Digital Commons Network^™

Paragliding The Cliff Edge: Introducing Open Mic Studies. A Creative Response To Navigating The Post-18 Landscape For Young Adults With Send., James Tarling, Charlie Robinson, Nick Hall, Sammy Shepherd

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This conceptual article investigates novel ways of thinking about Open Mic Nights (OMN) – performance spaces understood as free, community arts and performance opportunities where the members of the public are welcome to perform music, poetry and comedy in front of an audience. For the purposes of this article, music-related OMN that take place in pubs or community centres are discussed.

The article is intended to be a primer for OMN studies that offers new and emerging trailheads for future research and discussion. Its central focus is how OMN may benefit the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) community with …

Singing As Liberation: Spiritual Imagination And An Embodied Practice Of Hope Through Spirituals And Songs Of The Uhadi, Matisse Geselle

University Honors Theses

An exploration of the spirituality and the sacredness of music—and especially singing—through recording my own interpretations of spirituals and songs of the uHadi. It is also a poetic inquiry into how imagery of the river is used in spirituals as a pathway to freedom and liberation, and how the singing of spirituals is hope embodied. And it is a reflection of how my experience of the uHadi and my friends of the Ibuyambo ensemble changed me. The process of working on this project also feels like I am connecting to myself—and others—more deeply through singing. And ultimately, I hope for …

Jazz V. Law: An Overview Of Copyright Law For Jazz Musicians, Trevor Thompson

University Honors Theses

The United States copyright system has become increasingly complicated and has developed a bias toward written, notated mediums over performance mediums. This bias can be traced from the Statute of Anne through the modern system under the Copyright Act of 1976, and it directly affects jazz musicians' ability to comply with copyright laws and properly receive royalties for their work. This study traces the evolution of copyright law from 1710 to the present, noting important cases such as White-Smith Music Pub. Co. v. Apollo Co., McIntyre v. Double-A Music Corporation, and Tempo Music, Inc. v. Famous Music Corp. …

Musical Expression: How Do We As Composers And Performers Use The Tools Of Music In Such A Way To Realize Our Creative Endeavors And Communicate Them To Others?, Max Vance

Honors Projects

Why do we create things? This project delves into the deep, intentional processes of composition and cello performance. This paper discusses how the process is vital to the final outcome, outlines the necessary steps for composition and performance, and provides examples of work that has emerged from these processes.

Expressions Of Taiwanese Cultural Identity In Piano Music: A Study Of Hsiao Tyzen’S Memories Of Home And Ma Shui-Long’S A Sketch Of The Rainy Harbor, Fang-Yu Hsu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigates how Taiwanese cultural identity is expressed in the piano works of composers Hsiao Tyzen and Ma Shui-Long, focusing on Hsiao’s Memories of Home and Ma’s A Sketch of the Rainy Harbor. While both composers are pivotal figures in Taiwan’s musical history, their approaches to integrating local heritage with Western compositional techniques differ significantly. This dissertation argues that they represent two distinct creative paths: Hsiao’s model of Romantic Nationalism and Ma’s model of Modernist Synthesis.

Through historical contextualization and detailed musical analysis, this research examines the specific methods each composer employed. The findings reveal that Hsiao directly quotes …

Treatment And Recovery Of Mucoceles In Brass Musicians: The Performance Trap And Its Consequences, David D. Torres

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines the treatment and recovery of oral mucoceles in professional brass musicians through a qualitative case study combining personal narrative, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of medical and pedagogical literature. I interviewed four professional trumpet players who experienced mucoceles and lip trauma, and three medical professionals with relevant expertise. My own case serves as the primary study, documenting 15 years of scar tissue management following surgical excision and an immediate return to demanding performance. Medical literature treats mucocele excision as a routine procedure with recovery measured in weeks. Brass pedagogy literature assumes healthy lips and offers no guidance for …

The High School Piccoloist: A Resource Guide, Rebecca Needham

Dissertations, 2020-current

This project aims to curate a piccolo resource guide for high school music educators and their students. Currently, there are limited pedagogical materials available for beginning piccoloists or their music educators, and these materials are primarily scattered across decades of The Instrumentalist and the now-defunct Flute Talk journals. In addition, future band directors are rarely required to study auxiliary instruments like the piccolo in their collegiate coursework. These two factors combine to create a detrimental situation: frequently, neither teacher nor student in a typical high school setting has appropriate resources to understand the instrument and its essential differences from the …

The Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet: Its History And Legacy In American Saxophone Quartet Performance, James M. Lawhn

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The saxophone quartet has emerged as a legitimate chamber ensemble in the United States through the sustained efforts of a small number of pioneering professional groups. Despite the central role these ensembles have played in shaping repertoire, performance standards, and public perception, their histories have often gone undocumented. Among the most influential of these groups is the Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet, an ensemble that maintained an unusually active national and international touring career for nearly four decades and helped establish the saxophone quartet as a viable professional model.

This document addresses a significant gap in the scholarly literature by presenting …

The Changed Woman: Analyzing Narrative Parallels In The Stories Of Biblical Women And Musical Theatre Heroines, Finleigh Klein

Honors Projects

Musical theatre has become popular with audiences around the world. Many musicals contain stories of hope and overcoming obstacles, especially in narratives concerning young women. Since the Bible also contains a wealth of stories that focus on strong women, it is interesting to consider what connections may be found between the women represented in this ancient text and the female characters in various musical theatre productions.

With these potential connections in mind, I ask the question: how is the Biblical trope of the uplifting of women represented in songs sung by female characters in musical theatre? Furthermore, how can the …

Powwow Sound: The Differences Between Northern And Southen Style Music, Alison P. Walker

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

The purpose of this study was to observe the music performed at Powwows and the differences of the sound according to region.

I examined the changes based on region that made the style of music performed different.

The History, Development, And Continual Evolution Of The Percussion Theatre Genre, Steven L. Wimberley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

During the twentieth century, artists in every discipline sought to create new, original art that would both challenge societal norms and expand their respective art to new extremes. This expansion in contemporary music saw the emergence of electronics, chance elements, “found sounds,” speaking, acting, and physical gestures. As we continue through the twentieth century, we also see the onset of the percussionist as an independent musical artist and a desire for original music for percussion. The intersection of these new developments created what is known as percussion theatre.

Percussion theatre can be broadly defined as a genre of musical composition …

The Way Of The Moderns: Six Perspectives On Modernism In Music, Edited By Antoni Pizà, Rob Haskins

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Chapter 3. The Remarkable Career Of Leonard Slatkin, Robert S. Freeman

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Contributors To Issue 7

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Helen Beach Jones, The Eurydice Club, And Women Musicians In Early Toledo, Ohio, Mary Natvig

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

Toledo, Ohio native Helen Beach Jones (1857–1940) was a professionally trained church organist, choral conductor, and music teacher who paved the way for northwest Ohio’s art-music community today. Her story sheds light on the vibrant community of women musicians living in Toledo, Ohio, at the turn of the twentieth century, and as the founder and director of the Eurydice Club, a women’s chorus that was one of the city’s earliest and most prestigious music ensembles, she provided a home for women musicians throughout the region that lasted far longer than her tenure as conductor. In addition to her choral work, …

Taruskin’S Great Contributions And A Few Shortcomings, Ralph P. Locke

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

Among the most needed, and durable, features of Richard Taruskin’s life’s work was his consistent interpretation of music and music-making within and against their societal and cultural contexts. This stood in contrast to the positivistic methodologies that German, British, and American musicology valued in the 1960s–70s: instances of the latter include the making of reliable critical editions and, in a very different sense, various “the notes only” methods of music analysis.

The breadth of Taruskin’s vision and his command of musical and cultural history are apparent in the enormous “Nationalism” entry in the 2001 edition of Grove (now available at …

Songs Of John Bucchino: The Dr. Justin Vickers Studio Recital; March 20, 2026, Illinois State University School Of Music

School of Music Programs

This is the one hundred and twentieth program of the 2025-2026 season.

Kemp Recital Hall

March 20, 2026

Friday Evening

7:30 p.m.

Chicago Brass Band And Symphonic Winds: March 20, 2026, Dr. Mark Taylor, Dr. F. Mack Wood, Dr. Damon S. Talley, Madison Mueller-Howell

School of Music Programs

This is the one hundred and twenty-first program of the 2025-2026 season.

