Sarah Weiss (Yale): Authentic Hybridity?: Cultural Boundaries and Music Reception

Sarah Weiss studied at the University of Rochester/Eastman Conservatory and New York University, receiving her PhD from NYU in musicology in 1998. She has taught at the University of Sydney, Australia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Harvard University. She joined the faculty of the Department of Music at Yale in 2005. Primarily conducting research amongst performers in Central Java and Sulawesi, Indonesia, her geographical interests also include performance fromaround Asia.

Weiss has published on issues of gender, aesthetics, theatre, and comparative religions in musicalcontexts in journals, edited collections, and encyclopedias. Her book "Listening to an Earlier Java: Gender, Aesthetics, and the Music of Wayang in Central Java" was published by the KITLV Press in 2006 and she is working on a new comparative book on women and performance in religious contexts. Her most recent fieldwork has been with a cappella singing groups at Yale, a continuing project she is conducting with her graduate students (recently written up in an article on NBCSports.com).

She serves on various editorial boards and committees for music journals and societies. She has performed and taught Central Javanese gamelan music for 15 years, regularly appearing as a vocal soloist in performances around the East Coast.

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