Education
Ph.D. in Music (Ethnomusicology), May 2018
Columbia University, New York, NY
Dissertation: “Doing Sound: An Ethnography of Fidelity, Temporality, and Labor Among Live Sound Engineers.”
Director: Aaron Fox
Readers: Chris Washburne, Walter Frisch, George Lewis, John Szwed
M.Phil. in Music (Ethnomusicology), May 2010
Columbia University, New York, NY
M.A. in Music (Ethnomusicology), May 2007
Columbia University, New York, NY
Master’s Thesis: “Sounding the World: The Live Sound Engineering of World Music in New York City.”
Director: Aaron Fox
B.Mus. in Sound Engineering Arts and Jazz Performance, May 2005
William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
Bachelor’s Thesis: “The History, Design Criteria, and Application of Loudspeakers in the Context of Sound Reinforcement.”
Director: David Kerzner
Employment: University Degree Program
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)
Associate Professor of Music, Ethnomusicology, with Tenure, 2022-present
Associate Professor of Music, Ethnomusicology, 2021-2022
Assistant Professor of Music, Ethnomusicology, 2018-2021
Faculty Affiliations: Bard Music Program, American Studies, Africana Studies, Bard Conservatory of Music, Center for Experimental Humanities
The New School (New York, NY)
Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
Visiting Assistant Professor of Contemporary Music, Music Technology, 2017-2018
Part-Time Lecturer, 2015-2017
The School of Jazz and Contemporary Music
Part-Time Lecturer, 2015-2016
Seton Hall University, College of Communication and the Arts (South Orange, NJ)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Music Technology, 2014-2015
Adjunct Professor, 2007-2010
William Paterson University, Department of Music (Wayne, NJ)
Adjunct Instructor, 2012-2017
Columbia University, Department of Music (New York, NY)
Instructor of Music, 2009-2012
Publications
I. Scholarship
“The Jazz of a Black Ethnographer: A Memoir of Pedagogy, Improvisation, and Reflexivity at a Liberal Arts College” Teaching and Learning Difficult Topics in the Music Classroom, Eds. Laura Pruett and Olivia Lucas (University of Michigan Press, 2023).
Four Novelettes, op. 52 (1903), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Bard Music Festival, 2020.
“Ethnography, Sound Studies and The Black Atlantic: A Conversation with Michael Veal and Whitney Slaten,” Current Musicology 99/100 (2017): 21-36.
Editor, “The American Harmonium and Arthur Bird” by Artis Wodehouse, The Diapason, November (2015): 26-29.
Unfree Masters: Recording Artists and the Politics of Work by Matt Stahl (Duke University Press, 2012), Ethnomusicology Review 18 (2013): http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/book-review-unfree-masters-recording-artists-and-politics-work
“Representing Recording Studios of the Past: A Review Essay,” Current Musicology 91 (2011): 167-184.
Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae by Michael E. Veal (Wesleyan University Press, 2007), SOULS 10 (Spring) (2008): 187-189.
