Prof. Leslie Tilley

Leslie Tilley is an associate professor in the Music and Theater Arts Section. She is a music analyst and ethnomusicologist whose interests in musical transformation span a wide spectrum of areas and approaches, from ethnographically-based music analyses of collective improvisations in Bali, Indonesia, to comparative, multi-modal analyses of cover songs. Her book, "Making it up Together: The Art of Collective Improvisation in Balinese Music and Beyond," (University of Chicago Press) presents close analyses of the Balinese improvised forms reyong norot and kendang arja while offering broad-reaching analytical frameworks for examining improvisation and collective creativity across genres and cultures. The book won the Society for Music Theory Emerging Scholar Award in 2022.