Fred Umar
self-employed composer in Napa, CA, US
A self-employed composer, arranger, and transcriber based in No. California, Frederick “Fred” Umar holds Masters' degrees in Curriculum & Instruction, with a focus in Music, and Counseling from La Sierra University, as well as a Masters degree in Music Performance with a concentration in both Choral and Instrumental Conducting from Azusa Pacific University. Frederick "Fred" Umar has also earned a Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.) from La Sierra University; one in Curriculum & Instruction, with a Music emphasis. Currently, Dr, Umar is finishing a second Doctorate in Educational Psychology, and will begin a Certificate program at Harvard University in Educational Neuroscience in 2021.
As part of earning a Doctorate of Education in Curriculum & Instruction, with an emphasis in Music, Frederick "Fred" Umar wrote his dissertation on “An Evaluation of the Ostling Research Design for Establishing a Repertoire of Serious Artistic Merit.” A case study, the dissertation assessed the method of determining high-quality academic wind band literature for collegiate instruction developed by Ostling in 1978. Frederick Umar noted that the Ostling method has been adopted in academic settings, but based on the case study, he found the Ostling design fundamentally defective in “its attempt to summon integrity and validity to its study.” In part, he observed the method lacked the authoritative judgments required to form a consensus as well as repeatedly infringed on Fair Use practices of copyrighted music literature. In conclusion, he called for those developing programs and curricula, or completing research, to avoid utilizing the Ostling design as a form of human subject research methodology.
Since the completion of his case study, the use of the Ostling methodology for determining the serious artistic merit of any musical work, regardless of genre, has ceased. Damages related to the methodology and the use of intellectually-owned musical literature against the rights of U.S. Copyright have yet to be resolved, but the argument has held merit in the academic field, and is applauded for its rigor.