Nolan Vallier

Bio

Nolan Vallier earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation examines musical communities in the Midwest and the architectural spaces where those communities have staged concerts. More specifically, his work examines communities like the Taliesin Fellowship and the Ravinia Festival Association that have staged concerts within Prairie Style and Organic architectural sites. He is interested in the ways communities have used music to sacralize architectural space. He is especially interested in the ways music and sound come to be understood as “natural” components of architectural space.

His interdisciplinary research combines methods of analysis developed within concert history, urban studies, and sound studies. He has presented his research at national and regional conferences—including the Society for American Music conference (2021), the American Musicological Society national conference (forthcoming 2021), and the American Musicological Society Midwest regional conference (2018).

Prior to his appointment as a lecturer at UIUC, he taught courses in Western music history and research methods at both Ball State University (2018-2019) and Roosevelt University (2018).  Since 2013, he has also been employed at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, where he has co-curated exhibits on Harry Partch, Bohumir Kryl’s Women’s Symphony Orchestra, Hawaiian Slide Guitars, and several other American music topics.