About Me
I'm a Renaissance woman. I mean that in a few ways.
First, I love the European Renaissance: the theatre, the art, the music. I have a Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Wisconsin, with a minor in religious history and Latin. I spent a year in Berlin as a fellow of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, steeping myself in flyers and pamphlets that spread the word of the religious changes that swept Christianity. This resulted in my first book, Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation. It won the 2002 Roland Bainton Prize from the Sixteenth Century Society in the category Art and Music History, and it achieved that rarest of honors for an academic book: a second printing!
I also edited two volumes of the music of Orlando di Lasso, court composer for the Duchy of Bavaria. Though many haven't heard of him today, he was the most published composer of the sixteenth century.
Volume 12 Here Volume 13 & 14 Here
I published articles on the role music played in religious history in peer-reviewed journals. In short, I did what professors do: I published.
Family circumstances brought me back to Wisconsin, and a few years as an underpaid adjunct professor convinced me it was time for law school. I spent seven years as a family law attorney at a large Madison law firm. The next seven I ran my own firm, Driftless Mediation and Family Law, LLC. Then the siren song of writing pulled me back to my first love: the printed word. I closed my legal practice in 2024 and now I am writing full time.
I live in the beautiful rolling hills of the Driftless Region of Wisconsin with my spouse of thirty-plus years and one (or more) energetic Vizslas. When I'm not writing, I enjoy hiking, foraging for mushrooms, baking sourdough, playing the piano, reading (of course), being a foodie, and trying to keep my German skills respectable. I also spend time at our family's brewpub, Pals Brewing, in Wisconsin Dells. I am a volunteer church organist and am president of a foundation supporting higher education in my area.
If that's not enough, my full list of publications is below. I spent decades working on it, so at least I can get some mileage out of it!
Published Books
The Complete Motets 12 – Sacrae cantiones quinque vocum (Munich, 1582)
This collection features twenty-five-voice motets, ranging from complex imitative works to the playful Ut queant laxis. Notably, three motets—O salutaris hostia, O sacrum convivium, and Respexit Elias—highlight the feast of Corpus Christi.
Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation
Blending music, theology, and politics, this book offers insight into how sixteenth-century Germans experienced and expressed the Reformation. It also includes details on nearly 200 Lieder, making it a valuable resource for further study.
The Complete Motets 13 – Mottetta, sex vocum, typis nondum uspiam excusa (Munich, 1582)
This collection features nineteen first-edition motets, including Lasso’s only setting of Ave verum corpus and several Marian antiphons such as Ave Regina caelorum and Salve Regina, mater misericordiae. It also includes motets on New Testament texts from Corinthians, Romans, and Revelation, showcasing Lasso’s rich polyphonic style.
Education
University of Wisconsin Law School, J.D., magna cum laude. Ranked 7th in class. Order of the Coif, Dean’s List, Leonard Loeb Prize in Family Law.
University of Wisconsin, M.Mus., Ph.D. in Music History with distributed minor in History and Latin, summa cum laude. Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Eugenie Mayer Bolz Research Fellow.
Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany. Graduate studies in Reformation History with Heinz Schilling. Alto in the choir.
DePaul University, Chicago. B.Mus. in Vocal Performance. Arthur J. Schmitt Scholar.
