This autumn, many UChicago Department of Music faculty and students are presenting at the Society of Ethnomusicology, the Society for Music Theory, and the American Musicological Society Annual Meetings. With topics ranging from "Texture and the Political in Bon Iver's Kanye-Influenced Music" to "'I Ain’t Livin’ Life My Mama’s Way': Reframing Nostalgia in Bluegrass through Queer Songwriting," these presentations encompass a diverse range of musical perspectives.
Society for Ethnomusicology — October 23-26, 2025 (Atlanta)
The Society for Ethnomusicology was founded in 1955 to promote the research, study, and performance of music from all historical periods and cultural contexts. With a network of scholars, educators, students, musicians, activists, and curators from diverse humanistic and social science perspectives. In addition to hosting an annual meeting, the society publishes the journal Ethnomusicology as well as four online publications and a podcast, and it provides awards for excellent scholarship in the field.
Thursday, October 23rd
Isabella Ortega:
Excavating Alcina’s codiapi: Filipino Boat Lutes in The Colonial Visayas
4:30pm, M-103
Friday, October 24th
Emily Williams Roberts
“I Ain’t Livin’ Life My Mama’s Way”: Reframing Nostalgia in Bluegrass through Queer Songwriting
10:45-12:15, M-106/107
Lara Balicki
Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatnâme and Ottoman Music Theory: Mythmaking and Textual Ethnography
1:45 pm -3:45 pm, M-303
Varshini Narayanan
Guru-Sisya Parampara in the U.S. Diaspora
4:00pm-5:30pm, M-102
Pramantha Tagore
From Salon to Stage: The All Bengal Music Conference and the Public Life of Hindustani Music
4:00-5:30, M-106/107
Saturday, October 25th
Fiona Boyd
Black Opry’s Radiophonic Alternatives
9:30-10am, M-304
University of Chicago/University of Pennsylvania Joint Reception
9:00-11:00-pm, M-104/105
American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory Annual Joint Meeting — November 6-9, 2025 (Minneapolis)
The mission of the Society of Music Theory is to promote "the development of and engagement with music theory as a scholarly and pedagogical discipline." Embracing all approaches to and perspectives of music theory, the Society furthers the field of music theory through the publication of three scholarly journals, the promotion of scholarly research through awards and grants, and the convening of an annual meeting for the presentation and exploration of the latest research.
Founded in 1934, the American Musicological Society serves to advance research in the various fields of music as a branch of learning and scholarship. Every year, the Society convenes an annual meeting of scholars from around the world for the reading and presentation of nearly 200 papers, as well as study sessions, panel discussions, and performances.
Thursday, November 6th
Jennifer Iverson
“Hearing Technologies”.
9a-12p, Closed workshop, for those who signed up in advance.
Isabella Ortega
“Excavating Alcina’s codiapi: Filipino boat lutes in the colonial Visayas”
4pm, Greenway Ballroom B-1
Nathan Friedman
“The Nationalists Wish We Didn’t Exist”: The Diasporist Songs of Geoff Berner
4-5:30pm, Minnehaha
Audrey Slote
"Texture and the Political in Bon Iver's Kanye-Influenced Music"
4-5:30pm, Lake Superior B
Melani Shahin
More than “Mere Cantillation:” Joseph Levin Saalschütz’s Reception of Johann Nikolaus Forkel’s History of Hebrew Music
7:30pm-9:30pm, Minnehaha
Thomas Christensen
“Histories of Hidden and Vernacular Theories of Music”
7:45pm-9:45pm, Greenway Ballroom C-H
Friday, November 7th
Martha Feldman
"Writing about Music Otherwise": A Roundtable with Martha Feldman and Elisabeth Le Guin, joined by Ramona Naddaff, Fumi Okiji, and Jessica Bissett Perea
9-10:30am, Northstar Ballroom A
Steve Rings
Music Notation and Visualization Interest Group meeting (panelist)
12:30–2:00p, Lake Bemidji room
Juan Rivera
“Keys to the Lamborghini”: Picking Transformations and Embodiment in Rock Guitar Instructional Videos of the early 1990s
2:15pm-3:45pm, Lake Bemidji
Alex Tripp
“Shitpost Modernism” and the (mis)reading of combinatorial internet aesthetics
2:15pm-3:45pm · Location: Lake Superior B
Anne Walters Robertson
Symbolism and Intermediality in Early Music: New Work Inspired by the Research of Anne Walters Robertson with Mary Channen Caldwell, Lawrence Earp, Michael Anderson, Michelle Urberg, Dawn De Rycke and M. Jennifer Bloxam
Time: 2:15pm-3:45pm, Greenway Ballroom D-G
University of Chicago Reception
9:00-11:00 pm, Boundary Waters Ballroom C-D
Saturday, November 8th
Seth Brodsky
Music, Silence, and Social Action in an Age of Perpetual Crisis
9:00am - 10:30am, Boundary Waters Ballroom C-D
Lauren Molloy
“I’m the Perfect All-American:” Producing a Commodification of Girlhood for a New Generation
9:00 am, Lake Bemidji
Hiro Cho
Deep Critic, Surface Critique? Yuja Wang’s “Superficial” Beethoven and Subversion of History
10:45am-12:15pm · Location: Lake Superior A
Anne Monique Pace
A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies: Reimagining Madama Butterfly through an Asian-American Lens
10:45am-12:15pm · Location: Lake Superior A
Pramantha Tagore
Staging Cultural Crossings: Opera, Translation, and Musical Modernity in 19th-Century Bengal
10:45 AM–12:15 PM, Lake Superior A
Seth Brodsky
Contemporary Musical Modernisms: Organizing Meeting
2:15pm-3:45pm, Minnehaha
Jacob Reed
“You make it feel me good": K-pop English and Gestalt Listening Across Borders
4-6pm, Mirage
Alejandro Cueto
Alienness, Queerness, and the Sacred in Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976)
4:00pm-5:30pm, Lake Superior B
Patrick Murphy
Black middle-class contributions to Carnival music in late-nineteenth century Trinidad
4:00pm-6:00pm, Greenway Ballroom D-G
Liza Malamut
Musical Landscapes Across the Americas
4:00pm, Northstar Ballroom A-B, Reserve Tickets
Thomas Christensen
Closing the Gap Between Musical and Philosophical Hermeneutics
7:45pm-9:45pm, Greenway Ballroom C-H
Sunday, November 9th
Calum Jensen
The Dialectic of Instrumental Synthesis and the Mimetic Afterlives of Musique Spectrale
9:00am-10:30am, Boundary Waters Ballroom A-B
Paula Harper
Fakes, Grifts, Hallucinations, Hoaxes: Hearing Musical Misinformation Online
10:45am-12:15pm, AMS Lakeshore B
Teresa Turnage
“I Choose Violence”: Reverberant Feminist Rage in a Man v. Bear Digital World
10:45am-12:15pm · Location: Lakeshore B