Music

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/4945

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Musikang Pilipino: The Development of Western Music in the Philippines & Select Contemporary Flute Works
(2026-02-05) Reyes, Rachel; Shin, Donna
The Philippines is a country with a unique history and culture that blends its own native traditions with outside influences. Prior to 1521, when Spanish explorers first made contact with the archipelago, the pre-colonial times saw many different indigenous Filipino people groups with their own unique practices. Western colonization enforced Western religions, arts, and music amongst the native Filipino peoples. After almost 400 years of foreign occupation, the traditional music and cultural practices were nearly wiped out in favor of Western culture. The efforts of the Filipino people, especially from the 1910s onwards, established a culture that embraces the diversity of the people by integrating Filipino traditions and Western influences. Modern composers honor the deep and rich history of the Philippines by uplifting different aspects of the current culture and ancient traditions as shown through the works of composers such as Conrado Del Rosario, Josefino Toledo, and Eduardo Parungao. In their works for flute, these composers combine indigenous Filipino music, current Filipino culture, and traditional Filipino dance with contemporary Western flute techniques to showcase the diverse Filipino cultural identity.
Reading Between the Lines: An Interpretive Study of Clara Schumann's Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22, Andante molto
(2026-02-05) Siow, Selina; Lee Priday, Rachel
The purpose of this paper is to offer an interpretive study of Clara Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22, Andante molto, through the lens of feminist musicology. By examining this work, which has received little analytical attention, this study seeks to illuminate new ways of understanding and interpreting Clara Schumann’s compositional voice. The exclusion of women from the Western music canon has led to a lack of studies of women’s works. In recent years, while analytical research on Clara Schumann's works has increased, most studies have focused on her lieder and piano pieces. Among her chamber music, most studies concentrate on the Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17, while the Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22 has received comparatively little attention. This project aims to address this gap by offering both historical and musical analysis of the piece, thereby providing future musicians with an alternative framework for interpreting Clara Schumann’s music.
A Speaking Percussion Method Book: Practice, Pedagogy, and Performance
(2026-02-05) Martin, Rose; Whiting, Bonnie
This dissertation is the first ever comprehensive method book for the practice and performance of solo speaking percussion music. Speaking percussion is an interconnected mode of performance that weaves together vocalization and percussive sound-making, each amplifying and extending one another. As a composite art form, speaking percussion interrelates seemingly disparate parts into a generative space for performance activity while expanding upon elements that are already present within a percussionist's practice: movement, gesture, expression, choreography, and body awareness. Speaking percussion offers a space to cultivate a practice of choice-making, introspection, storytelling, and self-expression. This performance space circulates and interconnects experiential knowledge, emotion, place, culture, narrative, story, politics, and identity. Within the interpretation of speaking percussion scores, performers may be asked to center their identities, stories, and experiences, while considering those that belong to others. Alongside contextualizing articles from a fictional newspaper called "The Athena Daily," the four chapters in this dissertation offer exercises centered on steady pulse and speaking, etudes, an introduction to the voice, exercises in vocalization, invitations to movement and body awareness, resources of support, and self-led activities. This work converses with fields of percussion studies, voice studies, theater studies, dis/ability studies, ethno/musicology, performance studies, American Indian and Indigenous studies, cultural and ethnic studies, music pedagogy, and first-person narrative-inquiry. Speaking percussion repertoire is situated within a historically Eurocentric discipline. This dissertation invites artists of all backgrounds and identities to this new curriculum, offering a warm, inclusive, and accessible space of learning that reaches toward dis/abled, femme, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Laura Netzel's Works for the Flute: New Editions with Historical Context
(2026-02-05) Lear, Cassandra; Shin, Donna
Romantic-era composer Laura Netzel ranked among the most-performed Swedish female composers during her lifetime but is now all but forgotten by scholars and performers. This dissertation examines how Netzel’s social class, gender, choice of instrumentation, and choice of compositional genres situated her life’s work outside of the repertorial and pedagogical musical canons. It also presents newly-edited versions of Netzel’s works for the flute: Suite op. 33 for Flute and Piano, Colibri op. 72 for Flute and Piano, and a new adaptation of Berceuse op. 69 for Violin (or flute) and Piano. The new editions expand the flute repertoire of the Romantic period, which is the era with arguably the least number of solo flute pieces in the standard literature. Current canonical Romantic flute repertoire consists mainly of variations on popular themes, but adding these three pieces from different genres can broaden understanding of Romantic flute repertoire and provide a more complete picture of flute works written during the period.
