Melissa Hoag Assistant Professor of Music Theory Music Theory Program Coordinator Contact hoag@oakland.edu (248) 370-4153

Melissa Hoag is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Oakland University, where she has been coordinator of the music theory area since Fall 2007. Dr. Hoag holds a Ph.D. in music theory with doctoral minors in piano performance and music history, as well as a master’s degree in music theory from Indiana University. She also holds a bachelor of music degree from Drake University, where she was a National Alumni Scholar. Prior to her appointment at Oakland, Dr. Hoag held a full-time position in music theory at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI).

Dr. Hoag’s research interests include voice leading and rhythm and meter in Brahms and music theory pedagogy. She has presented her research at international, national, and regional conferences, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the journals Music Theory Online, Dutch Journal of Music Theory, Gamut, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy-Online, the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, and Semiotica. As a graduate student, Dr. Hoag received two awards for her research: Best Graduate Student Paper from Music Theory Southeast (2005), and the Dorothy Payne award for best graduate student paper from the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic (2007).

Aside from various courses within the undergraduate core curriculum in music theory and aural skills, Dr. Hoag teaches upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses on the following topics: analytical techniques of post-1900 music, form and analysis, Schenkerian analysis, counterpoint, and rhythm and meter. In addition, Dr. Hoag frequently engages in advanced independent studies with outstanding undergraduate and graduate students; topics have included analyses of works by Clara Schumann, Brahms, and Beethoven, as well as advanced counterpoint, advanced Schenkerian analysis, and music theory pedagogy.

Dr. Hoag is a founding member of the editorial board for the exciting new online companion to the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, and serves the discipline annually as reader (2007-2010) and table leader (2011-2012) for the College Board’s Advanced Placement exam in music theory. Additionally, she was recently elected to the office of secretary for Music Theory Midwest, and serves the College Music Society at the national level as a member of the Music Theory Advisory Board and as the music theory representative to the Student Advisory Council.