Public Lectures

1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series • 
ANALYZING LARGE-SCALE TONALITY IN ROCK MUSIC: STEADY-SCALE AND STEADY-TONIC SYSTEMS 
Brett Clement (PhD Music Theory, '09), Associate Professor of Music Theory at Ball State University 
How do rock songs create tonal unity? This presentation addresses this question by introducing a conceptual framework built around two contrasting tonal systems: steady-scale and steady-tonic. These systems are named according to the underlying feature that remains consistent in the music, with steady-scale systems unified by their adherence to notes within a diatonic pitch collection/key signature and steady-tonic systems unified by an unwavering tonic pitch. As the two systems exploit musical elements in largely opposite ways, this presentation lays out the range of possibilities for tonal drama, ambiguity, and global hierarchy in songs exemplifying one or the other system. It concludes with analyses of songs that are mixtures of the two systems, thereby featuring a more fluid approach to tonal organization.
Location: Baur Room  
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series • 
SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE MAGIC FLUTE
Richard Kramer, Professor Emeritus from CUNY Grad Center
What is Enlightenment? In a certain sense, The Magic Flute may be understood as a playing out of Immanuel Kant’s answer to that question: “Sapere aude! [dare to know] – Have the courage to use your own understanding” – a challenge that is at the core of Tamino’s perilous journey. But the idea of Enlightenment and the complexity of original thought encompassed under its banner demands of us that we examine the deeper questions that it asks: What view of Enlightenment is conveyed in Mozart’s music and Schikaneder’s libretto, and how does this view accord with those strains of thought and expression, of wit and sensibility, that we take to constitute the defining aura of the Enlightenment? The great arias of Tamino and Pamina, studied as embodiments of these qualities, are viewed against the master plots of the opera.  
Location: Online via Zoom; contact Professor Steven Cahn for details. 
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series • 
WOMEN AUDIO PRODUCERS AND ENGINEERS, AND THE CASE AGAINST GENDER VENTRILOQUISM 
Helen Reddington, Senior Lecturer in Music Production at the University of East London 
This talk will focus on women professionals in the UK music industry. Reddington’s The Lost Women of Rock Music (Equinox, 2012) features women punk instrumentalists in the UK in the late 1970s, speaking through the lens of history. These experiences, voiced by the women themselves, challenged the male narrative of the subculture and indeed its very maleness. Reddington’s She’s at the Controls (Equinox, 2019) follows the same methodology, this time focusing on much more recent accounts by women in the music industry. It focuses both on the reasons why it is important that women have equality of access to the music industries, and the impact of often invisible male gatekeeping on the end product (the music) that we listen to and map our lives to. Reddington will discuss issues raised by the women producers and engineers that she interviewed and will contextualize these within the central concept of the book: that of gender ventriloquism. 
Location: Online via Zoom. Contact Professor Jeongwon Joe for details. 
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: VARIETIES OF INVERTIBLE CANON IN THE LONG SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Denis Collins, Associate Professor in Musicology from University of Queensland, Australia
This presentation takes as its starting point a seeming error in a musical example in Gioseffo Zarlino’s Le istitutioni harmoniche (1558). Careful comparison with similar examples shows that all of his examples are correct as notated. They demonstrate a contrapuntal technique that results in a type of invertible canon in performance. This lecture points to other situations where Zarlino’s theories can help in unravelling the complexities of 16th-century counterpoint. It also discusses how canons, including those that employ complex procedures, enjoyed a long history as title pages or frontispieces to manuscript collections or printed volumes of music. These canons were often presented in geometric shapes whose symbolic significance could be reinforced by accompanying artwork or textual commentaries.
Location: Online via Zoom. Contact Professor Steven Cahn for details.
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17 
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series • 
EXPANSION, CONTRACTION, AND TRANSFORMATION: THE CREATION OF SACRED SPACE THROUGH MUSIC FOR COMMUNAL HEALING AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 
Lisa Osunleti Beckley-Roberts, Associate Professor of Musicology from Jackson State University 
Through the study and exploration of African and diasporic music and movement practices, the author shares experiences with facilitating communal healing in the planning, preparation, and performance of a work in honor of Trayvon Martin. This paper explores the ways that the terms expansion and contraction, borrowed from Ifa cosmology of the Yoruba ethnic group, may be applied to the practice of reimagining African and African diaspora music and dance, in order to respond to and navigate the emotional turmoil of social injustice. Furthermore, additional instances of the use of music and the reimagining of musical ideas have been used to aid in communal healing. 
Location: Baur Room 
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, March 3 
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series • 
MOURNING AND MANEUVERING: MUSICAL PRACTICE AND THE NEW TRAUMAS OF RECONSTRUCTION 
Thomas Kernan, Associate Dean of the Chicago College of Performing Arts and Associate Professor of Music History at Roosevelt University 
In recent years American journalists, activists, and scholars have devoted significant attention to identifying, examining, and in many cases removing statues of Confederate Civil War generals from public spaces. One element of the case for statue removal has been that most of these statues never held a close chronological connection to the war; rather, they were the products of twentieth-century segregationists. This is an important point, as it demonstrates the way in which segregationists activated war memory to make overtly racist claims many decades later. However, the argument about the comparatively late arrival of these statues to public squares often obscures our understanding of a different type of commemoration—an aural one—that occurred in these same locales. 

