Graduate Students
Composition
Maximiliano Amici
Student
I always enjoy composing, and I particularly like to explore diverse, multiple facets of music making, as mirrors of being and acting in the world. I was born in Rome in 1980 into a family of musicians. Apart from playing violin in my childhood, I started serious studies of music late in my life,... Full Profile »
James Budinich
Student
James Budinich composes music inspired by minimalism, Croatian folk traditions, and American popular music. He has written for orchestra, voice, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and electronics. He has collaborated with Lindsay Brown (Love’s Lost Words for mezzo-soprano, cello, and piano),... Full Profile »
Stephen Downing
Student
Stephen Downing is a North Carolina-based composer, percussionist, and visual artist. His music searches to find the intersection of the classical tradition, organic structures, humor, and the human condition. Some of his musical inspirations include the obsessiveness of minimalism, the energy of... Full Profile »
Brooks Frederickson
Student
Composer Brooks Frederickson writes patient music that is grounded in long lines of slowly evolving textures with understated rhythmic drive. As an active participant in Brooklyn's vibrant contemporary music scene, he has worked with leading new music ensembles Sō Percussion, JACK Quartet,... Full Profile »
Dayton Kinney
Student
Office Hours: by appointment only
Dayton Kinney creates music that has won and has been recognized for numerous competitions at the international, national, and state levels. Performed in the U.S. and abroad, Dayton’s music has had notable performances by the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Durham Medical Orchestra, Rela... Full Profile »
Jason Mulligan
Student
Jason Mulligan is a composer seeking to explore how to blend the western classical tradition with the issues and sensibilities of 21st century life. A native of Dallas, Jason studied music composition at the University of Miami and Peabody Conservatory with Scott Stinson and Kevin Puts... Full Profile »
Amin Sharifi Jabali
Student
Amin Sharifi (Mohammad Amin Sharifi), Iranian contemporary composer, studied Composition at the Art University of Tehran and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the direction of Nader Mashayekhi, Mehdi Hosseini, Peter Ablinger, Klaus Lang, David Dzubay, and Don Freund. He also has had... Full Profile »
Ethnomusicology
Jonathan Henderson
Student
Jonathan Henderson is a North Carolina-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, writer, producer, and educator. Currently perusing a PhD in ethnomusicology at Duke University, Jonathan remains active as an artist and performer. Most recently, Jonathan produced the album "Routes" for his band Diali... Full Profile »
Musicology
Ka Man Misty Choi
Student
Education MPhil Historical Musicology, The Chinese University of Hong KongMA Music The Chinese University of Hong KongBA, MPhil Linguistics, The City University of Hong Kong Professional qualificationsLicentiate diploma in Music Theory (LMusTCL), Trinity College of LondonMember of Chartered... Full Profile »
Jon Churchill
Student
Jon's research focuses on British modernism, with special attention to issues of musical stasis and nonlinearity. Other interests include semiotics, the works of Charles Ives, and neuromusicology as it relates to the intersection of music and trauma. He holds a Master's in Musicology from The... Full Profile »
Liz Crisenbery
Student
Liz is a fifth-year PhD Candidate in musicology who studies early twentieth-century Italian opera, exploring the intersection of gender, politics, and music. Her dissertation examines masculine identities of fascist composers and reception of their operas during the height of Italian fascism. Other... Full Profile »
Meredith Graham
Student
Meredith is a fourth-year PhD candidate in musicology who studies twentieth-century British choral music. She is interested in text setting in the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells, Grace Williams, and Elizabeth Maconchy. She is currently the Outreach & Assessment Coordinator for... Full Profile »
Hannah Krall
Student
Hannah Krall is a musicologist interested in early music and jazz improvisation, traditional jazz, and music for the viola da gamba. She has a BA in Music from Cornell University (magna cum laude).
Karen Messina
Student
Karen's research interests center on the analysis and interpretation of operatic and vocal music in an effort to determine how these genres express, support, and augment their texts. Her dissertation project, titled “Dramatic Impulse: Diegetic Music in the Operas of Giacomo Puccini,” delves into... Full Profile »
Emily Shyr
Student
Emily Shyr entered the PhD program in Historical Musicology at Duke University in the Fall of 2018. Prior to coming to Duke, she earned her MPhil in American History at the University of Cambridge (2018), and received her Bachelor's degree from Columbia University (2017), where she majored in music... Full Profile »
Nicholas Smolenski
Student
Nicholas Smolenski (2017) is a musicologist interested in sacred music of Jacobean and Caroline England (1603–49) and its role in the Restoration (1660–88), specifically considering theology, spirituality, and English Civil War politics; previous research has involved Thomas Tomkins and his... Full Profile »
Cole Swanson
Student
Cole Swanson is a musicologist interested in 20th-century opera, ecomusicology, and Cold War-era jazz, as well as the intersection of cinema, music/sound, and philosophy. He has an MA in Musicology from Tufts University and BAs from St.Olaf College in Music and Environmental Studies.