III. Discography (as producer/engineer)
Artis Wodehouse, Arthur Bird: Music for the American Harmonium, Raven OAR-962 (2016)
John-Carlos Perea, Creation Story, Aerep Music [ASCAP] (2014)
Courtney Bryan, This Little Light of Mine, Courtney Bryan (2010)
IV. Discography (as performer)
Clark Terry & Louie Bellson, Expedition, Percussion Power PERC2 (2008)
Ron Foster & Kindred Spirits, That Holiday Feeling, Ronfo & Kindred Spirits (2006)
Kelvin Quince Quintet, Live at Trumpets, Kelvin Quince (2005)
Clark Terry Big Band, Live at Marians, Chiaroscuro Records CR(D) 212 (2004)
Conference Presentations
“Listening for Climate Awareness in Music,” The Worldwide Teach-In on Climate and Justice Conference, Open Society University Network, Spring 2022
“Jazz Studies the Wire: Disciplinary Reckoning with Musicians and their Science,” Jazz Study Group Meeting: Jazz, Space, and Physics, Columbia University, Spring 2022
“Reflexivity and Improvisation: Ethnomusicological Pedagogy at a Liberal Arts College,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Virtual/COVID, November 2020
“3D Printing in Ethnomusicology,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Bloomington, Indiana, November 2019
“Music and Labor,” Panel Chair, Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 2018
“Amplifying Jazz as Cultural Repatriation in Harlem: Jazzmobile and the Urban Soundscape,” Center for Jazz Studies, Columbia University, New York, NY, September 2017
“Voicing Artis, Pianolizing Gershwin: Piano Rolls in the Post-Digital and Post-Industrial Era,” Ghosts in the Machine: Technology, History and Aesthetics of the Player-Piano, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, May 2017
“On the Postructuralism of Loudspeakers: Transduction and the Digital Humanities,” Reembodied Sound: A Symposium & Festival of Transducer-based Music and Sonic Art, Computer Music Center, Columbia University, New York NY, April 2017
“Jazzmobile and the Urban Soundscape,” Locations and Dislocations: An Ecomusicological Conversation, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Princeton, NJ, April 2016
“Amplifying From the Shadows: Representation and Metarepresentation in Live Music Production,” University of Toronto Music Graduate Students’ Association Conference on “Music and Labor,” Toronto, ON, April 2016
Invited Panelist, “Art, Citizenship and Community,” Columbia Black Law Students Association, Paul Robeson Conference, New York, NY, February 2016
“Liveness, Sonic Color and Transparency: The Creative Agency of Mixing Recorded and Live Broadway Productions of Porgy and Bess,” Art of Record Production Conference, Philadelphia, PA, November 2015
“Transparency, Color, and Liveness: An Ethnographic Study of the Live Sound Engineering of Porgy and Bess on Broadway,” Music Research in the Digital Age: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentations Centres and the International Musicological Society Congress, New York, NY, June 2015
“Sonic Color and the Transparency of Music Production: Mixing Porgy & Bess on Broadway,”
Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Ottawa, Canada (May 2015) and Annual Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Louisville, KY, February 2015
Invited Panelist, “Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Production,” Albright College Music Business Forum, April 2015
Invited Speaker, “Toward a Comparison of Ethnomusicology and Sound Engineering in the Study of Popular Music,” William Paterson University, Department of Psychology, November 2013
Invited Speaker, “Faders, Engineers and Genres: Mixing Live Music in New York City,” Oberlin
Conservatory of Music and Oberlin College Africana Studies Department, October 2013
Academic Events
“Jazz, Space, and Physics” co-organizer with Robert O’Meally and Fred Moten, Columbia University Jazz Study Group Meeting, Spring 2022
“A Discussion on the Influence of Military Music on the American Sound, from Reconstruction to the Roaring Twenties,” West Point Music Research Center, with Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan Crane and Sargent Kristina Teuschler, Spring 2021
