Michelle Astorsdotter (MM)
Jack Bussert (MM)
From: Bixby, Oklahoma
Education: BM, BME University of Tulsa
Interests: acoustic resonance, instrumentation, monody, pedagogy, composition, performance, and analysis
Hippocrates Cheng (PhD)
Peter Cho (PhD)
Education: MM Indiana University
Christa Cole is a Ph.D. candidate from Boise, Idaho and is currently working on her dissertation on performative effort in the music of British twelve-tone composer Elisabeth Lutyens. This project combines her interests of twentieth-century music, performance and analysis, and gesture and instrumental spaces. Cole holds a BM in Violin Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and continues to actively perform in various solo and ensemble capacities. Outside of school, she enjoys rock climbing, cooking Bon Appetit recipes, and going on walks.
Thomas Collison (PhD)
Thomas Cooke (PhD)
From: Kings Mountain, North Carolina
Education: BM Furman University; MM Indiana University
Interests: music cognition, neo-tonal music, microtonal music
Mítia D’Acol is a PhD student in Music Theory from Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. Mítia completed a BA in Music Education and MM in Musicology at the University of São Paulo before coming to IU, where he completed a MM in Music Theory before starting his doctoral studies. Some of his interests include embodied cognition, schema theory, and the effect of dance on musical emotion—focusing mainly on eighteenth-century music. Outside of school, he enjoys spending time with his partner, two cats, and baking sourdough bread and pizza.
Nicole DiPaolo (PhD)
From: Northville, Michigan
Education: BM University of Michigan; MM Indiana University
Interests: the use of composition in undergraduate pedagogy, Schenkerian analysis of neo-tonal music, juvenilia of the great composers, music perception and cognition, form and phrase structure
Dissertation: “Approaches to Selected Harmonic Patterns in Early Partimenti and Their Influence on Handel”
Drake Eshleman is a first-year PhD student in Music Theory from Matamoras, Pennsylvania. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University with a BA in Music. His research interests include mathematical music theory, analysis of 20th and 21st century music, and analysis of music in video games – more particularly, how dynamic music solutions relate to other forms of determinism. He has also worked as a composer for video games and is a long-time choral singer, currently singing with IU’s NOTUS ensemble.
Jackson Faulkner (MM)
Loida Garza is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Theory from Houston, TX. Before starting her doctoral work at IU, she completed a MM in Music Theory at Texas State University and a BM in Music Theory from the University of Texas at Arlington. With a personal interest in cultivating and promoting music from Latin America, Loida’s dissertation research focuses on Julián Carrillo’s compositional works. Other research interests include 20th- and 21st-century Latin American music, film music, Beethoven, music perception and cognition, formal analysis, and music and disability studies. Although primarily a pianist, she enjoys playing violin in IU’s Mariachi Perla del Medio Oeste around campus/Bloomington. Outside of music, she likes to crochet, run, and hike and travel with her husband and pets.
Joey Grunkemeyer is a first-year PhD student in Music Theory from Canton, Georgia. Joey completed a BA in Music Theory at Kennesaw State University before coming to IU. His primary research interest is narrative ambiguity in the music of Brahms. Other research interests include rhythm and meter in Brahms, musical hermeneutics, musical narrative, and the music of 20th-century Russian composers. Non-theory interests include hiking, playing cello, playing chamber music, and spending time with his dog, Lily. Joey has enjoyed exploring the IU campus, the various hiking trails around Bloomington, and all of the great restaurants. He is very excited to be here!
