Academic Background
Trained as a pianist through the Royal Conservatory of Canada, Cathy Cox completed the "Honours Music Theory" program with a concentration in piano through the Faculty of Music (now Schulich School of Music) at McGill University in Montréal. Guided by her interest in the music of Arnold Schoenberg, she continued her studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where she completed her masters thesis—entitled "Schoenberg's Early Dehmel Settings"—under the supervision of Marion Guck and Steven Peles. At the completion of her M.A., she was awarded a DAAD Fellowship to conduct research through the Technische Universität Berlin, where she attended Hauptseminaren of Christian Martin Schmidt and Helga de la Motte-Haber.
During her stay in Germany, she developed an increasing interest in contemporary opera and multimedia performance. This led initially to studies in computer science at the RWTH in Aachen, and eventually prompted her to move to New York City to pursue doctoral studies at Columbia University. As a graduate student fellow at Columbia, she was appointed as staff member at the Computer Music Center, Executive Editor of Current Musicology, and instructor of Ear Training; she additionally served as a graduate student representative on departmental committees and as department webmaster. She completed her doctoral dissertation, "Listening to Acousmatic Music," under the sponsorship of Joseph Dubiel; other members of her defense committee included Brad Garton and George Lewis.