Adjunct Faculty - University of Delaware - nmitchell076@gmail.com
(Updated August 19, 2025)
Princeton University
PhD in Music, 2021.
Dissertation: "The 'Se cerca' Script: Conventions and Creativity in an Eighteenth-Century Aria Tradition"
Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music
M.M. in Music Theory, 2015.
Furman University
B.M. in Piano Performance and Music Theory, 2013.
Wesleyan University
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory, 2024 - 2025.
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Lecturer in Music Theory, 2022-2024.
Princeton University Department of Music
Postgraduate Research Associate and Lecturer, 2021.
Forthcoming. "Statistical Learning in the Music Theory Classroom: Lessons from Teaching Classical Form and Galant Schemas." Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy.
Forthcoming. "Conference Report: Galant Schema Theory: Contemporary Approaches to Composition, Pedagogy, Performance.” Eighteenth-Century Music.
2024. "On Meter and the Social Dynamics of Cueing in Bill Monroe’s 'Muleskinner Blues'." Music Theory Online 30 no. 3.
Winner of the 2025 Neil Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award by the International Bluegrass Music Association.
2024. "Review of The Musical Language of Italian Opera, 1813–1859 by William Rothstein (Oxford University Press, 2023)." Journal of the American Musicological Society 77 no. 2.
2023. "Variations on a Theme by K. K. Slider: Memory and Play in the Music of Animal Crossing: New Horizons." SMT-V 9 no. 4.
2022. "Intersubjectivity and Shared Dynamic Structure in Narrative Imaginings to Music." Music Theory Online 28 no. 4. (with Elizabeth Margulis, Natalie Miller, Mauro Orsini Windholtz, Jamal Williams, and J. Devin McAuley)
2022. “/r/musictheory: Making Music Theory on Reddit.com” In The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory. Edited by J. Daniel Jenkins. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (with Megan Lavengood)
2022. “Moderating Musical Discussions on Reddit: An Interdisciplinary Conversation." SMT-Pod 1.9. (with Sarah A. Gilbert, Timothy Byron, & Justice Srisuk)
2020. “The Volta: A Galant Gesture of Culmination.” Music Theory Spectrum 42 no. 2: 280–304.
Winner of the 2023 Roland Jackson Award by the American Musicological Society.
2025. The Neil Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award; International Bluegrass Music Association. Awarded to “On Meter and the Social Dynamics of Cueing in Bill Monroe’s ‘Muleskinner Blues’.”
2023. Roland Jackson Award; American Musicological Society. Awarded to “The Volta: A Galant Gesture of Culmination.”
2020–2021. William F. Holmes / Frank D’Accone Dissertation Fellowship in Opera Studies; American Musicological Society.
2020–2021. Dean’s Completion Fellowship & Postgraduate Research Associate; Awarded by Princeton University.
2019. Sterling A. Murray Award; Awarded by the Society for Eighteenth-Century Music.
2019. Elsie and Walter W. Naumburg Fellowship; Princeton University.
2019. Irna Priore Prize for Student Research; Music Theory Southeast.
2018. Summer Research Fellowship; Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.
2016. Dorothea Payne Award for Best Graduate Student Paper; Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic.
2016. Frank E. Taplin, Class of 1937, Fellowship in Music; Princeton University.
2025. “On Meter and the Social Dynamics of Cueing in Bill Monroe’s ‘Muleskinner Blues.’” Music Department Colloquium Series, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT.
2023. “The ‘Se cerca’ Script: Conventions and Creativity in an Eighteenth-Century Aria Tradition.” Music Theory and Cognition Colloquium, Northwestern University, Evanston IL.
2023. “Elements of Soneo Theory: Vocal Improvisation Strategies in Salsa Music.” Irna Priore Music and Culture Lecture Series, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro NC.
2021. “On Metrical Structure and Cueing Systems in Bill Monroe’s ‘Muleskinner Blues.’” Vianne Webb Memorial Lecture in Musicology, Christopher Newport University. https://youtu.be/UM1HThu0VXo
2025. "Analyzing Opera Seria." Encounters with Eighteenth-Century Music, virtual panel.
2024. "(Re)Mediating Metastasio: Opera as Reading, Listening, and Virtual Reality." American Musicological Society, Chicago IL. With Jessica Peritz.
2023. “New Perspectives in Metastasio Research.” Society for Eighteenth-Century Music, Denton TX.
2018. “Between Form and Genre: ‘Se cerca, se dice.’” Music Theory Midwest, London ON.
2025. “Mucking It Up Together: Distributed Cognition and the Analysis of Musical Mistakes.” Practitioner-Centered Music Theory: Concepts, Methods, Perspectives, Columbus OH.
2025. “The Morì Cadence: A Usage-Based Analysis of a Situation-Specific Schema.” Galant Schema Theory: Contemporary Approaches to Composition, Research, and Pedagogy, virtual conference.
2024. "Markedness Correlations and the Constraints of Operatic Multimedia." Society for Music Theory, Jacksonville FL.
2024. "Markedness Correlations and the Constraints of Operatic Multimedia." American Musicological Society, Chicago IL.
2024. "Markedness Correlations and the Constraints of Operatic Multimedia." Joint Meeting of Music Theory Southeast and the South Central Society for Music Theory, Nashville TN.
