Maxine Fawcett-Yeske, Associate Professor of Music at Nebraska Wesleyan University, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Music (with emphasis in Voice and Sound Reinforcement-Recording) from the University of Colorado at Denver, a Master of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a Ph.D. in Music/Musicology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Her doctoral dissertation, entitled “The Fuging Tune in America, 1770-1820: An Analytical Study,” is a genre study involving the analysis of over 1,300 sacred music compositions by composers from the Colonial and Federal eras in America.  Her research (under the direction of Karl Kroeger) revealed the fuging tune as a significant part of a young nation’s musical flowering, holding significant keys to America’s cultural history and identity.  Fawcett-Yeske’s dissertation earned the University of Colorado Outstanding Dissertation in the Humanities Award in 1997.

Prior to joining the faculty at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Dr. Fawcett-Yeske taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.  In addition to her work with college students, she has also taught elementary school music, private voice and piano students of all ages, and specialized classes at Senior Centers.  Dr. Fawcett-Yeske has been nominated for several teaching awards throughout her career.  At Nebraska Wesleyan University, she received the Margaret J. Prouty Award in 2003—an award presented in recognition of “the pursuit of excellence in teaching” and for “making a distinct difference in the intellectual lives of students through effective and creative instruction and course development.”

Publications authored by Dr. Fawcett-Yeske include an article entitled, “Stylistic Development in the Fuging Tunes of William Billings,” published in the Spring 1996 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning, and an article on the medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen entitled, “Aspects of Allegory in Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum,” published in the Spring 1997 issue of Early Music Colorado Quarterly.  She is the co-author/editor of Volume 15 in the Music of the New American Nation Series (Garland Publishing): Two Connecticut Composers: The Collected Works of Eliakim Doolittle (1772-1850) and Timothy Olmsted (1759-1848).  She is also a contributing author in Women and Music in America Since 1900: An Encyclopedia (Oryx Press).  Dr. Fawcett-Yeske has written program annotations for the Colorado Music Festival, where she has also been a featured speaker in the Talks Under the Tent Pre-Concert Lecture Series, and she has written program notes for the Lincoln Civic Orchestra and the Lincoln Civic Choir.

Dr. Fawcett-Yeske has presented her research internationally at the College Music Society conference in Limerick, Ireland in 2001 and at the Society for American Music meeting in Toronto in 2000; nationally at the Religion and Popular Culture Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2001, and the Sonneck Society for American Music conference in Washington DC in 1996; and at numerous regional meetings of the College Music Society and the American Musicological Society.  She has served as co-chair of the American Music in American Schools Interest Group in the national organization of the Society for American Music.  In addition to these affiliations, she is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda (National Music Honor Society), Society for Integrative Studies, the Society for Ethnomusicology, Delta Kappa Gamma, the National Association of Music Educators (MENC), and the Nebraska Music Educators Association (NMEA).

As an ethnomusicologist, Dr. Fawcett-Yeske continues to explore her passion for Native American music and culture.  Most recently her research and fieldwork have taken her to Alaska to explore the music and the culture of the Tlingits in the Inside Passage.  The gift of a beautiful native flute from a close friend inspired her to learn the instrument, and she has recently joined the International Native American Flute Association, participating in area flute circles when time allows.

Maxine Fawcett-Yeske’s commitment to global musics and to promoting cultural diversity on the Wesleyan campus motivated her to establish the World Music Concert Series in 2001.  By securing funding through the NWU Wolf Fund for Diversity Education, the Nebraska Arts Council, and from private sources, she has hosted numerous performances and workshops on campus and in the community, including Gamelan: Son of the Good Earth (Javanese ensemble), Michael Cortez (Native American flutist), The Turfmen (traditional Irish music), Sandip Burman (north Indian, tabla), Ladysmith Black Mambazo (South African vocalists—clinic and conversation at the Lied Center), and The Wild Clover Band (traditional Irish music).

While teaching, research, and writing are typically at the forefront of her activities nowadays, Maxine Fawcett-Yeske does continue to be active as a musician.  Her early career included performances in vocal jazz groups and master classes with Billy Taylor, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, and Bud Poindexter.  She has performed in choral ensembles with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and the Springfield (Massachusetts) Symphony Orchestra (as part of the Berkshire Choral Festival), and has done commercial recordings for several studios in Denver, Colorado.  While in Missouri, Fawcett-Yeske founded and conducted the Kirksville Community Chorus, a fifty-member ensemble comprised of singers from around the northeast Missouri region.  She is inspired by her newly-found interest in the harpsichord, and Dr. Fawcett-Yeske continues her involvement in church music and music ministry.