Research

I'm currently interested in music cognition and the computational modeling of music perception, especially as they pertain to rhythm and meter — our ability to infer and abstract meter and temporal structure from music. In previous research, I focused on rhythmic and harmonic complexity in contemporary jazz.

Current threads

Rhythm & meter cognition

How we infer and abstract meter and temporal structure from music, and how that can be modeled computationally.

Embodied cognition

Music perception and performance as grounded in the body, not only in abstract symbol-processing.

Improvisation & agency

The cognitive processes of improvisation — in particular, the role of non-conscious processes in consciousness-driven agency in music.

Musical time

Notions of time across physics, mathematics, and philosophy, and their relationship to musical time.

Publications

2025 · Revue Musicale OICRM

Meter in Contemporary Jazz: A Practitioner-Based Approach

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2023 · DMA Dissertation, University of Colorado Boulder

In Two Places at Once: Ben Monder’s Harmonic Complexity Over Jazz Standards

Read on CU Scholar →

Selected presentations

“Rhythmic Complexity in Jazz: Expert Practitioners’ Views and the Scholarly Literature.” AMS/SMT Annual Meeting, Jazz Interest Group — Denver, CO, Nov 2023.
“Rhythmic Complexity in Jazz: Expert Practitioners’ Views and the Scholarly Literature.” Rhythm in Music Since 1900, McGill University — Sept 2023.
“Polyphonic Jazz Guitar: Ben Monder’s Solo Guitar Arrangement of ‘Emily.’” UB International Guitar Research Conference, University at Buffalo — Sept 2023.

Education

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Ph.D. in Music — Yale University · 2024–present
DMA, Jazz Performance & Pedagogy — University of Colorado Boulder · 2023
MM, Jazz Performance — New England Conservatory · 2020
BM, Guitar Performance & Music Business — Berklee College of Music · 2014