A classically-trained pianist who grew up in Vienna, Austria, she earned her PhD in history from the University of Rochester in 2013 with a minor field in musicology through the Eastman School of Music. Her research, which has appeared in German Studies Review, the Journal of World History, Journal of the American Musicological Society (JAMS), and Opera Quarterly, focuses on two separate topics that occasionally converge: the relationship between music and national identity in European history, and Europe's historical and contemporary relationship with the Black diaspora.