Musicology news

The American Music Research Center’s interim director, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Austin Okigbo, shares the center’s fall semester highlights—including free performances of “Song of Pueblo” on campus and in Pueblo, Colorado.

Professor of Musicology Robert Shay and 10 of our students went beyond the traditional classroom this summer—to Vienna, Austria! Part of the CU Boulder Study Abroad program, this exciting, interdisciplinary two-week experience was one of several instructor-led Global Seminars.

For Professor of Musicology Robert Shay, the many mysteries of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” are too important to ignore. His critical edition of the English composer’s score provides fresh answers to a number of questions.

For first-year PhD student Laura Klein, a visit to Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, Hampshire, inspired “The Jane Austen Playlist: Love and Music of Regency England.” On Feb. 25, Klein will capture the essence of Austen’s six major novels in a dramatized performance.

It was a busy fall for the American Music Research Center (AMRC)! One of the many efforts underway is the Soundscapes of the People project. Two CU Boulder PhD students—Lydia Wagenknecht and Ben Cefkin—are working on this project alongside AMRC Director Susan Thomas, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Austin Okigbo and...

CU has announced newly designated distinguished professors—the highest honor bestowed upon faculty. Among the four awardees affiliated with the CU Boulder campus is the College of Music’s Professor of Musicology Rebecca Maloy.

“Rather than mourn what we have lost, try to find new, different ways of music making. I tried to take this as an opportunity to create long-term curriculums with student-centered projects, and this was a great way for students and myself to interact with music in new, safe ways.”

Curiosity drives Lydia Wagenknecht, a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology and recent recipient of a Fulbright Research Award. “I care that my research will help us understand something in a more broad-based way that we didn’t understand before,” she says.

“While there’s no playbook for the unprecedented and the unknowable, by channeling collective despair into collective creativity, we become artistic entrepreneurs, contributing to society in impactful ways.” In this year-end reflection on triumphs over turmoils, Dean Davis offers his perspective on music as essential to human betterment.

"Everything is connected—my artistry, my scholarship, my dissertation research and my activism in the immigrant community.”