Current titles
Associate Director for Academic Affairs, Boston University School of Music, College of Fine Arts
Associate Professor, Department of Composition and Theory, Boston University School of Music, College of Fine Arts
Areas of Interest
• 19th-century harmony and chromaticism; Neo-Riemannian theory
• Performance and analysis
• 20th-century music
• History of theory
Selected publications
Book
Chromatic Transformations in Nineteenth-Century Music, in the series Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Book chapters
“Aspects of Compositional Organization and Stylistic Innovation in Petites Esquisses d’oiseaux, in Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2013.
“Chromaticism and the Question of Tonality”, in The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Riemannian Theory, Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. The book was recipient of a special publication award from the Society for Music Theory, 2012.
“Intermediate States of Key in Schumann,” in Rethinking Schumann. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Articles
"On Performing Chopin's Barcarolle", in submission.
“Pentatonic Organization in Two Piano Pieces of Debussy,” Journal of Music Theory, vol. 42, no. 1, spring 1997.
“On the Function of Function,” Music Theory Online, 1.3, May 1995.
Recordings
Recording and liner notes (New World 80536-2), with pianist Rodney Lister,Music for Piano Four-Hands, American four-hand music by Virgil Thomson, Harold Shapero, and Arthur Berger, May 1999. Supported by grants from the Aaron Copland Fund and the Virgil Thomson Foundation.
Recording and liner notes (CRI 564), with cellist Rhonda Rider, of the complete music for cello and piano of Anton Webern and the duo of Arthur Berger, 1989.
Recent positions and distinctions
Editorial board member, Music Theory Spectrum, Sept. 2012-present.
Immediate past chair, Performance and Analysis Interest Group, Society for Music Theory, 2006–2013.
Co-organizer, Internet-Based Conference on Performance and Analysis, jointly in real time at Eastman School of Music, Royal College of Music (London), and Boston University, Nov. 2011.
Boston University Center for the Humanities Henderson Senior Research Fellowship, 2010-11.
President, New England Conference of Music Theorists, AY 2005–07.
Faculty member and seminar leader, Mannes Institute for Advanced Theoretical Studies: Chromaticism Institute, Yale University, New Haven, June 2006.
Some recent presentations
Invited lecture, “Narrative and the Unrealized in Analysis for Performance,” McGill University Theory Colloquium, Montréal, April 2013.
Paper, “Is there a Future for Performance and Analysis?,” 2nd Performance Studies Network Conference, Centre for Music as Creative Performance, University of Cambridge, England, April 2013.
Paper, “Toward an Understanding of Schubert’s Late Harmonic Style,” Schubert and Concepts of Late Style Conference, National University of Ireland at Maynooth, Oct. 2011.
Paper, “Performing the Unique: Messiaen’s Petites esquisses d’oiseaux, Le rouge gorge (II),” 1st Performance Studies Network Conference, Centre for Music as Creative Performance, University of Cambridge, England, June 2011.
Paper, “On Performing Chopin’s Barcarolle,” Society for Music Theory national conference, Performance and Analysis special session, Indianapolis, Nov. 2010. Previous versoin read at conference in honor of Edward T. Cone, Princeton University, Dec. 2008.
Paper, “The Pervasiveness of the Voice-Leading Paradigm,” Music Analysis Conference, Université de Strasbourg, France, Nov. 2009.
Paper, “Aspects of Organization in Petites esquisses d'oiseaux,” Olivier Messiaen centenary conference, Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, UK, June 2008.
Keynote panel presentation, “Riemann’s Offspring,” New England Conference of Music Theorists annual conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, April 2008.
Paper, “Rethinking Key,” Tonality in Perspective Conference, King’s College, London, March 2008.
Paper, “Schubert's Piano Sonata D850, I: Analysis for Performance,” joint annual meeting of the European Society for Music Analysis and German Society for Music Theory, Freiburg, Germany, Nov. 2007.