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About Me

David Kjar is Associate Professor of Core Studies and Music History at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, ��������, where he also serves as Program Director of Interdisciplinary Music Programs and Director of the Center for Arts Innovation and Leadership. A performance-studies and professional-development scholar, his work examines how historical performance practices, contemporary artistic labor, and conservatory training intersect in the formation of the twenty-first-century artist.

Interdisciplinary research and teaching are central to Kjar’s scholarly and pedagogical practice. His work intentionally bridges musicology, performance studies, arts leadership, cultural history, and professional development, emphasizing how knowledge is produced through embodied artistic practice, collaboration, and institutional structures. In the classroom, he designs courses that integrate critical theory, experiential learning, reflective practice, and community-engaged research, frequently bringing students into dialogue with practitioners across artistic, administrative, and entrepreneurial fields. This interdisciplinary orientation also underpins his leadership in curriculum design, where he develops programs that support students in synthesizing artistic rigor with social awareness, ethical engagement, and sustainable professional pathways.

Kjar teaches a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary courses for undergraduate and graduate students in theatre and music. His teaching portfolio includes Performance Analysis, Performance Practice, Collaborative Performance Laboratory, Bach Band, and seminars devoted to Strategic Decision-Making in the Arts, Collaboration, Alternative Performance Spaces, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Music, Mindfulness, and Transformation.

Kjar earned his Ph.D. in musicology from Boston University, where he studied with renowned scholar, performer, and conductor Joshua Rifkin. Kjar's research grounds theories and philosophies of early music in the lived performance experiences of both performers and listeners, reframing the early music movement as a sonically constructed and perceived “Other Performance.” He presents and publishes internationally on Wanda Landowska, authenticity in twenty-first-century contexts, patronage, historically informed performance, and chamber-music training. His work on artist development and conservatory education was recognized with a grant from the Eastman Institute for Music Leadership’s Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research.

An active performer on natural trumpet, Kjar has appeared with early-music ensembles throughout Europe and North and South America. He holds a master’s degree in historical performance (natural trumpet) from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (The Netherlands). His discography includes recordings with Il Fondamento (Belgium), Das Kleine Konzert (Germany), Orquestra Barroca (Brazil), Wall Street Trinity (NYC), Rebel (NYC), and Haymarket Opera (Chicago). He also holds a bachelor’s degree in modern trumpet performance from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and a bachelor’s degree with a jazz emphasis from the University of Northern Iowa.

Kjar also serves on the international editorial board of the forthcoming journal Performing Arts Histories and is a member of the Wanda Landowska Research Group. His work across research, performance, teaching, and program development is unified by a commitment to helping emerging artists cultivate socially engaged, artistically rigorous, and financially sustainable careers.