Three Rutgers Professors Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Nancy Yunhwa Rao

Distinguished Professor, Head of Music Theory
Mason Gross School of the Arts
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Category: Humanities and Arts in the Field of Performing Arts

Nancy Yunhwa Rao teaches music theory, but she also sees herself as a historian.

As a music theorist, she has been spotlighting the influence that composers of Asian descent have had on contemporary American music.

"It's my mission to analyze music and expand the toolbox of music theory" Rao said. "It's a new way of looking at something that has been established for a long time."

As a historian, Rao is recording the influence of Chinese opera on American life. Her 2017 book, Chinatown Opera Theater in North America, chronicled the untold journey of Cantonese opera performers to North America, beginning at the western shores in San Francisco and Seattle. With innovative stage productions that combined western aesthetics with grand Chinese customs, these troupes became an important part of the community, she said. Yet, they have disappeared into historical obscurity, she said, adding that much of entertainment history in America has focused on the transatlantic migration.

"I expand the notion of American music history by bringing into the dialogue the transpacific influences in terms of history building, of Asian American as part of Americanness," said Rao, who was named the editor-in-chief of the journal American Music in 2023 and coedits the book series Big Issues in Music.

"It's not a recognition of me alone, it's the recognition of the community, this history. It's the recognition of Asian Americans, of people before me and their history," she said. "What makes this particularly special is that it's beyond just one institution's recognition. The academy is a community of people who work to advance society in many ways, and to become a part of that larger community is truly an honor."

- Roya Rafei

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