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Graduate Program Chair in Composition and Theory, Yu-Hui Chang

Graduate Program Chair in Musicology, Eric Chafe

Joint MA Advisor in Music & Women's and Gender Studies, Allan R. Keiler

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Current Graduate Students

Travis Alford, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. Theory and Composition, East Carolina University; M.M. Composition, New England Conservatory of Music.
Recent performances of works:  kakophonia for brass quintet, June in Buffalo Festival 2009; Transitions for flute, trumpet, and piano, ACA Summer Music Festival, Symphony Space, NY (June 2009); Breathing Room premiered at the 2009 Composers Conference, Wellesley University.
Instrument: trumpet
Website: http://www.travisalford.com

Nicole Brellenthin, Musicology (M.F.A.)
BM Instrumental Performance, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Current Academic Interests: 19th century music, Victorian parlor songs, progression of ideological musical thought throughout the 19th-20th centuries. Instrument: Tenor Trombone

Daesik Cha, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.M. Piano Performance, Kyungwon University in South Korea; Graduate Diploma, South Netherlands Royal Conservatorium; Master candidate, University of Cincinnati.
Academic interests: Aesthetic changes of the German musical ideology; Renaissance vocal polyphony; piano literature of the Classical and Romantic eras.  Master thesis: Lasso's and Utendal's Penitential Psalm Cycles: Musical-Rhetorical Expression of the Renaissance Modes.
Activities: Guest pianist at Bildhoven musical series in Netherlands, Lucca opera festival in Italy, and Covington Art Club. 

Victoria Cheah, Composition and Theory (Ph.D)
B.A. (Music) Macaulay Honors College at CUNY Hunter College
Performances include: PRISM saxophone quartet, Ensemble Cairn, Attacca Quartet, Michel Galante and members of Argento Chamber Ensemble, attendees of SICPP, Hunter College Opera Studio, Hunter College Chamber Singers and Hunter College Symphony
Instruments: voice, piano

Yohanan Chendler, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. Composition and Theory, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Recent performances: String Quartet No. 2, a commission from the Caramoor Festival performed by the Ariel Quartet on July 30 in the Caramoor Festival, New York, and August 4, 2009, at the Yellow Barn Festival, Vermont; Piano Trio written for the Aspen Festival New Music Ensemble performed Aug 20, 2009 at the Aspen Music Festival.
Instrument: violin.

Richard Chowenhill, Composition and Theory (M.F.A.)
B.A. Composition, Classical Guitar Performance, University of California, Davis
Recent Works: Original scores for the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble’s productions of The Sonnet Project—an original one act opera based on the sonnets of William Shakespeare, and Twelfth Night; electronic scoring and sound design for Abridged; electronic scoring and additional songs for A Midsummer Night’s Dream; three pieces for Speed the Plow, UC Irvine Drama Department; Mood Swing, a three-movement piece commissioned by gallery 1855.
Instrument: guitar

Elizabeth Crisenbery, Musicology (M.F.A)
B.M. Vocal Performance, Bowling Green State University.
Academic Interests: The operatic works of Puccini, the music of Luciano Berio, 19th century Lieder.
Instrument: Voice

Thomas M. Croke VMusicology (M.F.A.)
B.A. in Music, Immaculata University
Academic interests: Music of the 19th century, the music of Chopin, Beethoven's violin sonatas, pianist/composers of the early to mid Romantic period.
Instrument: Piano

David Dominique, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.A. NYU; M.M. California State University, Northridge.
Recent performances and projects: "Tongues Bloody Tongues" (July 22, 23 & 24 2010), an experimental opera commissioned by the New Original Works series at REDCAT, Los Angeles."Ordos 100" (June, 2010), an installation for 5.1 surround sound and 2-channel video, presented at New England Conservatory's Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice.
Instrument: Trombone

Maxwell Dulaney, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. Composition, University of Alabama.
Thesis title: Nono's late works with a focus on the compositional method of Fragmente - Stille, an Diotima and Omaggio a Kurtag; and an original composition entitled Concerto for Harmonica and Ensemble.
2010 recipient of Mellon Dissertation Research Grant
Instrument: harmonica.

Jacques Dupuis, Musicology (M.F.A.)
BA Music Theory and Italian Studies, University of Notre Dame
Academic interests: Late 19th century orchestral music; music of Chopin; American music; Undergraduate thesis: Chopin's Mallorcan Preludes, A comparative and contextual analysis of Chopin's Op. 28 Nos. 2, 4, 10, 21
Instrument: trumpet

Aldona Dye, Musicology (M.F.A.)
B.A. Classical Philosophy, St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM
Current Academic Interests: Relationships between music and social change, 19th and 20th century music, music philosophy.
Instrument: Clarinet, alto saxophone, recorder.

