Elizabeth Randell Upton’s research focuses on European vocal music pre-1600, medievalism in music, and early music revivals. Her first book, Music and Performance in the Later Middle Ages (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), examines how surviving European music ca. 1400 preserves evidence of the experiences of performers and listeners as well as the work of composers. Her work on intersections between early music and popular music has been published in American Music, postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism (Oxford University Press, 2020), and Sounding Out!. Other publications include book chapters on avoiding the Uncanny Valley in Walt Disney’s Snow White (1937), and investigating a motet that Josquin Des Pres may have written for Lucrezia Borgia while in Ferrara. At UCLA, Professor Upton teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in Musicology, as well as a GE class on the Beatles.
Elizabeth Randell Upton
Associate Professor - Musicology and Humanities
Conducting
Graduate study and training in choral, orchestral, or wind conducting
Ethnomusicology
The study of global musical traditions through performance training, research, and field work
Global Jazz Studies
Jazz performance and musicianship courses are paired with African American Studies
Music Composition
Mentorship in the creation and realization of music for concerts, opera, and visual media
Music Education
Preparation for music educators leading to a BA and teaching credential in just four years
Music Industry
A leadership-focused professional degree which prepares students to transform the creative, entrepreneurial, and executive structures of the music industry
Musicology
The scholarly study of the histories, cultures, and critical interpretations of music and music-making
Music Performance
Study and training towards professional performance careers in Western classical music