Eastman’s Ethnomusicology Program offers students rigorous training in the history and methodology of the discipline, and engages cutting-edge approaches to studying music across diverse cultural and geographical settings. Situated at a world-class conservatory connected to one of the nation’s leading private research universities, our approach brings hands-on performance together with critical intellectual engagement. Housed within the Musicology Department, our program enables students to work closely with leading musical scholars. Located within the historically diverse city of Rochester, students benefit from opportunities for fieldwork with local communities. Fieldwork projects also take many students further afield, in locales ranging from Detroit to Bali, and from Chennai to China.

Our faculty contribute regional specializations in African, Asian, North American, and Latin American music, as well as theoretical orientations in gender and embodiment, sound studies and digital media, postcolonial and decolonial methodologies. Given Ethnomusicology’s fundamentally interdisciplinary nature, we encourage students to develop meaningful relationships with faculty from various departments at the University of Rochester, including Anthropology, Visual and Cultural Studies, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. In addition to our degree programs, Eastman’s vibrant Ethnomusicology program includes specialized performance ensembles, certificate programs in World Music and, and a World Music concert series.

Students entering the MA/PhD program can look forward to two years of intensive coursework oriented around seminars with faculty from both ethnomusicology and musicology which will give them a strong foundation in the conceptual approaches, methodologies, and intellectual histories of ethnomusicology while exposing them to cutting-edge topics in music studies.

Eastman’s diverse world music ensembles are taught by renowned performers, and are an integral part of our MA and PhD programs in ethnomusicology. They are also open to community members through the Eastman Community Music School, with no prior musical experience required.

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.

The World Music Concert Series brings the richness of non-Western musical traditions to Eastman through performances by world-renowned artists. The series also includes annual concerts featuring Eastman’s Balinese gamelan ensembles, Gamelan Lil Muni and Gamelan Sanjiwani.

Past performances have featured artists such as the Afro-Cuban All-Stars, Ravi Shankar, DakhaBrakha, Cyro Baptista, Kurosawa & Chaterjee, Rahim AlHaj, Róisín Dubh, Mande Strings, Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Ségal, Che Malambo, Bernard Woma, Ana Lains and Pedro Galveias, and A Palo Seco Flamenco Company.

Prerequisites: The prerequisite for entrance to the MA in Ethnomusicology degree is a bachelor’s degree with at least one undergraduate course, or equivalent, in world music. Ethnomusicology candidates will be interviewed and admitted to the Musicology Department via the same process as incoming musicology students, which includes, among other things, the evaluation of writing samples. If remediation is required, the appropriate courses are taken, but their credit does not count towards the master’s degree program of study. The same is true of any English language instruction that is required.

Residency: At least one year of full-time study is required. See section 05.01 (Residency) for more information.