Jeffrey Kallberg

Jeffrey Kallberg, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Music History, began his tenure as Interim Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences in January 2025. Since 2010, Kallberg served as the School’s Associate Dean for Arts and Letters, and in October 2024, was appointed Deputy Dean.

Kallberg is a specialist in music of the 19th and 20th centuries, editorial theory, critical theory, and gender studies. He has published widely on the music and cultural contexts of Chopin, most notably in his book, Chopin at the Boundaries: Sex, History, and Musical Genre. He is also the author of the articles on “Gender” and “Sex, Sexuality” for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, and co-editor of the collection Rethinking Difference in Music Scholarship. His critical edition of Luisa Miller for The Works of Giuseppe Verdi has been performed throughout the world.

Given Kallberg’s expertise, he has also been called upon to authenticate works from Chopin and Beethoven. With collaborators at the Morgan Library and Museum, he recently helped verify an unknown Chopin waltz, the first major manuscript of the composer’s since the 1930s. Previously, he had identified and authenticated an autograph manuscript of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge discovered in the Palmer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. Kallberg also served as production consultant for two plays with music by Hershey Felder: Monsieur Chopin, which premiered at the Royal George Theatre in Chicago in 2005, and Beethoven, As I Knew Him, which premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in 2008. In 2024, he was the historical consultant for Felder’s feature-length film Noble Genius: Chopin & Liszt.

Kallberg has received countless accolades in his career, including a turn as Vice President of the American Musicological Society, an organization that also gave him the Alfred Einstein Prize. He has received the Richard S. Hill Award from the Music Library Association, the Stefan and Wanda Wilk Book Prize for research in Polish Music, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 1975, he received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 1982, his PhD from the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty at Penn in 1982.