Teaching Philosophy
My classes focus on the interconnectedness of music, politics, and identity from a global perspective. Using the ideas of critical pedagogy, I teach students to uncover the layers of power undergirding musical ecosystems in the past and present, thus fostering an antiracist approach. I empower students to question music’s interactions with society. To achieve this goal, I emphasize multi-modal analysis skills, reflexive practices, and student advocacy. Students leave my courses having mastered skills in conveying the connectedness of music, identity, and politics. Through modeling engaged scholarship and offering continual feedback, I make the insights of musicology relevant and valuable to students’ lives as performers, teachers, scholars, and members of the global citizenry.
Reviewing music, politics, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade
Courses Taught
Wichita State University
Music History II: 1750 to Present
While some might call this course a survey of the history of Western Art Music (as we will discuss many of the major musical trends and figures from Western Europe and North America of the last 280 years), this course is more acutely designed to give students a set of musicological tools to use in their future careers, regardless of what those might be. Through score study, readings, and discussions, we will study a range of music from the 1750s to the present day to think about how musical moments are reflections of moments in time, contingent upon needs, desires, and social, cultural, and political developments. This course—like all courses—is far from comprehensive. Instead, we will drop in on particular figures and moments in time to better understand how musical culture has changed from the late Classical period to the present day. Ultimately, I hope students leave this course confident in their ability to analyze music from a range of perspectives, as well as evaluate sources and claims to think critically for themselves about interactions between music, musicians, and society.
Music, Childhood, and Youth
Few things in music are present in all cultures, but nearly every society has music for or about children. Yet children’s music and history has only recently been taken seriously by scholars. Through readings taken from musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, history, and critical theory, we will ask: what can we learn about music by foregrounding age as an analytic framework? This course examines music by, for, and about young people in Western musical traditions (pop, folk, art), as well as select non-western traditions throughout history. Topics include the politics of music education practices, prodigies, musical games, and the commercialization of childhood, among others. The ability to read music is appreciated, but not required.
Eastman School of Music
Borders, Boundaries, & Barriers in 20th-Century Music
In the twentieth century, social, cultural, political, and artistic limits were continually pushed and surpassed by musicians and non-musicians alike. Western powers were exposed to global cultures in a way that had been impossible a century earlier, all while subjugated people within the West campaigned for equal rights. As imperialism’s cultural pursuits became even more apparent, people historically excluded from “Western art music” were able to negotiate their place within an increasingly globalized world. How did these shifts of musical power influence composition and performance? And how did formal, generic, and stylistic limits shift in response to exoticism, feminism, the civil rights movement, and (post-)colonialism? This course attempts to answer these questions through the study of representative works by composers from late Romanticism to the present day, including Debussy, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Britten, Glass, Oliveros, Saariaho, Golijov, and others.
Music Since 1900
This master’s level course is designed to provide a solid grasp of twentieth-century European and American art music by offering both broad coverage of significant works and in-depth examination of the era’s diverse musical trends, social and political environments, and aesthetic and cultural controversies. As this is an accelerated summer course, time will not permit a comprehensive study of all trends. Rather, we stop in on some of the era’s most important musical thinkers, including Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Britten, Oliveros, Carter, and Saariaho. Through textual, score-based, and sonic study, we will analyze and question the meaning of existing rubrics for the study of music since 1900, as well as develop new ones appropriate for diverse repertoires. This approach will allow students to consider what music history and musicology can do for them as practicing musicians and educators.
Graduate Western Music History Review
This course is a review of the history of Western Art music from c. 1600 to the present day. Through the detailed study of scores, recordings, primary source texts, and relevant secondary literature, students will obtain a detailed understanding of the major trends in the history of Western music, as well as important musicological debates.
Rochester Education Justice Iniitiative
Popular Music in American Life
The rise of the American popular music industry is perhaps the most important musical development of the past two centuries. This course will examine the evolution of popular music in America from the nineteenth century to the present day as a set of interconnected musical systems, as well as an expression of diverse American identities. With the course structured as a chronological survey, we will track stylistic shifts, as well as how music has reflected and influenced the cultural consciousness of the United States. Major course themes include race, gender, sexuality, protest, and technology. Students will leave the class being able to identify significant stylistic characteristics and general musical elements, as well as be able to place popular musics into appropriate historical and social contexts. The ability to read music is not required.
Michigan State University
MUSIC, GENDER, & SEXUALITY
With music as our primary source-text, we will focus on the ways in which music has been a means to negotiate Western culture’s construction of gender and sexuality from the seventeenth century to the present. The aim of the course is to expand the student’s ability to interpret Western music and how it serves to transmit, transform, and subvert ideas about human identity using musical and extra-musical resources.
