SMT Newsletter

The Vice President chairs the Subventions Committee, which will review applications and announce the awards in August 2025. Subvention grants reimburse scholars for expenses associated with research publication and, in exceptional cases, organizing conferences. Thank you to David Byrne, Amy Fleming, David Forrest, and Olga Sanchez for serving on this important committee, and to the SMT members who have donated to the SMT-Forward campaign, which provides funding for these subventions. 

At the 2024 Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, the Interest Group chairs engaged in a lively and productive discussion about how to address the ongoing logistical challenges created by an ever-increasing number of Interest Groups. I’m grateful for their thoughts and feedback as we take the first steps towards implementing some of the suggestions. You may see Interest Groups holding events outside of the Annual Meeting (coffee meetups, happy hours, or dinners); we are also piloting a three-year rotation system for Interest Group meetings held during the yearly SMT Annual Meeting. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to balance the many benefits and challenges associated with scheduling Interest Group meetings. More information will follow, and off-conference events will appear in the program to ensure broad visibility. 

SMT’s regional societies continue to be one of the most vibrant parts of the Society. Regional society leadership are communicating regularly about spring conference scheduling and developing a virtual conference rotation system to maximize participation and avoid conflicts. I’d like to thank the leaders of the regional societies for their time and commitment to making their conferences accessible to all. 

The Vice President also serves as the liaison to international societies for music theory, and I have been working towards strengthening the relationship between those societies and the SMT. The European Network for Theory and Analysis of Music (T&AM) website includes announcements for opportunities and events that may be of interest to SMT members. Additionally, SMT coordinated with the Society for Music Analysis to establish collaborative activities, including an online workshop (January 2025, featuring Janet Bourne and Stephen Rodgers) focusing on writing and submitting proposals to SMT’s annual conference.

If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding Subventions, Interest Groups, regional societies, or international societies, please feel free to email me or the incoming Vice President, Stephen Rodgers, at vicepresident@societymusictheory.org.

It has been my honor to serve as Vice President for the past two years. Though my time felt brief, I valued the opportunity to give back to the organization that gives so much to our discipline. I leave the role with a greater appreciation for the dedication of our community, and I would like to thank the many SMT members who have generously shared their time, energy, and expertise with me and with the Society.

I am pleased to report the following motions passed by the SMT Executive Board in meetings held since the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Society:

• Motions to approve the minutes of the November 2024, January 2025, and March 2025 meetings.
• Motion to affirm our approval of the contract with Oxford University Press.
• Motion to change a policy pertaining to which presenters at the Annual Meeting are eligible for a fee waiver.

The Jazz Interest Group will host its fourteenth annual meeting at the 2025 AMS–SMT Annual Meeting in Minneapolis. The meeting will be held jointly with the Hip-Hop and Rap Interest Group and will feature lightning talks on points of dialogue between jazz and hip-hop/rap. We invite all interested members to attend. Lightning-talk proposals are due September 1, and the full CFP is available on the proposal submission form.

Our Jazz Publications Committee is also soliciting nominations for the 2025 Award for Excellence in Jazz Scholarship, which acknowledges outstanding contributions to the field of jazz theory and analysis. The Publications Committee takes a liberal approach to both “jazz” and “music theory,” and invites submissions that expand the limits of both terms. Nominations should include: (1) the name of the author and that author’s contact information (if known); (2) a description of the document and complete bibliographic information, if applicable; and (3) a statement to the effect that the work was published, presented, or defended within the previous five calendar years. The committee may ask a nominee to submit copies of the nominated document, if needed. Members of SMT can nominate two submissions, and one of these submissions may be a self-nomination. Please send nominations to Publications Committee chair Varun Chandrasekhar by Wednesday, October 1, 2025. The additional committee members are Dustin Chau (The University of Chicago) and Ben Geyer (Mount Holyoke College).

The Jazz Interest Group maintains an online presence on Knowledge Commons (formerly Humanities Commons). Our Jazz Theory Bibliography is managed by James McGowan (Carleton University), to whom new entries, questions, and comments should be sent. Please feel free to contact the current interest group co-chairs, Sean Smither (The Juilliard School & The New School) and Ben Baker (Eastman School of Music), with any other questions.

