Jacquelyn Sholes

Dr. Jacquelyn Sholes serves as Assistant Professor of Musicology at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, specializing in narrative construction within composers' works. Previously, she held lecturer positions at the University of Rochester and visiting appointments at Central Connecticut State University, Boston University, Brown University, Wellesley College, and Williams College.

Her educational background includes:

• Ph.D., Brandeis University (2008)
• M.F.A., Brandeis University (2004)
• B.A. summa cum laude, Wellesley College (2000)

Research centers on how composers use musical narratives to forge historical-cultural identities through intertextual references and self-marketing. Her monograph Allusion as Narrative Premise in Brahms’s Instrumental Music (2018) analyzes Brahms' allusions as identity-defining devices, while her current Bernstein project extends this framework. Interdisciplinary collaborations span women’s studies, art history, film, mathematics, and neuroscience, including co-authorship in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professional leadership includes presidency of the Phi Beta Kappa Association of Boston and board service for the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association and American Brahms Society. She serves as book review editor for College Music Symposium and previously led the New England Chapter of the American Musicological Society.