Benjamin Graf

Benjamin Graf is an active scholar in music theory, pedagogy and performance. He has completed three different music degrees— Music Education (BS, Towson University), Music Performance (MM, University of North Texas), and Music Theory (PhD, University of North Texas). He was awarded the Presidential Scholarship at the College of Fine Arts (Towson University) and following his undergraduate studies with Luis Engelke, Joel Puckett and Donald Watts, he pursued graduate study.  Benjamin came to UNT on a trumpet performance scholarship and studied with trumpet pedagogue Keith Johnson, Emeritus Regents Professor of Trumpet. Benjamin performed trumpet full-time for WJS Productions and Hershey Entertainment.  

After earning a teaching fellowship in music theory, Benjamin pursued doctoral study and presented research at local, regional and international conferences in Florida, Indiana, Australia and beyond. Benjamin not only received the Outstanding Graduate Student in Music Theory award and the Outstanding Doctoral Student in Music Theory award, but also played intercollegiate tennis and won the UNT Recreational Sports Outstanding Male Athlete award.  Benjamin has served on the faculty at the University of Texas - Arlington, Dallas Baptist University and Texas Woman’s University before returning to UNT in Fall 2017. 

Benjamin now coordinates and mentors the Teaching Fellows in aural skills and music theory, teaches several core theory classes and continues to expand his research interests. For example, he is a co-host of the Note Doctors podcast in music theory pedagogy, co-presented the plenary session at the 2022 Texas Society for Music Theory (TSMT), and he is now Chair of the TSMT Pedagogy Commitee. Benjamin's areas of research include film music analysis, public music theory, pedagogy and motivic analysis.  He has presented papers at the Texas Society for Music Theory for seven straight years and he has presented two papers at the Music and the Moving Image conference in New York (NYU- Steinhardt).  His papers explore minor-key superhero themes, John Williams' villain themes, music at turning points in cinema and music during flight and escape cues. Benjamin lectures in UNT's OLLI lecture series and his research on public music theory is published in volume 47 of "Music Theory Spectrum," the leading journal of the Society for Music Theory.

In May 2022, Benjamin became coordinator of the UNT College of Music Czech Music Initiative.  In his first three years as coordinator, he has taken UNT performing ensembles to Olomouc, Brno, and Prague, and forged stronger relationships with the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas, our institutional partners in Czechia (Janacek Academy of Music and Palacky University), and UNT.  In July 2023, UNT Fantasmi ensemble instrumentalists and vocalists combined to revive an oratorio "The Lost Sheep," which was recreated and re-orchestrated for UNT by Czech musicologist Tomas Hanslick; the performance was recorded and published by the Czech National Radio. Benjamin also hosted two American premieres of original Czech operas at the Fifth international Festival of Czech Music at UNT (November 2023). In 2024, Benjamin created, under the guidance and mentorship of the  southern Moravian dechovka band, Stribrnanka, the first ever UNT Czech dechovka ensemble - the only ensemble of its kind at any University in the United States. UNT's Czech dechovka has since toured Texas in both Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, performing at Czech Heritage days and festivals across Texas, connecting with a rich history of Czech culture. In June 2025, Benjamin will coordinate a trip to Austria, Czechia, and Germany for UNT's A Cappella Choir, thereby creating once-in-a-lifetime performance, workshop, and cultural opportunities.

Based on his excellence in teaching and outstanding service, Benjamin was awarded the 2025 UNT Outstanding Lecturer Award at the UNT Foundation Salute to Faculty Excellence ceremony; it is the highest honor for professional faculty at UNT.