Born and raised in Guiyang, China, Ruixue Hu (BA, CUHK; MMus, Dunelm) is a PhD Candidate in Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music. His research interests include musical forms, Chinese music theory, the intersection of music and language, and timbre. He has specialized in qin music and the music of Joe Hisaishi and Anton Bruckner. Working with William Marvin and Nathan Lam, his dissertation is titled “Harmony in Diversity: Theorizing Form, Performance, and Aesthetics in Traditional Qin Music.” 

Ruixue has presented papers and lecture-recitals at regional, national, and international conferences across the US and Europe, including the annual meetings of the Society for Music Theory, Society for Ethnomusicology, American Musicological Society, and the Society for Music Analysis, as well as the 2024 Bruckner Anniversary Symposium in Vienna. His recent papers explore topics such as sonata theory, temporality, intertextuality, interculturality, analytical approaches to world music, modes and harmony, kinesthetics, and corpus studies. Ruixue’s research has earned various recognitions, including a Presser Graduate Music Award (The Presser Foundation), a Dorothy Payne Award (Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic), a Roland Jackson Memorial Grant (American Musicological Society), a Colvin Award (Texas Society for Music Theory), and a Best Student Paper Award from the South Central Society for Music Theory. 

As a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Eastman, he has taught both the written and aural sequences of undergraduate theory. His syllabus, “Engaging with Timbre,” received an Honorable Mention for the Diversity Course Design Award from the Society for Music Theory. Ruixue currently serves as a co-chair of the Society for Music Theory’s Analytical Approaches to World Music Interest Group. 

In addition to music, Ruixue enjoys following the matches of FC Bayern, learning languages, reading literature and history, and watching (Ghibli) films in case he has free time.