About

I am a musicologist whose principal area of research is the music of Fryderyk Chopin. I have also written on Eduard Hanslick's reception of Gustav Mahler, on "tubercular singing" in Verdi's La traviata, and on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's cat. I teach at Occidental College courses on Western music history, opera, music and disease, music and sense perception (especially where dining is concerned), and the aesthetics of music. I chaired the Occidental Music Department from 2014 to 2023. As of July 2024, I am the inaugural Director of the John Branca Institute for Music, dedicated to the study of popular music and the music industry.