Dr. Wendy Heller

Biography

Wendy Heller is the Scheide Professor of Music History at Princeton University, recognized as a leading scholar in the field of Baroque music. Heller specializes in the study of 17th- and 18th-century opera, employing interdisciplinary perspectives with a special emphasis on gender, sexuality, art history, Italian literature, and dance history within the classical tradition. She is the author of the award-winning book 'Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Women’s Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice' (Berkeley, 2003) and has published numerous essays on composers such as Monteverdi, Strozzi, Cavalli, Purcell, and Handel. Currently, Heller is completing a book entitled 'Animating Ovid: Opera, Metamorphoses, and Antiquity in Early Modern Italy.' A trained singer from the New England Conservatory, she holds a PhD in musicology from Brandeis University. Heller maintains a strong interest in performance and promotes collaborations between scholars and performers. She is a driving force behind the performance of Baroque operas at Princeton and served as dramaturg for the university's 2014 production of Monteverdi’s 'L’incoronazione di Poppea.' Heller has been a member of several editorial boards and is a recipient of prestigious fellowships, including the Rome Prize and the Mellon Fellowship from the Society of Fellows at Columbia University. She has also served as a consultant for various editions and festivals.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards