Joshua Banks Mailman was born and grew up in NYC. He attended F.H. LaGuardia High School of the Arts (as a guitarist and violist). He then went to the University of Chicago (B.A.,1995) where he majored in philosophy, taking several courses also in music and mathematics. For several years he studied and taught music theory at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, completing a masters degree (2003) and pursuing a Ph.D. in music theory. He currently lives in NYC with his wife Danielle and daughter Lydia, where he, having recently completed his doctoral dissertation (Ph.D., 2010), now teaches at Columbia University and NYU.