Author: Erica Buurman

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Call for Papers: AMS NorCal chapter meeting, April 11, Stanford

The annual meeting of the AMS Northern California chapter will take place at the Stanford University music department on Saturday, April 11, 2026, from 9:30am to 3:30pm.

We invite submissions for 20-minute paper presentations on any subject of musicological interest. Lecture recitals and panels will also be considered.

Abstract submissions are due by March 20, 2026. Please send your proposals to the NorCal chapter president, Erica Buurman (erica.buurman@sjsu.edu). The proposal should include a title and a 250-word abstract.

At this conference we will confer the Northern California Prize in Musicology for the best graduate student paper presented at the meeting. The winner receives $250 and the winner will be named at the end of the conference. If you would like to be considered for the award, please indicate this when you submit your abstract.

Conference registration itself is free, but we ask that presenters and in-person attendees join the chapter or renew their memberships via the AMS website: https://www.amsmusicology.org/chapter-and-study-group-signup/. Chapter dues are $15 (free for student members).

At the business meeting we will discuss nominations for the following chapter officer positions beginning in Summer 2026: President, Secretary-Treasurer, Council Member, Student Representative. Please consider putting yourself forward for one of these positions.

 

Erica Buurman, San Jose State University (Chapter President)
Beverly Wilcox, CSU Sacramento (Vice President)
Monica Ambalal, Merritt College (Secretary-Treasurer and AMS Council Member)
Chris East, Stanford University (Student Representative)
Sean Keenan, UC Santa Cruz (Student Representative)

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Election of new AMS NorCal officers (July 2025)

Thank you to everyone who voted in the recent officer election. The following have been newly elected as AMS NorCal officers:

Vice President: Beverly Wilcox
Secretary-Treasurer/AMS Council Rep: Monica Ambalal

Student representatives: Chris East and Sean Keenan

Congratulations to Beverly, Monica, Chris, and Sean!
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Rubina Mazurka Hovhannisyan awarded the NorCal Prize in Musicology

Dear NorCal chapter members,

I am delighted to announce that the 2025 Northern California Prize in Musicology has been awarded to Rubina Mazurka Hovhannisyan for her paper “Why Organ? Forming the Veneto-Cretan Identity.”

Rubina is currently a PhD student at UC Berkeley where she is researching Venetian and Ottoman cross-cultural interactions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Her paper, which she read at the April 12 chapter meeting, presented fascinating perspectives on the role of the pipe organ in the Venetian Republic’s efforts to cultivate a hybrid Veneto-Cretan identity. Her research demonstrated that the pipe organ’s symbolic and physical characteristics made it an ideal tool for bringing the Greek Orthodox population on Crete into closer alignment with the Republic—an important political goal following the 1570 Ottoman conquest of Cyprus.

Many congratulations to Rubina, and deepest thanks to Mary Ann Smart, Amy Beal, and Rachana Vajjhala for forming this year’s prize committee.