During her time at U.Va. Mary Simonson studied Music, but made history. 

Simonson (CCS ‘07) was the McIntire Department of Music’s first Ph.D., and her career path since offers a window into a unique program fueled by an interdisciplinary and collaborative spirit, and one that has produced an array of scholars forging creative paths that span many academic and disciplinary boundaries.

Today, Simonson is the Director of Film and Media Studies at Colgate University, with a special interest in turn of the 20th century American Entertainment. “It really was unexpected,” she said, “I always thought I would end up in a traditional teaching program.”

Simonson credits part of her success and somewhat surprising journey to the people, resources and diverse experiences available to her in the Ph.D. program. “For me, the big benefit of the program is that it is designed as an interdisciplinary program, so within the Music Department there is this notion of thinking about crossing boundaries and how one discipline may apply to another. It was really exciting training to think about the kind of work I am doing now.”

Many of the boundary-crossing opportunities come within the program itself, which is split into two tracks: Critical and Comparative Studies of Music (CCS) and Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT). “There are not many programs in the country like this one,” said CCT student Ryan Maguire, “were you can study both composition and computer technology. In most universities, the fields are divided.”

Maguire’s background as a Physics and Music double-major at Dartmouth made the program a perfect fit. “I have always been really interested in math and science and technology, and then also in creating, and making creative work, and it is really liberating to be able to continue with both of those interests in one program.”

That freedom allows for exploration and collaboration far outside of the realm of music as well, which was a key factor in Wendy Hsu’s (CCS ‘11) experience in the program. “I see it as more of a boutique approach to teaching and learning
and research that was able to provide me with the environment to experience lots of different things.”

In addition to her focuses on research, practice, and performance, Hsu was inspired by faculty member, Michelle Kisliuk, to pursue her interests in ethnomusicology. “She really thinks about the implications of her research,” Hsu said “and is able to articulate the political implications of knowledge and knowledge production from within and outside academia.” Hsu took that inspiration outside the department as well, joining the Scholars’ Lab community, where she further developed her interest in digital research, and focused on the digital formation of communities related to Asian American rock musicians.

She is currently an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Public Fellow at UCLA, and running what she calls a “civil service incubator,” a professional development training program to help Los Angeles civil servants implement digital initiatives that will help transform their agencies, and the city as a whole, into a 21st century model.

The program’s size (there are generally thirty students, with approximately five per class) offers collaborative opportunities with both faculty and students that might not be found elsewhere, said Richard Will, Chair of the Mcintire
Department of Music and a former Director of Graduate Studies. “There is not as much competition for faculty time, and, frankly, there is not as much competition for one another’s time.”

“The professors are so available to work with us,” Maguire said. He and fellow students Rachel Trapp and Kevin Davis have joined with CCT Professor Matthew Burtner to form an improvisational quartet called Blood Moon, which has performed both on Grounds and in Charlottesville. “I feel like, in other places, there would maybe be more of a wall between students and faculty,” Maguire said, “But here, it feels like we are able to be colleagues as well, which is great.”

Simonson credits the program’s relative youth with inspiring its collaborative streak. “Because it was so new, it really created a community of scholars among its students and faculty. I didn’t quite realize how unusual it was and is to have such a tight knit scholarly community.”

Will said a good deal of the program’s success is due to faculty involvement and investment. “In order to make this work over the past seven years, it has really required all of us, to an extent, to retool what we did. We didn’t come from a program like this. I came in as mostly an 18th-century and a Beethoven scholar. I had a strong interest in pop music and bluegrass, but I ended up doing a lot of retooling of my teaching at the graduate level to make these courses relevant to students, and I think the same is true for my colleagues.”

As he looks back on the program’s history to date, Will is justifiably proud of all that has been accomplished, and of the work the students are doing out in the world.

“Seven years later, you have our first graduates, Peter Swendsen (CCT ‘09), now at Oberlin College and Mary Simonson, who have these terrific careers going. Then you look at the successive generations who have come through and you see how relevant the training is turning out to be relative to where musical academia is going. We have a terrific track record of people getting through and getting tenure track jobs, and people with really interesting careers they were able to craft from their work here.