Gene Willet

Dr. Gene Willet received a doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin in 2007. Before joining the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Performing Arts, he taught music theory and ear-training at The University of Texas, Baylor University, Trinity University and The University of the Incarnate Word. Willet's research and teaching interests include film music, post-tonal theory, the music of Gustav Mahler, computer-aided instruction and computer programming, Lacanian psychoanalysis and popular culture, and the science of sound.

Willet’s article, "A Musical Tour of the Bizarre: Popular Music and Fantasy in David Lynch,” was published in 2013 by Oxford University Press. The article appears in "Popular Music and the New Auteur: Visionary Filmmakers After MTV," edited by Arved Ashby. Willet is also the creator of an online assessment and tutorial package called Pre-College Music Theory which links together VoiceThread lectures and over forty levels of Adobe Captivate assessments. Pre-College Music Theory is used to assess all incoming conservatory students’ readiness for college-level music theory and prepare them for their first semester at BW. Willet has received numerous grants to support his film research and the development of Pre-College Music Theory and has presented at conferences across the country.