Curriculum Vitae
Professional Appointments
2023-2024 | Ariel and Joshua Weiner Family Visiting Fellow, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
2022-2023 | Harry Starr Postdoctoral Fellowship in Judaica, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University
Education
New York University
Ph.D., Historical Musicology (2022)
Dissertation: “Cultivating High Society: American Jews engaging European Opera in New York, 1880-1940”
Successfully Defended: April 5, 2022
Committee: Michael Beckerman (co-advisor), Brigid Cohen (co-advisor), Suzanne Cusick, Mark Kligman, and Daniel Goldmark
M.A. and M. Phil., Historical Musicology (2019 and 2020)
Wilfrid Laurier University
H. B. Mus. with High Distinction, Music History
Undergraduate Thesis: “Felix Mendelssohn’s Religious Identities and the Universal Elijah Oratorio”
Advisor: Alma Santosuosso
Fellowships, Awards, and Grants
Fellowships
2022-2023 | Alvin H. Johnson AMS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, American Musicological Society (Awarded but declined)
2022-2023 | Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Association for Jewish Studies (Awarded but declined)
2020-2021 | Dr. Sophie Bookhalter Graduate Fellowship in Jewish Culture, Center for Jewish History
2020-2021 | Doctoral Scholarship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
2020-2021 | Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
2020-2021 | Betty Cook Karrh Memorial Scholar, P.E.O. Scholar Award, International Chapter of the P.E.O. [Philanthropic Educational Organization]
Of the 100 scholars chosen to receive the P.E.O. Scholar Award, I was one of 16 to receive the special designation of becoming a Named or Endowed scholar.
2016-2023 | MacCracken Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University
2016 | Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master’s Award (Awarded but declined at University of Toronto)
2016 | Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master’s Award (Awarded but declined at Western University)
2016 | Ontario Graduate Scholarship (Awarded but declined at Western University)
Research Awards and Grants
2023-2024 | H. Robert Cohen / RIPM Endowment, American Musicological Society
Summer 2021 | Research Fellowship, Feinstein Center for Research in American Jewish Experience, Temple University
Summer 2020 | Graduate Research Fellowship, American Academy for Jewish Research
Summer 2020 | Predoctoral Summer Graduate Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University
Spring 2020 | Provost’s Graduate Research Initiative, January 25-March 1, Tel Aviv Campus, New York University
Summer 2019 | Patricia Dunn Lehrman Summer Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University
Other Awards and Honors
2019 | Prize for Most Innovative Scholarship in Gender and Jewish Studies, Women’s Caucus, Association for Jewish Studies
2016 | Library Undergraduate Research Award for Best Undergraduate Paper, Wilfrid Laurier University
2016 | The Joan Heimbecker Memorial Scholarship, Faculty of Music, Wilfrid Laurier University
2015 | Ulrich S. Leopold Music Scholarship, Faculty of Music, Wilfrid Laurier University
2012-2016 | Presidential Gold Scholarship, Wilfrid Laurier University
2012 | Jewish History Award, TanenbaumCHAT Kimel Family Education Centre
2012 | Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Outstanding Community Leadership, TanenbaumCHAT Kimel Family Education Centre
2010-2012 | Ida Lillian Bradd Memorial Scholarship, Young Artists Performance Academy, Royal Conservatory of Music
Publications
Book Project
American Jews and the Making of the New York Opera Industry, 1880-1940
Soon To Be Under Contract with Oxford University Press
Refereed Journal Articles
Under Review | “To see what lovely Japanese our young people can be: American Jewish Community Performance, Racial Appropriation, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, 1885-1939,” The Opera Quarterly, 40 pages.
2022 | “‘I’d Rather [Sound] Blue’: Listening to Agency, Hybridity, and Intersectionality in the Vocal Recordings of Fanny Brice and Barbra Streisand,” Journal of the Society for American Music 16, no. 1 (Spring 2022), 23 pages.
2022 | “Emma Goldman, An Anarchist at the Opera,” American Jewish History 106, no. 2 (2022), 43 pages.
In preparation | “Between a ‘Sigh and Tear’: Constructions of the Black Queer Jewish Operatic Voice and the Case of Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell,” with Anthony Russell, abstract accepted to edited collection Black Identities on the Opera Stage (Oxford University Press), 10,000 words.
In preparation | “Falling Off the Roof and Into the Opera House: Narratives of Opera-Going Failure as American Jewish Acculturation Anxiety in Twentieth-Century Popular Culture,” Intended for Journal of the American Musicological Society, 12,000 words.
In preparation | “American Jewish Women and the Nurturing of New York Opera Culture,” Intended for Women and Music, 10,000 words.
