Associate Professor: Instrumental Music Education

Laura Sindberg is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Music at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education. She also serves as Project Director of Band Project, a teaching apprenticeship in which preservice educators provide instruction to beginning band students in high-poverty schools in Minneapolis. Now in its seventh year, Band Project has touched the musical lives of over 100 young band students and over thirty music education students. Prior to her appointment at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Sindberg was Visiting Associate Professor at Lawrence University, where, in addition to teaching, she conducted the Wind Ensemble of the Lawrence Academy of Music.

Sindberg's work in higher education follows a successful career in the public schools, where she taught music in Wisconsin for 17 years in Milwaukee (her beloved hometown) and in Waukesha, where she initiated the Central Bands Commissioning Project. Dr. Sindberg has served on the Wisconsin Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) Project since 1990 and is Past Chair of the Project. She has presented numerous sessions on topics related to comprehensive musicianship regionally and nationally, and recently published Just Good Teaching: Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance in Theory and Practice (Rowman & Littlefield/NAfME), a book centered on the Wisconsin CMP Model, its application in the ensemble setting, and connections to related initiatives. Her research has been published in the Bulletin for the Council for Research in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, Music Educators Journal, and Teaching Music.

In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Sindberg frequently adjudicates and conducts ensembles around the Midwest. Her research seeks to bridge research and practice in music through collaboration, inclusion, and kindness. Research interests include teacher education and cognition; community engagement and collaboration; instrumental music; and comprehensive musicianship. She received a B.F.A. and a M.M. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.