Music, Gender, & Sexuality in the Modern World
With music as our primary source-text, we will focus on the ways in which music has been a means to negotiate Western culture’s construction of gender and sexuality from the seventeenth century to the present. The aim of the course is to expand the student’s ability to interpret Western music and how it serves to transmit, transform, and subvert ideas about human identity using musical and extra-musical resources. As a General Education course, this class encourages students to engage critically with their own society, history, and culture(s); it also encourages students to learn more about the history and culture of other societies. We will focus on key ideas and issues in human experience; encourage appreciation of the roles of knowledge and values in shaping and understanding human behavior; emphasize the responsibilities and opportunities of democratic citizenship; highlight the value of the creative arts of literature, theater, music, and arts; and alert us to important issues that occur among peoples in an increasingly interconnected, interdependent world.
Courses Assisted
Eastman School of Music
Music and Society: 1750-1880
Music and Society: 1880-Present
Other People, Other Sounds: Music and Meaning, 800-1750
Performing Politics in the Musical Marketplace
Michigan State University
Global Music Cultures
Great Works of Western Music [Online]
Popular Music in American Life
Popular Music, Media, and Identity in the 1980s
Eastman Writing Center
I have served as a writing consultant at the Eastman School of Music’s writing center since 2018. At the Eastman Writing Center, I work closely with Humanities Department faculty with the First Year Writing Seminar Curriculum. I lead workshops for young writers on topics such as Prewriting Strategies, Crafting Strong Thesis Statements, Organizing Research Materials, and Citation Best Practices. I offer one-on-one consultations with students where we meet to discuss writing projects. In addition to first year students, I work a lot with English language learners at all degree stages. I believe that everyone is a writer and that there is no one set “perfect style”; rather, I use conversation and encouragement to help students find their unique authorial voice while striving for clarity and brevity.
Writing Instruction
2016-17 Eastman School of Music TA Prize Winners
Curtis Award for Excellence in Teaching
This prize is awarded each year by the Office of the Provost at the University of Rochester. I was nominated for my work in the classroom during my tenure at the Eastman School of Music—University of Rochester, particularly based on the success of my “Borders, Boundaries, & Barriers” twentieth-century music survey. Winners were chosen based on student evaluations, faculty letters of support, syllabus evaluation, and teaching philosophy.
Student comments:
“Feedback was very thorough and appropriate for the given assignments. Trevor also established several ways to succeed, in case your learning style was different from the ‘standard way.’ I have never felt a Music History teacher wanted their students to succeed more than Trevor.”
“The instructor was very organized, thoughtful, respectful, and effective. We covered so much in this class, and it is thanks to his curriculum design and structure of the class. We had lots of meaningful discussions and critical thinking assignments, and I really appreciated all the opportunities the instructor provided.”
“Trevor is the best teacher I have ever had at Eastman.”
TA Prize for Classroom Instruction
This prize is awarded every year to the best Teaching Assistants at the Eastman School of Music, as decided by the Undergraduate Curriculum and Teaching Assistant Prize Committees. I was nominated for my work with the music history survey courses. Winners were chosen based on student evaluations, faculty letters of support, and classroom observations.
Student comments:
"Trevor goes above and beyond other section TAs with his ability to answer all of our questions. His excellent weekly study sheets make it easy to study for exams."
"He is a hard worker who wants every student to succeed; very prepared and organized with study guides and music examples. I wish he could be my TA next semester."
"Trevor is very professional, knowledgable, well prepared, and reviews material in a very clear and organized manner."
Somers Award for Excellence in Teaching
This award is given every year to the best Arts & Humanities Teaching Assistants at Michigan State University, as decided by the Center of Integrative Studies in Arts and Humanities Curriculum committee. I was nominated for my work in two general education courses: Popular Music, Media, and Identity in the 1980s and Popular Music in 20th Century American Life. Winners were chosen based on student evaluations, faculty letters of support, teaching philosophy statements, and classroom observations.
Student comments:
"He is receptive of the student’s interests. He was able to keep the classroom’s attention. He cares about our opinions and is very good at relating them to our lives for better understanding."
"Trevor was an EXCELLENT TA. Always willing to help students and had a passion for teaching. Easily one of the best TAs I have had at MSU."
"Trevor was an awesome TA, that really cared and helped out his students. He always had a great attitude and explained everything we did very thoroughly."
"Trevor Nelson is an all around great human being."