of the concert.
At SMT 2024 in Jacksonville, the Composition Interest Group (Clifton Callender and David Temperley, co-chairs) presented the first ever concert of works by SMT composers performed by SMT musicians. The concert featured works by composed by Richard Drehoff Jr., Stephen Guerra, J. Daniel Jenkins, Jane Kozhevnikova, Victoria Malawey, Scott Murphy, and Dmitri Tymoczko, performed by Cynthia Folio (flute), Evan Jones (cello), Nathan Lam (clarinet), Paul Miller (violin), and Robert Wells (piano). The concert was attended by approximately 175 people. The CIG is very grateful to the Local Arrangements Committee for providing music stands, to the SMT subvention committee for financing the grand piano rental, to the Eastman theory department for subsidizing printing of the program, and (especially) to Jennifer Diaz for her help and support with many aspects of the concert.
Rachel Gain and Stefanie Bilidas, co-chairs
The Dance and Movement Interest Group (DMIG) hosted a Baroque dance workshop run by Catherine Turocy (President and Artistic Director of the New York Baroque Dance Company) which was attended by approximately 40 people and received wide praise. The attendees learned how to dance the minuet and sarabande, then engaged in Q&A and discussion about the benefits of embodied dance knowledge for understanding and teaching Baroque dance suites.
Read More
![]()
During our 2024 business meeting at the Jacksonville Annual Meeting of the SMT, the Dance and Movement Interest Group (DMIG) hosted a Baroque dance workshop run by Catherine Turocy (President and Artistic Director of the New York Baroque Dance Company) which was attended by approximately 40 people and received wide praise. The attendees learned how to dance the minuet and sarabande, then engaged in Q&A and discussion about the benefits of embodied dance knowledge for understanding and teaching Baroque dance suites. Prior to the annual meeting, we elected Stefanie Bilidas as co-chair. In addition, this past June, we held an online meeting where we informally shared works in progress and built connections between dance and movement scholars. We continue to solicit suggestions for new publications on dance and movement to add to our collective Dance/Movement and Music Bibliography and submissions for our DMIG resource depository. For more information on DMIG and its events and resources, please visit our DMIG Knowledge Commons page and DMIG website, or email co-chairs Stefanie Bilidas and Rachel Gain at danceandmovement@societymusictheory.org.
During our 2024 business meeting at the Jacksonville Annual Meeting of the SMT, the Dance and Movement Interest Group (DMIG) hosted a Baroque dance workshop run by Catherine Turocy (President and Artistic Director of the New York Baroque Dance Company) which was attended by approximately 40 people and received wide praise. The attendees learned how to dance the minuet and sarabande, then engaged in Q&A and discussion about the benefits of embodied dance knowledge for understanding and teaching Baroque dance suites. Prior to the annual meeting, we elected Stefanie Bilidas as co-chair. In addition, this past June, we held an online meeting where we informally shared works in progress and built connections between dance and movement scholars. We continue to solicit suggestions for new publications on dance and movement to add to our collective Dance/Movement and Music Bibliography and submissions for our DMIG resource depository. For more information on DMIG and its events and resources, please visit our DMIG Knowledge Commons page and DMIG website, or email co-chairs Stefanie Bilidas and Rachel Gain at danceandmovement@societymusictheory.org.
William Ayers and Charity Lofthouse
The Film and Multimedia Interest Group met at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville to enjoy a session of lightning talks that considered the last ten years and the next ten years of musical multimedia, including presentations by Laine Gruver, Adam Rizzo, Austin Wilson, and Clair Nguyen. The session also included two invited presentations by the group's founders, Juan Chattah and Frank Lehman. Thank you to all of our wonderful presenters for their excellent scholarship and to all of those in attendance for making it such a wonderful evening!
We also announced our new co-chairs:… Read More
The Film and Multimedia Interest Group met at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville to enjoy a session of lightning talks that considered the last ten years and the next ten years of musical multimedia, including presentations by Laine Gruver, Adam Rizzo, Austin Wilson, and Clair Nguyen. The session also included two invited presentations by the group's founders, Juan Chattah and Frank Lehman. Thank you to all of our wonderful presenters for their excellent scholarship and to all of those in attendance for making it such a wonderful evening!
We also announced our new co-chairs: Clair Nguyen and Chelsea Oden. Many thanks to them for being willing to take on this service. We are very excited about the future of our group with them in charge!
For more information about our group, please see our page on Knowledge Commons (https://hcommons.org/groups/smt-film-and-multimedia-interest-group/). We encourage your active involvement, and we look forward to seeing you at our next event!
The Film and Multimedia Interest Group met at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville to enjoy a session of lightning talks that considered the last ten years and the next ten years of musical multimedia, including presentations by Laine Gruver, Adam Rizzo, Austin Wilson, and Clair Nguyen. The session also included two invited presentations by the group's founders, Juan Chattah and Frank Lehman. Thank you to all of our wonderful presenters for their excellent scholarship and to all of those in attendance for making it such a wonderful evening!
We also announced our new co-chairs: Clair Nguyen and Chelsea Oden. Many thanks to them for being willing to take on this service. We are very excited about the future of our group with them in charge!
For more information about our group, please see our page on Knowledge Commons (https://hcommons.org/groups/smt-film-and-multimedia-interest-group/). We encourage your active involvement, and we look forward to seeing you at our next event!
Sean Smither, outgoing chair
The Improvisation Interest Group met jointly with the Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group at the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL, on Friday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. The meeting featured seven ten-minute presentations on the theme of “Improvisation and/as Pedagogy." The presentations (by Stefanie Bilidas, Philip Duker, Collin Felter, Ryan Galik, Ben Geyer, Nancy Rogers, and Charles Weaver and Dani Zanuttini-Frank) spanned a wide range of repertoires and approaches and many included active participation from the audience of roughly 55 attendees… Read More
The Improvisation Interest Group met jointly with the Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group at the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL, on Friday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. The meeting featured seven ten-minute presentations on the theme of “Improvisation and/as Pedagogy." The presentations (by Stefanie Bilidas, Philip Duker, Collin Felter, Ryan Galik, Ben Geyer, Nancy Rogers, and Charles Weaver and Dani Zanuttini-Frank) spanned a wide range of repertoires and approaches and many included active participation from the audience of roughly 55 attendees. Following these presentations, each group held a brief business meeting.
Elections for a new vice-chair are being held online as our outgoing chair, Sean Smither (The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music), rotates out, and Andrew Malilay White (The University of Texas at Austin) rotates from vice-chair to chair. Our next meeting will be at the 2025 Joint SMT and AMS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN, with agenda details to be discussed in the new year. As always, we welcome news of any activities that might be of interest to our community, including theorization about or analysis of improvisation, improvisationally-oriented pedagogical models, and engagement with repertoires that prominently feature improvisation. For more on our group, visit our Improvisation Interest Group Website or the Improvisation Interest Group page on the SMT website, or reach out to our incoming chair, Andrew Malilay White, andrew.white@austin.utexas.edu.
The Improvisation Interest Group met jointly with the Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group at the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL, on Friday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. The meeting featured seven ten-minute presentations on the theme of “Improvisation and/as Pedagogy." The presentations (by Stefanie Bilidas, Philip Duker, Collin Felter, Ryan Galik, Ben Geyer, Nancy Rogers, and Charles Weaver and Dani Zanuttini-Frank) spanned a wide range of repertoires and approaches and many included active participation from the audience of roughly 55 attendees. Following these presentations, each group held a brief business meeting.
