Graduate Students
A complete listing of current graduate students and their interests
Ethnomusicology
Mark Braun–West African music, Jamaican folk traditions, music transmission and pedagogy, education and community life
Dillon Bustin–evolutionary origins of music, modernization and musical antimodernism, African American song, Native American storytelling
Paul Chaikin–opera, cultural policy in Europe, aesthetic theory
Paul grew up in New Jersey before setting off for college in Grinnell, Iowa. He is now in the midst of his dissertation, an ethnographic study of opera in contemporary Berlin. His other interests include dramaturgy, cultural policy and critical theory (esp. Adorno). At the moment, he lives in New York City.
Bradley Hanson–American Vernacular Music; the Appalachian South; the Missouri River Valley; Music and Place, Space, and Identity; Contemporary Roots Music and Genre Formation; Community Radio and Local Music
Bradley is a graduate student in ethnomusicology. His current interests center on American vernacular musics, especially those of the Appalachian South and the Missouri River Valley. He is concerned with the relationships between music and place, space, and identity. His most recent academic efforts focused on the emergence of a nationalized “American Roots Music” genre, particularly in the work of record producer T Bone Burnett. He also recently joined an ongoing project of the Tennessee state parks to collect, archive, and present music and folklore from along the 300-mile Cumberland Trail. Originally from Sioux City, IA, he has previously studied voice and musicology at the University of South Dakota and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Prior to coming to Brown, he lived in Knoxville, TN and worked as a freelance writer.
Erica Haskell–Music of South Eastern Europe, politics of music, applied ethnomusicology, cultural policy in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina
Erica is originally from Northern California where she received her BA from Mills College. Erica Haskell is a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University in ethnomusicology. She has worked at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and for the Department of State teaching in Bosnian medresas. She is the co-editor of a book called Shared Musics and Minority Identities: International Council for Traditional Music - Music and Minorities 2004 Volume published by the Institute for Ethnology and Folklore Research, with Naila Ceribasic. In addition, she founded a music-recording project in three Hungarian refugee camps. This project was the subject of articles about refugee music in the Utne Reader and ai magazine (Art International). She is also co-producer of the critically acclaimed American folk music album Starlight on the Rails: U. Utah Phillips released on AK Press and Daemon Records. She is a co-founder, with John Smith, of Trade Root Music (www.traderootmusic.com) a music label, distribution and consulting company that specializes in helping roots-based musicians and non-profit arts organizations to promote and distribute their music products and content.
Julie Hunter–Music of Africa, Ghanaian politics and culture, gender and music, ethnography, performance studies, applied music projects.
Julie grew up in Vermont where she pursued interests in oboe and piano performance, Russian, art, theater, and ice hockey. At Vanderbilt University she was drawn to the fields of music history, African studies, and ethnomusicology, and wrote a senior thesis based on fieldwork with a musical youth community in Accra, Ghana. She completed a B.M. in Music History and Literature at Vanderbilt, and M.A. in Ethnomusicology at Brown. From 2002-2005, Julie served on the Society for Ethnomusicology Council, and in 2006 created an Advanced Ghanaian Drumming and Dancing Ensemble at Brown with musician and instructor Martin Obeng. She currently works with the ensemble and teaches in the Writing Center. In her spare time, she promotes artists’ work in Ghana through drum and kente sales. Julie is writing a dissertation on music making in Ewe communities, and exploring how musicians, including female master drummers and singer composers, construct and negotiate identities in performance.
Katy E. Leonard–Bluegrass, American Vernacular Music, Ethnomusicology in Music Education, Music and Politics
Katy is a former classical flutist from Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to her academic study of ethnomusicology, she completed the Bachelor of Music at Birmingham-Southern College in Flute Performance following pre-college study at Interlochen Arts Academy. She completed her Master of Arts through the Irish World Music Centre at the University of Limerick, Ireland focusing on the idea of home in relation to Irish bluegrass music. She is currently residing in Nashville, Tennessee researching bluegrass and politics. Katy is a staff member of the International Bluegrass Music Association and a coordinator of the annual World of Bluegrass business conference, award show, and festival.
Maureen Loughran–American music and radio, musical activism in urban centers, documentaries, applied ethnomusicology
Maureen is a PhD student in ethnomusicology, studying her hometown of Washington, DC. Her dissertation explores community radio and musical activism. She was an adjunct professor of music and an applied piano instructor at Trinity University, Washington, DC from 2004-2006. She has worked for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, The Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, Ireland, The Irish Music Archive at Boston College, and the National Archives in College Park, MD. Prior to coming to Brown, Maureen received a Higher Diploma in Irish Folklore from University College, Dublin, Ireland and an M.A. in Irish Studies from Catholic University in Washington, DC. She has a B.M. in Music Theory and Literature from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN. She has also studied at Duke University's
Center for Documentary Studies, participating in their first course for audio production in 2003. Currently, Maureen is the archivist for the American Public Media program, American Routes, in New Orleans, LA. She is a founding member of the sound art/documentary collective, the DC Listening Lounge.
