University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. School of Music. Musicology Program. Ethnomusicology | University of Illinois Archives

Ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois has emphasized a balance between musicological and anthropological approaches in music studies. Chou Wen-Chung, a Chinese-American musicologist who studied traditional Chinese music, was hired as the first ethnomusicologist in residence in 1957. Although several other scholars and folklorists followed inthe early 1960s, including Archie Green, William Adriaansz, and William Kay Archer, a program of study wasn't established until 1964. In this year, Bruno Nettl began teaching a year-long survey called "the Music of World Cultures." In 1966, Nettl was invited to teach a course in the Anthropology department.

School soon began hiring additional faculty members soon after including Gerard Behague (1966-1974), Ranganayaki Ayyangar (1972-1977), Stephen Blum (1973-1977), Charles Capwell (1977-2007), Isabel K.F. Wong (1978-2009), David Stigberg (1980-1987), and Thomas Turino (1987-2012). After Nettl retired in 1995, the School hired Donna Buchanan (1995-2025) and Gabriel Solis (2000-2024). In 2004, the University began the process of acquiring the papers and instruments of ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown, which came to the University in 2005. The Lewis Faculty Building was designated to be the site for the newly created Robert E. Brown Center for World Music, and while the School of Music hired Philip Yampolsky (2006-2011) to lead the Center as well as I Ketut Gede Asnawa (2006-2024) to lead the University's gamelan ensemble, the plans for the Center did not come to fruition. Most recently the School hired Michael Silvers (2013-2024), Makoto Harris Takao (2019-2025), Carlos Roberto Ramirez (2019- ), and Jérôme Camal (2025- ).

The area has been prolific in terms of its performing ensembles, with the establishment of the Russian Folk Orchestra (under John Garvey), a Korean Ensemble (under Wong), two Javanese gamelan ensembles (first in 1986 and again under Asnawa in 2006), a Peruvian Pan Pipe ensemble and East African Mbira ensemble (led by Turino), Balkanalia (led by Buchanan), and a Middle Eastern Ensemble.

The area has also produced several decorated graduate students. Some of the first graduate students to complete fieldwork projects in the late 1960s and early 1970s included Robert Witmer, Stephen Blum (who was also the first to earn a PhD in ethnomusicology in 1972), Daniel Neuman, Martha Ellen Davis, Ronald Riffle, Ali Jihad Racy, and Doris Dyen. Other graduates include Daniel Neuman (1974), Martha Davis (1976), A. Jihad Racy (1977), Ted Solis (1982), Philip Bohlman (1983), Chistopher Waterman (1986), Stephen Slawek (1986), Marcello Sorce Keller (1986), Virginia Danielson (1991), Alison Arnold (1991), Richard Kent Wolf (1997), Melinda Ann Russell (1999), Anna Schultz (2004), Joanna Bosse (2004), Christopher Scales (2004), Fernando Rios (2005), David McDonald (2006), Jennifer Fraser (2007), Tony Perman (2008), Stefan Fiol (2008), Theresa Allison (2010), Margarethe Adams (2011), Sylvia Bruinders (2012), Eduardo Herrera (2013), Ionnis Tsekouras (2016), Jessica Hajek (2017), Ian Middleton (2018), and Liliana Carrizo (2018).