Music Performance Commons^™

The Student Performer's Guide To Creating A Consortium, Jaycee Swan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Among advanced musicians who advocate for increasing diversity in classically oriented repertoire, music commissioning is a common practice. Funding a composer to write original music, however, seems out of reach for student musicians or those without the financial means and know-how. A more affordable and therefore accessible alternative to the stand-alone commission is the consortium-based commission for new music. In this lecture portion of a “lecture-recital with written document,” I (a) document my experience in spearheading a new music consortium and, from that experience, (b) present a guide for facilitating a new music consortium.

The project was the impetus for …

Music History 10100: A Thousand Years Of Listening, Sophia Stoyanovich

Open Educational Resources

A Thousand Years of Listening is an undergraduate music history course elective at Hunter College that introduces students to the history of Western art music from the medieval era to the present through focused listening and musical analysis. Designed for students with no prior musical training, the course develops critical listening skills while exploring major composers, genres, styles, and historical contexts. Through listening, discussion, writing, and a live concert experience, students learn to engage with music as informed and thoughtful listeners.

Expanding The Practice Of Conducting Through Technologies For New Musical Aesthetics, Majella Clarke

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

For over two centuries, the practice of conducting has been founded on a relatively stable relationship: a score is written, a conductor interprets it, and an ensemble/orchestra/choir realises it in performance. More recently, contemporary music has undergone profound transformations through algorithms, sensors, live electronics, machine learning, interactive systems, and generative technologies, expanding many instrumental practices and opening composition to become interactive, immersive and multimodal. However, the practice of conducting has remained largely tied to inherited models of interpretation and musical coordination via gesture.

This presentation asks how technology might expand conducting beyond traditional techniques and scoring materialities and become a …

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. …

The Voice As The Ultimate Microtonal Instrument, Catherine Terrell

University Honors Theses

I wrote several songs in a non-standard tuning system, 19-equal temperament. I define and distinguish 19-equal temperament and 12-equal temperament, then explore why I decided to write in this tuning system. I argue that intonation is a tool composers can implement along with more common musical devices. After describing the methods I used to create this music, I detail how I taught performers to sing it. I then describe and analyze the several works of music I created. Through the compositional process, I found tuning to be a very effective means in expressing musical and poetic ideas.

In The Wake Of Sound: On Field Recording, Materiality, And Reparative Listening, Ivy Fu

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis develops a practice of field recording, spatial audio composition, and soft-circuit installation grounded in what I call reparative listening: a slow, materially attentive form of attention oriented toward what dominant recording apparatuses suppress, discard, or fail to register. Across five major projects—Fable Upon Ununified Grounds (2023), Cocoon (2024), Tether (2025), Hide & Seek (2026), and Frequency Commons (2026)—I treat sound not as an extractable output but as a relational event shaped by site, body, material, and signal loss. The work draws together Jane Bennett's vibrant materialism, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's theory of definitional crisis and the open secret, Zhuangzi's …

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.

An Authentic Key To Universality: The National Sound Of Tajčević And The International Sound Of Milojević In Serbian Piano Music, Nikola Šćepović

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis argues that the authenticity of the works of Marko Tajčević and Miloje Milojević arises from their deep artistic response to the cultural and historical environment in which they lived and created, while their universality lies in their ability to articulate this authentic language within established artistic forms that resonate with a broader international musical community. It situates these works within the broader cultural context of Serbian music between the two World Wars, a period marked by the negotiation between national identity and European artistic integration.

It also explores the two formative directions of Serbian piano music, the music …

A Description Of Zhao Zhang’S Nature No. 2 And Xiaoxuan Xu’S An Unusual Feast Of East, Sicheng He

Dissertations, 2020-current

This research presents a new path in the development of Chinese music by aiming to incorporate both modern Western and ancient Chinese influences in form, texture, tonality, topic, and other dimensions of style and structure. Two Chinese composers whose recent compositions for the piano share similar characteristics: Zhao Zhang (b. 1964; Nature no. 2, 2013) and Xiaoxuan Xu (b. 1990; An Unusual Feast of East, 2022). The research will discuss how Zhao Zhang and Xiaoxuan Xu accomplish this fusion of old and new in their recent piano works Nature no. 2, (2013) and An Unusual Feast of East, 2022. …

A Preliminary Study On Composing For Reed Quintet, John O. Ford

Recital Papers

This paper is for the composer that aspires to write for the reed quintet ensemble. It discusses the ensemble’s short history and explains analyses of different reed quintet works to identify roles, pairings, and combinations of the five instruments and their timbral and textural capabilities.

Amor, Art, And Advocacy: Un Conversación With Chicanx Mother, Grammy Award Artivist, Macarthur Fellow, And Scripps Professor Martha Gonzalez, Belén S. Yudess

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This Spotlight features a conversation with Professor Martha Gonzalez, a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies (CLS) at Scripps/Claremont College. The conversation draws from Prof. Gonzalez’s background as a Chicana, and the  Chicanxs, Mexicanxs, Latinxs, and Indigenous communities in Mexico and Los Angeles that have shaped her work. She shares her practice in teaching and engaging with collective songwriting, her critique of western paradigms, and explorations of boundary crossing that music facilitates as part of championing the hope and flourishing that comes from within communities and …

Lmu Concert Band Spring 2026 Performance, Benjamin Bruflat, Dma

Band Programs

No abstract provided.