Joanna Fuchs, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.A. Music History with a minor in History, Youngstown State University.
Academic interests: The American years of Béla Bartók and the examination of redemption in his Concerto for Orchestra. Secondary interests include percussion literature and Hungarian nationalistic music of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Papers: presented papers twice at the Quest Conference at Youngstown State University and Bartók's Orbit: The Sphere and Influence of his Works; guest lecturer at the University of Florida presenting on the first door and the significant use of the tritone in "Duke Bluebeard's Castle".
Instruments: percussion.

Jessica Fulkerson, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.M. Flute Performance and Music Theory, M.M. Music Theory, Texas Christian University
Academic Interests: Modulo 7 Set Theory, Schenkerian Analysis, Textural Analysis, 20th-century Flute Music
Instrument: flute

Derek Jacoby, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.A. Music (Trumpet and Composition), California State University, East Bay (formerly Hayward);
M.M. Composition, New England Conservatory of Music.
Dissertation: analytical work on Lee Hyla's Second Piano Concerto; and an original composition for violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, piano, percussion.
Recent performances of works: performances by Composers, Inc. (SF), Boston Musica Viva, Antares (NYC), San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Tanglewood Music Center Fellows.
Activities: Music Theory Faculty, Phillips Academy - Andover; Faculty, Hayward-La Honda Summer
Music Camp; past teaching at Boston Conservatory, MIT, and New England Conservatory of Music.
Website: www.derekjacoby.com.

Arianne Johnson, Music and Womens’s & Gender Studies (Joint M.A.)
B.A. Music (Honors) University of New Mexico
Academic Interests: music in Italian convents, Renaissance polyphony, modal theory and counterpoint, analysis, the music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Olivier Messiaen, Female jazz/blues singers, American music
Papers: "Caterina Assandra: the Musical Maturation of a Nun in Early Modern Milan"; presented at the Pacific Northwest Graduate Students of Music Conference at the Univ. of Washington (Seattle) February 19th and 20th, 2011.
Instruments: piano, organ, harpsichord, voice

Emily KohComposition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. Composition and Double Bass Performance, National University of Singapore; M.M. Composition, Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University; M.M. Music Theory Pedagogy, Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University.
Recent performances of works trans-[migra].nation for octet, Asian Composers League Festival and Conference (November 2011), Prix d'Ete Prize Ceremony (April 2011);  for solo violin, set piece in National Piano and Violin Competition (December 2011); in retro|re-intro:spect for chamber sinfonietta, Composers Conference at Wellesley College (August 2011); There is a Painted Bus for childrens' choir, Singapore Lyric Opera Childrens' Choir (commission) (June 2011); [circum]-perceptio for quintet, June in Buffalo (June 2010)
Instruments: Double Bass, Electric Bass, Piano
Website: http://www.emilykoh.net

Bradley Kuhn-Mckearin, Composition and Theory (M.F.A.)
B.A. Music Composition, Brandeis University
Recent Works: String Quartet written for the Lydian String Quartet
Instrument: Piano

Peter Van Zandt Lane, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. University of Miami; M.A. Composition,  Brandeis University.
Recent activities: compositions include Gagliarda written in collaboration with Composers in Red Sneakers and Italian composers consortium Dal Suono Sommers,
Recent performances:  Performances of Gagliarda in Quincy, MA. (March, 2009) and in Rome, Italy (May 2009).  Also, performed Aeromancer (for bassoon and electronics) at Spark Festival (Feb. 2009, Minneapolis), New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (March 2009) and at SEAMUS National Conference (April 2009, Indiana).
Website: www.petervanzandtlane.com

Alexander Lane, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.M. organ performance, Westminster Choir College.
Academic interests: Schenkerian analysis; the role of interval cycles in the harmonic languages of Ives and Berg; the music of Arthur Honegger; the role of registrally fixed 12-note collections in the music of Elliott Carter; the 20th-century revival of Medieval and Renaissance polyphonic techniques (e.g., isorhythm, hocket, prolation canon, etc.), especially as manifested in the music of the Second Viennese School and in the works of such contemporary British composers as Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle; Adorno's writings on music
Instrument: organ, piano
Activities: currently serves as organist at the Congregational Church of Weston

Seunghee Lee, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. Music Theory, Ewha Womans University; M.M. Composition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Academic interests: music of woman composers, especially Kaija Saariaho and Augusta Read Thomas.
Activities: Active as a concert pianist
Instrument: piano.

