Samuel T. Nemeth is a PhD Candidate in Musicology whose research investigates the intersections between sound, politics, orchestration, warfare, and trauma. His dissertation, “Power, Empire, and Acoustic Technology, France 1789–1869,” is being written under the direction of Dr. Francesca Brittan. It explores the nineteenth-century Romantic orchestra’s status as a national political collective, its function as a type of sonic weaponry, and its carrying of the sonic markers of empire.
Samuel has presented papers at Annual Meetings of the American Musicological Society, at conferences of the France: Musiques, Cultures, 1789–1918 research network, and at the July 2022 meeting of the International Society for the Research and Promotion of Wind Music. He has served as a Graduate Affiliate in Case Western’s Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities and has participated in the College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Seminar.
Samuel has held research assistantships in the Archives at The Cleveland Orchestra and at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has served as an Instructor of Record for Case Western’s “History of Rock and Roll” course. For his teaching, he was recently awarded the Graduate Dean’s Instructional Excellence Award from Case Western’s School of Graduate Studies.
In 2018, Samuel graduated with his Master of Arts in Music with track in Musicology from Pennsylvania State University and in 2016, Samuel graduated summa cum laude from The College of New Jersey, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Music and American Political Communication. At TCNJ, Sam was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
Samuel remains an active trumpet player, and gave a recital entitled “Echoes of Times, People, and Places” in September 2021. He has studied with Loren Toplitz of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Dr. Gary Fienberg of The College of New Jersey, and Christian Jaudes of the Juilliard School. In rare bouts of free time, Samuel enjoys playing pick-up soccer with friends and composing or arranging for piano and guitar.