Steven Laitz, associate professor of theory and affiliate faculty of the Chamber Music Department at the Eastman School of Music, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. He will serve as editor from Volume 24 (2010) through Volume 27 (2013).
“This appointment is a real tribute to Steve’s standing in the profession and continues the department’s tradition of opinion-forming at the heart of music theory,” said Jonathan Dunsby, professor and chair of the Music Theory Department at the Eastman School.
The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy was established in 1985 at the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Center for Music Theory Pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma. The journal publishes peer-reviewed articles relating to issues of teaching or learning music theory. It has earned an international reputation for quality articles in music theory pedagogy and its subscription list includes most major libraries of the world as well as a substantial list of distinguished individual subscribers.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in music in 1977 and a Master of Arts in music theory and composition and piano at the University of California in 1979, Laitz received his Ph.D. in music theory at the Eastman School of Music in 1992. Since 1989, Laitz has served first as assistant and then associate professor at Eastman. He was artist-in-residence at the Hale School and the University of Western Australia in 2001 and regularly presented workshops for the Honolulu Piano Teachers’ Association. He has taught at the Chautauqua Institution each summer since 1998 and was a visiting professor at the New England Conservatory from 1997 to 1998.
Laitz has received various teaching awards, including Eastman’s Eisenhart Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching by a Faculty Member.
Laitz has published such articles as “Paths to Musicianship” in Musicianship in the 21st Century: Issues, Trends and Possibilities, and is the author of The Complete Musician: An Integrated Approach to Theory, Analysis and Listening, a textbook on harmony designed for a two-year college-level program that employs a linearly-oriented and literature-based approach to voice-leading, analysis, dictation, and keyboard skills. His just-released text, Graduate Review of Tonal Theory: A Recasting of Common-Practice Harmony, Form, and Counterpoint, co-authored with Christopher Bartlette, is published by Oxford University Press. In May, his web course “Music Theory Fundamentals in Four Weeks” will be launched on Eastman’s website.
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