Frank S. Li, Composition and Theory (M.F.A)
B.A., Urban Studies and Planning/Music Composition, University of California, San Diego.
Academic interests: interactions between urban development and music history, social and political role of the artist, 20th and 21st century American composers, cross-cultural social contact, the nature of physical and perceptive space, genre fiction, geospatial information systems technology, probably other things.
Instruments: Conducting, Violin, Saxophone
Website: www.franksli.com

Mu-Xuan Lin, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. Composition, New England Conservatory.
Recent performance: "A room of French windows and limestone sculptures" (for soprano, solo dancer, recorder, viola, double bass, piano, and video), Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Arts, Brandeis, 2009.
Recent project: "Little Blue Dot", a commissioned collaboration with Urbanity Dance Project in Boston and choreographer Betsi Graves Akerstein -- an experiment of integral, cross-generating, music-dance composition.
Instruments: voice, piano; occasional organ, harpsichord, and recorder.

Ian Lorenz, Musicology (M.F.A.)
B.A. Music for Liberal Arts and a secondary emphasis in Philosophy, Winona State University
Current Academic Interests: Philosophy of music (ontology, aesthetics), 20th century Polish classical music.  
Instrument: Clarinet.

Georgia Luikens, Musicology (Ph.D.)
BMus (Hons I) and BA English Literature, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Academic interests: include Copland, Boulanger, Bernstein, musical theatre, US political music for orchestra in the 1940s, intersections of music and literature and reforming primary and secondary music education.
Activities: chamber music, orchestra, Sydneian Bach Choir.
Instrument: violin.

Paula Musegades
, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.S. Music Education, Minnesota State University, Moorhead, 2007; M.A. Musicology, Brandeis, University.
Academic interests: Film music and film studies, particularly of the golden age; American music of the late 19th and 20th centuries; World music, with a primary focus on Africa and the Middle East.
Papers: "I Don't Think We're in the Nineteenth Century Anymore: Copland's Establishment of Atmosphere in Golden Age Hollywood Films." PCA/ACA National Conference, Boston, April 2012. Book review published in Quarterly Review of Film and Video 29.2.
Instrument: trumpet.

Florie Namir, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.M. The Rubin Academy of Music, Tel-Aviv University; M.M. Composition and Theory, Rice University.
Performances: include Woodland Symphony Orchestra, the Shepherd School of Music Symphony Orchestra, Luoghi Immaginari Ensemble, Quartetto Mansi (Villanuccia Experimental Group) and NotaRiotous Ensemble, and were broadcasted on Kol-Hashalom Radio and on ktru.org Radio.
Activities: Received award from the Paul Hindemith Institute, Frankfurt for her piece Dialogue for Two Pianos, in which she had integrated unused sketches by Paul Hindemith; participated in the International Summer Academy of Music (ISAM) in Michelstadt, Germany, were she won the J. Dorfman International Composition Competition; studied with Azio Corghi at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, summer, 2008; invited by Prometheus Ensemble with deSingel to participate in International Composition Workshop in Antwerp, Belgium, 2009.

Elizabeth Perten, Musicology (Ph.D.); Joint MA in Music & Women's and Gender Studies. B.A. Barnard College, Columbia University.
Academic interests: 19th century music criticism, music patronage, gender and music, 20th century American music and historiography.
Papers: "Liszt as Critic: "On John Field's Nocturnes" and the War of the Romantics," at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society, New Orleans, November, 2012 and at the 17th Biennial International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music, The University of Edinburgh, June, 2012; "'A Gendered Affair': Boston's Critical Reception of Beach's "Grand Mass" in E-Flat," at Feminist Theory and Music II, Arizona State University, September, 2011; “Gender of Critic Meets Gender of Composer: The Case of Amy Beach,” at the North American Conference on 19th-Century Music, University of Kansas, July, 2009. Contributed encyclopedia entries on "Marian Anderson" and "Patricia Prattis Jennings" to The Encyclopedia of Women and American Popular Culture and The African American National Biography, respectively. Book review published in the March 2011 edition of Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association and has another one in progress for the 19th-Century Music Review.
Instruments: piano, recorder.

James Praznik, Composition and Theory (Ph.D)
B.M. The University of Akron; M.M. Cleveland State University.
Recent performances and projects: “Almost a New Man” (April 15th, 16th & 20th 2011) a piece for film, electronic sounds and cello commissioned by the No Exit New Music Ensemble for performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland. “Ascent” (September 15th, 16th & 17th) a live soundtrack for saxophone and piano joint commissioned by the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival and NASA for performance at IngenuityFest 2011, Cleveland.
Instrument: Piano

Stephen Radcliffe, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.M. Clarinet Performance, New England Conservatory of Music; M.M. Conducting, University of Michigan; M.F.A. Musicology, Brandeis University.
Dissertation title: "The Lyric Impulse: Spatial, Temporal and Psychological Displacement in Early Verdi Scenas and Recitatives."
Academic interests: 18th, 19th, and 20th century music, opera studies.
Performances:  Music Director: Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, Music Director: Marrowstone Music Festival, Former Assistant Conductor: Boston Lyric Opera.

