News & Announcements
Voices Across Time: American History Through Music
Voices Across Time was created to help teachers harness the power of song as primary source to supplement any secondary American Social Studies, Language Arts, and Music curriculum.
Voices Across Time is a project of the Center for American Music in partnership with the Society for American Music.
§ Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, 2014 Honorary Member of the Society for American Music
A message from Judy Tsou, President of the Society for American Music:
I am pleased to announce that composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich has accepted our invitation to be the next Honorary Member of SAM. As most of you know, Ms. Zwilich is a much-honored composer, being the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in music with her Symphony No. 1 in 1983. Since then she has been awarded the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, the Arturo Toscanini Critics Award, the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, and many other awards. New Grove Online calls her “one of America’s most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers.” We are privileged that Ms. Zwilich will accept the Honorary Membership in person at the Society’s next conference in March, 2014 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and an exact date and time for the Ceremony will be announced at a later date.
§ 2014 Conference Call For Papers Now Available: Deadline June 3!
The Call for Papers for the 2014 SAM conference, to be held March 5-9, 2014 in Lancaster, PA, is now available. Check it out and submit your proposal!
Please note: Seminar topics are now included in the submission process. See the Call For Papers for complete information.
The online submission deadline for all proposals is 3 June 2013 at 11:59 PM Pacific.
Submissions are now closed.
§ Announcing the SAM/2.0 Campaign
"Promoting New Scholarship in Music of the Americas" – Despite the richness of American music scholarship today, challenges remain: to secure adequate support for research, sufficient publication subventions, and an endowment. To address these challenges, we are launching our first major campaign: SAM/2.0!
A multi-year pledge drive through the annual meeting in 2016, the SAM/2.0 Campaign will enhance the Society’s ability to fund, promote, and reward new scholarship in American music. Your donation, pledge, or bequest will help us to promote new scholarship in music of the Americas and ensure the financial stability of the Society!
Visit www.sam2point0.net for more information and to fill out your pledge card. Every donation matters!
§ SAM Announces Little Rock 2013 Conference Awards
- Lifetime Achievement Award
Judith Tick, in recognition of a tireless researcher, generous mentor, and inspired leader who, among her many accomplishments, has celebrated the role of women in our nation’s musical history. - Irving Lowens Book Award
Sabine Feisst, Schoenberg’s New World: The American Year,s Oxford University Press, 2011.
Honorable mention: Larry Hamberlin, Tin Pan Opera: Operatic Novelty Songs in the Ragtime Era (Oxford) - Irving Lowens Article Award
Karen Ahlquist, author of “Musical Assimilation and ‘the German Element’ at the Cincinnati Sängerfest, 1879” Musical Quarterly Volume 94 - Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award
Sheryl Kaskowitz, for “As We Raise Our Voices: A Social History and Ethnography of ‘God Bless America,’ 1918-2010” Harvard University, 2011 - Mark Tucker Award
Emily M. Gale, for “Sentimental Songs for Sentimental Men” - Cambridge University Press Award
Kate Galloway, for “Sounding and Composing the Harbour: Recontextualizing and Repurposing the Soundscape and Sense of Place in the Harbour Symphony” - Distinguished Service (posthumously)
Mary Wallace Davidson, in recognition of the advancement of the study and appreciation of American music through her generous personality and outstanding career as a music librarian - Honorary Membership Award
Pharoah Sanders, in recognition of his inestimable creativity, generosity, and individuality as a contributor to the world of jazz and American music - Sight & Sound Subvention
Mark Clague and Susan Key, “Poets and Patriotism: A Recorded History of the Star-Spangled Banner.” A CD of historically informed performances of the national anthem based on new critical editions plus ancillary educational web resources. - H. Earle Johnson Subvention
Melissa de Graaf, The New York Composers’ Forum Concerts: 1935-1940, from the University of Rochester Press.
Christopher Smith, The Creolization of American Culture: William Sidney Mount and the Roots of Blackface Minstrelsy, from the University of Illinois Press. - Adrienne Fried Block Fellowship Award
Marianne Betz, for “G. W. Chadwick’s The Padrone (1913) or: Opportunities and Obstacles for Opera in Boston.”
§ SAM Election Results – Welcome New Board Members!
The Board and Officers of the Society for American Music welcome the following newly elected board members!
- Kay Norton as our new vice president
- Sabine Feisst as our new treasurer
- John Koegel and Trudi Wright as the two newly elected Members at Large of the Board
They will all take office following the business meeting at Little Rock on Saturday afternoon; their first Board meeting will be Sunday morning. Rotating off the Board will be Denise Von Glahn (Vice President), Douglas Bomberger (Treasurer), and Scott DeVeaux and Gillian Rodger, both Members-at-Large.
§ New Fellowship Established in Memory of Anne Dhu McLucas
Members of the Society for American Music deeply mourn the recent death of Anne Dhu McLucas, friend, colleague, mentor, scholar, and former President of the Society. In memory of her path-breaking scholarship, mentorship of graduate students, and tenure as President, we have established the Anne Dhu McLucas Research Fellowship, which will provide support to a graduate student pursuing research or fieldwork in traditional or Native American music, Prof. McLucas’s areas of scholarly interest.
Give a JSAM Gift Subscription
The Society for American Music is pleased to announce that it is now possible for you to share the in-depth and quality research presented in each issue of the Journal of the Society for American Music with family and friends. Gift subscriptions are only $50.00 per year! These are only available to current members of SAM and can be renewed annually. We'll even send the recipient a card letting them know about your gift! Simply complete the JSAM Gift Subscription Form and mail or fax it back to us.
Our Mission
The mission of the Society for American Music is to stimulate the appreciation, performance, creation and study of American musics of all eras and in all their diversity, including the full range of activities and institutions associated with these musics throughout the world.
Oscar Sonneck (1873-1928)
The Society for American Music was founded in honor of and originally named for the first critical scholar and bibliographer of American Music, Oscar G. T. Sonneck.
The Sonneck Circle was established in 2003 to honor the memory of Oscar Sonneck, and offers its members additional benefits. To see a list of contributors and read more about the Sonneck Circle click here.