This recording project aims to enrich the expanding repertoire of contemporary compositions for the cello, particularly those designed for solo cello. The North Suite consists of three movements: The Crescent Moon at Midnight, Silkroad, and Shaanxi. Each movement represents different regions with its indigenous music style. Composer Yunfei utilizes extended techniques to evoke the nuances of Chinese folk music skillfully transposed onto the cello. The recording project encompasses two primary components: a recording of the work and a comprehensive written document. This document provides readers with a historical overview, contextual background, and in-depth analysis of each movement. In addition, the original score will be included in the end. By undertaking this recording project, I aim to contribute to the contemporary cello repertoire and foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the cultural diversity inherent in music. Through the fusion of tradition and innovation, I aspire to create an immersive musical experience that resonates with audiences worldwide.

This project combines a performance recording with musicological research on Louise Farrenc’s four sets of piano études (Op. 26, 41, 42, 50). It highlights the remarkable piano works of the French female composer Louise Farrenc, exploring representative selections from Farrenc’s four progressive sets of educational piano études. I intend to draw attention to these extraordinary compositions and elevate their position in modern-day piano repertoire. These are essential works from the nineteenth-century piano repertoire, which provide significant pedagogical value as they were composed based on Louise Farrenc’s (1804-1875) own teaching experience of pupils. In addition, a growing appreciation for the aesthetic and educational merit of women composers’ compositions is rapidly emerging in contemporary scholarship, while people tended to focus on prominent male composers’ work in the past. This discussion centers around the technical goals of each set, musical expression and interpretation suggestions, and analysis of important influences to create a comprehensive pedagogical guide for performers and teachers. The lack of documentation and analysis of piano compositions by female pianists is a great loss to pedagogy and keyboard literature, and the purpose of this project is to contribute to change in promoting the works of female composers.This pedagogical study is organized into four chapters. Chapter 1 offers a concise biography of composer Louise Farrenc, exploring her personal journey and the artistic landscape that shaped her work. I emphasize the societal expectations on different genders as musicians in the nineteenth century. The first part of Chapter 2 embarks on a chronological development of études, commencing with their seventeenth-century inception and culminating in their peak during the mid-nineteenth century. The second part of Chapter 2 discusses Farrenc’s études and her pedagogical values. Chapters 3 and 4 provide an overview of the relevance and progression between the four sets of études based on form, texture, and technique. Finally, a pedagogical guide to the études demonstrates the recommended teaching processes and goals for each set and the études as a collection.

Ge Gan-ru (b. 1954) is considered one of the most innovative composers of his time and is referred to in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as “China's first avant-garde composer.”[ Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press,( January 29, 2004): 258.] In 1986, Ge composed Ancient Music, a piece employs extended piano techniques to express the composer's reimagination of ancient Chinese music. This project explores the life and music of Ge Gan-ru by providing a historical background of Ge’s life as a composer during the Chinese Cultural Revolution[ The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a decade-long era of political and social upheaval ignited by Mao Zedong's attempt to restore his authority over the Communist Party through the mistreatment of the Chinese people. ] and the changes after he came to America. In addition, a technical analysis and performance guide of Ancient Music are included, in order to discuss how he expresses his individual compositional language and integrates Chinese musical concepts into a western contemporary compositional system. In this document, I take a close look at Ge Gan-ru’s perspectives on Chinese music and the revolutionary reforms he made. Chapter One is a review of sources about Ge’s life and study in China and America and a brief introduction to his Ancient Music. Chapter Two discusses why the concept of composer in the context of Western music is missing in Chinese music, as most traditional Chinese works were not created by a single person and therefore do not reflect the individual voice of one composer. This point can also be extended to explain why Chinese society has historically encouraged homogenization including in music. Chapter Three serves as a performance guide, as well as a musical and technical analysis of Ancient Music. This will involve outlining and comparing the performance of traditional Chinese instruments with the internal piano techniques employed throughout this piece. Chapter Four is a summary of Ge’s Ancient Music and his musical contributions.

One way in which public school band directors hone their conducting skills beyond their initial academic training is by attending conducting workshops. These workshops, which usually range in duration from one day to a full week give conductors the opportunity to obtain critical feedback from recognized pedagogues, helping them improve, among other things, their conducting gestures, rehearsal techniques, and score study abilities. Offered at various times throughout the year with many of them taking place during the summer when public school educators do not have teaching responsibilities, most band conducting workshops are designed to be inclusive of anyone in search of professional development opportunities. However, the costs often associated with attending a workshop can be challenging for many people. The goal of this study is to take the potential professional development yielded from a traditional in-person conducting workshop and transition it to a one-on-one online format that will not only allow for similar growth found with traditional in-person workshops, but also provide additional benefits unique to the virtual setting. Based on the findings in this study, the virtual platform has the potential to cover many of the same goals as the traditional workshop. And while there were some components of the traditional workshop that could not be produced virtually, there were some unintended positives that the virtual workshop provided. Among those positives were addressing issues of equity and access, while also building professional relationships, that in turn, could result in graduate school opportunities.

This paper is based on research conducted during my ongoing collaboration as a participant-observer with the Cuyamungue Institute (CI) of New Mexico, a self-identified nonreligious organization that uses postures to help participants achieve ecstatic trance experiences via a ritual process that prominently features sonic support of trance by the sound of a rattle or drum. While the purpose of the practice—which the Institute has referred to in such terms as “Ecstatic Trance Postures (ETP)” and “Ritual Body Postures”—is ostensibly spiritual in nature, apparent benefits for physical and emotional health have been reported by participants and observed in empirical studies carried out in collaboration with the CI. With appropriate nuance, the Institute traditionally emphasizes the ways these benefits demonstrate the process’s spiritual efficacy more than how they are outcomes desirable on their own merit. As I have continued to work with the CI, the discourse has gradually shifted. At present, the leadership of the Institute give more consideration than before to emotional health benefits as specific goals of the practice, yet spiritual conceptions maintain a dominant presence in conversations and achieving a deep connection with the “alternate reality / spirit realm / unbounded universe” remains the primary objective.

