uky.eduCurrent Graduate Students in Musicology and Ethnomusicology
David Bubsey
David Bubsey is presently a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at the University of Kentucky, and an adjunct faculty member at East Tennessee State University. He holds the M.M. in Trombone Performance from Butler University (1980), and the B.M.E. from The Ohio State University (1975). He is presently principal trombonist of the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra and the Appalachian Brass Orchestra (formally, the Tennessee Brass). His prior performance experience includes The United States Army Field Band in Washington, D.C. from 1981 to 1989. As a member of the premier United States Army Field Band he was associate principal trombonist of the concert band and the trombonist with the brass quintet. He also was a sub with the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors. In 2001, he was named to the faculty at East Tennessee State University where his duties include applied trombone, trombone choir, introduction to music, and history of jazz. He has also recently proposed a new music course for the ETSU curriculum entitled History of African-American Music. In 2003 he returned to graduate school at the University of Kentucky to begin work on his Ph.D.
David’s scholarly interests include the music of the 20th-Century, particularly the life and works of Luciano Berio. His dissertation in progress is entitled “Luciano Berio: The American Decade.” He is often called upon by publishers of music textbooks to review proposed new educational materials, and most recently was a contributor to Jazz by Gary Giddins and Scott Deveaux published by W.W. Norton, Inc. in 2009. This contribution included the writing of practice quizzes with listening examples for the W.W. Norton online study space site.
Jacob Cook
Jacob Cook, originally from Elizabethton, Tennessee, received his Bachelor of Music in voice performance and Bachelor of Business Administration in Accountancy from East Tennessee State University in 2004. Currently, he is working on concurrent Masters Degrees in voice performance and musicology. His musicological interests include French opéra-comique as it relates to other theatrical genres in Paris from the late 18th century into the 19th century, historic theatre design, and the works of Wagner. He is planning a thesis and performance project on opéra-comique.
Nate Craddock
Nate Craddock, a native of the Washington DC metro area, is a first-year Ph.D. student in musicology. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (2009) in composition from Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, where he studied composition and musicology with Ronald Holz, saxophone with Greg Stepp, and vocal performance with Eric Brown. While at Asbury he performed with the Asbury concert band and jazz ensemble as a saxophonist, and with the Asbury Chorale and opera workshop as a vocalist. Before coming to UK, Nate completed two years towards an M.Div. at Asbury Theological Seminary.
Nate's research interests are centered on composers' use of music as a means of exploring crises of theodicy and healing in response to tragedy, with a particular love for the music of John Adams as well as the mid-twentieth century French Catholic composers Alain, Messiaen, and Poulenc. He is also interested in the growing influence of Latin American poetry and musical idioms on Western composers of recent decades.
An active composer himself, Nate has had works performed by Asbury's ensembles and soloists, as well as at churches and public schools in the Washington DC area. His current works in progress include several settings for mixed choir, a major work for concert band, and an eclectic adaptation of the Passion. He lives in Wilmore, KY with his wife Jodie and their daughter Lucy.
Jeffrey Jones
Jeffrey Daniel Jones, currently pursuing his doctorate, is moving into musicology as a discipline after twenty years employment in the hi-tech realm. His interest in the musical corpus is broad; in the classical realm he has special interest in the Baroque and Modern eras, in jazz he is very interested in swing era performers, and in rock he is most drawn to the older, weirder acts. Recently, he has been seated on the board of Musica Toscana, a group devoted to the preparation of scholarly/performance editions of works from the Ricasoli collection, now housed at the University of Louisville. He is currently working on the transcriptions of the works for a volume of eighteenth-century Italian arias from that collection. His M.A. thesis, in progress, is a catalog and study of another collection in the Louisville library, that of the early nineteenth-century Italian musician Giuseppe Lapi.
Tanner Jones
Tanner Jones is a native of Lexington, where he grew up studying mainly percussion, voice, and banjo. He received his Bachelor's of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Kentucky. Throughout his undergraduate studies, Tanner focused on his interests in world music, participating in Dr. Han Kuo Huang's Chinese Ensemble, Balinese and Javanese gamelan ensembles, Thai ensemble, and Dr. Kwon's Korean percussion ensembles. He also spent time playing banjo and various bluegrass bands around central Kentucky, including Hollow Wood and The GrassKats. After finishing his undergraduate studies, Tanner moved to Jeju-do, South Korea, to teach English and pursue further studies in traditional Korean music for one year. He is currently working on his master's in Ethnomusicology, wishing to specialize in Korean music as well as Appalachian and bluegrass music. In his free time he enjoys cooking, baking, fly fishing, home brewing beer, playing banjo, and being an uncle.
