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Curriculum Vitae

New York University, Music, Faculty Member
Cli on Boyd Department of Music Faculty of Arts and Science New York University 24 Waverly Place, Room 268, New York, NY 10003 updated October 2023 cli on.boyd@nyu.edu cli on-boyd.com Academic Appointments 2024– 2022–24 Assistant Professor, Department of Music, New York University Visiting Assistant Professor (tenure track), Department of Music, New York University Education 2022 Ph.D., Music Theory, Yale University Dissertation: “Keep It Barbershop: Stylistic Preservation and Whiteness in the Barbershop Harmony Society” Committee: Ian Quinn (advisor), Michael Denning, Braxton D. Shelley, Michael E. Veal 2019 M.A., M.Phil., Music Theory, Yale University 2016 M.M., Music Theory, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music 2014 B.M., Viola Performance and Music Theory (with high honors), University of Michigan Publications Monograph in progress Racial Dissonance: American Barbershop Harmony in the Age of Jim Crow Journal Articles 2023 “Barbershop’s Cautionary Tale for Academic Music Theory: A Response to Stephen Lett,” Music Theory Spectrum 45, no. 1: 120–24 (invited) 2022 “Working Collectively: Thoughts toward a Better Music Studies from the Project Spectrum Graduate Student Committee” (co-authored with Anna Beatrice Gatdula, Hyeonjin Park, Carlo Aguilar González, Sinem Eylem Arslan, Hanisha Kulothparan, Gerardo Lopez, Brian Veasna Sengdala, and Renata Yazzie), American Music 40, no. 4: 444–52 (Special Issue: Marking Forty Years of American Music) (invited) 2021 “Race, Retention, and Identity-Based Service in Music Theory,” Theory and Practice 46: 1–22 (invited) 2021 “Metrical Ambiguity in the Scherzo of Brahms’s String Sextet, Op. 18,” Music Theory and Analysis 8, no. 1: 41–59 Boyd 2 Book Chapters 2022 (advance online publication) “Music Theory, Race, and the Barbershop Harmony Society,” in The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory, ed. J. Daniel Jenkins (New York: Oxford University Press) (invited) Reviews 2023 (forthcoming) Review of Philip Ewell, On Music Theory, and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2023), Music Theory Online 29, no. 4 (co-authored with Jade Conlee) Short-Form Essays 2020 “Being a Black Ph.D. Student Following George Floyd’s Murder,” Inside Higher Ed, Career Advice, June 11 2024 (forthcoming) “Strange Fruit, Familiar Tune,” in Being Black In The Ivory: Truth-Telling About Racism In Higher Education, ed. Shardé M. Davis (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press) (invited) Works in Progress — “Have You Got Good Barbershop Religion? Music Education, Evangelism, and Stylistic Gatekeeping in American Barbershop,” in the colloquy, “Toward a Critical Musicology of Education” (essay under review of colloquy organizers; colloquy to be submitted to the Journal for the American Musicological Society by December 2023) — “Black Life during Barbershop’s Segregated Era, 1938–1963” (to be submitted in November 2023) — “‘Anche se piove la musica suona’: Virality and impegno in tormentoni estivi, 2016–19” (co-authored with Isabella Livorni) Fellowships, Awards, & Grants Fellowships 2022–23 2021–22 2021–22 2021–22 2021–22 2020–21 2020 2020 2016–19 Faculty Fellowship, Center for the Humanities, New York University Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship (declined) Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Institute for Citizens & Scholars (declined) Runner-Up, Robert Walser and Susan McClary Fellowship, Society for American Music Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship, American Musicological Society Margery Lowens Dissertation Research Fellowship, Society for American Music Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship (Italian), U.S. Department of Education GSAS Dean’s Emerging Scholars Fellowship, Yale University Boyd 3 Research Awards and Grants 2023–25 2023 2021 2020 2019 2019 2018–19 2018 2014 Working Group Grant (with Sarah Louden), Center for the Humanities, New York University NYU Nominee, Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities (application under review at NEH) Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music, Music Library Association Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM) Research and Conference Travel Award, Yale University Grand Central Red Caps Scholarship, Barbershop Harmony Society MacMillan Center International Conference Travel Grant (2x), Yale University Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fellowship (3x), Yale University Research Grant, Four Freshmen Music Foundation Minority Travel Grant, Society for Music Theory Other Awards and Honors 2023–24 2020 2018, 2020 2014–16 2014 2011–14 2010–14 Teaching Advancement Grant (with Sarah Louden), Center for Faculty Advancement, New York University Student Grant for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (on behalf of the Grant Hagan Society), Yale University MPower Artist Grant (on behalf of Project Spectrum) (2x), Sphinx Organization Supplemental