kmasson@princeton.edu
Kyle Masson is a Ph.D. candidate in Historical Musicology at Princeton. Kyle’s research interests involve interdisciplinary approaches to music of the seventeenth-century, particularly opera, as well as connections between performance and scholarship, philosophy and aesthetics of opera, and music analysis. In his dissertation, Kyle brings these interests to bear on the composer-performer Antonio Cesti, examining the role he and his network played in reconstituting fundamental aspects of Venetian-style opera in the mid-seicento. By utilizing under-examined operas and genres alongside contemporary understandings of patronage, performance and theatrical aesthetics, and networks of travel and exchange in the era, the dissertation emphasizes the deep entanglement between Cesti’s music and the cultural contexts in which it was performed. Apart from his dissertation research, Kyle maintains an active profile as a performer, and participates in initiatives for opera education and outreach and public musicology. Before attending Princeton, Kyle received degrees from Penn State University (Historical Musicology) and Shenandoah Conservatory (Music Education and Vocal Performance).