Decades prior to placement of a bronze Robert E. Lee or marble Stonewall Jackson, many American parks, plazas, and boulevards where marked as commemorative spaces hostile to Black life. Musical compositions and performances, perhaps more holistically than other types of sources, allow us to recognize the ways in which spaces that excluded Black Americans during the period of slavery were swiftly reaffirmed as places hostile to Black lives during Reconstruction. To this end, the trauma of having a Confederate monument in a public space in 2022 is connected to a consistent trauma of having had crowds of people singing songs of the segregationist narrative during the crucial interregnum of Reconstruction. While physical monuments were added later, they had musical precursors that are relevant in recognizing the ways in which musical practices predate physical manifestations of Confederate commemoration.   
Location: Baur Room  
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, March 31 
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
GENERATING NEW PREDICTIONS: NEW DIRECTIONS IN MUSIC FOR BRAIN HEALTH
Psyche Loui, Associate Professor from Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design
The ability to predict events in the near future is a ubiquitous feature of biological systems that underlies perception, action and reward. Guest speaker Psyche Loui, PhD, will present recent work that combines music theory and music technology with cross-cultural behavioral testing, neuropsychological assessments and neuroimaging studies in her lab on how and why humans across societies learn to love music, uncovering the role of different types of prediction on the dopaminergic reward system in the brain. These results are the first to highlight the process by which we learn from our predictions, and that learning itself becomes rewarding. Given that music taps into a relatively domain-general reward system which in turn motivates a variety of cognitive behaviors, Loui will also consider how this knowledge can be translated into music-based interventions for those with neurological and/or psychiatric disorders, presenting preliminary results on Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.
Location: Baur Room
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, April 14 
• The Joseph and Frances Jones Poetker Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
THE FRAGMENT AND THE LONG SONG OF JULIUS EASTMAN
Ellie Hisama, Dean of the Faculty of Music and Professor of Music from the University of Toronto 
This talk examines the ways in which the archive of the composer, pianist, and vocalist Julius Eastman (1940-1990) performs an act of refusal. Eastman’s subjectivity as a queer African American musician and the narratives about his life strongly resonate with researchers and the public who are eager to excavate the work of Black artists and musicians. In writing a “long song” about Julius Eastman, this project brings together the fragments of Eastman’s work, focusing on his radical sonic expressions of and commentary on black being in compositions from the 1970s and 1980s. It serves as an initiative in music studies that offers tangible pathways of listening to Julius Eastman’s uncompromising and fierce musical engagements of refusal.
Location: Zoom 
Admission: FREE, but registration is required. Register for the lecture here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Zoom meeting.

This virtual installment of CCM's Thinking About Music Series features a lecture by Michael Haas, a multiple Grammy Award-winning recording producer also known for his recovery of music lost during the Third Reich. The title of Haas' talk is “Hans or Hanuš: Winterberg’s Complex Tangles with the 20th Century.”

