Michael Oravitz received his Bachelor of Science in Music at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he studied composition with Dr. Anthony Iannacone and Schenkerian analysis with Dr. Sylvan Kalib. He received his M.M. and Ph. D. in Music Theory at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was mentored on his dissertation research under Drs. Marianne Kielian-Gilbert (advisor), Robert Hatten and Gretchen Horlacher. His areas of interest include the music of Claude Debussy, rhythm & meter studies, musical form, music theory pedagogy and aural skills strategies.
Michael has forthcoming publications on Debussy in Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique and the Society of Composers, Inc. journal iSCI. He has presented internationally, nationally and regionally on the music of Debussy—at the 2012 International Multidisciplinary Colloquium on Music at the University of Quebec, Montreal, the 2012 College Music Society’s South Central Conference, at the 2008 American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory Joint Conference in Nashville, the 2007 European Music Analysis in Freiburg and the 2010 and 2006 Music Theory Midwest Conferences. He was also an invited guest speaker for Butler University’s 2012 Concert/Lecture Series Celebrating the Awakening of the Modern: Debussy at his Sesquicentenary, held in conjunction with the 2012 American Musicological Society–Midwest Chapter Meeting .
He is Aural Skills Area Coordinator for the School of Music and designer of its curriculum. He has published and presented on aspects of that curriculum design in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy (vol. 26, 2012) and at the 2008 Music Theory Midwest Conference respectively. During the 2006-07 academic year, he was awarded one of Ball State’s campus-wide, student-nominated and faculty-refereed Excellence in Teaching Awards. This resulted in funding that enabled him to teach a seminar on therelationship between performance, interpretation and music analysis during the Spring of 2007.
Michael is a member of The Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Midwest and the College Music Society. He served as Chair of the Program Committee for the College Music Society’s Great Lakes Regional Conference (CMSGL) in 2012 and has served as Program Committee member for both the CMSGL and Music Theory Midwest conferences in 2011.