Dr. Reeves Shulstad: “Creative Female Networks and the Musical Career of Tui St. George Tucker”
Thursday, September 12, 6:00-7:00 PM
Talk Location: Schaffel Recital Hall (Broyhill Music Center 126)
Reception Location: (TBD, following the event ~ 30 minutes)
(Attendees may also enjoy the Tui @ 100 Symposium presented Sept. 15-16! Learn more at music.appstate.edu/Tui)
About the Series: This event is part of the Music Humanities Community Conversation Series, which provides a forum for students, faculty, and staff at Appalachian State University and community members to engage current topics in music humanities through invited talks and workshops given by scholars, artists, and cultural leaders from Appalachian State and the surrounding region.
- The events are free and open to the public.
- Attendees may park in the Schaefer Lot, Broyhill Lot, or Peacock Lot for free from 5:00pm to the end of the event. The Broyhill Music Center is at 813 Rivers St, Boone, NC, 28608.
- For more information, contact Dr. Jacob Kopcienski, via email at kopcienskija@appstate.edu or by phone at 828-262-7385.
- This event is sponsored by the Hayes School of Music with generous co-sponsorship from the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University.
Lecture Topic
When considering the creative lives of women musicians from the mid-to-late twentieth century, crucial aspects of their lives are often minimized or erased from historical records, particularly formative female relationships. Without investigating the importance of those female relationships, a woman’s placement in a nexus of historically established male composers becomes her raison d’etre.
This talk investigates the female network of composer Tui St. George Tucker (1924-2004), a microtonalist and Music Director of Camp Catawba in Blowing Rock, NC. By focusing primarily on correspondence between Tucker, poet Vera Lachmann, and pianist Grete Sultan, I will reveal the ways in which these women flourished artistically on their own terms. Attendees will be invited to consider and discuss how reframing the creative lives of women by forefronting artistically supportive female networks rather than comparing them to male counterparts could shift the ways in which we understand women in music history.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Reeves Shulstad (she/her) is a Professor in the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. The recipient of the 2022 UNC Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award, her teaching includes courses in the Western Music History sequence, Music and Gender, and other special topics courses. Shulstad’s current research focuses on female networks and how they can reshape the ways in which women are portrayed in music history. She has presented and published on the music and career of Tui St. George Tucker and has a chapter on Grete Sultan and Tucker in the forthcoming book, Global Perspectives on Women Pianists (Boydell & Brewer).