Meet Ohio’s link to the American Musicological Society
Photo via @miamiohmusic on Instagram
Kylee Nickel | Contributing Writer
Tammy Kernodle never expected to get as far as she has come. When she joined the American
Musicological Society, better known as AMS, as a graduate student at Ohio State University, after
finishing her undergrad at Virginia State University, she found a field not quite ready for the work she
wanted to pursue.
Kernodle was committed to studying American music, gender studies, and Black music as a central study
and not a secondary one. In the early 1990s, that approach was unusual outside ethnomusicology. So, she stepped away from AMS.
She was asked to return to AMS around 2008 when her former adviser, Charles Atkinson, became AMS
president. This time Kernodle saw a change. The AMS had begun embracing broader perspectives,
acknowledging emerging scholars and recognizing the evolving scope of musicology.
“Even though I was initially not welcomed by the specialist, I would say in the last 20 years, AMS has
done this kind of evolution in its identity,” Kernolde said. “And so it’s provided me with a platform. So
many of my main publications, a lot of my articles, have come out of conference presentations.”
Today, Kernodle is a distinguished professor of Music at Miami University. She is considered Ohio’s link
to the AMS; she was selected as one of the three honorary members this past year. Being Ohio’s link she
gets to not only be a connection, but also help the future generations of Ohio through her expertise.
Kernodle loves being an activist, especially to her students. She hopes if they are not operating in music
that they remember the literal theoretical ideas she gives them.
“My hope is that my students will remember I am a black woman,” she said. “And what that means
beyond just simple. Because I want my students to understand that there are more expansive
representations of blackness.”
Growing up and throughout college, Kernodle wanted to be a concert pianist. That changed during her
junior year when she read “Music of Black Americans: A History” by Eileen Southern. The book inspired
her to pursue cultural and gender studies in music at a time when few scholars centered Black music in
that way.
Kernodle has since been a national voice in conversations about American music. She has written
immensely, including, “Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams,” and contributed to
major projects including the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap. Her expertise has been featured on NPR, CBS, and in The New York Times.
Now her work is being shown more widely than ever before. This month [February], Kernodle will curat the fifth annual “I Dream a World” festival with the New World Symphony in Miami. The festival,
inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem and often associated with themes of the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr.’s legacy, celebrates Black artistry and musical innovation.
“I never thought it would be five years, but we are coming up on our fifth year and we have done some
amazing things,” Kernodle said.
She thought this concert would be a “one and done” but has grown much farther into an annual event. The festival connects both scholarship and performance, showing much more than just a concert, but a history and a fuller understanding of America’s musical landscape.
“I don’t get to see it in a traditional way, but every now and then God reminds me, ‘you’re doing okay,'”
she said. “Don’t get caught up in what you see, just keep doing what you do.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Kylee Nickel is enrolled in the Flyer News Practicum, which offers students
experiential experiences in the journalism arts. The Practicum, an elective in the Department of
Communication curriculum, College of Arts and Sciences, is offered fall and spring.