GRADUATE STUDENTS
Brian Barone
Brian Barone is a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology and historical musicology. His dissertation places African musics and the idea of race at the center of a theory of musical modernity around the Atlantic basin. The project unfolds through case studies treating early modern guitar repertoire in Italy and Iberia, nineteenth-century ‘creolized’ contradance in the Caribbean, and twentieth- and twenty-first century popular musics in Nigeria. His other research interests include early sound recording in Cuba and the United States, salsa and radical politics in New York City, and the cultural history of wiretapping and sonic espionage.
Nathaniel Braddock (he/him/his)
Nathaniel Braddock is a PhD student specializing in African guitar styles. He completed an MA from Tufts University which focused on compositional and intellectual property issues in the West African “Yaa Amponsah” rhythm. Braddock performs solo fingerstyle guitar and in African style groups including Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. He has performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Music Meeting Nijmegen, Pitchfork Festival, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and many other venues. He was on faculty at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music for ten years and continues to teach privately. He has collaborated with musicians from Ghana, Uganda, DRC, Mali, Zambia, Tanzania, Mocambique, and Guinea. He is currently composing music for choreographer Edisa Weeks’ multi-site dance work “Three Rites” which is supported by grants from NewMusic USA (2019) and the New England Foundation for the Arts (2020), and which premiers in NYC fall 2023. Braddock produces podcasts for Afropop Worldwide. Contact: nathanielbraddock.com, braddock@bu.edu
Rachel Carpentier
Rachel Carpentier is a PhD candidate in historical musicology at BU. Originally from Cambria, CA, Rachel holds degrees from Harvard (AB in Music and Sanskrit and Indian Studies) and Boston University (MM in Choral Conducting). Her research interests include musical transmission and stylistic relationships between the Low Countries and the Iberian Peninsula across the sixteenth century, with an additional interest in transatlantic exchange. Her dissertation project considers these issues through the musical networks of Philippe Rogier (c.1561-1596), a Northern-born chapel master for Philip II of Spain in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Rachel is co-founder of Sourcework, an ensemble for the performance of renaissance polyphony from original notation, and performs regularly as a renaissance and baroque flutist. She has published articles in The Journal of the Alamire Foundation (2021) and in the edited volume The Anatomy of Iberian Polyphony Around 1500 (2021).
Elyse Clark
Elyse Clark is a PhD student in ethnomusicology at Boston University. Her research interests include the indigenization and contextualization of Christian hymns in global contexts, Anabaptist musical traditions, and the body in ritual contexts. Prior to attending BU, Elyse received her BA in sociology and music from Union College in 2018 where she trained as an opera singer, and later worked as a residential counselor at Northlands Job Corp Center in Vermont.
John Forrestal
John Forrestal’s research focuses on the musical ensemble that accompanies muay Thai (Thai kickboxing). His research looks at this ensemble’s standardization, repertory, and improvisation; and how these topics relate to broader concepts such as nationalism and regionalism, heritage, and the influence of mass tourism. He currently lives in Thailand and is conducting field research related to this topic. When he is not playing music or working with musicians, he is working with local dog rescues and animal rights advocates in Thailand.
Flora S. Giordani
Flora S. Giordani, born in 1996, is currently an M.A. student in Musicology at Boston University. She graduated in Musicology at «Manuel Castillo» Superior Conservatory of Music of Seville (Spain) in 2022. She also studied harpsichord and piano at G. B. Martini Conservatory of her hometown: Bologna (Italy). Her principal interests are Identity Theories applied to music networks, the Early Music Revival and the Historically Informed Performance movement, music and urban spaces, cultural management, and Spanish and Hispano-American heritage. She is part of a research group of the Fondo de Música Tradicional of Barcelona (IMF-CSIC) – A Spanish Collection of Traditional Music Heritage directed by Dr. Emilio Ros-Fabrega. She is also a writer and translator and she published a novel in 2017 for Minerva Edizioni (Italy).
