Working at the crossroads between musicology, ethnomusicology, jazz studies and popular music, Kelsey Klotz is especially interested in the relationships between music and identity: How does music make meaning for various individuals? How do various individuals use music and music-practices to create meaning? Whose music “counts” in historical narratives? What do inclusive musical histories look and sound like? These questions guide her research, teaching, public and service work. 

Her recent book, Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness (Oxford University Press, 2023), is the first critical, book-length study of the role of whiteness in shaping jazz history. It uses jazz pianist Dave Brubeck’s mid-century performances of whiteness across his professional, private and political lives as a starting point to understand mid-century whiteness, privilege and white supremacy more fully. Drawing on archival records, recordings and previously conducted interviews, Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness listens closely for the complex and shifting frames of mid-century whiteness, and how they shaped the experiences of Brubeck, his critics and his audiences. Her previous articles have been published in Dædalus: The Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, American Studies, the Journal of Jazz Studies and Jazz Perspectives. Her work as a public musicologist has been featured in essays, concert talks and adult education classes sponsored by NBC, the Common Reader, the Milken Archive of Jewish Music and JazzArts Charlotte.

Klotz’s current research project, Jazz Patriarchy, examines the distinct mechanisms and values in place that have prioritized men within this field in particular. In doing so, the project uses jazz as a case study to contribute to broader work on gender inequity in other gender hierarchical fields. Further, the project’s focus on oppression from the perspective of power and privilege reframes the “problem” of gender inequity away from women’s supposed inaction or lack of desire and back on the systems of power that oppress women and gender diverse individuals. Finally, its citational and narrative approach, both rooted in feminist praxis, offers the opportunity for reflection on the positions of power and values held by readers. In essence, readers will be invited to build a better sense of what can be done in the present day to counter systems of oppression.

Klotz’s goal in teaching is to create an inclusive and accessible classroom in which students are able to practice critical thinking and cultural competence through close listening. She teaches courses in the history of popular music and jazz, and through these genres, she encourages students to recognize the listening, performance and analysis skills they bring to class while continuing to add new musical languages and methods of listening.

Prior to coming to the University of Maryland, Klotz was a lecturer in the Department of Music and Assistant Dean for Inclusive Excellence in the College of Arts+Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University. She earned her PhD. in Musicology with a certificate in American Culture Studies from Washington University in St. Louis with a dissertation studying racial ideologies in 1950s cool jazz criticism, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Piano from Truman State University.