The College of Fine Arts and Department of Music are excited to announce that Dr. David Edmonds will be joining our faculty this fall as the new Director of Choral Studies. Dr. Edmonds joins UNM after serving as Director of Choral Activities at the University of Montana since 2012. Under his direction the UM Chamber Chorale was invited to perform for the 2015 NAfME NW and 2016 NW ACDA Conferences—both first-time invitations for the choir.
As an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, he has held multiple leadership roles through the organization, including Montana R&R Chair for Women’s Choirs and NWACDA R&R Chair for Student Activities. In 2018, he was appointed as the ACDA National R&R Chair for Student Activities. Before his work at the University of Montana, Dr. Edmonds obtained advanced degrees in conducting from the University of North Texas and Westminster Choir College and taught high school choral music for six years in Iowa and Texas.
His original choral works and arrangements have been commissioned and recorded by schools and arts organizations in the United States and Canada and are available through Alliance Music Publications, Inc., Colla Voce Music, and Morningstar Music Publishing.
The Gay West: From Drug Store Cowboys to Rodeo Queens
The masculine ideal represented by the American cowboy is variously interpreted by spectators, dancers, musicians, and contestants at gay rodeos and country western dances across the U.S. Examining embodied gender practices within these communities, this talk articulates the sonic, social, and geographical spaces of the gay American West.
The Cruelty of Jazz: Toward a Hemispheric Politics of Sound
Rooted in concepts of affect and Empire, this paper argues that jazz operated in various 20th century Latin American settings as a vital touchstone bearing the risks and benefits of urban modernization, hemispheric geopolitics, and transnational cultural production, “cruelly” echoing the United States’ cultural, political, and economic dominance in the hemisphere and beyond.
Music from the Americas presents Versus 8
Percussion music in the Americas is one of the most exotic, visually attractive, and antique forms of expression since pre-hispanic times. Preserving, promoting and creating music for the percussion family of instruments is at the core of Versus 8’s mission through international collaboration with composers, performers, students, and cultural centers that contribute with their resources to the cycle of music, namely: creation, performance, and listening..