Music of Tibet Ensemble - The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Music of Tibet Ensemble

Music of Tibet ensemble poses for a picture with their instruments.

Music of Tibet Ensemble

Course Information:
ETHNMUS 91Z-7 / 161Z-7

Director: Tsering Wangmo

 

 

The Music of Tibet Ensemble explores Tibetan music, song and dance, both traditional and contemporary. Much of this repertoire, particularly traditional gorshey, is participatory, with music and dance woven into community life across the Tibetan plateau and Tibetan communities in India, Nepal and Bhutan. All traditional Tibetan dances are sung (though not all songs are danced), so participants will learn to dance as well as to sing the songs in groups. The Ensemble will perform group songs and Tibetan opera, with opportunities for solo singing and more advanced dance repertoire as students progress. Participants may also learn to play the dranyen (སྒྲ་སྙན་), the Tibetan lute, which accompanies solo and group songs and dances in central, southern and western Tibet.

For information about course enrollment, contact instructor Tsering Wangmo Satho.

Meet the Director

ས་མཐོ་ཚེ་རིང་དབང་མོ།
Tsering Wangmo Satho  
Tsering Wangmo Satho first began learning traditional Tibetan performing arts from her parents and the Tibetan refugee community in South India where she was born. In 1983, she joined the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in Dharamsala, India, gaining...
Learn More
Learn More
Learn More
Where Musical Traditions Meet: Inside UCLA Ethnomusicology’s Living Laboratory of Performance and Scholarship
When Taiwanese graduate student Roy Huang arrived to study in UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology in 2025, he expected to deepen his research into the traditional music of Vietnam, Taiwan and
Timothy Taylor Interviewed on Camp Anthropology
Kenzell Huggins interviewed ethnomusicology professor Tim Taylor about his book Making Value: Music, Capital and the Social for Rice University’s blog, Camp Anthropology.
School of Music Students Win Library Prize for Undergraduate Research
Three School of Music students were honored with UCLA Library prizes in undergraduate research: Pavan Radhakrishnan (Musicology, ’26), Eden Ulrigg (Ethnomusicology, ’27) and Will Bollini (Music Industry minor, ’26). Each
Support the Ensemble and Keep the Music Playing!