Paul Robert Laird (born October 26, 1958) is an American

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

born in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

Education

Raised in

Bridgewater Township, New Jersey Bridgewater Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located within the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region. Situated within Central Jersey, Cen ...

, Laird graduated in 1976 from Bridgewater-Raritan High School East, where he participated in the New Jersey All-State Orchestra. Laird holds a Ph.D. in music from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. His research interests include the Spanish and Latin American

villancico The ''villancico'' ( Spanish, ) or vilancete ( Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, P ...

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

, the

Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), many of the extant or closed Broadway venues use or used the spelling ''Theatr ...

, and Baroque cello. He has taught at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...

and the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

. Reviewer Alvaro Torrente described Laird's book ''Towards a History of the Spanish Villancico'' as "a milestone in the study of the villancico."

Publications

He directs the Instrumental Collegium Musicum and is active as a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

cellist, performing with the Spencer Consort. In August 2002, he won a University of Kansas W. T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. His 2004 book ''The Baroque

Cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

Revival: An Oral History'' features interviews with more than 40 cellists and instrument makers.Freiberg, Sarah (June–July 2005). "The Baroque Cello Revival: An Oral History", ''Strings'' 20 (1): 152–53. His current project include two studies of the musical theater of

Stephen Schwartz Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre composer and lyricist. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written hit musicals such as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin (musical), Pippin'' (1972), and ...

and the publication of the

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

score of the Broadway show ''

Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

''. Laird was the director of the Division of Musicology at the University of Kansas from 2000 until 2009. He has taught at the University of Kansas since 1994 and has taught four courses on music research in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

for the Universidad de Cuenca.

Publications

* ''Towards a History of the Spanish Villancico'' (Harmonie Park Press, 1997) * ''Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research'' (Routledge, 2002) * ''The Baroque Cello Revival: An Oral History'' (Scarecrow Press, 2004) * ''Res musicae: Essays in Honor of James W. Pruett'' (Harmonie Park Press, 2001; co-editor) * ''Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical'' (Scarecrow Press, 2007) * ''On Bunker's Hill: Essays in Honor of J. Bunker Clark'' (Harmonie Park Press, 2007) * ''The Cambridge Companion to the Musical'' (Cambridge University Press, 2002; co-editor with William A. Everett, second edition, 2008) * ''Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms'' (Pendragon Press, 2010) * ''WICKED: A Musical Biography'' (Scarecrow Press, 2011)

Other literary works

Laird has contributed to: * ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (2nd ed.) * ''Anuario musical'' * ''Nassarre'' * ''Revista de Musicología'' * ''Early Music'' * ''Australian Journal of Musicology'' * ''CMS Symposium'' * ''MLA Notes'' * ''Historical Performance'' * ''American Music'' * ''American Record Guide'' * ''Continuo Magazine''

References

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laird, Paul 1958 births Living people Bridgewater-Raritan High School alumni Musicians from Somerset County, New Jersey American musicologists People from Louisville, Kentucky People from Bridgewater Township, New Jersey University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Ohio State University alumni Pennsylvania State University faculty Binghamton University faculty University of Denver faculty University of Kansas faculty