Alice Lee, PhD Candidate

Alice Lee is a PhD candidate in Music History and Theory. Her research focus lies on opera in the German-speaking lands during the 19th century, with an emphasis on the relationship between the market economy, opera houses, and singers as well as their intermediaries. In particular, she is drawn towards examining quantitative—especially financial—questions by way of implementing empirical data-based methods.

Her dissertation project examines the Vienna Hofoper during the mid/late 19th century; more specifically, within its fiscal and institutional frameworks. As such, she is also interested in shedding light on the “unsung” personnel, whose labor contributed to the overall clockwork of the institution but was perhaps not as noticeable.

She double-majored in music and economics at Columbia University (B.A. degree). With the support of a Fulbright grant, she spent the 2022–23 academic year in Austria as a Fulbright-Mach Scholar, where she was affiliated with the Institute of Musicology at the University of Graz. She has presented her research throughout the US and Europe, most recently at the University of Graz and the University of Zagreb.