Music Doctoral Candidates

Boris Acosta Jaramillo

Email: bacostaj@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Lilac Atassi

Email: latassi@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Computer Music

Landon Bain

Email: lbain@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Tyler J. Borden

Email: tborden@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Cello

Joseph Bourdeau

Email: jbourdea@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Marguerite Brown

Email: mlb001@ucsd.edu

B.M. Cornish College of the Arts

M.A. University of California Santa Cruz

Emphasis: Composition

Marguerite Brown (b. 1990) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist who explores new mediums, forms, and performance practices with an emphasis on unorthodox approaches to tuning and temperament. In her compositions, algorithms often provide a framework for indeterminate parameters to unfold, where freedom of performer interpretation can contribute to a shared sense of vision.

Robert Bui

Email: robui@ucsd.edu (he/him/his)

M.A. UC San Diego

B.M. New England Conservatory

Emphasis: Performance, Cello

Researching multimedia performance, concert program diversification, community engagement strategies, and modernized nontraditional forms of the concert experience

Website

Mitchell Carlstrom

Email: mcarlstr@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Percussion

Mitchell Carlstrom, a dedicated percussionist, creates thought-provoking music by redefining sound in space. He performs in various settings, from solo acts to chamber groups, crafting unique soundscapes for audiences. Carlstrom is known for his work with red fish blue fish, MinusOne Percussion Quartet, and Left Edge Percussion, touring extensively in the US and Mexico.

Matthew Chung

Email: mfchung@ucsd.edu

B.M. in Music Composition, University of Maryland, College Park

B.S. in Physics, University of Maryland, College Park

Emphasis: Computer Music

Aesthetics, Teleology, Complex Systems, Computational Philosophy

Daniel Corral

Email: dcorral@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Andrew Crapitto

Email: acrapitto@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Bass

Charles Deluga

Email: cdeluga@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Computer Music

Pablo Dodero

Email: pdodero@ucsd.edu (he/him/his)

B.A. in International Business-English/North America, San Diego State University

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Research interests include the origins of electronic music in Mexico and the practices of Mexican electronic music instrument designers. Additionally interested in contributing to Latin American Science and Technology Studies and archival work in Mexico.

Stephen de Filippo

Email: sdefilip@ucsd.edu

M.A. Music Composition, University of California, San Diego

B.A. Music Studies and Anthropology, University of Western Australia

Emphasis: Composition

My focus is on music composition, specifically centering around experimental performance practice, considerations of place, and Australian vernacular culture. I work in both acoustic and electro-acoustic art music contexts, exploring the intersection of art music, media and experimental practice. Often, I use field recordings in these works. I am also a vocalist, with a preference for performing with a megaphone.

Rose Dwyer

Email: rsdwyer@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Mariana Flores

Email: maf004@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Voice

Juliana Gaona Villamizar

Email: jgaonavi@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance

Erin Graham

Email: egraham@ucsd.edu (they, them)

M.M. in Composition, Rice University

Emphasis: Composition

My research centers around forms of distortion and unconventional narratives, focusing particularly on grotesque exaggeration and dark existential humor primarily within the work of Györgi Ligeti and Unsuk Chin. I also am interested in researching genres ranging from the Los Angeles Beat Scene and its history and founders to post-punk, gothic rock, and darkwave.

Madison Greenstone

Email: mkgreens@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Clarinet

Nathaniel Haering

Email: nhaering@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Matthew Henson

Email: mhenson@ucsd.edu

M.A. in Music, University of California San Diego

B.M. in Double Bass Performance, New England Conservatory

Emphasis: Performance, Bass

Classical and Contemporary Double Bass playing, Conducting, and Music Theory

Myra Hinrichs

Email: mhinrich@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Violin

Jeremy Hyrkas

Email: jhyrkas@ucsd.edu

M.M. Music Technology, New York University

M.S. Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington

B.S. Computer Science, Colorado State University

Emphasis: Computer Music

I am a music researcher focused on perceptually-inspired signal processing and sound synthesis techniques. Currently, I am working on modifying perceptual attributes of sound mixtures in the context of concatenative synthesis and audio mixing. My broader research interests include corpus-based synthesis algorithms, computer music systems and the perception of spatial audio techniques in both musical and non-musical contexts.

