The 2024 Phi Kappa Phi Muriel D. Tomlinson Lecture will feature a musical performance and lecture by Dr. Amy Yeung and Dr. Chan Mi Jean from the University of Tennessee at Martin Department of Music.
The event, “There is No Gender in Music: Music Heroines from Baroque Onward,” will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, in the Blankenship Recital Hall at the UTM Fine Arts Building.
Yeung is a professor of music and Jean is a lecturer in the Department of Music.
“Listening to a piece of music, no one can tell whether it is written by a man or a woman,” Yeung said. “Historically, however, women composers have often been treated with skepticism, disdain and denigration, especially for women of color.”
Presented in the form of a lecture-recital, the event will present songs by women who distinguished themselves and made significant contributions to Western classical music from the 1600s to the present.
Yeung will discuss the evolving attitudes toward female composers and explore social, historical and cultural aspects of their music and lives.
A professor of music, Yeung teaches applied voice and lyric diction and directs lyric opera theater.
A native of Hong Kong, she has performed extensively in recitals and concerts on three continents, and is particularly active in recitals of art songs, especially by female composers.
She earned her doctoral degree in voice performance and a second master’s in music theory from Michigan State University as well as a master’s degree in voice performance from Texas State University and an undergraduate degree in voice performance from Hong Kong Baptist University.
Yeung joined UTM in 2004, is a member of the International Alliance for Women in Music and is a recipient of the university’s Coffey Outstanding Teacher Award.
Jean is lecturer in collaborative piano. She is an emerging solo pianist, chamber musician and opera coach who has made international appearances including performances in Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Italy, South Korea, Thailand and the United States.
Jean made her debut in January 2023 at the Weill Recital at the Carnegie Hall as the winner of the Eighth New York International Music Concours. A native of Seoul, Korea, she received her doctoral degree in collaborative piano and a doctoral minor in opera coaching from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a master’s degree and graduate performer diploma in piano performance from Indiana University.
The Muriel D. Tomlinson lecture is presented each spring by distinguished faculty in the arts and humanities. This lecture is named in honor of Dr. Muriel Tomlinson, a former faculty member and chairperson of the Department of Modern and Foreign Languages from 1959 to 1976 and staunch supporter of the ideals of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
The event is open to the public, and light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Dr. Chris Hill, president of Phi Kappa Phi Chapter 127, at 731-881-7292. Reservations are not required but may be made through UT Martin’s Runway Events Platform.
Photo: Dr. Chan Mi Jean is shown performing at a recital in November 2020. Jean and Dr. Amy Yeung will present “There is No Gender in Music: Music Heroines from Baroque Onward” on March 19 at the Blankenship Recital Hall.
