Awards
- Bicentennial Medal - 2020
- Titled Professor (Emeritus) - 2011
- Provost Professor
- Titled Professor (Emeritus) - 2011
- Rudy Professor
- Sylvia E. Bowman Award - 1999
Professor Glenn Gass's courses on the history of rock 'n roll, which were the first of such classes to be offered in any music school or conservatory, have garnered significant recognition for the IU School of Music and have established his national reputation as a teacher and scholar.
A number of his courses consistently generate full enrollment supplemented by long waiting lists of hopeful students. In addition to the history of rock 'n' roll, he teaches a survey course on the history of Western classical music and takes a group of students "on site" to London for a course on the Beatles. A widely acknowledged master in using technology to bring music, history and culture to life for his students, Gass has archived more than 1,000 video clips and 5,000 audio recordings of musicians both performing and talking about their music.
Professor Gass is also the recipient of the Herman B Wells Lifetime Achievement Award, the IU Student Alumni Association Student Choice Award, the Society of Professional Journalists Brown Derby Award, and other teaching awards and honors. He was inducted into the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching and is author of A History of Rock Music: The Rock & Roll Era (McGraw-Hill, 1994).
Professor Gass is a member of the Education Advisory Board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. He is the recipient of grants in composition from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the Indiana Arts Commission.
He holds a B.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music (1977) and an M.M. and a D.M. from Indiana University (1981 and 1985).
In 2020, Glenn C. Gass was presented the Bicentennial Medal for his distinguished service to Indiana University.