Dr. Leah Batstone Named Assistant Professor of Music History
Distinguished musicologist and founder of the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival brings global expertise to Montclair State University’s John J. Cali School of Music.
Posted in: Cali News
The John J. Cali School of Music is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Leah Batstone as Assistant Professor of Music History.
Dr. Batstone is a distinguished historical musicologist whose research focuses on the intersections of art music, politics, and philosophy, with particular emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe. Her first book, Mahler’s Nietzsche: Politics and Philosophy in the Wunderhorn Symphonies, was published by Boydell and Brewer in 2023.
A leading scholar of art music in Ukraine, Dr. Batstone is currently preparing two forthcoming publications: a monograph on Ukrainian musical modernism and a handbook on Stefania Turkevych’s Symphony No. 1—the first known symphony by a Ukrainian woman composer. She is also co-editing Perspectives on Ukrainian Music (Indiana University Press) and organizing a special issue on Ukraine in Musicologica Austriaca.
Her research has appeared in journals such as Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music and Letters, 19th-Century Music, and Musicology Now, with an upcoming article in the Journal of the American Musicological Society examining Ukrainian modernism in the context of imperial music histories.
Dr. Batstone has co-organized international conferences at the University of Vienna and Sorbonne University, helping to bring global attention to Ukraine’s musical avant-garde. She is currently completing a visiting scholar appointment at NYU’s Jordan Center and previously held the prestigious REWIRE Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vienna.
She holds degrees from the University of Oxford and McGill University, with additional Fulbright research at the University of Vienna, and has taught at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, The Ohio State University, and Hunter College (CUNY).
Beyond academia, Dr. Batstone is the founder and Creative Director of the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in New York City. Since its launch in 2020, the festival has highlighted Ukraine’s vibrant new music scene, featuring performances by ensembles such as Talea, Ekmeles, and Bergamot Quartet, and earning recognition from The New Yorker and The New York Times.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Batstone to the Cali School of Music. We are excited for the insight, energy, and expertise she will bring to our community.