Philip Ewell, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, has been awarded the 2020 Susan McClary and Robert Walser Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies. This fellowship, awarded once a year, is reserved for major scholarly works in the humanities.
Professor Ewell’s work examines the racial disparity within the field of music theory, specifically highlighting the ways in which whiteness and maleness are prioritized by power structures within the field. Drawing on his existing work in critical race theory and his personal experience as a musician and academic, Professor Ewell seeks not only to describe the issue of music theory’s “white racial frame” but also proposes methods to address these issues and re-frame music theory in order to include traditionally marginalized voices and perspectives.
In addition to this groundbreaking work, Philip specializes in Russian music and theory, twentieth-century music, twentieth-century modal theory, and rap and hip-hop music. His writings have appeared in the Journal of Schenkerian Studies, Music and Politics, Music Theory Online, Music Theory Spectrum, and Popular Music, among other journals.
An active cellist and chamber musician, Philip enjoys performing classical and contemporary works, playing either his acoustic or his five-string electric cello. He has concertized in North America, Europe, and Asia, and has played under the baton of such luminaries as Gustav Meier and Pierre Boulez, in master classes for Janos Starker and Glenn Dicterow, and in backup bands for artists including Johnny Mathis and Stan Getz. His primary cello teachers were Stephen Harrison, Frederick Zlotkin, Barbara Mallow, and Anatoly Nitkitine.