Elections for a new vice-chair are being held online as our outgoing chair, Sean Smither (The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music), rotates out, and Andrew Malilay White (The University of Texas at Austin) rotates from vice-chair to chair. Our next meeting will be at the 2025 Joint SMT and AMS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN, with agenda details to be discussed in the new year. As always, we welcome news of any activities that might be of interest to our community, including theorization about or analysis of improvisation, improvisationally-oriented pedagogical models, and engagement with repertoires that prominently feature improvisation. For more on our group, visit our Improvisation Interest Group Website or the Improvisation Interest Group page on the SMT website, or reach out to our incoming chair, Andrew Malilay White, andrew.white@austin.utexas.edu.
Ben Baker, past-chair
The SMT Jazz Interest Group held its thirtieth annual meeting at the 2024 SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, FL. The meeting featured a productive roundtable discussion of Brian Kane’s (Yale University) recent book, we awarded the 2024 Award for Excellence in Jazz Scholarship to Rich Pellegrin, and we elected Sean Smither to a three-year term as chair.
Read More
![]()
The SMT Jazz Interest Group held its thirtieth annual meeting at the 2024 SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, FL. The meeting featured a productive roundtable discussion of Brian Kane’s (Yale University) recent book, Hearing Double: Jazz, Ontology, Auditory Culture (OUP 2024), which theorizes the ontology and aesthetics of jazz standards.
We also awarded Rich Pellegrin the 2024 Award for Excellence in Jazz Scholarship for his 2022 article, “Harmony versus Voicing: Modeling Local-Level Salience and Stability in Jazz after 1960,” published (in English) in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie 19 (1): 67–102. In his article, Pellegrin examines how stable underlying harmonies are realized as salient voicings in contemporary jazz practice, shedding light on a prevalent but underexamined improvisational concept. Pellegrin builds extensively on existing jazz research, putting neo-Riemannian approaches to voice-leading into dialogue with hierarchical theories of pitch structure, grouping, and meter to analyze the influential harmonic approach of pianist Robert Glasper. He also draws on his own experience as a pianist to highlight the creative potential of his approach. Congratulations, Rich! And many thanks to the award committee: Sean Smither (chair), Varun Chandrasekhar, and Dustin Chau.
In online elections held after the meeting, the group elected Sean Smither (Juilliard) to serve a three-year term as our new chair. Congratulations, Sean! We also voted to shift our leadership model to allow for one year of overlap between successive chairs; Ben Baker will remain as past-chair for a transitional year in 2025.
We welcome anyone interested in jazz or improvised music to join the Jazz Interest Group! The primary hub for our year-round activity is on the Jazz Interest Group Knowledge Commons page. Our group page is private to main a space for respectful and productive discourse, but one of our chairs will quickly approve your membership request. Our online Jazz Theory Bibliography is managed by James McGowan (Carleton University); please contact him with any new entries, questions, or comments. Please contact Ben Baker (Eastman School of Music) or Sean Smither (Juilliard) with other questions about the group.
The SMT Jazz Interest Group held its thirtieth annual meeting at the 2024 SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, FL. The meeting featured a productive roundtable discussion of Brian Kane’s (Yale University) recent book, Hearing Double: Jazz, Ontology, Auditory Culture (OUP 2024), which theorizes the ontology and aesthetics of jazz standards.
We also awarded Rich Pellegrin the 2024 Award for Excellence in Jazz Scholarship for his 2022 article, “Harmony versus Voicing: Modeling Local-Level Salience and Stability in Jazz after 1960,” published (in English) in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie 19 (1): 67–102. In his article, Pellegrin examines how stable underlying harmonies are realized as salient voicings in contemporary jazz practice, shedding light on a prevalent but underexamined improvisational concept. Pellegrin builds extensively on existing jazz research, putting neo-Riemannian approaches to voice-leading into dialogue with hierarchical theories of pitch structure, grouping, and meter to analyze the influential harmonic approach of pianist Robert Glasper. He also draws on his own experience as a pianist to highlight the creative potential of his approach. Congratulations, Rich! And many thanks to the award committee: Sean Smither (chair), Varun Chandrasekhar, and Dustin Chau.
In online elections held after the meeting, the group elected Sean Smither (Juilliard) to serve a three-year term as our new chair. Congratulations, Sean! We also voted to shift our leadership model to allow for one year of overlap between successive chairs; Ben Baker will remain as past-chair for a transitional year in 2025.
We welcome anyone interested in jazz or improvised music to join the Jazz Interest Group! The primary hub for our year-round activity is on the Jazz Interest Group Knowledge Commons page. Our group page is private to main a space for respectful and productive discourse, but one of our chairs will quickly approve your membership request. Our online Jazz Theory Bibliography is managed by James McGowan (Carleton University); please contact him with any new entries, questions, or comments. Please contact Ben Baker (Eastman School of Music) or Sean Smither (Juilliard) with other questions about the group.
Mike Hall, outgoing chair
The following is a summary of the annual meeting of the SMT Mathematics of Music Interest Group, which took place at the Annual Meeting of SMT in November 2024.
Read More
![]()
The SMT Mathematics of Music Interest Group held its annual meeting on Friday, November 8th, 2024, 12:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m. EST during the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL. After a short business meeting to open nominations for the two available co-chair positions, the following talks were featured: "Metrics on Chord Spaces Modulo Cardinality" by James R. Hughes (Elizabethtown College); "DOUTH2" by Nathan John Martin (University of Michigan); "N-Dimensional Ski-hill Graphs" by Kája Lill (University of St. Thomas-Houston); and "Families of set classes arising from a cellular automaton in mod-12 and other modular spaces" by Evan Jones (Florida State University). Thank you to all four speakers for their valuable contributions.
The Math IG also organized a table during the Interest Group Fair with a review of past and current offerings from our annual meetings. Thank you to all the individuals who stopped by our table during the fair.
All interested individuals are invited to join the Mathematics of Music Interest Group. To join our listserv, please visit SMT Math Google group. For more information about the Math IG, please contact outgoing chair Mike Hall (mh2468@aol.com) who will put you in contact with our new leadership.
The SMT Mathematics of Music Interest Group held its annual meeting on Friday, November 8th, 2024, 12:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m. EST during the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL. After a short business meeting to open nominations for the two available co-chair positions, the following talks were featured: "Metrics on Chord Spaces Modulo Cardinality" by James R. Hughes (Elizabethtown College); "DOUTH2" by Nathan John Martin (University of Michigan); "N-Dimensional Ski-hill Graphs" by Kája Lill (University of St. Thomas-Houston); and "Families of set classes arising from a cellular automaton in mod-12 and other modular spaces" by Evan Jones (Florida State University). Thank you to all four speakers for their valuable contributions.
The Math IG also organized a table during the Interest Group Fair with a review of past and current offerings from our annual meetings. Thank you to all the individuals who stopped by our table during the fair.
All interested individuals are invited to join the Mathematics of Music Interest Group. To join our listserv, please visit SMT Math Google group. For more information about the Math IG, please contact outgoing chair Mike Hall (mh2468@aol.com) who will put you in contact with our new leadership.
Florian Walch, outgoing chair
Summary of the SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group meeting, which took place at the Annual Meeting of SMT in November, and a preview of upcoming events.
Read More
![]()
SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group Recap & Preview
The SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group looks back on stimulating presentations and discussion in Jacksonville, welcomes its incoming co-chairs, and looks forward to seeing you at more remote meetings in the coming year! Follow our socials to stay in touch or reach out directly to either the outgoing or incoming officers. The links are below; all are welcome and encouraged to think music theory philosophically with us.
