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