Richard Dammers (Rick) is the Dean of the College of Performing Arts and Professor of Music Education at Rowan University. Prior to becoming Dean, Rick served as Chair of the Music Department, and led the university-wide tenure and recontracting committee. During his time as chair, the music department grew in student enrollment, faculty size, and external funding. He continues to teach courses in technology-based music education, as well as the Exploring Medicine through Musical Composition selective course at Cooper Medical School at Rowan University. In addition to his duties as Dean, his research interests include comprehensive musicianship and technology in music education, and he co-facilitates the NAMM funded TI:ME Music Technology Leadership Academy, a national program for undergraduate and graduate music education students.
Before to teaching at Rowan, Rick was a music teacher (band and technology) and the Fine Arts Facilitator in the Ladue School District in suburban St. Louis for 13 years. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education from Northwestern University; and a Masters and PhD in Music Education from the University of Illinois. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Beta Mu, and is an honorary Friends of the Arts member of Sigma Alpha Iota.
Before to teaching at Rowan, Rick was a music teacher (band and technology) and the Fine Arts Facilitator in the Ladue School District in suburban St. Louis for 13 years. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education from Northwestern University; and a Masters and PhD in Music Education from the University of Illinois. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Beta Mu, and is an honorary Friends of the Arts member of Sigma Alpha Iota.
David Brian Williams' (Dave) career has included teaching and administrative appointments at Illinois State University, SWRL Educational Research Laboratory, the University of Washington, and the University of Guam. Dr. Williams holds a BMEd and a MM degree from Northwestern Louisiana State University and a PhD in Systematic Musicology from the University of Washington.
Dr. Williams founded one of the first nationally recognized integrated arts technology programs (now the Creative Technologies program) at Illinois State University. He has enjoyed experimenting with new hardware and software in support of music teaching and learning since designing programmed instruction drills with a tape recording for ear training in the late 1960s, programming an AI simulation for music concept formation on a CDC 6400 mainframe, developing the first DAC card and music composing software for the Apple II computer, designing various multimedia solutions for the Macintosh through and beyond Hypercard, and most recently designing websites for music and other applications.
He is currently a consultant on computer and music technology (coach4technology.net), provides leadership for the Music Technology Leadership Academy project (musiccreativity.org), and is active as a composer and instrumentalist in community organizations. In the late 1970s, he cofounded Micro Music, Inc., and developed numerous music-education titles for the Apple II and the MMI DAC sound card. He has written extensively in the areas of music education, music psychology, music and arts technology, and instructional development. His recent interest is promoting music technology in support of "The Other 80%" of secondary school students (musiccreativity.org) who are non-participants in traditional school music ensembles.
Dr. Williams is the founding editor of the journal, Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, and has served on the boards of ATMI, CMS, Illinois Music Educators Association, NAfME, TI:ME, and is a past-president of The College Music Society. He chaired the NAfME task force for developing Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Music Technology and, in 2001, received the Illinois Music Educators Association Distinguished Service Award for his work in music technology.
Williams is co-author of the widely used textbook, Experiencing Music Technology, with Peter Webster. The new 4th edition is published by Oxford University Press. He plays clarinet and bari sax, consults broadly on technology, and dabbles at music composition. Visit the textbook website: https://teachMusicTech.com