Bridget Sweet

Bridget Sweet is Professor of Music Education at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. After completing her Bachelors Degree in Music Education at Western Michigan University, Dr. Sweet enjoyed a successful tenure as a middle school choir teacher for nearly ten years. Her interests in adolescent music education intensified during her Masters and Doctoral programs in Music Education at Michigan State University, which contributed to her research focused on characteristics of effective and exemplary middle-level music teachers. At the University of Illinois, Dr. Sweet teaches secondary music education pedagogy, including choral methods and literature, graduate courses in music education, as well as a course focused on the development of healthy practices for all musicians. She is a Licensed Body Mapping Educator through the Association for Body Mapping Education. Dr. Sweet continues to work extensively with adolescent singers as a teacher, clinician, and conductor; she has been invited to conduct middle and high school All-State Choirs and Honors Choirs in many states. Dr. Sweet wrote the books Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond (2016, Oxford University Press) and Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music Education (2020, Oxford University Press). She co-edited the book Motherhood and Music Education Academy (in press, Oxford University Press). Dr. Sweet’s research interests include middle level choral music education, [assigned at birth] female and male adolescent voice change, musician health and wellness, intersections of LGBTQ+ topics and the music classroom, as well as intersections of motherhood and academia. Her research has appeared in publications of Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Choral Journal, International Journal of Music Education: Research, Journal of Research in Music Education and Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. She has authored chapters within The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education (2014), The Oxford Handbook of Care in Music Education (2023), and The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Queer Studies in Music Education (in press). Dr. Sweet was initiated as a Friend of the Arts to the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity (2021). She is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Bulletin of the Council of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Research in Choral Music, Journal of Research in Music Education, and Qualitative Research in Music Education.