In this week’s episode, you'll hear from Rachel Lumsden about this SMT-Pod's season's Student Seminar Series, and you'll also get to hear from each of the seminar scholars about what to expect in their upcoming episodes.

This episode was produced by Zach Lloyd.

SMT-Pod’s theme music was written by Maria Tartaglia, with closing music by Yike Zhang. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/

[SMT-Pod opening theme music playing]

Welcome to SMT-Pod! The premiere audio publication of the Society for Music Theory. In this week’s episode, you'll hear from Rachel Lumsden about this SMT-Pod's season's Student Seminar Series, and you'll also get to hear from each of the seminar scholars about what to expect in their upcoming episodes.

This is Rachel Lumsden, and I’m associate professor of music theory at Florida State University. In this short introduction, I’ll provide an overview of this Student Seminar Series project, the first of its kind for SMT-Pod, and how it came about. After my comments, this introductory episode closes with brief reflections from each of the podcast authors, where they describe the origins of their episode and what they learned from the experience.

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Once upon a time, I was a plucky graduate student in New York City. As part of the hustle and bustle of living in this gritty yet enchanting concrete jungle, I attended as many operas at the Metropolitan Opera as I could through their student discount ticket program, which (at that time) offered $20 rush tickets to hardscrabble young opera fans like me. Often, my (quote) “seat” was actually a place standing in the back of the auditorium, where, as it turns out, the sound was excellent, you could see the stage well, and, for some performances that weren’t completely sold out, even sneak into an empty seat in the orchestra section during the first intermission.

There was (and still is) something magical about the Met for me. As a young gal from Virginia who grew up before YouTube (and before the Met Opera streamed their “Live in HD performances” in cinemas), I had never heard performances on this level, and never seen a concert hall as grand as the Met, with its façade comprised of five ginormous glass window arches, flanked by otherworldly Chagall murals, and the plush red velvet walls, floors, and seats that made me feel like I was enveloped inside the bloody heart of one of the (often doomed) characters in that evening’s performance.

And the first time I saw the constellation of crystal chandeliers of the auditorium, each like its own glittering starburst of a far-off galaxy, slowly, slowly begin to rise as the audience chatter died away and the orchestra began to tune, I felt that something fantastic was about to happen. I was hooked. I still treasure the performances I heard there, and the education I received in that auditorium transformed me as a scholar and a person, giving me a lifelong love for opera and vocal music of all kinds.

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Here at Florida State, each semester we offer a course called the “Doctoral Seminar,” a special-topics class for graduate students in music theory that rotates between our area faculty. The seminar ends up being quite different each semester, since each of us designs our own distinct version of the course, and chooses what its scope and content will be.

The podcast series you are listening to emerged from my most recent Doctoral Seminar, taught in spring 2025. I decided to focus that seminar on gender and contemporary opera for two reasons. The first is selfish: recently, I have been working on Gabriela Ortiz’s vocal music, and wanted to study her operas in more detail. (Experienced teachers know: the best way to learn music and scholarship is to teach it!) In addition, I had just read Yayoi Uno Everett’s wonderful edited collection, Contemporary Opera in Flux, and was inspired by its thoughtful, wide-ranging essays. (This is a great book that you should all read immediately—available online and open access through University of Michigan Press.)

The specific idea for the podcast series came while planning the class. In recent years, I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with the traditional seminar class format, where students read lots of scholarship and then write a final paper. Sometimes these papers turn into conference presentations, or even lead to eventual dissertation chapters, but often students view these final papers merely as an assignment to be completed, which is never developed further after the class ends.

Instead, I’ve begun to experiment with different kinds of long-range projects in my courses. I want my students to see how their coursework can provide opportunities for professional development and to connect with the “real world” in some way. These pedagogical shifts have also been prompted by recent scholarship in public-facing music theory, such as Danny Jenkins’s Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory, the 2023 Society for Music Theory plenary session, and subsequent special issue of Music Theory Spectrum, published in Spring 2025. [Full disclosure and shameless plug: several FSU faculty, including Michael Buchler, Julianne Grasso, and me, have contributed to Danny’s edited collection and the special issue of Spectrum.]

Recent scholarship on public music theory has emphasized how the work we do in the classroom isn’t just academic. It can be personally meaningful, collaborative, and can extend beyond our individual university enclaves. Our students should have opportunities to understand and experience how their research can have an immediate impact on our field.

