Biography

Alexander John Stalarow joined the Department of Music History and Literature at SFCM in the fall of 2017, after completing his Ph.D. in musicology at the University of California, Davis. He received his bachelor’s degree in music and English Literature from The George Washington University and his master’s degree from the University of Toulouse, France, where he completed a thesis on the production and Parisian premiere of Tod Machover’s electroacoustic opera VALIS. In addition to teaching and giving guest lectures while pursuing graduate work, he was a visiting instructor at the University of the Pacific and UC Davis in 2017–2018. Professor Stalarow’s dissertation research, on Pierre Schaeffer’s early career in radio art and its impact on his musique concrète compositions, was supported by grants including a Bilinksi Educational Foundation Fellowship, a Chateaubriand Fellowship, and an Alvin H. Johnson AMS-50 Dissertation Fellowship from the American Musicological Society. He has been an active participant in the Northern California chapter of the AMS, and has given presentations at the national meetings of the AMS, the Society of American Music, and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. He has also presented his work at conferences abroad in Montreal and London, and has given invited talks at the Institut de l’Histoire d’Art in Paris and at UC San Diego. Professor Stalarow has written program notes for the Eco Ensemble and has given pre-concert lectures at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University. He is currently working on a book project based on his ongoing research on Pierre Schaeffer. His other interests include music in audiovisual contexts, musical theater, and sound studies.