Katya Ermolaeva, Ph.D.
Musicologist, Choral Director,
Music Educator, Music Editor
Russian Music Scholarship
Dr. Ermolaeva's primary research focus is the composer Sergei Prokofiev and his works for stage and and screen. Ermolaeva is particularly enjoys bringing her historical research to life through concert and stage performances. Her co-edited critical edition of the first version of Prokofiev's opera "War and Peace" was premiered by the Welsh National Opera in 2018 under director Sir David Pountney and conductor Tomáš Hanus.
In 2018-2019, she collaborated with the conductor Thomas Dausgaard in setting Russian & Old Church Slavonic texts to Dausgaard's arrangement of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" for chorus and orchestra.
Dr. Ermolaeva is currently working on an a critical edition of Prokofiev's film score to Sergei Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible" for chorus and orchestra to be performed with simultaneous projection of the film.
Published Research on Russian Music
"Audiovisal Montage in Ivan the Terrible: Understanding Prokofiev's Film Score Through Eisensteinian Sound-Image Theory"
Published in: Rethinking Prokofiev, edited by Rita McAllister and Christina Guillaumier. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
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Abstract: For Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein, sound was equally as important as image in the language of film, and composer Sergei Prokofiev was the "most wonderful film composer." In this article, Ermolaeva provides a close-reading of a scene in "Ivan the Terrible" in which Eisenstein's theory of audio-visual montage can be observed.
"The Ivan Trichord: Mediaeval Music Images in Prokofiev and Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible"
Published in: Orthodoxy, Music, Politics and Art in Russia and Eastern Europe, edited by Ivan Moody and Ivana Medić. London and Belgrade: Centre for Russian Music, Goldsmiths, University of London and Institute of Musicology, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2020.
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Abstract: In this article, Ermolaeva reveals the musical connection between Prokofiev's film score to "Ivan the Terrible" and medieval Slavic liturgical music through the musical kernel of the trichord, which can be heard throughout Prokofiev's music and the liturgical borrowings heard on the film's sound track.
American Children's Music Scholarship
Dr. Ermolaeva began her career as an early childhood music educator when she became a licensed Music Together© instructor in 2014. Since 2017, Dr. Ermolaeva has taught at the Music Together Princeton Lab School (in Hopewell and Princeton, NJ). She became a Certified Level I Music Together Instructor in September 2018.
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Bringing together her training as a musicologist and her experience in early childhood music education, Dr. Ermolaeva became one of the founding members of the Music Together Song Advisory Board in 2018, serving as a musicological consultant and providing guidance on the inclusion of traditional children's songs in the Music Together curriculum.
Dr. Ermolaeva's research explores cultural appropriation (particularly of Native American music) in American children's music and the racist origins of many American children's songs in blackface minstrelsy. Dr. Ermolaeva published her findings on "I've Been Working on the Railroad" in her article "Dinah, Put Down Your Horn: Blackface Minstrel Songs Don't Belong in Children's Music Class" - which now has received over 250,000 views on Medium.com.
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Dr. Ermolaeva served as the keynote speaker the the annual Music Together© Conference and has presented her research on children's music as a guest speaker at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of Northern Kentucky, and at the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Dr. Ermolaeva would be delighted to give a presentation or lead a workshop on Anti-racism in Children's Music at your next conference or professional development event. Please contact her at contact@katyaermolaeva.com to enquire.
"Dinah, Put Down Your Horn: Blackface Minstrel Songs Don't Belong in Music Class."
Published in Medium.com on October 30, 2019. ​
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Abstract: Music educators throughout the United States are starting to remove songs like “Oh! Susanna,” “Jimmy Crack Corn,” and “Camptown Races” from their lesson plans due to their racist roots in blackface minstrelsy. While the offensiveness of dressing in blackface is widely acknowledged, the ubiquity of blackface minstrel songs, particularly in American children's music, is relatively unknown. Blackface minstrel songs, like "I've Been Working on the Railroad," must be recognized for what they are and removed from children’s music programs if we want to move forward toward justice and equity as a society.