Fields

Ethnomusicology; experimental music; music of the United States; music of Indonesia; improvisation studies

Profile

My work at Pitt focuses on teaching global and popular musics, from critical, analytical, ethnographic, and performance orientations. I instruct majors, minors, and non-majors alike to explore diverse musical cultures and practices by learning to listen critically to how different cultures organize sound to create unique meanings and to express their cultural values. I am dedicated to fostering inclusive learning environments that help students develop crucial skills in cross-cultural and musical thinking to examine any music they encounter and reflect on their own relationships to music.

I earned my Ph.D. in Cultural Musicology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS) from Pitt. My teaching reflects my broad research interests and cross-disciplinary methods. I have taught world music surveys, Western music history classes (particularly of the twentieth century), ethnographic methods courses, and topical courses on music technology, organology, and improvisation. As the advisor for the Global and Popular Music track, I assist students in navigating their major requirements and developing their research and creative projects. My advisees have completed capstone projects reflecting the diverse possibilities of the track, including an investigation into the use of machine learning technologies for musical transcription, a cultural analysis of Brazilian video game music, a digital exhibit about the history and aims of the University Gamelan program, and a creative project arranging folk tunes inspired by the musics they studied at Pitt.

My research examines experimental music in North America and globally since 1950. Through direct engagement with living composers, I investigate how those involved with contemporary, experimental, or “un-popular” musics perceive themselves and position their work in relation to mainstream musical institutions, European classical music, global music traditions, popular music, emerging technologies, and, most importantly, in relation to each other’s work. My forthcoming book project, Gamelan as World Citizen: American Experimental Music and the International Gamelan Movement, highlights the proliferation of Indonesian gamelan ensembles in the United States and Europe and explores how local practices of experimentalism contribute to a global network of artists brought together by their common interest in gamelan. My research portrays gamelan instruments as more than a “tabula rasa” for individual creativity, as many scholars suggest, but as a nexus for an expansive transitional musical community that retains its core Identities from Indonesia.

Music performance is a vital component of my life and work here at Pitt, where I co-direct the University Gamelan with Prof. Andrew Weintraub. Focusing on the Sundanese salendro and degung styles, this ensemble class performs contemporary and traditional music by international artists. The class welcomes students of all skill levels and requires no prior musical experience, whether with gamelan or otherwise. Since coming to Pitt in 2019 I have organized annual concerts with guest artists from Indonesia displaying a wide array of musical genres, including dance, vocal, instrumental, and experimental works. These concerts highlight the efforts of student performers who learn the music and culture throughout the semester through the traditional rote pedagogy and direct engagement with the visiting artists. The University Gamelan regularly performs in Pittsburgh and travels within the Western Pennsylvania Region, having recently performed at venues such as Slippery Rock University, Carnegie Mellon University, The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Seton Hill University, the National Conference of the Organization of American Kodály Educators, Row House Cinema, among others.

In addition to my work at Pitt, I am a classical guitarist who maintains an active performance and teaching schedule. I direct a community gamelan for the general public to learn to play Sundanese gamelan degung.

Courses Taught

Music 0311 Introduction to World Music (Fall, Spring))

Music 0690 University Gamelan Ensemble (Fall, Spring)

Music 1270 Music and Technology (Music and Technoculture) (Summer/Fall 2023)

Music 1310 Introduction ot Global and Popular Music (Fall, Spring)

Music 1396 Music and Society (Improvisation in Cross-Cultural Perspectives) (Spring 2020)

Music 1904 Senior Seminar (Critical Studies of Musical Instruments) (Rotation)

Selected Publications

Peer Reviewed

“Tuning ‘American Gamelan’: Transforming Javanese Gamelan Tunings in North America,” Asian Music 52, No. 1 (January 2021): 88–120.

“Rahayu Supanggah’s Paragraph and the Problems of Intercultural Collaboration,” Global Musical Mondernisms, December 24, 2020. 

“Made in the USA: Gamelan Son of Lion und die Amerikanische Experimentelle Musik,” Positionen: Texte zur aktuellen Musik 128 (August 2021): 45–56.

"William Hellermann (1939–2017)," contextual essay for the edited collection Interviews with American Composers: Barney Childs in Conversation, ed. Virginia Anderson. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2022: 132–134.

Scholarly Liner Notes

“Anything Can Happen Starting from Nothing,” scholarly liner notes for the recording Malcolm Goldstein, because a circle is not enough: music for bowed string instruments, New World Records (NWR 80835), 2022.

“Music for Remote Ensembles,” scholarly liner notes for the recording Brian Baumbusch, Murmuration, Other Music Records (OM 2029), 2020.

“These Are the Generations,” scholarly liner notes to the recording Larry Polansky, These Are the Generations, New World Records (NWR 80819-2), 2020.

"A Process of Refinement: The Integration of Gamelan Building and Musical Composition," liner notes for the recording Daniel Schmidt, Abies Firma, Recital Records R70, 2019.

Selected Conference Presentations

“Sound as a Physical Reality: Object and Gesture in Malcolm Goldstein’s Improvisations.” American Musicological Society (AMS), Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 8, 2020.

"Tuning in Dialogues: Towards a Biographical Approach to Tuning Systems." To be presented at the Northern California Chapter Meeting of Society for Ethnomusicology, Merced, California, 2019.

"The Social Life of an 'American Gamelan.'" Presented at the 62^nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Denver, Colorado, 2017.

"Where Indeterminacy Meets Improvisation: Cornelius Cardew's Guitar Piece For Stella." Presented at the conference Improvisation and the Politics of Everyday Sounds: Cornelius Cardew and Beyond, Montréal, Québec, 2014.

"Composition No. 355 and Anthony Braxton's Creative World Music." Presented at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society, Tempe, Arizona, 2014.

"'Sound as a Physical Reality': Malcolm Goldstein with the Judson Dance Theater." Presented at the annual national conference for the Society of American Music, Little Rock, Arkansas, 2013.