MIT Music and Theater Arts fondly remembers the legacy of Professor Emerita Jeanne Shapiro Bamberger, who handed away peacefully at dwelling in Berkeley, California, of pure causes on Dec. 12, 2024 on the age of 100.
For 3 a long time on the Institute, Bamberger discovered methods to make use of computer systems to interact college students and assist them be taught music. A educated pianist who turned fascinated with the concept of utilizing expertise to achieve insights into music training, 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 baby psychology and was lively within the League of Ladies 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 Training Division. Whereas at MIT, Bamberger turned 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 review how youngsters — and by extension, all people — be taught music, and this vector specifically turned 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 Training from 1975 to 1995. She turned 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, collaborating in live shows with the MIT Symphony Orchestra, and actively enjoying chamber music each at MIT and in the neighborhood. She additionally taught on the Harvard College Division of Training.
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 at the least 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 of the potential for a graduate program in music at a time once we had 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 at the moment are 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 in the present day with out her contributions. She’s additionally only a very cool particular person — I imply, what number of 90-year-old teachers 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,” “Creating 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 Faculty London, and mentee of Bamberger, says, “I’d not be doing what I’m in the present day if not for Jeanne. A toddler prodigy turned music thinker, Jeanne was a pioneer in music and AI lengthy earlier than it was trendy. She was deeply all in favour of folks and obsessed with how we be taught. I cannot neglect the day once I got here to her with complaints about issues not working. Moderately than telling me what to do, Jeanne mentioned, ‘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 informed, 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 power to be reckoned with. Along with her lengthy and productive tutorial profession — during which she printed 4 books and almost 20 ebook chapters — she was politically lively and supported the anti-Vietnam conflict and the civil rights actions. She continued educating and publishing her work nicely into her 90s and had a robust neighborhood of companions and colleagues to the top.
In 2002, Bamberger turned 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 family and buddies.
