GMA & Student Representatives (2025–26)
Graduate Musicology Association (GMA):
Presidents: John Matthew Cowan (Ph.D.) and Peyson Weekley (Ph.D.)
Vice Presidents: Elizabeth Hile (Ph.D.) and Alex Spees (M.A./M.L.S.)
IU Graduate and Professional Student Organization Representative:
April Balay (Ph.D.)
JSoM Student Representative Committee:
Kait Canneto (Ph.D.)
Active Students
Miguel Arango Calle is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at Indiana University. He received a B.M. in Guitar Performance from the University of Costa Rica and an M.M. in Music Theory from the University of Arizona. Miguel’s research focuses on the operas of Mozart and his contemporaries. Currently, Miguel is working as a co-editor for the Indiana Theory Review and as an editorial assistant for the website Mozart: New Documents. In his free time, Miguel likes to play tennis.
April Balay, pronounced ‘bay-lee’, is a PhD student in musicology originally from Durham, North Carolina. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Campbell University (‘17) and a Master of Music in Music History from the University of South Carolina (‘22). April loves her work at the IU Music Library, attends trivia nights, rewatching her favorite shows, and taking naps with her void kitty, Midnight and multi-colored tabby kitten, Aurora. April is a popular music scholar who is passionate about a variety of topics, including but not limited to, popular music produced in times of collective cultural crisis, American composers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and operas composed by American composers in the post-WWII era.
Yael Beer is an M.A. student in Musicology. Originally from Queens, New York, they obtained their B.A. in Vocal Performance with a minor in Russian Studies from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Their research interests include music composed in the Theresienstadt ghetto during the Holocaust, and the development of Ashkenazi liturgical modes. In their free time, they enjoy knitting sweaters and playing the flute.
Natalie Benefield is an MA/MLS student from Fort Worth, Texas. She received her B.A. in Music from Texas Christian University, where she studied the cello under Jesus Castro-Balbi and Juliette Herlin, as well as French. Natalie’s musical interests include symphonic literature of the 20th century, the development of the cello and its repertoire, and the intersections of sacred and Western art music. An avid cellist, Natalie maintains an active career playing and performing in both orchestral and chamber settings. When not in class or rehearsal, she can often be found behind the circulation desk of the William and Gayle Cook Music Library. Outside of music, Natalie enjoys cooking, cheering on TCU athletics, and keeping up with the New York Times daily crossword.
Grace Brown is an M.A. student in Musicology at Indiana University. She earned her B.M. in Music Performance from North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC, where she studied tuba as her principal instrument and also performed on trombone and euphonium. Her research centers on the cultural and historical significance of music in collective spaces. She is currently writing on the importance of HBCU marching bands, with particular attention to Homecoming traditions and the role of bands as ambassadors of sound, heritage, and pride. More broadly, Grace is interested in queer studies, the intersections of music and identity, and the soundscapes of large-scale public events such as the Olympics. Originally from Cary, NC (though she sometimes claims Orlando, FL), Grace brings a wide-ranging curiosity to her work. Outside of her research, she is a lifelong reader and enjoys diving into history, television, and film, always attentive to the ways stories—whether musical or otherwise—shape communities and cultures. Grace also enjoys hanging out with her black cat Inky and cosplaying as a contestant on America’s Next Top Model
Abigail Byrd Glidewell is a second-year Musicology Ph.D. student originally from Greenville, SC. She graduated from the University of Alabama in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in Music Theory and a minor in Liberal Arts through the Blount Scholars Program. Abigail’s research interests focus on how identity is portrayed and mediated musically, particularly in popular music. Recent projects have seen her explore messaging and metaphor in Christian nationalist music, environmentalism and ethics in the string instrument industry, and the collaborative process between musicians and producers. She has presented her work at IASPM, AMIS, AMS chapter meetings, and Harvard’s Instruments, Infrastructures, and Interfaces conference. Her paper “The String Instrument Industry and the Triple Bottom Line” won the American Musical Instrument Society’s Frederick R. Selch Student Paper Award in 2024. An active cellist, church musician, recording artist, and liturgist, Abigail’s involvement in diverse communities inspires her academic and pedagogical interests.
