Delvyn Case

Professor of Music
Music Director of The Great Woods Symphony Orchestra

Contact

Phone: 508-286-3588

Website: https://www.delvyncase.com/

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Musical Composition, 2001
B.A. summa cum laude, Yale College, Music, 1997

About

Hello, and thanks for visiting the music department at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.

I’m a composer, conductor, scholar, performer, concert producer, and educator based in Boston. I’m also a Wheaton parent – which says a lot about how much I love Wheaton and how much I believe in our extraordinary community.

I began teaching at Wheaton in 2010, after having spent a year teaching graduate student composers at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.    Before then, I taught  undergraduates at Boston College, Northeastern University, and Eastern Nazarene College.

People often ask me what kind of music I listen to, and the answer is simple: everything I can! Though my formal training is in the Western classical tradition, I compose, study, perform, and write about all kinds of music.   On a given day at Wheaton, I might conduct an orchestra rehearsal,  give a lecture on hip-hop, and teach a songwriting course. Then I might go home to work on my book on popular music, or put on an outreach concert at my daughter’s school, or try to find inspiration for my new string quartet.     (You can read a lot more about my professional activities, as well as my Artistic Statement and Teaching Statement, on my website.

My breadth of interest and experience helps me work with the wide variety of students I encounter on campus.  Most first-year student musicians have experience as instrumentalists and/or singers. But because of our diverse array of courses and performing opportunities, they soon expand their skills and knowledge in a wide variety of directions.  In recent years, my students have had their music played by our orchestra, performed their original songs at the largest folk festival in New England, and written papers on everything from Kanye West to Jesus Christ Superstar.

I’m passionate about the power of musical study to contribute to a well-rounded liberal arts education. I’m also excited about the way the skills gained in a liberal arts education make my students into better musicians.   Wheaton is a place that celebrates and supports the kind of interdisciplinary work that expands their intellectual horizons and nourishes their musical lives.

Professional work

A complete list of compositions, recordings, lectures, papers, writings, and performances is available at https://www.delvyncase.com/.

 

Creative and Academic Interests

  • Composition
  • Conducting (Orchestral and Choral)
  • Popular Music
  • Improvisation
  • Songwriting
  • African-American Music
  • Music and Christianity
  • Music and Social Justice
  • Outreach and Community Engagement

Courses Taught

  • Great Woods Symphony Orchestra
  • Music Theory III: Applied Theory and Musicianship
  • Introduction to Composition
  • Introduction to Songwriting
  • History of Popular Music
  • Rock of Ages: Images of Jesus in Popular Music (First-Year Seminar)
  • American Popular Song (Senior Seminar)

Student Work

Since I have been at Wheaton (2010), my students have written original music that has been performed by our orchestra, visiting professional ensembles, and – in the spring of 2018 – by the world-famous Borromeo Quartet.   Student songwriters have performed their music publicly on campus – in solo and group shoes – as well as at the 2017 New England Folk Festival (Mansfield, MA).   Student instrumentalists and singers have performed concertos and arias with our orchestra every year.

 

 

Department(s)

Music

Program(s)

Office

Watson 210