Marina Lee is a second-year PhD student and Sproull Fellow in music theory. Her research interests include music cognition, gender studies, post-tonal music and composers, methods of analysis that involve quantitative data, and geometrical constructions in musical works both tonal and non-tonal. Marina’s current research project focuses on the application of Uniform Information Density theory to the madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo. She also serves as the music cognition research assistant for the theory department.

Marina has taught first-year coursework in the ESM undergraduate core, including both aural skills and theory. She also has taught undergraduate writing at Juilliard’s Writing and Communication Center in 2021-2022.

Born in Minnesota, Marina moved to New Jersey and later New York to pursue her musical studies. She has a BM in composition from the Juilliard School of Music, where she has also studied piano with Professor Jerome Lowenthal and composition with Dr. Melinda Wagner at Juilliard. As a composer, musical director, and arranger, Marina’s works have been performed in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. As a pianist, she has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist both domestically and internationally. To recognize her artistic and scholastic achievements, she has been awarded the John Erskine Prize by the Juilliard School in 2023.

In addition to the studies and work at Eastman School of Music, she enjoys writing fictions (mostly themed on European military history), creating illustrations based on the same subject, and watching funny sitcoms like The Office and Modern Family.