Liam McGranahan–Garifuna music, African-American popular music, haute couture, creolization
Liam is a full-time graduate student and a part-time delinquent. When not ethnomusicologizing all over town he enjoys taking lukewarm baths on weekdays and drinking scalding hot milk in the afternoon. Liam is interested primarily in the music of the Garifuna of the Atlantic Coast of Central America. After a full day of work and school Liam likes nothing more than sitting down on his couch and watching public-access television.
Clifford Murphy–New England Country Music, American Vernacular Music, Applied Ethnomusicology, Alternative Country, Contemporary Independent/DIY American Music, Pre-WWII Race and Hillbilly Records, Baseball, Regional foods, lyrics, and beverages.
Cliff lives in Cambridge, MA, with his wife, Monica. Before arriving at Brown to study Ethnomusicology, he grew up in NH, and spent ten years in a touring rock band. He is interested in underground, non-corporate, contemporary American roots music.
Daniel Piper–Music of Brazil and the Caribbean, religious experience, popular dance, race relations, and performance theory
Dan is a 4th-year graduate student in ethnomusicology. He completed his B.A. at Wesleyan University where he studied composition and before coming to Brown, he worked as an arts administrator and musician in Philadelphia, Seattle, and Boston. Dan will be away for field research most of 2007-2008, but when in Providence, you can easily lure him from his studies with a good microbrew or an offer to join him to dance at his favored local hangout - the Providence Black Repertory Theater.
Nicholas Reeder–African percussion, Brazilian music and culture, Documentary film, Jazz performance (guitar), Music cognition, Poetics, Songs, Sound for multimedia/video
Nick came back to Brown (where he was an undergrad, majoring in History/American Literature and a varsity lacrosse player and coach) after working as a freelance recording engineer/producer in San Francisco and Nashville for 7 years.
James Ruchala–American folk music, Appalachian music and dance, Middle Eastern music, Mexico
James is working on a dissertation on the old time music community of Surry County, North Carolina. He also performs this music on banjo, fiddle and guitar
Shayn Smulyan–Yiddish song, music and language, performative speech (especially translation), American microcultural musics, D/diaspora, revivalism
Shayn came to Brown in 2005, after a year building hiking trails and two years in an egalitarian intentional community. Prior to that she did her BA at Smith College in anthropology and music. Her current research is on the performative and communicative strategies of Yiddish singers. Shayn is an active sacred harp singer and a dabbler on various stringed and percussion instruments. She does political and cultural work in the queer and Jewish-Secularist communities (sometimes both at once), and spends too much time reading their blogs.
Benjamin Teitelbaum–Music cognition, music theory, Swedish folk music, Scandinavian America, the musical migration from Nazi Germany.
Benjamin entered Brown's ethnomusicology program after earning a B.M. in nyckelharpa (a Swedish folk instrument) from Bethany College, with auxiliary studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Stockholm, and the Eric Sahlström Institute in Sweden. With Swedish folk music as his empirical foundation, he seeks to investigate the cognitive processes involved in innovative musical thinking. He lives in Warwick, RI with his wife Kajsa.
Brent Wetters–20th Century European, Darmstadt, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, critical theory, poetics
Brent is a composer, performer and critic of new and experimental music--not necessarily in that order. Prior to enrolling at Brown, he collected three degrees in composition from University of Michigan, the Royal Conservatory in Ghent, Belgium, and Wesleyan University. Some of his primary composition teachers have been: Andrew Mead, Alvin Lucier, Ron Kuivila, Anthony Braxton, Godfried-Willem Raes, Joachim Brackx, and Richard Barrett. He founded Ensemble Medusa in Belgium together with Jonathon Kirk and Thomas Smetryns. As an ethnomusicologist, Brent is studying the music of post-War Europe, in particular the group of composers that gathered for the Darmstadt Summer Courses.
Electronic Music and Multimedia
Freida Abtan–
Robert Griffin Byron–
Coming from an interdisciplinary arts background, S. Lyn Goeringer is a composer, performer, and sound and installation artist. Currently, she is a graduate student at Brown University, and received her MFA in Sound as Art from Bard College in 2005. Lyn's website: http://www.lyngoeringer.com
Shawn Greenlee–Freestyle performance with computer systems. Drawn sound. Graphic interface for digital audio.
Shawn is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Computer Music and New Media via the Special Graduate Studies program. His study focuses on the theory and development of computer-based, performance systems utilizing image data in order to generate digital sound. His latest system, Augur,featuresnew techniques in graphic synthesis, highlighting the action of drawing as both a compositional and performance gesture.Relocating to Providence in 1992, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design earning a BFA in Printmaking. Shawn is an active recording and performing artist, and has several releases in group and solo contexts. His latest CD, Nysa,is available on Utech Records.
