John Paul Ito is Assistant Professor of Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. He received degrees of Bachelor of Science in Music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master of Music in Viola Performance from Boston University, and Doctor of Philosophy in Music Theory from Columbia University. His principal influences in music theory have been David Epstein, Fred Lerdahl (LU '65), and Joseph Dubiel, and George Neikrug was his viola teacher for his eight years of post-secondary study. Mr. Ito's dissertation, which combined perspectives from music theory, performance, and human movement science, investigated the role of meter in musical performance, focusing on modes of physical coordination and their expressive consequences. Other research projects include inquiries into the compatibility of cognitive and formal mathematical theories of music and various analytical studies. As a violist he played professionally in the Boston area for several years, and in New York was the violist with the Neue Bach Band, a vocal-instrumental chamber ensemble focusing on the music of Bach.
Mr. Ito joins the Lawrence faculty in 2004; in addition to teaching in the theory core, he will be teaching Analysis of Twentieth-Century Music.
Contact by e-mail: john.paul.ito@lawrence.edu