The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance announces that Erica Levenson will join the Department of Musicology as an assistant professor in the fall of 2024. Levenson researches music of the baroque era, with an emphasis on the transnational circulation of opera, popular songs, and musical theatre.
An advocate of building collaborations across diverse intellectual communities, Levenson engages scholars in the disciplines of musicology, literary history, and theatre history. She has presented her research at both national and international conferences, including the International Conference on Baroque Music, the annual meetings of the American Musicological Society, and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference, among others. She is currently on the board of directors for the Society for Eighteenth-Century Music.
“I am thrilled to be joining the faculty of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance,” shared Levenson. “The school’s reputation for both cutting-edge research and high-caliber performances makes it an exciting place to teach music history. I look forward to joining such a vibrant musical community with abundant opportunities for collaboration and innovation.”
Levenson’s articles on Anglo-French musical relations have been published in the journals Eighteenth-Century Music and Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture as well as in the edited volume Music, Myth, and Story in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Boydell and Brewer Press). Much of her research is archival-based and has been supported by the American Musicological Society Jan LaRue Travel Fund and the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University. Her current book project, Playful Enemies: French Song, Satire, and Spectacle in Early Eighteenth-Century England, examines the history of British nationalism in opposition to London multiculturalism by attending to the lively presence of French musical comedies on the London stage during a period of political hostility between France and England.
“We are excited to welcome Professor Levenson, outstanding teacher and impeccable scholar of early modern musical theatre, to the Department of Musicology. She will join SMTD’s brilliant community of scholars and practitioners of early modern music and theatre, bringing with her tremendous assets of scholarship, creativity, and collaboration,” said Gabriela Cruz, professor and chair of the Department of Musicology. “We know she will inspire transformations in the department and empower forthcoming generations of students to pursue their own outstanding paths as musicians, scholars, and pedagogues.”
Levenson’s teaching covers a wide range of topics, including histories of opera and musical theatre; historical performance practice; musical borrowing; and music, gender, and sexuality. As a harpsichordist and organist, she values the integration of performance with teaching and research. She previously served on the faculty at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.
She received a bachelor of arts in music and English literature from University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in musicology from Cornell University.