Marcel S. Zwitser studied music theory and musicology and finished his studies with a post-doctoral teacher’s diploma.
As an independent teacher of music theory and music history, he taught at the Schumann Academy (Zwolle, Netherlands, 1999-2014) and the University College Roosevelt (the international Honor’s College of Utrecht University, 2012-2018), and currently teaches at the Seniorenacademie Groningen (since 2000), HOVO Amsterdam (since 2007).
Since 2010, he has been on the faculty of the Crescendo Summer Institute (Tokaj, Hungary), an annual international summer school for conservatory students.
As a scholar, he is mainly interested in the influence of Jewish-Christian spirituality and theology on the Western art music. In 2012, he got his PhD with interdisciplinary research in musicology and historic theology examining the influence of 16th to 18th century Lutheran pneumatology on Johann Sebastian Bach. His current research focusses on the role of the Holy Spirit in the German Lutheran Baroque theology of music, and on the phenomenon of the romantic religion of art.