Music Performance Activities

Bienen School faculty have been working independently as well as collaboratively in developing DEI initiatives for their studios and classrooms. Many instrumental studios are studying repertoire by BIPOC composers. Some examples include:

• All Bienen voice students have committed to selecting and learning two art songs by Black composers. 
• All degree recitals for harp and double bass students will feature one work by a BIPOC composer.
• The Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra performed Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s 4 Novelletten for String Orchestra.
• Saxophone students are creating a repertoire database of works written for saxophone by racially diverse composers. The Northwestern Saxophone Ensemble commissioned Steven Banks ’17 MMus to compose a new work, which the ensemble premiered in May 2022.
• The Percussion Ensemble performed a work by Joe W. Moore III live via Zoom for the composer, who then provided feedback to the ensemble. The ensemble will perform a work by a Black composer each quarter.
• Studio members performed a work by violist/composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama for the viola studio competition.
• Guitar students are studying works by Justin Holland and the Guitar Ensemble performed music by Celso Machado and Leo Brouwer.
• Select piano students presented A Celebration of Scott Joplin in spring 2021. 
• Keyboard skills students are studying a piece by Hannibal Lokumbe in class, along with other 20th and 21st century works.
• The double bass studio hosted Rebecca Lawrence to discuss her project Bass Players for Black Composers.
• Alumnus Steven Gooden ’12 MMus of the Merit School of Music presented “Equity in Music Education: A BIPOC Perspective in Shaping the Future” for all wind chamber music students.
• Flute students are collecting solo and chamber flute repertoire by BIPOC composers, which will be organized into a publicly accessible database and also performed by studio members in a virtual showcase.
• Conducting faculty have recently hosted virtual guest speakers for DEI-related discussions.
  • Rollo Dilworth ’00 MMus, ’03 DMus joined the remote choral class for an in-depth look at Spirituals/Slave Songs. 
  • A Zoom panel discussion featured Alfred Watkins and alumni Stacy Ascione ‘97 MMus, Steven Banks ’17 MMus, Ethan Bensdorf ‘07, Rodney Dorsey ‘92 MMus, ‘06 DMus, Patrick Rehker ‘05 MMus, and Tim Sutfin ‘04.
  • Rachel Barton Pine presented a “Celebration of Black Classical Composers” performance/discussion. 
• The Bienen School’s 2021 Samuel and Elinor Thaviu Endowed Scholarship Competition in String Performance required a work by an African American composer.

Music Studies Activities

Musicology Core Curriculum

The Bienen School of Music launched a new undergraduate core musicology curriculum in fall 2019. One goal of the revised curriculum was to provide students a more inclusive and diverse representation of classical music. Faculty will continually update these courses, which have been well-received by students.

The Classical Canon

Is "classical music" truly universal? Are there identifiable, qualitative musical differences between music in the canon and other works which have not entered the repertoire? This course seeks to interrogate the processes that made famous "classical" works famous and examine to what extent social factors such as nationalism, racism, and gender influenced the formation of the canon. See Full Class Description >

Performers and Performance

This core course focuses on what it means to be—or meant to be—a musician at different times of history and cultures. Case studies include the history of conductors, the history of Western classical music performance in East Asia and Asian musicians abroad, jazz pianists and singers, issues of gender and race in opera, Black musicians and crossing boundaries, and the history of bands, among others. See Full Description >

Music in the Present

This course explores contemporary music through its circulation, reception, and mediation. Examples are drawn from Western art, popular, and global musical genres, though students will explore how all these musics share, at least in part, similar modes of distribution. See Full Description >

Other Music Courses

American Art Song

This graduate seminar will survey and conduct new research into American art song traditions, including African American song, with special focus on poetic language and issues of performance. It will query intersections between classical art song and popular cultures and religious practices, and attempt to define elements that differentiate American song from other traditions in English. A core repertoire of songs by Charles Tomlinson Griffes, William Grant Still, Charles Ives, Amy Beach, Samuel Barber, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and Ned Rorem will be balanced by attention to lesser known material. See Full Description >