Meeting at Jacksonville
At the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, the SMT Music and Philosophy IG hosted a panel of papers followed by a discussion on the question: "What does it mean to theorize the world beyond music in ways that remain distinctly music theoretical?" Dmitri Tymoczko, Derek J. Myler, and Lara Balikci presented papers that explored, respectively, a generalized theory of symmetries throughout human experience, transformational paths through the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, and how concepts of cosmic harmony are visualized in the surrealist paintings of Remedios Varo. The stimulating discussion that followed reflected, among other things, on the curiously atemporal nature of music theory's recent transformational methodologies, questions of perspectivism in space vs. time, and (as is prone to happen with any math-adjacent matter) the viability of Platonism.
Transition of Co-Chairs
After a two-year term, a period of nominations, and elections (thanks to all who participated), the outgoing co-chairs, Florian Walch and Audrey J. Slote (both University of Chicago), are happy to welcome our incoming co-chairs, Varun Chandrasekhar (Washington University in St. Louis) and Grant Sawatzky (University of British Columbia). The transfer will happen during the summer. Meanwhile, we'll work to create a smooth transition and continue our project of creating a space for deep and open reflection on music theory's fundamental assumptions, purposes, and philosophical resonances. Please reach out to get involved!
Upcoming Events & How to Get / Stay in Touch
After hosting a meeting to draft and vote on bylaws, and a book talk with Michael Gallope on Zoom in 2024, the SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group looks forward to hosting more remote events in 2025. If you would like to discuss recent publications on music theory and philosophy (broadly understood) or would like to present your own work in progress, please get in touch! You can find us on the Music and Philosophy Interest Group Page on the SMT Website, the SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group Facebook page, and the SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group page on Knowledge Commons, or reach out directly to the co-chairs, whose emails are listed on the SMT Website.
SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group Recap & Preview
The SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group looks back on stimulating presentations and discussion in Jacksonville, welcomes its incoming co-chairs, and looks forward to seeing you at more remote meetings in the coming year! Follow our socials to stay in touch or reach out directly to either the outgoing or incoming officers. The links are below; all are welcome and encouraged to think music theory philosophically with us.
Meeting at Jacksonville
At the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, the SMT Music and Philosophy IG hosted a panel of papers followed by a discussion on the question: "What does it mean to theorize the world beyond music in ways that remain distinctly music theoretical?" Dmitri Tymoczko, Derek J. Myler, and Lara Balikci presented papers that explored, respectively, a generalized theory of symmetries throughout human experience, transformational paths through the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, and how concepts of cosmic harmony are visualized in the surrealist paintings of Remedios Varo. The stimulating discussion that followed reflected, among other things, on the curiously atemporal nature of music theory's recent transformational methodologies, questions of perspectivism in space vs. time, and (as is prone to happen with any math-adjacent matter) the viability of Platonism.
Transition of Co-Chairs
After a two-year term, a period of nominations, and elections (thanks to all who participated), the outgoing co-chairs, Florian Walch and Audrey J. Slote (both University of Chicago), are happy to welcome our incoming co-chairs, Varun Chandrasekhar (Washington University in St. Louis) and Grant Sawatzky (University of British Columbia). The transfer will happen during the summer. Meanwhile, we'll work to create a smooth transition and continue our project of creating a space for deep and open reflection on music theory's fundamental assumptions, purposes, and philosophical resonances. Please reach out to get involved!
Upcoming Events & How to Get / Stay in Touch
After hosting a meeting to draft and vote on bylaws, and a book talk with Michael Gallope on Zoom in 2024, the SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group looks forward to hosting more remote events in 2025. If you would like to discuss recent publications on music theory and philosophy (broadly understood) or would like to present your own work in progress, please get in touch! You can find us on the Music and Philosophy Interest Group Page on the SMT Website, the SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group Facebook page, and the SMT Music and Philosophy Interest Group page on Knowledge Commons, or reach out directly to the co-chairs, whose emails are listed on the SMT Website.
Samuel Gardner
Music Cognition Interest Group Newsletter
Read More
![]()
The Music Cognition Interest Group meet this past SMT on Friday November 8. The Interest group hosted four excellent talks covering empirical topics, “Majorness and Minorness and Analysis from Multiple Perspectives” by Michael Schutz & Jonathan De Souza; “Some Crunches and Harmonic Hunches: An evaluation of Perceptual Prioritization of Timbre” by Richard Drehoff & Jenine Brown; “Learning and Memory for Conventional vs Characteristic Patterns” by Aditya Chander; and “Expectations of Texture in Popular Music” by Emily Schwitzgebel.
Additionally, the Interest Group elected two new co-chairs, Aditya Chander and Emily Schwitzgebel.
The Music Cognition Interest Group meet this past SMT on Friday November 8. The Interest group hosted four excellent talks covering empirical topics, “Majorness and Minorness and Analysis from Multiple Perspectives” by Michael Schutz & Jonathan De Souza; “Some Crunches and Harmonic Hunches: An evaluation of Perceptual Prioritization of Timbre” by Richard Drehoff & Jenine Brown; “Learning and Memory for Conventional vs Characteristic Patterns” by Aditya Chander; and “Expectations of Texture in Popular Music” by Emily Schwitzgebel.
Additionally, the Interest Group elected two new co-chairs, Aditya Chander and Emily Schwitzgebel.
Timothy Chenette, chair
The Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group met jointly with the Improvisation Interest Group at the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL, on Friday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. The meeting featured seven ten-minute presentations on the theme of “Improvisation and/as Pedagogy." The presentations by Stefanie Bilidas, Philip Duker, Collin Felter, Ryan Galik, Ben Geyer, Nancy Rogers, and Charles Weaver and Dani Zanuttini-Frank spanned a wide range of repertoires and approaches, and many included active participation from the audience of roughly 55 attendees.… Read More
The Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group met jointly with the Improvisation Interest Group at the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL, on Friday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. The meeting featured seven ten-minute presentations on the theme of “Improvisation and/as Pedagogy." The presentations by Stefanie Bilidas, Philip Duker, Collin Felter, Ryan Galik, Ben Geyer, Nancy Rogers, and Charles Weaver and Dani Zanuttini-Frank spanned a wide range of repertoires and approaches, and many included active participation from the audience of roughly 55 attendees. Following these presentations, each group held a brief business meeting.
Our next meeting will be at the 2025 Joint SMT and AMS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Anyone with suggestions for this meeting should contact timothy.chenette@usu.edu. For more information on our group or to sign up for our email list, please visit the Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group Page on the SMT website.
The Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group met jointly with the Improvisation Interest Group at the Annual Meeting of SMT in Jacksonville, FL, on Friday, November 8, at 12:30 p.m. The meeting featured seven ten-minute presentations on the theme of “Improvisation and/as Pedagogy." The presentations by Stefanie Bilidas, Philip Duker, Collin Felter, Ryan Galik, Ben Geyer, Nancy Rogers, and Charles Weaver and Dani Zanuttini-Frank spanned a wide range of repertoires and approaches, and many included active participation from the audience of roughly 55 attendees. Following these presentations, each group held a brief business meeting.
Our next meeting will be at the 2025 Joint SMT and AMS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Anyone with suggestions for this meeting should contact timothy.chenette@usu.edu. For more information on our group or to sign up for our email list, please visit the Music Theory Pedagogy Interest Group Page on the SMT website.
