Allison Wente

Dr. Wente has presented her work at several regional and national conferences including the Music and the Moving Image conference in New York City, the Society for Ethnomusicology annual meeting, the American Musicological Society annual meeting, and three annual meetings of the Society for Music Theory. She has given invited lectures at Cornell University, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Lycoming College, has participated in a roundtable discussion at Cornell University on "The Analog and the Digital," and has presented her work at Harvard University. In addition, she has given presentations at meetings of Music Theory Southeast, the South Central Society for Music Theory, and the Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society.

2025

• Society for Music Theory/ American Musicological Society Annual      
  Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, November “Reviving the Ghost in the Machine: The Steinway Spirio and the New Era of Mechanical Performance”  

• Invited Lecture, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Irna Priore Music and Culture Lecture Series, Greebsoro, April. "Reviving the Ghost in the Machine: The Steinway Spirio and the New Era of Mechanical Performance.”

2018

• Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, San Antonio, November “Clearing the Bench: Absolute Music and The Player Piano”
• Society for Music Theory / American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, San Antonio, November “A Comeback Role: Nostalgia and the Player Piano in TV and Film” Lightning Talk Sponsored by the AMS Music and Media Study Group and SMT Film and Multimedia Interest Group
• Music Theory Southeast, Columbia, SC, March "Clearing the Bench: Absolute Music and The Player Piano"

2017

• Invited Lecture, Lycoming College, Scholars Honors Seminar, Williamsport, November. “Mechanical Styles: Highbrow/Lowbrow Borrowing and the Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life.’”
• The Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Denver, October “‘The Musical Marvel of the Age’: Selling Mechanical Labor in the Machine Age”
• Invited Lecture, Cornell University, “Ghosts in the Machine” Conference, Ithaca, May. “Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff… Plays Rachmaninoff?: A Sonic Comparison of his C? Minor Prelude on Roll and Record.”
• “Ghosts in the Machine” Conference Roundtable: “The Analog and the Digital,” Cornell University, Ithaca, May 
• Music Colloquium, The State University of New York at Fredonia, May “Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff... Plays Rachmaninoff?: A Sonic Comparison of his C? Minor Prelude on Roll and Record”

2016

• “Zweig and Strauss: Artistic Collaboration in a Time of War,” Panel Discussion, The State University of New York at Fredonia, October
• “Keyboard Networks” Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, March “Phantom Fingers at Work: Selling the Player Piano in a Changing Musical Marketplace”

2015

• Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, St. Louis, November “Music Imitating Machines, Machines Imitating Humans: Industrialization and the Three Kinds of Mechanical Music”
• South Central Society for Music Theory, New Orleans, March “Music Imitating Machines, Machines Imitating Humans: Industrialization and the Three Kinds of Mechanical Music”
• Harvard Graduate Music Forum Conference, Cambridge, February “Music Imitating Machines, Machines Imitating Humans: Industrialization and the Three Kinds of Mechanical Music”

2014

• Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, November “Stockpiling Memories: The Player Piano, The Phonograph, and Bergson’s Two Modalities of Musical Memory”

2013

• Music and the Moving Image National Conference, NYU, June “Mechanizing Nostalgia: The Music Box in Film”
• Graduate Association of Music and Musicians at the University of Texas Annual Conference, Austin, March “The Player Piano and the Specter of Performance”
• UT-Austin Association of Graduate Ethnomusicology and Musicology Students, Austin, February “Mechanizing Nostalgia: The Music Box in Film”
• Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society, San Antonio, March “Performing the Uncanny: The Player Piano and the Specter of Performance”