Custodero, Lori (lac66)

Lori A. Custodero is Associate Professor of Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, where she created and supervises a specialty in early childhood.  Originally from California, she holds a D.M. A. in music education from  the University of Southern California, where she was the first music educator to be named the School of Music Alumnus of the Year in 2020. Her research focuses on relationships between musical experience and human development in classrooms, public spaces, and family settings. A consideration of this symbiosis has led to studies on children’s engagement with music through the lenses of musical parenting, reciprocal influence, creativity, and perhaps most notably, flow experience.  She is widely published with over 50 articles and chapters; her current work is on music teachers’ autobiographical reflections as a starting place for understanding development and pedagogical practice Along with Harold Abeles, she co-edited Critical Issues in Music Education: Contemporary Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press); a 2nd edition of the book will come out in 2021.  Custodero has served in national leadership positions serving as a member of the Society for Music Education Research Executive Committee and Co-chair of the Early Childhood SRIG, both with the National Association for Music Education. Internationally, she has served as chair on the ECME commission of the International Society of Music Education and hacollaborated with colleagues across the globe, including several projects in the Mediterranean region. Applications of her scholarship are ongoing locally in the WeBop! program at Jazz at Lincoln Center and The New York Philharmonic ‘s Very Young People’s Concerts. Most recently she designed and directs an on-line certificate program for experienced Teaching Artists that connects the responsivity in art making to pedagogical practices with children. 

University of Southern California School of Music Outstanding Alumnus         2020

Provost Research Grant for Tenured Faculty                                                    2018-9

New York State School Music Association Featured Researcher                        2005

Outstanding Teacher Award                                                                                 2004-2005

Teachers College Faculty Diversity Research Award                                           2002

Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Redlands, Phi Beta Kappa                 2001

Outstanding Music Education Doctorate, University of Southern California          1998

Pi Kappa Lambda Award, University of Southern California                                  1996,1998

Magna Cum Laude, California State University, Northridge                                    1987

Magna Cum Laude, University of Redlands                                                            1980

Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society                                                                              1979

518-HM

Books
Custodero, L. A. (under contract).  Before we teach: The musical legacy of childhood and children. Oxford University     Press.

Abeles, H. F. & Custodero, L. A. (Eds.) (2021). Critical issues in music education: Contemporary theory and 
Practice (2nd edition). New York: Oxford University Press.

Abeles, H. F. & Custodero, L. A. (Eds.) (2009). Critical issues in music education: Contemporary theory and 
practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Guest Editor, Journal Issues and Published Proceedings
Custodero, L.A., (Ed.) (2015). Special issue on creativity, imagination and innovation. Teachers College Record, 
17(10).

Custodero, L. A. & Hafteck, L. C. (Eds). (2008). Special issue, International policies in early childhood music     education: Local and global issues, part 2.  Arts Education Policy Review, 109(3).

Custodero, L. A. & Hafteck, L. C. (Eds). (2007). Special issues, International policies in early childhood music     education: Local and global issues, part 1.  Arts Education Policy Review, 109(2).

Custodero, L.A. (Ed.) (2004). Proceedings for Els Móns Musical dels Infants (The Musical Worlds of Children). 
Barcelona, Spain: International Society for Music Education.

Custodero, L. A. (Ed.) (2002).  The musical lives of babies and toddlers. Zero to Three, 23(1).

Peer-reviewed Articles 
Custodero, L.A. (in preparation). Hungry for community: Teaching Artists’ reflections on art and meaning. Arts 
    Education Policy Review.

Cali, C. & Custodero, L.A. (in preparation).  The environment as musical partner: Towards a taxonomy of affordances     in the lives of young children.

Custodero, L. A., Calì, C., & Diaz-Donoso, A. (2016). Music as transitional object and practice: Children’s spontaneous     musical behaviors in the subway. Research Studies in Music Education.

Custodero, L.A. (2015). Ubiquitous creativity, innovative practice-in-action, and imagination in dialogue (prelude to     the issue). Teachers College Record, 17(10). 
Custodero, L. A. (2008). Indicatori di Flow: una prospettiva sull’esperienza musicale infantale. In Infazia, Educazione 
al sonoro nella prima infanzie, Nero monografio a cura di Anna Rita Addessi, 35(2), 96-101.

Custodero, L.A. (2008). Living Jazz, learning jazz: Thoughts on a responsive pedagogy of early childhood music. 
General Music Today, 22(1), 24-29.

Custodero, L. A.  & Hafteck, L. C. (Eds.) (2008).  Harmonizing research, practice, and policy in early childhood music: 
    A chorus of international voices (part 2). Arts Education Policy and Review, 109 (3), 3-8.

