Dr. Matthew Garrett | ISME - International Society for Music Education

Greetings! My name is Matthew (he/him) and I am a Professor of Music Education and the Director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio (USA). I previously taught middle and high school music in Florida and Massachusetts. In my 2021 book with co-author Joshua Palkki, Honoring Trans and Gender-Expansive [TGE] Students in Music Education, I encouraged music educators to honor gender diverse persons through ethically and pedagogically sound practices by highlighting the narratives and experiences of TGE musicians. I currently serve on the Advisory Board for the new Oxford Intersections Digital Resource Project focused on Gender Justice. If your research explores aspects of gender, biological sex, or sexuality, I would be interested in learning more about you and your work.

Matthew L. Garrett (he/him), Professor of Music Education and Director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE), joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in 2009. In the Department of Music, he teaches graduate music education students and facilitates student teaching seminars with students pursuing initial teaching licensure. Matthew has directed UCITE since 2017, drawing on his expansive background in educational pedagogy and over 25 years of classroom teaching experience to help faculty, staff, and students explore the art and science of teaching.

Matthew’s research interests focus primarily on LGBTQ issues in music education. He co-authored Honoring Trans and Gender-Expansive [TGE] Students in Music Education (2021, Oxford University Press) with Joshua Palkki. He recently completed a chapter, Queering Music Teacher Training for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Gender and Queer Studies in Music Education. Matthew served on the planning committees for the third, fourth, and fifth Symposia—now an international conference opportunity—for LBGTQ Studies and Music Education (2016, 2021, 2024).

Matthew’s scholarship has been published in several state, national, and international journals. He has been interviewed regarding his research on developing critical thinking skills. His strategies for incorporating critical thinking skills in choral rehearsal environments were published as part of a hybrid print/online music text series from Hal Leonard and McGraw Hill Education, Voices in Concert. Matthew frequently serves as a guest peer reviewer of scholarship related to gender and sexual diversity in music education contexts for national and international journals.

Originally from South Carolina, Matthew holds a Bachelor of Music Education and a PhD in Choral Music Education and Conducting from Florida State University. He earned a Master of Music degree in Conducting from Boston University, where he was awarded Music Division Honors in Choral Conducting. While in Boston, he conducted the Children’s Choruses of the Handel and Haydn Society—the oldest arts organization in the U.S., founded in 1815. He continues to make music with wonderful people of all ages as Music Director at The Church of the Covenant (PCUSA), in Cleveland, OH.