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THEORY PhD
Cheryl Bates is a PhD student and Teaching Fellow in the Music Theory program at UNT. She received a Toulouse Graduate School Academic Achievement Scholarship and the Harve B. King Scholarship. Cheryl completed her M.M and D.M.A. in Music Education (Dissertation: Analyses of Selected Published Choral works of Michael Hennagin) at the University of Houston where she held Teaching Fellowships in class piano and music education. Her bachelor’s degree in Music Theory was awarded by the University of Oklahoma where she was a 4-year piano scholarship recipient.
After several years teaching elementary music she moved to secondary choral music and taught at a Title 1 school for disadvantaged students where her choirs received many Texas U.I.L. Sweepstakes Awards. Cheryl then taught over a decade at a community college where she was music program coordinator and sole full-time music professor. During her years teaching community college, Cheryl wrote many grants and received over $50,000 in grant awards for the music program and was selected for a Faculty Excellence Award in 2006. She served as the Texas College All State Choir Coordinator in 2008-2009 and President of the Texas Two-Year College Choral Directors’ Association 2009-2010. She hosted many choral and piano music contests for high school students. In 2012 she hosted a choral workshop given by the internationally acclaimed composer, Eric Whitacre. Cheryl has presented several papers for both the Texas Music Educators’ Conference and the College Music Society. Her current research interests include aural skills pedagogy, film music, and form analysis.
Benjamin Graf is a doctoral student in Music Theory at the University of North Texas where he is the recipient of a Teaching Fellowship in the College of Music. He has been awarded the Robert W. Ottman Graduate Music Theory Scholarship and the Ethelston and Lamarr Chapman Graduate Music Theory Scholarship. In addition, he was chosen by the MHTE Division as the Outstanding Graduate Student in Music Theory for 2010-2011 and the Outstanding Doctoral Student in Music Theory for 2011-2012. Benjamin came to the University of North Texas on a trumpet performance scholarship to study privately with Keith Johnson, earning his Master of Music degree in 2010. As an undergraduate, he was the Presidential Scholar for the College of Fine Arts at Towson University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Music Education in 2008. Benjamin’s current research interests include Schenkerian analysis, Beethoven, the sublime, and the music of Gunther Raphael. His article Beethoven Op. 7, II and the Sublime was published in Harmonia (vol. 10) and he is working on articles on Bruckner’s 8th Symphony, Beethoven’s use of 64 chords, and the connection between Beethoven and Schopenhauer’s paradox. In his spare time, Ben is the captain of the UNT Club Tennis Team and was selected as the 2012-2013 UNT Rec Sports Male Athlete of the Year.
Dr. Robert Gross holds a DMA in composition from University of Southern California, a certificate in film music from University of Southern California, an MA in Music for Film, Television and Theatre from University of Bristol (England), an MM in Music Composition from Rice University, and a BM in Music Composition from Oberlin Conservatory. He is also currently a PhD student in music theory at University of North Texas, and was an instructor of music theory for three years at Rice University. Publications include articles in Perspectives of New Music and Journal of Schenkerian Theory. His research interests include post-tonal prolongation, transformation theory, disabilities studies and music, and the music of Samuel Adler. He is half of Blind Labyrinth, an experimental electroacoustic music duo with a current release on the Beauport Classical label. Finally, he is the inventor of a method for transcribing Schenker graphs into Braille, which he presented at the 2013 SMT national conference.
Jeff Ensign is a Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory. Prior to working on his doctorate, he received a B.M. in Music Education at the University of Northern Iowa (2000). He was a band director in Boyd, Texas before pursuing his master’s degree in music theory at UNT where he received an M.M. in 2010. His has master’s thesis, “From Outward Appearance to Inner Reality: A Reading of Aaron Copland’s Inscape,” explored Copland’s twelve-tone orchestral work. Ensign has presented at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music - Music Theory and Musicology Society and the UNT Graduate Exhibition. He is currently working on his dissertation, “Teaching Form in the Music Theory Classroom through the Use of Popular Music.” Ensign’s research interests include music theory pedagogy, popular music, and twentieth-century music American music. He has taught a number of courses at UNT including Form Analysis and his personal favorite, Sixteenth-Century Counterpoint.
