The department is delighted to welcome three new scholars to our graduate student ranks this year. This exciting East Coast cohort includes Maddy Allwein Pérez from Pennsylvania, Maya Letherer from Pennsylvania, and Mauren Rafter from Maryland. Their research interests include protest music, political messages in popular music, and identity, race, and feminism in Cuban and Venezuelan diaspora music.
In addition to their research interests, the members of this cohort have strong background experiences in performance. Maya is a double bassist involved with early music and performance practice, Maddy is a flutist who has performed in the Puerto Rico Summer Music Festival, and Maureen is a pianist and singer and presented a senior voice recital.
Welcome to Maddy, Maya, and Maureen! Learn more about each of them and what drew them to UNC below.
Maddy Allwein Pérez
“I’m most looking forward to working with the amazing faculty in the music school as well as collaborating with other disciplines through the Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA).”
From Pennsylvania, Maddy holds a Bachelor of Music in Music History with a focus in Latin American music from Temple University, and an M.Ed. in TESOL. After spending a semester in Havana, Cuba, she became increasingly interested in cross-cultural dynamics and communication, particularly between Cubans born on the island and those born en el extranjero.
Between 2018 and 2024, Maddy enjoyed working as an English and Spanish teacher in Houston, TX and Philadelphia, PA where she taught middle and high school courses. Her current research interests include employing ethnomusicological approaches to investigate themes of identity, race, and feminism within the Cuban and Venezuelan diasporas.
Outside of Maddy’s academic work, she enjoys spending time with loved ones (especially outdoors), volunteering, and teaching privately.
Maya Letherer
“In my research, I am most excited about helping to bring working-class culture and concerns into the broader musicological discourse. To me, historical research is an act of compassion, and I look forward to becoming a more compassionate scholar and person during my time at UNC-CH. I believe that the faculty at UNC share these values, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them.”
Maya Letherer is originally from Philadelphia, PA, and holds a Bachelor of Music from the Colburn School. Her primary research interest is the music of the Lowell mill girls, a community of textile mill workers in Massachusetts who formed one of the nation’s first women’s unions. More broadly, Maya is interested in working-class culture and the function of music in protest and community formation among workers in 19th- and 20th-century America. She is also fascinated by modern oral traditions, from TikTok to summer camp songs.
Her scholarly interests that lie outside of, but often intersect with, music include the preservation and description of historical sources, which she studies with the California Rare Book School. In addition, Maya enjoys playing early music as a bass instrumentalist.
Maureen Rafter
“I chose UNC because the program has a strong pool of scholars in both its faculty and student body that are committed to research across a variety of topics, genres, and disciplines while maintaining a strong profile in the field of musicology. I felt this program gave me the best opportunity to pursue my current interests in contemporary popular music and American politics while allowing me to explore other areas of research that I am also attracted to.”
Maryland-born singer and scholar Maureen Rafter is a 2024 graduate of the George Washington University where she received her B.A in Music and American Studies. Maureen’s research interests include the inherently political messages of popular music as well as the cultural influences that have contributed to American contemporary sound. Additionally, she is passionate about interrogating musical practices, hierarchies, and the canon we have centered in our studies of sound. As a scholar, she is interested in undoing the cultural gatekeeping of previously underrepresented musical identities and working towards a new way of studying music that creates space for everyone.
In addition to her scholarly work, she has a background in vocal and piano performance which she has continued through her time at GW. There, she studied musical theatre, jazz, and classical music as both a soloist and a member of numerous ensembles in the Corcoran Music Department.