Jared Redmond, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
B.A. Music, University of California, Berkeley.
Academic interests: Music performance, the Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova, early Baroque keyboard music, Expressionism, East Asian instrumental genres and aesthetics (Pipa, Qin), the music of Machaut, Byrd, Szymanowski, Scriabin, Roslavets, Berg.
Instrument: piano.
Website: www.jaredredmond.com

Rebecca Sacks, Composition and Theory (M.F.A.)
B.A. Music (summa cum laude), Tufts University
Recent Performances: Tufts University Chorale and Tufts' West African Percussion Ensemble (under Andrew Clark), Tufts Chamber Singers, Boston-based Mockingbird Trio, Ithaca College Choral Competition and Festival.
Instrument: piano

Joel Schwindt, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.M. Vocal Performance, Wichita State University, 2003; M.M. Choral Conducting, University of Arizona.
Academic interests: Baroque music, focusing on the influence of 17th-century Italian sacred dramas on French sacred dramas of the same period (particularly the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier).
Papers: "Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Integration and Balance of French and Italian Styles in Two Christmas Dramas."  Choral Journal 49, 2 (August 2008):  44-59; "Marc-Antoine Charpentier: A Stranger In His Own Land" given at the annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society (Logan, Utah:  March 2008); Charpentier, Marc-Antoine; edition and commentary by Joel Schwindt: In nativitatem D[omi]ni canticum (H. 416). Bärenreiter-Verlag. Kassel, Germany (Forthcoming 2009-10).
Instruments:
voice, conducting.
Website: www.JoelandSaraSchwindt.com/Joel_Schwindt

Laura Shechter, Musicology (Ph.D.)
A.B. Music and Certificate in Musical Performance ('cello), Princeton University; M.M. 'Cello Performance, Longy School of Music; M.F.A. Musicology, Brandeis University.
Working title of dissertation: "When No One's Watching: Dance Topics in the Orchestral Music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky."
Instrument: cello

Kyo Shimizu, Composition and Theory (M.F.A.)
B.S. Nuclear Theory, Sophia University. B.M. Composition, Contemporary Writing and Production, Berklee College of Music.
Academic Interests: Neotonal Compositions, Music Engineering and Technology, Jazz Performance.
Instrument: guitar, violin and violaWebsite: www.kyoshimizu.com

Charles Stratford, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.A. Instrumental Performance, B.A. East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles; M.A. Musicology, Brigham Young University.
Masters Thesis: “Aspects of Compositional Process in Luciano Berio’s Circles.”
Academic Interests: music of the 20th century, especially the vocal music of Luciano Berio; the collaboration between Berio and singer Cathy Berberian; Second Viennese School, the free atonal music of Schoenberg in particular; fin de siècle Vienna; history of electronic music; semiotics in music; archival research.
Instrument: bassoon

Derek R. Strykowski, Musicology (Ph.D.)
B.A. Music, Brandeis University.
Academic Interests: The relationship between a mode of artistry (classicism, maximalism) and the evolution of a musical style. Concepts of musical craftsmanship, functionality, and constraint. The composer in society. Orchestral music of the 18th–20th centuries. The music of Great Britain, from folk traditions to the Anglican cathedral repertory.
Website: www.dstrykowski.com

Tina Tallon, Composition and Theory (M.F.A)
B.S. Biological Engineering and Music, MIT
Academic interests: role of potential and kinetic energy as models for pitch organization in twentieth century music, computational and quantitative methods of musicological inquiry and algorithmic composition
Activities: curriculum development, MIT Music Department; research assistant, music21; intern, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble
Instruments: voice, violin
Website: http://web.mit.edu/ttallon

Julie VanGyzen, Musicology (M.F.A.)
B.M. in Clarinet Performance, Rhode Island College
Current Academic Interests: Women composers and musicians of the Romantic and Early 20th century, gender and society's effect on music, period instrumental performance.
Instruments: Clarinet, Bassoon, Tenor Saxophone, Contra-Bassoon, potentially Dulcian

Jessica Vincent, Musicology (M.F.A.)
B.A. Music with a minor in History, Colorado State University.
Academic interests: 20th century music; minimalism and post-minimalism, film music, the art of listening. Undergraduate thesis: Minimal Misconceptions: the evolution of minimalist music.
Instruments: clarinet, flute, and saxophone

Michele Zaccagnini, Composition and Theory (Ph.D.)
Diploma Conservatorio S.Cecilia, Rome, B.A. Universityà degli Studi "La Sapienza" Rome.
Recent performances: Dinosaur Annex, Academia Chigiana Ensemble, Oregon Bach Festival Composer Ensemble.