Alumni

Name: Meghan Askins
Email: meg242@hotmail.com
Graduating Year: 2006.

Meghan Askins completed an M.A. in ethnomusicology in 2006. She entered UCR planning to study Western Art Music from an ethnographic perspective, but her research interests shifted when she joined the Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra (MESTO) as a cellist in 2004. Based in West Los Angeles, MESTO combines professional classical musicians with Arab, American, and Armenian folk instrumentalists. It is conducted by Dr. Nabil Azzam, a Palestinian American composer and violinist.

Meghan became interested in Arabic music and Arab American identity, and she expanded her knowledge by taking a graduate seminar, "Music in the Arabic Speaking World," with Dr. A.J. Racy at UCLA. She also participated in UCLA's Near East Ensemble in 2005. Her M.A. thesis, "Hitting the 'Red
Notes': Arab/American Encounters and Musical Citizenship in the Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra," examined MESTO's social and political implications in a post-9/11 climate.

Currently, Meghan works as a grant-writer and librarian for MESTO, as well as a freelance writer. She recently contributed an article about Arab American hip hop called "Arabs on the Mic" to the online magazine WireTap. She is applying to Ph.D. programs for the Fall of 2007, and her interests include intercultural communication, Arab and Jewish American identities, critical theory, and whiteness.

Name: Jeff Packman
Email: jeffpackman@earthlink.net
Graduating Year: 2001

Jeff began a transition from the LA music scene to scholarship by earning his Master’s degree in ethnomusicology from UCR in 2001. Working closely with René Lysloff, Deborah Wong, and anthropologist Paul Gelles, he conducted fieldwork at a popular music conservatory in Los Angeles. This research supported his thesis that examined discourses of teaching “Latin Music” in the United States and issues related to the institutionalized instruction of popular music. In preparation, Jeff pursued coursework on the politics of ethnographic representation, African Diaspora, technoculture, and “new musicology” to compliment the core ethnomusicology curriculum. All of this study had a strong impact on his thesis work and continues to shape his thinking today.

To enhance his classroom activities, Jeff performed with the UCR Gamelan and Jazz Bands, for which he received support from a Gluck Fellowship. He also had the opportunity to teach courses on music fundamentals, world music cultures, popular musics of the world, and American popular music.

Following completion of his MA, Jeff earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley. His dissertation, which is based on nearly two years of fieldwork in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, examines the processes and cultural politics of earning a living as a musical performer in a city notable for its music, complex race/class relations, and high unemployment. This research was supported by FLAS and the J. William Fulbright Foundation.

Jeff’s time at UCR made possible a wealth of new opportunities and experiences. The support and instruction he received and continues to receive from the UCR faculty provides solid intellectual foundations and tremendous inspiration for his current endeavors.

Most recently, Jeff has been conducting more research in Brazil with the support of Canada’s Social Science Humanities Research Council and in collaboration with dance researchers Danielle Robinson (Ph.D., UCR 2004) and Eloisa Domenici (Ph.D., PUC 2004). The three of them are developing an interdisciplinary book project on the “roots” sambas of Bahia that examines the relationships between dance and music, dancers and musicians, and samba participants and rapidly changing cultural contexts.

Jeff has taught in the dance graduate program at the Universidade Federal da Bahia for the last three years and will be joining the University of Toronto Music Faculty as a visiting assistant professor for academic year 2007-2008.

Name: Ioana Sherman
Email: missioana@yahoo.com
Graduating Year: 2002, 2005

Ioana learning a piece for fluier from Ion Costache in Merisani, Romania, 2005

Ioana began her music studies at Riverside Community College in 1997. She graduated from UCR with a B.A. in Music in 2002 and a M.A. in Musicology in December of 2005. While at UCR, Ioana played clarinet in the UCR Orchestra and recorder in the Collegium. She received Arts Bridge and Gluck fellowships to promote music education in the community.

In 2004, Ioana was awarded a Fulbright IIE grant to go back to her native country and study music in Romania.  Ioana focused on how Romanian wind instruments, specifically the fluier and caval, were affected by communist ideology. She examined the role and function of the instruments in the community, and how playing techniques and the skill of crafting the instruments were impacted throughout the 20^th century. Her research combined musicological and ethnomusicological approaches and contributed to her master’s thesis entitled, Transformation and Totalitarianism: The cases of the Romanian Caval and Fluier.

Currently (2005-07), Ioana has relocated to North Carolina where her husband is completing an M.P.A. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is volunteering at the Duke University Music Instruments Collections as well as applying to Ph.D. programs for Fall of 2007. Her research interests include Romanian music, music and ideology, and organology.

Name: Elizabeth Macy
Email: emacy@earthlink.net
Graduating Year: 2005

Liz graduated with a M.A. in Ethnomusicology in 2005. Her research interests include music and tourism, Balinese music, issues of gender and representation, the Highland pipe band tradition in the United States, and music in New Orleans.