Christa Cole and Daniel Ketter, co-chairs
Performance and Analysis Interest Group Update
Read More
![]()
The 2024 Jacksonville meeting of the Performance and Analysis Interest Group (PAIG) featured a workshop led by pianist, theorist, composer, and multidisciplinary artist Jocelyn Ho (Research Fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium), joined by special guest soprano Anna Fraser. Ho and Fraser introduced a collaborative kinesthetic approach to analyzing early recordings, taking the recent trend of “emulation” (where historically informed performers imitate early recordings to assimilate old styles of playing) as a starting point to enquire about the kinesthesia of early recording performances. Ho and Fraser introduced a multi-stage methodology that begins from a performer’s perspective, demonstrating its application through recordings by two influential performers of their time: Yolanda Mero (1887–1963), concert pianist and impresario, and Alessandro Moreschi (1858–1922), castrato and First Soprano of the Sistine Chapel Choir. Ho and Fraser’s presentation spurred engaging discussions that continued well beyond the session itself.
Also at the meeting, forthcoming updates to the PAIG bylaws were announced, with the primary goals of expanding and specifying the mission of PAIG, specifying the process and revising the timeline for co-chair nominations, clarifying language around leadership eligibility, and updating the process through which amendments can be proposed and voted on.
On the horizon, PAIG members will elect an interim co-chair to a one-year term that will begin at the virtual spring meeting. The nominating period will last for one month beginning in early March, with the election opening within a week after nominations are submitted (specific dates forthcoming via our listserv). Later in the spring, PAIG will hold its virtual spring session of lightning talks to supplement our in-person SMT meeting (CFP forthcoming). Anyone may request to join the PAIG listserv by emailing smt-paig@gmail.com or by writing to one of our co-chairs, Daniel Ketter (danielmketter@gmail.com) and Christa Cole (ccole@oberlin.edu). The PAIG Blog continues to host a wide array of resources for those interested in performance studies: a bibliography, discography, directory, pedagogy resource, and many fascinating blog essays.
The 2024 Jacksonville meeting of the Performance and Analysis Interest Group (PAIG) featured a workshop led by pianist, theorist, composer, and multidisciplinary artist Jocelyn Ho (Research Fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium), joined by special guest soprano Anna Fraser. Ho and Fraser introduced a collaborative kinesthetic approach to analyzing early recordings, taking the recent trend of “emulation” (where historically informed performers imitate early recordings to assimilate old styles of playing) as a starting point to enquire about the kinesthesia of early recording performances. Ho and Fraser introduced a multi-stage methodology that begins from a performer’s perspective, demonstrating its application through recordings by two influential performers of their time: Yolanda Mero (1887–1963), concert pianist and impresario, and Alessandro Moreschi (1858–1922), castrato and First Soprano of the Sistine Chapel Choir. Ho and Fraser’s presentation spurred engaging discussions that continued well beyond the session itself.
Also at the meeting, forthcoming updates to the PAIG bylaws were announced, with the primary goals of expanding and specifying the mission of PAIG, specifying the process and revising the timeline for co-chair nominations, clarifying language around leadership eligibility, and updating the process through which amendments can be proposed and voted on.
On the horizon, PAIG members will elect an interim co-chair to a one-year term that will begin at the virtual spring meeting. The nominating period will last for one month beginning in early March, with the election opening within a week after nominations are submitted (specific dates forthcoming via our listserv). Later in the spring, PAIG will hold its virtual spring session of lightning talks to supplement our in-person SMT meeting (CFP forthcoming). Anyone may request to join the PAIG listserv by emailing smt-paig@gmail.com or by writing to one of our co-chairs, Daniel Ketter (danielmketter@gmail.com) and Christa Cole (ccole@oberlin.edu). The PAIG Blog continues to host a wide array of resources for those interested in performance studies: a bibliography, discography, directory, pedagogy resource, and many fascinating blog essays.
Gui Hwan Lee and Noah Kahrs, co-chairs
Post-1945 Music Analysis Interest Group 2024 Report
Read More
The Post-1945 Music Analysis Interest Group had about 20 members in attendance at our meeting at the Annual Meeting of SMT 2024 in Jacksonville, FL. For the scholarly portion of our joint interest group meeting with the Interculturalism and Musical Peripheries Interest Group, we hosted a session chaired by Gui Hwan Lee. The session had three 15-minute presentations by Stephen Slottow (University of North Texas), Chenyu Xiao (University of Leeds), and Juan Patricio Saenz (Harvard University). Afterwards, Yayoi Uno Everett (CUNY Hunter College) and Chelsea Burns (University of Texas at Austin) gave 10-minute responses to each presentation. During the business portion of our interest group meeting, we announced the 2024 winner of the Post-1945 Music Analysis Interest Group Publication Award: Antares Boyle’s “Gestural Temporality in Sciarrino's Recitativo oscuro” published in Music Theory Online Volume 29, Number 4 (2023). We also announced that Noah Kahrs is stepping down from the webmaster position, and at time of writing the election is in progress. Next year, we hope to collaborate with another interest group at the conference, and to nominate a new pair of co-chairs.
The Post-1945 Music Analysis Interest Group had about 20 members in attendance at our meeting at the Annual Meeting of SMT 2024 in Jacksonville, FL. For the scholarly portion of our joint interest group meeting with the Interculturalism and Musical Peripheries Interest Group, we hosted a session chaired by Gui Hwan Lee. The session had three 15-minute presentations by Stephen Slottow (University of North Texas), Chenyu Xiao (University of Leeds), and Juan Patricio Saenz (Harvard University). Afterwards, Yayoi Uno Everett (CUNY Hunter College) and Chelsea Burns (University of Texas at Austin) gave 10-minute responses to each presentation. During the business portion of our interest group meeting, we announced the 2024 winner of the Post-1945 Music Analysis Interest Group Publication Award: Antares Boyle’s “Gestural Temporality in Sciarrino's Recitativo oscuro” published in Music Theory Online Volume 29, Number 4 (2023). We also announced that Noah Kahrs is stepping down from the webmaster position, and at time of writing the election is in progress. Next year, we hope to collaborate with another interest group at the conference, and to nominate a new pair of co-chairs.
Sasha Drozzina, chair
The Russian and Soviet Music Interest Group held its meeting at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 8, 2024. This year, the session presented four lightning talks in a variety of formats, including guided listenings and group discussion.
Read More
![]()
The Russian and Soviet Music Interest Group held its meeting at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 8, 2024. This year, the session presented four lightning talks in a variety of formats, including guided listenings and group discussion.
The talks were: (1) "On Edison Denisov's First Symphony" by Anne Delfín; (2) "Vignettes for Structural Hearing in Three Preludes by Dmitri Shostakovich" by Trevor Hofelich; (3) "On Varvara Dernova's analytical system" by Lance Russell; and (4) "Collection-Chord Interactions in Rimsky-Korsakov's Kashchey The Immortal" by Jeff Yunek.
Thank you to all of the presenters and to everyone who attended the meeting. We look forward to seeing everyone at the group meeting next year at the SMT Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Russian and Soviet Music Interest Group held its meeting at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 8, 2024. This year, the session presented four lightning talks in a variety of formats, including guided listenings and group discussion.
The talks were: (1) "On Edison Denisov's First Symphony" by Anne Delfín; (2) "Vignettes for Structural Hearing in Three Preludes by Dmitri Shostakovich" by Trevor Hofelich; (3) "On Varvara Dernova's analytical system" by Lance Russell; and (4) "Collection-Chord Interactions in Rimsky-Korsakov's Kashchey The Immortal" by Jeff Yunek.
