I am a performing musician and PhD candidate of ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh. Currently I am conducting my fieldwork in Surakarta, Java, Indonesia with the support of a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship. During field site visits to Java starting in 2014, I found that the performance of a repertoire of Javanese vocal music called langgam Jawa (lit. “Javanese style”) evokes a sense of nostalgia or longing (kerinduan) among Javanese musicians and listeners. Performances of nostalgia in langgam Jawa, however, do not languish in the past but are socially operative, affording musicians and listeners a means of expressing and reifying a sense of belonging as ethnic Javanese in the present. Further, although men typically occupy important roles as instrumentalists and media producers, women’s voices are pivotal in cultivating feelings of longing among listeners. My dissertation, the first to focus on this repertoire, will address the following questions: (1) how did langgam Jawa become a potent site for invoking meanings about nostalgia among Javanese musicians and listeners?; (2) what is the nature of nostalgia in the performance and listening practices of langgam Jawa in contemporary Javanese society?; and (3) how did Javanese women become privileged actors in vocalizing the past through langgam Jawa?

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In 2015 I co-founded Rumput, a group that plays the style of music that I am studying, with Dr. Andy McGraw. Our performances have won awards at the Cliff Top Old Time Festival in West Virginia and the Richmond International Film Festival. We have performed at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, and at many universities and music and theater venues along the American east coast. We have performed internationally, including tours and residencies in Java in 2017 and 2018, performing with local artists at each stop, and collaborating with guest artistic director Danis Sugiyanto. 

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I also play old-time music and have been studying clawhammer banjo with Elkins, West Virginia native Ben Townesend for several years. Bookending my time in Java, I have been and will be working with Ellen Gozion from the Early Mays on project focusing on Southwest PA ballads with the support of a Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In Pittsburgh, I have a group called Howling Mob that takes several forms: sometimes we play as a three-piece old-time trio with banjo, fiddle, bass while other times we play as a five-piece honky-tonk country band with electric guitar and drums. 

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