Gary S. Karpinski is Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Music Theory program. He received the B.Mus. and M.M. from Temple University, and the Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He studied with Carl Schachter, Leo Treitler, George Perle, Joel Lester, and Charles Burkhart, among others. He has also taught on the faculties of the University of Oregon, Brooklyn College, and Temple University.
He has served as president of the New England Conference of Music Theorists and of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction, and as Board Member for Music Theory in the College Music Society. He is the Director of the UMass Workshops in Music Theory Pedagogy and was the Co-Director of the College Music Society Institute for Music Theory Pedagogy Studies in 1992.
Professor Karpinski has published articles on aural skills, theory pedagogy, early twentieth-century music, and computer-assisted instruction in Music Theory Spectrum, Music Theory Online, The International Journal of Musicology, and The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. He was editor of the Festschrift for George Perle (1995). His book Aural Skills Acquisition was published by Oxford University Press in 2000. In 2007, he completed two textbooks published by W.W. Norton: Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing and Anthology for Sight Singing, which also include an extensive Instructor's Dictation Manual, Student Recordings CD-ROM, and Instructor's Anthology Search Disc. His research interests include music theory pedagogy, aural skills acquisition, music cognition and perception, early twentieth-century music, and Schenkerian analysis.