Loes Rusch is a lecturer in music history and supervisor/coordinator of artistic research at both the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Rusch obtained her MA in Musicology from the University of Amsterdam and her BMus (jazz saxophone) from the Conservatory of Amsterdam, NL. She wrote her PhD as part of the HERA-funded research project Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities (2010–2013), focusing on the relationship between jazz, cultural identity and cultural policy-making in the Netherlands. Until May 2017 Rusch was involved as a research member of the European JPI-funded research project Cultural Heritage and Improvised Music in European Festivals (CHIME), for which she studied festival landscapes in the Netherlands. She divided her post-doctoral research for CHIME between the University of Amsterdam and Birmingham City University and worked in partnership with institutions from the arts, heritage and museums sector across Europe. In addition, she was a lecturer at Utrecht University (2018-2021), teaching courses in music and media, postcolonial discourse, subcultural studies, and jazz and popular music. In addition to her academic work, Rusch continues to play baritone saxophone and works as curator for the Wonderfeel music festival in the Netherlands. She is a board member of both the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw and the Dutch Jazz Archive.
