Stanford Department of Music Faculty: How to Find People by Research Area

The Stanford Department of Music lists its faculty through the "Meet the Faculty" section of music.stanford.edu, and the department describes its work as bringing together music-making and scholarly research across composition, conducting, performance, music history, ethnomusicology, music theory, cognitive science, intermedia, and computer-based technologies. If you are looking for an advisor, collaborator, or simply want to know who works on what, the practical approach is to start from the faculty directory and then match each person's listed area to your own interest. The site itself does not publish a single consolidated table of every faculty member with their specializations, so you will need to open individual profiles to confirm details.

What the site tells you about faculty coverage

The department's own description of its scope is the most reliable starting point for guessing where a given interest might sit:

This list is the department's framing of itself, not a per-person directory, so treat it as a map of where to look rather than a definitive assignment of any individual.

How to locate a specific faculty member

1. Go to music.stanford.edu and open the "Meet the Faculty" entry point from the main navigation.
2. Scan the faculty listing for names and any short research descriptors shown.
3. Open the individual profile page for anyone whose area overlaps with yours.
4. Check the profile for research interests, courses taught, and contact information before reaching out.

Expected result: you end up on a personal or department profile page that states the person's area and how to contact them. If a profile is thin on detail, the department's news and events listings often reveal what faculty are actually working on — for example, the site's news section has announced a faculty position in composition and a faculty position in musicology, which signals the department's active hiring priorities in those areas.

Using events and news as a faculty-finding shortcut

Faculty research shows up in the department's event calendar, which is often more current than a static profile. Examples drawn from the site's listings:

• The Ron Alexander Memorial Lectures in Musicology series has featured speakers including Matthew D. Morrison (Stanford) and Joy H. Calico (UCLA).
• Noon Concert Series programs are tied to specific faculty studios, such as "Guitar Students of Charles Ferguson," "Violin Students of Robin Sharp," and "Piano Students of Ory Shihor" — these names indicate who teaches those instruments.
• A concert of "New Works by Stanford Graduate Composers" at the CCRMA Stage points to the composition and computer-music side of the department.

If you want to know who teaches your instrument or supervises a genre, scanning the concert listings for studio names is a fast way to find out.

Before you contact anyone

• Confirm the person's current area from their own profile rather than assuming from the department's broad list.
• Check whether the department has posted relevant openings or news, since hiring announcements indicate where faculty capacity is growing.
• Note that the site links to Stanford visitor information for maps and directions; it does not publish faculty email addresses in the general listing, so use the contact details shown on individual profile pages.

For prospective students, the same faculty pages are the natural companion to the "Explore the Minor & Major," "Take Lessons," and "Find an Ensemble" sections, since lesson instructors and ensemble directors are drawn from the same faculty and staff pool.