Thank you to all of the presenters and to everyone who attended the meeting. We look forward to seeing everyone at the group meeting next year at the SMT Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Steve Lett, chair
The 2024 Annual Meeting marked the 20th anniversary of the Scholars for Social Responsibility (SSRIG). For the occasion, SSRIG hosted a panel with many of the previous organizers and chairs of the group: Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, Deborah Burton, Anton Vishio, Robin Attas, Abigail Shupe, Miriam Piilonen, Sara Bowden, and Stephen Lett. Each of the panelists spoke on what brought them to create or get involved with SSRIG, as well discussing a memory of their work with the group. Among the many stories, we heard about how the group first emerged as a response to the… Read More
The 2024 Annual Meeting marked the 20th anniversary of the Scholars for Social Responsibility (SSRIG). For the occasion, SSRIG hosted a panel with many of the previous organizers and chairs of the group: Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, Deborah Burton, Anton Vishio, Robin Attas, Abigail Shupe, Miriam Piilonen, Sara Bowden, and Stephen Lett. Each of the panelists spoke on what brought them to create or get involved with SSRIG, as well discussing a memory of their work with the group. Among the many stories, we heard about how the group first emerged as a response to the US-led invasion of Iraq and the group’s reemergence at the 2015 St. Louis meeting in response to the Black Lives Matter uprisings following the police murder of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, MO. To conclude we talked about the role of SSRIG in the coming years, especially in light of the continued resurgence of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, xenophobia, and transphobia both within university administrations and national governments. With the panelists’ permission, I recorded the meeting and am working on compiling a transcript of the historical portion of the event as part of an ongoing project to document SSRIG history.
SSRIG also co-sponsored a panel at the SMT Annual Meeting with the LGBTQ+ Issues Standing Committee and Project Spectrum called “Creating Spaces that Connect Community: A Workshop and Discussion.” Please see the LGBTQ+ Issues Standing Committee update for more information on that event.
Next, I wish to invite you to join our study group. We meet once a month to discuss short readings on various topics of interest to the group. Currently we’re a group of five, and topics we’ve explored include the ongoing genocide in Palestine, thinking about various forms of violence (and their flattening in liberal discourse), creating resilient organizing spaces, the history of divestment campaigns, and border abolition. Along the way we’ve had lovely conversations that have pushed us each to take action in our various contexts.
One of our actions has been to initiate a conversation with the SMT around its investments policy with the aim of having the SMT divest from its holdings in companies that profit off of ongoing warfare, expanding prison populations, and making the climate unlivable. Rather than supporting companies (and an economy) based on the immiseration of the world, we look forward to exploring alternative approaches with the SMT that invest in human flourishing.
If working on such projects and being in conversation about the above literature sounds like something you’d like to join, please send me an email (s.e.lett@gmail.com) with a sentence or two (or more) letting me know what topics of study and kinds of actions you’re interested in pursuing with the group.
The 2024 Annual Meeting marked the 20th anniversary of the Scholars for Social Responsibility (SSRIG). For the occasion, SSRIG hosted a panel with many of the previous organizers and chairs of the group: Marianne Kielian-Gilbert, Deborah Burton, Anton Vishio, Robin Attas, Abigail Shupe, Miriam Piilonen, Sara Bowden, and Stephen Lett. Each of the panelists spoke on what brought them to create or get involved with SSRIG, as well discussing a memory of their work with the group. Among the many stories, we heard about how the group first emerged as a response to the US-led invasion of Iraq and the group’s reemergence at the 2015 St. Louis meeting in response to the Black Lives Matter uprisings following the police murder of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, MO. To conclude we talked about the role of SSRIG in the coming years, especially in light of the continued resurgence of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, xenophobia, and transphobia both within university administrations and national governments. With the panelists’ permission, I recorded the meeting and am working on compiling a transcript of the historical portion of the event as part of an ongoing project to document SSRIG history.
SSRIG also co-sponsored a panel at the SMT Annual Meeting with the LGBTQ+ Issues Standing Committee and Project Spectrum called “Creating Spaces that Connect Community: A Workshop and Discussion.” Please see the LGBTQ+ Issues Standing Committee update for more information on that event.
Next, I wish to invite you to join our study group. We meet once a month to discuss short readings on various topics of interest to the group. Currently we’re a group of five, and topics we’ve explored include the ongoing genocide in Palestine, thinking about various forms of violence (and their flattening in liberal discourse), creating resilient organizing spaces, the history of divestment campaigns, and border abolition. Along the way we’ve had lovely conversations that have pushed us each to take action in our various contexts.
One of our actions has been to initiate a conversation with the SMT around its investments policy with the aim of having the SMT divest from its holdings in companies that profit off of ongoing warfare, expanding prison populations, and making the climate unlivable. Rather than supporting companies (and an economy) based on the immiseration of the world, we look forward to exploring alternative approaches with the SMT that invest in human flourishing.
If working on such projects and being in conversation about the above literature sounds like something you’d like to join, please send me an email (s.e.lett@gmail.com) with a sentence or two (or more) letting me know what topics of study and kinds of actions you’re interested in pursuing with the group.
Alfred Cramer and YouYoung Kang
The title of the Work and Family Interest Group’s session at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville was “Maximizing Family Time as a Music Theory Professional.” We heard presentations from three SMT colleagues. They were "Motivation, Discipline, and Doing Good Work for Parenting and Completing a Dissertation" by Anne Delfin (University of Cincinnati); "Prioritization, not Balance, for Maximizing Family Time as a Music Theory Professional" by David Geary (Wake Forest University); and “Playing the Long Game” by Scott Murphy (University of Kansas). Attendance was strong, and the presentations spa
Read More
![]()
The title of the Work and Family Interest Group’s session at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville was “Maximizing Family Time as a Music Theory Professional.” We heard presentations from three SMT colleagues: "Motivation, Discipline, and Doing Good Work for Parenting and Completing a Dissertation" by Anne Delfin (University of Cincinnati); "Prioritization, not Balance, for Maximizing Family Time as a Music Theory Professional" by David Geary (Wake Forest University); and “Playing the Long Game” by Scott Murphy (University of Kansas). Attendance was strong, and the presentations sparked an engaged discussion.
WorkFam advocates for members who desire better balance between work and family life. We also seek to promote awareness concerning various challenges of balancing work with family, as well as initiate discussion on how these challenges can be resolved.
The title of the Work and Family Interest Group’s session at the SMT Annual Meeting in Jacksonville was “Maximizing Family Time as a Music Theory Professional.” We heard presentations from three SMT colleagues: "Motivation, Discipline, and Doing Good Work for Parenting and Completing a Dissertation" by Anne Delfin (University of Cincinnati); "Prioritization, not Balance, for Maximizing Family Time as a Music Theory Professional" by David Geary (Wake Forest University); and “Playing the Long Game” by Scott Murphy (University of Kansas). Attendance was strong, and the presentations sparked an engaged discussion.
WorkFam advocates for members who desire better balance between work and family life. We also seek to promote awareness concerning various challenges of balancing work with family, as well as initiate discussion on how these challenges can be resolved.
Regional Society Reports
Christopher Segall, MTMW President
Music Theory Midwest is partnering with the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic and the South Central Society for Music Theory on a multi-year rotation of online spring conferences. We are committed to ensuring that music theory scholars have access to one online or hybrid regional conference every year, to help accommodate those with accessibility needs or travel considerations.
The 36th Annual Meeting of Music Theory Midwest will be held fully online, May 16–17, 2025, with Toby Rush (University of Dayton) serving as Digital Arrangements Chair. Scholars from… Read More
Music Theory Midwest is partnering with the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic and the South Central Society for Music Theory on a multi-year rotation of online spring conferences. We are committed to ensuring that music theory scholars have access to one online or hybrid regional conference every year, to help accommodate those with accessibility needs or travel considerations.
The 36th Annual Meeting of Music Theory Midwest will be held fully online, May 16–17, 2025, with Toby Rush (University of Dayton) serving as Digital Arrangements Chair. Scholars from all geographic regions are welcome to participate. For more information, please visit the MTMW website.