David Huff is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Theory with a B.A. in Music (2004) and M.M. in Music Theory (2010) from the University of North Texas. David’s research interests include electroacoustic and computer music, the Second Viennese School, jazz and popular music, and the history of music theory. His most current research projects involve the analysis, pedagogy, and preservation of electroacoustic music, and his dissertation will focus on the analysis of early electroacoustic works through their “re-realization” via computer software that he is developing. David also stays busy as an audio engineer working in the UNT Music Library’s audio preservation studio.
Devin Iler, a Ph.D. candidate in music theory, is a teaching assistant in popular music and aural skills. He received a dual degree (BM) in Tuba Performance and Music Theory/Composition at Michigan State University, and his MM in music theory at UNT. His research interests span medieval music theory to popular music, especially the form and compositional techniques of Electronic Dance Music. His dissertation will cover a translation, commentary, and analysis on Czech theorist Václav Philomates' music theory treatise in Latin of 1512. He has presented his research in the Czech Republic, in Brno and Jindřichův Hradec, the birthplace of Philomates. He presented a paper at the International Janácek Conference in 2013 on Janácek’s music theory. He has an upcoming talk at the Music Theory Midwest 2013 Conference on the formal devices of Trance and House Buildups.
Jason Patterson, from Ennis, TX, is currently working on his PhD in Music Theory. He received his Masters in Music Theory at UNT under the supervision of Dr. Jackson, while his undergraduate degree was a BA in Music from Texas A&M University.
Jason's research interests largely revolve around Mahler and Schenkerian analysis. He is interested in developing new ways of understanding Mahler's complex musical language and symphonic structures. Schenkerian analysis is one major tool he uses for these endeavors. Jason is currently working on an article about the first movement of Mahler's Seventh Symphony, exploring the tonal dichotomy and subsequent conflict through a musical narrative.
Patrick Sallings is a doctoral student in Music Theory. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in classical guitar performance and Master of Music degree in music theory from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, his hometown. He is a long-time performer on the guitar, playing for corporate events, weddings, and clubs in the classical, jazz, blues, and rock styles. He has taught private guitar lessons for over eight years and has experience teaching at multiple private schools. In addition, he has taught jazz and classical guitar and music theory for two years at the university level. His research interests focus on meter in rock music.
Andrew Vagts is a doctoral student and teaching assistant in music theory at the University of North Texas. He is a recipient of the Robert W. Ottman Graduate Music Theory Scholarship and Toulouse Graduate School Academic Achievement Scholarship. A native of Minnesota, Andrew completed an AFA in Music at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, and a BA in Music (with distinction) and MA in Music Theory at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include Schenkerian analysis and the music of Zez Confrey.
Will Waldroup is a Ph.D. student in music theory. Prior to his doctoral studies, Will completed a Bachelor’s degree in music education at the University of Central Oklahoma and a Master’s degree in music theory at the University of North Texas. Will’s research interests include early twentieth-century French music and Schenkerian Analysis. While completing his Master’s degree at UNT, Will wrote a thesis on music by Jacques Ibert entitled Jacques Ibert: An Analytical Study of Three Movements from Histories using a modified form of Schenkerian analysis. In addition to his academic studies, Will is active in his home state, Oklahoma, as a composer and arranger. He has arranged numerous shows for marching band and his first original composition, La Linea en la Arena, was premiered at the Alamo in San Antonio, TX in June of 2012.
Chia-Ying (Charles) Wu, a citizen of Taiwan, is currently (Spring 2013) a doctoral student in music theory at the University of North Texas. He began his doctoral study in Fall 2009. He received his second master of music degree in music theory at the University of North Texas in Spring 2009 with the thesis "The Aesthetics of Minimalist Music and A Schenkerian-Oriented Analysis of The First Movement “Opening” of Philip Glass’ Glassworks" under the guidance of Dr. David Schwarz.
His first master of music degree is in violin performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, conferred in Fall 2005. He received his bachelor of education degree in music education with concentration in violin performance in Spring 2002 at Taipei Municipal University of Education. He is currently a teaching assistant of Dr. Arthurs's Theory II in Spring 2013. He worked as a teaching assistant, webmaster and circulation manager of Center for Schenkerian Studies from 2007 to 2012. He also worked as a grader of Dr. Schwarz and Dr. Slottow from 2009 to 2011. His research interests include the aesthetics of minimal music, Schenkerian analyses of minimalist's works, music automation under the concept of loop, and Philip Glass's film music and stage music. He is also one of the editors of Dr. Schulze's book Claudio Monteverdi, Vespers of 1610 published by Bärenreiter.
