Instructor Bio

Samuel T. Nemeth

Part-Time Instructor in the Department of Performing Arts – Music History & Culture

Education

• B.A., The College of New Jersey
  Music, American Political Communication
• M.A., Penn State University
  Musicology
• Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University
  Musicology

About

Dr. Samuel T. Nemeth ("nee-mith") teaches courses in music history and culture in the Performing Arts Department at Ohio Wesleyan University. He also serves as the Assistant Director of the OWU Summer Music Camp. He completed his Ph.D. in Musicology at Case Western Reserve University in Fall 2023, and began teaching here at OWU the following semester.

Nemeth's dissertation, "'Ces Magnifiques Instruments': Sound, Power, and Romantic Orchestral Technologies, 1789-1869," explored the often-violent associations of musical instruments in military and orchestral soundworlds during the Long Nineteenth Century in France. Transcending geographic boundaries and historical eras, Nemeth's research interests lie at the intersections between orchestration, politics, warfare, and trauma. He investigates the sounds of power and the power of sound.

His chapter on Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) is forthcoming in an edited volume from the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, and his book reviews appear in Notes and in Music & Letters. Nemeth has presented his research across the United States and Europe, including at four Annual Meetings of the American Musicological Society and at conferences of the Historic Brass Society (New York City), the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments and the Galpin Society (Oxford, U.K.), the France: Musiques, Cultures 1789-1918 network (Venice, Italy), and the International Society for the Research and Promotion of Wind Music (Bolzano, Italy).

At Case Western, Nemeth received the Graduate Dean's Instructional Excellence Award in Spring 2023 for his service as an Instructor of Record for History of Rock and Roll, which he taught for three semesters. He also served as President, Co-President, and Vice President of Events and Finance for the Music Graduate Student Association (MGSA). In Spring 2024, Nemeth received the Dr. Dorothy Pijan Student Leadership Award for Outstanding Graduate Organization Officer. Nemeth also held Research Assistantships in the Archives of The Cleveland Orchestra (2019-2020) and on the Education Team at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2020-2021).

In May 2018, Nemeth earned his Master of Arts in Music with Track in Musicology from the Pennsylvania State University. In 2016, Nemeth was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and earned a Bachelor of Arts, graduating summa cum laude, from The College of New Jersey, with a double major in Music and American Political Communication (self-designed). At TCNJ, Nemeth also served as the Founder and President of the TCNJ Pep Band.

Nemeth remains an active trumpet player, serving as the trumpet Section Leader (and occasional guest conductor!) of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble at Ohio Wesleyan. He also serves the congregation at Asbury United Methodist Church in Delaware. He has studied with Mr. Loren Toplitz of the Cleveland Institute of Music, the late Dr. Gary Fienberg at The College of New Jersey, and the late Mr. Christian Jaudes of the Juilliard School. Nemeth lives in Delaware with his wife, Katie, a nationally-certified American Sign Language Interpreter. Katie also sings in Sweet Adelines women's barbershop choruses.