Julius Eastman, Composer Topics

This course introduces students to the life and work of composer-performer-improvisor Julius Eastman (1940-1990). Eastman's musical practices encompassed a range of styles and genres—classical music, experimentalism, disco, punk, and jazz—and was grounded in the Black radical tradition. The course explores not only Eastman's radical Black aesthetics but explores its intersection with his militant homosexual sensibility. The course will explore his collaborations and confrontations with a range of artists. See Full Description >

Music Theory and Aural Skills

The sophomore Music Theory and Aural Skills curricula continue to diversify with a new segment featuring analysis of form in popular music. Some of the composers and artists studied in the sequence include Laurie Anderson, Agustín Barrios, Beyoncé, Lili Boulanger, Teresa Carreño, Ana Carrique, Ray Charles, Chen Yi, John Coltrane, Louise Farrenc, H.E.R., Augusta Holmès, Janelle Monáe, The Penguins, Florence Price, Silvestre Revueltas, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Clara Schumann, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Sia, Amii Stewart, and Thomas Wiggins.

Musical Legacies of Black Feminism, Topics in 20th Century Music

This course investigates musical performance, composition, and improvisation as Black Feminist praxis in the US from the early 20th century to the present. Through close listening to musical documents by significant Black women artists and close reading to related texts by foundational Black Feminist thinkers, students will gain an understanding of the role of sound and performance in the work of social critique and the Black Radical Tradition. See Full Description >

Methods of Music Theory seminar

This required course for PhD students has a dedicated session to race and gender, which includes important writings by Philip Ewell, Associate Professor at Hunter College, City University of New York. 

Opera and Race

The course is designed to provide an overview of a range of issues involving the dramatic and musical representation of race on the operatic stage. Topics include works by European composers depicting non-European characters (Aida, Otello, Madama Butterfly, Turandot), the influence of colonialism as evidenced in Délibes' Lakmé, stereotypes of musical style, the vexed problems surrounding performance practice (such as casting and the tradition of applying makeup to singers in order to darken their appearance), American operas involving racial themes by both Black and white composers, and the complex inter-relations between race and sexuality in many operas both within and outside the standard repertoire. See Full Description >

Women Rock

This course considers the roles of women in rock music from the inception of the genre through today, framed by changing social expectations for women and increasing acceptance of diversity among performers, audiences, and consumers. It grounds the genre in pathbreaking performances by women of color whose popularity in the 1950s and '60s is too often overlooked, and also considers non-binary and transgender performers and performance.

Lectures and Events

• Composer and alumnus Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate ’90 shared how he integrates traditional Chickasaw music and traditions with classical music in his compositions during a November 17, 2021, webinar co-sponsored by the Bienen School and the Northwestern Alumni Association. 
• Music Education faculty and doctoral fellows presented "Current Research on Issues of Race, Gender, and Disability in Music Teaching and Learning," which included the following presentations. Watch Now

  • "Gospel Choir as a Space for Racial and Religious Expression for Black Students at a Predominantly White Institution"

  • "Genderally Speaking: Cultivating Conversation on Gender and Sexuality in Music Education"

  • "Academy of Music and Arts for Special Education (AMASE): An Ethnography of an Individual Music Instruction Program for Students with Disabilities"

• The Music Studies Global Distinguished Speakers Series has included scholars working in theoretical and historical topics related to race and music:
  • Anne Danielsen from the University of Oslo, Norway - “Rhythm and Groove in Contemporary African American Popular Music”
  • Yoshitaka Terada from the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan - “Taking Audiovisual Media Seriously: Ethnomusicology of Sharing Music and Connecting People”
  • Gary McPherson from the University of Melbourne, Australia - “Musical Giftedness and Talent Development”