Liz received her B.A. in music, with an emphasis on ethnomusicology, from Colorado College in 2000. Following several years in the service industry, she began her work at UCR in 2003. During summer 2004 she was awarded a Pacific Rim Research Project mini-grant to conduct research in Bali on the commodification of Balinese culture. The resulting work contributed to her M.A. thesis entitled: "Current trends in Balinese music: commodified culture and the influence of westernization." While at UCR she performed with the gamelan and the Latin American ensemble.

Currently (AY 2006-07), Liz is a second-year Ph.D. student at UCLA, where she was awarded a FLAS fellowship to study Indonesian during the 2006-2007 school year. During summer 2006 she was the recipient of a Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Grant to carry out exploratory research in New Orleans under the mentorship of Dr. Cheryl L. Keyes. Her research on music and tourism in New Orleans, post-disaster, serves as a jumping off point for her intended dissertation research.

Name: Mark Fish
Email: mark@markfish.com
Home Address: 604 Hiller St., Belmont, CA 94002
Graduating Year: 1997 M.A. in Music
WebSite: http://wwww.markfish.com

Recordings of my music include Womanwork (based on poems by Maya Angelou) for violin and piano, on the CD Chiaroscuro Duo (by the Chiaroscuro Duo; Pictures of Miro (inspired by paintings of Joan Miro) for flute, violin, viola, and cello, on the CD Glass Sky by Tessa
Brinckman and the East West Continuo on the Northwest Pacific Music label; and The Three Ages of Woman (inspired by a Gustav Klimt painting) on the CD Images of Three Centuries by pianist Aileen Chanco on the Con Brio label. Works have also been commissioned by Wild Basin Winds, David Ogden Stiers, Asian American Dance Performances, and the Newport Symphony.

At Riverside, my primary composition teacher was Byron Adams. I am really glad I went to Riverside and studied with Byron, and feel that my experience at UCR was really inspiring and invigorating in a creative way. I also had works for the UCR jazz band and choir performed while I was there, which really taught me a lot.

As for my other education, I earned by BA in Music at UC Berkeley, where my primary teachers were Andrew Imbrie and Jorge Liderman. I also studied at Aspen and the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France.

Currently, I play viola in the Galapagos String Quartet, and also perform as a freelance violist in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have played with the San Francisco Merola Opera Program, Pocket Opera, the Monterey Symphony, San Jose Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Napa Symphony, Vallejo Symphony. I also teach strings, general music, and choir for the Palo Alto Unified School District.

Name: Dylan Beck
Email: shndyln@juno.com
Home Phone: (909) 784-0366
Graduating Year: M.A. in music composition (2002), B.A. in music (1999)

He recently completed his thesis, titled Bette Davis Suite, under the supervision of Byron Adams after studying composition with Adams, Ethan Nasreddin-Longo, and René T.A. Lysloff. Bette Davis Suite, like most of his compositions, juxtaposes, arranges, and assembles disembodied dialog, cycling & interlocking melodic lines, and random digital and analog noise. Presently, Beck teaches both guitar and digital music composition at a local academy. He lives in Riverside with his wife Shondell and continues to compose electronic music in his home studio, collaborating with area performers and other electronic music artists.

Click here to hear a 30-second mp3 sample from the third part of Dylan’s thesis, “Fanfare for Bette Davis.”

Name: Michael Cienfuegos, Jr.
Email: germanicus@earthlink.net
Home Phone: (619) 447-4734
Home Address: 1345 Craigmont Street, El Cajon, CA 92019-3108
School Phone: (573) 771-0600
School Address: 132 Cramer Hall-UMC, 911 Hitt Street, Columbia, MO 65201
Graduating Year: 1997 UCR Music and History Graduate

Michael is presently a MA/PhD student in history at University of Missouri-Columbia.

Name: Abraham Fabella
Email: cross_soundman@yahoo.com
WebSite: http://www.pargman.com

Abe Fabella graduated with a M.A. degree in Composition in 2001. His thesis was in two parts: a piano quintet and an essay discussing theories of dissonance formulated by John of Garland as it relates to a piano etude by William Bolcom. He is extremely grateful to his advising committee, Byron Adams, Ethan Nasreddin-Longo and Renee Coulombe for molding his approach to composing and analyzing music.

Although Abe writes in a tonal style, his music is frequently colored by pungent dissonances and non-functional harmony. His interests include Ravel, Prokofiev, Berg, cabaret, Latin American composers, American exotica of the 1950s and 60s, gendered and postcolonial discourse in music, film music, and Filipino art music.

Currently, he is attending the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he is on a rather large fellowship. He studies composition with Conrad Susa and hopes to earn a Master of Music degree.

He is currently writing an oboe concertino for Robert Presler, a flute, violin, cello and piano chamber piece, and his first orchestral piece. Abe is also Director of Music at Transfiguration Episcopal Church in San Mateo.

