Welcome message from the Co-chairs

September 15, 2017
Lena Leson and Vivian Luong

Hello, all!

We are thrilled to serve the Society for Music Research at the University of Michigan (SMR) as co-chairs for the 2017–18 academic year.

Following a very successful first year in 2015–16, during which SMR hosted a graduate-student conference, among other achievements, we spent 2016–17 diversifying our social and professional activities, developing support for our organization, particularly within SMTD, and raising our visibility at U-M and within the broader academic community.

The many events planned for this upcoming academic year reflect our intention to further SMR’s commitment to fostering an enriching and supportive community for Michigan’s graduate students in music research. With the help of our social committee and the Michigan Music Forum (MMF), we will continue to expand the variety and number of social and professional events offered by SMR, from barbeques and apple-picking to abstract writing workshops and a dissertation writing group. In addition to visiting our website for news on our society’s events, please be on the lookout for blog posts that will reflect the diverse research interests and experiences of our constituency. This year, we are particularly excited to host our second graduate-student conference in March 2018, which will incorporate a live performance hosted by the renowned University Musical Society.

If you are an SMR member and have ideas for SMR, an initiative to suggest, or any other feedback, please let us know! If you are a prospective student and would like to find out more about us, please contact us at societyformusicresearch@umich.edu.

We’d like to take a moment to thank William van Geest and Dorian Mueller, who run the SMR blog and our website, respectively, our colleagues, and particularly our former Dean Aaron Dworkin and the music theory and musicology faculty for their continued support of our organization.

With our best wishes,

Lena Leson and Vivian Luong
SMR Co-chairs, 2017-18