Biography

Miriam Brack Webber, PhD currently serves as Director of the Honors Program and Associate Professor of Music at Bemidji State University. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music from Ball State University in Bassoon Performance, and Master’s of Music from McGill University and the University of Kansas in Bassoon Performance and Music Theory, respectively, and a PhD candidate at the University of Kansas. Her dissertation research investigated narrative processes within Shostakovich’s works as these processes relate to Soviet literary theory. Other research interests include emotion, pedagogy and performance studies. She has presented several papers at university events and international conferences.

In 2019, Dr. Webber co-founded Silent Voices Project, a large-scale project formed to help create opportunities for women and non-binary composers engaging in compositional pursuits of writing, publishing, performing, and recording music for chamber woodwinds. Silent Voices Project has commissioned and premiered new works at a number of national and international conferences, including those hosted by the International Double Reed Society, International Clarinet Association, Music By Women, and SHE: Festival of Women in Music.

Currently principal bassoonist of the Bemidji Symphony and Heartland Symphony Orchestras, Dr. Webber has performed with orchestras across the country, including Duluth Superior Symphony, Fargo Moorhead Opera, Northern Lights Music Festival, Simphonietta Memphis, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Muncie Symphony, Kokomo Symphony, Southeast Kansas Symphony, Fort Hays Symphony, Springfield Symphony, St. Joseph Symphony, and Springfield-Drury Civic Orchestras. She was named Region 2 Arts Council Artist Fellow for 2022–2023.