A Conversation with Dr. Philip Ewell, associate professor of music theory and director of graduate studies in music, Hunter College - CUNY

Moderated by JMU music professor Dr. John Peterson

FORBES CENTER @ HOME

Apr 7 - 16

STREAMED THROUGH APR. 16

A Conversation with Dr. Philip Ewell, associate professor of music theory and director of graduate studies in music, Hunter College - CUNY

Moderated by JMU music professor Dr. John Peterson

FORBES CENTER @ HOME

Apr 7 - 16

STREAMED THROUGH APR. 16


PHOTO COURTESY OF HTTP://PHILIPEWELL.COM
Seating: Online

Join JMU music professor Dr. John Peterson for a one-hour conversation with Dr. Philip Ewell, a cellist, music researcher at Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY), and a 2020­-2021 fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, whose recent work, “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame,” highlights how racist structures in the field of music studies have negatively impacted its development. This event is free. Donations are encouraged and will support student scholarships in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Live Zoom event on April 6, 2021. Available for on-demand viewing from April 7 through April 16, 2021.

Cellist Philip Ewell is an associate professor of music theory at Hunter College - CUNY, where he is the director of graduate studies in the Music Department. He is also on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center. Ewell was named the “Susan McClary and Robert Walser Fellow” of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) for 2020–2021 in light of his recent work in critical-race studies in music. As a result of the ACLS grant, Ewell is working on a monograph that examines race, gender, and other identities in American music theory; this monograph is under contract at the University of Michigan Press’s Music and Social Justice series. He is currently serving as “Virtual Scholar in Residence” at the University of Pacific’s Conservatory of Music for 2020–2021, also based on this race scholarship in the music academy. Ewell is also under contract at W.W. Norton with co-authors Rosa Abrahams, Aaron Grant, and Cora Palfy to write a new music theory textbook, “The Practicing Music Theorist,” which will be a modernized, reframed, and inclusive textbook based on recent developments in music theory pedagogy.

Ewell was part of the 2019 plenary panel of the Society for Music Theory annual conference, where he presented a paper, “Music Theory’s White Racial Frame,” which highlighted the white structures of the field and how these structures can have a negative impact on the racial makeup of music theory. He based the paper on a long article, “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame,” which appeared in June 2020 in Music Theory Online. His six-part blog, “Confronting Racism and Sexism in American Music Theory," delves further into issues surrounding race and gender.
Full bio

John Peterson studies form and musical meaning in classical music, musical theatre, and popular music as well as music theory pedagogy. He has published co-authored articles in Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, and SMT-V, the Society for Music Theory’s video journal. In addition, Peterson is part of a team of scholars working to revise an online, open-source, and freely accessible textbook, openmusictheory.com, which, among other things, seeks to diversify the repertoire and topics traditionally covered in music theory classes. Peterson has presented research at national and regional conferences, including the Society for Music Theory, the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Southeast, the Texas Society for Music Theory, and the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic. He is currently an editorial board member for Music Theory Spectrum, and the technical editor for the online journal Analytical Approaches to World Music. Full bio

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