Benjamin Graf

Benjamin Graf is an active scholar in music theory, pedagogy and performance. He has completed three degrees — music education (B.S., Towson University), music performance (M.M., University of North Texas) and music theory (Ph.D., University of North Texas). He was awarded the Presidential Scholarship at the College of Fine Arts at Towson University and, following his undergraduate studies with Luis Engelke, Joel Puckett and Donald Watts, pursued graduate study. Graf came to UNT on a trumpet performance scholarship and studied with the late trumpet pedagogue Keith Johnson, emeritus Regents professor of trumpet. He performed trumpet full time for WJS Productions and Hershey Entertainment.

After earning a teaching fellowship in music theory, Graf pursued doctoral study and presented research at local, regional and international conferences in Florida, Indiana, Australia and beyond. He received the Outstanding Graduate Student in Music Theory award and the Outstanding Doctoral Student in Music Theory award, and also played intercollegiate tennis and won the UNT Recreational Sports Outstanding Male Athlete award. Graf has served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas Baptist University and Texas Woman's University before returning to UNT Fall 2017.

Graf 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 co-hosts the Note Doctors podcast on music theory pedagogy, co-presented the plenary session at the 2022 Texas Society for Music Theory conference, and now chairs the society's pedagogy committee. His research interests 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 has presented two papers at the Music and the Moving Image conference in New York at 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 scenes. Graf 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, Graf 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 between UNT, the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas and the university's institutional partners in Czechia, the Janacek Academy of Music and Palacky University. In July 2023, instrumentalists and vocalists from UNT's Fantasmi ensemble revived the oratorio "The Lost Sheep," recreated and reorchestrated for UNT by Czech musicologist Tomas Hanslick; the performance was recorded and published by Czech National Radio. Graf also hosted two American premieres of original Czech operas at the fifth International Festival of Czech Music at UNT in November 2023. In 2024, under the guidance and mentorship of the southern Moravian dechovka band Stribrnanka, he created the first UNT Czech dechovka ensemble — the only one of its kind at any U.S. university. The ensemble has since toured Texas in fall 2024 and spring 2025, performing at Czech heritage days and festivals across the state and connecting with a rich history of Czech culture. In June 2025, Graf will coordinate a trip to Austria, Czechia and Germany for UNT's A Cappella Choir, creating once-in-a-lifetime performance, workshop and cultural opportunities.

Based on his excellence in teaching and outstanding service, Graf received the 2025 UNT Outstanding Lecturer Award at the UNT Foundation Salute to Faculty Excellence ceremony, the highest honor for professional faculty at UNT.

Edit 8.20.26 MLH+AI