Over the past few weeks, we’ve also witnessed a gaggle of conference presentations and publications from graduate students. Hearty congratulations to all who shared new work, organized conferences, and supported their peers!

Last semester, ethnomusicologist Trevor Harvey played a critical role in coordinating Esteban and the Children of the Sun, a multimedia performance envisioned and composed by former Director of Jazz Studies at Iowa, John Rapson, who passed away in July 2021.

Musicology Ph.D. Student Rebekah Erdman won the National Opera Association’s 2021 Scholarly Paper Competition! Her paper, “The Immortal Hour of the English Choral Drama,” discusses the popularity and reception of the choral drama The Immortal Hour by British composer Rutland Boughton (1878-1960).

The Music Research Forum features brief presentations from School of Music faculty: Matthew Arndt, Adam G. Harry, Anabel Maler, Marian Wilson Kimber, Abbey Dvorak, and Nathan Platte.

On Sunday, October 24, Dr. Marian Wilson Kimber gave a recital in the Stark Opera Studio titled In a Woman’s Voice: Musical Readings by Women Composers. I was able to talk with Dr. Wilson Kimber a bit about her recital; here’s what she had to say.

The duo Red Vespa, consisting of musicology professor Marian Wilson Kimber and pianist Natalie Landowski of Western Illinois University will return to the concert stage this week to present a recital of musical readings by American women composers. Red Vespa will also premiere a new work created for them by Portland composer and University of Iowa alumna Lisa Neher, Upon a Broken World. 

Sarah Suhadolnik’s work with colleague Monica Hershberger is featured in the new, open-access collection Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the 21st Century (eds. Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol Oja).

Marian Wilson Kimber’s “Hymnody, Dance and the Sacred in the Illustrated Song” has recently appeared in the volume Musicology and Dance: Historical and Critical Perspectives published by Cambridge University Press. Wilson Kimber has also recently joined a team of musicologists writing for the Women’s Song Forum, a new blog devoted to women’s songs and women’s voices.

Using media to share research is not new here. Trevor Harvey’s podcast, Ethnomusicology Today, has been doing just that since 2015. Since then, more students and faculty are exploring different formats to study and share work on a range of musical topics. Here are some recent highlights: Jon Eldridge II, Nathan Platte, Anastasia Scholze.

In bidding 2020 adieu, we take a moment to celebrate a smattering of the work we’ve shared during a very unusual fall term: Christine Getz, Cody Norling, Anabel Maler, and Nathan Platte.