Research

I am a public scholar and opera historian. A frequent theme in my research is how political, religious, and social tensions manifest in music and drama. I am very interested in political sponsorship of the arts, and in situations where musical practice is co-opted or adapted for political ends. For my doctoral dissertation, I wrote a musical and military history of the island of Mauritius in the southern Indian Ocean – once the greatest French military base in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Some of the other research threads that I pursue include:

  • Colonial music traditions in British, Dutch, and French overseas island possessions
  • The Filles d’Opéra Singer-Courtesans in Parisian Society circa 1730-65
  • Nationalism in French opéra comique during the July Monarchy (1830-1848)
  • American Musical Theatre (especially P.G. Wodehouse and racism in the theatre)

Some of my past research areas include:

  • Reformation hymnody
  • 16th-century Anglo-French motet manuscripts
  • 17th-century Roman sacred opera
  • 17th-century sacred music theory

Publications

Book Chapters

2019 “The Rise of Online Higher Education, Global English Collisions, and the Academic American English Dialect: Applying Scaffolding and the Dialect Theory of Emotion.” Handbook of the Changing World Language Map, Stanley D. Brunn & Roland Kehrein, eds. New York, NY: Springer.
2015  “High Class Pretension and Low Expectations: P.G. Wodehouse and the Middlebrow in American Musical Comedy.” Middlebrow Wodehouse, Ann Rea, ed. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
2015 “Mauritius and Réunion.” The Ethnomusicologists’ Cookbook: Complete Meals from Around the World, Vol. 2, Sean Williams, ed. New York: Routledge.
2013 La Fille du Régiment and the Construction of French Patriotism and Identity in the Inter-Empire Period.” Studies on Italian Music History, Vol. 8, Roberto Illiano, ed. Turnhot: Brepols.

Book Reviews

2018 Review of F.M. Scherer’s Quarter Notes and Bank Notes: The Economics of Music Composition in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. In Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. Forthcoming.
2015 Review of Katharine Ellis’s The Politics of Plainchant in fin-de-siècle France. In Early Music America 20:2.
2013 Review of Kerry McCarthy’s Byrd. In Early Music America 19:4.

Editorials, Performing Reviews, & Journalistic Writing

 More than 350 in-depth pieces for the Twin Cities Arts Reader, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Boston Music Intelligencer, Arts National, and The Chattanoogan.

Encyclopedia Articles

2015 “Léon Carvalho.” Grove Music Online.

Prefaces

2018 Preface. Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Judicium Salomonis. Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich. Munich, Germany.
2018 Preface. Gaetano Donizetti’s Preludio Funebre. Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich. Munich, Germany.
2013 Preface. Jules Massenet’s Parade Militaire. Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich. Munich, Germany.
2013 Preface. André Grétry’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in D Major. Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich. Munich, Germany.

Invited Talks & Lectures

2018 Invited Talk: “The Music of Game of Thrones: ‘The Rains of Castamere’ and Signs that Your Favorite Character is Going to Die.” Talk given at Nerd-Nite Chattanooga 2018 (Chattanooga, TN).
2018 Invited Talk: “Alternate Directions: Multiple Career Paths for Music Scholars.” Talk given at the Joint Fall 2018 Meeting of the Allegheny, Capital, and Mid-Atlantic Chapters of the American Musicological Society (Newark, DE).
2018 Invited Talk: “Why We Need More Musicals for K-5 Girls.” Talk given at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (Chattanooga, TN).
2016 Invited Talk: “Creating Gender Parity in Opera: Really Spicy Opera’s 3-Year Plan for Opera by Women, About Women, Featuring Women.” Talk given at Walden University (Minneapolis, MN).
2016 Invited Lecture: “The Revival of Greco-Roman Classics and the Birth of Opera.” Paper presented at Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA).
2015 Pre-performance Lecture: “Behind the Scenes at the World Premiere of La fille du régiment.” Paper presented at Greensboro Opera (Greensboro, NC).
2013 Invited Lecture: “Liszt, the Symphonic Poem, and Wagner’s Mature Style.” Paper presented at the Townsend School of Music, Mercer University (Macon, Georgia).

