Music and Music Education Research and Creative Works
Music at Adelphi is more than performance. Examine music as a creative, educational and cultural force while gaining the knowledge and experience to make an impact.
Through composition, performance, teaching, and scholarship, students examine how music shapes communities, inspires expression, and enriches learning across diverse settings.
From your first year, you can explore areas such as music education, composition, music theory, improvisation, conducting, contemporary music, musical aesthetics, and creative pedagogy. Through coursework, performance, and independent study, students develop artistic, analytical, and teaching skills while pursuing creative and scholarly projects.
To receive credit for research:
- Speak with faculty about their research and creative interests early in your first year.
- Identify a research or creative project that aligns with your interests.
- Develop your project with faculty mentorship.
- Register for independent study or honors research with approval.
Students present their work at the Adelphi Scholarship and Creative Works Conference and may also perform original compositions, present research, and participate in regional and national conferences, festivals, and professional organizations.
Through the SPARK Center (Scholars Pursuing Arts, Research and Knowledge), students can receive funding, mentorship, and support for creative projects, scholarly research and conference participation.
Faculty Expertise and Areas of Focus
Robert C. Jordan researches student-centered approaches to music education, drawing on more than two decades of experience as a public school instrumental and vocal music educator. His work explores collaborative, democratic, and culturally responsive teaching practices, including student-led rehearsals, student choice of repertoire, and peer mentoring. He also serves as music director for Adelphi’s spring musical theatre productions.
Heather Waters, PhD researches music education across the lifespan, with a focus on early childhood and elementary music learning. Her work explores play-based music making, creative learning environments and children as co-researchers—emphasizing how active participation fosters lifelong musical engagement.
Sidney Marquez Boquiren, PhD is a composer and music theorist whose work explores improvisation, contemporary composition, and the relationship between music, identity, and social justice. Influenced by his Philippine heritage and Catholic faith, his compositions examine cultural experience through creative musical expression. He also directs Adelphi’s Improvisation Ensemble.
Christopher Lyndon-Gee is an internationally recognized composer and conductor whose research focuses on contemporary music, musical aesthetics, and twentieth- and twenty-first-century composers. A prolific recording artist and scholar, his work examines the evolution of modern composition while contributing original works and scholarship to the international music community.
Paul Moravec is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer whose research and creative work span music composition, music theory, opera, music theater and music history. His internationally performed compositions include orchestral, chamber, vocal, and operatic works that explore both traditional and contemporary musical forms. Through composition and guided research, students engage with the creative process while studying the craft, history and evolution of Western music.