Graduate Students

Jonathan Ataria

Jonathan Ataria is an Oud and Sitar player. He picked up these instruments following a long trip in East Asia and after years of playing the Guitar (mostly Jazz and Blues). Through playing, He is passionate about studying the Indian, Persian, Turkish and Arabic musical traditions, and the cultures that gave birth to them. He has recently completed his BA with a double major in Musicology and Computer Science at Tel Aviv University. Besides music, Jonathan enjoys reading and sailing.

Peter Atkinson

Peter Atkinson is a second year master's degree candidate focused on the intersection of acoustics, technology, composition, and performance. He is also the Department of Music's Studio Manager, and an active freelance recording engineer in the Boston area.

Vannessa Case

Vannessa, an Indiana native, is pursuing their M.A. in Musicology at Tufts. She graduated with a B.A. in Music from Gettysburg College in 2019, followed by two years of teaching choir at a local high school. She enjoys performing musical theatre and opera, composing choral music, and reading scientific papers. Vanessa's research interests are varied, ranging from social justice advocacy in musical theater and opera to music during colonization, but her main ideas largely involve combining music and science, especially music-making in times of epidemics and pandemics.

Sophia Cocozza

Sophia is pursuing an M.A. in Musicology. Her research has touched intersections of women and gender studies, disability studies, film and media studies, and sound studies. She graduated from Boston College (2019) with a B.A. in Music and English with a concentration in Art History. Sophia is a pianist and harpist and is more recently focused on learning harpsichord and viola da gamba. She has received several scholarships for her skill as a pianist and continues to work as a piano teacher. Sophia has a background in museum educational programming and outreach. Her time at Tufts will culminate in a Master's Thesis focused on the consideration of multisensory sound practices in sound art funded in part by a Tisch Library Graduate Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities.

Emmanuel Feldman

Hailed by John Williams as "an outstanding cellist and truly dedicated artist," American cellist Emmanuel Feldman has emerged as one of the most innovative and expressive artists of his generation. Known for his intense soulful playing and a broad range of repertoire and styles, his career includes work as a soloist, chamber musician, composer, inventor and educator. Co-founder of Cello e Basso with bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman, they were called “a musical Lewis and Clark” by NPR’s Ron Schacter. He has performed with the Boston Symphony, Gilbert Kalish, Robert Levin, Paul Neubauer, Borromeo String Quartet, and pop artist Bobby McFerrin. His CD “Our American Roots” on Delos was described by Gramophone Magazine as “an artist who combines communicative urgency with tonal splendor.” Mr. Feldman is on the cello applied faculty at New England Conservatory, Tufts University, Heifetz International Music Institute, International Cello Institute and VCU Global Summer Institute.

Yasaman Ghodsi

Yasaman Ghodsi is an Iranian composer, inspired by Persian art and culture. Her sound world often blends Persian and Western classical music elements. Film scoring, improvisation, and Persian Music Performance are her main interests. She holds a B.A. in Painting and is currently pursuing her M.A. in Music Composition at Tufts University. She is a part-time piano teacher at "Jammin with You" in Massachusetts, where she resides. Yasaman is passionate about art, regardless of its form; she enjoys poetry and painting, as well as playing piano and setar. She spends her spare time doing Taichi, Qigong, and learning about the mind.

Hunter X. Harville-Moxley

Hunter X. Harville-Moxley is a composer, conductor, and organist with experience with instrumental and choral ensembles alike. His background in sacred music, video game music, and composition informs his mindful and refined approach to music. Hunter is fueled by his passion for understanding the nuances of cultural music practices. Hunter is a "forever student," eager to stay in touch with the latest music composition trends through continued coursework and professional development. His hunger for knowledge and determination to turn a musical idea into a realized composition has contributed to his most recent success with the Chinese Community Chorus of Albany NY. There, Hunter arranged a popular Chinese pop song (月亮代表我的心 - The Moon Represents My Heart) for their spring concert. Hunter is currently working as a freelance composer and conductor who is always interested in pursuing excellence in their work. Hunter holds an Associate of Science in Pipe Organ Performance from SUNY Schenectady where he studied with Alfred Fedak and a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a concentration in composition from SUNY Albany where he studied composition with Max Lifchitz and conducting with Dr. Michael Pfitzer.

