Professor Stephen Jablonsky, PhD, chair of the Music Department, listed in Who's Who in America since 2001, has been teaching at City College since 1964. “I was a 22 year-old hot shot composer and trumpet player but I've learned a lot since then" he quips.  He is also an alum of the Music Department receiving his BA in 1962 before he pursued MA and PhD degrees at NYU.  

Dr. Jablonsky has a deep interest in art, photography, painting, colorful loafers (it’s a long story!) and architecture, as well as music, composition and teaching. He estimates that he has produced 334 paintings since 1962, 160 of which are on permanent loan to City College.

As a composer in the 1960s and early 1970s he worked in the serialized minimalist style that he helped develop and returned to this form again in 2005. In 1977, inspired by the work of Vladimir Fuka, he developed the concept of Musigraphics - the artistic analyses of musical compositions, combining his interest in artistic and musical synergy. Dr. Jablonsky went on to compose over 30 works in that vein. 

In the last few years Stephen has written a number of texts that draw upon his 44 years of teaching experience at CCNY. His most recent publications include Tonal Facts and Tonal Theory (Kendall/Hunt, 2005) and its three accompanying workbooks. This is a user-friendly attempt to explain the principles and compositional practices of the diatonic tonal system. “Because its tone is informal and occasionally humorous it is enjoyed by students on all levels but is held in mild contempt by stuffy professors.”

He is also the author of two unique instructional manuals: The All-Star Rhythm & Pitch Book (Kendall/Hunt 2005) and the newly revised Thinking Harmonically at the Keyboard.

His most recent academic contribution is a chapter called "Fibonacci and Musical Form" in The Fabulous Fibonacci Numbers by  Alfred S. Posamentier and Ingmar Lehman (editors), Prometheus Books, 2007.

Dr. Jablonsky believes that the academic environment should be a happy place where the adventure of learning is celebrated. This was very evident as he took a class with high school students from City College’s Academy of the Arts. They flocked around him as he sat at the piano in a Shepard Hall classroom laughing at his jokes, swept along in his exuberance, anxious for the class not to end. He recounted later that their enthusiasm was so infectious that teaching them is easy and fun but the energy and fun and spontaneity flowed in both directions.

His pithy and amusing website is a work of art in itself.