Creative Research

  • I organized the Vincent Persichetti Centenary Concert at the University of Utah, School of Music. The concert was a collaborative effort that included all areas of the School of Music and a pre-concert display in the MacKay Music Library. The highlight of the concert was the performance of Persichetti's 'A Lincoln Address' that was banned from the 1973 Inaugural Concert of Richard Nixon. The piece featured excerpts from Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural address of 1865 that the Nixon Administration found embarrassing given its recent bombing campaign in North Vietnam. Thus, the concert also celebrated the 150th anniversary of this very important speech by Lincoln. Performance, completed 10/01/2015.
    http://music.utah.edu/news/persichetti.php

Presentations

  • "Re-visiting, -imagining, and -embracing the First Movement of Prokofiev's Fourth Sonata" Prokofiev began work on the Piano Sonata No. 4 in c minor, Op. 29, in the spring of 1908 while a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 17. He completed the sonata in 1917, and it was premiered by the Prokofiev in Petrograd on April 17, 1918, just weeks before his departure for the United States. The composer says of the work, “the sonata was written more seriously and – if one may so express it – more thoughtfully than its predecessor (Piano Sonata No. 3 in a minor, Op. 28). There was less seeking after novelty in it, but it was more concentrated.” Using this distinction drawn by the composer as a starting point, Dr. Vedrana Subotic (piano) and Dr. Michael Chikinda (theory) invite you to join them for a lecture recital that attempts to reconcile the tactile now with the elusive, if not illusory, compositional past. Presentation, Presented, 10/21/2022.
    https://music.utah.edu/events/index.php
  • “Divining the Nuances of Modal Mixture” - Presented at the MACRO Analysis Conference in Madison, Wisconsin . Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 06/11/2022.
  • "Will Marion Cook: Song Writer and Theologian” - Virtual Presentation at the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music . Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 02/26/2021.
    https://www.scsmusic.org/
  • "Divining the Nuances of Modal Mixture." - This paper was accepted at the Macro Analysis Research Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. However - due to the COVID-19 pandemic - the conference was deferred until 2022. Conference Paper, Refereed, Accepted, 06/2020.
  • "From The Mozart Effect To Mozart Causality: How The Music Of Mozart Can Help Patients With Epilepsy" presented at the International Music & Sciences Symposium in the Istanbul Technical University. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 04/19/2019.
    http://www.musicandsciences.itu.edu.tr/en
  • Fridays with Faculty Presentation: "Mozart's Music in Medicine: How the Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448, can help epilepsy patients" In the frontier of integrating music and medicine—employing digital health technologies—this collaborative Fridays with Faculty colloquium will discuss how specific compositions of Mozart, such as the famous Sonata facile, K. 545, may be used as medical treatment for seizures in people with epilepsy. In addition, the discussion will also demonstrate how music can be delivered as digital medicine to people suffering from depression and chronic pain. Presentation, Presented, 11/09/2018.
    https://music.utah.edu/events/index.php#/?i=9
  • I gave a pre-concert lecture at a faculty recital entitled, "Carl Nielsen: the Works for Solo Violin," given by Hasse Borup. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/19/2018.
    https://music.utah.edu/events/index.php#/?i=14
  • “The Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin: Nihilism and Transcendence in Last Shostakovich” presented at the “20th- and 21st-Century Song Cycle Conference” at Michigan State University. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 04/20/2018.
    https://www.music.msu.edu/song-cycles-conference
  • "A Meta-Text of Unity and Reconciliation in Persichetti's A Lincoln Address" presented at the 2017 American Society of Musicology - Rocky Mountain Chapter. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 04/2017.
    http://www.ams-net.org/chapters/rocky-mountain/Pro...
  • "The Pedagogical Challenges of Early Twentieth-Century Music Literature" presented at the 2016 Macro Workshop at the Monona Terrace in Madison, Wisconsin. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 06/18/2016.
    http://www.macromusic.org/workshops/
  • Reaction to the CMS Manifesto given at the 2016 Rocky Mountain Scholars Conference at the University of New Mexico. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/23/2016.
    http://music.unm.edu/2016-rocky-mountain-music-sch...
  • "Nixon and the 2nd Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln: a Study in the Tyranny of Censorship" presented at the Tyranny & Music International Conference at Middle Tennessee State University. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 11/22/2015.
    http://www.mtsu.edu/music/pdf/tyrannyprogram.pdf
  • I was invited by the Juilliard School to give a talk about Vincent Persichetti as part of the Centenary Celebrations. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/20/2015.
  • "Persichetti's Lincoln Address and the Nixon Administration's Case for Censorship: Why the Text of Lincoln Caused an American Work of Art to be Rejected” presented at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society . Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 03/27/2015.
    http://www.unco.edu/rmsmt/RMSMT_Final_Schedule_201...
  • “Dallapiccola’s Nascent Twelve-Tone Practices” Presented at the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory held at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona . Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 04/04/2014.
  • A Re-examination of Persichetti's Early Works with a Focus on the Violin Sonata, Op. 15, No. 1 Presented at the Rocky Mountain Society of Music Theory held at Northern Arizona University. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 04/06/2013.
    http://www.colorado.edu/music/rmsmt/conference.htm...
  • "The Violin and Piano Music of Vincent Persichetti." The New Music Symposium at The Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam (Friday, 13 April). Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 04/13/2012.
    http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/Crane/125years/ne...
  • "Schubert and the Missing Thematic Reprise: Innovation or Subversion?" Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory held at the University of Northern Colorado in Greely, Colorado (Friday, 30 March & Saturday, 31 March 2012). Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 03/31/2012.
    http://www.colorado.edu/music/rmsmt/
  • "Arvo Pärt's Evolving Tintinnabuli Style" presented at the Arvo Part: Soundtrack of Age conference sponsored by the Royal Academy of Music at the Southbank Centre in London (24 to 25 September 2010). Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 09/24/2010.
    http://www.arvopart.info/
  • "Arvo Pärt's Evolving Tintinnabuli Style" presented at the "Arvo Pärt and Contemporary Spirituality Conference at Boston University. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 03/27/2010.
    http://www.bu.edu/apcsc/