Kaitlyn Canneto (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in Musicology at Indiana University, originally from the Jersey Shore. She received a B.A. in Music with minors in Political Science and Spanish from The College of New Jersey, and an M.M. in Music History from Temple University. Kaitlyn’s research primarily focuses on popular music of the Americas—including jazz, contemporary US pop, as well as Latinx pop—and its intersections with gender, sexuality, race, religion, and intimacy. She has given presentations at the International Meeting of IASPM and CMS Northeast. Her work has also been featured in Boston University’s Ampersand: An American Studies Journal in March 2023. Outside of academia, Kaitlyn enjoys cooking and spoiling her two cats, Richard and Truffle.
Rachel Cisneros is a Ph.D. student in musicology.
Molly Covington is a Ph.D. student in Musicology with a Bachelor of Music in music theory from the University of North Texas. Her research interests include philosophies of musical meaning, exoticism in classical opera, and Afrofuturism. She plays classical guitar and enjoys practicing various forms of dance.
John Matthew Cowan is a Ph.D. student in musicology from Stirling, NJ. He holds a B.A. in Music Studies from the University of South Florida (‘21) and an M.M. in Musicology from the University of Miami Frost School of Music (‘23). Cowan’s primary research interests include analysis of mid- to late-18th-century European music, 18th- and 19th-century opera (particularly comic opera), and all things musicological-historiographical. Cowan has presented on the topic of his Master’s thesis, “Monostatos: Ethnoracial Representation and Cultural Politics in Die Zauberflöte,” at multiple conferences. While at UM, he served in the Graduate Student Association as Senator for the Department of Musicology and a Co-Chair of the Committee for Music and Arts. At IU, Cowan served two terms as a President of the Graduate Musicology Association and on the Executive Board of the University Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He also works in Reference and Special Collections at the William and Gayle Cook Music Library, where he oversees the Walter Kaufmann Collection.
Nicole Cowan is a M.A. in Musicology/MLS student from Grapevine, TX. She earned her undergraduate degree in Flute Performance with a minor in French and Francophone Studies at Texas Christian University. Her research interests include the transition between the classic and romantic eras, how music is used to tell stories, and the intersection between music and emotion. In her free time, she enjoys watching college football, getting lost in the stacks of the Cook Music Library and cozying up with a good book.
Drew Diekman is an M.A. student in musicology from Rochester, NY. He graduated from Belmont University with a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Piano Performance. His primary research interests focus on genre and stylistic development; from 19th century chamber music, to 20th century folk music revivals, to 21st century electronic micro-genres developing in online spaces. In his free time, Drew is an avid reader and home cook, as well as a massive fan of the Buffalo Bills.
Kaylee Feller-Simmons is a musicology Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University. Her academic interests center on the everyday music of youth culture, a topic that she has explored regarding various centuries: from music and adolescent drug use in Holland’s Golden Age, to mother-daughter relationships at the Victorian piano, to 1990’s politics and the Spice Girl’s “Girl power!” movement. An early modernist at heart, her dissertation explores the intersection of 17th-century Dutch songbooks with historical conceptions of youth and gender. Beyond her affiliation with Indiana University, Feller-Simmons is an adjunct professor of musicology at Utah State University and serves as the Webmaster for the Midwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society. She recently relocated to Chicago, where she lives with her incredibly smart and handsome husband, and adorable cat, Adonis. When she is not transcribing early modern Dutch lyrics, teaching, or mastering the web, Feller-Simmons enjoys singing with the Allice Millar Chapel Choir and hiking through mountains of the Rocky Mountain West.
Maria Fokina is a Ph.D. student in musicology. She received her B.A. (Hons.) in Music from the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research interests include nineteenth-century and twentieth-century Russian music, Russian and Soviet ballet, and the music of Ottorino Respighi.
Jacqueline Fortier is a PhD candidate in musicology at Indiana University. She holds an MA and a BA in musicology from Laval University. Her dissertation project focuses on 21st-century Martinican popular music and cultural heritage. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, she explores the various means through which artists utilize local oral and musical traditions as a means to construct identity and address current socio-political issues. Her other research interests include examining musical and linguistic connections across French and French Creole speakers in the Americas.
Benjamin Fowler is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology from Helena, MT and Richland, WA. He holds degrees in piano performance from the University of Montana and University of South Carolina and a M.M. In musicology from Northwestern University. His research interests are music of Mexico, eighteenth-century keyboard music, and American Music. As a recipient of the Tinker Foundation Grant for pre-dissertation research in Mexico, he spent time at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música archives looking at nineteenth-century Mexican piano music and opera.”
Monika Franaszczuk is a Ph.D. student in musicology.
Carter Hammond is a second year MA/MLS student. Originally from West Michigan, he completed bachelor’s degrees in violin performance and psychology at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His research interests lie in the 19th century, in particular the world and music of the Mendelssohn family. In his free time, he enjoys running and watching college football.
