singer and song leader

• facilitator of inclusive community singing (Town Common Songs)
• song historian
• tradition bearer encouraging community ownership and adaptive change

community organiser

• co-developer of a model for in-person yet safely-distanced community singing throughout the pandemic (conference presentation to Country Dance & Song Society 2020)
• political campaign policy director, field organizer, and volunteer coordinator
• non-profit staff manager and public speaker on non-profit funding models
• steward of and advocate for community spaces and mass transit
• host of house concerts and traditional folk arts workshops

writer and editor

• investigative journalist (Montague Reporter)
• data security policy content editor
• political policy analyst and writer
• publication style guide developer

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ethnomusicologist (MA, University of Sheffield)

• MA dissertation: exploring community identity following music revival in the YouTube era (following auto-ethnographic fieldwork on the Isle of Man)
• conference papers:
  • bidirectional influences between instrument development and musical change (British Forum for Ethnomusicology 2018)
  • cultural role of harmonicas in maintaining morale during World War I (Social History Curators Group / Musical Instrument Research Network 2018)
  • memetic and genetic change in music across time and place (English Folk Dance & Song Society 2018)

librarian (MLIS, Drexel University)

• academic and legal reference librarian and investigator
• archival collection cataloger
• contextual historical and genealogical researcher
• library trustee (Montague Public Libraries)

cognitive linguist (BA, Swarthmore College)

• BA thesis: common cognitive structural rules underlying language, music, and movement arts
• experimental design programmer (UPenn Center for Cognitive Neuroscience)
• lecturer in linguistics (Swarthmore College)

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I also make maple sugar, morris dance, and draw architectural models and maps, and have extensive experience building and restoring free reed instruments and as a home health aid working with adaptive communication technology.

wise words from mentors

• "We sing to awaken people's enthusiasm for themselves." (Michael Kline)
• "If not now, when?" (Roger Cartwright)
• "Show up. Then show up again." (Bob DeLuca)
• "Thought leads to error." (Pete Sutherland)
• "It's more like it is now than it was before." (George Wilson)
• "Dance like it matters." (Dave Stryker)
• "Don't fuck up." (John Dexter)
• "There are times and places for performing, but sharing can happen so much more often, and it's good for us all. Maybe it's even good for the world." (David Kaynor)

wisdom from songs

• "Every act of creation is an act of faith"
• "Thinking will drive a man crazy"
• "There is a crack in everything: that's how the light gets in"
• "We are not our gravest deeds; you are not your grieving"
• "Dust thou art, to dust returnest was not spoken of the soul"
• "There's dawn beyond the night"
• "A song is somewhere to begin"
• "Don't wait until tomorrow to let yourself be free"
• "To go in the dark with a light is to know the light"
• "What we sing is what we are"
• "We shall be known by the company we keep"

contact

 will   gmail
  .   @   .
quale    com