Ph. D., Associate Professor of Music Theory, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York. Research Interests: Modernist Russian music and music theory.
Philip Ewell’s specialties include Russian music and music theory, 20th-century music, 20th-century modal theory, and rap and hiphop music. He has writings published in Music Theory Online, Indiana Theory Review, Journal of Schenkerian Studies, and Popular Music, among other journals. He was the founding editor of Gamut, the online journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, and served as the chair of the Committee on Diversity of the Society for Music Theory from 2007 to 2010. In addition to his North American appearances, Dr. Ewell has given papers at international conferences in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Philip Ewell’s recent research focuses on Russian interpretations of modernist composers such as Stravinsky and Webern. Specifically, he has worked on the modal theories of Boleslav Yavorsky, which can be applied to many different types of late-romantic and post-tonal tertian music. Dr. Ewell has worked with the voluminous writings of Yuri Kholopov and Valentina Kholopova, and has presented their work at conferences and in English translation. Currently, he is working with Russian structural and modal analyses of Chopin.