Samantha Hark is a Ph.D. student in Musicology from Long Island, New York. She received a B.A. in Music with Departmental Honors from Stony Brook University and received her M.A. in Musicology from Indiana University Bloomington. Sam’s research interests include obscure internet culture, the cyclical nature of human experience with music, music and trauma, music and grief, and music and magic. While her interests are wide-ranging, Sam is most dedicated to the general practice of Public Musicology. She has presented her paper “As the Parish Was Perishing: A Theological Perspective on Black Musical Activism During the AIDS Crisis in the United States” at both Indiana University Bloomington’s Musicology Colloquium Series and Yale’s Graduate Music Symposium.
Luke Foster Hayden is an M.A. student studying musicology originally from Portage, Indiana, but has resided in Bloomington since 2014. Informed by his experience teaching general music in public schools, Hayden uses a cross-discipline approach to historical music research. His research interests are centered around Danish music, specifically Danish language opera. Aside from Danish music, Hayden is also interested in music that could be considered periphery or “other.” Outside of his musicological work, Luke is an avid cyclist and home cook. He owns a sizable collection of cast iron cookware.
Elizabeth Hile is a Ph.D. student in musicology from Everett, WA. She holds two Master’s degrees: a Master of Music in composition from Central Washington University (where she also earned her Bachelor’s in composition) and a Master of Arts in music history from the University of Idaho. Her musicological and performance interests are varied and numerous: the most prominent include orchestration in the 19th and 20th centuries (especially works of Gustav Mahler), programmatic music, chamber music composition, and historical performance practice on the traverso. A lifelong fascination with James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan canon has also propelled her to pursue several research and creative projects related to draft texts and musical interpretations of the story. When not practicing, researching, or writing, Elizabeth enjoys working on pen and ink illustrations of birds, making sushi, beach combing the Pacific coast, and visiting with her pet dove, Scottie.
Joshua Joy is a student in the M.A. in Musicology/MLS program.
Mingfei Li is a PhD candidate in Musicology with minors in Music Theory and Piano Performance. Her dissertation focuses on Emanuel Schikaneder and late-eighteenth-century German theater. She is currently serving as the Student Representative on the board of officers and directors at the Mozart Society of America. Li’s other research interests include music and trauma studies as well as nineteenth-century arrangements and transcriptions. Li has previously presented at the Mozart Colloquium, an international seminar devoted to Mozart scholarship; the national joint conference of AMS/SMT/SEM; and the international conference of “Music/Sound through the Lens of Trauma Studies.” Li holds a Master’s degree and a Performance Diploma in Piano Performance from the IU Jacobs School of Music, where she received a full scholarship, associate instructorship, Artistic Excellence Award, and the Irving & Lena Lo Scholarship.
Sarah Adele Kirkman McDonie is a PhD candidate in musicology with a minor in media studies from Missouri. She’s finishing her dissertation, “Performance in a More-than-Human World: An Ecological and Cybernetic Approach to Performance and Aesthetic Experience,” which explores different facets of how performance does things to and with us. An adapted version of her dissertation’s fourth chapter will be published in an upcoming special issue of American Music devoted to Meredith Monk’s work. Sarah is an alumna of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute and currently works in IU’s Center for Possible Minds. Beyond her professional commitments, she is an avid birder, scuba diver, and determined weightlifter. Sarah and her husband, Brian, love spending time outdoors with their adorably charismatic Sheltie, Manford, and are on a quest to replicate Runcible Spoon’s pancakes at home.
Meredith K. Michael is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology with a minor in comparative literature. She previously earned a M.M. in musicology from Baylor University and a B.A. in piano performance from Georgetown College. Her research interests include relationships between music and literature, 19th century French music, music historiography and pedagogy, and moon operas. She is in the process of writing a dissertation exploring how music shaped modern mythologies of outer space in the 20th century. Meredith currently works in the music library’s digitization lab and as the production assistant for the podcast Weird Studies. In her spare time, she can be found accumulating way too many library books, watching cartoons, and hanging out with her two cats.
Samuel Motter is an Indiana native who holds a degree in jazz saxophone from the Jacobs School and is currently pursuing both an M.A. in musicology and an M.M. in historical performance at the same institution. Sam has been active as a performer and teacher in the Indiana music scene for the past decade, having collaborated with artists including the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project, Brother Sponge, Sir Deja Doog, Michael Spiro, and Wayne Wallace, appearing on the Grammy-nominated album Canto América. He has played the cornetto since 2018, blending his passions for improvisation, wind playing, and history. Sam’s research interests include repertoire, context, and performing practice of the 16th and 17th centuries. In his free time, Sam enjoys spending time in the great outdoors.
