College of Music

Frank Heidlberger has been professor of music theory at the College of Music of the University of North Texas since fall 2001. In 2006 he was promoted to full professor. He received M.A. (1988), and Ph.D. (1993, 1998) degrees in musicology at Würzburg University. Heidlberger was research fellow and assistant professor at Würzburg University (1988-1999), and adjunct professor of music history and form analysis at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Würzburg. In 1999 he received the prestigious “Heisenberg” scholarship (DFG, German Research Council), which enabled him to focus on diverse musical source studies at the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C. and at the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Heidlberger’s activities include several extensive research trips to Paris, Italy, London, Vienna and New York which had been supported by grants and awards from DAAD, DFG, Würzburg University and the German Department of External Affairs. He presented lectures in many European countries, the United States, Canada and Australia. Heidlberger’s interests in research and teaching of Western Music History and Theory of the 16th through 20th centuries are particularly focused on analytical techniques in 19th-and 20th-century music, the history of music theory, text criticism, performance practice, opera studies, music aesthetics as well as music journalism and cultural studies. He received particular acclaim with his books on Carl Maria von Weber (1994), Hector Berlioz (1995), the Italian instrumental music of late 16th and early 17th centuries (2000) and Weber’s piano music (2001). In 2002 he edited a selection of Berlioz’s literary works, and in 2007 his new commented edition of Berlios’s Memoirs in a new German translation was issued (both with Bärenreiter publisher in Kassel, Germany). He published articles and reviews in numerous journals, anthologies and provided several entries for the new edition of “Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart” and “Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit.”

He serves as vice president of the International Carl Maria von Weber Society and is board member of the Texas Society of Music Theory. He is currently working on critical editions of the works by Carl Maria von Weber (clarinet concertos), Giacomo Meyerbeer (early opera) and on articles about Berlioz, Hindemith, Krenek, and 20th century music theory and criticism. Heidlberger is also active as a clarinet and saxophone player with a special interest in jazz and contemporary music. In 2001 he recorded a CD with compositions for computer, synthesizers and clarients/saxophones.