Todd Jones
Todd Jones is a Ph.D. student in musicology at the University of Kentucky. He holds B.A. (History), M.Mus. (Church Music), and M.Div. degrees from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. While there, he studied voice with C. Stanley Eby and performed with the University Chorale and the BJU Opera Association. He also served for six years as music director at Boones Creek Bible Church in Johnson City, Tennessee. His research interests include the history and historiography of American church music. He is also interested in sports, theology, literature, and most of all his wife and daughter.
César Leal
César Leal was born in Bogotá (Colombia). Currently he is ABD in the Ph.D. program. His interest in both research on and performance of contemporary music has led him to work as the Music Director of the LACNM (Latin American Center of New Music) for the last two years. He has participated in the Contemporary Music Festival in Nanterre Conservatoire (France) in January 2006, and was a finalist in the Second International Conducting Workshop of the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra in August 2006. César was also invited to the International Contemporary Music Festival of Lima (Perú) in November 2006. He produced the CD Project “Lexico Series,” a compendium of contemporary pieces by representative composers from Latin America. In 2009, César participated in the International festival of Electroacoustic music En Tiempo Real: Nuevos Espacios Sonoros, in which he conducted and presented a paper on contemporary Electroacoustic opera. He has a B.M. in performance from Javeriana University in Bogotá and an M.M. in Instrumental Conducting from Florida International University. Cesar is spending the 2010-11 academic year in Paris, researching his dissertation on the early twentieth-century impresarion Gabriel Astruc.
Melinda Lio
Melinda Lio is a Lexington native who is working on her masters in musicology with an emphasis in ethnomusicology. She graduated from UK with a B.A. in piano but also enjoys playing the pipa, er-hu, violin, and organ. She has performed with Dr. Han’s Chinese Ensemble and Community Gamelan, and Dr. Kwon’s Korean Percussion Ensemble. She is interested in pedagogy, and the combination of visuals with musical practices. Ideally, her further studies will include traveling and good food.
Christopher Little
Christopher Little is a native of Princeton, New Jersey but spent half of his childhood in Sarasota, Florida and the other half in Springfield, Missouri. Having earned a B.M. in clarinet performance from Missouri State University, Christopher is currently pursuing both the M.M. degree in clarinet performance and the Ph.D. degree in musicology at the University of Kentucky. His areas of interest include the so-called "English musical renaissance" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and Russian music of the Nationalist and Soviet eras.
Yawen Ludden
Yawen Ludden, a native of Shanghai, China, is pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology. She holds a B.A. degree from Shanghai Normal University and an M.A. in Music from Campbellsville University in Kentucky. She is interested in Chinese, American, and Western opera in general and its influence on society. Her research focuses on the evolution and transformation of Beijing opera and its interrelationship with Chinese society, economy, and politics. She has presented her research at major national and international conferences such as the American Musicological Society (AMS), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research (CHIME). She has been invited as guest lecturer at Shanghai Conservatory and Shanghai Normal University. She has also been invited as a distinguished guest to participate in the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival and the Shanghai International Accordion Festival. For the 2010-11 academic year, Yawen is the holder of a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research in Shanghai and Beijing for her dissertation on Beijing opera during and after the Cultural Revolution.
Alicia Massie-Legg
Alicia Massie-Legg is an ABD student in the Ph.D. program in musicology. She holds a masters degree in music history and a masters degree in vocal performance with an emphasis in vocal pedagogy from Ohio University/Athens. She is currently an instructor in voice lessons, vocal pedagogy, and music history at Maryville College and serves as substitute choir director of Broadway Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. Before joining the musicology program at UK, she taught voice at University of Tennessee/Knoxville for two years and voice and vocal pedagogy at Maryville College, Tennessee, for four years. The teaching of private voice lessons, in which she has 20 years of experience, continues to be an important emphasis. In addition, she has an extensive background as lead singer for two jazz bands and as singer/songwriter for JAM 513, a contemporary Christian band which was active for three years in Tennessee. Alicia lives in Maryville, Tennessee with her husband, Bob, and her two daughters, Dagan and Bradley.
Jennifer King Matthews
Jennifer is Music Librarian at the University of Notre Dame. She has a B.M. in violin performance from Ball State University, and two masters degrees from the University of Kentucky: the M.A. in Musicology, with a thesis entitled “A Fantasia of Sound: A Study of the Musical Editing and Animation in Walt Disney’s 1940 Film,” and the Master of Library Science. She has completed coursework and exams for the Ph.D., and is planning to write a dissertation on the film music of Randy Newman.
John McCluskey
John McCluskey, a Tennessee native, holds a bachelor's degree in Music Education from Lee University, which is located in the south-east corner of his home state. He is pursuing the Ph.D. in musicology. John's passion for music history covers many bases, from Orlando Gibbons to David Bowie to John Coltrane, the unifying element being the social interaction between music and its surrounding culture. He is presently a TA for MUS 302, where he is further investing in his love for education. John's instrument is the saxophone, which he continues to hold close to his heart, though he does enjoy piano and attempting the flute.
