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Music Grad Students
As a student in the cross-cultural musicology program, I value contributions from multiple disciplines.
Interests: Italian-American communities, accordion, Neapolitan song, opera.
Rodrigo Barriga is a Mexican composer, and performer. His work explores group relationship and communication through the use of openness and guided improvisation.
Nina Barzegar is an Iranian composer and actress, and is currently a DMA student in Composition at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also has a Bachelor of Piano Performance and a Master of Composition from the University of Tehran in Iran.
Ben Dorfan is a composer, pianist, and music teacher. With a B.A. in Music from Oberlin College, he is currently pursuing his M.A. in Music Composition at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Kira Dralle is a PhD Candidate in Cultural Musicology at the University of California Santa Cruz.
Joseph Finkel is a second year Ph.D. student studying musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts at degree at Youngstown State University in Ohio and his Master of Arts degree at Arizona State University.
I arrived in Santa Cruz from Bogotá where I taught courses in music appreciation, musical cultures of the world, and “common practice” harmony, among others. My current research interest is in the politics of representation involved in the making of non-Colombian styles of cumbia.
Ryan Lambe is a Ph.D. Candidate studying cross-cultural musicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His dissertation is an ethnographic study of performance and emotion in US queer open mics examined through queer and critical race lenses.
David Long has been an accompanist, music director, multi-instrumentalist, and music educator in the Santa Cruz County and greater Bay Area since 2002.
James “Ike” Minton is a composer, keyboardist, and oboist. Currently a D.M.A. student in composition at the University of California Santa Cruz, he has also studied at Southern Illinois University and the University of Hawai’i Mānoa.
Alexander (Alec) Nunes is a Ph.D. candidate in cross-cultural musicology. Until recently, his research examined Japanese American traditional music practices in California as its participants navigated tradition, gender, sexuality, white supremacy, and the legacy of anti-Asian sentiment.
Rita Zhang is currently based between San Francisco and Nanjing, China. As a pianist, educator, composer and producer, her works include music written for the concert stage, film, and commercials. Her music explores notions of music perceptions and intuitions.