Northern California Chapter – AMS
A chapter of the American Musicological Society (AMS)
Thank you to everyone who voted in the recent officer election. The following have been newly elected as AMS NorCal officers:
Student representative: Soren Nyhus
We are delighted to announce that the 2026 Northern California Prize in Musicology has been awarded to Matthew Gilbert for his paper “Singing Maps and Musical Geographies.”
Matthew is currently a Ph.D. student at Stanford University. His paper, read at the April 11 chapter meeting, impressed the prize committee with the way he connected one particular folk song with the critique of geography as the dominant organizing principle of the study and presentation of American folksong.
Congratulations to Matthew, and deepest thanks to Heather Hadlock, Tekla Babyak, and Beverly Wilcox for serving on this year’s prize committee.
Please join us for the NorCal chapter meeting! There is no conference registration but we ask that members pay their chapter dues at this link. Dues are $15, or free for students.
Date: April 11, 2026
Location:
CCRMA Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
660 Lomita Ct, Stanford, CA 94305
There is visitor parking at the bottom of the hill by Tresidder Union as well as up the hill on the way to CCRMA. Visitor parking is free on weekends.
PROGRAM (updated April 10)
9:30: coffee and pastries (provided)
10:00–11:30: Paper Session 1: Music and Politics
Session chair: Sean Keenan
Mariana Da Silva Gabriel (UC Davis), ‘Fado in the Free World: Cultural Diplomacy, and the Sound of Portugal in Cold War North America’
Kolawole Rasheed (UC Santa Cruz), ‘#EndSARS Lekki Massacre: The National Anthem as Performative Demand and the Failure of Recognition’
Soren Edward Nyhus (UC Berkeley), ‘Early Music and Jazz: The German Jugendmusikbewegung Between History and Modernity’
11:45–12:45: Paper Session 2: Improvisation and Material Culture
Session chair: Erica Buurman
Sean Keenan (UC Santa Cruz), “David Moss Dense Band: Structuring Improvisation in the Studio”
Theodora Serbanescu-Martin (Cornell), “Liszt as Necromancer: Morgues, Dead Hands, and the Thermodynamics of Romantic Pianism”
12:45–1:40: lunch (provided)
Business meeting: 1:40-2:00
2:00-3:30: Paper Session 2: From Berkeley to Nashville: Broadcast Sound, Musical Cartographies, and Collaboration in America
Session chair: Chris East
Matthew Gilbert (Stanford), ‘Singing Maps & Musical Geographies’
Grant Knox (San José State University), ‘Exploring William Grant Still’s Collaborative Partnership with Artie Shaw and his Orchestra’
Ian Mahanpour (UC Berkeley), ‘Towards a Radiophonic Ethics: Broadcasted Soundscapes in The World Ear Project 1970–1973’