Current Executive Committee members are: Christopher Segall (University of Cincinnati), President; Matt Chiu (Baldwin Wallace University), Secretary; Rebecca Perry-Ockey (Lawrence University), Treasurer; Alyssa Barna (University of Minnesota), Orit Hilewicz (Indiana University), Nancy Murphy (University of Michigan), and Sarah Sarver (Oklahoma State University), Area Representatives; and Lydia Bangura (University of Michigan) and Dustin Chau (University of Chicago), Student Representatives.
Music Theory Midwest is partnering with the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic and the South Central Society for Music Theory on a multi-year rotation of online spring conferences. We are committed to ensuring that music theory scholars have access to one online or hybrid regional conference every year, to help accommodate those with accessibility needs or travel considerations.
The 36th Annual Meeting of Music Theory Midwest will be held fully online, May 16–17, 2025, with Toby Rush (University of Dayton) serving as Digital Arrangements Chair. Scholars from all geographic regions are welcome to participate. For more information, please visit the MTMW website.
Current Executive Committee members are: Christopher Segall (University of Cincinnati), President; Matt Chiu (Baldwin Wallace University), Secretary; Rebecca Perry-Ockey (Lawrence University), Treasurer; Alyssa Barna (University of Minnesota), Orit Hilewicz (Indiana University), Nancy Murphy (University of Michigan), and Sarah Sarver (Oklahoma State University), Area Representatives; and Lydia Bangura (University of Michigan) and Dustin Chau (University of Chicago), Student Representatives.
Philip Stoecker, MTSNYS President
The Music Theory Society of New York State (MTSNYS) will hold its 53rd annual meeting at Fordham University (Lincoln Center Campus in NYC) on April 5–6, 2025.
Read More
![]()
The Music Theory Society of New York State (MTSNYS) will hold its 53rd annual meeting at Fordham University (Lincoln Center Campus in NYC) on April 5–6, 2025, with Sevin Yaraman in charge of local arrangements. Clifton Boyd (New York University) will give the meeting’s keynote address, and Kristi Hardman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte) will lead the MTSNYS workshop. The Program Committee is Gilad Rabinovitch (Queens College, CUNY), chair; Yayoi Uno Everett (Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY); Sean Smither (The Juilliard School and Mannes School of Music, The New School); Stephanie Venturino (Yale School of Music); and Philip Stoecker (Hofstra University), ex officio. The deadline for proposals has passed, and the Program Committee will announce the conference program soon. Conference updates will be available on the MTSNYS website in January 2025.
Theory and Practice is now in an open-access format, with articles published online and freely accessible on the Theory and Practice website as well as a print version provided to MTSNYS member subscribers. This change began with volumes 47/48 and will remain in effect for all subsequent volumes. The double issue, volumes 47/48 (2022–2023), of Theory and Practice was published in spring 2024. Work continues on volume 49 (2024) with early 2025 as the expected publication date. Submissions to Theory and Practice are accepted on a rolling basis, and the editors especially encourage shorter submissions within the range of 1,500 to 3,500 words (which corresponds roughly to the length of a spoken conference presentation). Please visit the Theory and Practice submissions page to review the guidelines and information for submitting manuscripts, or simply contact the editors at theoryandpractice@mtsnys.org.
I am thrilled to announce that the MTSNYS webpage (mtsnys.org) has been updated and has a fresh, new look. Brian Moseley (University at Buffalo, SUNY) has done a splendid job, and I encourage you to thank him for his ongoing efforts to improve the MTSNYS website. Past MTSNYS programs are more accessible now, and members no longer need to use the membership dashboard.
Graduate Student Conference Grants help graduate students defray the costs of attending annual MTSNYS conferences. Up to eight grants are awarded yearly, to be used to reimburse travel, lodging, and meal expenses. Each grant is for a maximum of $200 and also includes a waiver of the conference registration fee. Any student currently enrolled in a graduate program is eligible to apply. Applicants need not be members of MTSNYS. Awardees will be selected by lottery; students awarded a grant will be ineligible to receive one the following year. All decisions made by MTSNYS regarding conference grants are final. To apply for a 2025 conference grant, send an email with your name, mailing address, email, phone, name of institution and degree program, and proof of enrollment (scan of student ID or other documentation) to: Anna Stephan-Robinson, MTSNYS Treasurer (anna.stephanrobinson@westliberty.edu); Deadline: Friday, March 7, 2025.
The spring 2025 elections will include candidacies for President (two-year term), Secretary (four-year term), and two Members-at-Large (two-year term); those elected will begin their roles after the spring 2025 MTSNYS meeting. Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged. The deadline to receive nominations is January 15, 2025.
The current MTSNYS officers are Philip Stoecker (Hofstra University), President; Loretta Terrigno (Eastman School of Music), Vice President; Sarah Marlowe (Eastman School of Music), Secretary; Anna Stephan-Robinson (West Liberty University), Treasurer. Board Members at-Large are Ruka Shironishi (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Lukas Perry (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Nathan Lam (Eastman School of Music), and Stephanie Venturino (Yale University).
The Music Theory Society of New York State (MTSNYS) will hold its 53rd annual meeting at Fordham University (Lincoln Center Campus in NYC) on April 5–6, 2025, with Sevin Yaraman in charge of local arrangements. Clifton Boyd (New York University) will give the meeting’s keynote address, and Kristi Hardman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte) will lead the MTSNYS workshop. The Program Committee is Gilad Rabinovitch (Queens College, CUNY), chair; Yayoi Uno Everett (Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY); Sean Smither (The Juilliard School and Mannes School of Music, The New School); Stephanie Venturino (Yale School of Music); and Philip Stoecker (Hofstra University), ex officio. The deadline for proposals has passed, and the Program Committee will announce the conference program soon. Conference updates will be available on the MTSNYS website in January 2025.
Theory and Practice is now in an open-access format, with articles published online and freely accessible on the Theory and Practice website as well as a print version provided to MTSNYS member subscribers. This change began with volumes 47/48 and will remain in effect for all subsequent volumes. The double issue, volumes 47/48 (2022–2023), of Theory and Practice was published in spring 2024. Work continues on volume 49 (2024) with early 2025 as the expected publication date. Submissions to Theory and Practice are accepted on a rolling basis, and the editors especially encourage shorter submissions within the range of 1,500 to 3,500 words (which corresponds roughly to the length of a spoken conference presentation). Please visit the Theory and Practice submissions page to review the guidelines and information for submitting manuscripts, or simply contact the editors at theoryandpractice@mtsnys.org.
I am thrilled to announce that the MTSNYS webpage (mtsnys.org) has been updated and has a fresh, new look. Brian Moseley (University at Buffalo, SUNY) has done a splendid job, and I encourage you to thank him for his ongoing efforts to improve the MTSNYS website. Past MTSNYS programs are more accessible now, and members no longer need to use the membership dashboard.
Graduate Student Conference Grants help graduate students defray the costs of attending annual MTSNYS conferences. Up to eight grants are awarded yearly, to be used to reimburse travel, lodging, and meal expenses. Each grant is for a maximum of $200 and also includes a waiver of the conference registration fee. Any student currently enrolled in a graduate program is eligible to apply. Applicants need not be members of MTSNYS. Awardees will be selected by lottery; students awarded a grant will be ineligible to receive one the following year. All decisions made by MTSNYS regarding conference grants are final. To apply for a 2025 conference grant, send an email with your name, mailing address, email, phone, name of institution and degree program, and proof of enrollment (scan of student ID or other documentation) to: Anna Stephan-Robinson, MTSNYS Treasurer (anna.stephanrobinson@westliberty.edu); Deadline: Friday, March 7, 2025.