Nathan Miller
Nathan Miller is a first year student in the M.A./Ph.D program in Musicology. He graduated with degrees in Horn performance from Asbury University (B.A.) and the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music (M.M). Along with his responsibilities as a student and T.A. at UK, Nathan is also the adjunct instructor of Horn at Transylvania University, principle Horn in both the Lexington Brass Band and Saxton's Cornet Band, as well as the music director at the Salvation Army of Central Kentucky.
Having grown up in Chicago, Nathan is a die hard Bears and Cubs fan. This fandom has developed in him a remarkable coping mechanism for disappointment, as well a highly developed capacity for blind hope. There's always next year!
Even more than music or mediocre sports franchises, Nathan loves his wife Ellen, who is the choir director and general music teacher at Winburn Middle School in Lexington. They enjoy bike riding, cooking, and gardening. They have no children or pets, but are the proud aunt and uncle of a fleet of children: 3 nephews and 3 nieces all under five years old. They are active members of their church, the Salvation Army, where they enjoy putting their faith into action in tangible acts of love and service.
Ann Niren
Ann Glazer Niren, a Ph.D. candidate in musicology, is conducting research for her dissertation, titled “The Influence of Solomon Braslavsky and Congregation Mishkan Tefila on Leonard Bernstein” (see abstract). Additional research interests include the music of George Crumb and Terry Riley. Ms. Niren’s article on pianist and radio personality Marian McPartland appears in the just released Musicians and Composers of the Twentieth Century (Salem Press, 2009).
In addition to her studies, Ms. Niren teaches the four music history courses for music majors at Indiana University Southeast where she has been employed since 1988. In 1998, she was the recipient of an I.U. Southeast Teaching Excellence Recognition Award and in 2005, she won the IUS Distinguished Teaching Award for part-time faculty. She also serves as the music director for Temple Shalom in Louisville. Ms. Niren received her Bachelor of Music degree in composition with a piano concentration from Indiana University and her Master of Music degree in theory from Northwestern University.
Nikos Pappas
Nikos Pappas (B.M. in Viola Performance, Ohio University; M.M. in Music History, Ohio University), a Ph.D. candidate originally from Columbus Ohio, has a wide range of musical interests both as a performer and as a scholar. He is working on his dissertation, “Patterns in the Sacred Musical Culture of the American South and West (1760-1860).” He has presented papers at several conferences including the International Council of Traditional Music, the Society for American Music, Music of the South Symposium at the University of Mississippi, Dynamic Legacies Symposium at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the Society for Ethnomusicology both at the national convention and at the Southeastern and Caribbean Regional Chapter Meeting, with several book reviews published in American Music, the Journal of the Society for American Music, and The Hymn. He has also contributed articles for the new edition of Amerigrove. He has also received scholarly awards including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Dissertation Year Fellowship from the American Musicological Society, Reese Fellowship for American Bibliography and the History of the Book in the Americas from the Bibliographic Society of America, the Dena Epstein Award for Archival and Library Research in American Music from the Music Library Association, and the Reese Fellowship for Research in American Bibliography from the American Antiquarian Society.
While at Ohio University, Pappas created the Appalachian Digital Sound Archive, a series of archival, commercial, and home recordings of Ohio Appalachian traditional musicians; and provided the musical score to a PBS documentary “Opening the Door West: The Ohio Company” produced by Shelburne Films. Currently, his activities include work with Early Music New York, an essay and recording relating to concert music in the Early-Nationalist Era Bluegrass Region of Kentucky in a volume from the Bale Boone Symposium to be published by the University Press of Kentucky, and a Lincoln Bicentennial Project involving the Kentucky Humanities Council and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also the 2009 recipient of the Rey Longyear Dissertation Fellowship.
Pappas is also active as an old-time fiddle player, performing with The Red State Ramblers (the official string band of the University of Kentucky) with fellow musicologist Kevin Kehrberg, and has won fiddle awards at the Ed Haley Fiddle Festival, Appalachian String Band Music Festival, Uncle Dave Macon Days, Seedtime on the Cumberland, and the Morehead Old Time Fiddlers Convention. His research interests include American sacred music, band music, keyboard music, and orchestral music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, old-time and early country music, 18th-century British theater music, and psychedelic rock and pop of the 1960s. (see abstract).
