THORIR THORISSON


CURRICULUM VITAE


Earned degrees:

1995 Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education, The University of Iowa, Graduate College,
Iowa City, USA.
1986 Master of Arts in Music Education, The University of Iowa, School of Music,
Iowa City, USA.
1982 Secondary School Teacher Certificate - Music,
The University College of Education, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1975 Licentiate diploma (L.R.A.M.) - Clarinet Teaching, The Royal Academy of Music,
London, England.

Appointments held:

1996 - Instructor in music education (courses on methodology; measurement and evaluation)
in the Teacher Training Division, Reykjavik College of Music, Reykjavik, Iceland.
1991-93 Appointed by the Icelandic Ministry of Education to chair a work force on
The National Curriculum Guide for the Community Music Schools
of Iceland.
1979 -99 Head of Music Department, Breidholt Junior College,
Reykjavik, Iceland (sabbatical 1985-86, leave of absence 1986-87).
1979-85 Director of Reykjavik Student Wind Ensemble (Tromet), sponsored by
the Ministry of Education for students of Reykjavik's secondary schools.
1976-79 Director of the Akranes Music School, Akranes, Iceland.
1975 -76 Clarinet Teacher, Hill House Primary School, London, England.
1969-74 Clarinet player - The Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Related Experience:

1998 Visiting Scholar at The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, The University of Iowa,
Iowa City, USA, April through July.
1997-98 Co-supervised the project “Does Effort Pay? Attributions of Success and Dropout of Piano Students
in the Community Music Schools of Iceland." BA-thesis in Psychology at The University of Iceland.

Postdoctoral research grants:

1996 The Icelandic Research Council: The Structure of Musical Style Concepts: A Similarity Study.
1997 J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board (Council for International Exchange of Scholars):
An Exploration of Style Concept Formation  in Music by Novice Listeners.
1998 NATO Science Fellowship:
An On-Line Investigation of Prototype and Exemplar Strategies in Classification
of Musical Styles.
1998 Icelandic Teacher Association Science Fund:
An Exploration of Style Concept Formation  in Music by Novice Listeners.
1999 The European Community Leonardo da Vinci Programme:
Developing New Approaches to the Teaching of Musical Style Literacy in Teacher Training Programs for
Public Schools. A collaborative project with faculty at the G.B. Martini Conservatory, and The University of
Bologna, Italy.
1999 The Icelandic Research Council:  Stylistic Literacy for Orchestral Music.

Publications:

Refereed Articles:
Research Note: Comparison of Novice Listeners' Similarity Judgments and
Style Categorization of Classic and Romantic Piano Exemplars.

Psychology of Music,
26, No. 2, 1998, 186-196.
Developing literacy for musical styles: The effects of implicit and explicit training.
Nordic Music Education Research Yearbook 1998, 87-105.
Oslo: NMH-Publikasjoner.
Norwegian Music Academy.
Effects of Prototype and Exemplar Learning and Four Musical Dimensions on the
Formation of Musical Style Concepts.

Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education
,
Urbana, Illinois, USA. No. 133, Summer 1997.
Telling Mozart from Mendelssohn: Acquiring Concepts for Musical Styles.
Pedagogy and Education, 5 (1996) - Research Journal of the University College of Education,
Reykjavik, Iceland.
Books:
Music learned by listening (Tónlist lćrđ međ hlustun).
A music appreciation textbook and listening materials for general high school students. Reykjavik: 1998.
The effects of prototype and exemplar learning and selected musical attributes on
high school students' musical style categorization.
Doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa, 1995.
University Microfilms International (UMI), Nr. 9614687.
National Curriculum Guide for the Community Music Schools of Iceland.
Edited and wrote the main text in collaboration with a work force.
Published by the Ministry of Education, July 1993.

Presentations:

Exploration of analogical strategy in musical style categorization by novice listeners. A paper presented at the International Conference "Research in music education", Bologna, Italy, February 24-27 2000. Co-author: Don D. Coffman, The University of Iowa, USA.
Proposed interdisciplinary arts courses in Iceland's secondary schools: Will they succeed or fail? A paper presented at a conference sponsored by The Icelandic Association of Art Teachers, Gardabaer, Iceland, February 11-13 2000.
Comparison of Novice Listeners Similarity Judgements and Style Categorization
of Classic and Romantic Piano Exemplars.
Poster Session at the MENC National
In-Service Meeting
, Phoenix, Arizona, April 1998.
Concept Formation for Musical Styles, University of Iceland,Reykjavik, Iceland,
May, 1997. An invited lecture with Dr. Don D. Coffman, University of Iowa.
Effects of prototype and exemplar learning and four musical dimensions on high school
students' musical style categorization.
An invited paper presented at the XVI International Seminar
on Research in Music Education
, Frascati/Rome, Italy, July 13-19, 1996.
This project also presented at a Poster Session at the XXII Conference of the International
Society for Music Education (ISME)
in Amsterdam, Holland, 21-27 July, 1996.
The community music schools' new curriculum guide - a step toward better schools?
The Icelandic Music Council & Icelandic Broadcasting Service Conference on Music and Community,
Reykjavik, October, 1992.
Music education at the high school level: How might it best work out?
Ministry of Education Conference on Music Education, Reykjavik, January, 1989.
Instrumental music in the general schools: The relationship between the community music
schools and the public schools.
Icelandic Music Teachers' Conference, Reykjavik, April, 1988.

Honors:

1996 Doctoral dissertation selected by the ISME research commission for presentation at the XVI International Seminar on Research in Music Education, Frascati/Rome, Italy, July, 1996.
1995 Doctoral dissertation nominated for the “Outstanding Dissertation in Music Education Award" awarded by the Council for Research in Music Education, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign.

Professional memberships:

Nordic Network for Research in Psychology of Music and Music Education,
The Norwegian State Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway.
International corresponding member for The Callaway International Resource Centre for Music Education
(CIRCME)
, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia.
International Society for Music Education (ISME), Reading, England.
Music Educators National Conference (MENC), Reston, Virginia, USA.
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