Custodero, L.A. & Johnson-Green, E. A. (2008). Caregiving in counterpoint: Reciprocal influences in the 
musical parenting of younger and older infants. Early Childhood Development and Care, 178 (1), 15-39.

Custodero, L. A. (2007).  Harmonizing research, practice, and policy in early childhood music: A chorus of 
international voices (part 1). Arts Education Policy and Review, 109 (2), 3-6.

Custodero, L. A. (2007). Origins and expertise in the musical improvisations of adults and children: A 
phenomenological study of content and process. British Journal of Music Education, 24(1), 77-98.

Custodero, L.A. (2006). Singing practices in 10 families with young children. Journal of Research in
 Music Education, 54(1), 37-56.

Nardo, R. L., Custodero, L. A., Fox, D. B., & Persellin, D.  (2006).  Looking back and looking forward: A 
report of standards-based music practices in US preschools. Journal of Research in Music Education,54(4, 278-292. 

Custodero, L. (2005, December 1). Making sense of “Making Special”: Art and Intimacy in musical lives and 
educational practice. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 6(15). Retrieved [December 6, 2005] from http://ijea.asu.edu/v6n15/.

Custodero, L.A. (2005). Being with: The resonant legacy of childhood’s creative aesthetic. Journal of Aesthetic 
Education.39(2), 36-57.

Custodero, L. A. (2005). Observable indicators of flow experience: A developmental perspective of musical 
engagement in young children from infancy to school age. Music Education Research, 7(2), 185-209.

Custodero, L. A., & Neumann, A. (2005). Introduction. Aesthetic lives: Teaching and learning as creative work.  
Journal of Aesthetic Education. 39(2), 34-35.

Custodero, L.A. (2005). Buscando desafios, encontrando habilidades: A experiência de fluxo e a educação 
musical. In: B.S. Ilari (Org.) Música, cognição e desenvolvimento (pp. 247-260) Campinas, SP, Brazil: Editora da Unicamp.

Custodero, L.A. (2005). What we know about learning. Teacher tips. Performance ideas. In Spotlight on music, Pre-K 
teacher’s guide. Macmillan/McGraw-Hill: New York.

Custodero, L. A. Britto, P. R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2003).  Musical lives: A collective portrait of American families. 
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(5). 553-572.

Custodero, L. A., & Johnson Green, E. A. (2003). Passing the cultural torch: Musical experience and musical
parenting of infants. Journal of Research in Music Education, 51(2), 102-114.

Custodero, L. A. (2003). Perspectives on challenge: A longitudinal investigation of children’s music learning. Arts 
and Learning, 19, 23-53. 

Custodero, L. A. (2002a). Seeking challenge, finding skill: Flow experience in music education. Arts Education and 
Policy Review, 103 (3), 3-9.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Custodero, L. A. (2002). Forward. In T. Sullivan & L. Willingham, Eds., Creativity and
 music education (pp xiv-xvi). Edmonton: Canadian Music Educators' Association. 

Custodero, L. & Williams, L. (2000). Music for everyone: Creating contexts for possibility in early childhood 
education. Early Childhood Connections, 6 (4) 36-43.

Custodero, L.  (1999a).  Constructing musical understandings: The flow-cognition interface [Extended Abstract].  
Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, 142, 79-80.

Custodero, L.  (1998). Observing flow in young children's music learning.  General Music Today, 12 (1), 21-27.

Book Chapters and Sections

Custodero, L. A. and Campbell, P. S. (Eds.) (in press). Section 3: Music with Young Children in Family and     Community cultures. In M. Barrett and G. Welch (Eds.) Oxford Handbook on Early Childhood Music     Learning and Development. New York: Oxford University Press.

Custodero, L.A. (in press). Recollections of childhood music experiences. In M. Barrett and G. Welch (Eds.)     Oxford Handbook on Early Childhood Music Learning and Development. New York: Oxford University Press.

Custodero, L. A. & Johnson-Green, E. (in press). Caregiving in counterpoint: Over a decade later. In W. Brodsky and 
    W. Gruhn (Eds.)     Music in Early Childhood Routledge.

