Roger Bourland

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Roger Bourland starts every one of his classes with what he calls a “one-minute commercial” — an exhortation to his students about such matters as tolerating other religions and respecting people from different cultures. His students love to hear the mini sermons, which Bourland invariably follows by offering valuable advice on how to break into the music business.

Those are just two of the qualities that make Bourland a distinguished teacher. A professor of music, he is noted for his knack for making obscure subjects interesting. In music theory, for example, he has been splendidly successful in introducing students to the often abstruse inner workings of the world of music going back through the centuries.

“I get inside each period (of music) and try to get students excited about what the aesthetic of that age was, which is very difficult to do,” he said. “If you grow up as an MTV child, it is very hard for you to strip all that away and put yourself in the shoes of Beethoven or Mozart.” In contrast, while teaching music composition, Bourland encourages each student to develop a sense of individuality, or “spark,” he explained, “which keeps him or her from sounding the same, like widgets.”

— Ajay Singh, UCLA Today