This course uses the Western art music tradition of the past 300 years as a point of departure to learn graduate-level research and writing skills. In the process, students think critically about issues of particular interest to high-level performers, including the history of concert and listening practices, representations of race and gender, canon formation and historiography, music, and politics, the history of virtuosity, the value(s) of a historical imagination as it relates to musical expression, and the ethical choices facing performers today. The course will also feature guest workshops relating to professional development.