Alissa Guntren (PhD)
John Heilig (PhD)
From: Cooper City, Florida
Education: BM Florida State University; MM Indiana University
Interests: saxophone repertoire, minimalism, text setting
Madeleine Howey (PhD)
From: Watertown, South Dakota
Education: BA Concordia College (MN); MM Indiana University
Interests: post-tonal theory, performance and analysis, percussion, text setting
Stephen Komer (PhD)
From: Chesterfield, Michigan
Education: BM Oakland University; MM Indiana University
Interests: Renaissance music, Schenkerian analysis, analysis of Baroque music
Dissertation: “Applications of Modal Theory to the Analysis of Josquin’s Liturgical Polyphony”
Teaching at DePauw University
Sarah Mahnken Komer (PhD)
From: Schleswig, Iowa
Education: BA Concordia University (NE); MM University of Nebraska
Interests: Shostakovich, scale theory, modes, pitch centricity
Anne Liao (MM)
Stephen McFall (PhD)
From: Aiken, South Carolina
Education: BM Winthrop University; MM Indiana University
Interests: perception and cognition, 20th- and 21st-century music, minimalism, Nordic music
K. Lee Morris is an MM student in Violin Performance and Music Theory, studying with Grigory Kalinovsky. She received a BM in Violin Performance and Music Theory with Highest Distinction from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Mikhail Kopelman. Her orchestral experience includes serving as concertmaster for the Academy Chamber Orchestra (2016-2017) and for the Chautauqua Institution Festival Orchestra (Summer, 2019). As a soloist, K. Lee has performed the Conus Violin Concerto with the Academy Chamber Orchestra and Ravel’s Tzigane with the Federal Way Symphony. Her research interests in music theory include harmony and form in late 19C/early 20C French music.
Sam Mullooly is an MM student in Music Theory from Milwaukee, WI. He graduated summa cum laude from Illinois Wesleyan University with a BM in Music Composition. He is a former member and Vice President of the Milwaukee-based professional early music ensemble Aperi Animam. Sam’s research interests revolve around bridging the gap between the academic and popular worlds of music, and he is specifically interested in the fields of pop/rock music analysis, public music theory, and forensic musicology.
Albert Newberry (MM ’23) is originally from the small town of Bland, Virginia. His love for music began at Renaissance Music Academy, where he studied piano with Teresa Ehrlich and music theory with Barbara Mackin. In 2017, he moved to New York City, where he attended Mannes School of Music and earned a Bachelor’s of Music in Piano Performance, studying with Irina Morozova. As a performer and a composer, he has won numerous accolades, such as the Downbeat Magazine 2017 Outstanding Performance Award, second place in the 2019 Metropolitan International Piano Competition, and the 2020 Presser Scholar Award. His research interests as a music theorist include contemporary jazz and Russian classical music. Albert has also always had an interest in filmmaking, and has garnered a few prizes at film festivals for his work.
Jack Nighan is pursuing the MM in music theory and the MLS in library science. Originally from Glastonbury, Conn., Jack graduated magna cum laude from the University of Connecticut with a BM in music theory and a BA in music history, where he was principal oboist of the wind ensemble and symphony orchestra. A lover of modern music, Jack has had the privilege of performing in premieres of works by many composers including Joseph Schwantner, Miho Sasaki, and Margaret Bonds, and writing an undergraduate thesis titled “Interval-Class Pairing Models in Lutosławski’s Epitaph.” Jack’s research interests include post-tonal theory, twentieth-century harmony, and music theory pedagogy.
David Orvek is a PhD candidate in music theory from Saint David, Arizona. He is currently working as an adjunct professor at Butler University and writing his dissertation on British modernist music after 1950. He holds degrees in music theory from Southern Adventist University and The Ohio State University. In addition to British modernism, he is also interested in early music and mathematical music theory. When he has time outside of school, David enjoys reading and abstract painting.
Despoina Panagiotidou (PhD)
From: Drama, Greece
Education: BA University of Macedonia; MM Indiana University
Interests: 20th-century Greek music, sonata theory, music perception and cognition
Jinny Park (PhD)
From: Tallahassee, Florida
Education: BM Florida State University; MM Indiana University
Interests: from Renaissance viol consort music to 21st-century music
Dissertation: “Diatonic Chord Loops in Post-Millennial Pop Harmony”
Anna Peloso is a third year PhD student in Music Theory from Los Angeles, California. She earned her BM and MM in Percussion Performance at California State University, Northridge, as well as a MM in Music Theory at Indiana University. Additionally, she obtained a Certificate in Recording Technology at Glendora College. Her music theory research interests are in twentieth- and twenty-first century music, including jazz (fusion, harmony & analysis, vocal jazz ensemble music), electronic/ambient music, music technology, and film music. Anna also composes, binge watches comedies, and listens to music backwards on DJ programs for fun.