Invited Journal Articles
2021 | “The Contemporary Study of Jewish Engagement with Opera in America,” co-authored with Daniela Smolov Levy, part of the colloquy “Contemporary Jewish Music in America from 2000 to 2020,” edited by Mark Kligman and Judah Cohen, published in the Journal of Synagogue Music 46, no. 1 (Fall): 34-39.
Book and Multimedia Reviews
2023 | “Ya Lalla: Jewish Saharans Singing to Birth” (https://yalalla.org/uk/). Vanessa Paloma Elbaz, curator. Multimedia Review for the Yearbook for Traditional Music.
2020 | Korngold and His World. Daniel Goldmark and Kevin C. Karnes, Eds. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2019. 329pp. ISBN: 9780691198293. Paperback. Reviewed for the Society for American Music Quarterly Bulletin, Volume XLVI, no. 3 (Fall).
2020 | Anneliese Landau’s Life in Music: Nazi Germany to Émigré California. Lily E. Hirsch. University of Rochester Press, 2019. 221pp. ISBN: 9781580469517. Hardback. Reviewed for the Journal of Musicological Research 39, no. 4 (Spring): 350-354.
2019 | Arlen & Harburg’s Over the Rainbow. Walter Frisch. Oxford Keynotes. Oxford University Press, 2017. 146 pp. ISBN: 9780190467340. Paperback. Reviewed for the Society for American Music Quarterly Bulletin, Volume XLV, no. 2 (Spring).
2019 | Musical Witness and Holocaust Representation. Amy Lynn Wlodarski. Cambridge University Press, 2015. 237 pp. ISBN: 9781107538849. Hardcover. Reviewed for Musica Judaica Online Review, March 12.
2018 | Stephen Sondheim and the Reinvention of the American Musical. Robert L. McLaughlin. University Press of Mississippi, 2016. 301pp. ISBN: 9781496808554. Hardcover. Reviewed for the Society for American Music Quarterly Bulletin, Volume XLIV, no. 1 (Winter).
Other
2017 | Liner Notes: Joel Engel: Vocal and Chamber Music CD Collection, Vol. 3 of Russian Jewish Classics, co-authored with Aron Zelkowicz, Commissioned by The Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, Published on August 1, 2017.
Invited Presentations and Panels
2023 | Panelist, “Hello Gorgeous: Barbara Streisand and the Way She Was, Is, and Evermore Shall Be,” American Academy of Religion Conference, November 19 | San Antonio, Texas
2023 | “American Jewish Women and New York Opera Culture,” Kehilat HaNahar Little Shul, November 5 | New Hope, PA
2023 | “Emma Goldman, Radical Anarchism, and the Opera,” American Jewish Historical Society, September 12 | Online
2023 | “The ‘Undesirable’ in Box 14: The Untold History of American Jewish Men and the Metropolitan Opera House, 1880-1940,” Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies, University of Florida, September 7 | Gainesville, Florida
2023 | “Jewish Women and New York Opera Culture,” Toronto’s Jewish Music Week, May 30 | Toronto, Ontario
2023 | “American Jewish Women and New York Opera Culture,” Carnegie Hall’s Women in Music Festival and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, with a response by Judith Pinnolis, March 14| Online
2022 | Invited Presenter, “The ‘Undesirable’ in Box 14: Jewish Men and the Making of the Metropolitan Opera House,” International Forum for Jewish Music Studies, May 31 | Online
2021 | Invited Presenter, “Three Generations of Jewish Women’s Popular Singing Voices,” 75th Convention of the International Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, Pre-Recorded Presentation and Live Discussion on Zoom, September 23 | Online
2021 | Organizer and Moderator, International Forum for Jewish Music Studies, Conversations on Zoom 50: “Jewish Immigrant Encounters with Music and Theatre in the United States,” featuring conversationalists Peter Graff and Dorothy Glick Maglione, July 6 | Online
2021 | Invited Fellowship Presenter, “A Tradition of Talent: Jewish Opera Singers and the Patterns that Shaped Their Careers,” Center for Jewish History, May 5 | Online
2020 | Invited Presenter, “Falling Off the Roof and Into the Opera House: Jews, Opera, and Anxiety in Twentieth Century America,” UCLA American Jewish Music Working Group, December 3 | Online
2020 | Panelist, “Jewish American Music in the 21st Century,” with Mark Kligman, Erica Argyropoulos, and Judah Cohen, Jewish Music Interest Working Group, Society for American Music, July 15 | Online
2018 | Invited Presenter, “Between Scandal and Song: How New York’s Jewish Community Received Richard Strauss’ Salome, 1907-1934,” Toronto’s Annual Jewish Music Week, Jacob Family Theatre at the Posluns Auditorium, Baycrest, Toronto, ON, May 28