This is a recording of a new piece for Double bass and Guzheng performer Qingfeng Li, who is internationally renowned. The composer composed this audacious and unique chamber work for double bass and traditional Chinese Guzheng zither in November 2021, dedicating it to me and Guzheng virtuoso Prof. Qingfeng Li. The objective of this project is to create a work for the classic Chinese instrument Guzheng that incorporates elements of Chinese folk music. This chamber music will be a duet for double bass and guzheng, with the guzheng's distinctive style and sonic effects blended into the double bass. The project will contain a recording of this new piece, as well as a written research document outlining the work's structure, the composer's collaboration process with me as a performer, and brief analysis of the work. Additionally, the author recorded this piece in a professional audio and video recording made in China, with Guzheng player Qingfeng Li.This is the first combination of a traditional Chinese instrument, the guzheng, and a Western instrument, the double bass. This unusual melodic combination conveys the essence of traditional musical practices unique to the Chinese folk of Jiangnan. To investigate the connections between the pentatonic scale and traditional musical practices, I have studied Jiangnan music manuscripts compiled by ethnomusicologists. To better complement the traditional instrument of the guzheng in the piece, I studied the history of the guzheng and how to use techniques to express emotion in the piece. These connections are discussed in depth in the chapter on structure form, including how to break out of familiar compositional combinations and how to use the unique acoustics and techniques of the double bass to embody the Chinese folk pentatonic scale. I also discuss the process of working with the composer, the rehearsal process, and the incorporation of necessary modifications in this document to make the music effective and idiomatic for the double bass. This new work at the intermedi

ABSTRACT This project includes a research paper, a professional recording, and a musical score. Mauricio Annuziata, a well-known Argentine composer, dedicated his Concerto No. 5 to me, Nathaniel De La Cruz, and it is inspired by Andean Folklore music from South America. He composed this concerto in December of 2020, and it has original themes closely related to Andean music. The author recorded this concerto in a professional audio and video recording made in Katzin concert hall in the ASU music building on September 30, 2021, with my wife Rosa LoGiudice De La Cruz on the piano. This concerto was conceptualized as one large movement divided into three smaller movements. An unusual combination of melodies conveys the nature of traditional musical practices characteristic of South America. This is the first concerto for double bass inspired by Andean folk music. In researching for this document, I studied manuscripts of Andean folk music compiled by ethnomusicologists to explore the connection between the pentatonic scale and traditional musical practices. These connections are discussed in detail in a chapter of the form of the concerto, including representations of traditional folkloric dances from different countries of South America. In this document I also discuss the process of working with the composer, rehearsing, and incorporating the necessary revisions to make the music effective and idiomatic for the double bass. This new work will offer the double bass world a new perspective for solo repertoire, as it is accessible for intermediate (check this) and professional levels. The process of collaborating with a composer of such caliber as Mauricio Annunziata is a rewarding experience for me not only as a student, but as a performer where I found different challenges to explore new music practices and techniques.

In this research project, I introduce to the reader Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo by Young-Jo Lee. Lee’s work is based on the original melody Ae-Su by Nan-Pa Hong, which Hong then developed into the Korean art song Bongsunhwa. The evolution of this simple melody to an art song and later a virtuosic violin work is explored as well. A historical background of Korean-Western music and composers is provided in order to further understand the evolution of compositional techniques that led to Lee’s work. Additionally, I examine the historical context of Hong’s work and the meaning of the lyrics of Bongsunhwa. In this paper, I also explore how Ae-Su affects Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo; in particular, how Lee transforms Hong’s Bongsunhwa to his musical style and uses contemporary Western violin techniques, rhythms, and modulations to express the original intent of the work. Finally, I provide a performance guide of Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo for non-Korean musicians, comparing the original source material of Hong’s song and three verses to the three variations of Lee’s work and how the history and context of the work shape performances of the Bongsunhwa Variations for Violin Solo. Interviews I undertook over email with the composer inform much of the interpretative suggestions in the performance guide.

Mental health of children has been a topic of concern in recent years, and was brought to the forefront again in 2020 due to exacerbated stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the amount of time children spend in school, the effects of their emotional stress and mental health challenges are seen by their teachers. Studies have shown that teachers often have high levels of concern about student mental health, but also do not feel as though they have enough resources and guidance from their schools to be able to support the mental health of the students in their classrooms on a daily basis. Research also shows that music is an effective tool for addressing children’s mental health and bolstering their mindfulness. The goal of this study was to better understand whether or not a subset of elementary school music teachers use music to help students who are feeling anxiety, stress, or other emotional or mental disturbances. To that end, I surveyed a convenience sample of elementary music educators, mainly from Arizona’s Maricopa County, about the following research questions: (1) are educators utilizing music in their classrooms expressly for mental health and mindfulness purposes? (2) how do music educators perceive the mental health of their students? (3) how do they manage related behaviors or challenges in their classrooms? (4) do they feel they have adequate resources to address student mental health? A secondary purpose of the study was to utilize the responses to inform my creation of a website intended to provide resources that would be useful for music educators who are willing to address student mental wellbeing. In addition to receiving many individual pieces of helpful information, I analyzed survey responses for general trends. My sample indicates that music teachers do have more than moderate levels of concern over their students’ mental health. It also revealed a lack of consistency in teacher pre-service preparation and also in the kinds of programs and associated training that are in place which address student mental health.