As Chair of the Performing Arts Department and Professor of Music at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey, Dr. Krikun teaches a variety of courses including songwriting, music business, world music, and the history of popular music. He founded the Bergen Pop/Rock Ensemble in 2004 and currently co-directs the ensemble with Rod Shepard along with the assistant director, Divinity Montijo. At Bergen, he has been active in curriculum development and created master classes for students with notable musical guests that include Philip Glass, Suzanne Vega, Bill Miller, Garland Jeffries, Vaneese Thomas (Tribute to Stax Records), Eddie Brigati (Rascals), June Millington (Fanny), and Steven Bernstein (Tribute to Sly and the Family Stone).
Krikun received his MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles, researching the music of Nepal and the United States as well as performing with the Balinese, Javanese, Ghanaian, Ugandan, and Afro-American ensembles. In 2006, he was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Texas, National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development.
He received his Ph.D. in Music Education at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University in 2014. His groundbreaking dissertation, “Teaching the ‘People’s Music’ at the ‘People’s College’: Popular Music Education in the Junior College Curriculum in Los Angeles, 1924-1955,” shed light on the important role of community colleges in transforming the music curriculum in American higher education.
His articles have appeared in the International Journal of Community Music, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Diversity Digest, and The Beat. His book chapters have appeared in seminal collections on the role of community music and popular music in education. He has presented at professional conferences in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and China, for the College Music Society, the International Society for Music Education, the Music Educators National Conference, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, and the Association for Popular Music. He served as executive board member of the Association of Popular Music Education from 2010-2019 and currently is on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Popular Music Education.