Lori A. Custodero

Lori A. Custodero, D.M.A. is part of the faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University. According to a news article, Custodero recently studied children's "flow experience", defined as "studying how the children keep themselves challenged in order to keep learning new skills."ref|flow

Custodero has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Redlands, MA from California State University, and D.M.A. from University of Southern California.

In 2005, Custodero became part of the "Sesame Beginnings" Advisory Board, which included other "national child development and media experts".ref|sesame

Research

Dr. Lori Custodero, Associate Professor of Music and Music Education, has established an Early Childhood Music concentration at Teachers College that integrates pedagogy and research through both theory and practice. Her background includes degrees in piano performance and music theory: her doctorate in music education is from the University of Southern California.

Prof. Custodero's research has focused on children from infancy through preadolescence, and adults as musicians, teachers, and parents. She has presented and published on issues of musical challenge, engagement, and meaning in classrooms, playgrounds, and family settings; recent titles include "Singing Practices in Ten Families" and "Passing the Cultural Torch: Musical Experience and Musical Parenting of Infants" (Journal for Research in Music Education); "Observational Indicators of Flow Experience: A Developmental Perspective of Musical Engagement in Young Children from Infancy to School Age" (Music Education Research); and "'Being With': The Resonant Legacy of Childhood's Creative Aesthetic" (Journal of Aesthetic Education).

A guest editor for a 2002 issue of the Journal of Zero to Three entitled "The Musical Lives of Babies and Families," Prof. Custodero has served in various professional leadership roles including Co-Chair of the Music Educators National Conference's Special Research Interest Group for Early Childhood. She recently finished a 6-year term as North American representative on the International Society for Music Education's Early Childhood Commission during which time she chaired seminars in Barcelona and Taipei. Interested in international issues of music education, she currently is involved in two projects, one involving flow experience and music teachers in Greece, and the other, a multi-national study on the spontaneous musical behaviors of young children. In addition to regular presentations at international conferences, Prof. Custodero has accepted invitations to speak in Australia, Greece, Crete, Portugal, England, Finland, and Taiwan.

In addition to the international work, Prof. Custodero has developed music programs with many local institutions in New York City, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic, the Midori Foundation, and Columbia Head Start. [TC]

Courses Taught

Dr. Custodero teaches the following courses at Teachers College, Columbia University:

A&HM 4021: Designing musical experiences for young children

A&HM 4022: The Artistic Lives of Young Children

A&HM 4901: Research and independent study in music education

A&HM 5020: Foundations of music education

A&HM 5021: Instrumental instruction for children

A&HM 5022: Young children's musical development

A&HM 5143: Special topics in music: Comprehensive Musicianship

A&HM 5201: Fieldwork in music education

A&HM 5901: Research and independent study in music education

A&HM 6501: Doctoral seminar in music education

A&HM 6971: Research and independent study in music education

A&HM 7501: Dissertation seminar in music education

A&HM 8900: Dissertation advisement in music education

elected publications

* Custodero, L. A. Britto, P. R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003). Musical lives: A collective portrait of American families. "Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology", 24(5). 553-572.
* Custodero, L. A., & Johnson Green, E. A. (2003). Passing the cultural torch: Musical experience and musical parenting of infants. "Journal of Research in Music Education", 51(2), 102-114.
* Custodero, L. A. (2003). Perceptions of challenge: A longitudinal investigation of children's music learning. "Arts and Learning", 19, 23-53.
* Custodero, L. A. (2002). The musical lives of young children: Inviting, seeking, initiating. "Journal of Zero-to-Three". 23(1), 4-9.
* Custodero, L. A., Britto, P. R., & Xin, T. (2002). From Mozart to Motown, lullabies to love songs: A preliminary report on the Parents Use of Music with Infants Survey. "Journal of Zero-to-Three" 23(1), 41-46.
* Custodero, L. (2002). Seeking challenge, finding skill: Flow experience in music education. "Arts Education and Policy Review", 103 (3), 3-9.
* Custodero, L. & Williams, L. (2000). Music for everyone: Creating contexts for possibility in early childhood education. "Early Childhood Connections", 6 (4) 36-43.
* Custodero, L. (1998). Observing flow in young people's music learning. "General Music Today", 12 (1), 21-27.
* Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Custodero, L. A. (2002). Forward. In T. Sullivan & L. Willingham, Eds. "Creativity and music education" (pp xiv-xvi). Edmonton: Canadian Music Educators' Association.

Notes

# cite news | title=Communicating with Infants and Toddlers through Music | date=1 September 2001 | publisher=Columbia University | url=http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news/article.htm?id=3924&tid=36
# cite news | title=Introducing Sesame Beginnings | date=2005 | publisher=Sesame Workshop | url=http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamebeginnings/mini/about.php
# | url=http://gogo.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=lac66