Assistant Professor of Music
Eastern Mennonite University
Benjamin Guerrero is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Eastern Mennonite University. Ben is also a PhD candidate in the Music Teaching and Learning department at the Eastman School of Music, researching creativity and technology in the music classroom. Other research areas include online professional development, artificial intelligence & music, and the perception & cognition of groove in popular music.
Ben is currently working on a $1.8m National Science Foundation collaborative research grant called “Toward an Ecosystem of Artificial-intelligence-powered Music Production (TEAMuP),” where an interdisciplinary team aims to empower future musicians to fully leverage AI tools in the creation, performance, and dissemination of their music, while also accelerating audio AI research. Ben is also working on a National Endowment for the Arts research grant exploring creative methods of teaching music composition online.
Ben earned a Bachelor’s in Drum Set Performance and Contemporary Writing & Production from Berklee College of Music. He received his Master’s in Music Technology from New York University, where he studied video game audio, studio recording, mastering, audio programming, and researched audio mixing designs in iOS.
Ben currently serves as a NAfME AI Task Force member and SMTE Professional Development ASPA facilitator. He previously taught at James Madison University and El Paso Community College, as well as various middle schools and high schools. He has presented at state, regional, national, and international music conferences, including:
- National Association for Music Education National Conference
- National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Conference
- National Association of Music Merchants
- Texas Music Educators Association Conference
- Symposium on Music Teacher Education
- College Music Society National Conference
- Association for Technology in Music Instruction National Conference
- Biennial Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition
- International Society for Technology in Education Conference
- International Society for Music Education World Conference
Music Composition PhD
Eastman School of Music
Parker Callister is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Ithaca, NY and is currently based in Rochester, NY. His music draws influence from electronic and noise music while also operating in a contemporary music idiom. He has had his music performed by notable artists such as Erik Drescher, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Jeffrey Ziegler, and Lori Freedman, as well as by the Unheard//Of Ensemble, the Ithaca New Music Ensemble, OSSIA New Music, line upon line percussion, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, the Eastman Graduate Composers Sinfonietta, the Ithaca Graduate Percussion Trio, the ETHEL Quartet, Yarn/Wire, members of the Slee Sinfonietta, ECCE Ensemble, and ASKO/Schoenberg.
His primary mentors have included Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Michael Hersch, Evis Sammoutis, Du Yun, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, David Liptak, Robert Morris, and Jorge Grossmann. He has received additional instruction in masterclasses and lessons from composers such as Chinary Ung, David Rakowski, Georg Friedrich Haas, Augusta Read Thomas, Jeffrey Mumford, and Stefano Gervasoni, among others. Parker has received commissions from the Baltimore Integrated Arts Society, line upon line percussion, OSSIA New Music, and the Music Educators of Lansing, NY. Having received his Bachelor’s in Music Composition from Ithaca College and his Master’s from the Peabody Institute, Parker is currently a PhD candidate in Music Composition at the Eastman School of Music. There he has served as a graduate teaching assistant for Composition for Non-Majors as well as the Eastman Audio Research Studios and plans to receive his degree in May of 2024.
