I completed my doctoral studies in music theory at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). My Ph.D. dissertation “Toward a General Theory of Polymeter: Polymetric Potential and Realization in Elliott Carter’s Solo and Chamber Instrumental Works After 1980” presented a conceptual framework for the analysis of polymetric structures and explored issues of performance and perception. During my studies at The Graduate Center, I also received an Elebash Dissertation Award to conduct research on music in New York, including a series of interviews with expert performers. Two grants from the Graduate Research Grants Program funded a listening experiment that used a polymetric texture from Carter’s 90+ for piano (1994) and sketch studies at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, Switzerland.

My previous teaching appointments in music theory were at Hunter College (2003-2006) and then at Yale University (2008-2015). I have taught courses on the music of Elliott Carter, rhythm in twentieth-century music, the cognition of musical rhythm, and Schenkerian analysis. I have also collaborated with Bruno Repp at Haskins Laboratories on a series of experiments aimed at tackling issues in the perception of polymeter, in particular how highly trained musicians track the competing beats in a polymetric structure. I am one of the co-founders of the Northeast Music Cognition Group (NEMCOG), a group created to facilitate interaction among researchers and students interested in all areas of music cognition, to discuss research in the field, and to identify topics of joint interest and areas for potential collaboration. On-going projects include research on polymeter in contemporary musical practices and further studies in the perception and cognition of complex rhythmic structures, in particular questions pertaining to expertise.

I also hold a B.A./M.A. in music (piano/composition) from Hunter College of CUNY as well as a Diplôme d’Études Collégiales in classical music (piano performance) from the Collège Lionel-Groulx (Québec).

Lead PI, Rhythm Research Cluster

Music theory; Theories of rhythm and meter, with a special emphasis on temporal multiplicity and twentieth-century music; Music cognition, especially rhythm, expertise, and cross-cultural issues; and Schenkerian analysis