Judith Fay Tick (born January 4, 1943) is an American musicologist. Her scholarship focuses on

women in music Women in music play many roles and are responsible for a broad range of contributions in the industry. They continue to help shape movements, genres, and trends as composers, songwriters, instrumental performers, singers, conductors, and mu ...

and American music, often in combination. Described as "an innovator in the field of musical biography", her publications include biographies on both

Ruth Crawford Seeger Ruth Crawford Seeger (born Ruth Porter Crawford; July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953) was an American composer and musicologist. Her music heralded the emerging modernist aesthetic, and she became a central member of a group of American composers ...

and

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...

, as well as studies on

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Compos ...

and

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale. His music was largely ignored d ...

Life and career

Judith Fay Tick was born on January 4, 1943 in

Winthrop, Massachusetts Winthrop is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,316 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Winthrop is an ocean-side suburban town in Greater Boston situated at the ...

, US. She attended the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

, studying with Barry S. Brook, Gilbert Chase,

Daniel Heartz Daniel Heartz (1928–2019) was an American musicologist and professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley. Heartz studied at Harvard University. He lived in Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of ...

and H. Wiley Hitchcock, and receiving a PhD in 1979. Her dissertation was ''Towards a History of American Women Composers before 1870''. Since 1986, Tick has taught at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

; she is now Professor Emerita there. Her writings include the first biography of the modernist composer

, which received both

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

's Deems Taylor Award and the

Society for American Music The Society for American Music (SAM) was founded in 1975 and was first named the Sonneck Society in honor of Oscar George Theodore Sonneck, early Chief of the Music Division in the Library of Congress and pioneer scholar of American music. The S ...

's Irving R. Lowens Award. In 2023, she published a biography of the jazz singer

, after more than a decade of research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tick, Judith 20th-century American musicologists 21st-century American musicologists 1943 births Northeastern University faculty Living people