REIMAGINING BRAHMSIAN INTERPRETATION: FELIX WEINGARTNER AS A HISTORICAL LENS RATHER THAN A MODEL
(2025-08-01) Torres, Mario Alejandro; Rahbee, David A
This study reconsiders the problem of historically informed performance in the symphonic works of Johannes Brahms by focusing on the recordings and writings of Felix Weingartner (1863–1942). Rather than treating Weingartner as an authoritative model, the project positions him as a historically significant interpreter whose proximity to Brahms, philosophical clarity, and recorded legacy provide a meaningful lens for exploring Brahms’s aesthetic values. The goal is not to reconstruct a singular “Brahmsian style,” but to understand how Weingartner’s documented choices, especially in his 1938 recording of the Fourth Symphony, interact with surviving manuscript annotations, performance traditions, and Brahms’s own expressed preferences.The study begins with an investigation of Weingartner’s philosophical writings and professional formation, establishing his position in a transitional generation of conductor-scholars. It then traces the distant but meaningful connections between Brahms and Weingartner, including Brahms’s 1895 letter of praise following a performance of the Second Symphony. The middle chapters address broader questions of Brahmsian performance, dismantling the myth of a single “authentic” tradition by analyzing Brahms’s contradictory views of other conductors such as BÃ¼low, Richter, and Steinbach. These discussions culminate in a comparative analysis of Weingartner’s recording and Brahms’s annotated manuscript for the Fourth Symphony, using score-based and aural analysis to evaluate points of alignment and departure. By resisting the urge to canonize a single interpreter, this dissertation contributes to performance studies by reframing Weingartner not as a prescriptive model, but as a historically grounded perspective from which to understand Brahms’s flexible and often self-contradictory approach to interpretation. In an era when performance norms tend toward either strict textual fidelity or exaggerated expressive license, Weingartner’s legacy offers a balanced approach that honors structural coherence without suppressing expressive depth. His recorded interpretations, shaped by philosophical conviction and technological limitation alike, invite us not to imitate his style, but to engage with Brahms’s music more thoughtfully, more contextually, and more historically.
The Interdependent Musicianship Model: Centering Musicians in Collegiate Band Rehearsals
(2025-08-01) Jahlas, Corey; Price, Stephen
Currently, wind band rehearsal structures are very conductor-centric; conductors serve as the primary musical problem solvers in these ensembles. Musicians in ensembles aren’t given the opportunity to practice skills commonly held by conductors. Previous attempts at centering musicians in rehearsals typically fall short due to lack of depth in instruction and limitations in conductors’ time and resources. Further, conductors do not explicitly teach prerequisite communication and social skills needed for musician-centric rehearsals. When combined with concepts from student-centered learning, Distributed Leadership theory provides a novel foundation to build a pedagogical model intended to distribute conductor responsibilities to musicians in collegiate ensembles. My proposed Interdependent Musicianship Model will provide a scaffolded method for conductors and ensemble musicians to contribute equally to musical creativity and problem solving by building skill sets within the domains of social dynamics, aural awareness, and musical analysis. Developing interdependent musicianship in their ensembles will require conductors to gradually shift from using controlling functions of conducting and pedagogy to functions that release control, model metacognitive processes for musicians, and create various leadership trainings to give their ensembles opportunities to practice new social and interdependent musicianship skills. Progress through the Interdependent Musicianship Model is sustained through building of self-efficacy and is made simpler through use of self- and peer assessments.
The Celestial Sounds of Steelpan: A compendious revelation about the relationship between culture and the church in Trinidad and Tobago.
