When asked as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up, Hilary often replied, “Not bored and not boring!” Years later? So far, so good. Starting as a graduate writing consultant in 2017, Hilary is not just one of our longest-tenured consultants; her graduate and professional careers also make her stand out as anything but boring.
Graduating with her Ph.D. in musicology in 2026, Hilary is a Himalayan lute specialist (lutes being any stringed instrument with a body and a neck). Her research has taken her not just to Illinois, but to Indiana as a Traveling Scholar, to Nepal as a Fulbright researcher, and to New York City as a Research Fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Musical Instruments. Hilary’s dissertation reflects these experiences, treating instruments as archives that can be read like texts through a maker’s perspective, much like historical documents or artifacts. Throughout her work, Hilary cites these lutes-as-texts; accompanying her dissertation is what she calls her “Luteography,” displaying the 265 cited lutes as a combined image gallery and bibliography-like source list.
In addition to her doctoral work, Hilary works as the repair technician at the Music Inn World Instruments in Greenwich Village. Established in 1958, the store is so iconic that it was actually featured in the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Hilary’s fateful pursuit to purchase a dranyen (a Tibetan lute) from the store led her to apprenticing at the shop after finding out the instrument was in need of repair. Hilary’s background as an artist, fieldwork focused on the making and construction of instruments, and expertise in ethnomusicology facilitated her quick graduation from this apprenticeship, and she now has an apprentice of her own.
At the Music Inn, Hilary has repaired over 100 different types of instruments (so far). Some of her most notable projects include transforming a three-foot long spiraled Kudu antelope horn into a shofar, performing an emergency repair on a theorbo for an off-Broadway play (and getting free tickets to the show!), and restoring a client’s inherited concert zither, which was carried through exile in World War I and chronicled in their family memoirs. For Hilary, this work is so meaningful not just because she excels at it, but because she can “give[] instruments their voices back.”
We’re lucky to have had Hilary work with us amongst her many pursuits as one of our most sought-after writing consultants. She told me that she continued to work at the Workshop because she loves the work of one-to-one writing consulting. Hilary notes:
What the Writers Workshop offers is distinct and special because we give writers a space to be seen and heard and to help them grow. As they grow as writers, they cannot help but also grow as people and thinkers. As a consultant, I appreciate the opportunity to bear witness to and facilitate that process.
Hilary also sees many of the skills that make her a successful repair technician reflected in her consulting practice, including the brainstorming and creativity needed for problem solving. In doing this work, Hilary finds the feedback of Dr. Wisniewski invaluable, and understands her to be an exceptional model of what a good leader is.
Those of us at the Workshop will miss Hilary greatly, especially her recurring writers. However, we’re elated for Hilary to have time to pursue more of her dreams, including speaking about her research at three international conferences this past summer, returning some attention to her visual art practice, and exploring more of New York City, especially among the Tibetan community in Jackson Heights.
As Hilary often ends her meetings with a joke, it’s only appropriate that I leave you with the same one she told me:
What was the shy pebble’s only wish?
That she could be a little boulder. 🙂
By Emily Mendelson, Communication, PhD candidate