This document explores the presence of stereotype threat among college students training for careers in music. Beginning in the 1990s, an effort led by Claude M. Steele (social psychologist and professor emeritus at Stanford University) identified stereotype threat as an attribute to the underperformance of minority groups. Continued research has mainly focused on stereotype threat within the following contexts: female performance within science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields, African American performance on standardized tests, and European American performance in athletics. This document contains two pilot studies that strive to apply current stereotype threat research to the field of music education and music performance in order to ask the following questions: Does stereotype threat impact the education of underrepresented collegiate music students? Does stereotype threat heighten gender awareness of musicians when they enter the typical auditioning environment? The two pilot studies consist of the following: (1) a survey intended to analyze the possible impact of stereotype threat on music students’ interaction with their colleagues and music instructors and (2) a quantitative study that explores the presence of stereotype threat (among musicians) through the use of a word-fragment completion task administered immediately before a mock audition.

The primary objective of this research project is to expand the clarinet repertoire with the addition of four new pieces. Each of these new pieces use contemporary clarinet techniques, including electronics, prerecorded sounds, multiphonics, circular breathing, multiple articulation, demi-clarinet, and the clari-flute. The repertoire composed includes Grant Jahn’s Duo for Two Clarinets, Reggie Berg’s Funkalicious for Clarinet and Piano, Rusty Banks’ Star Juice for Clarinet and Fixed Media, and Chris Malloy’s A Celestial Breath for Clarinet and Electronics. In addition to the musical commissions, this project also includes interviews with the composers indicating how they wrote these works and what their influences were, along with any information pertinent to the performer, professional recordings of each piece, as well as performance notes and suggestions.

Voicing, as it pertains to saxophone pedagogy, presents certain obstacles to both teachers and students simply because we cannot visually assess the internal mechanics of the vocal tract. The teacher is then left to instruct based on subjective “feel” which can lead to conflicting instruction, and in some cases, misinformation. In an effort to expand the understanding and pedagogical resources available, ten subjects—comprised of graduate-level and professional-level saxophonists—performed varied pitch bend tasks while their tongue motion was imaged ultrasonographically and recorded. Tongue range of motion was measured from midsagittal tongue contours extracted from the ultrasound data using a superimposed polar grid. The results indicate variations in how saxophonists shape their tongues in order to produce pitch bends from F6.

This project includes a recording and performance guide for three newly commissioned pieces for the clarinet. The first piece, shimmer, was written by Grant Jahn and is for B-flat clarinet and electronics. The second piece, Paragon, is for B-flat clarinet and piano and was composed by Dr. Theresa Martin. The third and final piece, Duality in the Eye of a Bovine, was written by Kurt Mehlenbacher and is for B-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, and piano. In addition to the performance guide, this document also includes background information and program notes for the compositions, as well as composer biographical information, a list of other works featuring the clarinet by each composer, and transcripts of composer and performer interviews. This document is accompanied by a recording of the three pieces.