Center for the performing Arts

March 20, 2026

Friday Evening

8:00 p.m.

2025-2026 A Semiquincentennial Salute To The United States Of America: Friends Of The Conservatory Of Music Concert And Friendship Tea, Jon Cruz, Yilian Concepcion, Sheng Yuan Kuan, Ian Lewis, Isabella Swalm, Aidan Quintana, Ziling Wang, Gabrielle Siena

Friends of the Conservatory Events

No abstract provided.

Isu Symphony Orchestra: March 1, 2026, Illinois State University School Of Music

School of Music Programs

This is the one hundred and thirteenth program of the 2025-2026 season.

Center for the Performing Arts

March 1, 2026

Sunday Afternoon

3:00 p.m.

Charles W. Bolen Faculty Recital: Joshua Mobley, Trumpet; February 27, 2026, Joshua Mobley, Anne Mcnamara, Grace Eom

School of Music Programs

This is the one hundred and tenth program of the 2025-2026 season.

Kemp Recital Hall

February 27, 2026

Friday Evening

7:30 p.m.

2025-2026 Opera Fuoco: The Labyrinth Of Love, Katharina Wolff, Juliette Tacchino, Sophia Stern, Jennifer Hardy, Jean Brégnac, Kenneth Weiss

Guest Recitals

No abstract provided.

Isu Philharmonia String Orchestra: Samuel Chen, Director; February 25, 2026, Samuel Chen, Jayce Milburn

School of Music Programs

This is the one hundred and seventh program of the 2025-2026 season.

Kemp Recital Hall

February 25, 2026

Wednesday Evening

7:30 p.m.

Voices Of Sorrow And Strength: University Glee, Belle Voix And Stevenson High School Advanced Choir; February 22, 2026, Tim Fredstrom, Andrew Bruhn, Roland Hatcher, Kirstin Snelten

School of Music Programs

This is the one hundred and third program of the 2025-2026 season.

Center for the Performing Arts

February 22, 2026

Sunday Afternoon

3:00 p.m.

Winter Concert: Treble Choir, Concert Choir And Stevenson Highschool Patriot Singers; February 22, 2026, Mark Grizzard, Andrew Bruhn, Roland Hatcher, Kirstin Snelton

School of Music Programs

This is the one hundred and fourth program of the 2025-2026 season.

Center for the Performing Arts

February 22, 2026

Sunday Evening

6:00 p.m.

2025-2026 Hugo Valverde ('16) And Enriqueta Somarriba In Recital, Hugo Valverde Villalobos, Enriqueta Somarriba

Guest Recitals

No abstract provided.

Symphonic Winds: Dr. F. Mack Wood, Conductor: Fevruary 13, 2026, Dr. F. Mack Wood, Colby Powers

School of Music Programs

This is the ninety-sixth program of the 2025-2026 season.

Center for the performing Arts

February 13, 2026

Friday Evening

8:00 p.m.

2025-2026 Piano Passion From The Studio Of Roberta Rust, Owen Chen, Ana-Maria Uzunova, Ian Lewis, Aidan Quintana, Ziling Wang, Zion Pe Montebon, Hanting Peng, Gabrielle Siena, Caroline Dratnal, Diego Suarez

Studio Recitals

No abstract provided.

Bridging Traditions: An Exploration Of Orchestral And Contemporary Bass Clarinet Performance Practice, Patrick Burke

Research Theses

This thesis presents a practice-led investigation into bass clarinet performance, examining how orchestral and contemporary traditions may be explored as an integrated artistic practice. Grounded in a reflective, semi-autoethnographic methodology, the research traces the evolution of my performance practice through exploration of repertoire, modes of collaboration and critical reflection. Rather than seeking prescriptive models or definitive outcomes, the study embraces the exploratory nature of artistic research, allowing insights to emerge through practice and experience.

Situated within my ongoing work as a professional clarinettist, the research is informed by active engagement across orchestral, solo, chamber, and collaborative contexts. The thesis demonstrates …

Toward A British Guitar Canon: Ernest Shand’S Collected Works, Declan Hickey

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Guitar Music from Late Victorian England: Collected Works, by Ernest Shand, edited by Stanley Yates (Classical Guitar Study Editions, 2022), publisher's website.