Academic Award, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music James B. Angell Scholar, University of Michigan Merit-based music scholarship, University of Michigan Tradition Scholarship, University of Michigan Invited Presentations 2023 “Listening for Unsung Heroes: Black Life during Barbershop’s Segregated Era, 1938–1963,” Colloquium Series, Department of Music, Columbia University, New York, NY, April 14 2022 “Methodology and Identity: A (Black) Music Theorist’s Perspective,” for “Music Theory and Ethnomusicology: Towards Methodological Synergy,” SMT Committee on Race and Ethnicity, SMT World Music Analysis Interest Group, and SEM Music Analysis Special Interest Group; AMS/SEM/SMT Joint Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, November 10–13 2021 “‘Stay in Your Own Backyard’: Race, Purity, and the Cost of ‘Keeping it Barbershop’” ● Musicology Colloquium Series, Department of Music, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, April 30 (online) ● Visiting Artist & Scholars Series, Department of Music, Utah State University, Logan, UT, January 29 (online) ● Colloquium Series, Department of Music, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, November 5, 2020 (online) 2021 “Equity and Activism in the Arts: The Case of Music Studies,” Caine Scholars for Excellence Program, Utah State University, Logan, UT, March 11 (online) Boyd 4 2021 “The Role of the Privileged: Labor, Service, and How to Be an Effective Ally” (for Project Spectrum’s keynote address, “A er ‘Reframing Music Theory’: Doing the Work”), Music Theory Society of New York State Annual Meeting, online, August 9 2020 “Presses and Journals Receiving SMT Publication Awards, 1999–2018” (for roundtable, “SMT Award Demographics, Past and Present”), Scholars for Social Responsibility Interest Group, Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH, November 7–10 2019 “Harmony and Voice Leading in the Music of The Four Freshmen, 1955–1961,” Four Freshmen Annual Convention, South Bend, IN, October 18–20 Conference Presentations 2023 “Music in the Blood: Race Pseudoscience in Barbershop Harmony,” American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory Joint Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, November 9–12 2023 “Black Barbershop by Another Name: Gatekeeping and Genre in Close Harmony,” Theorizing African American Music, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, November 8 2021 “Barbershop Harmony, Racial Dissonance: The Case of ‘Project N’” ● American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, online, November 11–12, 20–21 ● American Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 7–10 2021 “Race, Recreation, and Family in the Barbershop Harmony Society,” Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Meeting, online, September 13–30 2021 “‘What Are We Trying to Preserve?’ Race, Segregation, and Music Theory in the Barbershop Harmony Society” ● International Association for the Study of Popular Music–United States Annual Meeting, online, May 19–22, 2021 (originally scheduled for May 2020) ● Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, online, November 7–8, 14–15, 2020 2020 “Everyone in Harmony? Preservation, Inclusivity and Musical Style in the Barbershop Harmony Society,” Society for American Music Annual Meeting, online, July 16–18 2019 “The Imposition of Meter in John Adams’s Shaker Loops” ● Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH, November 7–10 ● Music Theory Midwest Annual Meeting, London, ON, Canada, May 18–19, 2018 2019 “‘Anche se piove la musica suona’: Satire and impegno in Recent tormentoni estivi” (co-authored with Isabella Livorni) ● American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, October 31–November 3 ● Viral Italian Sounds, University of California, Berkeley, CA, May 9–10 Boyd 5 Invited Participation in Panels, Roundtables, and Workshops 2023 Panelist, “Reimagining the Music Theory Curriculum: A Cross-School Collaboration Towards Anti-Racism, Decolonization, and Globalization at NYU” (annual NYU/AMS lecture), New York University, New York, NY, May 1 2023 Accelerator Workshop Participant, “A Music Theory Curriculum for the 21st Century,” Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, January 19–20 2022 Panelist, “An Ugly Word: Rethinking ‘Race’ In Italy—and Worldwide” (book event for Ann Morning), NYU Abu Dhabi Institute in New York, October 11 2022 Panelist, “Let’s Start From the Beginning: Equity in Music Theory and History,” Longy School of Music of Bard College, Cambridge, MA, March 1 (online) 2021 Discussant, “White Stories, Black Histories, and Desegregating the Music Curriculum,” lecture by Philip A. Ewell, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, October 19 (online) 2021 Respondent, “Jim Crow and Zip Coon: Racial Stereotypes in American Popular Music,” lecture by Susan Hellauer, Music Before 1800, April 11 (online) 2021 Participant (on behalf of the Society for Music Theory), Intention Foundry, American Council of Learned Societies, April 8–9 (online) 2021 Panelist, “Young and Bold: