Chet Stussy
Specialization
Musicology
Bio
Chet Stussy is a PhD candidate in musicology at UC Santa Barbara and serves as co-chair (2025–2027) for the Organology Study Group of the American Musicological Society. His research focuses on music and material culture of the 19th and 20th centuries, with primary interests on the history of musical instruments, sound-recording technologies, and cultures of collecting. His work has been published in the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society. Chet’s dissertation examines the construction, marketing, reception, and ultimate obsolescence of novel instruments used within the orbit of the early phonograph industry (ca. 1880–1920). Heavily informing his musicological research, Chet has worked for the university’s Department of Special Research Collections, digitizing hundreds of early cylinder recordings for public access on the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive.
Chet has presented his work at national and international conferences, including those hosted by the American Musical Instrument Society and the Galpin Society. Following undergraduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, he received his BA in Music from Westmont College and his MA in Musicology from UCSB. He is a two-time recipient of the William E. Gribbon Memorial Award from the American Musical Instrument Society (2024 and 2025). He is also an active accordionist and recorder player.
Publications
Stussy, Chet. “Exotica, Intrigue, and the Talking Machine: The Case of the Stroh Ukulele.” Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society 51 (2025): 63–78.