Kati Szego
Ethnomusicology, Theory
B.Mus. Queen's
M.A. Hawaii
Ph.D. Washington
Office: MMAP
Phone: (709) 864-3701
Email: kszego@mun.ca
Kati Szego (BMus¬–Queen’s; MA–Hawai‘i; PhD–Washington) joined the School of Music at Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1995, establishing its program in ethnomusicology. She served as Co-Associate Director of the School of Music in 2007, and just completed a full term as sound review editor of the Journal of American Folklore. Kati is a co-investigator in the SSHRC-MCRI project Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS). With Beverley Diamond, Kati co-chairs the local arrangements committee for the 2011 ICTM World Conference.
Kati’s interest in cultural border-crossing led her to study the colonial history of music and dance education at the Kamehameha Schools, a K-12 institution for Native Hawaiians in Honolulu. Since then, her work has focused on Hawai‘i and she continues to combine ethnographic and phenomenological approaches with archival research. Ongoing projects on Hawaiian choral music, falsetto singing and yodelling are subsumed by her larger interests in intercultural processes and discourses on vocal production. She is also in the process of reconstructing and interpreting an opera libretto written by Queen Lili‘uokalani, Hawai‘i's last reigning monarch. Seeking research sites closer to home, but pursuing Oceanic themes, Kati is currently examining the roles of women in the ‘ukulele revival that is now sweeping North America and Europe.