One day, while working on the course schedule, I took a break to listen to a recent SMT-Pod episode, and inspiration struck. What if, instead of a final paper, students created short episodes for SMT-Pod? Initially, this felt like a bit of a wild idea. However, as I’ve gotten older and more experienced, I’ve gained more courage to trust myself and my zany ideas. I’ve become braver (or maybe, a combination of braver and more stubborn?), better at recognizing the unique mix of exhilaration, worry, and fear that accompanies new ideas.

This distinctive blend of feelings is something to be embraced rather than avoided, because it often signals that a seemingly wacky idea may end up turning into something interesting. So, I reached out to Megan Lyons and the SMT-Pod Editorial Board to see what they thought. As it turns out, recently they had been discussing ways to publish work that was collaborative, pedagogical, and organized as a series. The timing was perfect, they were thrilled, and the rest is history!

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The five mini-episodes in this series are a result of this semester-long project, created in collaboration with SMT-Pod. Students worked on these mini-episodes throughout the entire semester, and the various stages of SMT-Pod’s Open Collaborative Peer-Review process (consisting of proposal, outline, collaborative peer review, and draft script) were built into the design of the class. (For the sake of time, I won’t go into those details here, but if anyone out there is thinking of doing a project like this in one of their graduate courses, feel free to email me—I’d be happy to chat with you about things that worked and things I’d do differently next time.)

The work you’ll hear in these mini-episodes is innovative and important for several different reasons. All of the featured operas were composed after 1977, and all were written by female composers, including Ellen Reid, Thea Musgrave, Laura Kaminsky, and Judith Weir. This is the first time most of these operas have been analyzed.

Beyond presenting analyses of contemporary operas and operas composed by women, each podcast also offers a distinct perspective on female and trans characters. Taken as a whole, the episodes present a range of new insights related to depictions of gender and power onstage that enrich and complicate longstanding stereotypes of female characters. These are stories and perspectives that should be heard.

Thinking beyond the immediate pedagogical and professional-development benefits of this project, I also see these mini-episodes as a reminder of the importance of our work as scholars. We are living in a historical moment characterized by brutality and the erosion of basic human empathy, through the proliferation of gun violence, illegal deportation, political conflict, war, and so much more. Scholars are facing increasing attacks on academic freedom and free speech.

Creating scholarship that offers new perspectives on operas written by women composers, works that feature female, nonbinary, and trans characters that expand our understanding of how gender and feminism can be represented on stage, takes on special significance right now, especially for these five young scholars who created these podcasts while living in the great state of Florida. As Laura Kaminsky, the composer of “As One,” the opera discussed in Brandon Scribner’s podcast, noted in a 2018 interview, [quote] “Opera tells stories. We need stories. They bring us together as human beings in a shared experience, and, with the music and the words, the staging and the design, that experience can be transformative and transcendent.”

We need to keep telling our analytic stories, to have the bravery and resolve to keep creating our scholarship in the ways we want to. We need to be open to new ideas, even if we may not agree with them. Most importantly, we need to try our best to truly, deeply, listen to one another. In this respect, the aural format of SMT-Pod has become especially meaningful for me over the course of this project.

To close my part of the introduction, I’d like to take a moment to thank the SMT-Pod team and the peer reviewers of these mini-episodes for their time and generosity. In a moment, you’ll hear directly from each of the authors about how much they learned from this experience. Most of all, thanks to these five wonderful students for their hard work, bravery, and care. Happy listening, friends.

The first mini-pod episode is by Aaron D’Zurilla, who was a master’s in music theory student at FSU at the time of writing. His episode is on Ellen Reid’s 2018 opera, prism.

Hello, this is Aaron D’Zurilla. Ellen Reid’s 2018 opera prism has always held a special place in my mind and heart. Essential to that staying-power is the enormous gravity of the themes in the opera, being trauma and sexual assault. In the construction of the work, Reid’s methods of conveying those themes are purposefully meant to engulf and, at times, overwhelm the audience, as Reid stated in 2019, quote: “There’s something about the piece that makes people who haven’t experienced sexual assault understand just a little bit more what it might be like”, endquote.

prism follows a daughter, Bibi, and a mother, Lumee, through a triggering evening in several scenes. Reid makes apparent, through several approaches to vocalization, the dualities of recovery primarily through the lens of Bibi. To me, it was essential to focus on these vocalisms, as they convey a story parallel to the libretto, written by Roxie Perkins. Ellen Reid’s prism vocalizes what too-often unspoken experiences are, and listening intently to those voices reveals the complexities of trauma, and, with time, the process of healing.

I first entered this project thinking of this as an opportunity to challenge my own perceptions of sound and how I listen to music. The opera prism, especially given its content, was a valuable place in which to explore this deeper reflection and listening. In terms of the medium, through the focus on vocal production and its storytelling elements, this project was a natural translation for SMT-Pod and something that would have been more difficult to convey in other mediums.

