Rebecca Roesler

Rebecca A. Roesler has prepared future music educators, taught studio violin, conducted orchestras, and coached chamber music for nine years as Professor of Music Education and Violin at Brigham Young University–Idaho. Previously, Dr. Roesler was Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of North Texas, where she taught graduate and undergraduate music education courses and directed the UNT String Project. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Brigham Young University, and a PhD in Music and Human Learning from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Roesler has presented her research or conducted clinics at conferences for the National Association for Music Education, American String Teachers Association, Society for Music Teacher Education, and the International Research Symposium on Talent Education, and several state MEAs including Texas, Florida, Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Hawai’i, and Colorado. Her articles appear in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Psychology of Music, String Research Journal, Music Educators Journal, and American String Teacher. Her research investigates the creative and collaborative problem-solving process during private instruction and chamber music rehearsals. Additional research interests include motor skill learning, attention, and automaticity; peacebuilding and conflict negotiation; and public school music teachers’ navigation of challenging topics within predominantly conservative/religious cultures.

In a past life Dr. Roesler taught delightfully musical teens (who always won water fights but were no match for her post-festival Wendy’s straw wrapper skills). She directed orchestras at Logan High School and Mt. Logan Middle School in Logan, Utah and taught beginning through advanced orchestra, general music, and A.P. music theory at Lehi High School and Lehi Junior High School in Lehi, Utah. Under her direction, these orchestras regularly received superior ratings at Utah State Music festivals, though her students’ most celebrated achievement was effectuating tears from an adjudicator during a string orchestra performance of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. VIII. Roesler has performed on violin and viola with ensembles such as the BYU-I Seranata Strings faculty string quartet, the UNT Summer Music Institute faculty chamber strings, the Interlochen World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra at Temple Square, including internationally-televised broadcasts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She studied violin with Donna Fairbanks, Igor and Vesna Gruppman, Timothy Ying, Allen Ohmes, and Jane Capistran; chamber music with the Ying Quartet; and orchestral conducting with Kory Katseanes. She continues to serve as an active performer, private studio teacher, adjudicator, and clinician.