Sound Expertise

WE'RE SO BACK. Our fourth and final season begins October 15. Seeya then!soundexpertise.org 

Philip Ewell, a prominent music theory professor at Hunter College, confronts the racialized history of music theory and its impact on scholarship. He discusses the backlash he's faced in academia, revealing the emotional toll and resilience it has demanded. Ewell critiques the lack of diversity in music education and the need for reform, while highlighting the troubling responses to discussions on race in media. The conversation is both a call for inclusivity and a critique of the systemic biases that persist in the field.

Do we hear silence? John Cage certainly thought so, and so does Chaz Firestone, a scientist whose laboratory's recent study revealed that yes, we do hear silence. In this conversation, we discuss his new findings, what they mean for the fields of perception studies and philosophy, and how science and the humanities can work together to provide new answers to longstanding questions. Chaz Firestone is Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Hopkins Perception & Mind Laboratory at John HopkinsShow notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

In curating music and the performing arts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Dwandalyn Reece has one of the most important jobs one can have as a music scholar: providing a framework for the public to understand African-American culture, at a moment in which Black history is under a nationwide assault. In this conversation, Dr. Reece discusses her work at the Smithsonian, the process of acquiring important artifacts of Black musical life, and the museum's significance today. Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation

Mark Katz is John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music at UNC Chapel Hill;  Alim Braxton is a rapper on death row, who has been incarcerated in Central Prison in North Carolina since 1993. In 2019, they struck up a correspondence, and then a friendship, and are now writing a book. This is their story.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation 

The revival of Julius Eastman's work has transformed the world of avant-garde music, and in many ways can be attributed to a single individual. Since the late 1990s, the composer and performer Mary Jane Leach has collected manuscripts and recordings of Eastman's music, and helped bring about the current wave of "Eastmania." But the politics of Eastmania have become increasingly complicated, and Leach has found herself enmeshed in controversy around who can make claim to his legacy. A conversation about all that, and more.Mary Jane Leach is a composer, performer, scholar, and co-editor of "Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music."Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation 

In 2018, Douglas Shadle tweeted about systemic discrimination in American orchestral programming. His thread went viral, and he soon found himself doing what became known, around then, as public musicology. In this conversation, he talks about presenting his work outside the academy through advocating for marginalized composers, and what the Florence Price revival has meant for his scholarship (and, more troublingly, how Schirmer's acquisition of her music may actually prevent it from being heard). Douglas Shadle is associate professor of musicology at Vanderbilt University.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation 

In his long career as a scholar and conductor, Joshua Rifkin has done a lot: arranged for Judy Collins, performed in the first-ever marathon of "Vexations," helped lead the ragtime revival and, perhaps most importantly, totally upended the conventional wisdom about Bach's choral music. This is a conversation about all of that, and more: rich, insightful, and scandalous stories about one of the most fascinating lives a music scholar can lead. (Including: getting tipsy with John Cage, playing in a jug band, and fighting an entire generation of Bach scholars.)Joshua Rifkin is an acclaimed conductor and scholar.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation 

Bossa nova is everywhere –– from a dance craze in the '60s to elevator music today -- but it's also from somewhere. Kaleb Goldschmitt studies how bossa nova moved from a specific musical tradition grounded in Brazilian culture to an international phenomenon, and what that means for how we understand jazz history. A conversation about all that and more, including how queer and trans musicians and scholars are navigating post-Bolsonaro Brazil.Kaleb Goldschmitt is Associate Professor of Music at Wellesley CollegeShow notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation 

When classical composers incorporate indigenous music into their work, it's more than just cultural appropriation, because indigenous songs are more than just songs: they serve as medicine, law, and history. So what would it mean to redress such misuses, and to bring an indigenous worldview into Western art music? A conversation with Dylan Robinson about appropriation, repatriation, and his path towards becoming a scholar. (And, yes, we talk about Roomful of Teeth.)Dylan Robinson is Associate Professor, School of Music at the University of British ColumbiaShow notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Email soundexpertise00@gmail.com or tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation