Scholar
Bassoonist • Educator • Activist • Scholar
Midori Samson recently completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied bassoon performance and social work/social welfare. She was a Collins Graduate Fellow, the Mead Witter School of Music’s highest distinction. Her dissertation research investigated how musicians can operationalize social work principles as anti-racist, anti-oppressive action. The document introduces Recentered Music Learning, a theoretical framework for musicians based on social work’s commitment to social justice; it explores classical music’s issues of white supremacy and oppression and uses social welfare theory to recommend methods for recentering curricula away from harmful pedagogical practices. She has been invited to present related research at the Orpheus Instituut (Belgium), Hawaii University Conferences, Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities Conference, Meg Quigley Symposium, and several universities across the USA. The recipient of the Dean’s Creative Research Fellowship at the University of Texas, she has received numerous other grants and awards to pursue her work. Her writing is frequently published in Trade Winds Ensemble’s online Journal, where she has written about pedagogy, social work, social justice, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Midori holds degrees from The Juilliard School and The University of Texas at Austin.
