Dr. Jessie Fillerup

Professor Fillerup’s research centers on the French composer Maurice Ravel, opera, musical temporality, and music in theatrical magic shows. Her first monograph, Magician of Sound: Ravel and the Aesthetics of Illusion (University of California Press, 2020), examines Ravel’s music through the lens of illusory perception, considering how timbre, orchestral effects, figure/ground relationships, and impressions of motion and stasis might be experienced as if they were conjuring tricks. She is contributing co-editor of the essay collection Sonic Identity at the Margins (Bloomsbury, 2021), which brings together scholars, composers, and performers to explore relationships between sound and various markers of identity, including race, gender, ability, and nationality. Her current book project, Enchanted: Music and Conjuring in the Long Nineteenth Century, examines how music and musical performers shaped stage magic, focusing on themes of virtuosity, exoticism, and gender. Her work has been supported by numerous grants, including a two-year research fellowship at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (Denmark), the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Associated Colleges of the South. 

As a teacher, Professor Fillerup’s courses focus on opera, piano music, research methods, temporality, and illusion in the fine arts. She enjoys introducing students to new musical experiences and teaching methods for analyzing historical sources.