Trained at the Eastman School of Music and later at New York University, where he earned a Ph.D. in musicology in 1973, he has taught at New York University, the University of Virginia, and Rutgers University, where he currently holds the title of Professor of Music in Mason Gross School of the Arts. His research has focused primarily on European instrumental music of the 18th century. Related interests include 18th-century aesthetics, music criticism, hermeneutics, and the methodology of music analysis. During the past forty years, he has presented numerous papers at scholarly conferences and has published articles and reviews regularly in major journals in the field, including the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the College Music Symposium, the Journal of Musicology, Music Theory Spectrum,  the Journal of Musicological Research, Music Review, and Ad Parnassum. He has published editions of music by Christian Cannabich and G. J. Vogler for A-R Editions; and in collaboration with Margaret Grupp Grave, he has coauthored three books: In Praise of Harmony: The Teachings of Abbé G. J. Vogler (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), Franz Joseph Haydn: A Guide to Research (New York: Garland Publishing, 1990), and The String Quartets of Joseph Haydn (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). He served as coeditor of the Journal of Musicology between 2001 and 2011; and at present he is engaged in a critical study of Mozart’s encounter with the solo concerto and related genres.