Graduate Student
Researchers

Musicology – Research Focus: 19th century American musical entertainment in resonance with contemporary cultural and scientific formations of race, sex, and gender
James Ace
James Ace is a Ph.D. student in UCLA’s Department of Musicology, having previously earned a Master’s degree in Music History and Literature from the University of Maryland, College Park (2017),
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Instructor of Armenian Woodwinds; Ph.D. Student in Ethnomusicology
Armen Adamian
Armen Adamian is a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA. His research investigates the politics of music making among Armenians and the involvement of musical and choreographic discourses in the
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Composition for Visual Media
Andreas Foivos Apostolou
Andreas Foivos Apostolou is a pianist-composer and producer from Athens, Greece. He was born into an artistic family in Athens, Greece, and was brought up by his mother, an actress.
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Ethnomusicology – Research Focus: Cultural aesthetics and transmission in popular music in Tanzania
Lucas Avidan
Lucas Avidan holds a bachelor’s degree in Music and English from Middlebury College, and is currently a master’s student in the Department of Ethnomusicology. His research discusses cultural aesthetics and
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DMA Music Performance, Piano candidate
Irina Bazik
Irina Bazik is currently pursuing a DMA degree in piano performance at UCLA under Inna Faliks. The Serbian-born Bazik was recognized as one of the most successful Serbian artists in
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Armenian Music Ensemble, Cello
Abraham Bonilla
Abraham Josue Bonilla, a Latin-American cellist, has appeared in recitals and concerts throughout the US, Latin America, Europe, and South America.  A recent graduate of the Eastman School of Music
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Musicology – Research Focus: American orchestras, musical hierarchies, and the cultural and political aspects of musical communities
Kerry Brunson
Kerry Brunson is a Ph.D. student in UCLA’s Department of Musicology. She received a BM in Saxophone Performance from Kennesaw State University and an MA in Musicology from California State
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Lecturer in Musicology
Caitlin Carlos
Dr. Carlos is an active musicologist (Ph.D., UCLA; M.A., USC) and vocalist (M.M. University of Redlands; B.M..Chapman University). She has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in music history, and
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Composition – Writes music for ensembles ranging from chamber to orchestral, vocal, and electroacoustic
Anthony Constantino
Born (1995) and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Anthony Constantino’s music has been hailed by The New York Times as “plush, cinematic, and animated.” Anthony has written for a variety of
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Music Performance Jazz, Piano
Paul Cornish
Paul Cornish, piano, was born in Houston, Texas and began playing piano at age 5. He attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, where he
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Choral TA
Kevin Cornwell II
Kevin Cornwell II is a second-year graduate student in Choral Conducting at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Before arriving at UCLA, Kevin served with Julian Goods as Co-Interem
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Musicology – Research Focus: Influence of musical instruments on the creation and reception of music
Sarah Davachi
Sarah Davachi holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Calgary and a master’s degree in electronic music and recording media from Mills College, and is currently a
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Music Performance Jazz, Bass
Emma Dayhuff
Emma Dayhuff, bass, was born in Northampton, Massachusetts and grew up in Bozeman, Montana. She began playing upright bass at age 13. In 2005, Dayhuff was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship
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Musicology – Research Focus: The interplay between Black vernacular music, popular and socio-political culture
Wade Dean
Wade F. Dean is a Eugene V. Cota Robles Fellow and PhD candidate in the department of Musicology at the University of California Los Angeles. His work explores the interplay
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Music Performance Jazz, Harmonica
Roni Eytan
Roni Eytan, harmonica, was born in Jerusalem, Israel and attended the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, where he
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VEM Ensemble, Cello
Niall Tarō Ferguson
A Los Angeles native, Niall Tarō Ferguson is a cellist, composer, and orchestrator. He is currently an active freelance musician, contributing in equal capacity to the worlds of concert and commercial music. Niall
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Musicology – Research Focus: Materiality and performance practice in post-1980 punk, indie and art rock
Erin Fitzpatrick
Erin Fitzpatrick, a Ph.D. student in UCLA’s Department of Musicology, previously earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Culture from Bowdoin College in 2015. A New Jersey native
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Musicology – Research Focus: Ontological issues in American popular music
Alex Hallenbeck
Alex is a Ph.D. student in musicology at UCLA, having previously received an MA in musicology from Indiana University in 2016 and a BA in music from Cornell University in
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Musicology Graduate Student
Candace Hansen
Candace Hansen is a PhD student, drummer, educator, and scholar currently studying and teaching at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Musicology. Hansen holds an Associate’s degree in
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Armenian Music Ensemble, Viola
Evan Hesketh
Award-winning chamber musician, Evan Hesketh, maintains a varied career as a performer, educator, and writer. He serves as principal violist of the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and has performed throughout California
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Armenian Music Ensemble - Violin
Hanna Hrybkova
Violinist Hanna Hrybkova began studying violin at the age of 5 in her native Belarus. Currently, Hanna is a Master’s student at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and
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Ethnomusicology – Research Focus: Migration, Aging, and Identity in South Korean Popular Music
John Hyun-Jun Jang
John is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA. His research area is on the contemporary South Korean popular song style “trot” and its partner dance
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Instructor of Beginning Armenian Dance; Ph.D. Student in Culture and Performance
Natalie Kamajian
Natalie Kamajian is a Ph.D.student in Culture and Performance at UCLA. She is a practitioner and teacher of Armenian vernacular dances, which are largely understudied within the fields of both
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Ethnomusicology - Research focus: Music and Muslim belonging in South Asia.
