Musicology Prof Marian Wilson Kimber to present lecture-recital on the elocutionists

“In a Woman’s Voice: Musical Readings by American Women,” presented at 1:30 pm on Friday, February 17, in room 2 of Voxman Music Building
Thursday, February 16, 2017

Phyllis Fergus
Phyllis Fergus

Associate Professor of Musicology Marian Wilson Kimber will present a lecture-recital, “In a Woman’s Voice: Musical Readings by American Women,” on Friday, February 17, 1:30 pm, in room 2 of the Voxman Music Building. Wilson Kimber will recite poetry in musical settings by female composers, accompanied by Natalie Landowski, a doctoral student in piano performance and pedagogy.

The pieces on the program humorously explore topics such as fashion, courtship, marriage, and aging. For example, “The Usual Way” by Chicago composer Phyllis Fergus was frequently heard at bridal showers in the first half of the twentieth century.

Wilson Kimber’s research about these compositions appears in her book, The Elocutionists: Women, Music, and the Spoken Word, which has just been issued by University of Illinois Press. Her lecture-recital is part of the Musicology and Music Theory Colloquium series of the School of Music.

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.