James V. Maiello

I’m a musicologist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where I also direct the Collegium Musicum. I developed an interest in early music as an undergraduate at SUNY Fredonia, kindled in part by Mara Kiek’s arrestingly beautiful recording of Beatriz de Dia’s A chantar included in the Norton Recorded Anthology of Music. Soon after, I bought my first early music CD, settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by the Tallis Scholars. I completed a degree in music education and stayed active as a trumpeter, but I knew almost immediately that my path lay in musicology. At Fredonia, I was fortunate enough to take a course in music criticism, taught by Barry Kilpatrick, an exceptionally intelligent and perceptive listener. Barry’s class made me a more sensitive, purposeful musician, and I’ve been collecting recordings ever since. Although my research focuses on Medieval and Renaissance music, I’m an equal opportunity listener, though I have soft spots for Monteverdi, Bach, Hindemith, and Romantic symphonies, as well as for performances using period instruments.