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Join the School of Music for a special ceremony to celebrate the investiture of Dr. Bridget Sweet as the Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman Endowed Chair in Music Education!
Thursday, November 6, 2025
4:00–5:00 p.m., reception to follow
School of Music
1030 Music Building Auditorium
1114 W Nevada St, Urbana, IL
We hope you can join us!
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The Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman Endowed Chair in Music Education is funded by a generous gift from the Vernon K. and Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman Foundation, established in honor of longtime music educator and alumna Marilyn Zimmerman (MS ’55 Music Education, EdD ’63). This chair supports excellence in music education, advancing scholarship, performance, and pedagogy while reinforcing the University of Illinois’ commitment to engaging the community through the power of music.
Congratulations, Bridget!
About Dr. Sweet
Bridget Sweet is Professor of Music Education and the Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman Endowed Chair in Music Education at the University of Illinois 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 over a dozen 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 in the Music Education Academy (2025, 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). She is currently the guest editor of a Music Educators Journal special focus issue on health and wellness in the music education profession (anticipated, 2026). Dr. Sweet was initiated as a Friend of the Arts to the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity (2021).