Nancy Rao, “Sound, Erasure and Archive of the Invisible: Chinese Theater in 19th Century California”

The Department of Music Theory hosts a lecture by distinguished guest scholar and SMTD alum Nancy Rao (MM ’89, voice and music theory; PhD ’94, music theory). This event honors Rao’s 2024 Professional Achievement in Music Award from the SMTD Alumni Board. All are welcome for the lecture (4:30-6:00 pm) and a reception to follow (6:00-7:00 pm).

Cantonese opera was woven into the Chinese community’s cultural, financial, social, and family life in 19th-century California. Yet excavating its music and performing history is nearly impossible, not only because of archival hierarchy but also due to various forms of erasure. This lecture addresses the challenge, particularly the need to ‘listen for the unsaid, translate misconstrued words, and refashion disfigured lives.’ It begins by discussing how a laborer’s diary entries give color to the faded image of 19th-century Chinese theater in San Francisco and pull us into its everydayness. It then considers the theater institutionally as an expression of the transpacific community. At conclusion it considers the music and significance of a 1903 recording of Cantonese opera.

ABOUT THE GUEST SPEAKER

NANCY YUNHWA RAO is Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University. Rao received PhD in Music Theory from the University of Michigan in 1994. Her earlier work includes the history of American music theory of the 1930s and Ruth Crawford Seeger, the latter of which received the Lowens article award from the Society for American Music. Her current work bridges musicology, music theory, and Sinophone studies. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Musicological Society, she is the author of Chinatown Opera Theater in North America, which won three book prizes. She also contributed a chapter on East Asia for The Cambridge Companion to Serialism. Her analysis of materiality in the sonic imagery of East-Asian composition appeared in Music Theory Spectrum. Rao serves as the Editor-in-chief of American Music. Her forthcoming book, Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in 19th Century California and Beyond, will be published in March 2025.