Stern College Music Chair David Glaser to Retire After 30 Years
After more than 30 years of teaching, Stern College music department Chair David Glaser will retire at the end of the semester. In addition to leading the department, Glaser serves on the faculty committee of the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program.
Glaser earned a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College, a master’s degree from Queens College and a doctor of musical arts degree from Columbia University. He was hired as an adjunct music professor at YU in fall 1996. He now chairs the Stern music department, which also includes Professors Stanley Dorn and Marcia Young, both of whom Glaser hired to complete his department and increase enrollment in music courses. Outside of teaching, Glaser is a composer and viola da gamba player.
“Teaching is one of the most gratifying things I can imagine,” Glaser told The Commentator. “Though it sounds cliche, the great pleasure of it is not in imparting information, a book can do that, but in the communal act of getting students to slow down, focus and hear for themselves what is happening in a piece of music.”
Glaser has taught eight different courses during his time at YU. Best known for teaching “Sense of Music,” a course that fulfills a General Studies requirement for non-music majors, Glaser has also taught courses on Baroque and Classical music history and Romantic and Modern music history and cycles through Music Theory 1, Music Theory 2 and “Introduction to Composition,” which are required for music majors and minors. It was Glaser who approached the administration to have them offer an official music major rather than only a minor. Additionally, in the past, he also taught a course on American composers and another on the use of text and music.
An encounter involving a cat ultimately led to his decades-long career at YU, Glaser said.
“I apparently got the job as soon as I crossed the threshold of my late boss Edward Levy’s home,” he told The Commentator. “He and his cat greeted me at the door and immediately after I shook his hand, I bent down to scratch the cat behind the ear.” Levy later told him that “it was paying attention to his cat that got me the job.”
“So even before we discussed music,” Glaser said, “that gesture led to a 30-year relationship with Yeshiva University.”
There are currently two music majors and five music minors at Stern College. Glaser noted that this small number is consistent with broader trends of STEM fields becoming more popular and the humanities less so. However, Glaser told The Commentator that despite lower enrollment, “the quality of the students has remained high, as has their enthusiasm and skill.”
The Commentator spoke to several Stern College music students, past and present, to hear their reflections on having Glaser as a teacher.
“Dr. Glaser’s incredible ‘Sense of Music’ class inspired me to pursue a music major, even though I was admittedly terrified of his wry humor and constructive critiques,” Tamara Yeshurun (SCW ‘26), one of the two Stern music majors, told The Commentator. “After spending three years in his classroom, that intimidation has since turned to deep respect (and relief that he’s just a softhearted curmudgeon after all). The halls of the Beren Campus will definitely feel emptier without him.”
“You could tell he loved what he taught and had a great appreciation for the subject that he wanted to pass on to his students,” Aliza Gans (SCW ‘27) told The Commentator. “He also was always willing to go over concepts to make sure his students understood the topic to the fullest.”
Malka Simkovich (SCW ‘04) studied music and Jewish studies at Stern College and has been teaching at YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies since 2024. Simkovich shared how Glaser’s impact on her has extended far beyond her music classes with him.
“I find myself trying to teach like Dr. Glaser: by treating students as if they have something worthy to say, even if they don't think this themselves and by connecting with them over a shared delight in discovering what lies beneath the surface of a text,” Simkovich told The Commentator. “Where other teachers encouraged their students to approach their subjects with distance and formality, Dr. Glaser taught his students to encounter their subjects with personal creativity and joy.”
“His sense of humor, his accessibility and his genuine love for music made him one of the most influential role models I have had in my life,” she said.
Glaser expressed gratitude toward two people who have helped the music department over his time at Stern College. The first is Marjorie Blenden, who donated money that “has funded annual concerts, visits to our classes by musicians and new pianos,” he told The Commentator.
“The concerts usually had premiers of my music, and I am grateful that it provided me the opportunity to grow as a composer,” he said.
Glaser also said that “I worked many years with Dean Karen Bacon, and her unflagging support for me and our program has been invaluable.”
“I am sorry to be leaving now as Dean [Rebecca] Cypess is coming in,” he added. “I trust that her life in music as a performer and scholar will inform her work as she guides our programs forward.”
The future of the music department remains unclear. Dorn will not be teaching in the fall 2026 semester and plans to reassess after that semester whether he will retire as well. The course offerings for next semester include three sections of “Sense of Music,” two taught by Young and one by a new teacher, Professor Nune Melikian, as well as two ensemble classes taught by Young and a course called “Judaism in Music” taught by Melikian. The course listings do not currently include Music Theory 1, the next course in the sequence for a current music minor.
YU did not respond to a Commentator inquiry seeking comment on the department’s future plans.
Photo Caption: David Glaser
Photo Credit: YUNews