Alan Mackwell

Described as "an original composer with new ideas and a command of complex symphonic writing" (BroadStreet Journal), New Zealander-American Alan Mackwell (b. 1998) is an award-winning composer and banjo-player based in Boston, Massachusetts. In his work, Alan seeks to explore the mountains of the American West he grew up with using a highly resonant and bluegrass-influenced musical language. Alan’s music has been played by high-performing groups such as the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Conservatory Contemporary Music Ensemble, and Hub New Music. He is intensely driven by the beauty, brutality, and the sheer vastness of the natural world, in no small part due to his experience as an avid hiker. The Rocky Mountains in particular are a constant source of inspiration for Alan’s music. He strives to celebrate them through his compositions, banjo performance, and reading of environmental literature.

Katianna Nardone

Katianna is a classically trained composer and jazz violinist pursuing an M.A. in composition at Tufts. She graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 2019, where she majored in music. At Tufts, Katianna writes most often for chamber groups and frequently performs new works in the composers’ concerts. She also performs in the Tufts Small Jazz Ensemble. For her master’s thesis, Katianna is writing a work for string quartet and percussion, with movements based on a series of photographs by LGBT activist and photographer Donna Gottschalk. When not playing music, Katianna enjoys knitting, cooking, and cross country skiing.

Nate Shaffer

In addition to composing and performing his own music, Nate (he/they) is a creativity activist specializing in pedagogies that liberate our authentic human impulses. He leads retreats, mentors private students, and teaches improvisation — including at the Tufts ExCollege (Spring 2021). A Music Director at ImprovBoston from 2013-2020, he has improvised music for tens of thousands of people, at intimate venues and on Improv comedy’s famed stages across the country (UCB, iO, Improv Asylum, The Magnet). An accomplished pianist and chamber musician (B.A. with Honors Brandeis 2016), he dedicates his time to liberation through researching embodiment, “sound social practices” and social sound practices. As a social (re)visionary, he believes the crises of our time invites as an initiation into deeper connection with our creative faculties than ever before. He can’t wait to share his world with you.

Stephany Svorinic

A child of immigrants from two very different cultures—Ecuador and Croatia—Stephany Svorinić is a composer, performer, and New Yorker. She obtained her undergraduate degree from NYU and her Master of Music in classical vocal performance at New Jersey City University. In December 2019 she completed a graduate diploma in composition from The Longy School of Music, studying with Drs. Osnat Netzer and Amy Beth Kirsten. There, she was the winner of the Radius Ensemble’s Eighth Annual Pappalardo Composition Competition for her chamber work, Woodscrossing, which has since been played on classical radio stations nationwide. In 2020, the International Contemporary Ensemble premiered her trio for harp, guitar, and flute at Connecticut Summerfest. She was also a composer fellow for the 2021 Etchings Festival in Northampton, MA. Her thesis project sets the poetry of 19th Century Cuban poetess, Juana Borrero. When she’s not bedeviled with timbres and resonances, she’s possessed by the mystical, the occult, and all things psychological and esoteric. She lives in a haunted house in Salem, MA.

Mawunyo Kobla Titiati

Mawunyo Kobla (M.K.) Titiati, an M.A. student, performer (drummer), composer and producer, is an aspiring professor in music and consultant with focus on the business of music. Born in Adidome, Ghana he spent most of his life in Tema-Accra, Ghana. Through formal and informal training in Ghanaian traditional drumming, experiences in marching band, studying, teaching and performing of the drum set, growing and working as a church musician and serving in various leadership roles along the journey, he has been nurtured into a versatile musician and leader. Beyond performances, M.K. believes he is on a mission to lead the transformation in royalties and other systemic remuneration challenges faced by many Ghanaian and African musicians at large. As a necessary step to attaining these goals and many more, he has pursued and completed a B.A. Music from the University of Ghana in 2021 even after earning a BSc. in Statistics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, also in Ghana, in 2015. He finds the study of ethnomusicology at Tufts University an opportunity to engage research towards this mission.

Samantha Tripp

Samantha Tripp is pursuing an M.A. in Musicology and also dabbles in music theory. She graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College (2020) with a B.A. in Music and a minor in Romance Languages. An avid language-learner, Samantha speaks seven languages with varying levels of fluency, and is always looking for ways to combine her study of those languages with musicology. She plays flute and piccolo, and linked her undergraduate honors thesis, Nineteenth-Century Italian Flute Culture, to her senior recital, performing exclusively Italian flute music. In addition to her interest in combining her love of musicology, music theory, and languages, she has many research interests, including the history of the flute, the music of Alan Hovhaness and his connection to Tufts, and film music.