Laura Pita
Laura Pita is a Ph.D. student in musicology at the University of Kentucky. For the past several years she has been researching piano salon music of the late nineteenth century with special emphasis on Latin American composers and salon genres. She has done extensive archival research on the renowned Venezuelan pianist and composer Teresa Carreño (1853-1917). Also, she has been researching Teresa Carreño’s involvement in the creation and diffusion of Edward MacDowell’s piano compositions. Her work in the area includes an edition of Carreño’s piano and chamber compositions. She has presented her research in Venezuela and the United States, at venues including the Congreso Venezolano de Musicología (Caracas, 2000), Museo de Teresa Carreño (Caracas, 2001), Universidad Central de Venezuela (Caracas, 2002), and the Annual Meeting of the South-Central Chapter of the American Musicological Society (Memphis, 2006).
Before moving to the United States, Laura worked as a faculty member at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (where she earned her Masters degree), the Conservatorio Nacional de Música Juan José Landaeta, and the Escuela de Música Pedro Nolasco Colón, teaching History of Music, Music Aesthetics, and Latin American Music. She also participated as researcher and secretary for a comprehensive musicological project that culminated in the publication of the Encyclopedia of Venezuelan Music (Caracas, 1998).
Michael Rintamaa
Michael Rintamaa has been the full-time director of music at Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in downtown Lexington since 1993. As organist and director, he leads voice and handbell choirs for children, youth, and adults. In 2003, Michael helped to found the Central Music Academy, providing free lessons to inner city children from underprivileged families. Michael has a bachelor of music degree in piano performance from Northwestern University, and a master of music degree in organ performance from Emory University.
Erica Rumbley
Erica Rumbley graduated from Olivet Nazarene University in May 2006 with a degree in piano performance and received a fellowship to attend the University of Kentucky. She is an ABD student in the Ph.D. program in musicology. Miss Rumbley has a deep love of music history and recently completed a lecture recital on the life and works of L.M. Gottschalk, incorporating the performance of some of his piano pieces into her recital. She has not chosen an area of specialization yet, though nineteenth-century music is a great interest. She continues to play the piano and also performs on the violin.
Eric Strother
Eric Strother, originally from Parkersburg, West Virginia, holds a B.A. in music education (K-12) from Marshall University and an M.A. in music theory from the University of Kentucky. His master’s thesis was entitled “The Development of Duke Ellington’s Compositional Style: A Comparative Analysis of Three Selected Works.” His research interests include music and religion, music in Appalachia, music as an expression of culture, gender and music, popular music, and jazz. Eric has contributed articles for The Appalachian Encyclopedia and Women and Music in America Since 1900 and reviews for Computer Music Journal and American Music. He also serves as a peer-reviewer for the Journal of Popular Music Studies.
Eric has taught Introduction to Music, History of Jazz, and Symphonic Literature while at U.K. and has also taught Introduction to Music and American Music at Bluegrass Community and Technical College (formerly Lexington Community College). He is currently working on a dissertation on the contemporary Christian music industry.
Jeanine Wheeler Tiser
Jeanine Wheeler Tiser came to the University of Kentucky with a diverse teaching background and an abiding interest in research, which led her to the musicology program. A native of Lansing, Michigan, she received a double B.Mus. in music education and music therapy from Radford University, in Radford, Virginia. Her practical training in Galveston, Texas, has aided her in the development of music therapy programs at the UK Children’s Hospital, Lexington Center for Hearing and Speech, and Fleming County Public Schools. She continues to teach through the Music Institute of Lexington and at the University of Kentucky, and she frequently performs on piano and trumpet. She is particularly interested in the interdisciplinary possibilities of musicology with performance, education, and music therapy. Her current field of study is film music, where she is examining compositional techniques commonly associated with specific emotions.
Jenny Tullmann
Jenny Tullmann is a transfer graduate student from Truman State University. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music, with an emphasis on clarinet performance, from Truman State University. Jenny is currently pursuing the Ph.D. in Musicology and is a Teaching Assistant, with responsibility for two sections of MUS 100. Her interests include 20th century opera, composers of the Second Viennese School, gay and lesbian musicology, and feminist musicology.
Erin Walker
Erin Walker is a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology, having recently completed a D.M.A. in percussion. Erin’s undergraduate and graduate degrees are from Northern Illinois University and DePaul University respectively. As a percussionist with an extensive background in world music, many of Erin’s interests lie in the field of ethnomusicology. She has assisted the director of the U.K. gamelan ensemble and is particularly intrigued by Indian, African, and Irish music. She intends to focus much of her musicological research on 20th-century music in both the classical and popular genres. Her dissertation will focus on the Scottish pipe band in North America.
Ross Whitaker
Ross M. Whitaker is a native Lexingtonian and first year M.A. student in musicology. He holds a B.A. in Music with a minor in Spanish from the University of Kentucky. Ross’s areas of interest include jazz and the music of Frank Zappa. He is also an electric guitarist.
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