Riley Granger (they/them/theirs)
Riley Granger is a second year MA student in Historical Musicology. They received their BS in music theory From Portland State University in 2020. Their areas of study include counterpoint/ early theory and performance practice for double bass/viols. More recently they have explored incorporation of interdisciplinary methods such as gender and religious studies to better learn about musical understanding.
Gabriela Henríquez
Gabriela Henríquez is a first year Ph.D. student at Boston University, she was born and raised in El Salvador, Central America. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Musicology at the University of Salamanca, Spain; and her Master’s in Arts in Ethnomusicology with First Class Honours at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research explores topics such as: Music and politics in El Salvador, Music and Indigenous rituals in Mesoamerica, Music and Popular Religiosity, Cultural Hybridity, Syncretism, Ritual, Symbolism and Mysticism in the musical scene of El Salvador, among others. She has been a speaker at conferences such as the Symposium of Patrimonies, Cultures, Traditions (University of Salamanca), Traditional Folk Song: Past, Present, Future (EFDSS, London), The British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference (Open University, Milton Keynes), among others.
Brett Kostrzewski
Brett Kostrzewski is a PhD candidate currently writing his dissertation “Josquin des Prez and the Early Modern Motet” under the advisement of Joshua Rifkin and Victor Coelho. His article “Rome after Josquin: The Missa La sol fa re mi Reconsidered” was published in the Journal of Musicology in 2021; he also served as co-editor and contributor to a themed section on fifteenth-century L’homme armé masses in the Journal of the Alamire Foundation. He co-founded Sourcework (www.sourceworkboston.org), a vocal chamber ensemble that performs polyphony from original notation which has performed in Boston and internationally. Brett currently resides in Leuven, Belgium on a fellowship with the Belgian American Educational Foundation.
Chaeyoung Lee
Chaeyoung Lee is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at Boston University, who holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition from Seoul National University and a master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Toronto. Trained in a middle and high school devoted to Korean traditional music education, Chaeyoung is also a geomungo player and traditional vocalist. Chaeyoung’s doctoral research explores the issues of music, freedom, imagination, and class by focusing on the socio-musical lives of North Korean defector musicians in South Korea. Contact: leechaey@bu.edu
Jacob R. Morese
Jacob R. Morese is a drummer, educator, and second-year Masters student in Historical Musicology. He completed his BM in Music Education at Berklee College of Music in 2021 and has since started a private practice teaching music lessons. His main area of study in Musicology is jazz and American protest music.
Lance Morrison
Lance Morrison is from Pittsburg, Kansas, and completed An MA in Musicology at the University of Missouri under Judith Mabary, Michael Budds, and Maya Gibson. In addition to studying the style and religiosity of Clemens non Papa’s motets, he also pursues interests in popular music including early jazz. Boston’s character inspires his current work on the city’s hardcore punk tradition, with an emphasis on networks, affects, and bodies.
Adebola Ola (he/him/his)
Adebola Ola (Bola) is a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Boston University. He received a BA, BM (Hons), and MM from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research interest includes Ethiopian melodic systems (kinit), West Asian modes (maqām), South African popular music, and the proliferation of lute instruments in the Afro-Eurasian world. Currently, Bola is working on mapping the distribution of lamellophone instruments in parts of West Africa, with a focus on the àgídìgbo of the Yorùbá people in Southwestern Nigeria. He is also interested in how the àgídìgbo articulates speech surrogacy and its functions in Yorùbá popular music and within the Yorùbá socio-cultural complex. Bola is a member of the International Council of Traditional Music (ICTM), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), and The South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM). He also holds a licentiate diploma in music from the Trinity College of Music, London, and a certificate in copyright law from Harvard University.
