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. 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. He 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 two 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. He is the co-author of Education, Music, and the Lives of Undergraduates: Collegiate A Cappella and the Pursuit of Happiness (Bloomsbury) which explores how participation in collegiate a cappella might shed light on issues of gender, sexuality, diversity, class, musical agency, and lifelong musical participation. 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), 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 Action, Criticism & Theory in Music Education; the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education; Journal of Music Teacher Education; Visions of Research in Music Education; PMEA News; and the Illinois Music Educator.
Brent serves on the steering committee and is the colloquium coordinator for the MayDay Group (an international organization of over 800 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 for Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. He has hosted, coordinated, and served on planning committees for regional, state, and international conferences, including MayDay Group Colloquia, LGBTQ Studies in Music Education Symposia, Mountain Lake Colloquia, and PMEA District Conferences.
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 governor 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: topics on equity and justice in music education, critical pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching, movement and dance, and discourse and media. Brent performs piano, voice, saxophone, percussion, and gamelan, and was a former ballroom dancer and instructor for Arthur Murray. He earned a 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 a 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 two 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. He is the co-author of Education, Music, and the Lives of Undergraduates: Collegiate A Cappella and the Pursuit of Happiness (Bloomsbury) which explores how participation in collegiate a cappella might shed light on issues of gender, sexuality, diversity, class, musical agency, and lifelong musical participation. 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), 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 Action, Criticism & Theory in Music Education; the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education; Journal of Music Teacher Education; Visions of Research in Music Education; PMEA News; and the Illinois Music Educator.
Brent serves on the steering committee and is the colloquium coordinator for the MayDay Group (an international organization of over 800 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 for Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. He has hosted, coordinated, and served on planning committees for regional, state, and international conferences, including MayDay Group Colloquia, LGBTQ Studies in Music Education Symposia, Mountain Lake Colloquia, and PMEA District Conferences.
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 governor 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: topics on equity and justice in music education, critical pedagogy and culturally responsive teaching, movement and dance, and discourse and media. Brent performs piano, voice, saxophone, percussion, and gamelan, and was a former ballroom dancer and instructor for Arthur Murray. He earned a 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 a 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.