Cynthia Folio

Cynthia Folio is Professor of Music Studies at Temple University (since 1990), where she was honored with the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1996 and the Creative Achievement Award in 2012. She teaches theory and composition courses at all levels. Before her Temple days, she taught theory and flute at Texas Christian University (1980—1990) and played piccolo and flute in the Fort Worth Symphony, Opera, and Ballet Orchestras.

Folio earned an M.A. (1979) and Ph.D. (1985) in music theory and a Performer's Certificate in flute (1977) from the Eastman School of Music. She studied theory and composition with Joseph Schwantner, Robert Morris, and Larry Nelson and flute with Bonita Boyd and Emily Swartley Newbold. Her undergraduate school, West Chester University, granted her a Distinguished Alumni Award (1989). Other awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, composer residency at the Yaddo Artist Colony and at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, nineteen consecutive ASCAP Standard Awards, winner in the 1994 and 1999 New Music Delaware Competitions, two winning entries in the National Flute Association Newly Published Music Competition (in 1994 and 2012), and grants from Meet the Composer and the American Music Center. She has received commissions from the Mendelssohn Club, Relí¢che, Network for New Music, Hildegard Chamber Players, Astral Artistic Servieces, Anna Crusis Women's Choir, PA Music Teachers Association, Pi Kappa Lambda, SAI, and others. She has served as guest composer at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Festival of Women Composers, West Chester University Composer Symposium, the Kerry Walker/Julius Baker Masterclass, and the University of New Mexico Composer Symposium.

As a theorist, Cynthia Folio has published music theory articles, reviews, and chapters in books, on topics that focus primarily on the analysis of jazz, the analysis of contemporary music, and the relationship between analysis and performance. She served for three years on the editorial board of Music Theory Spectrum and still serves on the board of ex tempore. She was vice-president of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic (MTSMA) for two years and the Treasurer of the Society for Music Theory for four years. She chaired the program committee for MTSMA for the 2011 conference. She was one of the leaders in the Mannes Institute for Advanced Studies in Music Theory Summer Institute in 2008 on the topic, “Jazz Meets Pop” and attended the Decennial Anniversary Celebration of the Mannes Institute in 2011 on the topic, “A Decade of Thinking Together.”

As a flutist, she performs regularly as a soloist and in several groups in the Philadelphia area, including Latin Fiesta, David's Harp, the Silver and Wood Trio, the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, and the Temple contemporary music ensemble, Glaux (with Jeffrey Solow, Charles Abramovic, and others). In 1999, she was invited to Tí¼bingen, Germany to perform in CAMP '99 (Creative Arts and Music Pool), an international festival for free improvisation.