School of Music

PAUL MUSSER	SCHOOL OF MUSIC FACULTY
Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music Coordinator of DePauw Jazz at the Duck

 

Paul Musser is an active composer, arranger and jazz bassist, whose interests extend to the worlds of twentieth-century American art music and ethnomusicology.  Notable professional appearances include engagements with Grammy winning artists Cecil Bridgewater, Frank Catalano, Jon Faddis, Chip McNeill, and Maria Schneider.  A sought after freelance bassist, Musser has toured throughout the United States, including appearances at New York’s famed Blue Note and Chicago’s historic Green Milll.  He also leads his own trio, quartet, and sextet and performs as a member of Randy Salman’s Condition Blue, Jeff Helgesen’s Jazz Mayhem and the Frank Catalano Quartet.  Musser’s compositions and arrangements are published through Ron Keezer’s Really Good Music (www.reallygoodmusic.com).

Musser received a bachelor’s degree in both music and political science at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He completed his master’s degree in musicology at the University of Illinois with his thesis, “Dane Rudhyar’s ‘Sacred’ Music and the Creation of a New ‘American’ Civilization,” examining the impact of non-Western belief systems on the compositional aesthetics of Rudhyar and other American composers of the 1920s.  Musser remained at Illinois, completing his Doctor of the Musical Arts in 2005, which focused on bass performance, jazz composition and the music of Charles Mingus.  As a Mingus scholar, Musser has presented papers at the International Jazz Composer’s Symposium and DePauw’s Faculty Forum and leads the tribute septet A Mode for Mingus.  He is also the founder and coordinator of DePauw Jazz at the Duck, a weekly jazz and blues series in its 6th season.  Appointed 2004.

 

Email : pmusser@depauw.edu
Office : Green Center for the Performing Arts 0116
Phone : (765) 658 - 4380