Welcome to The Classical Alternative! I’m Doug Shadle, a musicologist and professor at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

Orchestral music is my jam. Over the past decade, I’ve researched and written about the past, present, and future of American orchestras. And I have much more to share.

Since the pace of publication is far slower than the flow of ideas, I’ve decided to start a newsletter that fills in those gaps. Each issue will include material related to my ongoing research projects, my teaching at Vanderbilt, or current events in the world of classical music. And I’ll use this space to put the spotlight on other folks doing work that inspires me.

My ultimate goal is to tell new stories about Western classical music that disrupt elitist standard narratives. Hence The Classical Alternative—where the word “great” will always appear in scare quotes!

orchestra GIF

Other Material by Doug Shadle

Books:


Web:


Broadcast:

Subscribe to The Classical Alternative

The Stories about Classical Music You Don't Know but Should

People

Assoc. Prof, Musicology @VanderbiltU (ops my own) -- Florence Price (in progress) | Orchestrating the Nation (2016) | A Portrait in Four Movements (2019) | Dvorak's New World Sym. (2021)