Yiyi Gao is pursuing the Master of Arts in Music Theory at the University of North Texas, having received her Bachelor of Music in Music Theory with the piano concentration from UNT. Having played piano for 16 years, she has performed in schools in China and taught at musical academies in Texas. Currently, Yiyi is working on her thesis with Professor Jackson. Her research interest include Schenkerian theory and piano music, especially the composers Chopin, Schumann, and Beethoven. She has finished research papers on Schumann's lieder op. 39, no. 2 and op. 45, no. 2, and Chopin’s Nocturne op. 9, no. 1.
Daniel Grantham is seeking a master of music degree from the University of North Texas with a concentration in Music Theory. His bachelor's degree is in Horn Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi. His master's research focuses on the early music of György Ligeti. As a teaching fellow, he is currently teaching undergraduate Aural Skills I.
Tristan Lex is a Louisiana native currently seeking a Masters of Arts degree in music theory from the University of North Texas. He received his bachelor’s in music education from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA. His research interests include minimalist music, specifically the composer Steve Reich, and the use of samples in hip-hop music.
Kája Lill is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in music theory at the University of North Texas, where he is also a Teaching Assistant. He received his Bachelor of Arts in music magna cum laude and with performance honors in 2013 from Grand Valley State University. He was a recipient of the Calder Scholarship and was a member of the nationally recognized GVSU New Music Ensemble. In 2013 he presented on the dodecaphonic techniques of jazz musicians at the Jazz Education Network Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. His research interests include the application of Schenkerian Analysis to Jazz, the precursors of minimalism in the music of 20th century Czech composers, and formal structures in Popular Music.
Robert Michael Anderson is a PhD student in Musicology at the University of North Texas, where he is supported by a Robert B. Toulouse fellowship. He completed his MSt. in Musicology in 2012 at the University of Oxford where he studied with Dr. Laurence Dreyfus. He earned his BA in Music (magna cum laude) from Loyola University Chicago, completing the latter part of his degree at the University of Vienna and Institute for European Studies. While in Vienna he participated in a music research internship with Dr. Morten Solvik, which included work in the archive of the International Gustav Mahler Society. He also conducted independent research on Brahms's German Requiem, looking at primary source materials held in the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek. His research interests include the music of Johannes Brahms and 19th century musical aesthetics and polemics. His article "Polemics or philosophy? Musical pathology in Eduard Hanslick’s Vom Musikalisch-Schönen" was published in the Autumn 2013 issue of the Musical Times. Most recently, he presented his paper “’They gladly eat sweet figs without thinking how they spoil the stomach.’ Rossini’s reception in I.F. Castelli’s Tagebuch aus Wien” at the GAMuT Graduate Student Conference at the University of North Texas in 2013.
Amber E. Broderick is a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology. She completed a M.M. in Music History at Bowling Green State University (2012), where she studied with Arne Spohr. Her Master’s thesis, “Grande messe des morts: Hector Berlioz’s Romantic Interpretation of the Roman Catholic Requiem Tradition” examined Berlioz’s sacred music in the context of his complex relationship with the Catholic Church. In 2010, she graduated magna cum laude from Saginaw Valley State University (MI) with a B.A in Music Education, where she was selected for Outstanding Senior in Music Education (2010). Amber has presented her work on Berlioz at the North American Conference on 19th-Century Music (Fort Worth, 2013), the Forum for Christian Scholarship in Music (New Haven, 2013), and at the Society for Musicology in Ireland (Maynooth, 2013). She has studied abroad in London and in Athens. Her research interests include the Romantic period, sacred music and religion, gender and sexuality, and music history pedagogy.
