Lena Leson

  • Assistant Professor of Musicology

Areas of Study

Education

  • PhD, Historical Musicology, University of Michigan
  • MM, San Francisco Conservatory
  • BM, Peabody Conservatory of Music

Biography

Lena Leson is a musicologist whose work aims to bring music, politics, and dance of the 20th and 21st centuries into productive scholarly conversation. Her current book project examines American ballet’s significance to US-European relations during the Cold War.

Her research has been published in the Journal of the Society for American Music, Music & Politics and the Revue de musicologie. She has presented at a number of conferences, including annual meetings of the American Musicological Society and the Dance Studies Association.

Leson holds performance degrees from the Peabody Institute and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Michigan. Before coming to Oberlin, she taught at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.