I am an experienced scholar, musician, and leader currently serving as Director of the School of Music at the University of Kentucky. I have previously been Associate Dean of Community Engagement and Entrepreneurship in the College of Music at Florida State University and Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Roberts Wesleyan College (Rochester, New York).

Before moving into administration, I was an Associate Professor of Music at Western Michigan University, where I taught undergraduate and graduate courses in music history, film music, world music, and music theory. I completed my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Historical Musicology and my M.A. in European History at the University of Rochester.

Photos: SCP, LaBrec

I maintain a busy schedule as a writer, composer, organist and pianist, and podcaster. You can listen to my first season of podcasts–consisting of episodes from my original science fiction audio novel, complete with original musical soundtracks–on the “My Radio” page. You can access some of my other compositions on the “My Music” page and on my YouTube channel.

To learn more about my current work at the University of Kentucky, listen to this recent interview with WUKY or to this interview about our 100th Anniversary in 2018:  

Read more about our 100th Anniversary season here, or check out the current (2021) annual recruitment brochure for the University of Kentucky School of Music, which my staff and I prepared for this year’s recruitment season. Additional samples of my communications work are available by following this link to the FSU College of Music’s 2017 Alumni Magazine or this one to the its 2016 Alumni Magazine.

Current Work and Upcoming Events:

We’ve had exciting news at the University of Kentucky’s School of Music: Check out this article about our designation by Yamaha as one of ten “Institutions of Excellence” in 2021. 

I am currently writing two articles on film music, plus a book on 1960s and 1970s television music. I have been composing a set of preludes and fugues for organ, as well as a song cycle based on poetry by Christina Rossetti. 

Recent News and Events:

In January 2020, I began a three-year term as editor of the “Forums” section the College Music Society’s journal, Symposium.  

I presented papers at the national meeting of the College Music Society (October 2020), the national conference of the Society for American Music (Summer 2020), and the national conference of the North American British Music Studies Association (Summer 2020) during the past year.

In November 2019, I participated on a panel discussing issues related to contingent faculty and how to advocate for them at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society (Boston). I also was on a panel with other faculty from the University of Kentucky’s School of Music at the national conference of the College Music Society in October 2019 in Louisville. We discussed the School of Music’s community outreach activities. 

I gave a paper at the 45th annual conference of the Society for American Music in New Orleans in March 2019. This was my first trip to this fascinating American city.

January 16-19, 2019, I visited Southeast Missouri State University (Cape Girardeau, Missouri) as part of a guest entrepreneurship residency. I also participated in a second performance of my short original compositions for children at the Cape Girardeau Public Library. The first performance of these pieces also occurred at the Cape Girardeau Public Library on June 16, 2018. 

I presented a paper on Lewis Mumford, technology, and participation in the arts at the national conference of the College Music Society, October 11-13, 2018. The conference took place in beautiful Vancouver.

News Archive:

Please see the menu above or click here.

Blogs I Follow:

Ross Wixon (composer)

Adam Schumaker (composer, arts administrator)

Kendra Leonard Preston (musicologist, poet)

Brooks Kuykendall (musicologist, academic administrator) 

Popcultureshelf.com (with a review of my last book)

And please visit my YouTube channel, too! 

The opinions and ideas shared on this website are my own and do not represent official positions of any of the organizations for which I am employed or associated with in my professional work and life.  Stan Pelkey