Jeanne Bamberger

Jeanne Bamberger is Professor of Music and Urban Education emerita, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Adjunct Professor, Music Department, University of California, Berkeley.

Bamberger studied with Artur Schnabel (1943–46) and performed frequently in the US and Europe as piano soloist and in chamber music groups. She attended the University of Minnesota and Columbia University receiving her BA in philosophy and music (1948), and the University of California at Berkeley where she received her MA in music theory (1951).

Bamberger’s serious teaching career began at the University of Chicago where she taught music theory and a freshman seminar in Art, Music, and Literature (1955 to 1969). From 1970 to 2001 Bamberger was at MIT. During this period, in search of multiple paths to understanding learning and development, she became a member of several different departments in addition to the Music Department where she taught music theory and analysis (1970-2001). She was a researcher in the LOGO Lab (in the Department of Computer Science 1972-1975), and the Division for Study and Research in Education (1975-1995). Bamberger subsequently initiated and directed the Teacher Development Program in the MIT Department of Urban Studies. The program was intended for MIT undergraduates who wished to teach high school math and science in under-served urban settings. She retired from MIT in 2001, taught briefly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and, taking up residence in Berkeley, California (2005) is currently teaching Music Cognition as an Adjunct Professor, in the Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley.

Her books include: The Art of Listening: Developing Musical Perception (with H. Brofsky) (New York: Harper and Row, 1969;1972;1975;1979;1988); The mind behind the musical ear (Harvard University Press, 1995); Developing musical intuitions: A project-based introduction; to making and understanding music (Oxford University Press, 2000); Discovering the musical mind (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Recent chapters in books: (2016) “Growing Up Prodigies” In: G. McPherson (ed) The Child as Musician: A handbook of musical development. Oxford University Press; (2007) “Restructuring Conceptual Intuitions Through Invented Notations: From Path-Making to Map-Making” In: E. Teubal, J. Dockrell & L. Tolchinsky (eds) Notational knowledge: Developmental and historical perspectives. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers; (2007) “Changing Musical Perception Through Reflective Conversation.” In: R. Horowitz, Talking Texts. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Assoc.; (2006) “What develops in musical development?” In: G. MacPherson (ed.) The child as musician: Musical development from conception to adolescence. Oxford University Press; (2005) “How the conventions of music notation shape musical perception and performance.” In: D. Hargreaves, D.E. Miell, R. MacDonald (eds) Musical Communication. Oxford University Press; (2000) “Turning Music Theory on its Ear: Do we hear what we see; do we see what we say.” In: Multidisciplinary perspectives on musicality: The Seashore Symposium. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

Recent Articles in Refereed Journals: (2015) “A Brief History of Music, Computers and Thinking: 1972-2015” In: Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education, 2015:3; (2011) “The Collaborative Invention of Meaning: A Short History of Evolving Ideas.” In: Psychology of Music, Volume 39 (1) 82–102; (2010) “Noting Time” In: Min-Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology Online, Vol. 8; (2004) “Music as embodied mathematics: A study of a mutually informing affinity.” (with A. diSessa). In: International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning. 8: 123–160; (1996) “Turning music theory on its ear: Do we hear what we see:; do we see what we say?” In: International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning. Volume 1 #1: pp. 33-55.