Vanessa Tonelli serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi after her previous teaching role at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She completed her PhD in Musicology with a Certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University.
Her research and teaching interests center on historical interactions between music, gender, and disability studies. Her primary research project traces the lives and significance of poor and orphaned female musicians of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venetian charitable homes. She has authored several publications regarding these women and their musical performances.
Alongside her research, Dr. Tonelli is an enthusiastic trombone player. She has previously performed with a variety of community bands both in Chicago and her home state of New Mexico. Additionally, she is invested in the practical application of music research by means of reviving past musical works in modern performances. She has recently collaborated with Chicago’s historically informed Haymarket Opera Company and the Australian Chamber Choir. She is also currently learning to play the sackbut.