“A Conversation with Marcus Roberts,” The Music Program, Bard College, October 2020
“The Potential of a Prefix: Transduction, Transparency, and Transcription,” Language and Thinking Rostrum, Bard College, August 2020
“Listening for Repetition in Moments of Interruption,” President Leon Botstein in Conversation with Music Professor Whitney Slaten, Bard College, April 2020
“Improvisation and Leadership,” The Courage to Be Fellows of the Hannah Arendt Center, Bard College, March 2020
“1619: A Commemoration in Sound,” T.K. Blue Quintet, Souleymane Badolo, Kongo Ba Teria, James Ransome. Fundraised $9000 from campus sponsors Difference and Media Project, Office of Inclusive Excellence, The Music Program, Historical Studies, Art History, Africana Studies, American Studies, the Art Division, the Center for Civic Engagement, Center for Experimental Humanities. Bard College, Fisher Center, December 2019
“The Juba like the Scherzo: The Social Commentary of a Symphony’s Third Movement,” Florence Price and the Emergence of African American Composers in the 21st Century Pre-Performance Conversation with Myra Armstead, and James Bagwell, Kyle Gann. Bard Conservatory Orchestra, Fisher Center, December 2019
“Conflict, Music, and Memory: Syria’s Experience,” The Chase Lecture, Bard Globalization and International Affairs, New York, New York, November 2019
“Hamid Al-Saadi & The Two Rivers Ensemble: Iraqi Maqam and Jazz,” Middle Eastern and North African Music Project, Fordham University, November 2019
“An Introduction to Steel Drumming,” New York University Steel Drum Ensemble, Drum Boogie Festival, Woodstock, New York, September 2019
“Considering Jazz as a Practice of Language and Thinking,” Matriculation Ceremony Keynote Lecture, Bard College, August 2019
“Talking Drums: Speech Surrogacy, African Retentions, and American Music,” Two Sisters Festival Bard College, May 2018
“Bandoneonista: Javier Sanchez in conversation with Professor Whitney Slaten,” Bard College, November 2019
“Andras Hodorog and His Hungarian Folk Music Band,” Organizer, Bard College in conjunction with Franz Liszt Academy, February 2019
“Master Class: Gnawa, The Trance Music of Morocco, featuring Abdellah El Gourd of Dar Gnawa of Tanger and Randy Weston,” Moderator, The New School Eugene Lang College, October 2015
Academic Advising
Danni Slawinski, “The Show Must Go On: New York DIY as Cultural Practice in The Changing City,” Senior Project, Bard College, Spring 2022
Matice Maino, “Hip-Hopping Over the Great Firewall of China: Authenticity, Language and Race in the Global Hip Hop Nation,” Senior Project, Bard College, Spring 2021
Alex Parke, “Concert of Traditional Klezmer Music,” Senior Project, Bard College, Spring 2021
Avalon Packer, “A Survey of West African Drumming Practices,” Senior Project, Bard College, Fall 2020
Zoe Peterschild-Ford, “The Ethos of the Blues: An Ethnography of Blues Singers and Writers,” Senior Project, Bard College, Spring 2020
Jon Collazo, “To Be the Sole Performer: A Selective Outline of the Development of the Solo Marimba in the United States,” Senior Project, Bard College, Fall 2019
Maia Kamil, “Why The Scared Sing: ‘Stage Fright’ as a Rite of Passage,” Senior Project, Bard College, Spring 2019
Kenneth Winfield, “A Critical Organology of the Trumpet,” Bard College, Fall 2018
Principal advisor, Alyssa Jones, “Project iNIDGO: A Self Study of Genre and the Role of the DIY Artist,” Independent Senior Capstone, Contemporary Music Program, Eugene Lang College, The New School, 2017-2018
Principal advisor, Brielle Liebman, “Eat, Pray, Love: Situating Gender, at a Dhurpad Gurukul Within and Beyond India,” Bachelor of Arts Honors Thesis, Popular Music Program, William Paterson University, 2015-2016
Co-advisor, Jasmine Henry, “‘Is R&B Having an Identity Crisis?’ Examining the ‘R&B Identity Crisis’ Phenomenon in the Contemporary Music Industry,” Master of Music Thesis, College of Art and Communication, William Paterson University, 2015-2016
Invited Guest Lectures
“Contemporary Classical Performance and ‘Resistance to the Object,’” Vocal Arts Program, Kayo Iwama, Bard Conservatory of Music, February 2021
“The Life of Joseph Bolonge,” A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Boston, February 2021
“S. Coleridge Taylor,” “Joseph Bolonge,” “Duke Ellington,” Virtual Pre-Concert Lectures, The Bard Music Festival, September 2020
“Reflections on Wiley Hitchcock,” TON Graduate Seminar, James Bagwell, Bard College, February 2020
“Jazz and the Problem of Vernacularism,” TON Graduate Seminar, James Bagwell, Bard College, February 2020
“The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Jasmine Tree,” 1969, Peter Laki, Bard College, March 2019
“Porgy and Bess on Broadway,” TON Graduate Seminar, Eric Trudel, Bard College, Spring 2019
“Hip Hop in Urban Formation,” Harlem, Bronzeville, South Central, Myra Armstead, Bard College, November 2018
“Social Life of Loudspeakers: A Mock Class,” Family and Alumni/ae Weekend, Bard College, October 2018
“The Great Migration and the Emergence of Blues and Jazz,” Annual Music Festival, Union Baptist Church, Montclair, New Jersey, September 2018
“The Human Voice,” Prof. Stefania deKenessey, Eugene Lang College, The New School, November 2017
“Cross Cultural Listening,” Prof. Niko Higgins, Sarah Lawrence College, November 2017
“Sound in the City,” Prof. Louise Meintjes, Duke University and New York University, September 2017
“Ethnomusicological Field Methods and Techniques,” The Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, November 2016
“Digital Field Methods: Exploring the Medialities of Recording and Ethnography,” The Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, March 2014
Courses Taught
Bard College
Introduction to Ethnomusicology
Special Topics in Ethnomusicology: Loudspeakers as Culture
Jazz Histories of Sound and Communication
The Social Life of Speakers
Ethnographies of Music and Sound
Sound Studies and Critical Listening
Field Methods in Ethnomusicology
Improvisation as Social Science
Senior Project I and II
The New School
“Thriller”: Deconstructing Popular Music Production
Sound to Signal: The Musical Life of Audio Transducers
Recording Studio as Instrument
Studio Topics: Timbaland
Progressive Trends in Jazz and Concert Music
Technologies of Global Pop
Popular Music and Genre
World Music History
Columbia University
Music Engineering: Discourses and Techniques
Masterpieces of Western Music
William Paterson University
Popular Music and Genre I & II
Popular Music Honors Thesis
Seton Hall University
Music and Audio Technology
Music and Sound for Film
Theory of Music
Music and Civilization
Private Jazz Saxophone Instruction
Academic Committees and Service
Faculty Sponsor, Thurman Barker, Bardian Award recipient, May 2022
Committee Member, Faculty Search Committee, Jazz, The Music Program, Bard College, 2021-2022
Faculty Sponsor, Audra McDonald, Honorary Doctorate recipient from Bard College, May 2021
Committee Member, The President’s Commission on Racial Justice and Equity, Bard College, Fall 2020
“Making Citizens,” Common Course Faculty Committee, Bard College, Spring 2020
Steering Committee, The Center for Experimental Humanities, Bard College, 2019-2020
Sherman Fairchild Foundation for an Art and Technology Grant, Grant Writing Committee, Bard College, Spring 2020
Advising, Course Development for Tatjana von Prittwitz und Gaffron, Baika Course, Bard College, Spring 2020
Sponsor, Georgian Women’s Choir Concert, First Appearance in the United States, Ethnomusicology Area Funded, Bard College, Spring 2020; new date TBD.
Advising, Course Development for Chungin Goodstein, “Exploring Human Connection Through Argentine Tango,” Bard College, Fall 2019
Sponsor, Professor Louis Garcia-Renart invited guest speaker, “Improvisation,” Ethnomusicology Area, Bard College, November 2019
Sponsor, I Gusti Nyoman Darta, Bard Gamelan Ensemble, Ethnomusicology Area Funded, Bard College, Fall 2019
Sponsor, Latifah Allsagef, Bard Gamelan Ensemble, Ethnomusicology Area Funded, Bard College, Fall 2019
Sponsor, Sue Pilla, Bard Gamelan Ensemble, Ethnomusicology Area Funded, Bard College, Fall 2019
Fellowships and Awards
Dissertation Fellowship, Columbia University, 2012-2013
Summer Teaching Fellowship, Columbia University, 2011
Faculty Fellowship, Columbia University, 2005