The Mathematics of Music Interest Group promotes scholarship involving mathematical approaches to music theory and analysis. The group maintains an e-discussion list and plans events at SMT Annual Meetings and throughout the year. Our 2024 annual meeting featured lightning talks and a presentation: "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). Please look for announcements about upcoming programming.  All interested individuals are invited to join the Mathematics of Music Interest Group. We are currently seeking new leadership under the guidance of our by-laws. For more information, visit the Mathematics of Music Interest Group page on the SMT website or contact Mike Hall.

The Music Theory Society of New York State (MTSNYS) held its annual meeting on April 5–6, 2025, at Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus, with Sevin Yaraman (Fordham University) serving as local arrangements chair. Twenty-two scholars presented research on diverse theoretical and analytic topics and repertoire, including at MTSNYS’s first poster session.  Gilad Rabinovitch (Queens College) served as chair of the 2025 program committee. Clifton Boyd (New York University) delivered the keynote lecture, “Black Barbershop and Music Theory in the Age of Jim Crow,” and Kristi Hardman (UNC Charlotte) led the conference workshop, “Considering Ethics in the Process of Analyzing Music.” 

MTSNYS both supports and encourages graduate students in their pursuit of a career in music theory with the Patricia Carpenter Emerging Scholar Award for the best student paper delivered at the Annual Meeting. The award carries a cash prize and a promise of publication in the Society’s journal, Theory and Practice.  We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Moranis, a Ph.D. candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center, received the 2025 Patricia Carpenter Emerging Scholar Award for her paper “An Analysis of Joni Mitchell’s Vocal Evolution,” which will appear in a future issue of Theory and Practice. Jacob Ludwig (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music) and Evan Martschenko (Eastman School of Music) received an Honorable Mention for their paper, “Uncovering Howard Hanson’s Proto-Set Theory Pedagogy.”  Congratulations to Rebecca, Jacob, and Evan!

We are pleased to announce the publication of Volume 49–50 of MTSNYS’s journal, Theory and Practice, now available in an open-access format. PDFs of individual articles from this double volume are available for download on the Theory and Practice website. The editors, Kyle Hutchinson and Christopher Segall (replacing Trevor DeClercq, whose term as editor has ended after several years of exemplary service), welcome article submissions on a broad range of topics in music theory. You can find more information about the journal on the Theory and Practice page of the MTSNYS website.

The Society’s 2026 meeting will take place at Vassar College on April 11–12.  Táhirih Motazedian will coordinate local arrangements. The program committee consists of Derek Myler (East Carolina University), chair;  Ellen Bakulina (McGill University); Tamyka Jordon-Conlin (Vassar College); Carmel Raz (Cornell University); John Reef (Nazareth University); and Peter Silberman (Ithaca College), ex officio. A call for proposals will be announced in the late summer or early fall; conference updates will be available on the MTSNYS website. Scholars in all career stages are encouraged to submit proposals.

The current MTSNYS officers are: Peter Silberman (Ithaca College), President; Loretta Terrigno (Eastman School of Music), Vice President; Stephanie Venturino (Yale School of Music), Secretary; and Anna Stephan-Robinson (West Liberty University), Treasurer. The Board's Members-at-Large are Jacob Eichhorn (Eastman School of Music), Hanisha Kulothparan (University of Rochester), Lukas Perry (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), and Ruka Shironishi (University of Wisconsin-Madison).

Music Theory Southeast (MTSE) held its 2025 Annual Meeting at Furman University (Greenville, SC) on March 7–8, 2025. Megan Lyons served as local arrangements chair. The conference included scholarly presentations, a concert by Society members, and a graduate student workshop led by Jane Piper Clendinning (Florida State University) on the topic of opening music theory to world and traditional musics. Michael Buchler (Florida State University) delivered the keynote address, “(Non) Semper Idem: Some Challenges to "'All er Nuthin’ Approaches to Methodology, Hierarchy, Register, and Cadence.” The Irna Priore Prize for Student Research was awarded to Jess Forgione (Michigan State University) for the paper, “Race, Bias, and Musical Identity in Burleigh’s ‘Ethiopia Saluting the Colors.’” The following individuals were elected to the executive board: Megan Lyons, Secretary; and Dylan Principi, Member-at-Large. The 2026 MTSE meeting will be February 27–28 at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. 

The Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory (RMSMT) held its 2025 annual conference March 21–22, 2025. The conference was held jointly with the American Musicological Society Rocky Mountain Chapter (AMSRMC) at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. A special thanks goes to Hannah McLaughlin and Brent Yorgason for spearheading the local arrangements. The conference proceeded seamlessly thanks to all their hard work!

