Music Department

*Jeffrey Kresky, Area Coordinator
Jeffrey Kresky is a music theorist, composer, conductor and keyboardist. As theorist he is the author of books and journal essays mostly in the areas of criticism and analysis. His keyboard performances are mostly in contemporary music, and his conducting specializes in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and at William Paterson he chairs the music theory area and directs the Program in Music Honors.

Samantha Bassler
Samantha Bassler obtained a Bachelor of Sacred Music degree from Nyack College and a Master of Studies in Musicology from the University of Oxford (UK). The title of her master's dissertation at Oxford was "Messiaen, Modernism and an Idea of the Sacred," in which she inspected traditional and avant-garde compositional procedures in the "sacred" music of Olivier Messiaen. Samantha is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Musicology; her two primary research areas are music and politics in the English Reformation (1550-1600) and the reception history of William Byrd's Latin-texted motets in 19th- and 20th-century Britain.

Darren Gage
Darren Gage is a composer, arranger, percussionist, theatre director and arts educator. He holds a PhD in Music Theory and Composition from Rutgers University, where he studied with Charles Wuorinen. Dr. Gage and his wife, Kimberly Burja, co-founded the New Jersey Arts Collective in 2001 ( njartscollective.org ). He currently serves as the group’s Artistic Director, as well as Director of NJAC’s New Music ensemble, Ionisation. His compositions have been performed by ensembles that include Helix (New Brunswick, NJ), the Society of Chromatic Art (NYC), the Interlochen Faculty Chamber Ensemble (Interlochen, MI), and the faculty at American Dance Festival (Durham, NC). Dr. Gage is also Director of North Jersey Summer Theatre Workshop and Collective Youth Theatre Company. He won the 1998 Paper Mill Rising Star for Music Direction, the 2002 Paper Mill Educational Impact Award, and the 2007 Drew University President’s Award for Mentorship. Dr. Gage is also on the music faculty of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.

*John Link
John Link has composed for diverse media including orchestra, chamber and jazz ensembles, rock bands, and electroacoustic instruments. He has received commissions from guitarist Daniel Lippel, cellist Caroline Stinson, the Athabasca String Trio, the New Jersey Arts Collective (the 2006 Ionisation Commission for pianist Anthony de Mare), Flexible Music, clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt, the Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music (for the Ames Piano Quartet), The High Mountain Symphony, and the Composers Guild of New Jersey. He was an invited guest composer at the 29^th Annual New Music Festival at Bowling Green State University in 2008, and has received awards from the Centre Acanthes, ASCAP, and Meet the Composer. Dr. Link is a founding member of the composers group Friends & Enemies of New Music, which presents an annual series of new music concerts in New York City. His music is recorded on the New Focus Recordings, Bridge Records, and 60x60 labels. Link is also the author of Elliott Carter: A Guide to Research (Garland, 2000), co-editor with Nicholas Hopkins of Elliott Carter's Harmony Book (Carl Fischer, 2002), co-editor with Marguerite Boland of Elliott Carter Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2012), and is currently working on a book about Carter’s late music. www.johnlinkmusic.com.

Karen Mandelbaum
Karen Mandelbaum received a BA in Music Performance from the Mannes College, an MA in Music Theory from Queens College, and a PhD in Music Theory from the City University of New York Graduate Center.   Her specialty is music analysis with an emphasis on historical context.  She was a recipient of a Teaching Fellowship at Hunter College where she taught Music History and Music Theory.  She has been on the faculty of Montclair State University and The Mannes College Preparatory Division.  Her primary theory and analysis studies were with Carl Schachter, Ernst Oster, and William Rothstein.   While a student at Mannes, she studied chamber music with Murray Perahia and following the awarding of her BA, studied piano with Nadia Reisenberg.

*Lynne Rogers
Professor Rogers received her Ph.D. in Music Theory from Princeton University. Before coming to WPU, she taught at Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Texas. Her articles and reviews appear in Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Journal of Musicology, International Journal of Musicology, Music Theory Spectrum, and Music Library Association Notes. She has presented numerous papers as an invited speaker and at national and international meetings of scholarly societies. She is a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Paul Sacher Stiftung, Oberlin College, and the University of Texas.

Robert Thomas
[bio coming soon.]

*David Weisberg
David Weisberg is an Associate Professor of Music at William Paterson University. His primary areas of interest include self-similarity in music, the treatment of form and compositional techniques involved in the works of modernist composers, and voice-leading in jazz. He completed his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in 2001, where he studied composition with Charles Wuorinen, and jazz piano with Kenny Barron. He also performs as a freelance pianist in the New York-Metropolitan Area with groups such as the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble and the New Jersey Pops. He has presented papers and has had his compositions performed both in the U.S. and abroad. He currently serves on the executive board of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic.

* full-time faculty