Marva Griffin Carter

Carter graduated from the Boston Conservatory (now Boston Conservatory at Berklee) with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, and received a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. She then earned a second master's degree in musicology from Boston University in 1975. In 1988 she received a doctorate (PhD) from the University of Illinois at Urbana.{{Cite web |title=Marva Griffin Carter |url=https://music.gsu.edu/profile/marva-g-carter/ |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=Georgia State University, School of Music |language=en-US}}

The subject of her master's thesis at Boston University was the composer Hall Johnson.{{Cite web |last=Griffin Carter |first=Marva |title=Hall Johnson – preserver of the Old Negro spirrtual (1880–1970) | WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/7756014 |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}} Her PhD dissertation was titled The life and music of Will Marion Cook.{{Cite journal |last=Carter |first=Marva Griffin |date=1988 |title=The Life and Music of Will Marion Cook |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2142/70866 |journal=Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois |via=University of Illinois, IDEALS, the Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship}}{{Cite journal |date=1988 |title=The life and music of Will Marion Cook |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/29343521 |journal=Thesis, Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |via=WorldCat}}{{Efn|This work was also the basis for Griffin's later published book on the same subject (see Publications).}}

She has spoken of a serendipitous meeting in 1970 with the musicologist Eileen Southern, who inspired her to pursue an academic career, saying of the encounter, "[she] basically recruited me," and "I would not have achieved what I have, or even pursued my areas of interest were it not for her."{{Cite web |title=Note by note. Eileen Southern, AB'40, AM'41 (1920–2002), rewrote the history of American music. |url=https://mag.uchicago.edu/arts-humanities/note-note |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=The University of Chicago Magazine |language=en}}

Carter began her academic career as coordinator of the African American Studies Program at Simmons University, Boston. She then became the chair of the Music Department at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 1993 she has worked as an academic administrator and professor at Georgia State University, where she served as Assistant Director, later Director of Graduate Studies, and currently, Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in the School of Music.{{Cite web |title=Marva Griffin Carter, Georgia State University scholars |url=https://gsu.discovery.academicanalytics.com/scholar/stack/7019/MARVA-CARTER?unitId=484&unitType=2 |access-date=2023-05-19 |website=gsu.discovery.academicanalytics.com}} She was the 1998 Barbara Jordan/W. E. B. DuBois Award for Outstanding Teaching recipient.

She is a member of the American Musicological Society and the Society for American Music.{{Cite web |title=Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees |url=https://www.american-music.org/page/LifetimeAchievementHonorees |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=Society for American Music}}

Her book Swing Along: The Musical life of Will Marion Cook was published in 2008.{{Cite web |title='My Lady Nicotine' by Will Marion Cook |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200185379/ |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}

Carter was the organist for Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. She is also writing a book about the sacred musical traditions and repertoire of the historic church.

In 2020, her work was recognized with the Society for American Music's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Carter was featured in Harvard Radcliffe Institute's 2022 webinar Black Music and the American University: Eileen Southern's Story.{{Cite web |title=Black Music and the American University: Eileen Southern's Story |url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2022-black-women-the-american-university-eileen-southern-two-virtual |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Music Scholars Discuss the Legacy of Harvard Professor Eileen Southern at Radcliffe Event | News | The Harvard Crimson|first= Ryan H. |last=Doan-Nguyen |author2=Caleb H. Painter |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/4/8/eileen-southern-legacy-webinar/|date=April 8, 2022 |access-date=2023-03-29 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}

Griffin Carter is married to the historian and civil rights scholar Lawrence Carter. They have one son, Lawrence Edward Carter Jr.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., PH.D., D.D., D.H., D.R.S., D.H.C., MULT |url=https://morehouse.edu/carter-lawrence-e/ |access-date=2017-04-19 |website=Morehouse College |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Dr. Lawrence Carter, Sr., '60, Educator – West High Alumni Association |url=https://westhighalumni.com/dr-lawrence-carter-sr-60-educator/ |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=westhighalumni.com}}