(2025-08-01) Bishop, Kimani Jivan; Dudley, Shannon
In this dissertation, I explore the use of steelpan in the Seventh-day Adventist community and the Full Gospel Association in Trinidad and Tobago. Through ethnographic research, as well as my personal experience growing up in the SDA church, I examine how these congregations have tended to stigmatize the steelpan for its association with carnival, and how this prejudice relates to a variety of cultural and political issues--including national identity, African retention, class prejudice, colonialism, racialized histories, and the influence of North American culture. I aim to understand how Christian steelbands like the Maranatha Steelband, Pangelics Steel Ensemble, Mount D'or Gospel Steel Orchestra, Nazarene Steel Orchestra, and Pans of Praise Steelband were able to circumvent the rejection of the instrument in their communities. I argue that musical activists and certain church leaders are––in effect––resisting and subverting legacies of colonialism that continue to impact Afro-Trinbagonian communities as they assert the power of the instrument as a legitimate vehicle to worship of God.
Shaping Sound: A Pianist’s Guide to the Journey Through the Lifecycle of Notes and Musical Connection
(2025-08-01) Gouvea de Oliveira, Johnson; McCabe, Robin
This dissertation examines the pianist’s engagement with sound through a five-stage “lifecycle of a note”: intention, birth, life, death, and memory. By framing each note as an evolving event—from mental conception to physical attack, audible existence, conclusion, and recollection—the dissertation sheds new light on how pianists can refine both technical facility and expressive depth. Central to this inquiry is the primacy of the ear. While the fingers and arms are indispensable for producing sound, it is ultimately the ear that shapes artistic decision-making. Drawing on insights from pedagogues and theorists such as Boris Berman, Seymour Bernstein, GyÃ¶rgy SÃ¡ndor, Alfred Cortot, and Heinrich Schenker, the study argues that developing a refined awareness of each note’s “lifecycle” leads to improvements in tone production, dynamic control, and musical interpretation. Further, it explores strategies to enhance voicing in chords, manage nuanced pedal usage, and employ various touch techniques (legato, staccato, “in” touch, “out” touch) for clearer articulation. The concept of memory, in particular, emerges as a connecting force, bridging chords, phrases, and entire sections of a piece. By conceptualizing the internal relationships between notes—whether shaped by harmonic function or contrapuntal lines—pianists can create more cohesive performances. Ultimately, Shaping Sound: A Pianist’s Guide to the Journey Through the Lifecycle of Notes and Musical Connection seeks to integrate technical exercises with aural perception, ensuring that every note is approached with deliberate listening and clear intent. In doing so, it aspires to cultivate a heightened musical consciousness, where technique and interpretation serve a unified artistic vision.
The Musical “Why”: Philosophical Understandings in Children’s Musical Cultures
(2025-08-01) Flesher, Jackson; Shehan Campbell, Patricia
What is music? Is music beautiful? How does one best represent sounds visually? What’s music’s “vibe”? These are just some of the philosophical questions about music that children at Dorothy Hollingsworth Elementary School in Seattle, WA asked and explored during my collaborative, ethno/musicological research project. Focusing on the previously unexamined philosophical components of children’s musical cultures, this research took place over the course of four months of fieldwork within the Philosopher-in-Residence program at the school. Within this project, children engaged in a community-based, child-centered model of Philosophy for Children (P4C) called a “community of philosophical inquiry” (CPI) (Mohr Lone and Burroughs 2016) to work together to consider two primary research questions: (1) What are children’s philosophical interests in, or dispositions surrounding, music? and (2) What collaborative strategies can ethno/musicologists and philosophers use alongside children to better understand and describe the philosophical elements of music and musical culture in their lives? In doing so, the children and I thought, felt, talked, and made music to determine what they themselves think about music and how they know what they believe they know about music in their own lives. Described across four ethnographic vignettes and subsequent theoretical analyses, I offer an examination of the four prominent themes of philosophical interest and disposition that children and I collaboratively determined were of importance during fieldwork: musical ontology, beauty as an aesthetic experiences of music, affect as a musical and philosophical modality and practice, and acoustemology as a musical and philosophical modality and practice. Combined with considerations or relevant past research from the fields of ethno/musicology, music education, and Philosophy for Children, these vignettes and analyses consider children’s discussions, questions, material culture, and music making practices as they relate to philosophizing about music and musical engagements with philosophy. Finally, this work reflects on the value of collaborative, child-centered, philosophical research for the enrichment of music studies and music scholars as a whole.
