I am a musicologist, professor, composer, and performer based in Northern California. I approach my research from an interdisciplinary perspective, highlighting the marginalized, silenced, and often overlooked populations within the musicological field.

After receiving my B.A. in Piano Performance from Westmont College (2007), I went on to complete my M.A. in Music from Eastern Washington University (2012) and my Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2018). My masters Thesis, The Genesis of the Soviet Prelude Set for Piano: Shostakovich, Zaderatsky, Zhelobinsky, and Goltz (2012), breaks new ground in English-language research by exploring marginalized and little-known Soviet composers. At UCSB I turned my focus towards expanding the field of music and childhood: drawing together the disciplines of musicology and children's studies to examine tacit assumptions about the adult/child power differential, and how ideologies and discourses of childhood frame not only musicological or academic spheres, but also the larger socio-cultural-historical context.  My dissertation, The Musicalization of Romantic Childhood: Genre, Power, Paradox (2018), explores the nineteenth-century development of “children’s music” as a complex musical reification of various pedagogical, sociological, and philosophical perspectives. I am passionate about using this research to engage in large discussions of music's role in the history and sociology of childhood, and how it can help give voice to marginalized and disempowered individuals and populations.

I enjoy teaching within the university setting and actively engage with the ongoing decolonization and contextualization of the musicological field. A cornerstone of my instruction involves critically investigating the ethnocentric historical and cultural positions of musical knowledge and practice: blurring the binary between “western” and “world” music; reconsidering the discursive struggles that undergird the musical canons of “great” composers and compositions; and emphasizing diversity and hybridity. I teach collegiate courses on music history, world music, music theory, musicianship, and private/class piano. I also deliver preconcert talks, topical lectures and lecture-recitals.

I regularly perform on piano, organ, guitar, hurdy-gurdy, and various folk wind instruments, and enjoy composing/arranging music to play with my students and community. When not researching, writing, or performing, I am an active language learner, musical instrument collector, and lover of good food. I am married to my brilliant partner, am father of two wonderful children, and the “guy with the food” to my rescue cat Luna.