B.A. and B.Mus., Lawrence University; M.M.A., Piano Performance, Yale School of Music; Ph.D., Music Theory, Yale University, 1979. Author of Berg's Wozzeck: Harmonic Language and Dramatic Design, and of articles on analysis-performance relationships, Berg's Piano Sonata, Op. 1, works by Purcell, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin, and the idea of musical form as process. President, New England Conference of Music Theorists, 1993-95. President, Society for Music Theory, 1997-99. Performances as pianist have included chamber, concerto, and solo music. Her new book was released in Spring 2011 by Oxford University Press; its title is In the Process of Becoming: Analytic and Philosophical Perspectives on Form in Early Nineteenth-Century Music. Appointed to Tufts University in 1995.

Dr. Schmalfeldt's keynote for the 2018 GAMuT Conference is entitled "From Literary Fiction to Music: Schumann and the Unreliable Narrative."