Eve McPherson
Biography
Eve McPherson holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2009), and a master's degree in ethnomusicology from Tufts University (1998). Supported by a Fulbright-Hays fellowship, she conducted doctoral dissertation research on the Turkish concept of the beautiful voice in call to prayer recitation. Additional research support has come from the American Research Institute in Turkey; the Institute for Turkish Studies; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and FLAS fellowships for the study of Turkish and Arabic. She has published extensively on the Turkish call to prayer. McPherson also presents regularly at national and international conferences, including the Society for Ethnomusicology and the College Music Society. Her areas of interest include Islamic recitation, Turkish classical music, vocal timbre, northeast Ohio musical communities, and contemporary American opera. Prior to coming to ϳԹ, McPherson taught at Case Western Reserve University, where she was awarded a UCITE Learning Fellowship and was nominated for the Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Additionally, McPherson earned a master's degree in vocal performance from UCSB in 2005. As a performer, she has appeared with opera companies in both the United States and Europe, most often as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. She also premiered the role of Anchee Min in William Kraft's opera Red Azalea. In 2007, she premiered Ertuğrul Oğuz Firat’s Gerçek, Simge, Oyun, which was broadcast on Turkish National Radio and subsequently released by AK Records in Istanbul. She can also be heard on recordings of Turkish classical music released by the Boston-based EurAsia Ensemble.
Education
M.A. in Ethnomusicology, Tufts University
B.A. in Music, Michigan State University
Publications
- “Brigadoon in the Heights: Representing Self and Community through Secular Leftist Hymnody.” 2024. The Oxford Handbook of Community Singing. Kay Norton and Esther Morgan-Ellis, eds. New York: Oxford University Press: 218-238.
- “Brigadoon in the Heights: Representing Self and Community through Secular Leftist Hymnody.” 2024. The Oxford Handbook of Community Singing. Kay Norton and Esther Morgan-Ellis, eds. New York: Oxford University Press: 218-238.
- “Robot Imams! Standardizing, Centralizing, and Debating the Voice of Islam in Millennial Turkey.” The Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies. Nina Eidsheim and Katherine Meizel, eds. New York: Oxford University Press.
- “Robot Imams! Standardizing, Centralizing, and Debating the Voice of Islam in Millennial Turkey.” The Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies. Nina Eidsheim and Katherine Meizel, eds. New York: Oxford University Press.
- “Some Meanings of the Islamic Call to Prayer: A Combined Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Some Turkish Narratives” (co-authored with Sandra B. McPherson, Robert Bouchard, and Robert Heath Meeks). Narrative Matters 2014: Narrative Knowing/Récit et
- “The Turkish Beautiful Voice: Acoustic Traits of Preferred Muezzins’ Voices in Istanbul, Turkey.” On Local vs. Universal: MusicCult’ 14 Music and Cultural Studies Proceedings. Ayşe Güngör and Efe Duyan, eds. Istanbul: DAKAM Publishing, 2014.
- “Vocal Timbre in Islamic Calls to Prayer across Cultures.” Spectral World Musics. Robert Reigle and Paul Whitehead, eds. Istanbul: Pan Publishing, 2008. 167-187.
- “The Turkish Call to Prayer: Correlating the Acoustic Details of Vocal Timbre with Cultural Phenomena.” The electronic conference proceedings of the Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology in Montreal, Canada, 2005: http://www.oicm.umontreal.
Awards/Achievements
- Fulbright-Hays (2006), American Research Institute in Turkey (2007), Institute of Turkish Studies (2003), The University of California at Santa Barbara (2003, 2009), FLAS (2001-2004)
- Case Western Reserve University UCITE Learning Fellow (2011-12)
- Holocaust Humanitarian Award, Kol Israel Foundation (1990)
- Carl F. Wittke Nominee for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Case Western Reserve University (2010)
- Co-Founder, Society for Ethnomusicology Voice Studies Special Interest Group (2012)
- Co-Chair, Society for Ethnomusicology Niagara Chapter (2017-present)