University of Redlands > Academics > School of Music > Frederick Loewe Symposium in American Music

Frederick Loewe Symposium in American Music

Frederick Loewe Symposium in American Music

Call for Papers: Women and the American Musical Landscape
Deadline: June 15, 2013

This year we welcome proposals on the role of women’s voices in the creation and performance of American music. Rather than return to issues of representation, we seek to discuss how women musicians and the concept of gender have shaped American musical culture. What might we consider musical feminism given that women—as creators, performers, and “skillful listeners”—take part in diverse discourses, from environmentalism, to race, ethnicity, and class, to personal and/or national identity? In exploring this and other questions we particularly encourage proposals that consider musical process: collaboration, performance, and listening, as well as composition.

In addition to paper presentations (October 24 and 25), the panelists selected will also be integrated into a seminar-style discussion based on readings from Denise Von Glahn’s Music and the Skillful Listener: American Women Compose the Natural World (IUP, 2013) and conversation with Joan Tower.

Abstracts should be approximately 250 words. Please send your abstract, contact information, and required technology to Katherine_Baber@redlands.edu by June 15, 2013.

Program Committee:
Katherine Baber (University of Redlands)
Anthony Suter (University of Redlands)
Denise Von Glahn (Florida State University)

About the School
The University of Redlands and its School of Music has been closely associated with American music since its founding in 1907. A prominent stop at the end of the rail lines leading to the west coast, concerts at the Redlands Bowl built in 1923 and performances of jazz bands and popular artists at the university's Casa Loma Room have been important parts of the region's musical life. In 1970 Stan Kenton and His Orchestra recorded the album Live at Redlands University and the School of Music was the home of avant-garde composer Barney Childs from 1971 to 1993. Materials from both these artists, along with the George Sheet Music Collection (featuring over 500 printed songs from the 1900s-1930s), form the core of the university's musical archives. The School of Music and its collections are also supported by the estate of Frederick Loewe, the Oscar-winning composer who retired to nearby Palm Springs.