Brent C. Talbot is Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music Education at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College, where he teaches various courses in music education and supervises student teaching and research. Brent is artistic director of the Gettysburg Children’s Choir and founding director of Gamelan Gita Semara. Prior to his appointments in Gettysburg, he taught courses and supervised student teachers at the University of Illinois and at the Eastman School of Music. Brent was the founding director of the Young Children's Chorus and conductor of the New Horizons Choir at the Eastman Community Music School in Rochester, NY. Brent has taught general, choral, and instrumental music in the Rochester City and Webster school districts in New York State and was the music department chair at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, NY.
Brent's research examines power, discourse, and issues of justice and equity in varied settings for music learning around the globe. He is the author of three books: Finding A Way extends approaches in music education and ethnomusicology to develop a more flexible way of understanding and visioning music transmission—one that blurs boundaries between musics, ways of knowing music, and spaces where musicking takes place. Gending Raré: Children's Songs and Games from Bali (GIA), beautifully portrays daily life in Bali through songs, games, artwork, and video. Additionally, his edited book. Marginalized Voices in Music Education (Routledge) explores narratives and case studies of various identities that have typically been muted or silenced in music education. Brent has published chapters in Envisioning Music Teacher Education (Rowman & Littlefield), Music Education: Navigating the Future (Routledge), Music Therapy Research, 3rd edition (Barcelona) and Musicianship: Composing in the Choir (GIA), Music Education Research in the 21st Century - Theories, Questions, Problems, and Methodological Pluralism (Springer) and the Oxford Handbook of Philosophical and Qualitative Perspectives on Assessment in Music Education (Oxford). Brent has published articles in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education; Action, Criticism & Theory in Music Education; Visions of Research in Music Education; PMEA News; and the Illinois Music Educator.
Brent is the convener of the steering committee and the colloquium coordinator for the MayDay Group (an international organization of over 450 music educators) and is past-chair of the Social Science Special Research Interest Group for the National Association for Music Education. Additionally, he serves on the research board for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. Brent is on the editorial boards of the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education and Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education. He has hosted and coordinated state and international conferences; most recently the MayDay Group Colloquium 29 in 2017, Colloquium 27 in 2015 and Colloquium 26 in 2014 as well as PMEA District 7 teacher in-service day in 2016 and 2011. Brent also served on the planning committee for the third symposium of LGBTQ Studies in Music Education held in 2016 at the University of Illinois and the Mountain Lake Colloquium in 2017.
As an artist-in-residence, Brent has taught thousands of students around the country about Balinese music and dance. His ensemble, Gamelan Gita Semara was invited by the government of Bali to perform at the Bali Arts Festival in 2016. Brent is an active choral clinician who has conducted numerous county and district honor choirs as well as directed groups at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Chautauqua Institute. A frequent presenter at regional, state, national, and international conferences, his areas of expertise include: discourse analysis, music identity, world and popular music pedagogies, teaching music through movement, and media and technology in the music classroom. Brent performs piano, voice, saxophone, percussion, and gamelan, and was a former ballroom dancer and instructor for Arthur Murray. He earned his Ph.D and M.A. in music education and a diploma in ethnomusicology from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester as well as his B.M.E. in choral/general and instrumental music education from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Additionally, he is certified in all three levels of Orff-Schulwerk.
Brent's research examines power, discourse, and issues of justice and equity in varied settings for music learning around the globe. He is the author of three books: Finding A Way extends approaches in music education and ethnomusicology to develop a more flexible way of understanding and visioning music transmission—one that blurs boundaries between musics, ways of knowing music, and spaces where musicking takes place. Gending Raré: Children's Songs and Games from Bali (GIA), beautifully portrays daily life in Bali through songs, games, artwork, and video. Additionally, his edited book. Marginalized Voices in Music Education (Routledge) explores narratives and case studies of various identities that have typically been muted or silenced in music education. Brent has published chapters in Envisioning Music Teacher Education (Rowman & Littlefield), Music Education: Navigating the Future (Routledge), Music Therapy Research, 3rd edition (Barcelona) and Musicianship: Composing in the Choir (GIA), Music Education Research in the 21st Century - Theories, Questions, Problems, and Methodological Pluralism (Springer) and the Oxford Handbook of Philosophical and Qualitative Perspectives on Assessment in Music Education (Oxford). Brent has published articles in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education; Action, Criticism & Theory in Music Education; Visions of Research in Music Education; PMEA News; and the Illinois Music Educator.
Brent is the convener of the steering committee and the colloquium coordinator for the MayDay Group (an international organization of over 450 music educators) and is past-chair of the Social Science Special Research Interest Group for the National Association for Music Education. Additionally, he serves on the research board for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. Brent is on the editorial boards of the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education and Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education. He has hosted and coordinated state and international conferences; most recently the MayDay Group Colloquium 29 in 2017, Colloquium 27 in 2015 and Colloquium 26 in 2014 as well as PMEA District 7 teacher in-service day in 2016 and 2011. Brent also served on the planning committee for the third symposium of LGBTQ Studies in Music Education held in 2016 at the University of Illinois and the Mountain Lake Colloquium in 2017.
As an artist-in-residence, Brent has taught thousands of students around the country about Balinese music and dance. His ensemble, Gamelan Gita Semara was invited by the government of Bali to perform at the Bali Arts Festival in 2016. Brent is an active choral clinician who has conducted numerous county and district honor choirs as well as directed groups at the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Chautauqua Institute. A frequent presenter at regional, state, national, and international conferences, his areas of expertise include: discourse analysis, music identity, world and popular music pedagogies, teaching music through movement, and media and technology in the music classroom. Brent performs piano, voice, saxophone, percussion, and gamelan, and was a former ballroom dancer and instructor for Arthur Murray. He earned his Ph.D and M.A. in music education and a diploma in ethnomusicology from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester as well as his B.M.E. in choral/general and instrumental music education from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Additionally, he is certified in all three levels of Orff-Schulwerk.