He obtained his B.A. in Music and Humanities from the University of Minnesota. He did his graduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from that institution, the latter in 1994. His primary area of research is French opera of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Much of his work has focused on the socio-political upheaval of the French Revolution and its effect on European musical culture. Recently, he has embarked on a new project exploring the introduction of Western opera to colonial Vietnam and explores the socio-political significance of music to European imperialism.