Continuing our series of conversations with Black musicians for Black History Month, today Dr. Phil Ewell (Hunter College of City University of New York) joins me on the show to discuss his background as a cellist, his time studying music theory at Yale University, and our shared investment in public music theory. We also examine the whiteness and maleness of music theory through the lens of other scholarship throughout the humanities, in order to explore what anti-racist work in music theory could actually look like. Finally, Phil shares a little about his new book, forthcoming through the University of Michigan press!

Thanks to Natalie Krafft for editing the written transcript of this episode!

Phil's Music Theory Online article

Our podcast episode about Phil's article

My time in Phil's residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts

Phil's blog posts

SMT-Pod

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

The Baptism of Early Virginia by Rebecca Anne Goetz

Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr

Preorder Phil's book: On Music Theory and Making Music More Welcoming For Everyone

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

This week we are continuing our conversations with Black musicians for Black History Month! In this episode, I chat with Darrian Dorrough (@94Drow) about his experiences in hip hop, the status of rap research in the academy, and his songwriting and production process. We also discuss his experience hosting a live show on Instagram called the Dope or Nope Show, where he and his collaborators review the music of unsigned artists and producers. Check out 94Drow's album MissFit and his singles wherever you stream your music, and follow the @dopeornopeshow on Instagram!

Thanks to Natalie Krafft for editing the written transcript of this episode!

94Drow on Spotify

Lupe Fiasco at MIT

Dr. A.D. Carson

The Dope or Nope Show

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

Happy Black History Month! In this episode, I chat with Jordan Brown (Harvard University) about her experiences as a singer and arranger, her path to ethnomusicology, and her positionality as a queer Black woman in music academia. We also discuss E. Patrick Johnson's 2001 article titled "Quare Studies, or Almost Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother," which is utilized in Jordan's research about the music of queer Black femmes.

Jordan's Linktree

Jordan's single "Spaced Out" on Spotify

Jordan's podcast "Speaker Notes"

Hoos in Treble

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, I chat with Dr. John Michael Cooper (Southwestern University) about his path to musicology, his experiences in music publishing, and the lives and music of Margaret Bonds and Florence Price. We also listen to and discuss Margaret Bonds' piece Tangamerican, performed by pianist Lara Downes. Special thanks to Lara and to Candace Johnson for their appearances in this episode!

Dr. Cooper's blog

Lara's recording of Tangamerican

Schirmer's editions of Price's music

Hildegard Publishing's Margaret Bonds page

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, I chat with Majel Connery all about her experiences as a singer, her choice to leave the field of musicology, and our shared experiences as women in music. We also discuss her new podcast from CapRadio, "A Music of Their Own," which explores the ways women in music navigate the industry and the ways the music itself is gendered. Make sure to stream her show wherever you get your podcasts!

A Music of Their Own

Yuja Wang article

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this solo episode, I chat all about how my fall semester turned out, from taking classes to teaching for the first time to quitting my barista job. I also discuss my experience presenting at the American Studies Association conference and at the big #musiccon (AMS/SEM/SMT 2022) in New Orleans. Finally, I reflect on achieving some of my goals of the past year and set a new yearly theme for 2023.

Singing Like Germans by Kira Thurman

Carefree Black Girls by Zeba Blay

Black Opera by Naomi Andre

A Taste For Brown Sugar by Mireille Miller-Young

CGP Grey's video on yearly themes

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, I chat with my friend Natalie Krafft all about her career as a music teacher, her experience doing music streams on Twitch, and our favorite recordings of the Goldberg Variations by Bach.

Follow Natalie on Twitch! @nitnatkat

Study Together Discord server

MTO article by Peter Martens

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In part two of my conversation with Dr. Megan Lavengood (George Mason University) and Dr. Cara Stroud (Michigan State University), we chat all about timbre, the role of "world music" instruments, and Megan's MTO article "The Cultural Significance of Timbre Analysis: A Case Study in 1980s Pop Music, Texture, and Narrative." A special thanks for Cara and her class for their thoughts on Megan's piece and for making an appearance on this episode (in order of appearance: (Zephie Hillard, ShihPing Wang, Jessi Fegan, and Karla Evans).

Megan's article

The SMT Committee on the Status of Women writing groups

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In part one of my conversation with Dr. Megan Lavengood (George Mason University) and Dr. Cara Stroud (Michigan State University), we chat about their experiences in music theory, their approaches to reading and writing, and their thoughts on teaching theory during the pandemic. Stay tuned for part two of our conversation!

The SMT Committee on the Status of Women writing groups

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]

In this episode, I chat with Dr. Dan DiPiero (Ithaca College) about his background as a jazz drummer, his experiences studying comparative studies, and his new book Contingent Encounters: Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life (out now and available open access through the University of Michigan Press!).

Dan's book

Dan's lecture on YouTube

Get in touch with me at: [email protected]