William Quillen

  • Dean of the Conservatory

Offices

Education

  • BS, music and history, Indiana University, 2001
  • MA, musicology, University of California at Berkeley, 2003
  • Stazhirovka in musicology, Moscow Conservatory (2007-08, as Fulbright IIE grantee)
  • PhD, musicology, University of California at Berkeley, 2010
     

Biography

A musicologist and former tubist, William Quillen specializes in Russian music, 20th- and 21st-century music, and the sociology of music. As a research fellow of the University of Cambridge’s Clare College (2010-13), he supervised a variety of courses in the university’s Faculty of Music and Department of Slavonic Studies. He has also served on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley as a visiting lecturer from 2013-14, and he has delivered a variety of invited talks at universities throughout the United States and U.K.

His work has been published in the Journal of the American Musicological Society and Music & Letters, among other forums. He serves on the editorial board of Academic Studies Press’ Studies in the History and Sociology of Music series.

He has appeared as a preconcert lecturer for such organizations as Cal Performances. He has helped organize concerts, conferences, and other events in the United States, U.K., and Russia.

Quillen joined Oberlin Conservatory in August 2017, after previously serving as legacy and major gifts officer at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He also has served in the administrations of Berkeley Symphony (as director of development), the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (as project developer), and the San Francisco Symphony.

Quillen was appointed acting dean in fall 2018. After an extensive nationwide search, he was appointed dean of the conservatory and will begin his new role on January 1, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.

“The Idea of the 1920s in Russian Music Today.” In Russian Music Since 1917: Reappraisal and Rediscovery, edited by Marina Frolova-Walker and Patrick Zuk, 376-95. Proceedings of the British Academy, no. 209. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

“Winning and Losing in Russian New Music Today.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 67, no. 2 (2014): 487-542.

English translations, with Anton Batagov, of Batagov’s Russian-language notes for his recordings Selected Letters of Sergei Rachmaninoff (FANCYMUSIC, Fancy026, 2013) and Post Production (FANCYMUSIC, Fancy042, 2014).

Research Fellow, Clare College, University of Cambridge (UK), 2010-13.

Ingolf Dahl Award in Musicology, Northern California & Pacific Southwest chapters of the American Musicological Society, 2010.

Fulbright IIE grant to Russia (Host institution: Moscow Conservatory), 2007-08.

Institute of Historical Research Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, University of London (award declined), 2007-08.

Title VI FLAS Award, Indiana University Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European, and Central Asian Languages, 2004.

Nicholas C. Christofilos, Jr. Memorial Prize in Music, University of California, Berkeley, 2004.

Panelist, “The Politics of Soviet Musicology and Music Theory.” American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory national meeting (Nov. 2018).

Organizer and roundtable participant, “Music and Social Change after 1989: Comparative Views from Eastern Europe and Russia.” Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies national meeting (Nov. 2013).

“Winning and Losing in Russian Music Today.” Paper delivered on the colloquium series in the Department of Music, University of California at Santa Barbara (Apr. 2012) and in the Department of Music, King’s College London (Oct. 2011).

Roundtable participant, “Music and Interdisciplinarity.” Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies national meeting (Nov. 2011).

“Cage in the USSR.” Paper delivered at the national meeting of the American Musicological Society (Nov. 2010) and on the colloquium series in the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge (Jan. 2011) and the Department of Music, University of Nottingham (Dec. 2010).

“Back to the Future: The 1920s in Russian Music Today.” Paper delivered at joint meeting of the Northern California and Pacific Southwest Chapters of the American Musicological Society (Apr. 2010) and at the Music, Memory, and Nostalgia conference at the University of Pittsburgh (Apr. 2009).

“Scorched Earths:  Aleksandr Vustin’s and Vladimir Tarnopolski’s Chevengur Settings, 1992-2001.” Paper delivered at the national meeting of the American Musicological Society (Nov. 2008) and the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (Nov. 2008)

“‘Every Revolution is a Symphony’: Music and Song in the Early Soviet Years.” U.S. Department of Education Title VI Teachers Outreach Conference, sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (Apr. 2007).

“Shostakovich’s Late Simfonizm.” Shostakovich-100 conference, Goldsmiths College London (Sep. 2006).

“Russian Simfonizm.” Glinka and His Legacies conference, University of California, Berkeley (Apr. 2005).

News

This Week in Photos: Elections to Mini Pumpkins

November 4, 2020

In this week’s photo series we swing by the voting polls, rub elbows with a professor, linger under a big tent of images, decompress at an outside night concert and faculty recital, pull up a seat at the Cat, head to Finney Chapel for taiko, and pick up a brush to do some mini pumpkin painting.

Oberlin College Establishes Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity in Response to National Distress

August 28, 2020

President Carmen Twillie Ambar and Oberlin College announced today the launch of the Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity in response to increasing injustice and racial tensions in America. The Presidential Initiative will elevate and advance Oberlin’s more than 180-year commitment to the education and rights of Blacks in America, and will provide the framework for faculty and students to address issues of violence, police-community relationships, and racial injustices.