Steven J. Morrison

Steven Morrison is the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Fellow and Associate Professor and Chair of Music Education. An instrumental music specialist, Professor Morrison has taught at the elementary, junior high and senior high levels in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Louisiana. He has conducted and arranged for school and university bands, orchestras, and chamber groups throughout the United States.

In addition to his work in instrumental teaching and learning, his research investigates neurological responses to music listening, perceptual and performance aspects of pitch-matching and intonation, and use of expressive gesture and modeling in ensemble teaching. His research also includes music preference and the relationship of musical responses to diverse cultural contexts.

Prior to joining the UW faculty, Morrison served as lecturer of Fine Arts at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has spoken and presented research throughout the United States, as well as in Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Italy, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. During 2009 he will serve as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge.

Morrison’s articles have appeared in Music Educators Journal, Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, Music Perception, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, Southwestern Musician, Recorder: Ontario Music Educators Association Journal, College Music Society Newsletter, and Southern Folklore. Along with colleague Steven M. Demorest, his research into music and brain function has appeared in Neuroimage and The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

He is also a contributing author to The Science and Psychology of Music Performance, published by Oxford University Press, and the new text Musician and Teacher: An Orientation to Music Education, authored by UW colleague Patricia Shehan Campbell and published by W.W. Norton.

Morrison is on the advisory board for the Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, on the editorial board of the Asia-Pacific Journal for Arts Education and has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Music Education. He is past University Curriculum Chair for the Washington Music Educators Association.

He holds a B.M. from Northwestern University, an M.M. from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.

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