The conference featured eighteen presentations. This year’s program committee was comprised of Tim Chenette (Utah State University), Jennifer England (Montana State University), Leah Frederick (University of Colorado Boulder), Andrew Gades (College of Idaho), John Muniz (University of Arizona), Lindsey Reymore (Arizona State University), and Brent Yorgason (Brigham Young University).

Elizabeth Margulis (Princeton University) gave the captivating keynote address, “What We Can Learn from Musical Daydreams.” The Best Student Paper Award recipient was Joey Grunkemeyer (Indiana University), for "Form as Topic? Reframing Formal Deformation in Haydn's Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Hob. XV: 30."

At our business meeting, Jennifer England (Montana State University) was proclaimed President, and John Muniz (University of Arizona) was voted in as the new President-Elect.

The RMSMT is committed to promoting and advocating for scholarship in the field of music theory. We wish to extend our sincere thanks to all who participated at this year’s conference. We invite scholars to submit a proposal for our next conference at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ in spring 2026.  Please consult the RMSMT website for more details this fall.

On February 11, 2025 Maureen Ann Carr, a dedicated teacher and a preeminent scholar of the music of Igor Stravinsky, passed away at the age of 85. 

She received her BA from Marywood College, Masters from Rutgers, and PhD in music theory from the University of Wisconsin in 1972. After serving on the faculties of Westminster Choir College and Montclair State University, she arrived at Penn State University in 1979 to serve as the Founding Director of the School of Music. Eventually, she transitioned back into full-time teaching and became a mainstay of the music theory area until her retirement in May 2024. 

Maureen’s achievements as a scholar earned her the title of Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Architecture. Over the years she received many accolades including the Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts and Humanities, Society for Music Theory Citation of Special Merit (2011), SMT Lifetime Membership Award (2017), and the American Musicological Society's Ruth A. Solie Award for Multi-Author Collections (2018).

If I had to summarize her research agenda in a single phrase, it might be: "one face, many masks." Indeed, in her first book, entitled Multiple Masks (University of Nebraska Press, 2002), she explored the power of Greek myths in four of Stravinsky’s Neo-Classical works. But, ultimately, that phrase should be amended to: "one portrait, many sketches." She spent so much time studying the Russian composer’s sketches and manuscripts at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland that it became like a second home to her. In her hands, sketch studies was a way of blending genesis with analysis—reenacting a work’s gestation in order to cast new light on the finished product. Her major publications include Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat: A Facsimile of the Sketches, ed. (A-R Editions, 2005), Stravinsky’s Pulcinella: A Facsimile of the Sources and Sketches, ed. (A-R Editions, 2010), After the Rite: Stravinsky’s Path to Neo-Classicism, 1914–25 (Oxford University Press, 2014), The Rite of Spring at 100, co-ed. (Indiana University Press, 2017). She explored the full spectrum of Stravinsky’s output—from before the Rite to after the riot, from his many symphonies to Perséphone. At her retirement celebration in 2024, Joseph Straus observed: "She has become a dominant figure in Stravinsky scholarship, a crowded and contentious field in which her revelatory work is a beacon of clarity and insight.” 

She also co-authored a popular aural skills textbook, Sight Singing Complete, 8th edition (McGraw-Hill, 2014), initially with her former mentor at Wisconsin, Bruce Benward. But as this textbook underwent subsequent editions, it eventually reflected her own personal and multifaceted pedagogical vision. 

As a teacher, Professor Carr was as passionate as she was compassionate. Her office, poised at the corner of the second floor, became a vibrant meeting place for students and faculty alike. Her door was always open and, over time, the people in the School of Music became her extended family. Students would line up outside her door to clarify a point from class or, more likely, just to learn more about Stravinsky. She truly nurtured her students, spending countless hours with those who were struggling as much as those who excelled. 

Maureen was also a loyal and dedicated member of the discipline. Throughout her career she served in a number of leadership roles in the Society for Music Theory including the Professional Development Committee (chair), Publication Awards Committee, Fundraising/Development Committee, Nominating Committee, Program Committee, and the Committee on Feminist Issues and Gender Equity. 

In closing, I want to share an anecdote that encapsulates several things about Maureen. Last fall, I dropped by her house and spontaneously decided to serenade her at her living room piano. I knew that she had razor-sharp musical ears and had regularly taught class from the keyboard. So I began to play a Mozart piano sonata that I thought she would recognize. Not only did she remember it, she promptly got up, stood next to me, and began playing the entire melody note for note, one octave higher. We became an instant piano duo! Even though she couldn’t recall who wrote the piece, that didn’t bother her at all. She was indulging her passion for music, determined to play the whole passage from memory, and delighted to share it with someone else.

