Musicology Students and Graduates

Current Students in Musicology

Rachel Cisneros is a master’s student in musicology at Louisiana State University and serves as a graduate assistant for The Musician In Society and Survey of Western Music History. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education (2014) and a master’s degree in Oboe Performance (2017) from Northwestern State University. Rachel has worked with several junior high and high school bands in the northern Louisiana area, and has held the positions of band director at NJH and assistant director at NCHS in Natchitoches (2017–20). Her research interests include musical theater, Francis Poulenc, the music of American indigenous peoples, and mental illness/disability in music.

MaryKate F. Core is a master’s student in musicology at Louisiana State University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from McNeese State University (2020) and a bachelor’s of science in Geology with a minor in Anthropology from LSU (2015). She serves as the Assistant Director of Music Ministries and the Asbury Ringers Handbell Choir Director at First United Methodist Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana. MaryKate has worked with the Governor’s Program for Gifted Children, teaching classes such as Chemistry, Archeology, and Music Theory and has taught science and Latin classes for schools in the Diocese of Lake Charles. Her interests include early music, sacred music, audience development, and audience accessibility.

Francis Scully is a doctoral student in musicology at Louisiana State University as well as an orchestral conductor and educator based in New Orleans. In 2007, Scully founded New Orleans-based chamber orchestra New Resonance Orchestra (NRO). The ensemble collaborates with theater, dance, literary, and visual artists to create interdisciplinary performances which relate the emotions of classical music directly to the lives of the audience. New Resonance has been the recipient of numerous awards under Scully’s direction, including the New Orleans Classical Arts Award for “Best Choral Presentation” for NRO’s 2013 performances of Monteverdi’s “Vespers of 1610” and the 2018 award for “Best New Classical Music Presentation” for their world-premiere performances of Tucker Fuller’s Book of Saints. Mr. Scully shares his passion for music in a variety of educational roles. As Assistant Professor of Music at University of Holy Cross, Scully inspires new listeners in courses on Music Appreciation, 20th Century Music, and the History of Rock. As a frequent guest conductor of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Scully has conducted and written scripts for several education and family concerts, including a recent concert which kicked off the 300th Anniversary Celebration of the founding of the City of New Orleans. He holds an M.M. in Conducting from Peabody Conservatory where he studied with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar and a B.M. in violin performance from Catholic University where he was a student of Jody Gatwood.

Matthew Wood is a doctoral student in musicology at Louisiana State University. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance also from LSU, where he studied with Willis Delony and prepared research on alternatively-sized piano keyboards. Recent ventures include a lecture-recital on Debussy’s second book of Images; and solo piano recitals at the 2014, 2018, and 2019 World Piano Conferences in Novi Sad, Serbia; at the V Encuentro de Pianistas in San Jose, Costa Rica; and at Erin Hall in Cape Town, South Africa. His current research interests lie in the influence of religion on large-scale piano works by nineteenth-century composers, such as Liszt. From 2013 to 2020, he taught fulltime at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, as accompanist, choir director, opera conductor, and instructor of music theory, aural skills, class piano, and music history.

 

Recent Dissertations and Theses in Musicology (since 2000)

Michael Palmese (PhD, 2019)

“John Adams Composing Through Others: Modeling, Innovation, and Recomposition”

Advisor: Brett Boutwell

Now: Dr. Palmese taught as Visiting Assistant Professor at Maynooth University, Ireland. His article, “A Portrait of John Adams as a Young Man: The 1970s Juvenilia,” was recently published in American Music.

 

Katlin Harris (MM, 2019)

“The Stanocola Refinery Band: Industry, Tradition, and Community”

Advisor: Brett Boutwell

Now: Ms. Harris is a doctoral student in musicology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

 

Ronaldo Augusto Teles Dos Santos (DMA, 2018)

“Musical Introductions to Cavalleria rusticana: Giuseppe Perrotta’s ‘Bozzetto sinfonico’ and Pietro Mascagni’s ‘Preludio’”

Minor area advisor: Andreas Giger

 

Justin Andrew Owen (PhD, 2018)

“The Handmaiden of Gnosis: Music in Esoteric Societies”

Advisor: Blake Howe

Now: Dr. Owen is active as a singer and has taught music history courses at Lamar University.

 

Vivian Buchanan (MM, 2018)

“Debussy’s Piano Rolls and the French Harpsichord Tradition”

Advisor: Daniel Shanahan

Now: Ms. Buchanan is a doctoral student at Florida State University, where she is studying Information Science with a focus on music librarianship.