Website

Sasha Ishov

Email: aishov@ucsd.edu (he, him, his)

B.M. Flute Performance, Eastman School of Music

Emphasis: Performance, Flute

My performance practice is grounded in two major axes: the co-creation of new acoustic and electroacoustic works, and the showcasing of existing repertoire that challenges perceptions of the historical canon. As a researcher, I explore the intersection between interface design, pedagogy, and electronics. I write about models for performer-composer interaction, the impact of microphone placement on the perception of flute technique, and the use of interactive technology to create more dynamic music theory classrooms.

Michael Jones

Email: m1jones@ucsd.edu (he, they)

B.M. University of Hartford, The Hartt School

Emphasis: Performance, Percussion

Percussion, contemporary music, modernism, critical/feminist/queer phenomenology, speculative realism

Tornike Karchkhadze

Email: tkarchkhadze@ucsd.edu

M.A.in Music Technology, Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatoire The Hague

B.A. in Music Tecnology, Tbilisi State Conservatoire

B.A. in Physics, Tbilisi State University

Emphasis: Computer Music

Computer music, Deep neural sound synthesis, Audio/Music generative models

Sergey Kasich

Email: skasich@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Computer Music

Nasim Khorassani

Email: nkhorass@ucsd.edu (she, her, hers)

M.M. in Composition, Cleveland State University

Emphasis: Composition

My music explores multi-sensory perception in connection with space, energy, timbre, and visuality, as well as elements from Iranian heritage like music, poetry, and Persian language.

Jiyoung Ko

Email: jiko@ucsd.edu

M.M. Composition, New England Conservatory

M.A. and B.A. Composition, Korea National University of Arts

Emphasis: Composition

My main focus is crafting orchestral, chamber, and vocal music. The narratives I embed in my compositions serve as a guiding force in shaping my artistic expressions. I write music primarily about people, landscapes, and experiences, and my affinity for dense and rich textures, resonant hues, and poetic and delicate melodies shines through in all of my creations.

Website

Peter Ko

Email: m6ko@ucsd.edu (he/him)

M.M. in Music Cello Performance, Memorial University of Newfoundland

B.A. in Music Performance, University of California San Diego

Emphasis: Performance, Cello

Contemporary Music Cello Performance

Jingwei Liu

Email: jil121@ucsd.edu

M.A. in Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

B.S. in Mathematics, Shanghai Jiao Tong, China

Emphasis: Computer Music

AI Music Generation; Quantative examination of perceptual problems of music and general arts, humanity under neural network architecture; interactive artificial agent design

Kosuke Matsuda

Email: kmatsuda@ucsd.edu (he, him)

M.M. in Artist Diploma from University of Miami, Frost School of Music

M.M. Aichi University of the Fine Arts, Japan

Emphasis: Performance, Percussion

Aaron Mencher

Email: amencher@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Michelle Mackenzie

Email: mmackenz@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Alejandrina M. Medina

Email: a3medina@ucsd.edu (she/ella)

M.A. in Music-Integrative Studies, UC San Diego

B.M. in Performance Studies, Lawrence University - Conservatory of Music

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Affect/Trans Studies/Latinx Feminism/Sound and Performance/Anarchism

Alejandrina Melinda Medina is an experimental writer whose work theorizes state power, asethetic production, and sensorial knowledge through 20th and 21st Century Latinx/Latin American music, sound, and performance. Medina's dissertation project, "Latina Loudness: Sensing Excess in las Américas" develops a theory of the Latina through the excess of presence as a means of disrrupting rationalized modes of comportment in late liberal and humanist frameworks of minoritarian representative. Fundamentally, loudness serves to critque agency through queer materialism, (dis)abled capacity, and transmutative form.

Website

Natalia Merlano Gómez

Email: nmerlanogomez@ucsd.edu (she, her, ella)

M.A. Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende; Kunst Stuttgart, Germany

B.A. Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas; Bogotá, Colombia

Emphasis: Performance

Experimental music, worldwide folk music, especially from Latin America, improvisation-creation, graphical notation, explorations with electronic devices, extended vocal sounds, relations between sounds and meaning, collaborative work with other artists, interdisciplinary practices; theatrical performance and explorations around video and photography.

