Sonya Lawson, Ph.D., professor of music, presented a virtual lecture March 22 on “American Music: a Guided Listening Tour of Lesser-known Composers and their Work.”
Dr. Lawson, who teaches music history and viola at Westfield State, shared samples of American music from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries by some lesser-known composers. Attendees enjoyed a 10-piece musical tour, supplemented by information about the composers and the contexts of their pieces. Art songs, as well as piano, symphonic, and chamber music, were explored.
Dr. Lawson earned a Ph.D. in music history with a supporting area in viola performance from the University of Oregon and a M.M. in viola performance from the University of Minnesota.
Her dissertation presented a history of strings in jazz, and other research interests are cognitive musicology and innovations in music history pedagogy. As a member of The Knotty Ensemble avant-garde chamber group, she has released two CDs on the Third Rail label.