Biography
Sam Bivens is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he is also Senior Lecturer of Music. He has spent his career in the conservatory world, having held teaching and/or leadership positions at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Tianjin Juilliard School, and Oberlin College and Conservatory.
Bivens received his doctorate in music theory from the Eastman School of Music in 2018 with a dissertation on form in Wagner’s Die Walküre. Alongside his extensive work on all things Wagner, current research interests include the music of Bruckner, music theory pedagogy, and curricular assessment. He has presented on a number of these topics both in the United States and abroad.
Bivens is the proud recipient of several awards for his teaching and research: the 2012 Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching at the Eastman School of Music; the 2017 Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student at the University of Rochester; and the prestigious Presser Graduate Music Award, which supported a three-month trip to Bayreuth, Germany to conduct archival dissertation research during the summer of 2016.
Bivens joined the Shepherd School in 2026. Outside of music, he is a private pilot, an avid reader, and a beekeeper.