A native of California, Alexandra Roedder is completing a Ph.D. in musicology and a M.M. in cello performance. Her main interests are film music, particularly that of Japansese animation, and the role performance holds in changing ambiguious musical meanings. Her dissertation examines the changes evident in Joe Hisaishi's scores for Hayao Miyazaki's films over the last 30-odd years, and places them within a context of globalization, the Japanese film industry, and differing ideas of childhood between America and Japan. She studied baroque cello for several years in the Netherlands, and now works professionally in and around Los Angeles on both modern and baroque cello. You can find more information at http://ucla.academia.edu/AlexandraRoedder.