Continuing the School of Music’s “Coming Home” series featuring notable alumni, the Musicology and Music Theory Colloquium is pleased to present Tim Storhoff speaking on “Arts Policy and Musical Diplomacy in the Obama Era: An Ethnomusicologist and Arts Administrator’s Perspective,” Friday, October 21, 1:30 pm in Voxman Music Building, Room 2.
Storhoff is an ethnomusicologist and arts administrator living in Tallahassee, Florida. He holds a Bachelor of Music in bassoon performance and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of Iowa. He received his Master of Music and Ph.D. from the Florida State University and has taught courses in music appreciation, popular music, world music, and American roots music at FSU and Tallahassee Community College. Tim has worked for the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and is currently the Grants and Outreach Coordinator for the Florida Department of State. He oversees all state funding for cultural organizations, libraries, and historic preservation projects and is developing Florida Music Tours, an online resource spotlighting musical traditions and performance venues in the state. Tim has contributed to Ethnomusicology and is currently completing a book project entitled U.S.-Cuban Musical Diplomacy: Harmony and Normalization in the Obama Era.
Storhoff’s talk will discuss the cultural impact of the historic change in U.S.-Cuban relations. Less than a month after President Barack Obama’s to Cuba in March 2016, the first official U.S. cultural mission visited the island with distinguished musicians and representatives from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Smithsonian Institution. The delegation announced numerous initiatives to support U.S.-Cuban cultural exchanges, but these steps build upon the efforts of hundreds of musicians who have worked to bring the U.S. and Cuban people together since 2009. Shortly after his first inauguration, President Obama began making gradual policy changes that relaxed the travel ban and permitted individuals to participate in U.S.-Cuban musical exchanges, which helped lay the groundwork for political change. Storhoff’s presentation will examine the function of musical exchanges in the U.S.-Cuban relationship and look at how music is used in current cultural diplomacy programs. It will also describe the intersections between being a musicologist and an arts administrator and how state and federal policies and arts programs have impacted this research.
Academic Music @ UIowa 
You must be logged in to post a comment.