Dean Philip S. Khoury of the School of Humanities and Social Science has announced the appointment of Professor Peter Child as head of the music and theater arts section of the Department of Humanities, effective July 1.
Professor Child will succeed Professor Alan Brody, who was recently appointed associate provost for the arts. Professors Marcus Thompson and John Harbison served as acting heads of the section during the fall and spring terms of 1995-96.
In announcing the appointment, Dean Khoury said "Peter Child is considered to be one of the leading composers of his generation, whose works have been widely presented both in the US and abroad. In 1995 his dramatic oratorio, Reckoning Time: A Song of Walt Whitman, on which he collaborated with Professor Alan Brody, premiered in Boston to great acclaim."
Professor Child received the BA degree in music from Reed College in 1975, the MFA in music theory and composition (1978) and the PhD in composition (1981) from Brandeis University. He joined the MIT faculty in 1986, received tenure in 1992, and will be promoted to full professor on July 1.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 5, 1996.
