MIT Music and Theater Arts fondly remembers the legacy of Professor Emerita Jeanne Shapiro Bamberger, who handed away peacefully at house in Berkeley, California, of pure causes on Dec. 12, 2024 on the age of 100.
For 3 many years on the Institute, Bamberger discovered methods to make use of computer systems to have interaction college students and assist them be taught music. A educated pianist who grew to become fascinated with the thought of utilizing expertise to realize insights into music schooling, Bamberger finally helped to vary how music was taught at MIT and elsewhere.
Bamberger was born on Feb. 11, 1924 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her mom, Gertrude Shapiro (nee Kulberg), from a Romanian Jewish household, studied little one psychology and was lively within the League of Girls Voters. Her father, Morse Shapiro, of Lithuanian and Polish Jewish heritage, was a groundbreaking pediatric heart specialist.
In 1969, Bamberger started her 32-year profession at MIT, initially within the former MIT Schooling Division. Whereas at MIT, Bamberger grew to become the primary lady to earn tenure within the Music and Theater Arts Part. She was know for pioneering the usage of pc languages to show youngsters to be taught music. She additionally used her pc improvements to check how youngsters — and by extension, all people — be taught music, and this vector particularly grew to become her life’s work.
Forward of her time, Bamberger labored within the MIT Synthetic Intelligence Lab within the Nineteen Eighties and developed pc languages (MusicLogo and Impromptu) whereas on the MIT Division for Examine and Analysis in Schooling from 1975 to 1995. She grew to become affiliate professor in music and theater arts in 1981, earned tenure quickly thereafter, and chaired the division in 1989-90. Throughout this era, she continued to carry out as a live performance pianist, participating in live shows with the MIT Symphony Orchestra, and actively enjoying chamber music each at MIT and locally. She additionally taught on the Harvard College Division of Schooling.
Institute Professor Marcus Thompson recollects, “Throughout her time with us as a senior professor she was clearly a jewel within the crown. For somebody who had studied piano with an historic legend in Artur Schnabel, who had studied with and recognized a minimum of one of many French Six, Darius Milhaud, and labored with French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, she was amongst that group of our professors who regularly advocated for a brand new music constructing, thought-about the potential for a graduate program in music at a time once we have been being pushed to develop, at a time when she was our solely senior lady when the necessity to do higher was lastly seen.” Each the devoted music constructing and the graduate music program are actually a actuality.
Bamberger beloved her work and was beloved and admired by her college students and colleagues. Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor Evan Ziporyn shares that she “was very a lot a shaping presence for our part — MIT Music and Theater Arts would not be what we’re immediately with out her contributions. She’s additionally only a very cool particular person — I imply, what number of 90-year-old lecturers find yourself working with Herbie Hancock and taking their analysis to the White Home?”
Ziporyn provides that “amongst 7 million different singular accomplishments,” Bamberger printed quite a few articles and books together with “The Artwork of Listening” with Howard Brofsky, “The Thoughts Behind the Musical Ear,” “Growing Musical Intuitions,” and “Discovering the Musical Thoughts.”
Whereas at MIT, Bamberger took many college students below her wing and assisted many extra with their tutorial careers. Elaine Chew SM ’98, PhD ’00, an operations researcher, pianist, present professor of engineering at King’s School London, and mentee of Bamberger, says, “I’d not be doing what I’m immediately if not for Jeanne. A baby prodigy turned music thinker, Jeanne was a pioneer in music and AI lengthy earlier than it was trendy. She was deeply serious about folks and keen about how we be taught. I cannot neglect the day once I got here to her with complaints about issues not working. Fairly than telling me what to do, Jeanne stated, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ prompting me to replicate on and develop my very own sense of company.” (Chew speaks extra on Bamberger’s inspirational position in a 2016 interview.)
All instructed, Bamberger had a inventive, fertile thoughts and beloved to ask probing questions, a top quality she handed to her progeny and neighborhood — it was her pleasure and her ardour.
Whereas a professor at MIT, Bamberger was a pressure to be reckoned with. Along with her lengthy and productive tutorial profession — wherein she printed 4 books and practically 20 guide chapters — she was politically lively and supported the anti-Vietnam warfare and the civil rights actions. She continued instructing and publishing her work properly into her 90s and had a robust neighborhood of companions and colleagues to the top.
In 2002, Bamberger grew to become professor emerita at MIT and moved to Berkeley, California, persevering with to show within the Music Division on the College of California at Berkeley.
At 100, she was predeceased by her former husband, Frank Ok. Bamberger. She is survived by her two sons, Joshua and Paul (Chip); 4 grandchildren — Jerehme, Kaela, Eli, and Noah; and lots of caring kinfolk and mates.
