Paige Zalman

Paige Zalman is a musicologist, higher education scholar-practitioner, and percussionist. Her musicological scholarship has explored a range of topics, including music for the American stage and screen, music and gender across history, and music and mental health in contemporary popular music. In the field of higher education, Dr. Zalman conducts research on the experiences of college music majors, as well as the educational outcomes resulting from high-impact practices like undergraduate research. She has presented her scholarship at various regional and national conferences, including several chapter meetings of the American Musicological Society, and her publications have appeared in various peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes spanning the fields of musicology and higher education. As an Adjunct Professor of Musicianship at Duquesne University, Dr. Zalman brings over a decade of college-level teaching experience, an unwavering passion for music history, and a genuine delight in supporting her students’ growth as musicians, scholars, and people.

As a percussionist, Dr. Zalman plays with professional and community ensembles in Pittsburgh, including the Pittsburgh Steeline, the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra, and the North Pittsburgh Symphonic Band. She has also performed with several North Carolina-based ensembles, including the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Opera Wilmington, and Forza East Percussion. As a student, Dr. Zalman won the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s undergraduate student concerto competition in 2016, and in 2020, she and her quartet won the graduate division of West Virginia University’s chamber music competition. Dr. Zalman’s additional interests in percussion traditions outside of the Western canon have led her to study abroad in Switzerland, where she learned about the drum and fife culture of the annual Basler Fasnacht carnival, and in Ghana, where she studied with master musicians and dancers from Ewe, Dagara, Ga, Dagomba, and Birifor ethnic backgrounds.

Dr. Zalman holds a Ph.D. in higher education and an M.A. in musicology from West Virginia University, as well as a B.M. in music performance from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In addition to teaching at the Mary Pappert School of Music, Dr. Zalman also works at Carnegie Mellon University, where she connects undergraduate students to research opportunities and advises undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni on competitive inter/national fellowship applications.

• Ph.D., West Virginia University 
• M.A., West Virginia University
• B.M., University of North Carolina Wilmington

• Music for the Stage and Screen
• Music and Gender
• Music and Mental Health
• Music and Higher Education