# Gaia Saetermoe-Howard Historical Musicology ![Gaia Saetermoe-Howard](/sites/g/files/omnuum12086/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-08/Gaia%20Saetermoe%20Howard.jpg?itok=EYiuhqwm) email Gaia is a 3rd year PhD student who focuses her research on the relationship of Baroque music to global colonialist structures, and the modern impact of this music’s wide reach during the 17th and 18th centuries. In her studies of transatlantic musical exchangeGaia employs archaeological, historical, and ethnographic methods to shape postcolonial narratives that amplify the voices of global music-making communities. She is currently studying Afro-Jamaican musicians, especially the women musical creators, the Set Girls, who performed annually as part of Jonkonnu Festivals as early as the 18th century. Recently, Gaia delivered her paper "Sounding Sovereignty: Archaeology of Musical Diplomacy in 15th-Century Elmina, West Africa" at the ICTMD's Music Archaeology Study Group Symposium in Valladolid, Spain. In her paper, she analyzed the social and material conditions of musical exchange between Africans and Portuguese sailors from the perspectives of material history and archaeology. This research was inspired by her field work in Ghana as an undergraduate Archaeology student at the University of Rochester. During her MM studies, she focused on the music at the Elmina Castle in Ghana, where she participated in archaeological excavations, and the life of the early Baroque female composer Barbara Strozzi. For her archaeology thesis analyzing colonial appropriation and primitive accumulation in the Portuguese early modern empire, she was awarded the O’Connor Graduate Writing Fellowship. She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Beta Kappa. As an avid artist-scholar, Gaia also maintains a vibrant performance career. Appointed principal oboe of Tempesta di Mare (Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra) in 2022, she also appears as principal oboe with the Providence Baroque Orchestra, Twelfth Night Ensemble, and the Sebastians. Her recent engagements also include performances with Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn society, and more. She has recorded for the Chandos label and appears on Tempesta’s newest album. - ## Person Categories [Graduate Student](/person-categories/graduate-student)