Ryan Nason
- Collegiate
- Music History and Literature
Contact
Departments
Music History and Literature
Courses Taught
MHL 661: Music and Disney
Education
PhD in Musicology, UC Davis
MM in Jazz Studies, University of Oregon;
MA in Musicology, University of Oregon
Q&A
What is your hometown?
Davis, CA
What is your favorite recording?
Sinatra's version of "Fly Me to the Moon" arranged by Quincy Jones and performed with the Basie band swings hard.
What are you passionate about outside of music?
Water skiing and snow skiing.
Who were your major teachers?
Carol A. Hess, Beth E. Levy, and Henry Spiller
What was a turning point in your career?
My PhD advisor told me that my writing and teaching should reflect, when appropriate, my sense of humor.
If you weren't a musician or teacher, what do you think you would be doing now?
I started as a math major. So I would probably be a math professor had I not seen the light.
What is your daily practice routine?
The first thing I do every morning is drink a glass of water and then write for half an hour.
If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?
George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Jule Styne
From a music history perspective, what year and city are most important to you?
1964, New York
What is your unrealized project?
A book on the musical comedy of Victor Borge.
What do you think makes a concert experience unique?
Feeding off the audience.
Biography
Dr. Nason's research focuses on the ways in which twentieth- and twenty-first-century popular music evokes nostalgia and contributes to identity formation, including conceptions of race and gender. His current book project examines musical nostalgia in Disneyland. When not in Disneyland or writing about music, Nason is a competitive water-skier and coach.