Biography
Dr. O’Connor joined the PBA faculty in 2007 and teaches the various music history courses and directs the Early Music and World Music ensembles. He has enjoyed a varied musical career, which has included time as a high school band director, a professional performing musician, and a church music director. His primary research explores the intersections of musical composition and Catholic theology in medieval and Renaissance Spain. He has also published in the area of 19th-century American brass band music. Dr. O’Connor has presented his research to conferences in the U.S., Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Norway, and England. He is the co-editor of Treasures of the Golden Age: Essays on Music of the Iberian and Latin American Renaissance in Honor of Robert M. Stevenson, and his work has appeared in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and numerous scholarly essay collections. His history of the euphonium appears as the first chapter in Guide to the Euphonium Repertoire: The Euphonium Source Book, published by Indiana University Press.
In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. O’Connor has remained an active performing musician. He was a founding member of several period-brass instrument groups, including the Washington Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble, The Coates Brass Band, and Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band. Locally, he performs with the Orchid City Brass Band.
Degrees
PHD in Musicology, Florida State University | MM in Musicology, Florida State University | MM in Brass Performance, Florida State University | BS in Education: Music, Tennessee Technological University