2020 CMS Southern Conference (41st)

Rates
Non-member: $145
Regular member: $70
Retired member: $35
Student member: $25

Online registration deadline: February 6, 2020
On-site registration includes a $25 late fee.

Click the 'Register Individual' button upper left to register online.

Parking

Parking is available free of charge across Children’s Way from the Blair School in the West Garage on weekends, and Friday afternoon AFTER 4 P.M. Additional parking is available in the South Garage, one building to the east of the West Garage.

• It is recommended that Friday attendees park in the South Garage during the daytime hours, where visitors to the medical center may park.

A campus map showing available parking spaces can be found by clicking here.

Hotels

Two nearby Hampton Inns are offering a special rate ($149/night plus fees) for conference attendees, links to hotel information and booking are below. These special rates will only be held until January 13^th, 2020; to ensure the rate, please reserve before that date. The Hampton Inns offer free on-site parking and complimentary breakfast, among other amenities, and both are approximately ten blocks from the Blair School of Music. Attendees lacking ground transportation are encouraged to consider

Hampton Inn—Nashville/Vanderbilt
1919 West End Avenue
Nashville, TN 37203
Click here to reserve at the special conference rate. 

Hampton Inn & Suites—Elliston Place
2330 Elliston Place
Nashville, TN 37203
Click here to reserve at the special conference rate. 

Attendees flying into Nashville at Nashville International Airport (BNA) can find many hotels close to the airport, all of which are 15 minutes away from the Blair School of Music and the Vanderbilt campus. Be advised, however, that travel times to and from campus can increase greatly on Friday morning and afternoon due to rush hour traffic.

Andrew Goldman 

Plenary Address:
A Science of Musical Improvisation: Theoretical Challenges, Empirical Contributions

Workshop:
The Neuroscience of improvisation: Theories, Methods, and Philosophical Critiques

Andrew Goldman is a postdoctoral associate for the Music, Cognition, and the Brain initiative at Western University. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2015 and was a Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience at Columbia University from 2015–2018. His theoretical work primarily investigates how science can contribute to discourses of improvisation in principle, and his empirical work supports and challenges these theories through designing and conducting behavioral and neuroscientific experiments. He has published as sole or first author in Music Theory Online, Journal of New Music Research, Psychomusicology, Psychology of Music, and Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Andrew has spoken at numerous national and international conferences including Society for Music Theory, International Society of Music Perception and Cognition, and the American Psychological Association. He serves on the editorial board of Music & Science, and is active in the Dalcroze music education community, organizing an annual symposium at Carnegie Mellon University and serving on the scientific committee for the International Conference of Dalcroze Studies. Andrew is also a composer. His original musical, “Science! The Musical”—which combines his interests in music and science in a somewhat lighter format—has been produced in Cambridge, UK, and New York City.

 

Martin Norgaard 

Plenary Address:
Presentation on Improvisation

Workshop:
Martin Norgaard Improvisation Workshop

Martin Norgaard is Associate Professor of Music Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta where he is collaborating with faculty in neuroscience, mathematics, computer science, occupational therapy, and physics to investigate the cognitive processes underlying improvisation and related therapeutic applications. He received the Dean’s Early Career Award in recognition of “outstanding work” as a faculty member of Georgia State University and is associate faculty of the Neuroscience Institute. In two recent studies involving electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Dr. Norgaard and his colleagues explored the brain networks underpinning musical improvisation. In another study, he showed that middle school children who receive training in musical improvisation score higher on measures of executive function compared to students who receive traditional music training. His research appears in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Brain Connectivity, The International Journal of Music Education, Music Educators Journal, The String Research Journal, and the interdisciplinary journal Music Perception. He is the author of ten jazz string method books for Mel Bay Publications and the composer of several string orchestra pieces for The FJH Music Company and Alfred Music Publishing. Dr. Norgaard currently serves on the editorial committee for the Journal of Research in Music Education. He is a frequent clinician at state, national, and international conventions such as The ISME World Conference on Music Education, The Midwest Clinic, NAfME, ASTA, GMEA, and TMEA among others.

 

Dariusz Terefenko 

Plenary Address:
Practical Music Theory – Improvisation in the Classroom

Workshop:
The Rule of the Octave: Strategies for Teaching Improvisation in the Classroom

Dariusz Terefenko teaches at the Eastman School of Music, where he began his career as a master’s student of jazz piano. After completing his M.M. in jazz piano performance (1998), he enrolled and finished a PhD in music theory (2004) with a dissertation on “Keith Jarrett’s Transformation of Standard Tunes.” In addition to teaching for the Jazz and Contemporary Media Department, Terefenko is Affiliate Professor of Music Theory. His interests lie in the area of classical and jazz improvisation and ways they interact with one another. Terefenko’s recorded solo album, Evidence (2010), offers his creative take on favorite jazz standards, jazz instrumentals, and his own compositions. His textbook, Jazz Theory – From Basic to Advanced Study (Routledge, 2014), is used widely by jazz musicians.

 

Dennis Thurmond

Plenary Address:
Presentation on Improvisation

Concert:
Dennis Thurmond in Concert

Dennis Thurmond is formerly the director of the piano pedagogy program and Electro-Acoustic Media at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, Chairman of the Music Synthesis Department and piano faculty at The Berklee College of Music in Boston, and a Teaching Fellow at the MIT (Cambridge) Center for Advanced Visual Studies. He has served on the summer faculty at the Utrecht-HKU Conservatory in the Netherlands and held improvisation master classes at the Hochschule für Musik (Freiburg, Germany). A classical and jazz pianist, he studied with Adele Marcus, Stewart Gordon and Vasant Rai. Thurmond was a studio musician in New York City for ten years and is a composer for Alfred Publishing in California and The Forest of Music Press in Taipei/Shanghai. He is the author of Tai Chi of Improvisation, and co-author of Improvisation: A Systematic Approach for the Classical Pianist. He tours world-wide.