Duncan Reehl
Duncan Reehl is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology. His research focuses on traditional sounds of Buddhist denominations in contemporary Japan and in transnational circulation. For example, he investigates priests who articulate the sounds of sutras and sonic ritual implements with popular music styles such as beatboxing, acoustic folk, and rock music; the transnational connections that are reinvigorating Temple-based shakuhachi traditions locally; and the usage of Buddhist sounds and aesthetic concepts in western art music. His research is directed by critical theories of sacred sound, technology, media studies, modernity, secularism, globalization, affect, aesthetics, and Orientalism.
Margaret Rowley (she/her/hers)
Margaret is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology working on Sufism and Islamic sound practices in urban Senegal. Her dissertation focuses on the Layène community, a small Sufi brotherhood for whom singing is a central part of community life. Her research in Senegal has been funded by Foreign Language Applied Study grants, a Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship, and most recently a Fulbright-Hays grant for doctoral dissertation research abroad. Margaret’s other academic interests include governmentality, intersectional feminism(s), circulation and technology, postcolonialism, and multi-sensorial ethnography. Her most recent collaborative publication in African Studies Review explored Senegalese songs about COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic. She holds a BM and MM in flute performance, and a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from Michigan State University. Contact: mlrowley@bu.edu
Allison Smith
Allison Smith is a PhD candidate in Historical Musicology at Boston University. Her dissertation focuses on South African opera, particularly Black pedagogies of the operatic voice. She has presented such work domestically and abroad. Allison is a founding member of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN), a research collective that aims to fill in the gaps in opera history and contemporary opera through educational resources, roundtables, and forum discussions. Allison studied isiXhosa at the University of Cape Town in 2019 and has conducted multiple fieldwork trips in South Africa. Her publications include an article in The Opera Journal.
Danielle Stoebe (she/her/hers)
Danielle Stoebe is a second year MA student in Ethnomusicology. She received her BA in music and a minor in business from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA in 2017. Before coming to Boston she worked at a local nonprofit organization, called ArtsFairfax as their Arts Education Manager. She helped facilitate education programming services they offered such as artist residencies in schools and senior centers and professional development workshops. She also teaches private lessons in violin, viola, and piano. Her research interests include bluegrass, old-time, community engagement, and gender studies.
Sebastián Wanumen (he/him/his)
Sebastian Wanumen is a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology and Ethnomusicology. He received his BA in musicology, summa cum laude, in Colombia (Corpas University) where he also studied piano performance. He attended The Sapienza University of Rome and Cardiff University and earned an MA in Musicology from the latter. Before coming to Boston, Sebastian lectured in Bogotá at Corpas University and the National Pedagogic University in Colombia. His research has been supported by the Colombian Ministry of Culture (through several fellowships and scholarships awarded between 2014 and 2017) and the BU Arts Initiative and the Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs. He is the official program annotator of the Colombian National Symphony Orchestra and other venues in Colombia. He is currently exploring the Carnaval Gay de Barranquilla’s soundscape and how it intersects with public policy, as well as Feminist music ensembles in the Caribbean. In 2020, and Sponsored by IDARTES, Sebastián started a public musicology podcast for Spanish-speaking audiences (www.suenalapolitica.com) as well as a public academia project together with Re-imaginemos collective. Contact: swanumen@bu.edu / More info: https://linktr.ee/swanumen
RECENT ALUMNI
Jeffrey Dyer (CFA’21) Ph.D.
Jeffrey Dyer is a visiting assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Indiana University’s Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department. His research ethnographically examines the intersection of music and sound, temporality and history, and people’s relations with the dead in Cambodia. Additional research topics include violence and trauma, political tensions and affinities across Southeast Asian nations, complications between prescriptive music notation and oral pedagogy, and Buddhist religiosity. He has received various fellowships and awards, including the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and the Society for Asian Music’s Martin Hatch Prize. Jeffrey’s scholarship has appeared in the journals Ethnomusicology, Yale Journal of Music & Religion, Religions, and Asian Music.
