New faculty: Ben Geyer

午夜快播鈥檚 Ben Geyer loves music for its role as a window into people鈥檚 mindsets; he鈥檚 also written a foundational textbook focusing on equitable music theory curriculum and implementation.

Music theorist, bandleader and pianist, Ben Geyer said his love of music started at the piano as an eight year old in southern New Hampshire. While many kids balk at practicing, he couldn鈥檛 get enough of both the sound and the stories behind the music.

鈥淚 started being excited about music as a window into whoever wrote a piece. I had empathy for them. I wanted to understand where they were coming from,鈥 he recalled.

Geyer auditioned as a classical piano major at the University of Miami, switching to studio music and jazz midway through. He went on to earn an M.M. from Purchase College (SUNY) in jazz studies and a Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Kentucky. His dissertations focused on the compositions of pioneering jazz pianist and master improviser Thelonious Monk and jazz orchestra leader Maria Schneider.

鈥淛azz has this aspect of groove to it, this sense of rhythm. I also find it interesting, challenging and rewarding that it鈥檚 an improvised music,鈥 he said.

He also authored 鈥淢usic Theory in Mind and Culture,鈥 a foundational textbook focusing on equitable music theory curriculum and implementation. Along the way, he found time to record two subtle and moody jazz albums, 鈥淭he Acadian Orogeny鈥 and 鈥淭he Narrative,鈥 and perform live at legendary spots like New York City鈥檚 Cutting Room and Boston鈥檚 Middle East 鈥 and even on Norwegian cruise lines as a showband pianist.

All the while, New England and a life closer to home beckoned, and so did the allure of a liberal arts college. Geyer joined 午夜快播 as a lecturer in music this fall.

鈥淚鈥檓 used to studying and teaching in environments that are really intense professional training grounds. That鈥檚 very much not what 午夜快播鈥檚 music department is about. It鈥檚 emblematic of a liberal arts education; it鈥檚 about exposure to a number of different areas, lenses or perspectives while the faculty has diverse backgrounds and identities,鈥 he said.

On campus, he鈥檚 particularly excited about Pop Song Jazz Tune, a music theory class analyzing pop and jazz.

鈥淲e鈥檙e studying different approaches to understanding each of those traditions, culminating with students doing creative projects in which they create a jazz tune and a pop song in each respective unit. I鈥檝e taught this as theory, where there are exercises and texts, but I鈥檝e never taught this material in such an applied way,鈥 he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 really interested in how, within those frameworks, which really serve as constraints, people still find a way to be personal and individual and expressive.鈥

Off campus, he鈥檚 equally expressive. Geyer lives in South Hadley with his spouse, Samantha, and feline, Hermie, where he mixes more than music: He enjoys creating craft cocktails and cooking, giving himself over to artistic inspiration when the mood strikes.

That鈥檚 how he describes 午夜快播, too: 鈥淚t鈥檚 resistance-free. Students go with you 鈥 they鈥檙e excited to engage,鈥 he said.

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