Lauren O’Connor is a dual M.L.S./M.A. in Musicology student originally from Denver, Colorado. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Music Performance and Spanish from Michigan State University. Her main research focus is music and print culture in the eighteenth century and prior; including all things regarding music literacy, collection, circulation, and dissemination. She is also interested in music librarianship and early music in Spain. Outside of her studies, Lauren enjoys reading, knitting, playing the baroque oboe, and spending time with her cat, Gus.
Grace Pechianu is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at Indiana University, Bloomington. She holds a M.M. in musicology and a B.M. with concentrations in musicology and violin performance from Northwestern University. Her research focuses on Cold War-era radio and music programming as a site of ideological confrontation. Grace presented “Echoes of Exile and the Kingdom: Radio Free Europe’s Early Music Programming for the Socialist Republic of Romania” at the 2023 Central Slavic Conference and “The Romanian Church in Exile: Sacred Strains in the Ether” at the Music Biennale Zagreb International Musicology Conference in April 2025. Grace’s work considers networks of Romanian exiles and defected musicians, their role as contributors to Radio Free Europe, and agency in facilitating communication with Romanians behind closed borders. Her other research interests include French Baroque opera, music inspired by the legend of Faust, and colonial radio during the British Raj.
Tess Rhian is a musicology Ph.D. student from Carmel, New York. She recently earned a B.A. in music from Muhlenberg College, with concentrations in vocal performance and music history. Her undergraduate honors thesis focused on Lully’s Armide and its function as allegorical propaganda for king Louis XIV. She has also studied Bartók’s ethnographic approach to creating a new Hungarian national music regarding the incorporation of Roma musical traditions. Tess is interested in researching the ways in which “othered” peoples and their musical traditions have been represented in the dominant cultures that surround them. In her free time, she enjoys learning new music, reading, and practicing yoga.
Lucy Rissmeyer is a student in the M.A. in Musicology/MLS program. They received a BM in Piano Performance from Ithaca College in 2023, where they studied with Dmitri Novgorodsky. They are an avid fan of 20th and 21st century music and love listening to new composers. Outside of music they enjoy hiking and experimenting in the kitchen.
Yishai Rubin is a PhD candidate in the Musicology Department, working on musical interactions between Jewish communities and their surroundings in the northern Rhinelands during the late-eighteenth century. As a secondary field, Yishai explores medieval plainchant repertories, with a specific focus on monastic liturgies in Flanders. In addition to his scholarly endeavors, Yishai is a professionally active keyboard player, performing on both the modern piano and the harpsichord. When taking a break from his musical activities, Yishai enjoys reading, running, or nerding out on Latin grammar, but he is most likely to be found hunched over his current jigsaw puzzle.
Sarah Sabol, originally from Ovid, New York, is a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology. She previously earned an M.A. in Musicology from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec) and a B.M. in Organ Performance from Rice University (Houston, Texas). Sarah is currently interested in cultural aspects of music performance, production, and collection by Italian academies during the sixteenth century and primarily engages with motets, madrigals, and musical puzzles. She also focuses on the analytical features of this music, namely modal cadence theory. Another topic addressed in her research is the historiography of early modern music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Sarah has recently presented her work at MedRen, AMS Midwest, the Newberry Library Graduate Student Conference, and the Sounding Habsburg Conference. She enjoys outdoor activities – kayaking, running, and hiking – as well as spending time in the kitchen and struggling through the crossword puzzle.
Casey Schreck is an MA/MLS student from Washington, DC. She received a BM in Clarinet Performance and a BA in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her primary research interest is how recording technology impacts performance practice. Her writing on a variety of other subjects can be found on her music blog. She is also passionate about cinema, literature, and cooking Chinese food.
Kristin Shaffer is a Ph.D. student in musicology from Tampa, Florida. She holds both an M.A. in musicology and an M.M. in voice from the Jacobs School of Music. Before coming to IU, Kristin earned a B.A. in English and a B.M. in voice from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. Her research focuses on French, German, and English-language art song of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kristin’s current project explores the salon networks and vocal compositions of Pauline Viardot around 1850, as well as Viardot’s engagement with the nineteenth-century album tradition. Other research interests include music and domesticity, women and music, and the intersections between music and literature. Kristin remains an avid performer; she sang the role of Mrs. Grose in IU’s 2025 production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw, and she currently serves as a soprano section leader and frequent recitalist at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. In her free time, Kristin enjoys working with oil pastels, cooking comfort food, and shopping for antiques.
