Simon Music Center, M325E
Education
- Ph.D, Music Theory, Columbia University, 2021
- M.Phil., Music Theory, Columbia University, 2019
- M.A., Music Theory, McGill University, 2016
- B.A., Music, Economics, Vassar College, 2011
Toru Momii (he/him) is a visiting assistant professor of music theory at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Momii’s research focuses on interculturality in twenty-first century music, the politics of knowledge production in music theory, performance analysis, gagaku, and popular music in the United States and Japan. His work on gesture and tonality in shō performance appears in Music Theory Online.
He has presented his research at the annual meetings of the Society for Music Theory, American Musicological Society, and Society for Ethnomusicology, the Congress of the International Musicological Society, and Analytical Approaches to World Music. His research has been awarded the SMT-40 Dissertation Fellowship by the Society for Music Theory and the Junior Fellowship in Japan Studies from the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
Momii currently serves as a faculty affiliate of Project Spectrum, a coalition of graduate students of color committed to addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in music academia. He is also cofounder of the Engaged Music Theory Working Group, junior scholars committed to cultivating inclusive research, teaching, and service in music theory.
Momii earned a Ph.D. in music theory from Columbia University, an M.A. in music theory from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, and a B.A. in music and economics from Vassar College (Phi Beta Kappa).
Prior to pursuing academic research, he worked in the investment banking industry in Tokyo, Japan.