Shawn’s website: http://www.shawngreenlee.com
Jamie Jewett–Dance and Technology, Multimedia Performance, Interactivity, Gesture, Real-Time Video Usage and Minipulation, Contemplative Practices. Jamie’s website & Dance Company: www.lostwax.org
Jamie is (among other things) a choreographer of multimedia dance theater works. received his BA in Dance and Buddhist Studies from Naropa University, an MFA in Dance and Technology from the Ohio State University, an MA from Brown University’s MEME@Brown program (Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments @ Brown) and is currently ABD at Brown where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in New Media and Performance. He is the director of Lostwax Productions, a multi-media dance theater company that seeks to examine the visceral cusp between installation, performance space and narrative through the use of technology. Jewett was an artist in residence at HERE Center for the Arts in New York City (2003-2005) and STEIM in Amsterdam (2006). His works such as the recently featured Mudra (Collaboration with fellow grad-student Matthew Peters-Warne, Spark Festival Gala Concert, 2007) as well as After the Fall (Danspace, 2003), Seven Veils (CultureMart, HERE, 2004), Rest/Less (CultureMart, HERE, 2005), Snowblind (commissioned by IMMEDIA for the University of Michigan, 2002), Kindly Bent to Ease Us (2001), and as far back to the evening length works Glyph (1996), and A Cloud In Trousers (1997) utilize interactivity and projections of still and cinematic imagery coupled with live closed-circuit video. The Other Paper (Columbus, OH) called Jewett’s Wexner Center award-winning film Auslander (Lincoln Center 2000) “A glimpse of Ohio film brilliance.” His on-going collaborations with experimental poet and theater artist Thalia Field include performance works such as After The Fall and Seven Veils, Rest/Less, and an online multimedia piece, Zoologic (How2, 2004). He is currently working on a large-scale project MELT scheduled to open in the fall of 2007.
Brian Knoth–cross sensory (audio/visual/motion) dynamics and perception, clinical/research applications of the digital media arts, new interfaces
Brian is a composer/musician and digital media artist/researcher specializing in the use of sound, music, moving image and new interfaces. His work explores cross-sensory dynamics and computer mediated interaction. This work is realized in several formats including installation, audiovisual composition, and live performance. Through collaboration with Amir Lahav and Harvard Medical School's Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brian's interactive technology design also finds application in the medical field. Brian is an adjunct faculty member at Emerson College and has also taught at the New England Institute of Art. He holds a B.A. in Psychology/Cog. Sci. (summa cum laude) from SUNY Geneseo, an M.A. in Media Arts from Emerson College and an M.A. in Music from Brown University. Currently, he is continuing graduate study at Brown University for the Ph.D. in Computer Music and Multimedia. He has collaborated on several award-winning projects and has presented/performed at numerous festivals/galleries/venues including The Middle East (Cambridge, MA), The Paradise Rock Club (Boston), The Lion's Den (NYC), Nectar's (Burlington, VT), Boston Cyberarts - Visual Music Marathon, Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA), the NWEAMO festival (SOHO, NYC) and the Pixilerations Digital Media Arts Festival (Providence, RI). In Fall '06, he developed an interactive motion sensing system for international artist Magaly Ponce's installation at the David Winton Bell Gallery. Brian will be performing Accent Structures #3 (live audio-visual) at ICMC '07 (Copenhagen, Denmark) and collaborating with Ponce once again on an installation slated for late September '07.
Kevin Patton–gestural sonification and visualization, performance system design, Improvisation.
Kevin is a composer, guitarist, and experimental sound performer interested in exploring the increasingly nebulous borderlands between humans and machines in performance. The integration of interactive electronic music and machine improvisation into traditional performance contexts is at the center of his practice. Kevin often performs his own work in both instrumental improvisation and interactive chamber music and has performed in Europe, Japan, and throughout North America. Kevin holds a Master of Music degree in jazz studies and composition from the University of North Texas and a Master of Arts Degree from Brown University. He is currently pursuing a PhD in electronic music and multimedia composition at Brown University. (http:// lajunkielovegun.com/KevinPatton)
Angela Veomett–integrative performance, physical theater, movement-based interactivity
Angela Veomett is currently a PhD student in the MEME program at Brown University. She received a Master’s degree in Media Arts at the University of Michigan in 2006, and taught at Oberlin’s TIMARA department in 2006-2007. Her work, which incorporates video, electro-acoustic music and live performers, focuses on the intersections between spirituality, politics and the physical body.
Matthew Warne–gesture, sensors systems, responsive media installation, latent performance phenomena
Matthew’s interactive work joins the call for the composer's emergence from the studio for the realization of computer music live in cooperation with performers. His compositional work frequently focuses on the design of simple electronic or computational processes which amplify some aspect of a sound which might otherwise be considered secondary. He currently seeks the doctorate in Brown University's MEME program studying with Joseph Butch Rovan and Todd Winkler. He holds an MS in Digital Media from the Georgia Institute of Technology where he studied with Sha Xin Wei and Steve Everrett (Emory University). His work as an affiliate researcher of the Topological Media Lab (directed by Dr. Sha at Concordia University) focuses on notions of vocal gesture and media tangibility.