The following is an alphabetical list of past Thinking About Music speakers:

• Kofi Agawu (2013-14)
• Wye Jamison Allanbrook (2002–03)
• David Ake (2008–09)
• Charles Atkinson (2004–05)
• Joseph Auner (2014–15)
• Gage Averill (2006–07)
• Judith Becker (2002–03)
• Gerard Behague (1997–98)
• Paul Berliner (2000–01)
• Philip Bohlman (2007–08)
• Graeme Boone (2000–01)
• Gregory Booth (2013-14)
• James Borders (2012–13)
• Karen Bottge (2013-14)
• Susan Boynton (1999–2000)
• Candace Brower (1997–98)
• Malcolm Brown (1996–97)
• J. Peter Burkholder (2001–02)
• Scott Burnham (1997–98)
• Mellonee Burnim (2009–10)
• L. Poundie Burstein (2002–03)
• Allen Cadwallader (1998–99)
• Deborah Campana (2012–13)
• William Caplin (1999–2000)
• Peter Cariani (2008–09)
• Anna Celenza (2005–06)
• Michael Cherlin (1998–99; 2014–15)
• Thomas Christensen (1996–97)
• Marcia J. Citron (2008–09)
• Robert Clarida (2002–03)
• Bastian Clevé (2008–09)
• David Cohen (2001–02)
• Richard Cohn (1997–98)
• Vincent Colapietro (2009–10)
• Susan Cook (1997–98)
• Richard Crawford (2003–04)
• Warren Darcy (2000–01; 2008–09)
• Beverly Diamond (2011–12)
• Walter Everett (2005–06)
• Yajoi Uno Everett (2010–11)
• Laurel Fay (2004–05)
• Steven Feld (2003–04)
• Martha Feldman (2006–07)
• Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. (1997–98)
• Mary Frandsen (2006–07)
• Jane Fulcher (2002–03)
• Sarah Fuller (2011–12)
• Sander L. Gilman (2011–12)
• Robert O. Gjerdingen (2001–02)
• Beth Glixon (2000–01)
• Philip Gossett (2004–05)
• Taylor Greer (1996–97)
• Barbara Haggh (1996–97)
• Ethan Haimo (2001–02)
• Christopher Hasty (2007–08)
• Robert Hatten (2002–03)
• Wendy Heller (1998–99)
• James Hepokoski (2002–03)
• Dane Heuchemer (2001–02)
• Stephen Hinton (1999–2000)
• Julian Hook (2011–12)
• Gretchen Horlacher (2007–08)
• Roy Howat (2006–07)
• Mary Hunter (2010–11)
• David Huron (2001–02)
• Brian Hyer (2000–01)
• Allan Keiler (1999–2000; 2007–08)
• Kay Knittel (2006–07)
• Nola Reed Knouse (1998–99)
• Lev Koblyakov (2004–05)
• Kevin Korsyn (1998–99; 2006–07)
• Ellen Koskoff (1996–97; 2014–15)
• Kim Kowalke (1999–2000; 2012–13)
• Lawrence Kramer (2008–09)
• Richard Kramer (2003–04)
• Joseph Kraus (1997–98; 2008–09)
• Harald Krebs (2000–01)
• Kenneth Kreitner (2014–15)
• Joel Lester (1998–99)
• Mary S. Lewis (2002–03)
• Rebecca Leydon (2004–05)
• Laurence Libin (2001–02)
• David Lidov (2005–06)
• Judith Lochhead (2003–04)
• Justin London (1996–97)
• Hugh Macdonald (2001–02
• Patrick Macey (2006–07)
• William P. Malm (1998–99)
• Rebecca Maloy (2007–08)
• Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis (2014–15)
• Michael Marissen (1998–99)
• Elizabeth West Marvin (2005–06)
• Guerino Mazzola (2007–08)
• David McAllester (1996–97)
• Kerry McCarthy (2009–10)
• Andrew W. Mead (2012–13)
• Honey Meconi (2004–05)
• Louise Meintjes (2012–13)
• Daniel Melamed (2000–01)
• Stefano Mengozzi (2011–12)
• Craig A. Monson (2012–13)
• Jairo Moreno (2009–10; 2010–11)
• Severine Neff (1999–2000)
• Susan Neimoyer (2013-14)
• Bruno Nettl (2008–09)
• David Neumeyer (2012–13)
• Edward Nowacki (2010–11)
• Charles O. Nussbaum (2010–11)
• Massimo Ossi (2005–06)
• Leeman Perkins (2006–07)
• Alejandro E. Planchart (2013-14)
• Howard Pollack (2009–10; 2012–13)
• Harold S. Powers (2003–04)
• Guthrie Ramsey (1996–97)
• Annie Randall (2010–11)
• Annette Richards (2014–15)
• Thomas L. Riis (2002–03)
• Steven Rings (2011–12)
• Jenefer Robinson (2003–04)
• Alex Ross (2005–06)
• Lee Rothfarb (2003–04)
• William Rothstein (2006–07)
• Lewis Rowell (2000–01; 2009–10)
• Leonora Saavedra (1999–2000)
• Frank Samarotto (2008–09)
• Janna Saslaw (2009–10)
• Carl Schachter (1999–2000)
• Luitgard Schader (2000–01)
• James Schmidt (2007–08)
• Loren Schoenberg (2014–15)
• Peter Schubert (1997–98)
• Anthony Seeger (1998–99)
• Peggy Seeger (1999–2000)
• Kay Shelemay (2001–02)
• Hedi Siegel (1998–99)
• Dennis Slavin (1996–97)
• Charles Smith (2004–05)
• Peter H. Smith (1996–97)
• Ruth Solie (2003–04)
• Mark Spicer (2013-14)
• Rose Subotnik (2004–05)
• Mark Swed (2009–10)
• Richard Taruskin (2007–08)
• Augusta Read Thomas (2009–10)
• Jeff Titon (2005–06)
• Anthony Tommasini (2013-14)
• Leo Treitler (1997–98)
• Thomas Turino (2010–11)
• Michael von der Linn (1999–2000)
• Paul von Hippel (2005–06)
• Bonnie Wade (2004–05)
• Alan Walker (2005–06)
• James Webster (1998–99)
• Richard Will (2013-14)
• Susan Youens (2007–08)
• Steven Zohn (1999–2000)
• Lawrence Zbikowski (2010–11)
• James Zychowicz (1996–97)

