Sound Expertise

Robin James, an editor at Palgrave Macmillan specializing in the nexus of music and philosophy, brings fresh perspectives on contemporary pop culture. She discusses how 'vibes' shape personal identity and societal relations in the digital age. Examining the significance of pop music through lenses of feminism and cultural dynamics, she challenges traditional philosophical boundaries. The conversation also dives into the distinctive music curation of Peloton, revealing how fitness and music intertwine to enhance experience.

Laura Tunbridge, a Professor of Music and an insightful biographer, dives deep into Beethoven’s life and legacy. She challenges the typical solitary genius narrative, revealing how economic struggles influenced his artistry and relationships in Vienna. The mystery of Beethoven's romantic life, including the elusive 'Immortal Beloved,' is also unraveled, exploring the tension between fact and myth. Tunbridge highlights the complexities of writing his biography while touching on controversial scientific inquiries into his DNA, adding fresh perspectives to this iconic composer.

What does it mean to search for music-making in the archives of slavery?  Maria Ryan studies African-descended musicians and listeners in the colonial Caribbean, and her research is fraught with ethical and logistical challenges. A conversation about fully imagining the lives of enslaved musicians, when the evidence of those lives is   documented almost entirely by their oppressors.Maria Ryan is assistant professor of musicology at Florida State University's College of Music.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!A new call to action: tell us why you listen to the show! Tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation or email our inbox, soundexpertise00@gmail.com

What does it mean to be a scholar when the culture you study is under attack? Maria Sonevytsky and Oksana Nesterenko work on Ukrainian music, and their lives have changed profoundly in the last year. A conversation about the Ukrainian avant-garde and pop worlds, how wartime changes research agendas, and much more.Maria Sonevytsky is Associate Professor of Anthropology & Music at Bard College; Oksana Nesterenko teaches at Union College.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!A new call to action: tell us why you listen to the show! Tag Will on Instagram/Twitter @seatedovation or email our inbox, soundexpertise00@gmail.com

The story of music  in the Soviet Union isn't just about Shostakovich and Stalin -- sometimes, it's not about composers at all. Gabrielle Cornish writes about a different kind of socialist sound: noise abatement policy, pop music, and even an aborted plan  to put a synthesizer in every Soviet home. A conversation about socialist noise, studying abroad in Siberia, what the war in Ukraine has meant for research, and more.Gabrielle Cornish is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, and soon to be Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Wisconsin.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation or email our new inbox, soundexpertise00@gmail.com

The African-American pianist Hazel Harrison played with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1904, and was promptly forgotten. But Kira Thurman remembers. Her incredible book Singing Like Germans tells the rich, textured stories of Black classical musicians who performed in Germany, which provided a safe haven from American segregation, even though they still faced racism.  A conversation about the paradoxes of race and colorblindness in classical music, and much, much more.Kira Thurman is associate professor of history, German studies, and musicology at University of Michigan.Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Writing a biography isn't easy, especially when it's of a living person, and especially when that living person is an epochal, oft-mythologized musician like Joni Mitchell. But Ann Powers, one of my absolute favorite music critics, has been doing the work. For our Season 3 debut, a deep conversation with Ann about her in-progress Joni Mitchell book, the complexities and anxieties behind thinking through Joni's life alongside her own, and what it means to write about women making music.Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. Show notes and more over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Finally, Sound Expertise returns! Season 3  begins on May 16, and it's our biggest and most ambitious to date: a full summer of interviews with music scholars about their research, and why it matters.Check out  past episodes at soundexpertise.org and get ready for our season premiere next week: an interview with the amazing Ann Powers about her in-progress Joni Mitchell book!#hotmusicologysummer

We're almost back -- Season 3 will debut in just a few weeks! Before then, one final bonus episode: our great producer D. Edward Davis interviews Will and co-author Kerry O'Brien about their new book "On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement," which University of California Press will release on April 25. We talk about our histories with musical minimalism, putting the book together, expanding the narrow canon of minimalism beyond white dudes, and more!More over at soundexpertise.org -- including info about our book launch events in NYC on April 23 and DC on April 26!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation

Another bonus episode! A conversation with composer Matthew Aucoin, whose opera Euridice had a run at the Met last month, and who just wrote a new book about the history and culture of opera, The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera. More over at soundexpertise.org!Questions? Thoughts? Share them with Will on Twitter @seatedovation