Custodero, L.A. (2012).  The call to create: Flow experience in music reaching and learning. In D. Hargreaves, D. 
Miell and R. MacDonald (Eds.), Musical imaginations: Multidisciplinary perspectives on creativity, performance and perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Custodero, L. A. (2009).  Music learning and musical development.  In H. F. Abeles and L. A. Custodero (Eds.), 
Critical issues in music education: Contemporary theory and practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Custodero, L.A. (2009). Meaning and experience: The musical learner. In H. F. Abeles and L. A. Custodero (Eds.), 
Critical issues in music education: Contemporary theory and practice. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Abeles, H. F., Conway C., & Custodero, L. A. (2009).  Framing a professional life: Collaboration and         leadership. In H. F. Abeles and L. A. Custodero (Eds.), Critical issues in music education: Contemporary     theory and practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Custodero, L.A. (2009). Intimacy and reciprocity in improvisatory musical performance: Pedagogical lessons 
from adult artists and young children.  In S. Malloch and C. Trevarthen (Eds.), 513-529. Communicative musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Custodero, L.A. (2008). Musical portraits, Musical pathways: Stories of meaning making in the lives of six families.  
In Kerchner, J. and Abril, C. (Eds.), Music learning and teaching throughout our lives, 79-92. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

Custodero, L. A. (2007). The resonant legacies of childhood.  In G. Kugiumutzakis (ed.), Sympantiki Armonia, Musike 
kai Epistimi, Ston Miki Theodoraki (Universal harmony, music and science , in honor of Mikis Theodorakis (pp. 333-346). Heraklion: Crete University Press.

Custodero, L.A. & St. John, P.A. (2007). Actions speak: Lessons learned from the systematic observation 
of flow experience in young children’s music making.  In K. Smithrim, Ed., Listen to their voices: Research 
and practice in early childhood music (pp. 2-18). Toronto: Canadian Music Educators' Association.

Non-refereed Articles: Research/practice/policy Audience
Custodero, L. A. (2002). The musical lives of young children: Inviting, seeking, initiating. Journal of Zero-to-
Three. 23(1), 4-9. 

Custodero, L. A., Britto, P. R., & Xin, T. (2002).  From Mozart to Motown, lullabies to love songs: A preliminary 
report on the Parents Use of Music with Infants Survey. Journal of Zero-to-Three 23(1), 41-46.
 
Johnson-Green, E. & Custodero, L.A. (2002). Toddler top 40: Musical preferences of babies, toddlers, and their 
parents. Journal of Zero-to-Three, 23(1), 47-48.

Custodero, L. A. (2001). Intersections: Musical experiences and the science of early childhood development. The 
Grammy Foundation. Retrieved November 11, 2001, on the World Wide Web: 
http://www.grammy.com/features/foundation/0107.html.

Non-refereed Articles: Practitioner Audience
Custodero, L. A. (2007). Responding to the ecologies of music making in early childhood. The Orff Echo. 39(3), 45-48.

Custodero, L.A. (2005c). Of monuments and mosaics: The ISME Early Childhood Conference. Early Childhood 
Connections, 11(1), 6-9.

Custodero, L. A. (2003, Winter). Rhythm and relationships: Music in the lives of children. Birth Through 5 News, 5,
 1-3.

Custodero, L.  (1999b).  Mozart, the muse, and the mind: What the current research tells us.  The Orff Echo, 31 (4), 
34,36,38.  Reprinted in (2000) The Orff Beat, Orff Schulwerk Society of South Africa, 29 (1), 35, 37-40.

Custodero, L. (1997). Seeing with the heart: An interview with Mary Louise Reilly Knoblauch. California Music 
Education Association News. 51 (1), 14-15, 18.

Custodero, L.  (1996). Context and discovery: Rethinking the nature of creativity.  The Orff Echo, 28 (4), 37-39.

Conference Proceedings
Custodero, L. A. (2012). Naming and claiming focused inquiry: Reflections on theoretical frameworks for early 
childhood music research. Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education Early Childhood Commission Seminar, Corfu, Greece: International Society for Music Education.

Custodero, L. A. & Stamou, L. (2006). Engaging classrooms: Flow indicators as tools for pedagogical transformation. 
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. Bologna, Italy: Bononia University Press.

Custodero, L.A., Chen, J.J., Lin, Y.C., & Lee, K. (2006). One day in Taipei: In touch with children’s spontaneous music 
making. Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education Early Childhood Commission Seminar, “Touched by Discovery” (pp. 84-91). Taipei, Taiwan: International Society for Music Education.

Custodero, L. A. (2002). Connecting with the musical moment: Observations of flow experience in preschool-aged 
children. In S. E. Holgersen (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education Early Childhood Commission Seminar, “Musical Connections.” Copenhagen, Denmark: International Society for Music Education.

Custodero, L. A. (2000). Engagement and experience: a model for the study of children's musical cognition. In G. L. 
C. Woods, R. Brochard, F. Seddon, & J. A. & Sloboda (Eds.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (pp. 683-690). Keele, UK: Keele University Department of Psychology.