Presentations

2019 “The Music Collection of the Ridgely Family of Hampton and the Emergence of an ‘American’ Identity in Music in the Antebellum Period.” Paper to be presented at the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Meeting (Denver, Colorado).
2019 The Lady with a Harp: Music and Women’s Education in the Early United States.” Paper to be presented at the Society of Early Americanists 11th Biennial Conference (Eugene, Oregon).
2018 “The Music Collection of the Ridgelys of Hampton: Overview, History, and Sourcing.” Paper presented at the Joint Meeting of the Allegheny, Capital, and Mid-Atlantic Chapters of the American Musicological Society (Newark, Delaware).
2018 “The Making of ‘The Lady with the Harp’: Eliza Ridgely (1803-1867), Thomas Sully, and Francophilia in the Early United States.” Paper presented at Research Dialogues conference (Chattanooga, Tennessee).
2018 “Audience Awareness of the Censored Past in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment: Censorship, Coded Messages, and Government Propaganda.” Paper presented at the Spring Meeting of the American Musicological Society-South Central Chapter (Asheville, North Carolina).
2018 “The Roots of American Opera: How the Haitian Revolution Brought Opera to New Orleans.” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the National Opera Association (New Orleans, Louisiana).
2016 “The Thematic Language of Game of Thrones: ‘The Rains of Castamere’ and Other Songs.” Paper presented at the Fall Meeting of the American Musicological Society-Capital Chapter (Ashland, Virginia).
2015 “Situational Friendship and Strange Bedfellows amongst European Seafarers, Colonists, and Pirates on the Indian Ocean, 1695-1721.” Paper presented at the 3rd Annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies (St. Louis, Missouri).
2015  “Anglo-Dutch Seafarers and Musical Diplomacy in the Age of Discovery.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America (Berlin, Germany).
2014 “A Singer from Casanova’s Circle: Louise ‘Lolotte’ Gaucher (c. 1717-1765), Fille d’Opéra and Courtesan.” Paper presented at the Midwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society Spring Meeting (Minneapolis, Minnesota).
2014 “Boscawen’s Repulse and the Sound of the Drums: A Case Study in Ethnomusicologically-Informed Military History.” Paper presented at the Midwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting (Appleton, Wisconsin).
2013 “Challenges to Greco-Roman Concepts of Music in Marin Mersenne’s Questions Harmoniques (1634).” Paper presented at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting (San Diego, California).
2013 “Music Ministry in the Catholic Church: From Clerical to Lay Leadership.” Paper presented at the Catholic Vocations in a Time of Change Symposium (Boston, Massachusetts).
2013 “Music and the Pirates of Madagascar.” Paper presented at the Winter Meeting of the New England Chapter of the American Musicological Society (Medford, Massachusetts).
2012 “The Rise and Fall of Classical Music in Colonial Mauritius, ‘The Little Paris’ of the Indian Ocean.” Paper presented at the Joint Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Society of Ethnomusicology, and Society for Music Theory (New Orleans, Louisiana).
2012 “Re-Attributing London-Royal College of Music MS1070: New Technologies and Insights,” Paper presented at the Boston University Medieval and Renaissance Symposium (Boston, Massachusetts).
2012 “Identity in Mauritius: the Role of Government Policy and Tourism in ‘National Culture’.” Paper presented at the International Musicological Society Congress (Rome, Italy).
2012 “Glocalization, Tourism, and Employment Opportunities for Musicians in Mauritius.” Current Trends in Ethnomusicological Research 4 Workshop (Hildesheim, Germany).
2011 La Fille du Régiment and the Construction of French Patriotism and Identity in the Inter-Empire Period.” Paper presented at the VIVA V.E.R.D.I. Conference (Pistoia, Italy).
2011 “Confrontation and Accommodation in the Battle of Séga and Christian Song in Mauritius.” Paper presented at the conference Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives (Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK).
2011 “Under Cover of Darkness: Slavery, Exoticism, and Illegal Dance in Colonial Mauritius.” Paper presented at the Northeast Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting (Boston, Massachusetts).
2011 “The Tudor Rose, Anne Boleyn, and Heraldry in the Attribution of Royal College of Music Manuscript 1070.” Paper presented at the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting (Montreal, Canada).
2009 “Pamphlets Seen and Sung: The Reformation Drawn and Countered.” Paper presented at the Propagandes Objectifs et Pratiques au 16e Siècle et au 20e Siècle Conference, Université-Libre-de-Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium).
2008 “Death by Education: The Soviet School System and the Decline of Armenian Folk Song.” Paper presented at the American Musicological Society Pacific Southwest Chapter Meeting (Los Angeles, California).