[KS] Sad News about a Promising Young Musicologist in Korean Studies

[Peter Moody]

Dear Korean listserv members,

By now, many of you may have already heard about this through facebook or
through your colleagues, but I'm posting about it here as well, just in
case there are those who have not heard yet.

A few days ago, I learned that a fellow researcher and friend of mine
Alexandra (Alex) Leonzini passed away quietly and unexpectedly in Seoul
while she was on a fellowship to write her dissertation. Needless to say,
this is tragic and devastating news to all of us who knew her and cared
about her.

While she was still with us, I had the privilege of not only sharing a
common research trajectory with her, but also co-authoring a journal
article with her about a North Korean short story and its film and
revolutionary opera adaptations about the Battle of Incheon (i.e., Douglas
MacArthur's amphibious landing, which turned the tide of the Korean War).
The article includes Alex's captivating ethnomusicological research on the
staging of the revolutionary opera in Pyongyang, which was not supposed to
be a part of her tour schedule, but somehow she managed to persuade her
North Korean guides to let her see it anyway... And this was in 2017, the
year many feared war would break out between the US and the DPRK

In her short time in this world, Alex never ceased to amaze me with her
passion and motivation for understanding the complexities of North Korea's
operas, cultural development, and international relations. And she always
had an enlightening and humanistic perspective for interpreting and
presenting what she had discovered. Even after our collaboration, there
were so many times when I sought her perspective on arguments and analyses
I was working on, because I always knew I would get an insightful,
informed, and most importantly, honest response from her.

Additionally, she always had fresh and provocative takes about contemporary
issues pertaining to the DPRK even though (or perhaps because she was) in
the humanities.

To get a sense of what she was capable of, I invite you to take a look at a
work we collaborated on: "From MacArthur’s Landing to Trump’s Fire and
Fury: Sonic Depictions of Struggle and Sacrifice in a North Korean Short
Story, Film, and Opera."

 Although we shared the literature review as well as the film and music
analysis bits, the ethnomusicological part was all her. It was such a
rewarding piece to co-author, and I could not have benefited more from the
collaboration.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359366391_From_McArthur's_Landing_to_Trump's_Fire_and_Fury_Sonic_Depictions_of_Struggle_and_Sacrifice_in_a_North_Korean_Short_Story_Film_and_Opera

To get a sense of (or to remember) what she was like in person, here's an
interview she did very recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=VmrF38-2it0


-- 
Peter Moody
PhD Columbia University
Postdoctoral Fellow at George Washington University 2024-2025
IUC Research Fellow at Sungkyunkwan University 2024
Pony Chung Foundation Fellow at Korea University 2023-2024
Fulbright Grantee 2019-2020

If your message to me bounces back, please forward it to
moodypeterg at gmail.com
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