1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22
CLIMATE JUSTICE
Savanah Sullivan, Senior Director of Programs, Green Umbrella: Regional Sustainability Alliance 
Presented by CCM Composition, Musicology and Theory (CMT) as part of its "Amplifying Justice: Music, Activism and Intersectional Advocacy" lecture series, supported by a CCM DEI Committee grant through CCMpower. The series seeks to foster meaningful connections between graduate music students and dedicated community activists. Through engaging discussions and collaborative initiatives, participants will explore pressing issues surrounding climate justice, reproductive justice and trans rights, within the context of music and its potential for social impact. This series serves as a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange, empowering attendees to enact positive change in their communities and beyond. Join us in this transformative journey towards a more inclusive and equitable future.  
Location: Baur Room   
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29
TRANS* RIGHTS
Tristan Vaught, Co-founder of Transform Cincy 
 Presented by CCM Composition, Musicology and Theory (CMT) as part of its "Amplifying Justice: Music, Activism and Intersectional Advocacy" lecture series, supported by a CCM DEI Committee grant through CCMpower. The series seeks to foster meaningful connections between graduate music students and dedicated community activists. Through engaging discussions and collaborative initiatives, participants will explore pressing issues surrounding climate justice, reproductive justice and trans rights, within the context of music and its potential for social impact. This series serves as a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange, empowering attendees to enact positive change in their communities and beyond. Join us in this transformative journey towards a more inclusive and equitable future.  
Location: Baur Room   
Admission: FREE

1:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13
REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE
Rashida Manuel, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio 
Presented by CCM Composition, Musicology and Theory (CMT) as part of its "Amplifying Justice: Music, Activism and Intersectional Advocacy" lecture series, supported by a CCM DEI Committee grant through CCMpower. The series seeks to foster meaningful connections between graduate music students and dedicated community activists. Through engaging discussions and collaborative initiatives, participants will explore pressing issues surrounding climate justice, reproductive justice and trans rights, within the context of music and its potential for social impact. This series serves as a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange, empowering attendees to enact positive change in their communities and beyond. Join us in this transformative journey towards a more inclusive and equitable future.  
Location: Baur Room   
Admission: FREE

12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29 
COMPOSING WITH JOY
Guest Lecture by Carl Vine, visiting composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member 
Australian composer Carl Vine has written 25 scores for classical dance, eight symphonies, 12 concertos and a wide range of chamber music as well as music for film, television and theatre. His music is available on more than 60 commercial recordings and is performed frequently around the world. Vine served as a jury member for the 2019 Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition. 
Location: Mary Emery Hall, Room 3250 
Admission: FREE