2023. “Toward a Structural and Social Analysis of Musical Cueing: Distributed Cognition in the Performance of a Crooked Bluegrass Standard.” Society for Music Theory, Denver CO.
2023. “Rethinking the Metastasian Metaphor.” Society for Eighteenth-Century Music, Denton TX.
2023. "Statistical Learning in the Music Theory Classroom: Lessons from Teaching Classical Form and Galant Schemas." Defining the Galant: Music, Style, Terminology, virtual conference.
2023. “Cue Schemas.” Music Theory Southeast, Athens GA.
2022. "Rethinking Phrase Structure in Eighteenth-Century Music: Situation-Specific Models and ad hoc Hybrids." Society for Music Theory, New Orleans LA.
2022. “Cue Schemas.” Interest Group on Improvisation, Society for Music Theory, New Orleans LA.
2022. "'The Song that Started Bluegrass Music Off': Bill Monroe, ‘Muleskinner Blues,’ and the Crooked Performance of Bluegrass’s Origins.” International Association for the Study of Popular Music – U.S. Chapter, Ann Arbor MI.
2021. “Rethinking the Metastasian Metaphor.” American Musicological Society, virtual conference. https://youtu.be/B5AOVa7wH3Y
2021. “Variations on a Theme by K. K. Slider: Variation Sets and the Hourly Music of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Society for Music Theory, Jacksonville FL.
2021. “Variations on a Theme by K. K. Slider: Variation Sets and the Hourly Music of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” North American Conference on Video Game Music, virtual conference.
2020. “The ‘Se cerca’ Script.” Society for Music Theory, virtual conference. https://youtu.be/hCfHOy-qY4Y
2020. “The ‘Se cerca’ Script.” International Conference on Musical Form, Newcastle UK. (cancelled due to COVID-19)
2020. “The ‘Se cerca’ Script.” Society for Eighteenth-Century Music, virtual conference.
2019. “On Metrical Structure and Cueing Systems in Monroe’s ‘Muleskinner Blues.’” Society for Music Theory, Columbus OH.
2019. “On Metrical Structure and Cueing Systems in Monroe’s ‘Muleskinner Blues.’” Music Theory Southeast, Elon NC.
2019. “Recognition, Reversal, and Style Change in ‘Se cerca, se dice.’” Joint presentation with Matthew Boyle and Paul Sherrill. American Handel Society, Bloomington IN.
2018. “The ‘Se cerca’ Script.” Music Theory Midwest, London ON.
2018. “Distinguishing Cecchina: Pastoral Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera.” American Musicological Society, San Antonio TX.
2017. “The Volta: A Galant Gesture of Culmination.” Society for Music Theory, Arlington VA.
2016. “The Volta: A Galant Gesture of Culmination.” Music Theory Midwest, Fayetteville AR.
2016. “The Volta: A Galant Gesture of Culmination.” Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, Philadelphia PA.
2015. “Zerlina on the Metrical Stage: The Dramatic Fluidity of Metrical Consonances.” Society for Music Theory, St. Louis MO.
2014. “Sharp as a Tack, Bright as a Button: Timbral Metamorphoses in Saariaho’s Sept Papillons.” Society for Music Theory, Milwaukee WI.
2014. “Sharp as a Tack, Bright as a Button: Timbral Metamorphoses in Saariaho’s Sept Papillons.” Music Theory Midwest, Appleton WI.
University of Delaware
Adjunct Faculty (2021, 2025)
Advanced Harmony II
Advanced Analysis and Interpretation: Sonata Theory
Advanced Analysis and Interpretation: Schema Theory
Wesleyan University
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory (2024–2025)
Materials and Design
Tonal Harmony
Theory and Analysis
Graduate Proseminar in World Music Studies: Music and Categorization
Comparative Music Theory
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Lecturer in Music Theory (2022–2024)
Analysis of Western European Music and Related Traditions I
Analysis of Western European Music and Related Traditions II
Analysis of Western European Music and Related Traditions III
Aural Skills III
Aural Skills IV
Graduate Seminar in Music Theory: Schema Theory
Temple University
Adjunct Faculty (2022)
Exploring Music
Princeton University
Lecturer (2021)
Schematic Thought and the Musical Imagination
Indiana University
Associate Instructor (2014–2015)
Music Theory & Literature III: Honors
Music Theory & Literature IV: Honors
2025. University of Minnesota
2025. Yale University
2022. Furman University
2022. University of Alabama
2020. University of Michigan
2024. SMT-Pod
2024. Theory and Practice
2023. Music Theory & Analysis.
Public Engagements
2025. Post-concert talk: Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (Met Opera Live in HD). Madison, CT.
Society for Eighteenth Century Music
2025. Nomination Committee Member
2023-2024. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee (Music Studies Representative)
2019-2021. Member
2019-2020. Program Committee Member
2018-2022. Graphic Designer
2017-2018. Program Committee Member
2014. Editorial Assistant (vol. 30 no. 2)
2013-2014. Circulations Manager (vol. 30 nos. 1 & 2)
English (Native language)
Italian (Reading proficiency)
German (Reading proficiency)
Spanish (Reading proficiency)
Society for Music Theory
American Musicological Society
Society for Eighteenth Century Music