User:Antandrus

Master's and doctorate are in music composition, with a minor in music theory; undergraduate majors in both music and geology; seven years of teaching undergraduate and graduate students in music theory, music history, orchestration, ear-training, sight-singing, composition, counterpoint, repertoire, and various other subjects; violinist, pianist, and most recently, thereminist; former editor of a music research journal; moderately obscure composer. Most of my teaching experience is in the classroom, but I have also tutored and taught small groups and individuals.

Out of the big university, and being unenamored of a life of poverty and struggle as one of thousands of unemployable people with advanced degrees in a humanities field, I acquired some competence in a few more practical areas of endeavor. I manage a large group of technical people in a huge company. It's very different from studying music, but I'll say this for formally studying music: it gives you discipline, and doggedness in tackling tough problems. Those qualities are more valuable in a corporate setting than you might think.

Occasionally you might catch me writing about the energy industry, history, geography, earth sciences, literature, investing, and a few other things, but for the most part I only do this as a break from writing about music.

My credentials and experience are real and verifiable, to those with a need to know, although at this time I prefer to edit anonymously.

Some other random interests: Classics, literature, history, military history, earth sciences, mountaineering, birds, trees, religious traditions, data forensics, European and eastern philosophy. I read a lot, especially English literature, as well as a lot of stuff in translation. While I'm fairly knowledgeable on topics such as Shakespeare, the existentialist writers, Swift, Greek tragedy, epic poetry, and European, Middle Eastern, and South Asian history, I don't usually contribute to articles on those topics; I don't feel my knowledge rises above the high amateur into the "sufficiently expert". There are other writers here who are better, and who know more than I do, and for now I'm going to leave it there. I would politely ask others to at least consider the depth of their knowledge before tackling detailed subjects around which their own experience is limited; but then who am I to tell other people what to do? Do as you will, says Rabelais, but prepare to be reverted (not by me, necessarily, but by someone who actually has studied the topic). This is an encyclopedia, not a trivia site.

I take article requests. If you spot something that is missing, or just substandard, and it is in the area of early music--or indeed, in "classical" music in general--let me know and I'll do what I can to help, if it is within my area of competence. Since this is a big area, that's a big "if."

I don't chase baubles, such as WP:GA, WP:FA, WP:DYK. My gratitude goes to those who nominate something I have written for those distinctions, and I have no criticism in general of people who do go after those things, but I'd just rather not go there. If you want to know why, you have to ask me privately, but it's not hard to figure out from certain other things I have written.

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Wikipedia