• Griffin Carter, Marva. Hall Johnson – Preserver of the Old Negro Spiritual (1880–1970). www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2023-03-24. (Master's thesis, Boston University, 1975)
• Griffin Carter, Marva. Roland Hayes–Expressor of the Soul in Song (1887–1977), The Black Perspective in Music, Autumn 1977, 188.
• Griffin Carter, Marva. The life and music of Will Marion Cook. Thesis, Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1988 – via WorldCat.
• Carter, Marva Griffin. The "New Negro" Legacy of Will Marion Cook. Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (1999). Vol.23 (1), p.25-37{{Cite web |last=Carter |first=Marva Griffin |title=The "New Negro" Legacy of Will Marion Cook |url=https://i-share-niu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?context=PC&vid=01CARLI_NIU:FML_DEFAULT&search_scope=NewDiscoveryNetwork_CI&tab=EverythingNew&docid=cdi_proquest_journals_200864111 |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=i-share-niu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com |language=en |issn=0364-2437}}
• The "New Negro" Choral Legacy of Hall Johnson, Chorus and community, Ahlquist, Karen, ed. (2006). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. {{ISBN|0-252-03037-0}}. {{OCLC|62281651}}{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62281651 |title=Chorus and community |date=2006 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |others= |isbn=0-252-03037-0 |editor-last=Ahlquist |editor-first=Karen |location=Urbana |oclc=62281651}}
• Weisenfeld, Judith (2011). "The Secret at the Root": Performing African American Religious Modernity in Hall Johnson's Run, Little Chillun. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. 21 (1): 39–80. {{doi|10.1525/rac.2011.21.1.39}} {{ISSN|1052-1151}}{{Cite journal |last=Weisenfeld |first=Judith |date=2011 |title="The Secret at the Root": Performing African American Religious Modernity in Hall Johnson's Run, Little Chillun |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rac.2011.21.1.39 |journal=Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=39–80 |doi=10.1525/rac.2011.21.1.39 |issn=1052-1151}}
• Carter, Marva Griffin (2008). Swing along: the musical life of Will Marion Cook. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-986579-6}} {{OCLC|875519263}}{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Marva Griffin |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/875519263 |title=Swing along : the musical life of Will Marion Cook |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-986579-6 |location=Oxford |oclc=875519263}}{{Cite book |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/swing-along-9780195108910?cc=us&lang=en& |title=Swing Along: The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook |date=2008-09-11 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-510891-0 |location=Oxford, New York}}
• Colloquy: Shadow Culture Narratives: Race, Gender, and American Music Historiography, Journal of the American Musicological Society (2020) 73 (3): 711–784.{{Cite web |title=Colloquy: Shadow Culture Narratives: Race, Gender, and American Music Historiography |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/jams/article-abstract/73/3/711/114520/Colloquy-Shadow-Culture-Narratives-Race-Gender-and |access-date=2023-03-24 |website=online.ucpress.edu}}

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{{Reflist}}

• [https://music.gsu.edu/profile/marva-g-carter/ Marva Griffin Carter Biography], Georgia State University
• [https://freshairarchive.org/segments/american-popular-song-series-will-marion-cook American Popular Song Series: Will Marion Cook] (Marva Griffin Carter, et al. on NPR, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, 2001)
• [https://freshairarchive.org/segments/american-popular-song-will-marion-cooks-lyrics-and-life American Popular Song: Will Marion Cook's Lyrics and Life] (Marva Griffin Carter, et al. on NPR, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, 2000)

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Category:American women musicologists

Category:20th-century American musicologists

Category:20th-century American women musicians

Category:Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumni

Category:Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni

Category:New England Conservatory alumni

Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni

Category:Simmons University faculty

Category:Morris Brown College faculty

Category:Georgia State University faculty

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people