MIT Music and Theater Arts lovingly remembers the legacy of Professor Emeritus Jeanne Shapiro Bamberger, who passed away peacefully at home in Berkeley, California, of natural causes on December 12, 2024, on the age of 100.
For three a long time on the institute, Bamberger found ways to make use of computers to motivate students and help them learn music. A trained pianist who was fascinated by the thought of using technology to achieve insights into music education, Bamberger ultimately helped transform the best way music was taught at MIT and elsewhere.
Bamberger was born on February 11, 1924 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her mother, Gertrude Shapiro (née Kulberg), got here from a Romanian-Jewish family, studied child psychology and was energetic within the League of Women Voters. Her father, Morse Shapiro, of Lithuanian and Polish Jewish descent, was a pioneering pediatric cardiologist.
In 1969, Bamberger began her 32-year profession at MIT, initially in MIT's former Education Department. While studying at MIT, Bamberger was the primary woman to receive tenure within the Department of Music and Theater Arts. She was referred to as a pioneer in using computer languages to show children to learn music. She also used her computer innovations to review how children – and by extension all people – learn music, and this vector particularly became her life's work.
Ahead of her time, Bamberger worked in MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory within the Eighties, developing computer languages (MusicLogo and Impromptu), while she worked at MIT's Department of Education Study and Research from 1975 to 1995. In 1981, she became an associate professor of music and theater arts, receiving tenure soon thereafter and heading the department from 1989 to 1990. During this time, she continued to perform as a concert pianist, participating in concert events with the MIT Symphony Orchestra, and actively performing chamber music each at MIT and locally. She also taught within the Department of Education at Harvard University.
Institute Professor Marcus Thompson recalls: “During her time with us as a senior professor, she was clearly a jewel within the crown. For someone who had studied piano with a historical legend in Artur Schnabel, who had studied with and known at the very least considered one of the French Six, Darius Milhaud, and who had worked with the French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez she was a part of the group of our professors who continually advocated for a brand new music constructing. considered the potential of a graduate program in music at a time after we were being pushed to grow, at a time when she was our only senior, when it was finally recognized that there was a must do higher.” Both our own music constructing and the graduate program for music at the moment are a reality.
Bamberger loved her work and was loved and admired by her students and colleagues. Kenan Sahin's Distinguished Professor Evan Ziporyn shares that she was “a really formative figure for our section – MIT Music and Theater Arts wouldn't be what we’re today without her contributions. She's also just a really cool person – I mean, what number of 90-year-old academics find yourself working with Herbie Hancock and bringing their research to the White House?”
Ziporyn adds that Bamberger published quite a few articles and books, including “The Art of Listening” with Howard Brofsky, “The Mind Behind the Musical Ear,” “Developing Musical Intuitions” and “Discovering the Musical Mind,” “amongst seven million other unique achievements.”
While studying at MIT, Bamberger took many students under her wing and supported many more of their academic careers. Elaine Chew SM '98, PhD '00, operations researcher, pianist, current professor of engineering at King's College London, and Bamberger mentee, says: “Without Jeanne, I wouldn't be doing what I’m today. Jeanne, a toddler prodigy turned music philosopher, was a pioneer in music and AI long before it became fashionable. She was very interested for people and was keen about the best way we learn. I won't forget the day I got here to her with complaints about things not working. Instead of telling me what to do, Jeanne said, “What are you going to do about it?” This encourages me to reflect on and develop my very own sense of agency.” (Chew talks more about Bamberger's inspiring role in a Interview 2016.)
All in all, Bamberger had a creative, fertile mind and loved to ask probing questions, a trait she passed on to her descendants and community – it was her enthusiasm and her passion.
As a professor at MIT, Bamberger was a force to be reckoned with. In addition to her long and productive academic profession—wherein she published 4 books and nearly 20 book chapters—she was politically energetic, supporting the anti-Vietnam War and the civil rights movements. She taught and published her work well into her 90s and maintained a powerful community of companions and colleagues until the top.
In 2002, Bamberger became professor emeritus at MIT and moved to Berkeley, California, where he continued to show within the music department on the University of California, Berkeley.
Her former husband Frank K. Bamberger died on the age of 100. She is survived by her two sons, Joshua and Paul (Chip); 4 grandchildren – Jerehme, Kaela, Eli and Noah; and lots of caring relatives and friends.