2018 | Panelist, “Music and Humor Where None Should Be: The Holocaust,” with Aviva Atlani, Michael Beckerman, Mark Slobin and Bret Werb, Jewish Music and Humor Conference, Jewish Music Forum, Center for Jewish History, New York, NY, April 29
Conference Presentations
2024 | “To see what lovely Japanese our young people can be: American Jewish Community Performance, Racial Appropriation, and Gilbert & Sullivan’s Mikado, 1885-1939,” Society for American Music Conference, March 20-24
2023 | “A Chosen Venue for the Chosen People: How Jewish Performance, Politics, and Patronage transformed New York’s Metropolitan Opera House into a ‘Lived Jewish Space,’”Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, December 17-19
2022-2023 | “American Jewish Women and the Nurturing of New York Opera Culture,” Operatic Feminisms Conference, Columbia University, March 25, 2023 Biennial Feminist Theory & Music 16 Conference, July 7-10, 2022
2022-2023 | “The ‘Undesirable’ in Box 14: Jewish Men and the Making of the Metropolitan Opera House,” American Musicological Society Conference, November 9-12 Society for American Music Conference, March 11-13
2021 | “The Talent that Binds: Tracing Patterns in the Careers of Jewish Opera Singers, 1880-1940,” Association of Jewish Studies Conference, December 19-21
2020 | “Falling Off the Roof and Into the Opera House: Jews, Opera, and Anxiety in Twentieth Century America”
Association of Jewish Studies Conference, December 13-17
American Musicological Society Conference, November 7-8 and 14-15
2020 | “Red Emma’s Aria: The Personal and Political Dimensions of Opera in Goldman’s Writings”
Society for American Music Conference, July 16-18
American Jewish Historical Society Conference, June 21-23
Canadian Society for Jewish Studies Conference, May 26-27
2019 | “From “Sadie Salome” to “Barber of Schlemiel”: Tracing the Roots of Mickey Katz’s Incongruous Opera Parodies,” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, December 15-17
2018-2019 | “I’d Rather [Sound] Blue: Fanny Brice, Barbra Streisand and the Agential Jewish Female Voice”
Feminist Theory & Music 15 Conference, June 6-9, 2019
University of Toronto Music Graduate Student Conference, March 16-17, 2019
Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference, December 16-18, 2018
2018 | “That (Kosher?) Mikado: American Jewish Reception of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Comic Operetta, 1885-1940,” Popular Music // Popular Movements Conference, Case Western Reserve University, October 5-6
2018 | “‘Getting Away with It’”: Marking Jewishness in Irving Berlin’s Jewish Dialect Songs,” Society for American Music Conference, March 3
2017 | “Jewish Reception to Richard Strauss’ Salome in New York City”
Brandeis Graduate Student Musicology Conference, May 5-6
Temple Theory and Music Society Conference, April 15
Rutgers University Music Student Conference, April 9
Columbia Music Scholarship Conference, March 4
Teaching Experience
Courses
Spring 2021 | Instructor of Record, Department of Jewish Studies and Music, City College of New York | Online
JWST 31118: Introduction to Jewish Music
Developed course syllabus and taught class on Zoom to 20 undergraduate students and 2 auditors from the Music and Jewish Studies Departments; introduced students to the history of music in Jewish experience from the biblical era through to the present day.
Summer 2020 | Instructor of Record, Department of Music, New York University | Online
MUSIC UA 100 002/061: Music of New York: Sounding the Immigrant Experience
Developed course syllabus and taught class online to 6 undergraduate and pre-college students; focused on developing students’ academic writing and researching skills; introduced students to the methodologies of oral history, archival research, and ethnographic fieldwork.
2017-2018 | Teaching Assistant, Department of Music, New York University | New York, NY
CORE UA 730 002/003: Expressive Cultures: History of Opera, with Louis Karchin, Fall 2018
MUSIC UA 193 002/003: Aural Perception: Listening From Animal to Cyborg, with Alice Teyssier, Spring 2018
CORE UA 730 002/003: Expressive Cultures: African American Freedom Songs, with Maureen Mahon, Fall 2017
Designed and facilitated weekly recitations for approximately 35 students in each CORE class, and 8 students in the MUSIC UA class. Provided one-on-one help to students during office hours by appointment. Graded papers and provided comprehensive feedback. Collaborated with the professor about ways to increase student participation in discussions.
