Society for Music Research
Last weekend, SMR held its much-anticipated 2018 graduate-student conference. Students from around the country gave ten paper presentations (including one lecture-recital) on a variety of topics relating to the conference’s theme, “Music and Borders,” across the disciplines of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, and musical performance (see conference program below). The conference’s keynote speaker was Dr. Alejandro L. Madrid of Cornell University, whose talk, entitled “The Importance of Being from ‘The Other Side’: Music, Estrangement, and Border Studies in the 21st Century,” extended the conference’s theme in productive directions and gave his audience much food for thought. Conference participants also had the opportunity to attend a UMS show by Company Wang Ramirez, whose dance work Borderline made an ideal pairing with the conference.
The conference was by all accounts a great success. Congratulations and thanks are particularly due to the conference committee—Anna Rose Nelson (co-chair), Richard Smith (co-chair), and Jacob Arthur (treasurer)—as well as to Dr. Madrid, for his keynote lecture; to the presenters, for their stimulating papers; to the faculty advisors, Professors Castro, Mengozzi, and Rusch, for their invaluable guidance; to the many volunteers from among the SMR ranks; and finally, to the many conference-attendees over the various conference events. Bravi, all!
Photos: Click to enlarge…
The conference was supported in part through the School of Music, Theatre & Dance Meta Weiser EXCEL Fund.
Download the conference program here.