Alexandra Spees is an M.A. musicology student from the Indianapolis area. She received bachelor’s degrees from Butler University in Music History and German. Her musical interests lie in jazz music, American classical music, and ballet. Alex also has interests in public musicology, specifically programming for both orchestras and radio. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing with her cats, and baking French patisserie.
Micah Torcellini is an M.A. student in musicology. He graduated from Patrick Henry College with a degree in Classical Liberal Arts with a Music minor. He originates from a farm in Eastford, Connecticut, the residence of his weather predicting duck, Scramble. He is especially interested in the intersection of music and other disciplines, both academic and handicraft, which he explores primarily considering early music. He contemplates how music relates to philosophy and theology while he tinkers with his harpsichords.
Lily Warren is an MA/MLS student from Franklin, Tennessee. She holds a B.M. in Vocal Performance from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee under the direction of Dina Cancryn. Her research interests include the emergence of Romanticism and the societal shifts coming out of the Enlightenment in Germanic music. She is also interested in the role of women in music, specifically in lieder and other European home music. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing pickleball, and cooking for her roommates.
Lindsay Weaver is a Ph.D. student in musicology from Sandy, Utah. She received her M.S. in Library Science from Indiana University and a B.A. in Music from Brigham Young University. Her research interests predominantly center on nineteenth-century French opera and music culture in Paris, musical theater, and reception history. Her other interests include codicology, collectorship, and digital humanities. She has previously presented at the American Harp Society, the Mountain-Plains Chapter of the Music Library Association, and the International Association of Music Libraries. In her free time, she enjoys thinking about fiction, information security, and pretending not to play video games.
Peyson Weekley is a Ph.D. student in musicology from western Pennsylvania. He holds an M.A. in musicology and an M.L.S. in music librarianship from Indiana University. Before coming to I.U., Peyson earned bachelor’s degrees in music and political science from Ohio University. His research interests center on music and politics in the later eighteenth century, particularly patronage in Central Europe and its effects on Joseph Haydn and his contemporaries. Peyson’s eighteenth-century interests also include topic theory, form and style, musical rhetoric, and the Enlightenment. He recently presented at the I.U. Symposium of Research in Music. Peyson is currently co-president of the I.U. Graduate Musicology Association, and he also provides graduate leadership to the Jacobs School’s Student Representative Committee. Outside of music, Peyson enjoys playing tennis, supporting the Pittsburgh Steelers, and reading.
Kitt Westerduin is a Ph.D. student in musicology. They study early modern women’s music making, plucked strings, early Latin American music, and gravitates towards themes of enclosure and connection.
Travis Whaley is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology with a minor in organ performance from Cary, North Carolina. His dissertation, “Organ Tablature and Conceptions of Music in the Seventeenth Century,” investigates notation as a tool and explores how using letter tablature affects musical issues like performance, genre, improvisation, pedagogy, and publishing. He completed an M.M in organ performance under Chris Young and an M.A. in musicology at Indiana University in 2018. He holds bachelor’s degrees in piano performance, composition, and German from Virginia Tech, where he studied piano with Tracy Cowden and composition with Kent Holliday. He holds an Honors Baccalaureate Diploma for his undergraduate thesis, “Beethovens Kompositionsvorgang in der Waldstein Sonate, Op. 53.” In the summer of 2014, Travis competed in the International Bach Competition held in Leipzig, Germany. His other areas of research include studies in the compositional process and American country music. Travis is an avid NASCAR fan and comic book reader.
Nathan Wright is a Ph.D. student in musicology from Fishers, Indiana and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Anderson University. His current academic interests include music in Renaissance culture and intersections of music and philosophy. He has contributed program notes to the University Singers and Summer Chorus ensembles. In addition to his research interests, Nathan is an avid choral singer and participates in several choral ensembles within the Jacobs School of Music.
Leanna York is a Ph.D. student in musicology. She holds an M.A. in musicology from Butler University and a B.A. in string pedagogy from Maranatha Baptist University. Her research interests include the eighteenth-century oratorio and humanism and music in early modern England. Leanna also enjoys teaching, making music in her church, and video chatting with her twin sister and tribe of nieces and nephews.