Do you know what’s happening on the Downtown Iowa City Music Scene this fall? Come join a conversation with representatives of the Englert Theatre, Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization, the Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation, and the School of Music for a conversation about local arts organizations and the possibilities of collaboration.

Are you interested in the history of local women? Do you have stories of your own you want to capture or tell? Kate Orazem, Women in Politics Archivist at the Iowa Women’s Archives, is going to walk us through the collections of oral histories in the Iowa Women’s Archives, which encompass a wide variety of topics from rural Iowa women to Iowa police women, artists, feminists, and civil rights activists.

Bring questions about Music Graduate Degree Comprehensive Exams, and, or, any other major degree milestones to discuss with Pauline Wieland, Academic and Graduate Coordinator for the School of Music.

In this talk, Majel Connery argues that podcasting is an effective way of taking musicology to a national audience, channeling traditional academic approaches into an modern form of popular education.

Through analyses of the controversial performance of Ophelia’s madness in Hamlet; the representation of maternal trauma in several productions of Gounod’s Faust; and the Boston Lyric Opera’s thoughtful production of The Rape of Lucretia, Molly Doran will discuss the implications of staging women’s trauma for both audiences and performers, foregrounding the ever-relevant question of empowerment versus exploitation.

Addressing artistic renderings of both the Irish and Iowan landscapes, University of Iowa Graduate Students Rebekah Erdman (Musicology) and Adrian Gronseth (History) will be workshopping projects that showcase the breadth of scholarly engagement with music, sound, and our natural surroundings.

Juxtapositon (or “stringing together”) occurs when contrasting ideas are merely placed in succession; one idea is not perceived as a variant of the other and there is frequently no transition. Juxtaposition, Schoenberg argues, is characteristic of popular music. This paper examines juxtaposition in the music of the progressive-rock band Yes, examining two tracks from the band’s 1971 album, Fragile.

Through comparisons with rhetorical devices in storytelling, this paper explores subsets of the ways that texture and timbral narratives can play out over the course of a song. Ones that encompass and enhance the entire story, not just narrated verses interspersed with a catchy chorus, but ones that follow the narrative arc of the whole song.

Join members of the Ethno/Musicology, Music Theory, and Composition Colloquium for a seasonal screening of the Barbie Movie (2023), preferably in costume!

Addressing both music drawn from contemporary musicals and "Broadway-inspired" contemporary popular music, University of Iowa Graduate Students Zane Larson (Musicology) and Danielle Kramer (Musicology) will be workshopping projects that showcase the breadth of scholarly engagement with pop and musical theater.​​​​​​​

What is mindfulness? When does it constitute a form of self-care, and how can you learn more about how to practice mindfulness on the University of Iowa Campus?

Have you heard yoga and other types of deep breathing exercises can be great tools for stress relief, but aren't really sure why or how? Journalist James Nestor felt the same way at the start of the journey that ultimately became his book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. Join members of the Ethno/Musicology, Music Theory, and Composition Colloquium as we discuss the contents of Nestor's book and try out a few basic exercises. 

With over 61,000 downloads from over 50 different countries, Note Doctors has developed an international following while amplifying the voices of some of the most effective and innovative theory instructors in the field. In this roundtable discussion, producers and hosts Paul Thomas, Jenn Weaver, and Ben Graff will reflect on their experiences as content creators, responding to questions about audience, creative process, and what it is like to undertake this kind of public-facing, but still scholarly, work.

Did you know that the DrKatiMeyerMusicTheory YouTube videos and podcasts FilmCastPodScene, Sounding Cinema, and Ethnomusicology Today are all written and produced by University of Iowa School of Music Faculty? That’s 50 YouTube videos, 55 podcast episodes, and at least 8,690 watchers/listeners between them! In this roundtable discussion, Trevor Harvey, Kati Meyer, and Nathan Platte will reflect on their experiences as content creators, responding to questions about audience, creative process, and what it is like to undertake this kind of public-facing, but still scholarly, work.

Peter Martens: Can We Measure Syncopation (and Should We Bother)?