Website

Pauline Ng

Email: png@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Douglas Osmun

Email: dosmun@ucsd.edu

M.M. in Composition, University of Missouri

B.M. in Composition, Western Michigan University

Emphasis: Composition

Douglas Osmun is a composer and improviser working largely in the domain of digital media, exploring how contexts shape interactive experiences or improvisatory structures and how they blur the boundaries between composer, performer, audience, and artificial intelligence. Osmun’s work is permeated by recurring themes of digital materiality, speculative interfaces, AI mediation, cybernetic subjectivity, and tech-ideology.

Kat Pittman

Email: kspittma@ucsd.edu (they/them, she/her)

M.A. University of California San Diego

B.A. University of California Berkeley

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Critical historiographies of wind bands and marching bands and their lasting impacts on contemporary pedagogy in the United States

Paul Roth

Email: pnroth@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Max Schaffer

Email: mschaffe@ucsd.edu (they, she)

B.A. History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard College

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Our research gec focuses on practices of virtual trans embodiment & vocal modulation techniques gec in digital communities, in which the separation between self & other skibidi are fractured. We explore what methods gec can be deployed in the always-online world to realize trans gec futurist politics in the present, tracing musical ancestries which gec show digital curation as a crucial technology of survival.

Berk Schneider

Email: bwschnei@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Trombone

Kevin Schwenkler

Email: kaschwen@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Peter Sloan

Email: psloan@ucsd.edu (he, him, his)

M.M. in Music, Mills College

B.A. in Philosophy, University of Alabama

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Ethnography/sound studies, audible politics, music theory for whales

Janet Sit

Email: jsit@ucsd.edu (she, her, hers)

M.Mus. Composition, University of Victoria; Canada

B.Mus. Composition, University of Toronto; Canada

B.Mus. Zoology, University of Toronto; Canada

Emphasis: Composition

Timbres(sounds)-resonances(spaces), sound art/sound installations, underwater acoustics, ocean humanities, feminist critical theories, electronic music

Nicholas Solem

Email: nsolem@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Computer Music

Sang Song

Email: ssong@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Jonathan Stallings

Email: jstallin@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Jacob Sundstrom

Email: jlsundst@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Computer Music

Jasper Sussman

Email: dsussman@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Grace Talaski

Email: gtalaski@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Clarinet

Alexander Taylor

Email: a3taylor@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Brian Tice

Email: btice@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Computer Music

Nakul Tiruviluamala

Email: ntiruviluamala@swccd.edu, ntiruvil@uscd.edu

Emphasis: Computer Music

Anthony Vine

Email: avine@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Delong Wang

Email: dew002@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Zehao Wang

Email: zehaowang@ucsd.edu

B.S. Mathematics, Data Science, Peking University

Emphasis: Computer Music

Computer Music Software, Human-Computer Interaction, Instrument Design, Sound Synthesis and Physical Modeling, Musical Acoustics, Theatre

Website

Ilana Waniuk

Email: iwaniuk@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Violin

Ess Whiteley

Email: swhitele@ucsd.edu (they, them)

B.M. in Composition, McGill University

Emphasis: Composition

ess (‘s’) whiteley is a composer, multimedia artist, and improvisor working primarily with electronics and intermedia. They are interested in cyborg consciousness, computer hallucinations, embodiment, ecology, and Deep Listening in the context of virtually entangled, post-internet life and the Cthulucene.

Sora Woo

Email: s6woo@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Cherrie Yu

Email: clyu@ucsd.edu

M.A. Music, University of California San Diego

B.A. Music, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Emphasis: Integrative Studies

Japanese anime, voice studies, transnationalism, transmedia ethnography

As a Hong Kong person, my transpacific and multilingual background supports my research interest involving the transnational aspect of Japanese popular culture, particularly anime music. My current project explores the transnational experience of listening to Japanese anime voice actors/actresses in relation to the postmodern desire for Japaneseness.

Ni Zheng

Email: n1zheng@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Composition

Miguel Zazueta

Email: mzazueta@ucsd.edu

Emphasis: Performance, Voice