Justin Sextro is a Ph.D. student in musicology at the University of Kansas. He holds degrees from the University of Missouri, Kansas City (M.M., vocal performance and musicology) and Truman State University (B.M., vocal performance). His research focuses on the music of Samuel Barber, opera, and song studies. He also has an active interest in music in film and multimedia. His Master's thesis, "Press Start: Narrative Integration in 16-Bit Video Game Music," analyzed the function in music found in video games of the 1990s.