Brian Sanders is a PhD student in Music Theory. He received his Bachelor’s in Piano Pedagogy at the University of Texas at Tyler and Masters in Music Theory at the University of Texas at Arlington where he completed his thesis was on Shostakovich’s Twelve-Tone Characteristics in String Quartet no.15 in E-flat minor, op.144. 

His research topics are Russian Music Theory/Shostakovich’s Twelve-Tone works, how African American popular music was shaped from Traditional African Percussion idioms, and the piano works of Rachmaninoff, specifically his piano concertos. He also researches how pop artist Sufjan Stevenson’s music progresses through the Five Stages of Grief and recent genre resurgence Nordic Folk and how music is the catalyst for European antiquity history.