Research

Current postdoctoral research information coming soon.

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My doctoral research addressed two compositions for unaccompanied violin written by the German violin virtuoso and composer Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739–1796). These pedagogical works, jointly called Sonate, are notable because they are structurally and stylistically modeled after Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sei Solo of 1720. Despite Sei Solo’s profile as a cornerstone of present-day violin performance, there remain lingering questions about how violinists performed the work in Bach’s own day. As a close associate of the Bach family and an esteemed violinist, Rust’s pedagogical Sonate constitute a hitherto unstudied account of how a period violinist interpreted, analysed, and taught Sei Solo.

Through historically informed performance, archival research, and comparative analysis, my dissertation research seeks to answer questions about Rust’s physical violin playing postures and techniques, and in turn considers how these same techniques might be applied to challenge, expand, and enhance our 21st-century performances of Sei Solo and other 18th-century German violin works.

In April - June 2022, I continued my research as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge (UK) and through archival research in Germany, collectively supported by the American Bach Society’s William H. Scheide Research Grant and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Michael Smith Foreign Studies Supplement.

This research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships - Doctoral, with past support from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the Government of Alberta’s Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction.