Profile
As an undergraduate I studied piano at the Eastman School of Music and in Vienna on my junior year abroad, then at the Liszt Academy in Budapest on a Fulbright scholarship. For graduate studies I focused on contemporary music and critical studies in music at the . Before joining the Lang Arts faculty in 2003, I taught at the University of South Carolina and at Whitman College in Washington State. Both of these teaching experiences productively shaped my approach to pedagogy and curriculum development at Lang. My own undergraduate studies took me from the relatively narrow focus of a conservatory curriculum to a broader liberal arts education at the University of Rochester, so I鈥檓 an advocate for a well-rounded interdisciplinary education that situates music among the other arts and in the larger contexts of history, culture, and society.
My scholarly work focuses on musical performance, popular culture, and perceptual practices in the arts. My book explores the concert pianist as a cultural icon, considering the role of technology in producing and perpetuating the mythology of the pianist鈥檚 romantic allure over the past two centuries. I co-edited , a defining collection of essays about the politics and poetics of the world鈥檚 largest and longest-running international song competition. is my follow-up book on the contest's music. My current research on perceptual practices explores music and touch, and musical haptics, for a new book project titled .
Degrees Held
PhD, Critical Studies & Experimental Practices in Music, University of California-San Diego
MA in Music, University of California-San Diego
BA in Music, Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester
Professional Affiliation
American Musicological Society
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Recent Publications
(Routledge, 2021)
鈥淨ueer Patriotism in the Eurovision Song Contest,鈥 in , ed. Fred Maus and Sheila Whiteley (2019)
鈥淟iberace鈥檚 Musical/Material Appeal,鈥 in (Oxford University Press, 2018)
鈥淭he Camp Sincerity of Christmas Carols,鈥 in , ed. Christopher Moore and Philip Purvis (Wesleyan University Press, 2018)
鈥淓in Lied kann eine Br眉cke sein: Verbindungen von Ton und Bild beim diesj盲hrigen Eurovision Song Contest,鈥 脰sterreichische Musikzeitschrift (2015)
鈥淎ustria, ORF, and Conchita Wurst,鈥 in (ORF, 2015)
(Oxford University Press, 2014)
鈥淪chumann鈥檚 Melodramatic Afterlife,鈥 in (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Co-editor of (Ashgate, 2007)
鈥淭ranscription, Transgression, and the (Pro)Creative Urge,鈥 in (University of Illinois Press, 2002)
"Concerto con amore: 鈥楻elationship鈥 and the Soundtrack Piano Concerto," in (2000)
鈥淗ollywood鈥檚 Embattled Icon鈥 in (Yale University Press, 2000)
Research Interests
Music history and performance
Romantic piano culture and repertoire
Music in film and television
Visual music and synaesthesia
Tactility in music and musical haptics
Gender and sexuality studies, queer theory
Eurovision Song Contest, European studies
Awards And Honors
Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna (2013)
German Chancellor Scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (1999-2000, 2012)
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend (2003)
AMS 50 Fellowship from the American Musicological Society (2000)