Dr. Frank Tirro is an internationally known author, composer, and educator. While working on his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, he founded and administered the first music department at that university’s experimental elementary and secondary school. He has composed both jazz Mass and ballet which are still performed today. While chairman of the Duke University music department, he wrote Jazz: A History, a text translated into several languages and required reading for students in many university jazz programs. After leaving Duke, Tirro was named dean of Yale University School of Music, considered by many to be the leading academic music school in the world. He is currently Dean Emeritus of the Yale School of Music and teaches both Italian Renaissance Music and Jazz History courses there.
Frank passed away in 2021 at the age of 85.