The 38th Annual Conference of the Society for American Music program is available online.
The Program Committee has planned a fascinating series of sessions,
poster papers, seminars, and lecture-recitals.
In keeping with its
southern setting, there will be sessions on Song in the Antebellum
South, Sacred Tunebooks, The Steel Guitar, The Banjo, and
Southern Rock and Soul. Other papers will consider children, social
dance, political theater, and Frank Zappa--as well as a typically rich and diverse array of
sessions and poster papers on many other topics. On Thursday evening, March 15th, GospelShout! will perform at Davidson College.
The Cultural Diversity
Committee has programmed a special roundtable discussion for Friday, March 16th - The Black Composer Speaks: A Cross-Generational
Discussion of the Advancement of the Afro-Classical Aesthetic, with
noted composers T.J. Anderson, Adolphus Hailstork, and Anthony Kelley
joining moderator Tammy Kernodle and followed by a lecture-recital of
songs by Anderson and Hailstork.
Also on Friday, the Society will be inducting North Carolina native Doc Watson as its newest Honorary Member.
The Society was founded in 1975 and was first named in honor of Oscar
G.T. Sonneck, early Chief of the Music Division in the Library of Congress
and pioneer scholar of American music. 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.