Examples of Youth Activism and Early Successes in Student-Led Initiatives,” SphinxConnect 2021: Unity, Sphinx Organization, January 28–30 (online) Conferences, Panels, & Workshops Organized 2022 Co-Organizer (until May 2022), “In Discomfort,” symposium organized by Project Spectrum (founder and co-chair), pre-conference to the American Musicological Society, Society for Music Theory, and Society for Ethnomusicology Joint Annual Meeting, November 9–10 2021 Lead Organizer and Presenter, “Segregated Voices: Oppression and Self-Determination in the Jim Crow Era,” conference session, American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, online, November 11–12, 20–21 2021 Co-Organizer and Chair, “Scholars as Community Activists: Abolition and Anti-Racism in Practice,” workshop organized by Project Spectrum (founder and co-chair) in collaboration with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, online, November 4–7 (invited) 2020 Co-Organizer and Moderator, “Diversifying Music Academia: Building the Coalition,” symposium organized by Project Spectrum (founder and committee member), virtual pre-conference to the American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory Joint Annual Meeting, October 11, 18, 25, & November 1 Boyd 6 2020 Co-Organizer and Panelist, “A er ‘Reframing Music Theory’: Doing the Work,” panel organized by Project Spectrum (founder and committee member), keynote address for the Music Theory Society of New York State Annual Meeting, online, July (invited) 2018 Co-Organizer and Moderator, “Diversifying Music Academia: Strengthening the Pipeline,” symposium organized by Project Spectrum (founder and chair), pre-conference to the American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory Joint Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, October 31–November 1 Teaching Experience New York University 2024 (spring) 2022 (fall) Critical Work in Race and Music Theory (graduate) Race and Vocal Harmony in the United States (undergraduate) Yale University (Instructor of Record) 2020 (spring) 2019 (fall) 2019 (spring) 2018 (fall) Elementary Musicianship II Elementary Studies in Analysis and Model Composition II Elementary Studies in Analysis and Model Composition I Elementary Musicianship I Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Teaching Assistant) 2016 (spring) 2015 (fall) 2015 (spring) 2014 (fall) Musical Skills II Musical Skills IV Music Theory and Literature II Music Theory and Literature I Sphinx Performance Academy, Sphinx Organization (Instructor of Record) 2016–17 (summers) Proposed and developed curriculum to introduce music theory fundamentals during two-week string quartet summer camp for Black and Latinx musicians ages 12–17 (two sessions each summer) Invited Guest Lectures 2023 Presenter and discussant on barbershop music theory and culture, Analytical Perspectives (course taught by Jonathan A. Gómez), University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, March 2 (online) 2021 “Harmony and Form in Stevie Wonder’s ‘Overjoyed’” and “Toward Dismantling the White Racial Frame,” Popular Music Recorded by African Americans (course taught by Walter Everett), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, October 25 (online); Analysis of Pop-Rock Music (Everett), October 15, 2020 (online) 2021 Presenter and discussant on race in music theory scholarship, Proseminar in Music Theory (course taught by Edward Klorman), McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, September 28 (online) 2021 Presentation (in Italian) on Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Italian through Opera and Film (course taught by Anna Iacovella), Yale University, New Haven, CT, September 21 Boyd 7 2021 “From Barbershop to the Beach Boys: Brian Wilson’s Vocal Influences,” The Beach Boys in American Culture and Counterculture (course taught by Daniel Harrison), Yale University, New Haven, CT, March 17 (online) 2021 Presenter and discussant on “Critical Work in Race and Music Theory,” Music Theory Proseminar (course taught by Ellie M. Hisama), Columbia University, New York, NY, February 22 (online) 2021 “Harmony and Form in Stevie Wonder’s ‘Overjoyed,’” Music Theory III (course taught by Sara Bakker), Utah State University, Logan, UT, February 5 (online) 2021 Discussant on music theory and culture in the Barbershop Harmony Society, Contemporary Pop A Cappella (course taught by Timothy Chenette), Utah State University, Logan, UT, February 1 (online) Related Experience Professional 2018–20 2016–17 2016 2015–17 Fellow, Office for Graduate Student Development and Diversity, Yale University Assistant Concert Producer, “Africa into Jazz/Jazz into Africa” Concert Series, Yale University Senior Strings Semi-Finalist Liaison, Grand Prize Liaison; M-Prize Competition, University of Michigan Semi-Finalist/Finalist Liaison, 18th–20th Annual Sphinx Competitions Mentorship 2018–20 2015–17 2013 2011–14 Mentor, Office for Graduate Student Development and Diversity, Yale University Dorm Parent, Sphinx Performance Academy (string quartet camp) High School Boys