Finals just finished here in Iowa City, and already the Summer term has begun. As students and faculty transition to new courses and research projects, here’s a few highlights from the latter half of Spring term: Megan Small, Ben Owen, Nathan Platte, Marian Wilson Kimber, Kelsey McGinnis, Cody Norling, Andrew Tubbs, Christine Getz, Lisa Mumme, and Natalie Landowski.

During the Fall 2018 term, Dr. Sarah Suhadolnik worked with students from two of her courses to create exhibits grounded in locally-oriented research: Exploring Our Sounds: Traditions of American Music Making at the University of Iowa, In Our Lives: The Beatles Yesterday and Today.

With assistance from the University of Iowa School of Music and International Programs, Matthew Arndt presented a paper entitled “The Dark Side of Oz as Allegory of Spiritual Transformation” at the annual meetings of the New Zealand Musicological Society at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music at St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto.

Even midst snow, slush, and more snow, there are publications, presentations, and podcasts to share and celebrate. Enjoy here some of the recent work from the faculty: Marian Wilson Kimber, Sarah Suhadolnik, Nathan Platte, and Trevor Harvey.

Lisa Mumme (MA, Musicology) won the National Opera Association’s 2018 Scholarly Paper Competition with her paper, “‘Angelica di voce’: Ángela Peralta as Nineteenth-Century Diva.”

The musicology program proudly recognizes our fall 2018 graduates: Ph.D. recipients, Dr. Sarah Lucas and Dr. Hang Nguyen, and master’s degree recipients, Lily Gaetgaeow and C.A. Norling.

The first half of the semester has been especially productive. Here are a few of the activities that students and faculty have been pursuing: Marian Wilson Kimber, Matthew Arndt, Cody Norling, Andrew Tubbs, Lisa Mumme, Sarah Lucas, Trevor Harvey, and Nathan Platte.

Students and faculty have already contributed to a variety of conferences this summer: Cody Norling, Andrew Tubbs, Megan Small, Nathan Platte, Kelsey McGinnis, Sarah Lucas, Michele Aichele, Jessica Kizzire, and Marian Wilson Kimber.

Dr. Sarah Suhadolnik was among the presenters who gathered in Cleveland, Ohio for the “Beyond Genre: Jazz as Popular Music” conference at Case Western Reserve University in April. Dr. Suhadolnik’s talk, “Friendly Meetings Abroad: Navigating Geographies of Genre on Basin Street” used the 2018 “United We Swing” release by New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Wynton Marsalis Septet as a springboard for her place-based examination of popular arrangements of Spencer Williams’s “Basin Street Blues,” a tin-pan-alley-hit-turned-jazz-standard.

Aaron S. Allen presents on “Musical Trees,” April 27. Aaron S. Allen is director of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program and Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he also served as the institution’s first Academic Sustainability Coordinator.