This year's Southern Chapter Conference of The College Music Society (CMS) was held jointly with the annual conference of The South Central Society for Music Theory (SCSMT) at The Blair School of Music on the campus of Vanderbilt University. This was my first time on the executive board, and I enjoyed that a lot. The theme for 2020 was “Improvisation: Science, Practice, and Pedagogy," but I couldn't help but note (as I have in every conference I've ever attended) how tangential ideas appeared across a lot of presentations at once. For example, there was Ginny Winston Tutton's (Centre College) and Jonathan B. McNair's (The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga) paper on extended techniques for flute. By contrast, Aaron Hunt's (The University of Tennessee, Knoxville) analysis of John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 concentrated on the composer's use of multi-narrativity and intertextuality. While non-theme research stands alone, its presence emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the CMS, and its implied focus on a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills.
CMS-Southern Chapter Conference Held Jointly with SCSMT
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.