Clare Carrasco is a doctoral candidate and teaching fellow in music history. She is currently writing a dissertation that examines German-language discourse about musical expressionism in the years after the First World War (c. 1918-1925) and situates the reception of select chamber works within that discourse. Most of her research to date, as presented in papers and pre-concert lectures, has concerned topics related to early twentieth-century chamber works and the music and legacy of Arnold Schoenberg. Her broader research interests include music and ritual, nineteenth-century Austro-German instrumental music, and temporality in twentieth-century music. Clare has been the recipient of a Toulouse Doctoral Fellowship (2008), two awards from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (2008, 2009), UNT’s University Writing Award (2009), the MHTE Division’s Outstanding Graduate Student in Music History Award (2010), the Graham H. Phipps Paper Award (2011), UNT’s International Education Scholarship (2011), and an Intensive Language Course grant from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service, 2013). She recently served as a co-editor for Bärenreiter’s 2013 edition of Monteverdi’s Vespers and is currently editing the conference proceedings from the international Janáček Festival held at UNT in February 2013. Clare also maintains an active interest in her related field of ethnomusicology. In 2011 she traveled to Ghana to study music and ritual among the Ewe people and she has performed with UNT’s Balinese gamelan. Clare currently leads a German Reading Group for musicology students and has served as journal editor, secretary, and historian for GAMuT.
Emily Hagen completed her Bachelor of Arts in Music and Spanish as well as her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of MN Duluth (UMD). She was the 2006 recipient of the Olive Anna Tezla Award for outstanding achievement in the School of Fine Arts. She has studied opera in Izmir (Turkey) as a Rotary International Scholar, at the Conservatoire Régionale de Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, and at the Istituto Musicale Vincenzo Bellini in Caltanissetta, Sicily. Her recent performances have included the roles of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore. She is a second-year PhD student in Musicology with a related field in Opera, and her other research interests include sacred music and semiotics.
Sean Morrison is a first-year PhD Musicology student from Dallas, TX. After studying voice and composition at Oklahoma City University, he was the choir director and AP music theory instructor at Woodrow Wilson High School in east Dallas for six years. His MM thesis discussed American composer Don Gillis's Symphony No. 5 1/2 (1946). His topics of interest include vocal music, theory, American music, and twentieth-century music. He and his fellow UNT graduate music students helped to edit a scholarly edition of Monteverdi's Marian Vespers (1610), which will be published by Bärenreiter later this year. Outside of the classroom, he enjoys spending time with his wife and newborn son, smoking down-home Texas BBQ, and camping.
Jonathan Sauceda is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of North Texas, where he is also earning a master’s degree in library science. He studied history and music at John Brown University and received both the MM in vocal performance and MM in music history from Wichita State University, where he served as a voice instructor. His dissertation involves the study of Felipe Boero’s opera, El matrero, which premiered in Buenos Aires in 1929. He is a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas, where he has taught music in the human imagination and music appreciation to music majors and non-majors respectively. Honors include the Anna Harriet Heyer Award, Hewitt-Oberdoerffer Award, UNT Graduate Scholarly Prose Award, and a fellowship from the Association of Research Libraries and the Music Library Association. Jonathan has presented at the Fourth International Latin American Music Symposium, The Society for American Music, and the American Musicological Society-Southwest Chapter. He recently co-edited Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 for publication by Bärenreiter. A forthcoming article in the journal Popular Music and Society offers a nuanced interpretation of a genre of Mexican popular music. He has published work on the important place of Latin Americans in the history of rock and roll for ABC-CLIO as well as on Liszt’s reception of Schubert’s Schwanengesang cycle for Harmonia. Jonathan is an active performer with the UNT Collegium Singers, a group specializing in early music, and has played operatic roles, including Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, with the Wichita State Symphony Orchestra.
