Sheridan Zahl is a PhD candidate in musicology at the Eastman School of Music. He earned his MM in classical guitar performance at Eastman in 2022 before beginning a PhD in historical musicology the same year. Sheridan continues to perform and teach on the guitar, having taught a variety of students in an educational career spanning more than a decade. His current research focuses on contemporary and modern music inspired by nature which he investigates through post-humanist philosophical and aesthetic lenses. At ECMS, Sheridan’s goal is to expose students to new (to them) music from various centuries of Western music making. By providing a strong cultural and historical basis for the music that students perform, he hopes to inspire critical engagement with music that augments students’ studies on the instrument and provides new insights on how students can listen to and play the music they are interested in.