Rachel Lumsden

Rachel Lumsden is Associate Professor of Music Theory. Her research interests include experimental music, music by women composers, and issues of gender, race, and sexuality in contemporary British and American concert music and musicals. Her peer-reviewed articles and essays have been published in American Music, Black Music Research Journal, Feminist Studies, Music Theory Online (2017, 2020, and 2025), Music Theory Spectrum,and Studies in American Humor. Her article “Music Theory for the ‘Weaker Sex’: Oliveria Prescott’s Columns for The Girl’s Own Paper” won an Outstanding Publication award from the Society for Music Theory.

She is co-editor (with Jeffrey Swinkin) of The Norton Guide to Teaching Music Theory (2018). Together with Ellie Hisama, she co-edited volume 46 of Theory and Practice (2021), a special issue with eleven essays that examine structures of power in the discipline of music theory. (Two articles from this issue have received SMT publication awards.)

Her essays appear in numerous edited collections, including the Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory, Oxford Handbook of Variation and Variation Techniques, Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers, Here for the Hearing: Analyzing the Music in Musical Theater, and more.

Her work with the Society for Music Theory includes serving as co-chair of the CoRE committee, co-chair of the Work and Family Interest Group, and member of the CoRE, FIGE, and Student Presentation Award Committees.

She earned a PhD in music theory and a doctoral certificate in women’s and gender studies from the CUNY Graduate Center, and MM degrees in music theory and flute performance from Queens College.