Below is a sampling of the many things that I am currently working on. This is by no means a detailed look at my activity but more a guide to the points of density within my energies and output. As I am able to, I will update each with preliminary findings, publications, notes, and supporting documents. Enjoy!
Overview:
While repertoire resources for conductors and musicians are readily available across many dimensions of interest, our understanding of the distribution of works and their performance trends over time is less well-developed. This strand of research explores the questions of who is writing, what they are writing, who is performing these works, as well as where and (potentially) why concentrations of performance activity manifest.
Applications:
Historically Marginalized Composers at the 2022 Midwest Clinic
Commissioned by the Midwest Clinic
Institute for Composer Diversity: Orchestral Seasons
Commissioned by the League of American Orchestras
The Midwest Clinic
2021 Repertoire Diversity Dashboard
Funded Grants:
2021 | $3,000
Bridging the Repertoire Divide: Expanding Composition Access and Opportunity in School Music Ensembles (Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts Impact Grant)
Overview:
Ensemble music offers a view of music performance situated within a dense, interactive network of interpersonal communication. Focusing on conducted ensembles in the Western tradition, this strand of research explores these interactions across ensemble types, experience levels, and performance contexts.
Publications:
2014 | Conductor gesture influences evaluations of ensemble performance
2018 | Questions of gesture and sound: Temporal interactions in conducted ensembles
2019 | The effects of temporal action-sound congruence on evaluations of conductor quality
Grants:
2020 | Musician's affective response to expressive conductor gesture (Univ. of Houston New Faculty Research Grant)
Overview:
I have been fortunate to learn from and work with some masterful music educators in my career, many in ensemble settings. I am intensely interested in exploring the differences and similarities across what many would consider disparate approaches to teaching music in ensembles. Part in parcel with that, I am interested in the different ways these methods appear in the field, remixed and reimagined as bespoke solutions for different teachers, students, and communities.
Publications:
Overview:
Teaching is busy. Music teaching is especially busy. This area of inquiry is my attempt to adapt existing and useful tools from productivity literature to the needs and workflows of the average music teacher.
Applications:
Building a Second (Music Teacher) Brain - TMEA 2022
Mise en Place for the Busy Music Teacher - TMEA 2023
Image generated with DALL·E
Overview:
Effective lesson planning is critical to pre-service teacher training. However, learning to create developmentally appropriate lesson plans that address scope, sequence, assessment, and pacing can be challenging. For pre-service teachers in music education, these challenges are compounded by the breadth of musical disciplines included in their coursework, like Elementary General, Choral, Wind Band, Marching Band, Orchestra, Jazz, and Mariachi. As a result, developing lesson plans for University-based laboratory instruction is particularly daunting, even with best-practice-focused rubrics and instructional aids. The complexity of synthesizing the numerous threads of instruction, content, and context presents a unique challenge to the developing music teacher.
Funded Grants:
2023 | $20,000
"Development of an Interactive, AI-powered Lesson Planning Rubric System"
(University of Houston Faculty and Department Instructional Support Teaching Innovation Program Grant)