Schoenberg's Tonalities in the Middle Period: Deterritorializing Pierrot Lunaire
(2025-08-01) Horton, Will; Rodgers, Mark
Arnold Schoenberg’s freely atonal period has been overshadowed in scholarship by his later serialist period. When the middle period is mentioned in literature, it is often viewed as existing only in service of the twelve-tone method. Rather than being an unorganized method of composition as some suggest, Schoenberg’s middle period presents music that sees the composer keenly aware of the concepts of tonality. The composer’s thoughts on the tonal system are elucidated in his theoretical writing in his Harmonielehre. These thoughts are also present in his 1912 Pierrot Lunaire.In this thesis, I argue that Pierrot Lunaire makes clear the connection between Schoenberg’s theoretical concepts and his compositional practice. Utilizing the Deleuzian concept of the refrain, I analyze Pierrot Lunaire as musically presenting Schoenberg’s deterritorializing process regarding the elements of tonality, which he then reterritorializes into an atonal framework. What this analysis reveals is a musical work that sees the composer actively working towards what he believed to be the inevitable usurpation of the tonal framework. Rather than being a chaotically explored dead-end on the path to twelve-tone music, I argue that Pierrot Lunaire evinces a complicated, conscious approach towards atonality that is reliant on the composer’s own theoretical writings.
afterarise (for soprano saxophone, piano, and amplified resonance)
(2025-08-01) Zeitlinger, Justin; Hodge, Huck
afterarise (written for saxophonist Antonio Jarvey) explores birdsong as a conduit for sonic and ecological reflection. Fragmented field recordings of blackbirds—with various time-stretching and spectral techniques applied—serve as the work’s primary “source”; not as mimetic material, but as a lens for creative transcription and recomposition, revealing micro-structural layers otherwise imperceptible. Extended moments of stillness situate the sparse musical statements in a shadow of sympathetic resonance, drawing connections to the harmonic world of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” (a favorite song of both myself and the dedicatee). Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s line drawings of birds, afterarise ultimately attempts to capture the essence of a natural phenomenon through a multiplicity of perspectives.
Interpreting and Developing Musical Imagery in Debussy’s Piano Music
(2025-08-01) Huh, Ian; McCabe, Robin
Pianistic challenges are some of the varying issues in performing Claude Debussy’s piano music. These include tempo and rubato, pedaling, dynamic control, articulation and touch, musicality and phrasing, and interpreting of musical imagery. Each pianist must strive to overcome these challenges, requiring dedicated practice and taking a closer examination of his piano style. “La cathÃ©drale engloutie,” from PrÃ©ludes (1909–1910), will be the first topic on exploring his departure from tonality and venturing away from traditional harmonic structures. In addition, “PrÃ©lude,” from Pour le piano (1902), will be examined from the same perspective of the influences from the baroque composers Couperin, Rameau, and Bach, stretching to Chopin’s pianistic style in technique and pedaling. Estampes (1903) will be looked at in depth regarding the gamelan influences Debussy experienced while taking in the 1889 Exposition in the first piece “Pagodes.” We will also observe the influences from Maurice Ravel through compositions from his two-piano, four-hands works that may have directly influenced “La soirÃ©e dans Grenade.” Furthermore, this dissertation discusses the topic of how “impressionism” was dismissed by the composer, as he often referred to himself as a Symbolist. “Reflets dans l’eau,” from the first book of Images (1901–1905), will be examined which relates mathematics to the Golden Section, organizing the structure of the entire piece. The late solo piano works nod to stereotypical racism, including “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” and “Minstrels,” venturing into American jazz and how Scott Joplin’s ragtime influenced and expanded Debussy’s stylistic grasp. From 1900, Debussy’s piano output was considerably more demanding in pianistic technique and more difficult to interpret than his earlier works. This dissertation will also give suggestions on how to successfully navigate challenges on the issues of performance. Moreover, issues in executing and understanding pedaling in Debussy’s piano works will be analyzed.
