Our Mission
The mission of The Society for American Music is to stimulate the appreciation, performance, creation and study of American music in all its diversity, and the full range of activities and institutions associated with that music. "America" is understood to embrace North America, including Central America and the Caribbean, and aspects of its cultures everywhere in 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.
35th Annual Conference
Denver, Colorado, 18-22 March 2009
Call for Papers & Proposal Submission
Updated Mission Statement
At the San Antonio meeting, an updated mission statement was presented to the membership. The proposed statement is as follows:
"The Society for American Music seeks to advance the understanding, performance, and study of all aspects of musics of the Americas, including the full range of activities and institutions associated with music in all eras."
If you would like to comment on this statement, please reply to the Mission Statement email thread soon to be on the SAM list-serv. Not subscribed to the list-serv yet? Join up here!
Copyright Petition
Please download the ARSC copyright petition and make any comments to the ARSC Petition email thread soon to be on the SAM list-serv. Not subscribed to the list-serv yet? Join up here!
News:
The Society is pleased to announce the awards presented at its annual meeting in San Antonio on March 1:
Irving Lowens Book Award: Anne Danielsen (University
of Oslo), Presence and Pleasure: The Funk Grooves of James Brown and Parliament
(Wesleyan University Press)
Irving Lowens Article Award: Leta E. Miller (University of California
Santa Cruz), “Henry Cowell and John Cage: Intersections and Influences,
1933-1941,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 59, No. 1
Wiley Housewright Dissertation Award: Drew Davies,“The Italianized Frontier: Music at Durango Cathedral, Español Culture, and Aesthetics of Devotion in Eighteenth-Century New Spain” (University of Chicago)
Mark Tucker Award for Outstanding Conference Paper: Loren Kajikawa (UCLA), “Eminem’s ‘My Name Is’: Signifyin(g) Whiteness, Rearticulating Race.”
Lifetime Achievement Award: Bill C. Malone
Honorary Members: Riders In The Sky
Here is further information on the Society's awards and application instructions.
The New JSAM is Here!
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The Journal of the Society for American Music (JSAM) is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal dealing with all aspects of American music and music in the Americas. Volume 2, Number 2 (May 2008) is a special issue on Technology and Black Music in the Americas. The issue also features reviews of books, recordings, and multimedia items. Please follow the links below for more information.
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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.
New Membership Dues Structure
A post-graduate rate of $50.00 has been established for new Ph.D's, which is valid for the first three years after our student members have completed their degree and after completing the stipulated five year limit. We hope that this graduated membership rate will encourage our student members to keeping renewing as they begin their academic or field-related careers.
We have also reopened for a limited time, the Lifetime membership. Lifetime members receive all regular benefits of membership without the hassle of renewing each year! Members can make a one-time payment of $2,250.00, or five annual payments of $500.00. This offer will only be available during 2008.

