Graduate Students
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Lorna Katz is a second-year Ph.D. student in Digital Composition at the University of California, Riverside. She has been a singer and performer for most of her life. She is a professional actor and twenty-three-year member of the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. She has an IMDB page and has appeared in various TV shows, feature films, and commercials. Lorna earned her Master of Music degree in Theory and Composition at the California State University, Fullerton, where she was a student of Dr. Pamela Madsen. She graduated from CSUF in May 2023 and was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Composer award during the school’s 2023 convocation ceremony. She is a fellow in the California State University’s Chancellor Doctoral Incentive Program. Lorna was awarded the 2023 Ellen Jane Lorenz Grant for Graduate Composition from the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, which funded her attendance at Operation Opera in 2023 as an Art Song participant in composition. Most recently, Lorna had been selected as one of twelve composers for the Choral Arts Initiative PREMIERE|Project Festival 2024, held at the University of California, Irvine. Lorna made her composer debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall this past August, where the LAKMA (Los Angeles Korean-American Music Association) Chorale and Philharmonic Orchestra performed her choral work “Peace.” E-mail: lorna.katz@email.ucr.edu |
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Barbara Macz's musical journey began in childhood with early experimentations on keyboard and violin. Later, she became a self-taught church musician, playing piano, guitar, drums, and electric bass for many years. During high school, she also had a brief stint as an orchestra pianist and alto sax player in the school band. After a few years of filmmaking and fine art studies, she then pursued formal music studies at a community college in Los Angeles, where she focused on classical piano and voice, ultimately earning Associate’s degrees in Music and Humanities. Barb transferred to San Diego State University (SDSU) as a music education major with piano as her primary instrument. After three years in the music education program, she transitioned to focusing on teaching in higher education, teaching lessons on multiple instruments, and tutoring music theory. She also taught ESL courses for international students of all ages. Barb graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Professional Studies and later a Master’s in Music Composition from SDSU. Currently a second-year PhD student in composition at the University of California, Riverside, she focuses on pop music, music technology, recording, and chamber music. She also leads a unique songwriting and climate activism workshop series for middle school students in San Diego. Outside of her professional pursuits, Barb enjoys playing soccer and fetch with her large and fluffy border heeler rescue, Schubert. E-mail: barbara.macz@ucr.edu |
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Rory Fewer (he/him) is a composer, DJ, and doctoral student in the ethnomusicology program at the University of California, Riverside. His research interests include queer affect, rhythmicity, and corporeality. His current project examines electronic dance music as a form of futurity praxis among queer rave collectives in Bangkok. Rory’s work has been published in Investigaciones en Danza y Movimiento and Revista de Humanidades Digitales, and he is also co-editing a special issue of Documenta on dance and new technologies. His micro-opera, A Temp Meets Renée Zellweger, was performed by Brooklyn-based opera company Granite Planet in May 2024. Rory currently serves as an associate instructor in the Media and Cultural Studies department, where he teaches a self-designed, upper-division undergraduate course on the topic of “noise.” Rory is a third-time Gluck Fellow of the Arts and recipient of the Humanities Graduate Student Research Grant from the Center for Ideas and Society. He has presented his research at Pop Conference, the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Council on Thai Studies, and the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present. Rory holds an M.A. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Riverside, and a B.A. in individualized study from New York University. Email: rfewe001@ucr.edu |
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Born in Lima, Peru, Eloy Neira de la Cadena is a Ph.D. student at the University of California Riverside. Musician, activist, and philosopher, he holds an MFA in trumpet performance and an MA in Aesthetics & Politics from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). In addition, Eloy earned a BA in music at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). Eloy is a freelance performer and children’s music teacher. Before starting his Ph.D. studies, Eloy worked for the Culver City Unified School District (CCUSD) and Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) as a teacher of Music and Music History (2019). In 2019 he developed the Music of the World and Music of the US classes curricula for the Jazz Symphonic Orchestra Music Education Program. These classes focus on teaching history, social issues, and culture through music-making and appreciation. Email: eneir002@ucr.edu |
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Cahlia “Cal” Plett is a current doctoral track graduate student of ethnomusicology at University of California-Riverside. Before beginning Ethnomusicology at UCR, Cahlia graduated with a Harp Performance degree from DePauw University. Cahlia’s life-long experience playing on the arpa paraguaya (Paraguayan harp) focused a career on performance and music outside the European sphere. Cahlia also minored in Gender and Sexualities Studies in undergrad, amplifying their fascination with opportunities for decolonial liberation and resistance within music practice. Cahlia’s current research focuses on popular music in South America, specifically Brazil and Paraguay, emphasizing queer liberatory and anti-state violence grassroots work occurring alongside music practice and performance. Fascinated with musical tradition where Cahlia’s family is from, their research will aim to bring the Guaraní language to UC-Riverside campus’ and explore notions of the crossover between “Language and Music Reclamation.” Email: cplet002@ucr.edu |
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David Madrid (he/him) is a second year Ph.D. student in musicology at UC Riverside. His interests include Ethnic-Mexican music making practices from twentieth century classical music to contemporary forms of popular, folk, and art music. He has won such awards as the Bakersfield College Departmental Award for the performing arts department, Cal State Bakersfield’s Research Competition in the performing arts category, and was one of Cal State Fullerton’s Emeriti Foundation award recipients. He has provided individual and group vocal lessons for Bakersfield High School choir students. David holds an M.A. in music history and literature from California State University, Fullerton and a B.A. in music from California State University, Bakersfield. In his spare time, David enjoys playing a variety of songs on his guitar and vihuela. E-mail: david.madrid@email.ucr.edu |
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Ricardo Reyes Paz is a Ph.D. student in musicology at the University of California, Riverside. Ricardo’s research concentrates on exoticism, cosmopolitanism, orientalism, modernismo, hybridity, and colonialism studies in Mexico, particularly Mexican concert music in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. His work has been presented at lectures and conferences such as the 9th Biennial New Perspectives in Flamenco History Symposium at the University of New Mexico, and the Florence Bayz Music Series at UCR. In addition to his musicological studies, he is a concert guitar performer who received his M.A. and DMA in guitar performance from Arizona State University, and his B.A in guitar performance from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Paz also studied composition in the polyphonic studies workshop with Humberto Hernandez Medrano, a disciple of Carlos Chávez in Mexico City. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the prestigious Mexican National Fund for Culture and Arts in three occasions, and the Special Musical Talent Award from ASU. Prior to his musicological studies at UCR, Paz developed an important career as a guitar educator in the public school system of Arizona and New Mexico. From 2009 to 2017 he was the founder of the classical guitar program in the Phoenix Elementary School District and in 2018 he also started a guitar program in the Santa Fe Public Schools, achieving recognition in the local press by organizing the annual Santa Fe Guitar Ensemble Festival and inviting important guitar scholars to offer master classes to the students. |