Image courtesy of the American Museum of Paramusicology
Title: An Introduction to the American Museum of Paramusicology
Date & Time: Monday, June 22, 2026, at 1:00 PM
Duration: 1 hour
Capacity: 100
Admission: Free! (open to A.R.T. Members & Non-Members)
Format: Webinar via Zoom
Join Archivists Round Table for an inside look at the American Museum of Paramusicology (AMP), an independent research-driven archive and education platform based in Greensboro, North Carolina. AMP director Matt Marble will share some of the highlights of the archive, revealing how metaphysical philosophies and alternative spiritual traditions have helped shape American music.
This is a free, virtual webinar hosted via Zoom. Advance registration is required. Upon registering for the webinar, you will receive a confirmation via email with a link to join the webinar. This webinar will be video recorded. Please note that registration caps at 100 attendees.
About
The American Museum of Paramusicology (AMP), established independently in 2021, is an artist-directed archival and research project exploring metaphysical influences in American music. Through collected recordings, texts, photographs, letters, and ephemera, it traces how musicians have found creative agency through spiritual inquiry and esoteric traditions. As a platform for public-facing scholarship, the AMP produces podcasts, publications, lectures, and exhibitions which distill and interpret the archive for a broader audience. This project illuminates overlooked histories and marginalized artists, while inviting new encounters with sound, consciousness, and the American musical imagination. It notably produces the monthly AMP Journal, featuring historical essays, archival studies, and interviews with contemporary artists. Learn more about the AMP here.
Speaker Bio
Matt Marble fell in love with archives while researching his first book, Buddhist Bubblegum: Esotericism in the Creative Process of Arthur Russell (“groundbreaking work,” The New York Times). He has since built an independent archive focused on metaphysically inspired American music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He recently curated the archival exhibition “I Hear Strange Music” for NYU’s Occult Humanities Conference. Materials from his archive have also appeared in Alistair McDowell’s play The Glow (2022) and George C. Wolfe’s Netflix film Rustin (2023). He independently shares his research through the Secret Sound podcast and the monthly AMP Journal and has received a fellowship from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Matt holds a Ph.D. in music composition from Princeton University.
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Please note that by registering and attending this event/webinar, you automatically grant your consent to be photographed and/ or video-recorded and to the release, publication, or reproduction of any and all recorded media of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in perpetuity in connection with the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. and its initiatives, including, by way of example only, use on websites, in social media, news, newsletters, Metropolitan Archivist, and advertising.