Phillip Wright

Phillip Wright is a second-year M.A. student studying composition. He graduated from Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2020 with a B.M. in composition. His music explores canonic techniques, allusions to early music, calligraphy, and autonomous music. Phillip draws from several mediums and materials to feed his creativity:"‘outsider" art, film, visual art, and religious imagery among others. Recently, Phillip has picked up clarinet after focusing exclusively on composition, and he enjoys playing new works by fellow Tufts composers. After his time at Tufts, Phillip intends to pursue librarianship.

Harriet Barnes-Duke

Harriet Barnes-Duke was a graduate student studying Ethnomusicology at Tufts University after completing her BA in Music and Anthropology at New College of Florida. Her undergraduate studies culminated into an ethnographic thesis about New Orleans Voodoo, as it related to current practices, commodification, historical influences, spiritual rituals, and the use of music to induce trance and possession. As a graduate student, she pursued further education in African and African diasporic musics under her adviser, Prof. David Locke. Although she enjoys playing the violin, Harriet's academic interests lean toward functions and understandings of polyrhythms and meters, or the lack thereof, by various peoples as they relate to percussive instruments.

Kimani Bishop

Kimani Bishop ('21) is an aspiring ethnomusicologist. He will be starting a two-year MA program in Ethnomusicology at Tufts University in the fall of 2019, with a concentration on Caribbean music (steelpan) and its diaspora connecting them to West African rhythms. He is from the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and proficient in steelpan engineering and performing. He graduated from Trinity College in the Spring of 2019, with a BA in Music. Working alongside his academic advisor during his undergraduate studies, he developed a keen interest in Ethnomusicology. He is excited to work with Professor David Locke because of his work and research with the Ghanaian culture and also for his high profile and experience in the Ethnomusicological field. His goal is to become a Professor Ethnomusicology designing a course with information on West African cultures, tribes and practices found and discovered in Soca, Calypso, and other Caribbean genres.

Ryan Carraher

Ryan Carraher is a 23-year old guitarist, composer and educator with a unique improvisational and compositional approach. He has a degree in guitar performance from the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He is also the recipient of the Berklee guitar department achievement award. Ryan started his musical journey at the age of eleven, and two years later began playing live in the northern New Jersey and New York scenes where he composed and performed jazz, fusion, rock, metal, classical and electronic music. His goal is to create honest, contemporary sounds that are illuminating, captivating and recreate the massive epiphany one experiences when hearing music for the first time. He has played with many notable artists including: Allan Holdsworth, Jimmy Heath, Leslie West, Grand Funk Railroad, Pete Best, Joe Lynn Turner, Adrian Belew, Sly and the Family Stone, Ours, George Thorogood, Paul Rodgers, The Fab Faux, John Wetton, and Napoleon Murphy Brock. He has been a featured soloist in many renowned venues such as: B.B Kings Blues Club (NYC), The Morristown Community Theater (to a sold-out crowd of 1,200 people), the Highline Ballroom and the Bergen PAC.

Meg Connolly

Meg Connolly ('17) studied composition under Prof. John McDonald at Tufts University. She earned two Bachelor of Music degrees from Berklee College of Music with concentrations in composition and film scoring in 2014. In 2015, she worked in the Bollywood music industry in Mumbai, India, where she interned for prolific film music director Clinton Cerejo. Her music has been performed by the ALEA III ensemble, Anne Howarth, and at various locations in Massachusetts. She has studied under Alla Elana Cohen and Austin Powers composer George S. Clinton. Her compositional interests include finding ways of incorporating Hindustani folk and classical idioms into Western classical setting.

Michelle Connor

Michelle Connor ('17) graduated with an MA in Music Theory. She completed a BS in Mathematics and a B.M. in Violin Performance from the University of Dayton in December 2014. Michelle is interested in the connection between mathematics and music analysis, methods of nineteenth century music analysis, pedagogical approaches for theory, and Middle Eastern music.