Name: Steve Pargman
Email: cross_soundman@yahoo.com
Home Phone: (650) 344-8173
Home Address: 1479 El Camino Real, #205
Graduating Year: Graduated in 1975 with a BA in Music
WebSite: http://www.pargman.com

Married 27+ years, 2 sons and a daughter. Met my wife through a UCR jazz band concert in '76. Have been working in public social services 25 years. Taught instrumental music in public schools in Southern Cal '76-'79. Charter member of the Redlands 4th of July band in the 80s. Played bugle calls for Civil Air Patrol events in the 90s. I play in church occasionally. Most recently played trumpet at a coffee house with a tenor sax player. Son Joel is finishing a Masters in violin performance at USC and is in his 2nd summer as a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center. Daughter Cara has been playing the harp for more than 10 years. Son Randy is into computer programming and plays the pennywhistle with his wife.

Name: Robert Keith Presler, Jr. 
Email Address: ReyalpeobO@aol.com 
Graduating Year: 2002, 2004 

Robert graduated with a BA Music/BS Mathematics and a Computer Science minor in 2002 and with an MA Music Composition in 2004.  He played oboe in the UCR Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Music, and various other ensembles throughout his career at UCR. Robert recently completed his thesis, which includes his first Symphony, just in time to be able to help with the final preparations for his wedding on December 18 to his fiance Berenis.  (His thesis committee included Byron Adams, Renee Coulombe, and Tim Labor, to whom he is eternally grateful for their support, instruction, and patience.) He is also currently in a teaching credential program at Cal State San Bernardino and plans to be a high school music teacher. 

Additional Info: Personal Note:
I'd like to thank the UCR Music Department for making my experience at UCR a wonderful and enriching one.  In this department, I've had the opportunity to study with some of the finest scholars, performers, conductors and composers.  Not only was I able to take their classes, but I also received much individual instruction and was able to actually get to know my professors a little.  This highly personal atmosphere between faculty and students remains one of the most impressive elements of this department, in my opinion. I am also thankful for the many opportunities that were provided for me in my seven years at UCR.  Since I was in high school, I've maintained a list of goals which included perfoming certain solo and orchestral works, conducting ensembles, and writing music.  I didn't realize, however, that a majority of them would be realized so soon.  In various campus ensembles, I've been exposed to an incredible amount of great literature, performed with many great musicians, and had original compositons premiered by small ensembles, the UCR Wind Ensemble, and the UCR Orchestra.  I encourage all students to be active in this department and take advantage of all of the opportunities and experiences that it has to offer.

Robert's MP3 Samples:

First Movement of Symphony No. 1 [Clip 1 | Clip 2]

Second Movement of Symphony No. 1 [Clip 1 | Clip 2]

Solemn Prelude for Wind Ensemble [Clip 1 | Clip 2]

Name: Michael H. Smith
Email: barigoodsinger@yahoo.com
Home Phone: (760) 242-3708
Home Address: 19458 Shasta Road Apple Valley, CA 92307-4727
Graduating Year: 1992

After graduating with an M.A. in Performance Practice, Mike found a job as an elementary school library/media specialist in Victorville, CA. He directs the Hi-Country Harmonaires barbershop chorus, and sings in a local junior college community chorus, two adult church choirs, a church men's quartet and two barbershop quartets. He also plays in a church handbell ensemble.

Name: Eric Martin Usner
Graduating Year: 1999

Eric was the first student in the music department's graduate program in ethnomusicology (1997-99). While pursuing his M.A., he completed coursework in musicology, ethnomusicology, and dance history and theory both on campus and at UCLA. His interests include race/ethnicity in American popular music and culture, social and vernacular dance, cultural studies, performance studies, issues of cultural property, and applied ethnomusicology.

Eric was awarded a Humanities Research Grant by the Graduate Division (summer 1998) for research into the role of Viennese Jewish faculty at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, work he had begun while in a Fulbright Assistantship prior to graduate school. During 1998, he was a resident fellow at the Center for Ideas and Society where he was part of a resident research group exploring interdisciplinary applications of late Wittgensteinian thought. While at UCR he served as editorial assistant for the Newsletter of the Society for Ethnomusicology and performed with the gamelan ensemble and choral society. Eric's thesis, titled "Dancing in the Past, Living in the Present: Nostalgia and Race in Southern California Neo-Swing Dance Subculture," was an ethnographic study of the late 1990s swing dance revival in southern California.

To continue his graduate work towards the Ph.D., Eric left the West Coast for New York University where he is currently a doctoral student and president of the Graduate Council of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. During the 2002-03 academic year, he will be a guest faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. In New York, he also continues to work for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance as sound archivist, field worker and videographer.

Within the Society for Ethnomusicology, Eric has served as a co-chair of the Student Concerns Committee and is currently Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society. He has presented work at several national conferences, among them the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Society for American Music, the Society of Dance History Scholars, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-America, and the Experience Music Project Conference. He recently published an article on neo-swing dance in the Dance Research Journal. In his dissertation, Eric is looking at the intersections of music, race and nation, and will explore how popular music and culture function in the construction of national (and, implicitly, dominant racial) identities, both in America and in Austria.