Daphne TanProfile page
Associate Professor
Faculty of Music
- Associate ProfessorFaculty of Music
BIO
Daphne Tan is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Toronto. Her research explores questions about music and the mind, with methodologies and perspectives from the history of music theory and cognitive science. She has published articles on the theories of Ernst Kurth in Music Theory Spectrum (2020; for which she received the Society for Music Theory’s Emerging Scholar Award), the Journal of Music Theory (2017; awarded the David Kraehenbuehl Prize), and Theoria (2015), and she is editor and co-translator (with Christoph Neidhöfer) of the first English-language translation of Kurth’s Music Psychology (Routledge, 2022; awarded the Society of Music Theory's Citation of Special Merit). A more recent project examines the interplay of music theory and Western esotericism in the writings of Victor Zuckerkandl, with chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory (2022) and Explorations in Music and Esotericism (Rochester, 2023). Tan has also conducted perceptual studies related to harmonic function, emotion and music, diatonic modes, expressive performance, and musical form. This work can be read in Music Perception (2021, 2017, 2013), Empirical Musicology Review (2023), Musicae Scientiae (2021), Psychology of Music (2020), and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies (2009). Tan’s research has been supported by the University of Toronto Connaught Fund and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Prior to joining the University of Toronto in 2017, she was an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and an affiliate member of the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University (2013–2017).
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- Associate Professor of Music TheoryUniversity of Toronto, Faculty of Music, Toronto, Canada2023 - present
- Assistant Professor of Music TheoryUniversity of Toronto, Faculty of Music, Toronto, Canada2017 - 2023
- Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Affiliate Member, Cognitive Science ProgramIndiana University Jacobs School of Music, United States2013 - 2017
- Visiting Instructor of Music Theory and Aural SkillsOberlin College Conservatory of Music, United States2012 - 2013
DEGREES
- Ph.D., Music TheoryEastman School of Music, University of Rochester, United States2013
- M.A., Music TheorySchulich School of Music, McGill University, Canada2007
- B.Mus., Clarinet Performance (Honours) and Music Theory (Honours)McGill University, Montreal, Canada2005
- Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, Piano PerformanceRoyal Conservatory of Music, Canada2001
AVAILABILITY
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Collaborative projects
- Membership of an advisory committee
- Media enquiries
INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
- Data Sciences Institute (DSI)