Kurtzman studied piano at the University of Colorado, graduating in piano performance in 1963. He studied musicology at the University of Illinois from 1965 to 1968, earning a PhD in 1972 with a dissertation entitled The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 and their Relationship with Italian Sacred Music of the Early Seventeenth Century.[2] He taught at Rice University from 1975, was appointed a professor in 1982, and has been a professor of musicology at the Washington University in St. Louis since 1986.[2]
Kurtzman is known for his research on Italian sacred music of the Renaissance and early Baroque, especially Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine.[3] He edited music by Monteverdi for Carus-Verlag, including the collection of sacred music Selva morale e spirituale and excerpts from it.[4] He authored a critical edition of the Vespro della Beata Vergine for Oxford University Press in 1999 and subsequently wrote a book, The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610: Music, Context, Performance.[5] A reviewer described it as "comprehensive" and "authoritative", covering Monteverdi's work in the context of his contemporaries, the music, and considerations for its performance.[5] He noted the author's knowledge and "keen musical instincts" in aspects of performance such as tempo, tuning, pitch and transposition, vocal technique, pronunciation and ornamentation, and continuo realization.[5]
Together with Anne Schnoebelen, Kurtzman published a catalogue of sacred music printed in Italy, around 2000 works for mass and other liturgical functions.[1] He edited the complete works by Alessandro Grandi and co-founded the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music.[1]