Publications

  • M.S. Prostran, F.R. Nieto, and S.M. Vuckovic, editors, Cameron S. Metcalf, Merodean Huntsman, Gerry Garcia, Adam Kochanski, Michael Chikinda, Eugene Watanabe, Tristan Underwood, Fabiola Vanegas, Misty Smith, H. Steve White & Grzegorz Bulaj (2020). Mechanisms and New Targets for the Treatment of Chronic Pain (Ebook) “Music-enhanced Analgesia and Antiseizure Activities in Animal Models of Pain and Epilepsy: Towards Preclinical Studies Supporting Development of Digital Therapeutics and their Combinations with Pharmaceutical Drugs”. Frontiers in Phramacology, Frontiers in Neurology and Frontiers in Neuroscience. Published, 12/03/2020.
    https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/6425/m...
  • Michael Chikinda & Gordon Sly & Michael Callahan editors (2020). Twentieth- and Twentyfirst-Century Song Cycles: Analytical Pathways Toward Performance - Chapter 7: “Four Verses of Captain Lebyadkin: Nihilism and Transcendence in Late Shostakovich”. (pp. 18). Routledge. Published, 12/01/2020.
    https://www.routledge.com/Twentieth--and-Twenty-Fi...
  • Grzegorz Bulaj & Cameron Metcalf, Merodean Huntsman, Gerry Garcia, Adam K. Kochanski, Michael Chikinda, Eugene Watanabe, Tristan Underwood, Fabiola Vanegas, Misty D Smith, H. Steve White (2019). Music-Enhanced Analgesia and Antiseizure Activities in Animal Models of Pain and Epilepsy: Toward Preclinical Studies Supporting Development of Digital Therapeutics and Their Combinations With Pharmaceutical Drugs. Frontiers in Neurology. Vol. 10:227. Published, 03/27/2019.
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur...
  • Michael Chikinda (2018). "Lincoln, Persichetti and the 2nd Inauguration of Richard Nixon: a Study in Artistic Vision Versus Political Expediency". Music and Politics. Published, 02/20/2018.
  • "The Pedagogy of Early, Twentieth-Century Music: a Multi-Faceted Analysis of Scriabin's Op. 31, No. 4." College Music Symposium, Vol. 56 (Nov. 29, 2016):. Published, 11/29/2016.
    http://symposium.music.org/index.php?option=com_k2...
  • "Arvo Pärt's Evolving Tintinnabuli Style" Published in 'Perspectives of New Music', Vol. 49, No. 1 (Winter, 2011): 182-206. Published, 11/2011.
    http://www.perspectivesofnewmusic.org/