College of Visual and Performing Arts

Deguchi, a native of Kobe, Japan, teaches courses in music theory and aural skills at Winthrop. While studying at the University at Buffalo, Deguchi was awarded both a presidential fellowship and a dissertation fellowship. Her research interests include the music of Toru Takemitsu and other Japanese composers, musical form in the 20th-century music, music narrative, American composers, transformational theory, film music, and intersections between music theory and culture and aesthetics. She has presented papers at Society for Music Theory, American Musicological Society, Music Theory Society of New York State, Music Theory South East, Music Theory Midwest, Music Theory Society of Mid-Atlantic, Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory, and national and regional conferences of College Music Society. She was invited as a guest speaker for the symposium in the 2007 conference of International Society of Contemporary Music held in Hong Kong. She also has been invited as a guest speaker at regional universities. Her research appears in the Journal of Film Music, Indiana Theory Review (forthcoming), and has two chapters in a Japanese publication (forthcoming) on the current trends in music theory in the U.S. Deguchi also is active as a member of professional organizations where she has served as session chair, on the diversity committee, program committee, and advisory board.

She also remains active as a pianist, specializing in contemporary music. In 1993, she gave a solo recital of works of Japanese and American composers in Takarazuka, Japan. She has been a featured performer at numerous concerts including the 20th-Century Piano Music series, the Young Artist Concert series, Kobe Art Conference Competition concert, and the Buffalo Contemporary Ensemble Concert series. In 1996, she was selected one of the six finalists in the Crane Festival of New Music, National Student Performers Competition, and performed at the State University of New York-Potsdam. She was the 1998 Concerto Competition winner at the University of Wyoming. In the same year, she was invited as a guest performer at the Northern Illinois University, where she did a recording for her first solo piano album Syncopated Lady, featuring works of members of the American Composers Forum (1999, Capstone Records). Her recording is included in the Music of Laurel Firant (2006, Capstone Records). She continues to perform in composer's conferences and contemporary concerts. In 2008, she founded a new music ensemble, Out of Bounds, that features professional performers from the Charlotte region.