Gregory Barnett serves as Professor and Chair of Musicology in Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, advancing the field of Arts and Culture through his scholarship in music history and theory. He earned a BA from Oberlin College in 1988, followed by an MFA in 1992 and a PhD in musicology in 1997 from Princeton University. Prior to his appointment at Rice, Barnett held faculty positions at the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan. As co-director of the Shepherd School Collegium Musicum with Peter Loewen, he promotes historical performance practices among students.

Barnett’s research specializes in the history of music theory, 17th- and early 18th-century Italian instrumental music, historical performance practice, Baroque-era instrumental music and instruments, and the music of Handel. His book, Bolognese Instrumental Music, 1660-1710: Spiritual Comfort, Courtly Delight, and Commercial Triumph, was published by Ashgate Press in 2008. He has authored articles in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Early Music, The Journal of Musicology, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, Theoria, Oxford Bibliographies Online, Basler Jahrbuch für Historische Musikpraxis, and Quaderni della Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, along with contributions to The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory (ed. Thomas Christensen) and The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music (eds. John Butt and Tim Carter). His work has received support from the American Council of Learned Societies (2011 Fellowship for “Emblems of Faith and Authority: The Modes in Italian Baroque Music”), the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (2011 residency), the Fulbright Program (2007 Scholar to the University of Bologna), the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Musicological Society. Barnett teaches early opera, American music, Baroque music, and seminars on 17th- and 18th-century performance practice, the history of music theory, and J. S. Bach.

Professional Email: gbarnett@rice.edu