Rich Tilley is assistant professor of music education at the Nazareth University School of Music where he teaches several undergraduate and graduate music education courses, including Band Techniques and Literature, Secondary Music Education Methods, Orientation to the Professional Semester, Introduction to Music Education, Psychology of Music Education, and Student Teaching Seminar. In addition to his instruction and student teaching supervision, he serves as the advisor for Nazareth’s collegiate chapter of the National Association for Music Education. Prior to joining the faculty Nazareth University, he served as associate instructor of music education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and taught for six years in k-12 public and independent schools in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
His scholarship spans quantitative, qualitative, and historical methodologies and focuses on issues of equity and access through arts education policy, public school music education funding, and historical examinations of instrumental music education in the United States. He has presented research at the International Society for Music Education Commission on Policy: Culture, Education and Media, National Association for Music Education Music Research and Teacher Education Conference, Oxford Symposium on the History of Music Education, New Directions in Music Education Conference, Big Ten Academic Alliance Music Education Conference, and Indiana University Music Education Research Colloquium.
As an active clinician, he has presented practitioner presentations focused on policy, school funding, and instrumental music education at the National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Conference and state music education association conferences in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. He has been invited to present workshops and guest lectures at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, University of North Texas, Ball State University, and The College of New Jersey. Additionally, he has served as a guest conductor for k-12 and collegiate bands and orchestras throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.
Rich is currently ABD for the PhD in music education with a specialization in wind conducting and minor in education policy from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He earned his Master of Music degree in music education from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University where he studied wind conducting with Harlan Parker and Bachelor of Music degree in music education from the University of Delaware.
School of Music Responsibilities
Education