Invited Guest Lectures
2022 | “Archival Research Methods for Jewish Music Scholars,” February 28, Jewish Music Research Seminar (course taught by Gordon Dale), Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion
2017 | “Approaching the Musical Past,” October 17, Jewish Music Research Seminar (course taught by Gordan Dale), Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion
Related Work Experience
Academic
2019-2020 | Graduate Assistant for Suzanne Cusick, Department of Music, New York University
2018-2019 | Colloquium Series Coordinator, Department of Music, New York University
2017-2022 | Associate Executive Director, The Jewish Music Forum: A Project of the American Society for Jewish Music
2015-2016 | Research Assistant for Alma Santosuosso, Faculty of Music, Wilfrid Laurier University
2014-2016 | Writing Centre Peer Tutor, Centre for Student Success, Wilfrid Laurier University
2014-2016 | Undergraduate Music Theory and History Proctor and Marker, Faculty of Music, Wilfrid Laurier University
2013-2016 | Undergraduate Music Theory Peer Tutor, Faculty of Music, Wilfrid Laurier University
Creative
2019, 2021 | Soprano Soloist, Jewish High Holidays, Beth Tikvah Synagogue | Toronto, ON
2014-2016 | Freelance Classical Voice Teacher | Toronto, ON
Service
To the Profession
2022-2023 | Secretary and Board Member at Large, AMS Jewish Studies and Music Studies Study Group
2021-2022 | Student Representative, AJS Annual Conference Program Committee
2021- 2022 | Assistant Editor, Musica Judaica
2021- 2022 | Committee Member, Executive Board of the International Forum for Jewish Music Studies
2019-2022 | Student Representative, NYU-AMS Lecture Series Committee, New York University, in partnership with the American Musicological Society
New York University
2020 | Panelist, “Is Graduate School Right for You? Student Life in Graduate School,” College of Arts and Science, October 22
2019-2022 | Graduate Student Mentor, GSAS Mentorship Program
2017-2018 | Co-Chair and Attendee Coordinator, Graduate Student Conference, Department of Music
Wilfrid Laurier University
2014-2016 | Editor and Reviewer, Laurier Undergraduate Journal for the Arts
Other Professional Certifications
Podcasting for the Humanities: Creating Digital Stories for the Public, National Humanities Center
Preparing Future Faculty, GSAS Teaching Certificate Program, New York University
Beginner 2 and Intermediate Yiddish, YIVO Institute, Center for Jewish History
German Language for Reading Knowledge, Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University
Highest Examination Credentials: Voice 9 with Honours; Piano 6 with First Class Honours; Analysis 5 with Honors; Counterpoint 4 with First Class Honours; History 3 with Distinction; Harmony 3 with First Class Honours, Royal Conservatory of Music
Public Scholarship
2022-2024 | Founder, Host, and Producer, The Sounding Jewish Podcast, https://rss.com/podcasts/soundingjewish/
Currently sponsored by the Jewish Music Forum, A Project of the American Society for Jewish Music, the University of California, Los Angeles’ Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Hebert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
Language Proficiency
English: native
French: twelve years of study; passed Language Proficiency Examination at NYU
Hebrew: twelve years of study
Yiddish: two years of study at NYU, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and privately
Italian: four years of study at WLU; received undergraduate minor in Italian studies
German: one semester of study at WLU; Summer German for Reading Knowledge at NYU; passed Language Proficiency Examination at NYU
Professional Memberships and Affiliations
International Forum for Jewish Music Studies
American Jewish Historical Society
Canadian Society for Jewish Studies
American Jewish History Graduate Student Working Group, New York University and Center for Jewish History
Association for Jewish Studies
American Jewish Music Working Group, Milken Archives and University of California, Los Angeles
Society for American Music
American Musicological Society
Press Coverage
“Meet Samantha Cooper, a Scholar who spoke at the 2021 Convention of the International Chapter,” https://www.peointernational.org/meet-psa-recipients
“Researchers [sic] reveal impact of Jews in Development of US Opera,” Times of Israel and Jewish News: Britain’s Biggest Jewish Newspaper, May 8, 2021, https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/researchers-reveal-impact-of-jews-in-development-of-us-opera
P.E.O. Scholar Awards Board of Trustees, “P.E.O. Scholar Awards: 2020-2021 Named and Endowed Scholars – Supporting Women Who Will Change the World, P.E.O. Record, September/October 2020, 26-30. https://www.peointernational.org/sites/www.peointernational.org/files/peorecord/132/5/peorecord-132-5.pdf?current=1619758490
References
Michael Beckerman, Ph.D. (email)
Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Music
Department of Music
New York University
Brigid Cohen, Ph.D. (email)
Associate Professor of Music
Department of Music
New York University
Suzanne G. Cusick, Ph.D. (preferred email) (work email)
Professor of Music
Department of Music
New York University
Michael Leavitt (email)
President
The American Society for Jewish Music