Fiona Balestrieri

Hometown

Charlottesville, VA (Tandem Friends School)

Why W&M?

As a lifetime Virginia resident, I was, at first, unsure about attending a school in Williamsburg, VA. However, my research into William and Mary whittled away at my reservations and by the time I was offered the Murray scholarship, I was sold.  I dropped all of my other offers, including an Echols Scholarship at the University of Virginia, and accepted it.  William and Mary offers close contact with professors, great research opportunities, and a community of dedicated learners, who also happen to be wonderfully interesting people.  

High school activities and awards

I received the Randolph-Macon book award in tenth grade and the Smith College book award in eleventh grade, and am a National Merit Finalist and a National AP scholar for 2009.  My sister, Philippa and I recently finished recording a CD of traditional singing, with help from other local Irish musicians.  I also play guitar, write my own songs, and sing in many styles including bluegrass, old-time, and jazz.  I've been performing on flute, guitar, voice, and feet in and around Charlottesville for the past six or seven years and teaching Irish flute, whistle, voice, and dancing at the Blue Ridge Irish Music school for the past two years.

Majors

Linguistics and Ethnomusicology (self-designed interdisciplinary major)  

Extracurriculars at W&M

• Middle Eastern Music Ensemble: singer and nai/ney (Arabic flute) player
• CPALs tutor ("Community Partnership for Adult Learners" dedicated to teaching English as a Second Language) 
• Reveille (an all-female a cappella group) 
• Occasional singer-songwriter performances for AMP's "Homebrew" series

Research at W&M

• Fall semester of my Junior year, this past semester, I wrote a paper exploring how the community of Virginia is imagined through music at two annual festivals, the State Fair of Virginia and the Richmond Folk Festival. I hope to present this coming Sprin at MACSEM (Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology) conference, to be held at our very own College of William and Mary!
• I work closely with Professor Anne Rasmussen of the Music and Middle Eastern Studies departments as a teaching assistant, research assistant, and academic advisee. 
• My future research will branch-out from my home-state of Virginia and focus on cultural politics in East Africa. After spending two months of the summer in Kenya teaching English, music, and math at Royal Kids primary school in Mikindani and Poetry at HOYWIK school in Kibera, a slum outside of Nairobi, I came back to America full of questions and determination to return. I hope to pursue research in Tanzania the fall of my senior year, exploring both language and music ideologies in East African hip hop. I also hope to apply my knowledge of linguistics to design teaching material for English instruction in Kenya. 

Murray Project

For my Murray project, I will travel to Oman to continue my study of MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) and Omani dialect. I will then combine my musical and linguistic skills to analyze the lyrics of Omani rap and hip hop and uncover language and music ideologies that inform Omani rap artists.