Ravel and Neoclassicism: Dialogues with the Past in Modernist Contexts
(2025-08-01) Xu, Miaojun; Sheppard, Craig
Maurice Ravel’s connection to Impressionism frequently eclipses the intricacy and diversity of his compositional style. This dissertation examines Ravel’s relationship with Neoclassicism, highlighting his fusion of classical forms and innovative harmonic creativity. The first chapter explores Ravel’s formative years with Les Apaches, a collective of artists who influenced his artistic trajectory. The second chapter investigates Ravel’s wartime experiences and the role of Neoclassicism during the interwar period in the Franco-German musical context. The final chapter analyzes Le Tombeau de Couperin, illustrating Ravel’s use of Neoclassical elements to address personal and national themes in the post-World War I era. This dissertation contends that Ravel’s Neoclassicism was not merely a stylistic adoption but a deeply personal and philosophical stance. His music reveals an unwavering commitment to artistic integrity, striking a balance between reverence for tradition and forward-thinking innovation.
was a photograph
(2025-08-01) NAGARAJ, SANDESH; Durand, JoÃ«l
In was a photograph, displacement, myth, constricted spaces, and authority are explored through the poetics of an imaginary world. In a dream-like scenario, the sonic elements blur in and out of focus as the visual imagery shifts from abstract hallucinations to absurd realism. Until the last section, the natural sound of the guitar strings is immediately dampened by touching a contact mic on the vibrating string. This act of suppression is performed using various techniques, such as hammer-on, buzzing, and tapping, where the original sound is transformed into an amplified and noisy musical gesture. The pitch material is constricted to an E minor triad and notes that are an interval of a minor or major second away from it. The foregrounded performance techniques distort, bend, and obscure the pitches while never presenting them in a manner that is idiomatic to the instrument. In was a photograph, disruptions, and dream-like transitions affect the form of the piece, reflecting on the lived experience of individuals displaced due to inequitable political and social systems.
Hidden Notes: The Impact and Legacy of Flutist, Educator, Administrator, and Advocate Dorothy Antoinette Handy
(2025-08-01) Green, Lorin; Shin, Donna
Dorothy Antoinette Handy was a Black female flutist, educator, and administrator. She taught at several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), she was one of the first Black musicians of the Richmond Symphony in Virginia, and she wrote books on Black musicians in both the classical and jazz fields. While serving as the Director of Music for the National Endowment for the Arts, Handy was responsible for having jazz nationally recognized and funded by that organization. Though she never considered herself a composer, she also published one known piece for flute,Hommage A Haute Savoie: Five Short Impressions for Solo Flute, which stands out as an example of music by Black female composers from the 20th century.Until now, scholarship has neglected Antoinette Handy’s accomplishments, but they deserve to be celebrated. Her story is all the more extraordinary in light of her experiences as a Black woman who grew up in the south during Jim Crow and segregation. Her story also opens onto the rich history of a Black family’s life in the south and her passion for accessibility in the arts. She did what many strive to do now: to have a rich and impactful career in the arts that offers variety and fulfilment. Antoinette Handy highlights the hitherto underrepresented role of Black women in classical music and arts administration prior to the 21st century. This dissertation provides an overview of Handy’s life with the intention of bringing awareness to her work, so that her career can serve as an inspiration to new generations of artists. Handy’s story reveals a lifelong passion for accessibility and equity, which she channeled into a successful career in the face of myriad challenges. Throwing light on her life and career in this way also shows how Handy’s legacy remains important today.