The spring 2025 elections will include candidacies for President (two-year term), Secretary (four-year term), and two Members-at-Large (two-year term); those elected will begin their roles after the spring 2025 MTSNYS meeting. Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged. The deadline to receive nominations is January 15, 2025.
The current MTSNYS officers are Philip Stoecker (Hofstra University), President; Loretta Terrigno (Eastman School of Music), Vice President; Sarah Marlowe (Eastman School of Music), Secretary; Anna Stephan-Robinson (West Liberty University), Treasurer. Board Members at-Large are Ruka Shironishi (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Lukas Perry (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Nathan Lam (Eastman School of Music), and Stephanie Venturino (Yale University).
Megan Lavengood
MTSMA 2025 is February 21–22 at Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA). Gretchen Horlacher (University of Maryland) will deliver the keynote address and will conduct a professional development workshop.
Read More
The Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic will hold their 2025 annual conference on February 21–22 at Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA). Gretchen Horlacher (University of Maryland) will deliver the keynote address and will conduct a professional development workshop open to all attendees. I am grateful to Bill O’Hara for coordinating local arrangements and Anna Stephan-Robinson for chairing the program committee. For more information about the conference, please visit the MTSMA website. The deadline to submit proposals has passed.
This year, we are electing four new executive committee members: a vice president, two members-at-large, and a student representative. New committee members will be announced at the 2025 meeting. The deadline for nominations has passed.
Current executive committee members of MTSMA
- President Megan Lavengood (George Mason University)
- Vice President William O’Hara (Gettysburg College)
- Secretary Chelsey Hamm (Christopher Newport University)
- Treasurer Joseph Siu (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
- Members-at-Large
- Kim Loeffert (Virginia Tech)
- Paula Maust (Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University)
- Judith Ofcarcik (James Madison University)
- John Peterson (James Madison University)
- Dan Zimmerman (University of Maryland)
- Student Representative Richard Drehoff Jr. (Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University)
The Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic will hold their 2025 annual conference on February 21–22 at Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA). Gretchen Horlacher (University of Maryland) will deliver the keynote address and will conduct a professional development workshop open to all attendees. I am grateful to Bill O’Hara for coordinating local arrangements and Anna Stephan-Robinson for chairing the program committee. For more information about the conference, please visit the MTSMA website. The deadline to submit proposals has passed.
This year, we are electing four new executive committee members: a vice president, two members-at-large, and a student representative. New committee members will be announced at the 2025 meeting. The deadline for nominations has passed.
Current executive committee members of MTSMA
- President Megan Lavengood (George Mason University)
- Vice President William O’Hara (Gettysburg College)
- Secretary Chelsey Hamm (Christopher Newport University)
- Treasurer Joseph Siu (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
- Members-at-Large
- Kim Loeffert (Virginia Tech)
- Paula Maust (Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University)
- Judith Ofcarcik (James Madison University)
- John Peterson (James Madison University)
- Dan Zimmerman (University of Maryland)
- Student Representative Richard Drehoff Jr. (Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University)
Chris White
NECMT: Meeting in April!
Read More
![]()
Greetings colleagues! The 2025 Northeast Conference of Music Theorists meeting will take place at Williams College on April 4-5, 2025. The program committee for this upcoming event consists of Brent Auerbach, Liam Hynes-Tawa, Giulia Accornero, and myself (ex officio). Past our January deadline, we have begun working on putting together our program for April. Many thanks to the committe members, as well as our Secretary Miriam Piilonen, Treasurer Sarah Iker. and web guru Geoff Edwards for their excellent work!
Please continue to monitor our website NECMT.com for our program, local arrangements, and further information.
Greetings colleagues! The 2025 Northeast Conference of Music Theorists meeting will take place at Williams College on April 4-5, 2025. The program committee for this upcoming event consists of Brent Auerbach, Liam Hynes-Tawa, Giulia Accornero, and myself (ex officio). Past our January deadline, we have begun working on putting together our program for April. Many thanks to the committe members, as well as our Secretary Miriam Piilonen, Treasurer Sarah Iker. and web guru Geoff Edwards for their excellent work!
Please continue to monitor our website NECMT.com for our program, local arrangements, and further information.
Michael Chikinda
RMSMT CFP Deadline Extended to January 17, 2025
Read More
![]()
Dear Colleagues,
We are extending the deadline for our 'Call for Papers' until Friday, January 17, 2025. The original call is included below for your reference:
Call For Papers: Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
March 21-22, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
The Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory (RMSMT) is pleased to announce our 2025 Annual Meeting, which will take place Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This will be a joint meeting with the Rocky Mountain chapter of the American Musicological Society. We are soliciting proposals on any topic related to music theory, analysis, or music-theory pedagogy. Presentations will be twenty minutes, with ten minutes for discussion.
Submissions should include the following:
- A proposal of no more than 500 words, including any footnotes or endnotes. (One mathematical equation may be counted as one word.) A maximum of four pages of supplementary materials (such as musical examples, diagrams, and selected bibliography) may be appended; these pages will not be counted within the 500-word limit. The proposal must include the title of the paper but exclude the author’s name and any other identifying information. References to the author’s own work must occur in the third person.
- Personal information that will include the following: title of the proposal, author’s name, institutional affiliation or independent scholar/student status, a brief bio, email address, and all audio-visual requirements. This information will be input on the Google form (see link below).
Proposals should be uploaded electronically as PDFs to the Google form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16aQCmzdS1wC84uVYEk6rUzp8OYYM0FOf-Q-bhqcWomw/edit; preferred) or emailed to the society President according to the instructions in the form received no later than Friday, January 17, 2025 at 11:55 p.m. MST.
There will be an award for the best student paper presented at the conference. Students who wish to be considered should declare their interest in the cover letter (submitted by January 10) and submit a file of the complete paper (pdf, doc, or docx) by Friday, March 7, 2025.
Information about conference registration will be available in January 2025 on the RMSMT website: https://arts.unco.edu/music/rocky-mountain-society-music-theory/
|
Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory Each year the Regional Music Scholars conference, a joint meeting of the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory, the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society, and the Southwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, brings together scholars from throughout the region for a weekend of presentations and workshops. arts.unco.edu |
Sincerely,
Michael Chikinda, Ph.D.
RMSMT President
Music-Theory Area Chair
The University of Utah, School of Music
1375 East President's Circle
430 David Gardner Hall
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0030
(801) 581-7813
Dear Colleagues,
We are extending the deadline for our 'Call for Papers' until Friday, January 17, 2025. The original call is included below for your reference:
Call For Papers: Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
March 21-22, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
The Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory (RMSMT) is pleased to announce our 2025 Annual Meeting, which will take place Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This will be a joint meeting with the Rocky Mountain chapter of the American Musicological Society. We are soliciting proposals on any topic related to music theory, analysis, or music-theory pedagogy. Presentations will be twenty minutes, with ten minutes for discussion.
Submissions should include the following:
- A proposal of no more than 500 words, including any footnotes or endnotes. (One mathematical equation may be counted as one word.) A maximum of four pages of supplementary materials (such as musical examples, diagrams, and selected bibliography) may be appended; these pages will not be counted within the 500-word limit. The proposal must include the title of the paper but exclude the author’s name and any other identifying information. References to the author’s own work must occur in the third person.
- Personal information that will include the following: title of the proposal, author’s name, institutional affiliation or independent scholar/student status, a brief bio, email address, and all audio-visual requirements. This information will be input on the Google form (see link below).
Proposals should be uploaded electronically as PDFs to the Google form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16aQCmzdS1wC84uVYEk6rUzp8OYYM0FOf-Q-bhqcWomw/edit; preferred) or emailed to the society President according to the instructions in the form received no later than Friday, January 17, 2025 at 11:55 p.m. MST.
