Cambridge organ scholar earns her second doctorate at the Eastman School of Music.
“You can call me Doctor, Doctor Gregory,” teases Naomi Gregory ’14E (DMA) ’20E (PhD), who last fall completed a second doctorate in musicology at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. She will join fellow doctoral degree recipients during this spring’s commencement ceremonies.
The Manchester, England, native has made herself at home in Rochester’s early music community.
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An organist and harpsichordist, Gregory works with period ensembles, including Pegasus Early Music and Publick Musik. A prolific performer, she has been a singer at Christ Church Schola Cantorum and is a music director for the First Baptist Church of Penfield. Gregory also spent six years curating programming for Eastman’s historic Italian Baroque organ at the Memorial Art Gallery.
The road to Rochester began in Calgary, Canada, when the organ scholar from the University of Cambridge first met David Higgs, head of Eastman’s organ department, who explained the opportunities for further study in organ performance and musicology at a high level.
“The chance to do this together is unique, and that’s what brought me to the United States and Rochester,” she says.
Music runs deep in Gregory’s family. She recalls the swing band her dad ran in his retirement. Her mother played the bass guitar, her brother played the saxophone, and she played the piano.
“It’s not your average picture of an early music person, but when you play jazz piano in a jazz band, you’re doing something quite similar to what I do as a continuo player,” says Gregory. “You have minimally specified notation, and in that moment you’re creating an improvised accompaniment with the other musicians.”
As a lecturer in the Arthur Satz Department of Music, she teaches music history survey courses, practical musicianship, and a beginner theory class for students arriving with no prior study of music. “I enjoy the breadth of teaching I do,” she says.
Her dissertation, “Rethinking and Contextualizing the ‘French Court Motet’: Five and Six-Voice Motets during the Reign of Louis XII,” grew out of a seminar she took at Eastman with Patrick Macey, professor emeritus of musicology. Investigations into the repertoire are not typical, and the more that Gregory performed and studied the cultural output of the French courts, the more she wanted to make the connections.
“It makes quite a lot of sense to me that this is what I ended up with now. I’m glad—it’s been a unique experience,” says Gregory. “The opportunity to live in another country and to study in the inspiring community at Eastman has been exceptional.”