Prior to engaging with this work, I actually had extensive practice in auditory-focused content through hosting my own podcast, the Theorist Composer Collaboration. Regardless of prior experience, it was still a unique and challenging engagement to meet this auditory space with elements of scholarship that, prior to this, I was only accustomed to applying to a written work. One challenge highlighted through the nature of this podcast medium is the necessity for even more precise choices in how research arguments are presented and explored.

While this precision is essential to any scholarship, in this context, there are no visual aids to reinforce or exist outside of your choice of words, tone, and contextualized listening examples. Frankly, that proposition was a bit intimidating, but I could not have asked for a better mentor than Dr. Rachel Lumsden and the guidance of the team at SMT-Pod. The reviewers provided me with the reassurance and feedback to not only mold the project, but even helped me better understand my own thoughts. Which, more than anything, that’s what peer review and editorial processes are for, and I am very grateful to have been a part of this process.

The second mini-pod episode is by Isabel Milbourn, a PhD student in music theory at FSU. Her episode is on Thea Musgrave’s 1984 opera Harriet, The Woman Called Moses.

Hi. I enjoy analyzing works by Thea Musgrave, so picking one of her operas felt like the natural choice. In the past, I’ve tended to focus on Musgrave’s instrumental pieces, so incorporating her written words into this project was a fascinating process and opened up a whole new direction for my analysis.

I chose to work with the opera Harriet, the Woman Called Moses, which tells the story of Harriet Tubman’s feats on the Underground Railroad while focusing on the woman who achieved them, not just her heroic acts. In addition to writing the music for the opera, Musgrave wrote the libretto herself. This allows for connections between the text and the score to flourish throughout the work in really incredible ways, developing the characters both musically and through the plot.

I am–or was, I suppose–someone who tends to gravitate towards analyzing instrumental works, which is partially the reason I chose to take this doctoral seminar in the first place. I initially struggled a lot with the narrative aspect of this analysis and had to learn to incorporate the plot and text into my work. I think that the podcast medium and this foray into new analytical territory fed into each other and helped me feel more comfortable with both. By having to think narratively while needing to convey my argument without the guardrails of written examples, I was given freedom to explore analytical angles that I probably wouldn’t have found otherwise.

While this exploration was often extremely challenging, it was made easier through the amazing support I received from Professor Lumsden, my classmates, my production team, and my peer reviewers. The open peer review process–especially having the chance to speak with my reviewers over Zoom in the early draft stage–made their feedback more collaborative. Reading their comments felt like we were continuing our conversation about the project. I really enjoyed working on this podcast, and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity!

The third mini-pod episode is by Zachary Simonds, who was a master’s student in music theory at FSU at the time of writing, and now is now a PhD student at the CUNY Graduate Center. His episode is on Thea Musgrave’s 1977 opera Mary, Queen of Scots.

There was (unsurprisingly) such a large swath of women-composed operas without any published music theoretical scholarship that choosing a single example was daunting. The plot of Mary, Queen of Scots, was what drew my attention initially. I was not familiar with Thea Musgrave, but I was captivated by her ability to depict the unfairness of Mary’s situation while also musically emphasizing the queen’s personal resolve in the face of adversity.

Musgrave’s skill as both a composer and librettist were on full display. Her idiosyncratic mix of gorgeous melodies and crunchy dissonance was a pleasure to hear and analyze. I was also struck by Musgrave’s vast catalogue, which remains almost entirely untouched by our field. Mary, Queen of Scots, was the perfect vehicle for not only discussing gender in opera but for highlighting the abilities of a masterful composer whose impact on music theory should be much greater than it currently is.

I expected this project to be a good change of pace from the usual term paper that concludes doctoral seminars, but, in all honesty, I found it deceptively difficult. The podcast format requires a great deal of care in areas that I had not needed to exercise previously. Although the largely aural medium of conference presentations requires a less complicated writing style than, say, a journal article, the podcast’s shift to a 100% aural medium requires an even greater degree of care. During the research process, I had to ask myself not just what was interesting, but what findings could I convey without any visuals at all.

Ultimately, these challenges presented a chance for growth as a researcher and presenter. It was a great opportunity to work on simplifying my prose while keeping them informative. The ability to work closely with my reviewers also made this one of the most rewarding peer review experiences of my career. Their comments and our subsequent discussions sculpted the final product in a way that felt more cooperative than the usual double-blind peer review. Overall, researching and creating this podcast–though admittedly challenging–was exceptionally rewarding, and I am so thankful for the opportunity.