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30
• Guest Artist Recital •
THE MUSIC OF CARL VINE
Featuring guest artists Beo String Quartet 
Featuring student artists from the CCM Chamber Orchestra
Enjoy a recital of works by visiting composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member Carl Vine. The program includes Vine's Piano Trio "The Village," String Quartet No. 3, Cafe Concertino and String Quartet No. 6. Reception to follow in the CCM Baur Room. 
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall 
Admission: FREE

12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17 
GUEST LECTURE 
Missy Mazzoli, Grammy Award-winning composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member 
Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, Scottish Opera and many others. In 2018 she became one of the first two women, along with Jeanine Tesori, to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera and was nominated for a Grammy award. Mazzoli served as a jury member for the 2019 Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition. 
Location: Mary Emery Hall, Room 3250 
Admission: FREE

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18  
• Guest Artist Series •  
THE MUSIC OF MISSY MAZZOLI 
Missy Mazzoli, Grammy Award-winning composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member  
Featuring guest artists Beo String Quartet and student artist Michael Delfin, piano  
William R. Langley, guest conductor 
Enjoy a recital of works by visiting composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member Missy Mazzoli. The program includes Mazzoli’s Vespers for Violin (2014), Enthusiasm Strategies (2019), Harp and Altar (2009), A Thousand Tongues (2009), Lies you Can Believe In (2007), Heartbreaker (2013), Ecstatic Science (2017) and Still Life with Avalanche (2008). Reception to follow in the CCM Baur Room.   
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall  
Admission: FREE 

12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1  
GUEST LECTURE  
Aya Yoshida, Winner of the 2019 Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition   
Japanese composer Aya Yoshida’s works have been performed in Japan and Europe by a diverse range of soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including the performances by Curious Chamber Players in Viitasaari, Finland; by Arditti Quartet and by Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen, Denmark. She recently won the 2019 Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition for her 10-minute piece Double-face. The first prize award includes $30,000 along with a new orchestral commission for dance. The commissioned piece will receive a world premiere by the CCM Philharmonia and CCM Ballet Ensemble during the CCMONSTAGE Dance Works performances on Dec. 2-5. 
Location: Mary Emery Hall, Room 3250   
Admission: FREE

12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23 
GUEST LECTURE
Iris ter Schiphorst, visiting composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member  
Location: Mary Emery Hall, Room 3250 
Admission: FREE

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24
• Guest Artist Recital •  
THE MUSIC OF IRIS TER SCHIPHORST  
CCM Chamber Orchestra and guests  
Aik Khai Pung, music director and conductor   
Featuring music by Iris ter Schiphorst, visiting composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member 
This recital features Schiphorst’s The Fall of the House of Usher, Sometimes II, Dislokationen II , Ballade für einen Buldozer, Hi Bill and Vielleicht gestern, presented with film and electronics in a multimedia superfest! Reception to follow in the CCM Baur Room.  
Location: Patricia Corbett Theater  
Admission: FREE

2:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25 
• Guest Artist Series • 
MASTER CLASS WITH ICARUS QUARTET
Location: Patricia Corbett Theater 
Admission: FREE

2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26 
• Guest Artist Series •  
icarus Quartet  
New works for two pianos and two percussionists including the premier of faculty artist Douglas Knehans’s Transparent Waves. 
Location: Patricia Corbett Theater  
Admission: FREE

12:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 9 
GUEST LECTURE 
Colin Matthews, visiting composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize
for Composition jury member  
Location: Mary Emery Hall, Room 3250 
Admission: FREE

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 9 
• Guest Artist Series • 
THE MUSIC OF COLIN MATTHEWS 
Colin Matthews, visiting composer and Alexander Zemlinsky Prize for Composition jury member  
Featuring Marta Aznavoorian, piano; and guest artists the Lincoln Trio and Beo String Quartet 
Showcasing Matthews’ Eleven Studies in Velocity, Three Enigmas, String Quartet No. 2, Nowhere to Hide and Hidden Agendas. Reception to follow in the CCM Baur Room. 
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall 
Admission: FREE