Rachel
Schuck
Instructor, Music Theory, History & Composition
329, Swope Music Building
Rschuck940@wcupa.edu
Education
- Ph.D., ABD, University of North Texas
- M.M., University of Miami
- B.M., West Chester University of PA
Thoughts on SOM
The Wells School of Music is a special place! Students have access to a great variety of musical opportunities and a supportive and engaged student and faculty community. Many of my favorite musical and extramusical memories were formed here, and my hope is that WCU students will continue to encounter significant growth and fulfillment in their time in the SOM.
Curriculum Vitae
Rachel Schuck returns to WCU in 2025 as an adjunct professor in the Music Theory, History, and Composition Department. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of North Texas. She holds an M.M. in Musicology from the University of Miami (2019) and a B.M. in Music Education and Flute Performance from West Chester University of Pennsylvania (2017).
Her research interests center around music pedagogy in the South Asian diaspora. In her dissertation, Karnatak and Western Classical Music Pedagogy in South India’s Music Schools: Transformations of Music Teachers’ Values and Positionalities, she investigates the ways music teachers in South India engage with their own musical training and current roles in institutional settings to explore shifting musical values in increasingly globalized and digitally mediated music schools. Rachel holds additional research interests in performance practices among Tamil Protestant communities, the South Indian diaspora, festival studies, contemporary Christian worship practices, and sociological perspectives in music education.
Rachel is an active flutist, vocalist, educator, and advocate for cross-disciplinary scholarship and collaboration. She has enjoyed bringing these disciplines together in the creation of interactive lectures, recitals, and workshops throughout the United States and internationally. Previous workshop topics have included: introducing music cultures in the classroom, preparation for international college auditions, Karnatak vocal techniques, Karnatak venu flute techniques, and cross-cultural music pedagogy and philosophy. A 2019 recipient of the American Institute of Indian Studies’s Language Fellowship, she studied Tamil in Madurai, South India.
Refereed Research Presentations
[national] Society for Ethnomusicology Conference (October 2024). Led Workshop “Sargam for Student Singers: Exploring the Beginning Stages of Karnatak Music Vocalization in the Western Choral Classroom.”
[regional] New York Conference on Asian Studies, University of Buffalo (September 2024). Presented “Storying Student-Centered Engagements in South Indian Western Music Conservatories.”
[international] Myriad Mysteries: Contemporary Global Perspectives on Language and Literature Conference, The American College, Madurai, India (March 2024). Presented “Cents and Sensibility in Bollywood and Kollywood: A Musical Analysis of the Indian Film Industry’s Jane Austen Adaptations.”
[regional] Society for Ethnomusicology-Southern Plains Chapter Conference (October 2023). Moderated Panel and Presented “Decolonizing the Ethnomusicology Classroom: Perspectives from Music Educators in the University Space.”
[national] Society for Ethnomusicology Conference (October 2022). Presented “Memory, Heritage, and Aspiration: The Parameters of Contemporary Music Schools in Neoliberalizing India.”
[national] North American British Music Studies Association Annual Meeting (March 2022). Co-Presented “Reproducing Inequity: A Postcolonial Reading of Gustav Holst’s Sāvitri (1908-9).”
[regional] Society for Ethnomusicology-Southern Plains Chapter Conference (October 2022). Presented “Shifting Aspirations in Karnatak Conservatories of Tamil Nadu: Unpacking Benefits and Challenges in the COVID Era.”
[national] Society for Ethnomusicology Conference (October 2021). Presented “Virtual ‘Aaraathanai:’ Assimilation Practices in Dallas Tamil Church Worship, August 2020-January 2021.”
[regional] Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia Flute Fair (March 2020). Led Workshop “Karnatak Flute in Classical Repertoire: Exploring South Indian Classical Flute in a Western Music Context.”
Invited Presentations
Wilkinson Lecture Series at the Wells School of Music. West Chester University of PA (March 2025). Presented “Transforming Values of Classical Music Teachers in the Bi-Musical Institutions of South India.”
Guest Scholar Invitational. Christ University, Yeshwanthpur, Bengaluru, India (December 2023). Presented “Intersections of Acoustemology and Ethnomusicology.”
Guest Scholar Invitational. Bangalore Conservatory, Bengaluru, India (November 2023). Presented “Ethnomusicological Pathways to Education at the Junction of Western and Karnatak Music.”
Musicology and Music Education Department Colloquium Series. Northwestern University (March 2023). Presented “Centering Music Educator-Ethnomusicologists and Decolonizing the Classroom through Cross-Discipline Collaboration.”
Guest Clinician Invitational. Baldwin Wallace University, Conservatory of Music (March 2021). “Presented Practice makes Progress: Exploring Karnatak Vocal Techniques in the Western Choral Classroom.”
Publications
Review of From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy: A Social History of Music in South India by Lakshmi Subramanian. Journal of Historical Research in Music Education 45, no. 1 (October, 2023): 134-136.
Review of Ways of Voice: Vocal Striving and Moral Contestation in North India and Beyond by Matthew Rahaim. Harmonia: The Journal of the Graduate Association of Musicologists und Theorists (GAMuT), Vol. 20 (June, 2023): 30-34.