A wide variety of performance opportunities await our students each year, with orchestras, bands, choirs and opera, jazz nonets and combos, small ensembles, and more.
A variety of programs and initiatives operate continuously or annually to enhance learning experiences and help students prepare for their future in music.
The MSU College of Music supports and challenges students, values innovation and creativity, and helps every community member achieve professional excellence.
After MSU: Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory at McGill University
In the music theory Master’s program at MSU: 2016 to 2018
Before MSU: B.M. in Music Theory, Wilfrid Laurier University
“Peer-led Dictation in the Aural Skills Curriculum”
“Consonance, Dissonance, and Gender: A Queer-Theoretical Approach to Johanna Beyer’s Clarinet Suites (1932)”
“Notation-Free Dictation: A Case Study in ‘Blind Hearing’”
“Melodic Transformations in Johanna Beyer’s Clarinet Suites (1932)
“Keeping the ‘Ear’ in ‘Ear Training’: Incorporating ‘Blind Hearing’ for Improved Aural Skills Pedagogy”
“Gamifying the Music Theory Curriculum”
“‘Dissonation’ of Tonal Materials in Vivian Fine’s Ultra-Modernist Compositions.”
“The Expectancy/Infinity Trope in ‘Molasses’ by Hiatus Kaiyote.”
“Internal Conflict in Vivian Fine’s ‘A Lover in Winter Plaineth for the Spring’ from Four Songs.”
“An Argument for Error Detection: Why and How It Should be Taught in the Undergraduate Aural Skills Curriculum.”
“The Ego and the Id: A Psychoanalysis of Schubert’s String Quartet in C Major, D. 956, Scherzo and Trio.”
“Human Perception of Melodic Similarity in Theme and Variation Pieces.”
Jonker, Alexandrea. 2020. “Error Detection in the Undergraduate Aural Skills Curriculum.” In The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy. Leigh VanHandel (ed). New York: Routledge Publishing Inc.
Jonker, Alexandrea. 2018. “Human Perception of Melodic Similarity in Theme and Variation Pieces.” Proceedings of ICMPC-ESCOM 15 (Montreal, Canada). 227-232.
Liberatory Praxis in Music Education (2022-2023 at McGill University)
Inclusive Pedagogies in Music Education (2023 at McGill University)
“Twentieth-Century Music in Analysis and Performance: Contexts and Experiments,” with Daphne Leong, Society for Music Theory National Conference (Columbus, OH, 2019)
“Code Shifting, Chromaticism, and Modality,” with Dmitri Tymoskzo, Society for Music Theory National Conference (San Antonio, TX, 2018)
Workshop with Suzannah Clark, University of Arizona Graduate Student Music Conference (Tucson, AZ, 2018)
“The Craft of Musical Analysis,” with Frank Samarotto, Society for Music Theory National Conference (Arlington, VA, 2017)
Awards:
Dorothy Payne Award for Best Student Paper (MTSMA, 2021)
Best Student Paper Award (RMSMT, 2021)
Innovative Learning and Teaching Award in Music (McGill University, 2020, 2021)
Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (2020)
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral) (2020)
Guest Lectures:
McGill University (2023), Bradley University (2019)