The Future Sounds Familiar: Retrofuturism, Nostalgia, and Capitalism in the Music of Fallout 4, Cyberpunk 2077, and Final Fantasy VII
(2025-08-01) Pena-Ruiz, Hannah; Searcy, Anne
The video games Fallout 4, Cyberpunk 2077, and Final Fantasy VII each feature a complex web of retrofuturist settings, nostalgia, and criticisms of unchecked capitalism. These games' soundtracks each serve to sound their retrofuturist settings as well as evoke and enhance the games' nostalgic qualities. This is done in a variety of ways, utilizing a variety of methods and musical styles. This paper analyzes the ways in which music is used to conjure nostalgia in each of these retrofuturist games, and draws connections between their settings, the way they employ and evoke nostalgia, and their shared themes, which include a general skepticism or criticism of capitalism. The works of Svetlana Boym and Mark Fisher, two authors who have written about nostalgia and its relationship to both capitalism and the future, are used to frame this analysis.
An analytical study of Das Jahr by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
(2025-05-12) Kim, Mia HyeYeon; Sheppard, Craig
In recent years, increasing scholarly interest in female composers has brought renewed attention to Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847), often recognized primarily as the sister of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847). A highly gifted composer and pianist, she wrote over 400 works despite the societal limitations placed on women in her time. Although she was unable to pursue a professional musical career due to 19th-century patriarchal norms, she received an exceptional musical education alongside her brother and remained musically active, particularly through the Sonntagsmusiken ("Sunday Musicales")—a series of private concerts held at the Mendelssohn family home—where she presented and directed many of her compositions.One of her most significant works, Das Jahr ("The Year"), is a cycle of twelve character pieces—one for each month—plus Nachspiel ("postlude"), composed in 1841 and revised in 1842 as a Christmas gift for her husband, Wilhelm Hensel. Nearly 150 years later, the manuscript was rediscovered and published for the first time in 1989, followed by a facsimile of Hensel's final autograph version in 2000. Due to its relatively recent publication, Das Jahr has received limited analytical attention, leaving room for further exploration. This study provides an analytical examination of Das Jahr, situating it within the broader context of Hensel's life and musical influences. The first chapter explores her artistic development, education, relationship with Felix, and exposure to various musical traditions, while also providing a chronological overview of her compositions to illustrate her evolving style and creative ambitions. The second chapter offers a detailed analysis of Das Jahr, focusing on its structural, harmonic, and programmatic elements. Furthermore, this study examines Das Jahr as a Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), a fusion of literature, music, and visual art incorporating poetic epigrams from German Romantic poets such as Goethe, Tieck, and Schiller, as well as vignettes painted by Wilhelm Hensel. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to deepen our understanding of Das Jahr as one of Hensel's most significant works, highlight her distinctive compositional voice, and reassess her contributions to 19th-century piano literature.
Beyond Sound: Interpreting the Piano Works by Chen Su-Ti, Chih-Yuan Kuo, and Shui-Long Ma Through In-depth Exploration of Taiwanese music, History, and Culture.
(2025-05-12) Yeh, Yen-Chun; McCabe, Robin
The sounds of Taiwanese music possess unique historical and cultural characteristics. Building up on the foundation of Western compositional training, modern Taiwanese composers combine aesthetic experiences and enriched life experiences to develop Taiwan's contemporary music. Without a deep understanding of Taiwan's background, it is difficult to fully comprehend the essence of Taiwanese music or accurately interpret its distinctive qualities. The key to interpretation lies in how to make music, as written work, revive and resonate with audiences. In addition to bringing the sound structure to life from the musical score, a comprehensive interpretation must deal with analyzing the internal meaning of the musical work, the external content, and the exploration of musical history and biographies. Music performance is not merely a mechanical relationship between "score—performer—instrument." Performers must thoroughly understand what is notated in the score and explore the possible musical meanings that are not written down. These meanings may lie in the composer's intentions, the historical context of the music, or other hermeneutic elements. Thus, one can give the music a meaning that goes beyond sound, transforming it into a form of intellectual emotional expression. The aim of this dissertation is to help performers to understand Taiwanese music from multiple perspectives: its history, its identity, the composers' personal experiences, and the analysis of their music. This dissertation will begin by introducing the musical history of Taiwan and the evolution of Taiwan's identity, followed by composers' biographies, and an analysis of their compositional techniques and characteristics, as well as how the music should be interpreted in performance. The development of Taiwan's consciousness and identity can be viewed in an evolving historical context, namely the period of colonial rule by Japan, the period when the Nationalist Government came to Taiwan, and the democratization of Taiwan in the 90s. This dissertation focuses on three Taiwanese composers: Su-Ti Chen, Chih-Yuan Kuo, and Shui-Long Ma, who were born around the Japanese colonial period and lived their lives in Taiwan until the beginning of 21st Century. The paper will analyze nine of their piano works. It explores how the composers utilized their life experiences in Taiwan as a musical vocabulary. Through the analysis of these works, I will offer a multi-faceted understanding of Taiwanese piano music and a more accurate and well-founded music interpretation. Hopefully, performers from different countries can picturize and understand the uniqueness in Taiwanese music through this dissertation and can further interpret the sound of Taiwanese music.
