Esther Morgan-Ellis, Ph.D.
Area(s) of Expertise: Music in Silent-Era Film Exhibition, Community Singing, Music in WWI, Tin Pan Alley, Appalachian Music
Overview
Dr. Esther Morgan-Ellis studies and writes about participatory music-making practices of the past and present. Her historical work on the US community singing movement is represented in the monograph Everybody Sing! Community Singing in the American Picture Palace (2018), the edited collection Musical Meaning and Interpretation (2025), and journal articles for Musical Quarterly, Music & Letters, American Music, Journal of the Society for American Music, and Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. She has also published studies of contemporary participatory practices including old-time revivalism (Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Journal of Music, Technology and Education), hymn singing (Journal of Music, Health, and Well-being), and Sacred Harp singing (Frontiers in Psychology, International Journal of Community Music, Choral Journal). She recently coedited the Oxford Handbook of Community Singing (2024).