Elizabeth West Marvin

Elizabeth West Marvin is the Minehan Family Professor, and Professor of Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music; she holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester.  Her research interests include the study of cognitive differences among musicians, non-musicians, and absolute-pitch listeners; pedagogical implications of music-cognitive research; and comparisons between language and music processing.  Dr. Marvin is a past president of the national Society for Music Theory and the Music Theory Society of New York State; she is a former Dean of Academic Affairs at Eastman.  Her articles on music analysis, theory pedagogy, and music cognition appear in Music Theory Spectrum, Journal of Music Theory, Music Perception, and Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, among others.  In 2013, Dr. Marvin was awarded the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Music Theory Teaching and Scholarship.  She is co-author of The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis, The Musician’s Guide to Fundamentals, and The Musician’s Guide to Aural Skills, with co-authors Jane Clendinning, Joel Phillips, and Paul Murphy (all published by W.W. Norton, now in their fourth edition).