Musicology Faculty
Dr. Nicholas Johnson is a specialist in the music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. He earned his Ph.D. in Musicology from The Ohio State University in 2012, and he has received research grants from the Fulbright Commission and the Mellon Foundation. He has presented his research at several national and international conferences, including four times at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society. His current project examines the music theory writings of 17th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. He is also a specialist in contemporary rock music and is working on a book project on the White Stripes.
As an instructor, Dr. Johnson teaches Music History 1-2 (Medieval through Classical), graduate seminars on early music topic, music and philosophy, and music and research.
Referred Journal Articles
“Jack White and the Music of the Past,Present, and Future.” Rock Music Studies 1(2014), 1-21.
“Carolus Luython’s Missa super Basim: Caesar Vive and Hermetic Astrology in Early Seventeenth-Century Prague.” Musica Disciplina 56 (2011), 419-462.
Critical Editions
Luython, Carolus. Opera Omnia, vols. 1-5, eds. Nicholas Johnson and Carmelo Peter Comberiati. Münster: American Institute of Musicology, Corpus
Mensurabilis Musicae (forthcoming,first volume 2016).
Musicologist and cellist Dr. Sophie Benn enjoys a multifaceted career that encompasses performance, research, and public outreach in many forms. In her academic work, Dr. Benn studies theatrical and social dance in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France and the United States, modernist temporalities, and historical performance practice. Her recent and forthcoming publications center on dance theory and notation, social dance in Paris and Chicago, dance on early French film, and cello literature. Dr. Benn has presented at many national and international conferences, including the annual meetings of the Dance Studies Association, the American Musicological Society, the German Studies Association, and the Society for American Music. She currently serves as the chair of the Dance Studies Association’s Dance and Music Working Group.
Dr. Benn is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including an American Dissertation Fellowship from the American Association of University Women, a NEH/Newberry Library Summer Research Institute fellowship, travel grants from the American Musicological Society and the Eva L. Pancoast Memorial Fund, a Graduate Affiliateship at the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, and a Case Western Reserve University Fellowship at the Library of Congress.
Dr. Benn also maintains an active career as a cellist and baroque cellist. She thrives when working with composers and in finding new sounds. As an interpreter of new music, she served as one of the principal cellists of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra; has premiered work in the United States, Europe, and Canada; and has collaborated with Joel Sachs, Miranda Cuckson, and members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Yarn/Wire, and the Kronos Quartet. As a baroque cellist, she has studied under Jaap ter Linden, Julie Andrijeski, and Debra Nagy, and has appeared in masterclasses for Malcom Bilson and Paul O’Dette.
For nine years, Dr. Benn was a proud member of the music scene in Cleveland, Ohio, where she had a particular passion for building community through artistic projects. Between 2017 and 2021, she served as a director of Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP), an organization dedicated to new and experimental music that she co-founded with the saxophonist Noa Even. Due to this work, Dr. Benn was named one of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland’s New Agents, a group of 52 “experimenters, catalysts, and change-makers, who are pushing Cleveland forward right now.”
Dr. Benn holds degrees in cello performance, pedagogy, and music history from Rice University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She received her PhD in musicology from Case Western Reserve University in 2021 and has previously taught at Western Kentucky University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Case Western Reserve University.