MARCO FORSTER MIDDLE

Richard Perez earned his Bachelor of Music (BM), Master of Music (MM), and Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degrees in Music Education from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music.  He is currently in his 21st year of teaching music in the Capistrano Unified School District.  As an itinerant music teacher in his first eight years, he gained experience teaching music in grades K-12.  Dr. Perez had the opportunity to work with and learn from many outstanding CUSD music teachers throughout the district.  He has taught the following ensembles: String Orchestra, Full Orchestra, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Marching Band, Brass Ensemble, Musical Pit Orchestra, Choir, Rock Band, and Mariachi Correcaminos.  Dr. Perez has also worked with the USC Trojan Marching Band.

 

Although his professional foci are educator and arranger, he continues to perform as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers Band at the Lakers home games and leads Mariachi Correcaminos, La Comunidad.  His research field is intergenerational learning in music.

 

In the summer of 2012, Dr. Perez presented his master’s thesis entitled Middle School Instrumental Music Students’ Perceptions of Their Practice Habits and Influences at the 30th International Society for Music Education Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece.  In 2014, he attended the 31st ISME Conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil.  In 2016, he attended the 32nd ISME Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.   Last summer he presented his doctorate dissertation, A Crafted Intergenerational Band: A Bounded Case Study of Participant Experiences at the 34th ISME Conference, which is published and available for download through USC libraries, ProQuest, and Google Scholar.

 

Dr. Perez is the recipient of the 2012 Music Education Department Award at USC.  He is a member of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), the All Discipline Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, and Pi Kappa Lambda (National Music Honor Society).