Sara Haefeli teaches music history and philosophy of creativity classes at Ithaca College. She is a specialist in the music of the American Avant Garde, especially the work of John Cage. Her scholarship has been published in the journal American Music, the Journal of Music History Pedagogy, and she is a regular contributor to W. W. Norton’s blog The Avid Listener. She has presented at national conferences on topics ranging from the music of Cage and the New York School to why our brains need music. She was recently the invited guest scholar for the festival Nuit d’Hiver in Marseille, France. In addition to her scholarly work, Haefeli was co-director of the Open Space Festival for New Music from 2009-2011. She is also an accomplished cellist, specializing in both early music and contemporary music performance. She particularly enjoys performing as a member of the psychedelic bluegrass trio The Prairie Pranksters.