Curriculum Vitae

Education

City University of New York, Graduate Center

  • Ph.D., Music Theory, 2013
  • Honors: Chancellor’s Fellow (2007–2012)

University of Cincinnati, College–Conservatory of Music

  • M.M., Music Theory, 2007
  • Honors: Graduate Teaching Fellow (2004–2007)

Furman University

  • B.M., Magna Cum Laude (Double Major: Saxophone Performance and Music Theory), 2004
  • Honors: Theodore Presser Scholar; Phi Beta Kappa

Dissertation and Thesis

Twelve-tone Cartography: Space, Chains, and Intimations of ‘Tonal’ Form in Anton Webern’s Twelve-tone Music

  • Award: Nominated for the Barry S. Brook Dissertation Award from the City University of New York
  • Advised by: Joseph N. Straus (Primary Advisor); Philip Lambert; Shaugn O’Donnell; Julian Hook, Indiana University

Integrating Analytical Elements Through Transpositional Combination in Two Works by George Crumb

  • Award: Nominated for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools Distinguished Thesis Award
  • Advised by: C. Catherine Losada (Primary Advisor); David Carson Berry; Steven J. Cahn

Teaching experience

University at Buffalo

  • Assistant Professor, August 2014–present
  • Teach courses and conduct research in post-tonal music theory and analysis, Schenkerian theory and analysis, and popular music. Advise theses and dissertations.

Furman University

  • Visiting Assistant Professor, 2010–14
  • Courses taught: Freshman and Sophomore Music Theory and Aural Skills, Form and Analysis, Counterpoint, Seminar: Analyzing Pop-Rock Music, Independent Study Advising

Brooklyn College

  • Graduate Teaching Fellow, 2008–10
  • Courses taught: Freshman and Sophomore Music Theory and Aural Skills, Graduate Seminar: Schenkerian Analysis I, Schenkerian Analysis for Undergraduate Students, Graduate Seminar: Post-Tonal Theory and Analysis

University of Cincinnati

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, 2004–7
  • Courses Taught: Freshman Music Theory and Aural Skills, Honors Music Theory and Aural Skills, Undergraduate Post-tonal Music Theory, Graduate Theory Review

Select presentations

  • “Chrysalis Gestures in Kaija Saariaho’s Sept Papillons.” Prsentation to the Post-1945 interest group at the Society for Music Theory, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2014.
  • “A Flipped, Category-Based Approach to Teaching Classical Form.” Annual meeting of FlipCamp Music Theory, Newark, Delaware, 2014.
  • “How is Webern’s Music Combinatorial?” Annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Charlotte, NC, 2013; annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of New York State, Stony Brook, NY 2013.
  • “Tonal Maps, Syntax, and Some Applications in Webern’s Twelve-Tone Music,” invited lecture at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati, OH, 2013.
  • “A Spatial Representation of Webern’s ‘Synthesis’ and an Analysis of ‘Blitz und Donner,’ from the Cantata I.” Annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest, Ann Arbor, MI, 2012.
  • “Webern’s Chains.” Presentation to the Graduate Student Workshop Program at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Minneapolis, MN, 2011.
  • “Improvisation and Innovation: Beethoven’s Sketches for the First Movement of Op. 31, no. 1.” Annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, Washington, D.C., 2011.
  • “Who Said That? Dialogue and Repetition in Three Soldier Songs from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn.” Annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of New York State, New York, New York, 2010.
  • “Getting RICH: Chain Transformations and Row Areas in Webern’s Op. 22, ii.” Annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Montréal, 2009 and the Music Theory Society of New York State, Hempstead, NY, 2009.
  • “Transpositional Combination and the Analysis of Form in George Crumb’s Lux Aeterna.” Annual meeting of Music Theory Southeast, Athens, GA, 2007; annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest, Lawrence, KS, 2007; annual meeting of the West Coast Conference for Music Theory and Analysis, Salt Lake City, 2007.
    • Recipient of Music Theory Southeast’s “Best Student Essay” Award
  • “Transpositional Combination and Collectional Interaction in George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae” Annual meeting of the Florida State University Music Theory Society Forum, Tallahassee, FL, 2006; annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest, Muncie, IN, 2006.
  • “Music as Metaphor: John Harbison’s ‘The Flight into Egypt’. ” National Conference for Undergraduate Research, Salt Lake City, 2004.
    • Recipient of Best Student Paper award from the Gamma Beta chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda, 2004
  • “Validating a Rhythmic Analysis of Béla Bartók’s Fourth String Quartet.” National Conference for Undergraduate Research, 2003.

Publications

  • Open Music Theory: an open-source, interactive, online “text”book. Co-authored with Kris Shaffer and Bryn Hughes, ed. Robin Wharton (Hybrid Pedagogy Publishing, 2014).
  • “Using Criterion-Referenced Assessment to Encourage Active Analytical Listening,” in Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy, vol. 2, 2014.
  • “Transpositional Combination and the Analysis of Form in George Crumb’s Lux Aeterna,” in Musical Currents from the Left Coast, ed. Jack Boss and Bruce Quaglia (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008): 174–191.
  • “Theme, “Key,” and “False Recapitulation” in Webern’s Quartet, Op. 22, II.” In preparation.
  • “The ‘little wings,’ ‘they bear within themselves’ the ‘whole’ … form”: Cyclic Composition and Musical Images of Nature in Webern’s Cantata I, Op. 29.” In preparation.

Workshops

  • Writing about Hearing and Making Aggregate-Based Music, PLP Workshop at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, 2014, Instructor: Andrew Mead
  • Hearing Schemas/Schema Hearings, Workshop at the annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest, 2012, Instructors: Robert Gjerdingen and Vasili Byros
  • Exploring Musical Spaces, Graduate Student Workshop Program at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, 2011, Instructor: Julian Hook

Academic and Professional service

  • Webmaster, Society for Music Theory, 2014–present
  • Associate Webmaster, Society for Music Theory, 2013–2014
  • Networking Committee, Society for Music Theory, 2013–present
  • Editorial Board, Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy, 2013-2014
  • Programming Committee, FlipCamp — an unconference on the inverted classroom, 2013
  • Theory and Composition Recruiting and Scholarship Interviews, Furman University, 2010–present
  • Speaker’s Committee, City University of New York, Graduate Center 2008–2010
  • Assistant Webmaster, City University of New York, Graduate Center, Department of Music, 2008–2010
  • Graduate Student Association, University of Cincinnati, Conservatory of Music, 2006–2007
  • Programming Committee, CCM Music Theory and Musicology Society, 2006–2007