As a graduate-student-led journal at the University of Michigan, the editors of Music & Politics in the Moment are particularly eager to learn more about efforts to make our own university community a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable place for all. We were thrilled when we learned that a group of University of Michigan students…
Author: mjudkins
DEI Talks: An Interview with the Composers of Color Resource Project
During the summer of 2020, the way we live our lives changed. Not only did we lose our ability to move around the world freely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the inequalities relating to other people’s ability to do so even in normal circumstances were, once again, brought to light. George Floyd’s murder at…
DEI Talks: An Interview with Dr. Louise Toppin on Videmus and the African Diaspora Music Project
Dr. Louise Toppin is a noted performer, scholar and professor who specializes in the concert repertoire of African American composers. Over the span of her career, two operas and more than 100 songs have been written expressly for her voice. In addition, she has sung the world premiere of more than 100 songs and arias by…
DEI Talks: An Interview with Tiffany Ng on Diversifying Carillon Repertoire
As defined by the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA), a carillon is a musical instrument composed of at least 23 carillon bells, arranged in chromatic sequence, so tuned as to produce concordant harmony when many bells are sounded together. The University of Michigan is one of the only institutions in the world to…
DEI Talks: An Interview with Paula Maust on “Expanding the Music Theory Canon”
In my experience teaching core music theory classes, I’ve found that it’s only too easy to introduce harmonic concepts using the same musical examples I used the last time I taught, which are in turn the same examples that I studied as an undergraduate music student. This practice of recycling examples—usually pieces by white, male…
DEI Talks: An Interview with the Music Theory Examples by Women Project
I am a woman pursuing a PhD in music theory, and even in 2021, I am something of an anomaly. In my sophomore year, when I declared my music theory/composition major, four well-meaning professors warned me that my chances for success in the field were low because, as they put it, it’s just a masculine…
DEI Talks: An Interview with the Music by Black Composers Project
When I was a young, aspiring musician, I played violin in a well-renowned youth orchestra in Milwaukee, WI. Participation in this organization afforded me many valuable opportunities: I was able to learn about the power of art music and what it meant to be a responsible member of an orchestra playing relatively difficult works, to…
Music and Nostalgia to Drive the Dark Away
Recently, there’s been much ado about the “War on Christmas”: the idea is that commercialization and secularization are threatening to erase the religious meaning of the holiday—that “Christmas” is losing the “Christ.” From the controversial phrase “Happy Holidays” to plain red Starbucks cups, those who decry the “War on Christmas” point to many cultural examples…