Dr. Todd Sullivan  

sullivan_todd

  

Professor of Musicology
Director of the School of Music
Todd.Sullivan@nau.edu928-523-3731
Building 37, Room 120B
PhD in musicology, Northwestern University
MM in music history and literature, Northwestern University
BM in music education, Denison University

Dr. Todd Sullivan is Professor and Director of the School of Music at Northern Arizona University. Before joining the NAU School of Music in 2006, he taught at Indiana State University (where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Music), Northwestern University, and DePaul University.

His publications and paper presentations reflect a variety of research areas:

  • Renaissance music (Obrecht, polyphonic borrowing techniques, chant)
  • opera (Cavalli, Monteverdi, Humperdinck)
  • French Baroque dance
  • American popular music

He authored a dissertation entitled “Chanson to Mass: Polyphonic Borrowing Procedures in Italian and Austro-Italian Sources, c.1460-c.1480.”

Recent scholarly activities include “The Eternal Return (2002): A Multimedia Collage by Matt Marello,” an article entitled “Popular Music at the Crossroads: Terre Haute, Indiana, before the 1930s” in the Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the Cyprus Musicological Society, and the article “Developing Faculty on the Tenure-Track” in Proceedings of the National Association of Schools of Music.

He devotes considerable attention toward bridging the communication gap between scholars and the listening public. Dr. Sullivan is an internationally published program annotator, having contributed articles to major organizations in the United States (Ravinia Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Center, Boston Early Music Festival, Music of the Baroque, etc.), Canada, Australia, and Spain. Annually, he authors several hundred annotations, liner notes, and educational/outreach materials. Additionally, he has remained active as an early-music performer (voice, wind instruments), choral conductor, and church musician.

A passionate teacher, he received the Indiana State University College of Arts and Sciences Education Excellence Award in 2000 and was nominated twice for the Distinguished Teaching Award at Northwestern University.