Brad DeMatteo

Brad DeMatteo is an MA candidate studying Ethnomusicology. He holds a BA in music from Bennington College where he first became interested in the field. As an undergrad, he became particularly interested in the musics of South East Asia, which lead him to attend a semester abroad at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Since then, his focus of study has ranged everywhere from Cambodian pop and folk music, to Senegalese Mbalax, to 20th century free jazz in the United States. Brad is also an active composer and passionate improviser. An electric bass player, he performs both solo and with a broad range of ensembles in Athens, Georgia and New England. At Tufts, his continued pursuit in ethnomusicology is to promote empathy, understanding, and deference towards culture through music.

Andrew Gresko

A South Carolina native, Andrew Gresko completed a B.M. at University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC with a concentration in piano performance in 2015. Since then, Mr. Gresko has studied Hindustani music in the Dhrupad style with his guru, Rajesh Sendh of the Dagar gharana in Varanasi, India, where he lived for the better part of 2016. Now at Tufts, Andrew's research interests include the music of North India, music and pedagogy, music and memory, and film music, especially the music of Star Wars. Additionally, he enjoys learning, dancing, and preparing vegan Indian food.

Jacquelyn Hazle

Jacquelyn Hazle ('21) is an MA student in composition who holds a BM in Composition from Berklee College of Music (’18). She is an active composer, clarinetist and classically trained soprano. As a performer and composer she draws from her eclectic musical tastes in Baroque through modern Western concert music, medieval and Renaissance sacred chant and heavy metal. In her research, she is most interested in the development and implementation of new extended vocal techniques based on those used in metal subgenres. Her goal is to demonstrate and establish performance practices, notation and modern applications for the metal vocal style in concert hall settings. She relishes in musical collaboration and loves to use all aspects of her musicianship amongst others to create a rich, organic musical and human experience.

Alexander Hite

Alexander Hite ('19) is pursuing an MA in Composition at Tufts University, where he also completed his undergraduate studies in Music and Economics. Under the tutelage of composer Howard Frazin, Alexander has seen his music performed and recorded across the Boston area since 2014. His influences range from Impressionism to 1960s psychedelia to game music, and his compositional interests lie at the intersection of these and multiple other genres. Alexander hopes to employ this hybrid style as a composer for video games.

Claudia Holen

Claudia Holen ('21) is an MA candidate studying Musicology. She received a BM in Voice Performance with a minor in Psychology from the Boston Conservatory in 2019. While spending two consecutive summers in Germany and Austria, Claudia worked diligently on the performance and analysis of German lieder specifically focusing on Schubert and Mahler. Since then, her research has focused primarily on German art song and its impact on other western genres as well as Norwegian folk music as a tribute to her family’s heritage. During her final year at Boston Conservatory, Claudia wrote papers on the connection between late 19th century lieder and serialism as well as curated a recital of German lieder focusing on the subject of spring.

Yan-Jie Micah Huang

Micah Huang is a musician and performance artist, studying Music Composition at Tufts under Professor John McDonald. Micah's work is eclectic and cross-disciplinary, incorporating elements of various Art, Folk and Popular music styles as well as poetry, theatrics, and movement. Micah was a Fulbright fellow in Hungary in 2013-14, where he studied the Cigányzene of Hungarian Roma musicians; a seamless blend of canonical romantic repertoire and diverse multicultural elements. This experience, along with intense study of certain Afro-American musics and immersion in the electronic sampling culture of 2000's Los Angeles has led Micah to a sense that music, like the earth itself, has no true borders or boundaries save those imposed on it by the human propensity to discriminate. His studies at Tufts are built around three questions: What resources, skills and knowledge do we have? What is it that we are striving for as artists and as people? How can we turn what we have, into what we need?

Annie Kim

Annie Kim ('21) is pursuing an MA in Musicology at Tufts. She graduated summa cum laude from Boston College ('18), where she received her BA in History and Music. Annie was concertmaster of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and an active violinist in the Chamber Music Society and BC Baroque Ensemble. During her senior year at Boston College, she performed the Dvorak Violin Concerto as co-winner of the BCSO Concerto Competition. Some of Annie's research interests include the intersection of music and political violence/revolution, as well as the appropriation of folk music in Europe during the mid-19th to 20th centuries. In addition to working as a private teacher and chamber music coach, Annie has continued her studies with her teacher, Mark Lakirovich. Most recently, she participated in the Cremona International Competition for Strings in July 2019, where she received honorable mention for her performance.

