Introduction to the 2014 Senior Researcher Award Acceptance Address

Dr. Peter Webster retired in 2013 from his endowed chair in music education at Northwestern University and is now scholar-in-residence at the University of Southern California. Peter’s research spans nearly 40 years of publications, and his service as editor, reviewer, lecturer, and pedagogue is similarly remarkable.

Peter’s earliest professional publication, a 1976 article in Triad titled “Identifying the Creative Musician,” foreshadowed what has been and continues to be an extensive record of investigations of creative thinking in music (Webster, 1976). Among his most recent publications about creativity is a chapter on composition intelligence and creative thinking in music (Webster, 2013) and a remarkable case study about guiding revision in composition (Webster, 2012).

One of his current projects is a National Association of Music Merchants–funded study of adult creativeness and music background among architects, industrial designers, and chefs (Webster, 2009). His articles appear in Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME), Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Psychomusicology, Research Studies in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, General Music Today, Arts Education Policy Review, Journal of Music, Technology, and Education, Mountain Lake Reader, and others both within and outside music.

Peter’s 1990 “Creativity as Creative Thinking” is among the most widely cited articles about creativity and music, a “must read” for anyone working in music creativity (Webster, 1990). That line of thought led directly to Webster’s (2002) “Model of Creative Thinking Processes in Music,” which has informed his own work and that of others. Peter distributes his Measures of Creative Thinking in Music II, which he describes as an exploratory tool for assessing creative thinking in music using quasi-improvisational tasks. The measure has been used in at least 35 studies by scholars in the United States and abroad—compliments of Peter, who distributes the measure at no cost to his fellow researchers. His generosity is also evident in what he calls his “own little part of cyberspace” (http://www.peterrwebster.com/), which includes an extensive annotated bibliography of works on creative thinking in music as well as recommended music software. Most notable is his newest iBook project (edited by John Richmond and former student Maud Hickey) titled Coming About: A Retrospective Review of, and Reflections on, the Writings of Peter Webster (Richmond & Hickey, 2014).

Peter has been extraordinarily generous as a colleague in the music education research community. His energy and leadership in the Creativity Special Research Interest Group of the National Association for Music Education (Chair, 1992–1996), the Association for Technology in Music Education (President, 1995–2002), and the College Music Society (Chair, Technology Committee, 2011–2012) are well known. He has served on editorial boards since 1974 and is, at present, a member of six journal boards (having recently completed a term on the JRME board) and editor for still another. The consistency and depth of his service record is exemplary.

This brief summary does not begin to do justice to the influence this scholar has had and continues to have in our profession. Peter Webster’s writing, thinking, and generosity continue to resound through generations of scholars and teachers in music. It is with great pleasure that I introduce Dr. Peter Webster, Senior Researcher 2014.