Patricia Burt is an assistant professor of music theory at University of Delaware. Prior to her appointment at UD, Dr. Burt taught at a variety of institutions, including community college, public universities and private liberal arts colleges, where she worked with students from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of musical experience. From these teaching experiences she developed an interest in music theory pedagogy, focusing particularly on methods for developing fundamentals fluency and for encouraging students to apply their theory knowledge to the music they practice and perform every day. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy.

Dr. Burt earned a Ph.D. in music theory from University of Maryland, College Park. Her dissertation, “Registral Space as a Compositional Element:  A New Analytic Method Applied to the Works of Ligeti, Josquin, and Beethoven,” outlines a method that she has developed for the analysis of register and employs this method in a detailed examination of stylistically diverse compositions. She has presented her research on register and theory pedagogy at regional and national conferences, including the College Music Society National Conference, as well as meetings of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic and regional chapters of the College Music Society.

Dr. Burt earned a B.A. in psychology from Johns Hopkins University where she was preparing to study medicine. Her continued interest and participation in musical activities throughout her undergraduate years at Hopkins led her to enroll in the music program at Towson University where she earned a B.M. and M.M. in piano performance. For over a decade she maintained a private piano studio in Baltimore, MD, and still enjoys teaching studio piano from time to time.