Music theorist joins ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre

The School of Music, Dance and Theatre welcomes Lindsey Reymore as an assistant professor of music theory beginning fall 2022.

“I am particularly excited about the possibilities for transdisciplinary collaborations in both research and pedagogy at ASU — working with colleagues in other departments and schools to create new approaches that integrate and transcend the possibilities offered by any one discipline of study,” Reymore said. “This includes working closely with performers and composers, practitioners across the performing arts and with researchers in fields like psychology, statistics and neuroscience.”

Reymore said she is also looking forward to joining ASU's interdisciplinary SAMBA (Science of Art, Music and Brain Activity) research group, composed of faculty and students interested in the science of music perception.

She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University in Montreal working with the ACTOR Project (Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration), a global network of musicians and scientists working on projects related to musical timbre and orchestration.

“We are delighted that Dr. Lindsey Reymore will join us this fall,” said Heather Landes, director of the ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre. “Dr. Reymore’s experience as an oboist, her research interests in timbre and orchestration, and her interdisciplinary projects all complement our music theory program. Our students will benefit from her knowledge and the course offerings she plans to develop.”

Reymore’s research applies interdisciplinary methodologies, using approaches from behavioral psychology and data analytics in combination with musical analysis. Her work has been presented at national and international conferences and has been published in journals including Psychomusicology, Musicae Scientiae, Frontiers in Psychology, PLOS One and Human Technology. She was awarded the 2018 Early Career Researcher Award by the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences in Music for work on timbre semantics.

Her areas of specialization include timbre and orchestration, which historically have rarely been studied in music theory.

“In the past two years as a postdoctoral fellow with the ACTOR Project, I have been collaborating with experts in these areas from around the world,” Reymore said. “I look forward to integrating recent discoveries and approaches related to timbre, texture and instrumentation into the music theory curriculum and to developing new courses on these topics.” 

Reymore discovered the field of music cognition after completing her master’s degree in performance at the University of Texas in Austin. Her doctoral program at Ohio State University allowed her to pursue research using methods from a wide range of disciplines while she developed her teaching skills. 

As a performer, Reymore said her study of music theory deeply enriched her skills and experiences as a musician. She hopes to assist students to discover how their classroom experiences can best complement their own musical experiences, whether as a performer, composer or educator.

“I am committed to creating opportunities for student research in music theory and cognition, and am especially looking forward to working with my colleagues in the theory department on developing the music cognition lab at ASU,” Reymore said. “My goal is to guide students in developing the skills to creatively apply what they learn in music theory and aural skills in their everyday musical lives.”

Reymore has served on the faculty at Vanderbilt University and Belmont University and as principal oboe with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra and the Murfreesboro Symphony Orchestra.