 

Leanny Muñoz (MM, 2018)

“Homenajes: Finding Spanish Identity in Falla’s Orchestral Suite”

Advisor: Blake Howe

Now: Ms. Muñoz is a doctoral student at the University of California at Davis.

Warren Kimball (PhD, 2017)

“Northern Music Culture in Antebellum New Orleans”

Advisor: Brett Boutwell

Now: Dr. Kimball teaches music history courses at LSU.

 

John T. Dunn (PhD, 2016)

“The Representation of Disability in the Music of Alfred Hitchcock Films”

Advisor: Blake Howe

Now: Dr. Dunn is Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.

 

Karl Simmerman (MM, 2016)

“The Sketches for Felix Mendelssohn’s Paulus, Op. 36”

Advisor: Andreas Giger

 

Yuxi Zhao (MM, 2016)

“Zhenfang Zhao’s Widow Xianglin and New Directions in Modern Huai Opera”

Advisor: Andreas Giger

 

Timothy Love (PhD, 2015)

“Thomas Davis, The Nation, and Songs of Irish Nationalism”

Advisor: Brett Boutwell

Now: Dr. Love works as an administrative assistant at LSU and teaches occasional music history courses. Research from his dissertation has appeared in the journal Nineteenth-Century Music Review.

 

Megan Murph (MM, 2013)

“Max Neuhaus and the Musical Avant-Garde”

Advisor: Brett Boutwell

Now: Ms. Murph is pursuing a PhD in musicology at the University of Kentucky.

 

Tina Huettenrauch (PhD, 2012)

“Three Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Performance Practice”

Advisor: Jan Herlinger

Now: Dr. Huettenrauch completed her MLS, with a specialization in academic and health services librarianship.

 

Justin Andrew Owen (MM 2012)

“Hidden Music: Vowel Formant Theory and the Languages of Verdi’s Don Carlos”

Advisor: Andreas Giger

Now: Dr. Owen earned a PhD in Musicology at LSU.

 

Warren Kimball (MM, 2011)

“Ives’s Seasonal Songs”

Advisor: Brett Boutwell

Now: Mr. Kimball earned a PhD in Musicology at LSU.

 

Sarah Wells Kaufman (MM, 2009)

“The Pasquale Amato Correspondence at Louisiana State University”

Advisor: Andreas Giger

Now: Mrs. Kaufman received her PhD in Education in 2020, with a focus on curriculum studies. She serves as Assistant Director of Academic Services at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago.

 

Tina Huettenrauch (MM, 2008)

“The Mise en scène of Rossini’s Le Siège de Corinthe and the Conventions of Staging at the Paris Opéra in the 1820s”

Advisor: Andreas Giger

Now: Ms. Huettenrauch earned a PhD in Musicology at LSU.

 

Patrick Kaufman (MM, 2007)

“The Apologia of Franchino Gafurio: A Critical Edition and Translation”

Advisor: Jan Herlinger

Now: Mr. Kaufman is pursuing a PhD in musicology at the University of Chicago.

 

Joseph La Rosa (DMA, 2006)

“Formal Conventions in Verdi’s Falstaff”

Advisor: Andreas Giger

Now: Dr. La Rosa teaches piano and language classes in Paris, France. He also works as a French-English translator.

 

Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith (PhD, 2002)

“Alban Berg’s Filmic Music: Intentions and Extensions of the Film Music Interlude in the Opera Lulu”

Advisor: Jan Herlinger

Now: Dr. Goldsmith is a sound recording engineer and producer and the co-owner of MLMC Media, located in Northampton, MA.

 

Heather Koren Pinson (MM, 2002)

“Aspects of Jazz and Classical Music in David N. Baker’s Ethnic Variations on a Theme of Paganini”

Advisor: Andreas Giger

Now: Dr. Pinson is Associate Professor of Media Arts, Associate Professor of Communication, and Department Head of Communication at Robert Morris University.

 

Nancy Ellen Washer (PhD, 2002)

“‘Los motz e.l so’: Words, Melody, and Their Interaction in the Songs of Folquet de Marseille”

Advisor: Jan Herlinger

Now: Dr. Washer is Director of the Delta College, State University of New York at Brockport.

 

Linda Page Cummins (PhD, 2001)

“Debussy and the Fragment”

Advisor: Matthew Brown and Jan Herlinger

Now: Dr. Cummins is Associate Professor of Musicology and the University of Alabama.