Stanley Pelkey

Stan Pelkey is a Professor of Musicology at the University of Kentucky. Trained as a musicologist (MA and PhD) and cultural historian (MA) at the University of Rochester, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on music in the 19th and 20th centuries, British music history, opera history and literature, and film and television music.

Pelkey’s primary research focuses on film and television music in Britain and the United States; his secondary research areas include the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Handel reception history, and the music of Samuel Wesley, Charles Wesley’s younger son. He was the 2009 recipient of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Fellowship and has received support from the American Handel Society and London Handel Institute. He has co-edited two books, Anxiety Muted: American Film Music in a Suburban Age (Oxford 2014) and Music and History: Bridging the Disciplines (University Press of Mississippi 2005), and he has contributed articles on film music, Elmer Bernstein, and music in Doctor Who, Firefly, and Dexter to Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO 2011); Buffy, Ballads, and Bad Guys Who Sing: Music in the Worlds of Joss Whedon (Scarecrow Press 2010); Relocating the Sound of the Western (Routledge 2018); Pop Culture Matters: Proceedings of the 39th Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture Association (2019); and Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies (Oxford 2022). His most recent article on television music, “Music, Morality, and Community in Little House on the Prairie,” was released in January 2025 in the journal, American Music (Winter 2023).

Prior to returning full-time to the classroom in Spring 2025, Pelkey served for twelve years in administrative roles, including as the founding dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Roberts Wesleyan College (Rochester, NY), as Associate Dean of Engagement and Entrepreneurship in the College of Music at Florida State University, and as the Director of the UK School of Music.

Pelkey remains active as a composer, conductor, organist, and pianist and is currently pursuing the MDiv with a focus in theological studies at Asbury Theological Seminary.