Shahwar Kibria Maqhfi
Shahwar is a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology focused on music and Muslim belonging in South Asia across space, time, and media. Her currently ongoing research blends multiperspectival ethnographic and historiographical
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Ethnomusicology – Research Focus: Gender, Music, South Asia, Folk Songs, Caste
Mukesh Kulriya
Mukesh Kulriya entered the Ph.D. program in Ethnomusicology in Fall of 2018, having previously received an M.Phil in Theater and Performance Studies and a Master’s degree in Arts and Aesthetics,
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Composition – Mahlerian Romanticism, Eastern-European Modernism, and Japanese traditional music
Mason Swan Lewis
Mason Swan Lewis is an American composer and pianist. Residing in Manhattan Beach, California, he currently attends the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as a doctoral candidate, having also
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Music Performance Jazz, Tenor Saxophone
Chris Lewis
Chris Lewis, tenor saxophone, was born in Uniondale, New York and grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He began studying saxophone at age nine. Lewis received a Bachelor of Music degree
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Music Performance Jazz, Trumpet
Aidan Lombard
Aidan Lombard, trumpet, was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Chicago. He began playing trumpet at age 10. Lombard attended the University of Miami as a Stamps Scholar
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Musicology – Research Focus: Northern Arizona punk scene in Flagstaff in the 1980's and 1990's
Kristen Martinez
Kristen Martinez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Musicology. She received her Master’s in American Indian Studies at UCLA, as well as her Bachelor’s in History with a minor in Comparative
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Ethnomusicology
William Matczynski
William Matczynski is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ethnomusicology whose dissertation research focuses on festivals, sound/urban space, and media in Accra, Ghana—specifically in the city’s traditional Ga-Dangme communities
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Ethnomusicology – Research Focus: Chicanx and Latinx Protest Music, Decolonization, Mestizaje, Immigration and Diaspora, Critical Intersectionality, DIY (do-it-yourself) Punk as Organizational Method
Lorali Mossaver-Rahmani
Lorali is a graduate student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA. She completed her B.S. in Anthropology with a minor in music from the University of La Verne in 2019. During her
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Ethnomusicology - Research Focus: contemporary western art music, cultural production, feminist anthropology, hermeneutics and aesthetics
Alec Norkey
Alec Norkey is a PhD student in the Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA. After receiving his BM degree from Hope College in Violin Performance and Chemistry, Alec completed MM degrees
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Composition - Composer and sound designer at the WACO Theater Center in Hollywood
Marcus Norris
Composer and producer Marcus Norris was called a “New Musical Talent in our Midst” by Chicago’s N’digo Magazine in response to his “When Composer’s Lose Composure” concert. He earned his
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Armenian Music Ensemble - Violin
Arutyun Piloyan
Arutyun Piloyan, a native of Armenia, graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory and currently is continuing his education as a Master’s student at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of music
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Ethnomusicology – Research Focus: Hybridization of Traditional and Contemporary Arts in Cambodia and Khmer Diaspora
Rane Prak
My name is Rane Prak. I was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and immigrated to the United States with my family when I was young. I grew up in a
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Ethnomusicology – Research Focus: Traditional and popular musics of the Middle East and Central Asia
Mehrenegar Rostami
Mehrenegar Rostami is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ethnomusicology and a specialist in traditional and popular musics of the Middle East and Central Asia. Her dissertation examines modern
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Ethnomusicology
Simone Salmon
Simone Salmon is a PhD student in Ethnomusicology at UCLA. She received her bachelor’s degree in music with concentrations in music theory and harp performance from UCLA (2011) and her
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Chorale TA
James Scott
Dynamic and experienced, James Scott is a conductor with extensive training in both choral and instrumental music. He received his Bachelors in Music Education (Saxophone) from the University of the
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Music Performance Jazz, Alto Saxophone
Lenard Simpson
Lenard Simpson, alto saxophone, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and began playing the saxophone at age 11. While in high school, he was selected to participate in the GRAMMY Camp
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Musicology – Research Focus: Development of weaponized music and sonic environments over the 20th and 21st centuries
Danielle Stein
Danielle Stein is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Musicology at UCLA, where she has co-coordinated the Musicology Distinguished Lecture Series and served as Managing Editor of ECHO: A
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Ethnomusicology
Dexter Story
Ethnomusicology Ph.D. student and Eugene V. Cota-Robles fellow Dexter Story is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and producer based in Los Angeles. He has worked in multiple facets of the music
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Ethnomusicology
Tingting Tang
Born in Yunnan, the only Chinese province with 25 different ethnic minority groups, Tingting came to UCLA with a deep understanding of the history, traditions, and challenges in Chinese ethnology
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Music Performance Jazz, Drums
Malachi Whitson
Malachi Whitson, drums, was born in Richmond, California and began playing drums at age 7. He received awards for his musicianship from the Stanford Jazz Workshop, San Jose Jazz Workshop
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Ethnomusicology
Wan Yeung
After receiving his B.M. degree in guitar performance from the University of California, Irvine, Wan Yeung completed his M.A. degree in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, where he researched Cantonese operatic
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UCLA Doctor of Musical Arts Choral Conducting candidate
Joung A Monica Yum
Incheon-born conductor Joung-A Yum has embarked on a diverse career as mezzo-soprano, choral director, and pianist. She first started to play the piano at age three, mesmerized by the vivid
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VEM Ensemble, Viola
Damon Zavala
Growing up, Damon was always surrounded by music. To his parents and to his family, there was a shared understanding about the importance of music. Throughout his childhood, Damon’s exposure to music
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