“Life History of Archives and Objects: On Chinese Opera Actresses and Theaters in the Americas,” Nancy Rao Lecture

Nancy Yunhwa Rao presents this keynote address for the Feminist Theory & Music conference; the lecture is also free and open to the public.

NANCY YUNHWA RAO is a Distinguished Professor at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Her work bridges musicology, music theory, Chinese opera, and Sinophone studies. As a theorist, Rao’s work combines gender studies and music analysis. Her 2007 article “Ruth Crawford’s Imprint on Contemporary Composition” received the Lowens Article Awardfrom the Society for American Music. She is also the author of Chinatown Opera Theater in North America (University of Illinois Press, 2017). The book, which unfolds from an easily neglected piece of lyrics into extraordinary stories of the Chinese community, has been recognized with awards from four scholarly societies (AMS, SAM, AAAS, ARSC). A Chinese translation of the book was published in 2021. She has also published work on the use of musical gestures, singing, and percussion patterns of Beijing opera in contemporary music by composers of Chinese origin. She currently works on the analysis of materiality and timbre in contemporary music. Her new book, Chinese Theater in California and Beyond: 1850-1900, is forthcoming and will be published by the University of Illinois Press. Additionally, Rao is the editor-in-chief of American Music.

Rao is an alum of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, & Dance (MM ’89, voice and music theory; PhD ’94, music theory). The 2024 SMTD Alumni Awards have honored Rao as the recipient of the Professional Achievement in Music Award.

Learn more about Feminist Theory & Music (FT&M) 17:
https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/ftm17