Richard F. Grunow is Professor Emeritus of Music Education in the Department of Music Teaching and Learning at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. A leading innovator in beginning instrumental music instruction, Dr. Grunow is an active lecturer and clinician, having presented extensively throughout the United States, and in Canada, Austria, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Japan, and the French West Indies. His research and teaching focus on applications of Music Learning Theory to instrumental music instruction, instrumental and choral score reading, measurement and evaluation, and music literacy.
Professor Grunow is author of numerous articles and co-author of the MLR Instrumental Score Reading Program, MLR Instrumental Score Reading Test, Choral Score Reading Program, Creativity in Improvisation, and Developing Musicianship through Improvisation. He is principal author of Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series, a comprehensive beginning instrumental method for recorder, woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion. The series features over 350 recordings of folk songs and classical melodies comprising a variety of tonalities and meters from a broad range of cultures.
A Wisconsin native, Dr. Grunow received a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville, where he is a Distinguished Alumnus and recipient of the Arts and Letters Hall of Fame Award. From 1967 to 1974, he taught instrumental music in Beloit, Wisconsin Public Schools. He received a Master of Music and a Ph.D. in Music Education from The University of Michigan, served as Director of the Instrumental Laboratory School, and was on the faculty in the Music Education Department prior to his appointment at Eastman in 1979. He retired from Eastman in 2016.