The fourth mini-pod episode is by Brandon Scribner, a PhD student in music theory at FSU. Their episode is on Laura Kaminsky’s 2014 chamber opera, As One.

Hi, Brandon here. Honestly, when I found out that our projects would be analyzing an opera of our choice by a woman composer, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I did not have any experience analyzing opera, much less opera by underrepresented composers. Rachel, knowing this, suggested I look at Laura Kaminsky’s “As One.” As someone who identifies as non-binary, the themes of this opera struck me on a personal level. The opera follows Hannah’s journey, exploring her gender identity and eventual transitioning.

At the end, Hannah is able to accept every part of herself, realizing that her traits are not “like a girl's or like a boy’s… but hers.” She is able to reject gender stereotypes and simply be herself without judgment. Themes of self-exploration and acceptance are common in fiction, but I think it's important to extend those themes to underrepresented groups and their unique experiences. Obviously, this is just one trans experience out of the infinite possibilities, but it is one that I personally relate to. I hope that this podcast is able to spread awareness of this opera, and I hope that others can find merit in Kaminsky’s opera, even if they don’t fully relate to it.

This project was tough. While I found Kaminsky’s opera deeply meaningful on a personal note, I was not sure how to translate that passion into my analysis at first. It was overwhelming picking from the multitude of scenes and music, even in this comparatively short opera. I guess I ended up picking the two scenes that I related to the most and going from there. Once I picked those scenes, the analysis sort of fell into place.

I noticed interesting textual and timbral choices that Kaminsky made to show the warring dichotomies in play: Hannah pre vs post transition, male vs female, rejection vs acceptance. These dualisms eventually resolve alongside the music, a choice that I am sure was no coincidence on Kaminsky’s part. While it was one of the toughest projects I have ever tackled, I am very grateful to Rachel for pushing us to do it, and I am very glad that I was able to experience this opera and share my perspective and analysis with the audience of SMT-Pod.

The last mini-pod episode is by Luis Matos-Tovar, a PhD student in music theory at FSU. His episode is on Judith Weir’s opera The Black Spider.

The reason I decided on Judith Weir was because I wanted to learn about a new living composer. I was going through a list of composers and looked at each of their works. After finding her and seeing the title The Black Spider, I was instantly drawn in. I also felt compelled to focus on this work because it is a children’s opera, and in my personal experience, there is not a lot of attention towards these types of works.

What I gravitated towards the most was this aspect of death in opera, and seeing that many characters in this opera challenge these expectations of death was very interesting. I found that doing a harmonic analysis alongside the narrative was very insightful, and keeping in mind that how these gendered archetypes of women dying and men surviving being subverted was very important, at least from the traditional operas that we looked at in Rachel’s doctoral seminar.

One of the things I found challenging about this project was trying to figure out what opera I would do being that I knew virtually nothing about this field, let alone my little experience with gender studies. Once I chose Judith Weir’s The Black Spider, another obstacle I faced was that there were not any recordings of the full opera, so finding a particular moment without having watched or listened to it posed its own challenges.

The experience I had sitting at the piano playing and singing through the entire score and finding a moment I wanted to share with you all was invaluable as a musician and theorist, especially since this is more common to experience when focusing on contemporary works. Learning about a new field and developing my ideas around an opera that I gravitated towards, and sharing Judith Weir’s work, has made me appreciate this process more and more at every stage, despite how daunting it may have seemed at first!

What made this experience more memorable was the peer review process. Being able to work with experts and continuously receiving feedback and directions about my ideas was the reason this project was able to materialize. My ideas were very broad to begin with, and during the peer-review process, their feedback really helped me refine my argument. I was able to articulate my ideas more concisely in a podcast medium, which was also a new experience for me, but nonetheless very fun to do. This project was difficult from the very start, but in doing so, I enjoyed every bit of it.

[Spoken over SMT-Pod closing music]

Thanks for listening to this episode of SMT-Pod. Over the next five weeks, we'll be releasing the individual episodes from the scholars apart of the Student Seminar Series in the order in which you heard from them today. This season's non-Seminar Series episodes will follow. The music you heard throughout today's episode was taken from the works discussed across the Student Seminar Series, so try and locate these examples as you listen to the upcoming episodes.

Visit our website smt-pod.org for supplemental materials related to this episode and to learn how to submit an episode proposal. Join in on the conversation by tweeting your questions and comments @SMT_Pod. SMT Pod's theme music was written by Maria Tartaglia with closing music by Yike Zhang. Thanks for listening!