Daniel Akira Stadnicki
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International Drum Kit Studies Conference
(Sept. 9-10, 2022)
Boston university
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Co-organized with Dr. Virginia Wayman Davis (Professor of Music Education, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) + Dr. Gareth Dylan Smith (Assistant Professor of Music Education,
Boston University).
bio
Daniel Akira Stadnicki holds a Ph.D. in Music from the University of Alberta, where he taught courses in both World and Popular Music Studies. With the support of a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Daniel's dissertation research explored musical narratives of Iranian Baha'i persecution, focusing on the global aesthetics of 'Persianness' in the Baha'i Faith and the founding of the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education in Tehran. In addition to teaching drumming masterclasses across Western Canada, he currently directs the Percussion Ensemble and teaches drum kit, percussion techniques, and samba bateria batucada at MacEwan University. Daniel was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University (2020-2022) and outgoing Program Manager for DIALOGUES (Cape Breton University): an international research initiative that seeks to decolonize music, sound, and dance studies. Daniel performs regularly with a range of award-winning Alberta artists and appears on recent releases by Farhad Khosravi, T. Buckley, Dana Wylie, Braden Gates, Daniel Gervais, among many others. He has published on drumming topics in the Journal of Popular Music Education, The Drummer's Journal, and co-edited both the 'Cambridge Companion to the Drum Kit' (2021) and a special issue on drumming for the Journal of Popular Music Education (2021). Daniel proudly endorses Turkish Cymbals (TruRoots Cymbals), YC Drums, and Headhunters Drumsticks and Creations.
Educator
I am a drummer, world popular music educator, and facilitator for aspiring music-makers. I aim to bridge the often-separated domains of music research, writing, and performance, offer alternatives to the idea of the 'world music' ensemble, and emphasize critical and collaborative engagements with contemporary popular music in order to reflect the needs of music students in the 21st century.​
Forthcoming and select publications
2020
“Insights of the Talk (An Elephant in the Room: Tracking an Awkward Anthropology).” Collaborative response to Dr. Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston. With Rana El Kadi, Rajat Nayyar, and Alize Arican.Emergent Futures CoLab. Stable URL: https://www.urgentemergent.org/talking-uncertainty/kazubowskihouston.
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2020
Stadnicki, D.A. "PS 752: The Sounds of Memorialization." (Blog post for the Canadian Society for Traditional Music).
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2020
Stadnicki, D.A. “Shake, Rattle, and Rolls: Drumming and the Aesthetics of Americana” (chapter contribution for The Cambridge Companion to the Drum Kit).
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2019
Stadnicki, D.A. "Hidden Words and Sounds: Tracing Iranian Legacies and Traumas in the Music of the Baha'is of North America." PhD Dissertation, University of Alberta (Music).
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2017
Stadnicki, D.A. “Play Like Jay: Pedagogies of Drumming Performance After J Dilla.” Journal for Popular Music Education 1/3 (September), pp. 253-280.
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2013
“Ben Reimer: The Man with the Golden Arms,” The Drummer’s Journal, Issue #4 (August). Online Access: http://www.thedrummersjournal.com/issues/#/issue-4/.
2013
“On Gospel Drumming,” Invited article for The Drummer’s Journal, Issue #3 (May). Online Access: http://www.thedrummersjournal.com/issues/#/issue-3/.
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2012
“Enjoying Gospel Drumming: The Problematic Interpretation of Black Musicianship Via Post-Racial Ideology.” SysMus12: Systematic Musicology Conference (Conference Proceedings), University of Montreal. Online access: http:// sysmus12.oicrm.org/proceedings/?lang=en.
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editorial duties
2023
Forsyth, Meghan, Ostashewski, Marcia, and Stadnicki, D.A. (Guest Eds.). Special Issue on ‘Anti-Racist Pedagogies.’ MusiCultures (Spring).
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2021
Brennan, Matt, Pignato, J.M., and Stadnicki, D.A. (editors). Special Issue on ‘Drum Kit Studies’, Journal for Popular Music Education.
2021
Brennan, Matt, Pignato, J.M., and Stadnicki, D.A. (editors). The Cambridge Companion to the Drum Kit (Cambridge University Press).