Bianca Luisa Iannitti
biannitti@wesleyan.edu
| Bianca’s research interests include various Indian and Indian-diasporic performance practices, especially South Indian classical music (Karnatak) and dance (Bharatanatyam) performed in the United States and Italy. Within this subject area, she is exploring issues surrounding gender and sexuality, race, and identity. Bianca’s secondary area of research involves issues of race, immigration and national identity in mainstream Italian pop, rap and reggae.
Bianca received her BA in Music (Vocal Performance) from Wheaton College (MA). In 2019, she received a MA in Music from Wesleyan University, where she completed her thesis “#BrownGirlTakeover: Representing Queer Desi Female Artists in Virtual Spaces.” As a classically trained opera singer, Bianca has participated in an array of music ensembles such as the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra, Opera Providence, and Wesleyan’s South Indian vocal ensemble. In 2017, Bianca started her formal Bharatanatyam training in the T. Balasaraswati style under the instruction of Saskia C. Kersenboom and Anine de Grood-Singh. |
Douglas Kiman
dkiman@wesleyan.edu
| Bio. information |
Marvin McNeill
mmcneill@wesleyan.edu
| Marvin McNeill is a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. After serving 20 years as a college band director – 4 years at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, and 16 years as the Associate Director of Bands at the University of Connecticut – Marvin returned to school to pursue and expand upon personal research interests and passions. Marvin’s research interests include New Orleans brass band music and culture, African American music and culture, American music studies, music and youth culture, affect theory, and popular music studies. Marvin is the founding member of The Funky Dawgz Brass Band – a New Orleans style Brass Band that has toured locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally – and he is a member of the Society of Ethnomusicology, Society of American Music, American Musicological Society, International Association for the Study of Popular Music, and the Association for Popular Music Education. |
Poorya Pakshir
ppakshir@wesleyan.edu
| Bio. information |
Jocelyn Pleasant
jpleasant@wesleyan.edu
| Bio. information |
Anya Shatilova
ashatilova@wesleyan.edu
| I am a professional player of the Russian Slavic traditional instrument domra whose research interests include musical practices in contemporary Russia as well as traditional Russian music scenes abroad. Some of my major interests are Russian Slavic music in the United States, and the music of indigenous Finno-Ugric peoples in St. Petersburg, Russia.
I received a BA in Music Performance from St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts (Russia). I was a founder of the ensemble Esse-Quintet that received international recognition and was featured in fRoots Magazine. I also received an MA in Musicology from the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston) where I studied with Peter Row, Hankus Netsky, Robert Labaree, Sean Gallagher, Helen Greenwald, Katarina Markovic, Tanya Kalmanovitch, and Lyle Davidson. I also had the pleasure of participating in world music ensembles from the Contemporary Improvisation Department where I was introduced to various musical traditions of improvisation from Persia, Eastern Europe, and Brazil. |
Suhail Yusuf
syusuf@wesleyan.edu
| My name is Suhail Yusuf (stage name: Suhail Yusuf Khan). I am a Sarangi (Indian bowed instrument) player, vocalist, composer, and a PhD candidate in the department of music at Wesleyan University. My dissertation entitled “Bridge Overtones: Lessons from Sarangi” will be the first in-depth ethnomusicological study written by a hereditary sarangi player. I bring together expertise from a performance career that has already extended over twenty years, creative ability, and academic research to find new modes of expression in Hindustani (North Indian classical) music, contemporary rock fusion, pop, folk, jazz, and experimental music. My ethnographic scholarship draws on personal experience as an eighth-generation musician belonging to a lineage of Hindustani musicians. I situate this musical tradition in a globalized context, to help new audiences connect with the riches of this repertoire. I have been featured on more than fifteen albums and am currently signed to Domino records, U.K. |