The School of Music community at Penn State and the music theory world at large mourns the loss of Maureen Carr. She will be missed by many. 

I'm writing to share the unfortunate news of David Huron's passing. In addition to being a brilliant scholar and pioneer in the fields of music cognition and music theory, he was an example of how to live a meaningful and rewarding life of the mind while nurturing and supporting the work of junior scholars, students, and the community. 

Upon completing a Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Nottingham, David was appointed Assistant Professor of Music at Conrad Grebel College at the University of Waterloo, receiving a promotion to Associate Professor in 1991. In 1998, David emigrated to the United States where he took up the position of Professor in the Ohio State University School of Music. Over the course of his career, he supervised two dozen doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in systematic and empirical music research. He also taught empirical research methods in musicology to nearly two hundred scholars and students from other institutions through annual week-long summer workshops.

In addition to more than 250 articles and book chapters, David wrote Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation (MIT Press, 2006), Voice Leading: The Science Behind a Musical Art (MIT Press, 2016), and The Science of Sadness: A New Understanding of Emotion (MIT Press, 2024). As if these were not enough, David revolutionized what we now know as "corpus studies" in the 1980s when he created Humdrum, a set of tools for computational musicology that he started to work on for his doctoral research. 

David's scholarship was recognized through several awards, including the Society for Music Perception and Cognition's lifetime Achievement Award (2017), the Society for Music Theory's Lifetime Membership Award (2019), and a Fulbright Research Chair. In 2021 he was named Nico Frijda Honorary Chair in Cognitive Science, awarded by the Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Amsterdam.

David will be remembered for his warmth and willingness to guide anyone in need of guidance, with many in the field having stories of extended phone calls and Zoom meetings in which David would inspire them and help them along their scholarly journey. Marc Perlman, in the acknowledgment section of Unplayed Melodies, put it succinctly when he wrote that David's "combination of personal warmth, intellectual brilliance, and joie de vivre makes him the best possible advertisement for cognitive musicology—and, indeed, for the academic life in general."

On May 12, 2025, Russian music theorist Valentina Kholopova passed away at the age of 89. She was born in Ryazan, Russia in 1935, graduated from the Ryazan Music College in 1954, and continued her studies at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, completing her degree in music theory and composition under the music theorist Lev Mazel’.

Kholopova’s academic career was closely tied to the Moscow Conservatory, where she began teaching in 1960 and became a full professor in 1980. She was instrumental in founding and leading the Department of Interdisciplinary Specializations for Musicologists from 1991 onward. Her teaching extended internationally, with lectureships at the Central Peking Conservatory and the Central Shanghai Conservatory.

Her scholarly contributions are remarkable in both depth and breadth. Kholopova authored some twenty-five books and vastly more articles, focusing on musical content, musical semantics, the theory of musical rhythm, and the intonational nature of music. Her doctoral thesis, “Musical Rhythm in Russian Music” (1985) and her earlier work on the problems of rhythm in twentieth-century music remain influential texts in the field. She was the recipient of many high honors—the two highest were probably “Honored Artist of the Russian Federation” (1995), and the “Russian Government Award in the Field of Culture” (2011).

Kholopova was an inspired pedagogue whose students raved about her dedication to teaching. I, myself, was the beneficiary of the warm-hearted and generous learning environment that she created, from the time I met her in 2004 to the last email exchange we had, oh, some seven years ago.

I last saw Kholopova roughly ten years ago, when she invited me for dinner at her small Moscow studio apartment. It was a lovely night at which she reminisced about her first encounters, as a young conservatory student, with the music of Anton Webern via the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who had come to concertize in Moscow in 1957. She later coauthored two books on Webern with her brother, the music theorist Yuri Kholopov, and it was these early encounters with the European avant-garde that shaped her love of contemporary music. She personally knew most significant Soviet composers—such as Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Rodion Shchedrin, and Alfred Schnittke—from the late twentieth century, and published significant work on their music and the music of many others.

Valentina Kholopova will be remembered as a visionary scholar, a passionate teacher, and a tireless advocate for contemporary music and music as an art form. Her work continues to resonate, shaping the future of music theoretical research and education in Russia and beyond. As they say in Russian, “Пусть земля ей будет пухом” (May the earth be soft for her). Valentina Nikolaevna, you will be dearly missed.