Introduction

I was born in 西安Xi’an, China and raised in East Tennessee, USA. Having trained as a classical pianist in my childhood, I competed and performed across the world, eventually receiving generous scholarships from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to attend Choate Rosemary Hall, Princeton University (A.B., Music), and Duke Divinity School (M.Div.). Currently I am completing my PhD Candidacy in Music Theory at the University of Michigan, and I’ve lived in Oxford since 2023 with my wife and children.

Teaching

I teach all three years of music analysis for Queen’s alongside students from other colleges. Besides covering various schools of formenlehre, Schenkerian, and Neo-Riemannian analysis for Western repertory from the 18th-20th century, my specific pedagogical approach emphasizes a detailed close reading of each piece that never loses sight of a student’s own unique, intuitive perception of a piece.

Research

My current research focuses on early Chinese 古琴 guqin (seven-stringed zither) music, with the aim of recovering the “native” music theory embedded in adjacent historical texts in order to better analyze the surviving notated pieces. I am also part of an international research team that recently won a major grant supporting the use of AI in the study of such a large musical corpus. Here my immediate work involves both close textual study as well as the development of analog and predictive analytical tools, with an eye toward understanding the idiomatic styles and cosmological worldview placed upon such music by its dynastic literati creators. My larger research aim involves distilling the sacred or theological notions expressed through music in general, having also presented studies on Messiaen, Pärt, and Mompou at American and European academic conferences.

Publications

Forthcoming articles:

  • The Multiple Pentatonic Systems of the Wusheng Qinpu (Asian Musicology, 36)
  • Translation and Commentary of two Chinese music theoretical texts (Thinking Music, University of Chicago, OPS)
  • The Aural Logos of Maximus Confessor and Arvo Pärt (Special Volume on Theology, Music and Time, INMT)