A doctoral candidate in musicology, Megan Varvir Coe earned previous degrees from Austin College and Texas Woman’s University. She is currently writing her dissertation, “Composing Symbolism’s Musicality of Language in fin-de-siècle France,” under the guidance of Dr. Peter Mondelli. In conjunction with her dissertation research, she is developing with Dr. Clair Rowden of Cardiff University an on-line edited dossier of primary sources entitled the “Parisian Salomés Collection” for the Francophone Music Criticism Project. Megan has recently presented her research at conferences including the Fourth National Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music (Boston, 2015), the International Conference on Music, Intertextuality, and Inter-Art Forms in Third Republic France: “Remembering Paul Dukas at 150” (Maynooth, Ireland, 2015), the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference: “Mobilities” (Atlanta, 2015), the Joint Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society and the Society for Music Theory (Milwaukee, 2014), and the 18th Biennial International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music (Toronto, 2014). Honors include Outstanding Doctoral Candidate in Music History (2012), awarded by the MHTE Division at the UNT College of Music, and the Hewitt-Oberdoerffer Award for Best Student Paper (2010), awarded by the Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society. Megan’s research interests include opera and ballet in the 19th and 20th centuries, the aesthetics and philosophy of music, and the interrelationships between music, language, literature, and dance. Her experience as a Teaching Fellow in Music History (instructor of record for MUMH 1600: Music and the Human Imagination and MUMH 2040: Music Appreciation) has spurred her interest in music history pedagogy as well. Megan served as President of GAMuT (2011-2012) and is an active member of the AMS Music and Dance Study Group, including acting as its liaison to the Congress on Research in Dance (CORD).
José R. Torres-Ramos is a PhD student of Ethnomusicology and Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas. Currently José assists with teaching courses in ethnomusicology and is conductor of the university’s mariachi ensembles. While at UNT, he has held previous appointments in music education and community engagement. His scholarship is centralized in Latin America, including a specialization in mariachi teaching, performance, and research. Utilizing ritual studies and phenomenology, his current work investigates how modern mariachi ensembles embody and sonically manifest masculinity within performance. This includes an examination of how gender is socially conceived and musically ritualized, framed through an ethnomusicological theory of “mariachismo,” revealing both the iconic and indexical efficacy of modern mariachi ensembles to performatively “sound” Mexican machismo.
His writing has been published in the Proceedings of the American Musicological Society Southwest Chapter, the National Association for Music Education Online and the Society for Ethnomusicology Student Newsletter. José’s scholarship has been spotlighted in UNT’s Research Magazine and his accolades include the Perry R. Bass Fellowship in Music Education as well as the Society for Ethnomusicology Diversity Action Award. As a certified music teacher, he previously taught mariachi both at the secondary and collegiate levels. He continues to maintain a career as a professional performer and is often invited to be a guest clinician and adjudicator for mariachi festivals throughout Texas and the US. José is outgoing Vice-Chair of the Student Union section of the Society for Ethnomusicology and current President of UNT’s Student Society of Ethnomusicology at North Texas.
Mei Yuxin is a virtuosic performer of the traditional Chinese Pipa, and is currently writing her Master’s thesis at UNT. Mei holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree of Pipa Performance and Education from the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, respectively. From 2006-2012, she was a faculty member teaching at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music and previously held a post as Artistic Director and Soloist with the Chinese Music Chamber Orchestra in Zhuhai. Arriving in 2012, Mei entered UNT as an MA student of ethnomusicology. Her research focuses on Chinese immigrant music and culture, with a particular focus on the third wave of Chinese immigration in Texas. This work will be presented in her forthcoming master’s thesis entitled “Negotiating Decades of Change for Immigrants in America: The Houston Chinese Traditional Music Group.”
As a professional musician, Mei began her career as a soloist with the Zhuhai Chamber Orchestra. From 1997 to 2012, Mei has performed concerts throughout China, Portugal, Singapore, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. She has taught master classes for the Chong Hong Chinese Music Association and at the Macau Art School. From 2012-2015, Mei accepted invitations from the Norwegian Cultural Rucksack in Akershus to participate in the “Spoor” cultural exchange project, performing concert tours throughout Norway. Mei Yuxin continues to perform actively including concerts at UNT, as well as lecture-recitals at Tarrant County College and Tarleton State University.
Thanmayee Holalkere Krishnamurthy is an ethnomusicology MA student at UNT and an award winning professional South Indian Karnatik vocalist. As a student of T.M. Krishna, one of the foremost Indian classical vocalist, she has presented more than 300 performances in India and the US. Her research interests include South Indian classical music with an emphasis on its performing arts and rich historical heritage. Thanmayee holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and previously worked for two years as a software engineer for Tech Mahindra.
Sean Peters, originally from Syracuse, New York, is pursuing an MA in Ethnomusicology at UNT. He holds a BA in Music (magna cum laude) from Texas Woman’s University and his research interests include punk rock, hip-hop, and sound studies. His current work examines the studio recording practices among punk bands, particularly how the manipulation of sound is used to index larger social issues.