Max Luo

Max Luo ('21) is pursuing an MA in Music with a focus in theory at Tufts, where he completed a BS in mechanical engineering with an additional major in music. Though born in New Jersey, he considers Hong Kong to be his home. His musical tastes are of the middle Romantic period, as well as the interaction of multimedia and soundtrack (particularly in video games). Max is an amateur composer in his free time; among his works include a number of small piano pieces, some duets and solos, and a symphony.

Edwin Munera

Edwin Munera is pursuing an MA in Composition at Tufts University. He studied with composer Mauricio Lozano in Colombia, and guitarist and composer Arnaud Dumond in France. Edwin's principal instrument is the guitar. He has composed, arranged, and recorded for popular and latinoamerican music ensembles, performing his music and others' as a guitarist and vocalist in Colombia, France, Boston, New York and Miami. He has been a music teacher in Colombia, France and the US. Edwin's compositional interests include exploring different musical traditions for chamber ensembles which center around the guitar, as well as art songs.

Ben Paulding

Ben Paulding ('17) graduated with an MA in Ethnomusicology and studied under Prof. David Locke. After two years of extensive performance, research, and teaching in Ghana, Ben studied Ashanti drumming at Tufts with Professor Emmanuel Attah Poku, and worked as TA for the Kiniwe African Music Ensemble. He has performed with the Centre for National Culture (Kumasi), the Ashanti King's Fontomfrom ensemble (Kumasi), the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society, Jerry Leake's Cubist, Marcus Santos' Bloco AfroBrazil, and several leading Ketegroups in New York City. A member of the Vic Firth Education Team, Ben has taught at Zumix and the International Community School, Kumasi.

Abbi Rienzo

Abbi Rienzo graduated with an MA in historical musicology. She holds a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Flute Performance and Art History from the University of New Hampshire, where her research areas included the works of 12th century French trouvères, as well as cataloging acquisitions at the UNH Museum of Art. As a flautist, she is an active chamber and orchestral performer and was the 2014-2015 winner of the UNH Concerto Competition. She completed a thesis examining Diamanda Galás' role as a death midwife during the United States AIDS crisis through her 1990 performance of her piece Plague Mass.

James Rosenberg

James Rosenberg is interested in the role of media, technology, and infrastructure in the production, transmission, and consumption of music. Recent work has included a study of protest soundscapes; a related project exploring the theoretical and ethical dimensions of sound and protest; and a (speculative) cartographic expedition to map the mysterious "Cloud," home of online streaming services. Other interests include sound studies, jazz, playing guitar solos, and cheap used books. He has a BA in music from Wesleyan University.

Cole Swanson

Cole Swanson ('17) graduated with an MA in Musicology and is also a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He earned a BA in jazz piano with a music history and literature emphasis and a BA in environmental policy. His research focuses primarily on the cultural politics of 20th century opera and other stage works, though he is also interested in film and video game music, ecomusicology, and the music of Benjamin Britten. While at St. Olaf, Cole sang in choir, worked as an opera accompanist and vocal coach, and composed and performed incidental music for a production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline for keyboard, percussion, and ukulele.

Jason Winikoff

Jason Winikoff ('18) is pursuing his MA in Music with an Ethnomusicology concentration. He holds both a B.F.A. in Jazz Studies and BA in Digital Media Production from Tulane University (New Orleans, LA). During his undergraduate career, Jason studied Ghanaian percussion and ethnomusicology abroad at the University of Ghana. Following graduation, he spent 9 months in Zambia studying traditional percussion while teaching jazz drum set and training a drum instructor at the Ngoma Dolce Music Academy. After this he worked as a musician in New Orleans while studying Haitian Vodoun drumming, religion, and culture under Damas "Fanfan" Louis. After recently studying Luvale percussion, language, and culture in Zambia under Kapalu Lizambo and William Vunda, he will write his thesis on the ceremonial music of the Vaka Chinyama. He is interested in analysis, ritual, and historical ethnomusicology.

Kendall Winter

Kendall Winter ('17) is pursuing her MA in Musicology at Tufts University. She comes to Tufts from Colby College, where she received BA degrees in Music and Classical Civilizations. Kendall has performed as a chorister and a vocal soloist throughout her home state of Maine and in New York City. This passion for singing has inspired her to undertake research concerning women's and gender issues in vocal musics. Her particular areas of interest include art songs composed by women and female archetypes in opera and musical theater.