Counselor, Interlochen Arts Camp Mentor, Ypsilanti Youth Orchestra (Saturday-morning music program) ● Taught beginning and intermediate strings classes for children ages 5–15 Creative 2010–16 Arranger/orchestrator (soundcloud.com/cliffviola) ● Studied orchestration with Paul Schoenfeld (University of Michigan; 2012, 2014) and Aaron Travers (Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; 2015–16) Service to the Profession Committees 2023–26 2022– 2022–24 2022–23 2021–23 2021 Member-at-Large, Council, American Musicological Society Affiliate Board, Project Spectrum SMT-40 Dissertation Fellowship Committee, Society for Music Theory ● Chair, 2023–24 Program Committee, Music Theory Society of New York State Annual Meeting (2023), New York University, New York, NY Committee on Cultural Diversity, American Musicological Society Program Committee, Society for American Music Annual Meeting (2022), Tucson, AZ Boyd 8 2020– 2017–22 2017–20 Engaged Music Theory Working Group ● Blog Post Editor, 2022–; Mentor, Publication Program, 2023– Founder, Project Spectrum ● Graduate student–led coalition committed to increasing diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in music academia ● Biennial national symposia starting in 2018; publications in Current Musicology (2021), Theory and Practice (2021), and American Music (2023) ● Chair, 2017–19; Co-Chair, 2021–22 ○ Oversaw organization of national symposium, “Diversifying Music Academia: Strengthening the Pipeline” (2018) Committee on Race and Ethnicity, Society for Music Theory ● Mentorship Coordinator, 2019–20 (50+ participants total) Editorial Boards 2022–25 Scholarship and Research, College Music Symposium Peer Review College Music Symposium, Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy, Intégral, Music Theory and Analysis, Open Access Musicology, Theory and Practice Sessions Chaired 2023 2022 “Isochrony,” Music Theory Society of New York State Annual Meeting, New York University, New York, NY, April 1–2 “Appropriation and the Designs of White Identity,” AMS/SEM/SMT Joint Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, November 10–13 Mentorship 2021– Mentor, Proposal Mentoring Program, Committee on the Status of Women, Society for Music Theory Service to the University New York University 2023–25 2023–24 2023 2023 2023 2022–23 Co-Convener (with Sarah Louden), “Music Theory for Whom? A Comprehensive Reform of Music Theory Curricula Across NYU” (working group), Department of Music (FAS) and Music and Performing Arts Professions (Steinhardt) ● Supported by a Center for the Humanities Working Group Grant and a Teaching Advancement Grant Faculty Advisor, Graduate Student Conference, Department of Music Second Reader, Soraya Garcia (M.A. thesis, Italian Studies) Mentor, Proud to be First (Faculty Connect), College of Arts and Science Workshop Leader (CV and Cover Letters), Faculty First Look, Faculty of Arts and Science Workshop Organizer (2x), “Preparing for the Academic Job Market,” Department of Music Boyd 9 Yale University 2019–22 Co-Founder, Grant Hagan Society, Department of Music ● Graduate student-led affinity group for people of color ● Co-Chair, 2019–20 Co-Founder, Fellowship Application Working Group, Department of Music ● Co-Convener, 2019–20 Website Co-Manager, Graduate Music Symposium, Department of Music Professional Development Committee, Department of Music ● Chair, 2017–19 Guest Lecture Committee, Department of Music 2019–21 2018 2016–20 2016–17 Indiana University Jacobs School of Music 2016 2015–16 2015–16 2015 2015 Session Chair (“Romantic Forms”), GTA Annual Research Symposium Circulation Manager, Indiana Theory Review Treasurer, Graduate Theory Association (GTA) Program Committee, GTA Annual Research Symposium Hospitality Chair, GTA Annual Research Symposium Professional Memberships American Musicological Society American Studies Association Association for the Study of African American Life and History International Association for the Study of Popular Music–United States Music Theory Society of New York State Society for American Music Society for Music Theory Languages English: native Italian: fluent (Certificate of Knowledge of the Italian Language, Level C1, CELI 4) German: reading knowledge Select Performance Experience 2016–18 2015–16 2014–15 2010–14 Yale Camerata Chamber Chorus, Yale Institute of Sacred Music University Singers (chamber choir), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Symphony Orchestra, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music University Philharmonia and Symphony Orchestras, University of Michigan References Ian Quinn Professor of Music Theory Yale University (203) 436-5123 ian.quinn@yale.edu Brigid Cohen Associate Professor of Music New York University (646) 771-3448 bc64@nyu.edu Boyd 10 Braxton D. Shelley Associate Professor of Music, Sacred Music, and of Divinity Yale University (203) 432-2267 braxton.shelley@yale.edu Matthew D. Morrison Assistant Professor, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music New York University (212) 992-6642 matthew.morrison@nyu.edu