Chris Benham is currently completing his Master of Music degree at Oklahoma City in Orchestral conducting, where he has been studying with Jeff Grogan. As a conductor Chris is active in Oklahoma, serving as assistant conductor to the OCU Symphony Orchestra and the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra. Prior to this, Chris graduated from College of the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri where he founded and served as Music Director to the College of the Ozarks Community Orchestra. In Branson, Chris also conducted the Tri-Lakes Community Theatre and Branson Arts Council Community Theatre. In October 2015, Chris was a competitor in the Antal Dorati International Conducting Competition in Budapest, Hungary in connection with the Budapest Symphony MAV. Chris has worked with orchestras such as the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Missouri Symphony, Miami Music Festival Orchestra, Springfield (MO) Symphony, Springfield-Drury Civic Orchestra, College of the Ozarks Community Orchestra, Oklahoma Youth Orchestra, Oklahoma City University Symphony, and the Credo Strings Program (Oberlin). As an advocate for the impact arts can have on a community and orchestral programs in the region, Chris also served on the Board of Directors for the Branson Arts Council.
As a musicologist, Chris’ research focuses primarily on the sound of religion in America. His Master’s thesis analyzed the politics of religious conversion where it concerns 19th C. German speaking Jews, through a narrative and cultural analysis of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Reformation Symphony”. He has presented at national musicological conferences including the Society for American Music and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. This year, Chris will continue his research and education at Harvard University, where he will pursue a PhD.
What made you interested in pursuing music as a career path?
I first began pursuing music as a career path as a conductor (which I still intend to actively do), but as a conductor, I have often been instructed to “Think of what [insert classical composer’s name here] was trying to express.” Yet in practice, I believe musicians ought to strive to understand what music may mean to audiences, whether the historical audience or the modern one. In my study of musicology, which is heavily influenced by Roland Barthes and his critique of the “Author,” I seek to understand the societal impact of music rather than expressly what the composer may have intended. Specifically, I am interested in the way shared sonic experiences affect communities. As a teacher/scholar, I aim to help students develop awareness and critical consciousness through the study of music and culture. I hope to promote classroom discussion and develop new approaches to music through religiosity.
Why did you apply to Harvard?
The graduate program at Harvard was of particular interest to me because of the broad focus of the department and its reputation for cultural analysis through a variety of critical lenses. My research will benefit greatly from working with the Harvard faculty, including Carol Oja, Braxton Shelley, and Ingrid Monson. In the same way Prof. Oja’s recent work explores current American musical styles and cultural importance, I am interested in the way the religious ideals expressed in popular music can be representative of larger shared experiences in America. My work will also connect to Prof. Shelley’s and Prof. Monson’s work in sonic experiences, aesthetics, and theology.
What will you be studying/ involved in at Harvard?
I will be pursuing a PhD in Historical Musicology with a focus on American religious sounds. I am interested in researching the way religion is sounded in popular music and public speech in America, and also the trans-cultural significance of religious ideals of music and speech more broadly. As N.T. Wright notes in Surprised by Scripture, “The arts were recreation and relaxation for those who liked that kind of thing, but (except for dangerously subversive characters like playwrights), we didn’t expect them to impinge on how we organized the world, how we ran the country, how we did our work, or indeed how we understood and expressed our faith.” Wright’s understanding of the role music plays in our lives is a deeply held one that resonates with large portions of America. Through my research on the way religion is voiced in the music and sounds we hear every day, I hope to bring attention and conversation to the trans-cultural/national ideals and to analyze popular music through the lens of religiosity.
My recent musicological research also illustrates my interest in the way religion is sounded. In my paper, “Hearing the Shared Diaspora in Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN.,” I discuss how Lamar’s album speaks to shared experiences between Jewish and black American communities. Such experiences cross social and national boundaries, in part due to the narrative similarity of oppression between Biblical Israelites and the sounding of oppression within hip-hop writ large. I am presenting this paper at the Society for American Music Annual Conference and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music this spring.
Do you feel CofO helped prepare you for the doctoral program at Harvard?
The foundational music theory classes with Dr. Gerlach and music history classes with Dr. Huff have both been incredibly important in my growth as a musician. As I went to graduate school, I found that both of those series of courses had prepared me to be competitive in the field. I am very grateful for the awesome support from Dr. Gerlach, Mr. Busch, and Mr. Barnes when it came to the founding and more importantly, the continuation of the CofO Chamber Orchestra, which was invaluable in my growth as a musician. All of the Music faculty at the College have been very supportive and encouraging through my early career and academic pursuits so far, and I am very thankful for them.
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