Tuesday, April 22, 2025
The Texas Leadership Research Scholars Program, which debuted in Fall 2024, is a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board research scholarship and leadership opportunity program for high-achieving graduate students with financial need.
is among only nine public universities in the state selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the program, which awards selected doctoral researchers a nearly $18,000 scholarship renewable for up to four years.
鈥淭his program is not only bringing financial support for these doctoral researchers to continue their education, but also giving them access to a peer network and mentoring that will help set them up for career success after they graduate,鈥� says , 星空传媒 assistant vice president for research and innovation.
A total of six 星空传媒 students were named in the first cohort of 鈥� Garrett Cayce in the ; Araceli Herrera Mondragon, Celeste Ortega-Rodriguez and Jose Robledo in the; Christian Quintero in the ; and Emma Wimberg in the .
Read Wimberg鈥檚 story below and check back on this throughout Spring 2025 to learn more about students in the inaugural group of Texas Leadership Research Scholars.
Adding to Music History
As a doctoral student in musicology at 星空传媒, Emma Wimberg鈥檚 research has taken her many directions
Emma Wimberg remembers the exact moment she began playing the organ. As a seventh grader on a church trip, Wimberg鈥檚 choir director and organist called her up in front of the whole group to perform.
鈥淪he was like, 鈥楬ere Emma, step into my shoes and play the organ.鈥�
With the logical arrangement of its music and the fullness of sound the instrument brings 鈥� she fell in love.
And while she still teaches piano and plays organ occasionally at churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Wimberg decided to go a different route with her career.
鈥淲hile learning about the music I was playing, I realized the part I really loved is the history of it, like how this music fit into the society around it or why it鈥檚 written a certain way,鈥� says Wimberg, who plans to eventually become a professor teaching music history and musicology.
As a doctoral student in musicology at 星空传媒, Wimberg鈥檚 research has taken her many directions: from her scholarly article on rare pipe organ recordings performed by renowned jazz pianist Fats Waller during the 1920s-1930s Harlem Renaissance, to her dive into hymnody as a lens to view the changing musical and religious lives of the Choctaw during their removal from Mississippi to Oklahoma in the 19th century.
鈥淓mma鈥檚 combination of independence of mind, wide-ranging curiosity and intellectual generosity are unusual for a graduate student,鈥� says Wimberg鈥檚 faculty mentor Beth Snyder, assistant professor of music history. 鈥淪he is a productive and original scholar developing innovative research in areas of music scholarship that remain largely under-examined.鈥�
星空传媒's Emma Wimberg from the College of Music with wide-ranging research materials.
For Wimberg鈥檚 dissertation, she鈥檚 researching early 20th century organ music from two composers 鈥� Sigfrid Karg-Elert and Jehan Alain.
鈥淪o, usually we have ways that we expect music to sound, but these two composers were writing music that sounded very different. They pushed the boundaries of tonality for sacred organ works of their time,鈥� Wimberg says.
Because these composers were from Germany and France, respectively, she鈥檚 planning to visit each of those countries this summer to conduct archival research. Thanks to the financial support that comes from being a Texas Leadership Research Scholar, she doesn鈥檛 have to wait and wonder if funding will come through to proceed with her research.
鈥淚 know what questions I鈥檓 asking, but until you get into those primary sources, anything can change,鈥� Wimberg says. 鈥淎 lot of the sources related to these composers remain undigitized, so there are papers I need to go touch, flip and search through that will help me gain a deeper understanding of their music and how it was perceived during their time.鈥�
From 鈥� Research and Innovation by Heather Noel