Lmu Jazz Band Spring 2026 Performance, Benjamin Bruflat, Dma

Band Programs

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Visual Supports On The Acquisition Of Guitar Chords, Cole S. Jahna

Thesis Projects

There is a current literature gap in applied behavior analysis (ABA) and music-based leisure activities. This study utilized a multiple-probe design to evaluate the effects of visual supports on the guitar fretboard combined with behavioral skills training (BST) to teach correct strumming and finger placement of three guitar chords (i.e., E, C, and G) to a neurodivergent adult. By using a task analysis, the strum and each individual finger placement were scored as correct or incorrect during each chord trial. Three chords that were under 50% accuracy in baseline were selected for the intervention. The intervention was introduced sequentially to …

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.

Cedarstone Arts Foundation Marketing And Media, Emmy-Kate Arnett, Amelia Bailly, Charlie Condra, Lorelai Lysaght

SPARK Symposium Presentations

For our project, we collaborated with Cedarstone Arts Foundation, a non-profit centered on providing free music education and instruments to childhood cancer patients. Our goal was to create social media platforms for the foundation and develop a key marketing strategy via said platforms, with the desired outcome of increased exposure and donations. To achieve our goal, we researched the most relevant media outlets for advertising. We helped create high-quality content that would raise awareness for their cause. We developed a general template for posting so that the foundation could confidently continue this strategy for the foreseeable future. We consulted with …

Afterword: On Reinstating An Arts Agenda In Our Schools, Leonard Slatkin

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Chapter 4. A Shared Dream, Robert S. Freeman

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.

Interlude. A Colloquy On The Future Of Music, Music Education, And The American Orchestra, Robert S. Freeman

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Chapter 2. Music Education And How To Save The American Orchestra, Robert S. Freeman

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Chapter 1. A Brief History Of The American Symphony Orchestra And Its Future, Robert S. Freeman

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Mark Adams

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal

The late Robert S. Freeman (1935–2022) was a pianist, conductor, and musicologist, but most of all a major administrator in the field of higher education in music: the director of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music (for twenty-four years), president of the New England Conservatory, and, finally, dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas (Austin). The present book was intended by Freeman to draw together a number of arguments and suggestions—his own and those of notable American figures in American musical life—that aim at reviving the American symphony orchestra.

Freeman’s four chapters trace …

Expanding Access To Latin American Art Song: A Study Of Theodoro Valcárcel's Andean-Influenced Art Songs, Douglas E. Perez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

EXPANDING ACCESS TO LATIN AMERICAN ART SONG: A STUDY OF THEODORO VALCÁRCEL’S ANDEAN-INFLUENCED ART SONGS advocates for the exploration and performance of underrepresented Latin American composers. Multiple methods of increasing access are discussed, including the creation of a central source for IPA, literal, and poetic translations of Latin American art songs; the study of seldom-performed composers, their output, and influences; and the application of these elements through informed performance. This document centers on the Peruvian composer Theodoro Valcárcel and analyzes the intersection of his indigenous heritage with his Latin American and European musical training as reflected in his compositional style …

Shadows And Stars: How To Bring Student Compositions To Life, Dylan K. Ahrens

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Student composer Dylan Ahrens will present a session titled 'Shadows and Stars: a Symphony for Band,' premiered by the Belmont University Wind Ensemble on April 17, 2026. The composer will provide an analysis of the piece, discuss compositional processes, and outline the experience of learning to conduct one's own work with a collegiate ensemble. This presentation will include audio and video sample of rehearsal and performance, as well as images from the score.

Graded Repertoire For Violin By Latin American Composers: Pedagogical Analysis And Categorization Of Selected Pieces, Irene Guerra Rudas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Repertoire sequences have evolved from a collection of technical studies into a comprehensive educational framework. This research aims to enhance the integration of innovative pedagogical materials by identifying, analyzing, and categorizing works originally composed for violin by Latin American composers. These works are assessed for their suitability within a structured violin curriculum and organized into graded levels, ranging from elementary to advanced.

Each selected piece is evaluated according to pedagogical parameters commonly used in established violin teaching traditions. These parameters include pitch range, rhythmic complexity, bow strokes, length, stylistic diversity, musical language, and the historical and cultural relevance of both …

The Black Box Series (December 5-7, 2025), Lindenwood University

Student Music Performance Programs

Event program for The Black Box Series (December 5-7, 2025), Lindenwood University.

Holiday Concert (December 2, 2025), Lindenwood University

Student Music Performance Programs

Event program for the Holiday Concert (December 2, 2025), Lindenwood University.

Keeping The Beat: A Case On The Effects Of Communication In Musical Teams During Performances, Shane Christie

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This case study examined whether the effects of positive team affect and team communication quality on the performance quality, or taskwork quality, of teams comprised of musicians, and if team communication quality could further improve the taskwork quality of a group of musicians. It was believed that participants with higher positive team affect scores would perform at a higher taskwork quality than those with lower positive team affect scores. In addition, it was believed that participants that engaged in higher-quality team communication during performances would strengthen this relationship, further increasing taskwork quality. The participants were divided into teams, and the …