In addition to core faculty in the Musicology Department, Eastman’s Ethnomusicology program draws on the strengths of diverse faculty in other departments at Eastman and at the University of Rochester’s River Campus. All degree students in Ethnomusicology are encouraged to form close working relationships with faculty across departments such as Music Theory, Visual and Cultural Studies, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Religion & Classics, and are required to include one committee member from outside the Musicology Department.
Graduate student teachers include:
Wenzhuo Zhang, MA Candidate: Zhang specializes in Chinese traditional and classical music. She has won national and international yangqin (hammered dulcimer) competitions. Before beginning study in Ethnomusicology at Eastman, she earned a PhD in Music Education from Boston University. With a dual interest in ethnomusicology and music education, Wenzhuo has published journal articles in China and the United States and she has been invited to present at international and national conferences such as ICTM, SEM, CMS, ISME, NAFME and ASS(NE). She has been awarded a grant by the Eastman PDC to present at the 2018 international conference held by ISME.
Supported by the ethnomusicology summer fieldwork grant, Wenzhuo is currently working on a thesis exploring the rebirth of the konghou (the Chinese ancient harp) in communist China after five hundred years of extinction. The thesis addresses one central question: What does the rebirth and regeneration of the konghou mean musically, culturally, and politically in contemporary China?
Austin Richey, PhD Candidate: Richey received an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from Eastman School of Music in 2014 and is currently working towards his PhD. His research interests include diasporic and transnational musics, with a particular focus on the emergent Zimbabwean diaspora. Austin is active as a performer and is a member of Eastman’s Gamelan Lila Muni and the Serevende Mbira Ensemble.