April 10, 2021 Share this with FacebookShare this with TwitterShare this with LinkedInShare this with EmailPrint this Frank Pascale Tirro Frank Pascale Tirro, dean of the Yale School of Music from 1980 to 1989, passed away after a long illness on March 28. Tirro is remembered for his pathbreaking writings on music, education, and racism in America; his landmark contributions to our understanding of the history of jazz; his studies of late medieval and renaissance music; and his considerable administrative accomplishments. He was also an ASCAP award-winning composer and a highly respected professional clarinetist and saxophone player. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Tirro earned his Bachelor of Music from the University of Nebraska in 1960 and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from that institution in 2006. He earned his M.M. from Northwestern University in 1961 and his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Chicago in 1974. While still a graduate student, he began his distinguished administrative career by establishing and then chairing the music program for the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School from 1963 to 1970. The next year he was a fellow at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti for advanced research into Italian Renaissance music. After earning his doctorate, a one-year term as visiting lecturer at the University of Kansas led to his appointment on the faculty of Duke University, where he served as chair of the Music Department from 1974 to 1980. He began his tenure as dean of the Yale School of Music in 1980, a post which he held for eight years. He continued to teach, perform, and chair the Doctor of Musical Arts Committee at Yale until his retirement in 2010.