Tom Strini was music and dance critic at The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 1982 through 2009. For four years after that, he was senior editor and co-managing partner of Third Coast Daily, an online magazine. He taught and designed writing, music and art courses at UW-Milwaukee and Oregon State University before landing at Mizzou. Strini holds a bachelor of music degree in theory and composition from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and an M.Mus. in classical guitar performance from SIU-Carbondale.