معرفی
Wendy Heller is the Scheide Professor of Music History at Princeton University, where she also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Music. She is an affiliate member of the Classics Department and associate faculty in the Department of French and Italian. Heller was previously Music Department Chair (2015-2022) and Director of the Program in Italian Studies (2005-2022).
Heller earned her B.Mus and M.Mus from New England Conservatory (vocal performance and musicology) and her Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Her interdisciplinary approach to Baroque music, particularly 17th- and 18th-century opera, draws on gender studies, art history, Italian literature, dance history, and classical tradition.
Recognized as one of the leading scholars in Baroque music, Heller's research focuses on the intersection of music, gender, and cultural history. Her work examines how opera functioned as a space for exploring identity, power, and representation in early modern Europe, with particular attention to Venetian contexts. She maintains a strong connection between scholarship and performance, regularly collaborating with performers and serving as dramaturg for opera productions.
Heller's publications reveal a consistent focus on the relationship between text and music, particularly in the context of mythological narratives and gender representation. Her work spans from detailed studies of specific composers like Monteverdi, Cavalli, and Handel to broader investigations of cultural contexts and performance practices across early modern Europe.
- Rome Prize in Post-Classical Humanistic Studies
- Old Dominion Professorship, Princeton University (2014-2015)
- Sylvan and Pamela C. Coleman Memorial Fellowship, Metropolitan Museum of Art (2010-2011)
- Friedrich S. Burkhardt Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies (2006-2007)
- Annual Book Award from the Society for Early Modern Women
- Honorary Member of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music (2023)
Heller has served on numerous editorial boards including the Journal of Musicology, Cambridge Opera Journal, and Journal of the American Musicological Society. She is actively involved in performance projects, having served as dramaturg for multiple Baroque opera productions at Princeton and beyond, and has collaborated with major early music festivals worldwide. Her work bridges academic scholarship with practical performance, making significant contributions to both fields.
