Keynote Speaker: Nancy Rao (Rutgers University)

"Life History of Archives and Objects: On Chinese Opera Actresses and Theaters in the Americas"

Nancy Yunhwa Rao is a Distinguished Professor at Mason Gross School of the Arts. Her work bridges musicology, music theory, Chinese opera, and Sinophone studies. As a theorist, Rao’s work combines gender studies and music analysis. Her 2007 article “Ruth Crawford's Imprint on Contemporary Composition” received the Lowens Article Award from the Society for American Music. She is also the author of Chinatown Opera Theater in North America (University of Illinois Press, 2017). The book, which unfolds from an easily neglected piece of lyrics into extraordinary stories of the Chinese community, has been recognized with awards from four scholarly societies (AMS, SAM, AAAS, ARSC). A Chinese translation of the book was published in 2021. She has also published work on the use of musical gestures, singing, and percussion patterns of Beijing opera in contemporary music by composers of Chinese origin. She currently works on the analysis of materiality and timbre in contemporary music. Her new book, Chinese Theater in California and Beyond: 1850-1900, is forthcoming and will be published by the University of Illinois Press. Additionally, Rao is the editor-in-chief of American Music. 

Conference Concert: “Momentum - Portraits of Women in Motion” by the Ellen Rowe Octet

“Momentum – Portraits of Women In Motion” is an album project that was released in 2019. Each piece is a tribute to, and musical portrait, of women heroes of Rowe’s in the areas of music, sports, social justice, environmental advocacy, and politics. The pieces are orchestrated for varying sizes of chamber jazz ensemble, ranging from quintet to octet. In addition to having recorded a CD, Rowe tours with her ensemble of nationally recognized female jazz artists with the goal of performing the music with younger women jazz students, giving them the opportunity to play with my band and get mentored by the professional musicians. The Ellen Rowe Octet also hosts discussion groups devoted to issues of gender and sexuality in order to foster dialogue and empower young women. Some of the women included in the portraits include Mary Lou Williams and Geri Allen, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, unsung black female heroines of the civil rights movement like Fannie Lou Hamer and Mary McLeod Bethune, singer/songwriters Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King, Michelle Obama, animal rights and environmental advocates Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall and long distance runners Joan Benoit Samuelson, Gunhilde Swanson and Meghan Canfield Laws. Musicians involved in the project include trumpeters Ingrid Jensen and Tanya Darby, saxophonists Virginia Mayhew, Kaleigh Wilder, Lisa Parrott and Tia Fuller, trombonists Melissa Gardiner and Jen Krupa, bassist Marion Hayden and drummers Allison Miller and Tina Raymond. Other musicians who have joined the group recently include Regina Carter.