Musician Mental Health: Intersections of Poor Mental Health, Peer Support, and Instrumental Conducting
(2025-05-12) Wu Fu, Puo Han; Salzman, Timothy
Introduction: The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to emerging research and work in musician healthcare, and specifically musician mental health. It will review existing research on the mental health conditions that musicians face as a unique population, review existing research on the efficacy of peer recovery work as non-clinical mental health resource, and provide research and interview findings on existing peer support resources for classical musicians. Pedagogical and gestural implications for conductors will be introduced, as well as necessary further research study. Summaries of each topic listed above are provided below. Parts are not organized by any basis of importance or significance. Part One: This literature review aims to aggregate major studies on the mental health of classical musicians as a unique population, relative to existing data from general population studies. The goal is to contextualize the field of musician mental health, demonstrating how musicians on a broad level are an at-risk population relative to conditions such as anxiety, depression, stress, and life expectancy. The majority of the demographic focus is on student and professional classical musicians, though some relevant and important data on non-classical performing artists is also included. The paper will also provide implications for understanding the performance effects of poor mental health for musicians, as well as future research directions for overall well-being. Part Two: The purpose of this second literature review is to introduce peer recovery work as a developing mental health resource for individuals experiencing poor mental health. It will define and specify foundational qualities of peer recovery work, and provide existing organizations, services, and resources as models of its use for varying populations and disciplines, such as undergraduate university students, medical students, and individuals experiencing substance abuse issues. The review will also present emerging evidence and research on the efficacy of peer recovery work on various metrics measuring mental health wellbeing, showing instances of its significant positive impact and improvement of mental health conditions. Lastly, I emphasize the need to explore and develop more mental health resources like peer recovery work to supplement existing clinical interventions, in the context of overall worsening mental health across general populations. Part Three: In this final section, I will discuss existing wellness programs offering peer support services by trained peer support workers. The section will contain information gathered from personal research and various interviews with program directors, to present existing mental health resources for classical musicians. Implications of peer support principles for the conductor will be covered, with a focus on the pedagogical and gestural elements of the conductor/director role. Further directions for research and development for peer support and classical musicians will also be discussed.
Garden of Voices: An Ethnography of the Xi'an Concert Hall Children's Choir
(2025-05-12) Kim, Pyoung Gang; Boers, Geoffrey
University of Washington AbstractGarden of Voices: An Ethnography of the Xi'an Concert Hall Children's Choir Pyoung Gang Kim Chair of the Supervisory Committee:Dr. Geoffrey Paul Boers Department of Music The purpose of this dissertation is to discuss an in-depth exploration of the societal value and significance of the Xi'an Concert Hall Children's Choir in Xi'an China. This study involved exploring the importance and value of the choir by conducting interviews, meetings, and observations, with choir staff, members, and parents. Secondly, I conducted an analysis of practice procedures, instruction in music theory, performance, and repertoire. In addition, I assess value added through the choir's audition process. Finally, the research through a process of ethnographic inquiry, looked more closely at the performance and developmental aspects of the choir, including its concert preparatory procedures, collaborations with diverse organizations, regular performances, and numerous planned events. It became abundantly clear that the choir is actively engaged in endeavors to foster choir members' growth and extend its impact on the development of individuals, families, and the broader society.

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