Connor Reinman (PhD)
Lev Roshal (MM/MM (violin))
Alexander “Alex” Shannon is currently a second-year doctoral student in music theory at the Jacobs School of Music. He is originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, and he previously earned his Master of Music degree in music theory from the University of Missouri–Kansas City and undergraduate degrees at Centenary College of Louisiana, where he studied theoretical mathematics and music. His research interests include mathematical approaches to music analysis, studies of music with text, and more recently, intersections between queer studies and music theory. In his spare time, Alex enjoys being active in campus organizations, including the Graduate Theory Association (GTA) and the Graduate & Professional Student Government (GPSG). He also loves spending time with his cats, Felix and Fanny (named after the Mendelssohn composer siblings).
Emily Truell is a PhD student in Music Theory from Elizabethton, Tennessee. Her research interests include intersections between musical performance and theory, form and temporality in the eighteenth century, and, secondarily, issues of classroom pedagogy and higher education. Before her doctoral work, Emily completed a master’s in music theory at the IU Jacobs School of Music with outside specialization in historical performance. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in viola performance and music theory from Furman University, as well as additional certification from the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy in Italian cultural studies. Aside from listening to, thinking about, and performing music, she is happiest with her husband Justin, reading books on parenting and raising their son Maxwell in Bloomington, Indiana.
Tori Vilches, originally from the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex, is a first year Ph.D. student studying music theory. Tori earned her B.M. in Vocal Performance from Tarleton State University (2020) a holds a M.M. degree in Music Theory from Texas Christian University (2022). Tori’s research interests are interdisciplinary, having to do with the Humanities and their intersection with music theory. She is interested in race, gender, and culture and the ways in which they interact with music theory and music theory pedagogy. She is also interested in pop music analysis and gender representation in music theory pedagogy. Tori’s master’s thesis, “Exploring the Hidden Curriculum: Diversifying Gender Representation in Music Theory Pedagogy” takes a critical look at the Western theory pedagogical canon and its severe under-representation of women composers. She has presented her research at both graduate and professional conferences in the past year. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, swimming, and spoiling her cat, Mira.
Matthew Voglewede (PhD)
From: Rockville, MD
Education: BS University of Maryland; MA University of Oregon
Interests: music theory pedagogy, music perception and cognition, music informatics
Wade Voris (PhD)
From: Springfield, MO
Education: BM Belmont University; MM Indiana University
Interests: classical form, music during the late Romantic period, musical aesthetics, and Anton Bruckner’s symphonies
Samantha (Sam) Waddell is a second-year PhD student in Music Theory from Evansville, Indiana. She holds a BM in Piano Performance from the University of Evansville and an MM in Music Theory from Michigan State University. Sam’s research interests include rhythm and meter perception, popular music, cognitive approaches to musical narrative, and music theory pedagogy. In her spare time, Sam likes to take care of her houseplants and spend time with her cat.
Lizhou Wang is a second-year PhD student in Music Theory. A native Chinese, he grew up in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province and lived in Shanghai before moving to the US. His research interests include classical forms, Schenkerian analysis, musical space and cognition, and intercultural comparison and interpretation. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Musicology from Shanghai University, and MM in Music Theory from Indiana University. Lizhou enjoys teaching and writing about music theory leisurely, hiking and driving on a sunny day, taking care of his balcony plants, and playing with his three cute cats.
Kelvin M. Wu (MM/MM)
From:
Education: BA University of Notre Dame in Music
Interests: instrumental music of Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, their related composers, 19th century music from the German speaking realms, as well as Schenkerian Analysis
Abigail York (PhD)
From: Kansas City, MO
Education: BM University of Missouri–Kansas City
Interests: pedagogy, rhythm and meter, hermeneutical approaches, literary criticism, musical meaning