Biography

• AB, music, Vassar College
• MA, musicology, Cornell University
• PhD, musicology, Cornell University

Since joining Temple’s faculty in 1997, Steven Zohn has served as Provost’s Arts Fellow, Coordinator of Music History and the Boyer College’s Director of Graduate Studies. His research focuses on the music of Telemann and the Bach family, intersections of style and genre, print culture, reception history, domestic music-making, historical performance practices and music as intellectual property. His writings on these topics have been published widely in peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes, and reference works such as the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Journal of Musicology, Eighteenth-Century Music, Bach Perspectives, the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Early Music, Oxford Handbooks Online and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Among his books are Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann’s Instrumental Works (Oxford University Press, 2008), The Telemann Compendium (Boydell, 2020) and Telemann Studies (Cambridge University Press). He has also edited volumes for the C. P. E. Bach and Telemann critical editions, and for the series Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era.

In 2022, Zohn received the Georg-Philipp-Telemann-Preis der Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg (Georg Philipp Telemann Award of the State Capital of Magdeburg) for outstanding achievements in interpreting, cultivating and researching the life and works of Telemann. He was further invited to sign the “Golden Book” of Magdeburg for his work in fostering cultural connections between that city and Philadelphia. Zohn has also received the Noah Greenberg Award of the American Musicology Society and the William H. Scheide prize of the American Bach Society. His research has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society and the German Academic Exchange Service.

Zohn has served as president of the Society for Eighteenth-Century Music, co-editor of the journal Eighteenth-Century Music, and general editor of the American Bach society, overseeing the society’s book series Bach Perspectives (University of Illinois Press) and ABS Guides (Oxford University Press). He also serves on several advisory and editorial boards, including that of the critical edition Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke (Bärenreiter).

As a performer on historical flutes, Zohn co-directs the ensemble Night Music, holds principal positions with the Philadelphia Bach Collegium and NYS Baroque, and freelances with various other period-instrument ensembles. He has taught for The Juilliard School’s graduate program in historical performance and for Amherst Early Music. His recordings appear on the Acis, Avie, Centaur, and Newport Classic labels. 

Among Zohn’s recent course offerings are “Music at Home: Domestic Musicking in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” “Sinning, Loving, Living, Dying: The Cantata in Context,” “Historical Performance Practices, 1700–1950,” “Music Minus One: Bach’s Music for Unaccompanied Melody Instrument,” and “Telemann and Music of the Enlightenment.” 

Publications 

Books

Music for a Mixed Taste: Style, Genre, and Meaning in Telemann’s Instrumental Works. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Winner of the 2010 William H. Scheide Prize of the American Bach Society.

The Telemann Compendium. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2020.

Telemann Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Critical Editions

Georg Philipp Telemann: Weltliche Kantaten. Georg Philipp Telemann: Musikalische Werke. Vol. 44. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2012.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Keyboard Trios II. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works. Series 2, Vol. 3/2. Cambridge, MA: Packhard Humanities Institute, 2009.

Georg Philipp Telemann: Twelve Trios. Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era. Vol. 100. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 2000.

Selected Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals and Chapters in Edited Books

“Remember Me: Vocal Cadenzas as Mementos in Nineteenth-Century Musical Autograph Albums.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 76/2 (2023).

“Sehet an die Exempel der Alten: The Presence of the Past in Telemann’s Sacred Vocal Music.” In Telemann Studies. Edited by Wolfgang Hirschmann and Steven Zohn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, 3–38.

“Telemann as Thomaskantor?: An Historical Capriccio.” Discussing Bach 3 (October 2021): 15–30. bachnetwork.org/discussing-bach/db3. 

“The Sociability of Salon Culture and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Quartets.” In Sara Levy’s World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin. Edited by Rebecca Cypess and Nancy Sinkoff. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2018, 205–42.

“Morality and the ‘Fair-Sexing’ of Telemann’s Faithful Music Master.” In Consuming Music: Individuals, Institutions, Communities, 1730-1830. Edited by Emily Green and Catherine Mayes. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2017, 65–101.

“Telemann’s Musique de table and the Tafelmusik Tradition.” In Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016: oxfordhandbooks.com.

“Aesthetic Mediation and Tertiary Rhetoric in Telemann’s VI Ouvertures à 4 ou 6.” In Bach Perspectives, vol. 9: Bach and His German Contemporaries. Edited by Andrew Talle. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2013, 24-49.

“’Die vornehmste Hof-Tugend’: German Musicians’ Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Court Life.” In Music at German Courts, 1715–1760: Changing Artistic Priorities. Edited by Samantha Owens, Barbara Reul, and Janice Stockigt. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2011, 413–25.

“Naïve Questions and Laughable Answers: An Eighteenth-Century Job Interview.” In Coll’astuzia, col giudizio: Essays in Honor of Neal Zaslaw. Edited by Cliff Eisen. Ann Arbor, MI: Steglein, 2009, 62–92.

“Bach and the Concert en Ouverture.” In Bach Perspectives, vol. 6: J.S. Bach’s Concerted Ensemble Music, The Ouverture. Edited by Gregory Butler. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007, 137–56.

“Telemann in the Marketplace: The Composer as Self-Publisher.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 58/2 (2005): 275–356.

“Images of Telemann: Narratives of Reception in the Composer’s Anecdote, 1750–1830.”Journal of Musicology 21/4 (2004): 459–86.

“Arne, Handel, Walsh, and Music as Intellectual Property: Two Eighteenth-Century Lawsuits.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 120/1 (1995): 112–45 (co-authored with Ronald J. Rabin).

Selected Recordings

In the Salon of Madame Brillon: Music and Friendship in Benjamin Franklin’s Paris. The Raritan Players, Acis APL40158 (2021).

Music for a Viennese Salon: Haydn, Kraus, Dittersdorf. Night Music. Avie Records, AV 2423 (2020).

Georg Philipp Telemann: Fire and Invention. Tempesta di Mare. Chandos Records, CHAN 0821 (2018).

Georg Philipp Telemann: Six Moral Cantatas, TVWV 20:29–34. With Julianne Baird, Leon Schelhase, and Eve Miller. Centaur Records, CRC 3591 (2018).

In Sara Levy’s Salon. The Raritan Players. Acis 191061600367 (2017).

Telemann: Flute Duets, TWV 40:141–46. With Colin St. Martin. Centaur Records, CRC 3102 (2011).

Vivaldi, Telemann, Boismortier: Concertos. Fioritura. Centaur Records CRC 2784 (2005). 

Georg Philipp Telemann: Trio Sonatas. The Publick Musick. Centaur Records CRC 2592 (2002).

C.P.E. Bach and J.S. Bach: Magnificats. The Washington Bach Consort. Newport Classic NCD 60155 (1999).