Smith College, Friday May 31, 2024

Morning location: NEILSON LIBRARY, Skyline Room, 4th floor

Afternoon location: JOSTEN LIBRARY, Mezzanine

Registration form and conference website here

SCHEDULE of the DAY

8:30–Early Arrival.  Morning Reception. (local arrangements will greet people to allow entrance to building for early arrival)

9:00 Building officially opens. Breakfast continued to be served as people arrive. Bring in and contribute local schwag from your library to share for our “insta-display”!

9:15 Welcome – Welcomes by Terry Simpkins, Chair, NEMLA, Susan Fliss, Dean of the Smith College Libraries and Marlene Wong, local arrangements, Head of Werner Josten Performing Arts Library 

9:30-10:20 KEYNOTE – Program I  Keynote Address

Host: Judy Pinnolis, will introduce Dr. White.

Dr. Christopher White, Associate Professor of Music Theory, UMass Amherst

Why is AI so Bad at Music? (at least so far)?

While Artificial Intelligence has made significant advances in fields such as text generation and image creation in recent years, the outcomes of AI-generated music have been somewhat underwhelming. This talk outlines the numerous challenges that make music a uniquely complex domain for AI research. These challenges include the lack of substantial commercial motivation, the intricacies involved in converting scores and audio signals into data that computers can process, the complex structures underpinning musical composition, and music’s deep-rooted connection to human emotion and experience.

Dr. Christopher White is Associate Professor of Music Theory, having previously taught at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Yale University. Chris received his PhD from Yale and has also attended Queens College–CUNY, and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. 

Chris’s research uses big data techniques to study how we hear and write music, which is the subject of his book The Music in The Data (2022, Routledge). His articles have appeared in such venues as Music Perception, Music Theory Online, and Music Theory Spectrum and he has presented his work widely. He has also contributed essays to Slate, The Daily Beast, and The Chicago Tribune on a wide range of topics, including music analysis, computational modeling, and artificial intelligence. 

Chris remains an avid organist, having studied with Haskell Thompson and James David Christie. As a member of the Three Penny Chorus and Orchestra, he has appeared on NBC’s Today Show and as a quarterfinalist on America’s Got Talent. He currently serves as secretary for the New England Conference of Music Theorists.

10:20-10:30 Quick Coffee Break. View schwag “insta-display”. 

10:30-11:30  Program 2  Panel on AI in Libraries and Industry: What’s Happening Now

Panel Host: Peter Laurence, will introduce Elise Gowen & Caleb Hall

Elise Gowen, Science Librarian, Smith College.

AI in Libraries: Confronting Change and the Future of Creativity

The tech world is throwing unprecedented amounts of money towards AI development. But what is AI, what does it mean for libraries and the arts, and how can we ethically navigate the proliferation of AI in the information landscape?

Elise Gowen is the librarian for STEM disciplines at Smith, as well as providing data services to faculty as needed. Elise is a Pacific Northwest native, and before coming to Smith College, she worked at Microsoft Library, University of Colorado Boulder, and Penn State.

Caleb Hall, Music Technology and Digital Media Librarian, Lewis Music Library, MIT.  

AI Music Tools and Their Impact on the Music Industry

The digital landscape of music creation and production is constantly changing and the implementation of AI music tools has proven to be a disruptive force, even in its infancy. How these tools affect musicians, music faculty, and music librarians can range broadly, from not at all to world changing. This talk will cover a few popular AI music tools, how they work, and who they are affecting.

Caleb Hall is currently the Music Technology and Digital Media Librarian at the Lewis Music Library at MIT. In this role, he manages Lewis’ state of the art audio lab, a collection of circulation audio equipment, and works closely with the music technology faculty at MIT. He also works as a sound artist, composer, and trumpet player.

11:30–12:00+ NEMLA Chapter Business Meeting (caterer setup time)

12:00–2:00pm  LUNCH and Tours 

12:00–LUNCH

1:00–  Tours: Choices of Places to Tours include: 

Building Tour (Guided Tour 12:45-1:30)

Can go anytime between 12:00-2:00 Lyman Plant House or Art Museum – there is a difference between guided tours and self-guided tours. 

RECONVENE IN JOSTEN LIBRARY Mezzanine 2:00 PM

2:00–2:30 Steve Waksman – at Josten–Interviewed by Judith Pinnolis on his book, Live Music in America: A History from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé. This book won the American Musicological Society’s Music in American Culture Award, which is given to “a book of exceptional merit that both illuminates some important aspect of the music of the United States and places that music in a rich cultural context.”

Steve Waksman: “A Live Interview about Live Music in America with Steve Waksman”

Join author and Professor of Music Steve Waksman and interviewer Judy Pinnolis for a live discussion about his award winning new book: Live Music in America: A History from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé (2022), published by Oxford University Press. Steve will discuss his reexamination of American music history through the lens of live performance. This large and impressive history documents the impacts and changes for live music performance and the ways it will retell the story of American music. 

Steve Waksman is Elsie Irwin Sweeney Professor of Music at Smith College. His publications include the books Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (1999), and This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk (2009). With Reebee Garofalo, he co-authored the sixth edition of the rock history textbook, Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the U.S.A. (2014), and with Andy Bennett, he co-edited the SAGE Handbook of Popular Music (2015). His latest book is Live Music in America: A History from Jenny Lind to Beyoncé (2022), published by Oxford University Press.

2:30-3:30 Sacred Harp Event. Tim Eriksen  – at Josten

Host: Janet Spongberg, will introduce Tim Eriksen.

Shape Note Singing: Celebrating 25 Years of The Sacred Harp at Smith College + participatory lecture demonstration

In the quarter century since Smith college student Allison Steel and friends started a weekly Tuesday night singing from the storied Sacred Harp tunebook, Northampton has become home to one of the most vibrant communities of shapenote singers anywhere in the world, with weekly gatherings interrupted only by Covid in 2020. Musician and scholar Tim Eriksen leads a participatory lecture demonstration introducing the practice and history of this music, including notes on music publishing in late eighteenth century Northampton and recent scholarship on such previously under represented topics as Narragansett musician Thomas Commuck’s 1845 shapenote collection Indian Melodies and the story of Occramar Marycoo/Newport Gardner, believed to be the first published American composer of African descent. Most importantly, participants will have an opportunity to sing in four part harmony! No musical experience is required. 

Tim Eriksen / https://timeriksenmusic.com/

Tim Eriksen is acclaimed for transforming American tradition with his startling interpretations of old ballads, love songs, shape-note gospel and dance tunes from New England and Southern Appalachia. He combines hair-raising vocals with inventive accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, guitar and bajo sexto – a twelve string Mexican acoustic bass – creating a distinctive hardcore Americana sound.

3:30-3:45 Break

3:45-4:15 Tour of Library –Josten Library/Mendenhall Performing Arts Center

4:15-4:30 Cookies and Lemonade Farewell.