March 2, 2019: CMS Composers' and Performers' Concert III of the 40th Annual Southern Chapter Conference of The College Music Society, held at the UCF College of Arts & Humanities at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. As in the previous two concerts, CMS composers had their works performed by CMS instrumentalists in Rehearsal Hall, the auditorium of the UCF School of Performing Arts. I too appeared on this program, performing Nos. I, III, IX, and XI of my set of 11 pieces for piano and digital delay entitled The Human and Non-Human. Because my MacBook Pro had just been stolen, I don't know what I would have done without the help of UCF students Jeremiah St John and Ryan Boehme, perhaps especially Ryan; within minutes before the concert began, he quickly put his own software effects to use to process the live piano audio—and perform, often manually, the same functions as my own audio processors. Earlier that day, in the 2019 Business Meeting of the CMS Southern Chapter, I officially became the new Executive Board Member for Music Theory. Needless to say, I was deeply gladdened by these circumstances. After all, "what avails skill in music, if there is no chance to display it" (Lydia Maria Child, Philothea)?
Performing New Work as New Executive Board Member for Music Theory
ZANE GILLESPIE
After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.