There will be an award for the best student paper presented at the conference. Students who wish to be considered should declare their interest in the cover letter (submitted by January 10) and submit a file of the complete paper (pdf, doc, or docx) by Friday, March 7, 2025.
Information about conference registration will be available in January 2025 on the RMSMT website: https://arts.unco.edu/music/rocky-mountain-society-music-theory/
|
Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory Each year the Regional Music Scholars conference, a joint meeting of the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory, the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society, and the Southwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, brings together scholars from throughout the region for a weekend of presentations and workshops. arts.unco.edu |
Sincerely,
Michael Chikinda, Ph.D.
RMSMT President
Music-Theory Area Chair
The University of Utah, School of Music
1375 East President's Circle
430 David Gardner Hall
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0030
(801) 581-7813
Clare Eng, SCSMT President
Information about the Annual Meeting of the South Central Society for Music Theory in New Orleans, LA (Mar 14–15, 2025).
Read More
![]()
The Annual Meeting of the South Central Society for Music Theory (SCSMT) will be from March 14–15, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana on the campus of Loyola University.
In addition to paper presentations and lightning talks, the conference will feature two workshops: “Rhythm (Sometimes) without Meter” led by Dr. Mitch Ohriner, and “Timbre in Aural Skills” led by Dr. Timothy Chenette. There will also be an open discussion on the use of artificial intelligence in music theory research and pedagogy. Although the deadlines for proposal submission and workshop registration have passed, participation in the AI discussion remains open to all registered attendees. You will receive a link that allows you to contribute to a Google Doc that will be used to guide the discussion after you register for the conference.
On the 2025 SCSMT conference webpage, you can browse the program, local arrangement information, and register for the conference. This year, we are pleased to offer a roommate/rideshare partner locator service. Just fill out the form that is linked to the conference webpage, and someone will reach out with more information.
For questions about the 2025 conference program, please email the Program Committee Chair, Stefanie Dickinson (sdickins@uca.edu). For questions about the South Central Society for Music Theory, please email us at scsmt@yahoo.com.
We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!
The Annual Meeting of the South Central Society for Music Theory (SCSMT) will be from March 14–15, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana on the campus of Loyola University.
In addition to paper presentations and lightning talks, the conference will feature two workshops: “Rhythm (Sometimes) without Meter” led by Dr. Mitch Ohriner, and “Timbre in Aural Skills” led by Dr. Timothy Chenette. There will also be an open discussion on the use of artificial intelligence in music theory research and pedagogy. Although the deadlines for proposal submission and workshop registration have passed, participation in the AI discussion remains open to all registered attendees. You will receive a link that allows you to contribute to a Google Doc that will be used to guide the discussion after you register for the conference.
On the 2025 SCSMT conference webpage, you can browse the program, local arrangement information, and register for the conference. This year, we are pleased to offer a roommate/rideshare partner locator service. Just fill out the form that is linked to the conference webpage, and someone will reach out with more information.
For questions about the 2025 conference program, please email the Program Committee Chair, Stefanie Dickinson (sdickins@uca.edu). For questions about the South Central Society for Music Theory, please email us at scsmt@yahoo.com.
We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!
In Memoriam
In Memoriam: Rick Nelson (1952–2024)
Sam Bivens
A beloved pedagogue, mentor, and scholar, Rick Nelson passed away on August 30, 2024. One of Nadia Boulanger's last students in Fontainebleau, Rick went on to receive his doctorate at the Eastman School of Music under David Beach. Rick first taught at Mercer University before an illustrious 22-year career at the Cleveland Institute of Music, retiring in 2018 as Faculty Emeritus. His kindness, mentorship, and diplomacy will remain legendary to all who knew him. Please join us in remembering an exceptional human being and a life well lived.
Read More
Obituary
Dr. Richard Bruce (Rick) Nelson, 71, of Hilton Head Island, SC, died on August 30, 2024, after a battle with cancer.
Rick was born in Columbia, SC, a son of the late George C., Jr., and Gloria Palladini Nelson.
Rick grew up in Newberry, SC, where he attended Newberry High School. He was an Eagle Scout with Troop 1. He received the Bachelors of Music and Masters of Music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and his PhD degree was from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. He also attended the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger. Rick served on the faculties of Mercer University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he taught music theory.
He also served as Organist and Choirmaster at Messiah Lutheran Church (Greece, NY), Redeemer Lutheran and Christ Church (Macon, GA), and St. Paul’s Episcopal (Cleveland Heights, OH). His favorite music was organ, classical and choral. Besides his family and teaching his students, Rick’s favorite past time was being out on the water in a boat.
Rick is survived by his companion, Paula Richardson Goss; sister, Susan Nelson Bowers; and brother, Michael Lawrence (Larry) Nelson (B. J.); cousins, nieces and nephews.
Rick was predeceased by his wife of 37 years, Dr. Beth Johanna Pearce Nelson and his parents George C., Jr., and Gloria Palladini Nelson.
Funeral services were held on Saturday September 21, 2024, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter St, Columbia, SC 29201 with burial in the church cemetery. The Rick Nelson Funeral stream is available on the Trinity Cathedral website.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Nelson Family Choristership at the St. Thomas Choir School (Attn: Bruce Smith), 202 West 58th Street, NYC, NY 10019.
Obituary
Dr. Richard Bruce (Rick) Nelson, 71, of Hilton Head Island, SC, died on August 30, 2024, after a battle with cancer.
Rick was born in Columbia, SC, a son of the late George C., Jr., and Gloria Palladini Nelson.
Rick grew up in Newberry, SC, where he attended Newberry High School. He was an Eagle Scout with Troop 1. He received the Bachelors of Music and Masters of Music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and his PhD degree was from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. He also attended the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger. Rick served on the faculties of Mercer University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he taught music theory.
He also served as Organist and Choirmaster at Messiah Lutheran Church (Greece, NY), Redeemer Lutheran and Christ Church (Macon, GA), and St. Paul’s Episcopal (Cleveland Heights, OH). His favorite music was organ, classical and choral. Besides his family and teaching his students, Rick’s favorite past time was being out on the water in a boat.
Rick is survived by his companion, Paula Richardson Goss; sister, Susan Nelson Bowers; and brother, Michael Lawrence (Larry) Nelson (B. J.); cousins, nieces and nephews.
Rick was predeceased by his wife of 37 years, Dr. Beth Johanna Pearce Nelson and his parents George C., Jr., and Gloria Palladini Nelson.
Funeral services were held on Saturday September 21, 2024, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter St, Columbia, SC 29201 with burial in the church cemetery. The Rick Nelson Funeral stream is available on the Trinity Cathedral website.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Nelson Family Choristership at the St. Thomas Choir School (Attn: Bruce Smith), 202 West 58th Street, NYC, NY 10019.
Submit to the Newsletter
The Society for Music Theory publishes its Newsletter in February and August, with deadlines for submission December 1 and June 1, respectively.
It is customary for all SMT officers, committee chairs, and Interest Group chairs to submit a report for each issue of the Newsletter. The Society also welcomes news from affiliate and related organizations as well as items of interest to its members.
Please complete the Newsletter submission form to share your announcements in the next issue of the Newsletter. If you include hyperlinks, please test their accuracy before submission. If a photograph or graphic image would enhance your article, please obtain and provide any necessary copyright permission or attribution and contact the editor prior to submitting it. Inclusion of any article is subject to the approval of the Executive Board.
Sarah Marlowe, editor, SMT Newsletter
Alexander Martin, associate editor, SMT Newsletter