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Nathan Fleshner

Interim Associate Dean of Research & Facilities, Associate Professor of Music Theory/Composition | nfleshne@utk.edu

Nathan Fleshner’s research focuses on the portrayal of mental illness, trauma, and the therapeutic process in music. He is interested in songs used as medical narratives to describe artists’ psychological and therapeutic experiences and has published and presented on songs by Adele, Tori Amos, Eminem, Linkin Park, Dave Matthews Band, Maren Morris, Prince Paul, Malvina Reynolds, Robert Schumann, Townes Van Zandt, and Kanye West. He is also interested in conscious and unconscious thought processes: in particular, the therapeutic, music analytic, and creative processes and how they interact. An avid Seinfeld fan, he has written two book chapters on music in the show.

He has presented papers at national and international music analysis and other disciplinary conferences, including the Society for Music Theory, the Society for Music Analysis, the International Association for Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland, the Eighth European Music Analysis Conference in Leuven, Belgium, the Ninth European Music Analysis Conference in Strasbourg, France, the Second International Conference on Music and Consciousness in Oxford, England, and Tracking the Creative Process in Music in Lisbon, Portugal. His research has been published in multiple journals and the edited volumes, Music Video Games: Performance, Politics, and Play, The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Music, and For the Sake of the Song: Essays on Townes Van Zandt.

He authors the column, “Do You Hear That Too? Music and the Medical Humanities” for the website, The Polyphony, associated with the Institute for the Medical Humanities at Durham University, UK. The column explores musicians and their music through the lens of mental health and the broader field of medicine, including analyses of specific works and connections between fields of music and medicine.

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Ryan Lindveit

Lecturer of Music Theory and Composition

rlindvei@utk.edu

Ryan Lindveit (lind-vite) is Lecturer of Music Theory and Composition in the College of Music at the University of Tennessee.

As a composer, he takes inspiration from literature, art, science, technology, and personal experience in order to craft colorful and emotionally vivid musical journeys. Lindveit’s works have been commissioned and performed by several distinguished ensembles including the Minnesota Orchestra, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, United States Navy Band, American Composers Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, New York Youth Symphony, Interlochen World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, Orkest de Ereprijs, Akropolis Reed Quintet, FearNoMusic, the City of Tomorrow, and the wind ensembles at Northwestern, Michigan, UT Austin, Baylor, Arizona State, Penn State, Texas Tech, USC, and Yale, among many others. His awards include the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a BMI Student Composer Award, the New York Youth Symphony’s First Music Commission, winner of the Wind Band Association of Singapore Composition Contest, and winner of the Symphony in C Young Composers Competition. He earned Special Distinction in both the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize (Close Up at a Distance for orchestra) and the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize (Spinning Yarns for wind ensemble). Lindveit also composed the score for the Sam Elliott-narrated docuseries Honor Guard released on Amazon Prime in 2020.

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Brendan McConville

Interim Associate Dean for Academic & Faculty Affairs,
Professor of Music/Theory Composition

bmcconvi@utk.edu

Brendan McConville is Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the College of Arts &aamp; Sciences. He was previously Director for Undergraduate Studies and Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition in the School of Music. He also co-directs the University of Tennessee study abroad program in Bologna, Italy. He holds a PhD in Music Theory & Composition from Rutgers University and completed undergraduate training at Peabody Conservatory and the Johns Hopkins University.

As a music theorist, his areas of research include twentieth-century music analysis and the use of emerging technologies in music theory pedagogy. His writings appear in a variety of scholarly journals including Theory and Practice, The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, College Music Symposium, Perspectives of New Music, and Tempo, and he is co-author of Music Theory Foundations: an Interactive eBook (with Barbara Murphy). He serves as Editor for Technology/Online Resource Reviews for the College Music Symposium. He has co-developed mobile music theory applications for iOS and Android devices, and he is an active presenter of his research involving the use of relevant and mobile technologies in the classroom. These technologies have included social media and Web tools, Google applications, podcasts, collaborative and peer-review platforms, and online music sharing programs. He is an active presenter and member of the College Music Society (CMS), the Association for Technology in Music Instruction (ATMI), and the Society for Music Theory (SMT) organizations. He currently serves as Treasurer for ATMI.

As a composer, he recently completed an affiliated fellowship at the American Academy of Rome (2022) where he wrote a new song cycle for collaborators in Italy. In 2016 he was awarded a Fulbright to Italy to compose a new vocal chamber work setting Gabriele D’Annuzio’s famous poem, “La Pioggia nel Pineto.” The work was released in 2018 on the award-winning album Un D’Annunzio Nuovo, which can be found on all major music distribution sites (Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, etc.). To build the work, he recorded the natural sounds of the Italian countryside – where D’Annunzio wrote the poem over 100 years ago – and put them into a background canvas for the vocal chamber piece. The sounds of the environment in the poem (e.g. cicadas, waves, rain, birds, frogs, etc.), presented both naturally and manipulated through computer software, create the sonic landscape for the performers. His music has been recognized by The American Prize in music composition and he has won three Global Music Awards. His music is available on the labels Wide Classique, ERMmedia, DaVinci, and Navona, and has published with BRS Music. His works have been commissioned, performed, televised, and recorded in the United States and in Europe.

As Director for Undergraduate Studies in the School of Music, he was actively involved in updating and enhancing curricular designs as well as improving student retention, mental health, advising, and tutoring services. He has worked closely with colleagues in the School of Music, the Haslam College of Business, and the College of Communication & Information to assist in building creative interdisciplinary programs, and he is currently working with administrators at Pellissippi State Community College to build a new articulation agreement in music. Since entering administration he has been active in the National Association of Music Executives in State Universities (NAMESU) and National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) organizations.

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