November 3, 2010
Peter Purin, associate professor of music at OBU, recently had his first published journal article released in the American Music Research Center Journal, Vol. 19, for 2010.
The article is titled "An Examination of Don Walker's Style of Orchestration in The Pajama Game, The Most Happy Fella, and The Music Man." Don Walker was a prominent orchestrator for Broadway in the 1950s and '60s, and the journal focuses on the orchestration techniques he used in three of his musicals.
Purin earned a bachelor's degree in music from Elmhurst College in Illinois in 2005, graduating with the scholastic predicate magna cum laude. He completed his master's degree in music theory in 2007 at the University of Minnesota, and he plans to complete work on his Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Kansas in 2011.
He began teaching in 2005, having taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of Kansas. In 2010, he came to OBU, where he teaches courses including Introduction to Music Synthesis, Introduction to Aural Skills, Ear Training, Sight Singing, Fundamentals of Music and Music Theory. He also oversees music technology at OBU.
Purin said he finds joy in using his musical gifts in a wide variety of ways. His primary focus is to teach students to use music theory practically and to challenge students' ways of thinking about music. In performance, he is an accomplished singer and actor, particularly enjoying participation in musical theatre works of all eras. He also loves to write music for a variety of instruments, but particularly for singers.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards, such as the School of Fine Arts Opportunity Award, the Graduate Research Travel Award and winner of the Iron Composer Competition at the University of Kansas. He has also given many presentations, ranging from local to regional to national audiences. He presented his paper, "Deformations of Sonata Form and the Pachelbel Sequence: A Plethora of Hearings as Traversing Alternate Realities in the Finale of Bruckner's String Quintet in F Major," at the Oklahoma Music Theory Roundtable, which OBU hosted in September 2010.