James H. Chenevert, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Music

Chair, Department of Music & Drama

Dr. James H. Chenevert is Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music & Drama at Texas Woman’s University.  His teaching assignments include second year music theory and aural skills, counterpoint, form and analysis, pedagogy of theory, and composition.  Prior to his appointment to TWU in 2002, he taught at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1987 to 2002, and served as Chair of its Music Department from 1991-2002.  He received the Doctor of Philosophy in Music Theory from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his dissertation comprising a translation and commentary on Simon Sechter’s treatise: Die grundsätze der musikalischen Komposition (The Principles of Musical Composition) of 1853-4.  Dr. Chenevert holds the Master of Arts in Music Theory and the Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 

Dr. Chenevert is a composer who has written works for solo voice, chorus, piano, instrumental chamber ensembles, and electronic instruments. Allegretto (2003), for flute and piano, was performed at the La Crosse New Music Festival in November, 2007.  Following its premiere performance in March, 2006 in Madrid, Spain, Dr. Chenevert’s recent composition, Chanson des Enfants, for guitar duet, was recorded on the Mapleshade Records label with guitarists Carlo Pezzimenti and Aaron Cotton.  Sidelight, for woodwind quintet and piano, was composed for choreographer Jeff Kaplan’s dance composition of the same name and premiered in December, 2005 at TWU with score recorded by the Zephyr Winds.  Other recent works include  Ballade  (2007), for solo piano, Fantasy for Clarinet and Two Guitars (2006); Fantasy for Guitar, premiered in April, 2005 at TWU by Aaron Cotton; Allegretto, for flute and piano, premiered in September, 2003 at TWU by Pamela Youngblood and Rose Marie Chisholm; Waiting, and Men Sit, choral arrangements from the collection Ten Songs, with a premiere performance in May, 2003 by the Alverno College Chamber Singers; and Ten Songs, for soprano and piano, set to poems published in Inside/Out, Alverno College’s literary arts magazine and premiered in March, 2002 at Alverno College, with soprano Brygida Bziukiewicz and Dr. Chenevert at the piano. 

Dr. Chenevert serves as a visiting evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Music.  He is a charter member (1985) of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers, and served on its board of directors from 1990 to 1997, and as editor of its newsletter from 1991 to 1997.  He also served on the board of directors of the professional contemporary music ensemble Present Music, based in Milwaukee, from 1989 to 2000.  Other professional memberships include the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), College Music Society, Society for Music Theory, Texas Association of Music Schools, and the Texas Music Educators Association.