The MA/PhD in Ethnomusicology investigates music in cultural and social contexts. In preparing students for careers in studying global music communities, our program assists students in understanding music as social practice from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Students are introduced to the intellectual history of the field and its paradigmatic shifts, and research methodology in preparation for ethnographic fieldwork. Our ethnomusicology program seeks to prepare students for careers in the academy, public sector, the music industry, and/or cultural heritage policy-making. We also offer seminars in select global music cultures as well as topics, which examine music as related to gender, politics, religion, economics, philosophy, aesthetics, and musical practice.
Ethnomusicology
Master of Arts / PhD
Global Music
Cultures
Our commencement speakers in action:
This year, we were honored to welcome @madamegandhi as our commencement speaker. Alongside her were student speakers Racquel Bernard and Aditi Sreenivas. Thank you to these three remarkable individuals for sharing their wisdom and hopes for the future with us!
Our commencement speakers in action:
This year, we were honored to welcome @madamegandhi as our commencement speaker. Alongside her were student speakers Racquel Bernard and Aditi Sreenivas. Thank you to these three remarkable individuals for sharing their wisdom and hopes for the future with us!
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2026!
We are endlessly proud of your achievements and your commitment to the musical community 🎵 we wish you the best in your future endeavors and #gobruins 🐻💙
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2026!
We are endlessly proud of your achievements and your commitment to the musical community 🎵 we wish you the best in your future endeavors and #gobruins 🐻💙
Meet Madame Gandhi, our 2026 Commencement Speaker.
Five studio albums. International activism. A Harvard Business School master`s degree earned while touring as the drummer for GRAMMY-nominated artist M.I.A.
As an artist, activist, and public intellectual, Madame Gandhi has built a career defined by curiosity, creativity, and a commitment to making the world more connected and compassionate. Along the way, her music has reached Spotify`s Viral Top 50 charts and has been featured by Netflix, FIFA, and more.
Learn more. Link in bio.
Meet Madame Gandhi, our 2026 Commencement Speaker.
Five studio albums. International activism. A Harvard Business School master`s degree earned while touring as the drummer for GRAMMY-nominated artist M.I.A.
As an artist, activist, and public intellectual, Madame Gandhi has built a career defined by curiosity, creativity, and a commitment to making the world more connected and compassionate. Along the way, her music has reached Spotify`s Viral Top 50 charts and has been featured by Netflix, FIFA, and more.
Learn more. Link in bio.
RACQUEL BERNARD, 2026 COMMENCEMENT GRADUATE SPEAKER
What does resistance sound like? Beyond the venerable tradition of protest songs, it can live in something more subtle: a voice, a rhythm, a timbre, a way of claiming space through music itself.
Racquel Bernard has spent years thinking about those questions in reggae music. In a genre whose history has often centered male voices, women artists have long challenged sexism, shaped the music’s evolution and expanded its expressive power—often without receiving equal recognition in the record books. Bernard’s work explores how resistance is embedded not only in lyrics, but in sound itself.
READ THE INTERVIEW - LINK IN BIO
RACQUEL BERNARD, 2026 COMMENCEMENT GRADUATE SPEAKER
What does resistance sound like? Beyond the venerable tradition of protest songs, it can live in something more subtle: a voice, a rhythm, a timbre, a way of claiming space through music itself.
Racquel Bernard has spent years thinking about those questions in reggae music. In a genre whose history has often centered male voices, women artists have long challenged sexism, shaped the music’s evolution and expanded its expressive power—often without receiving equal recognition in the record books. Bernard’s work explores how resistance is embedded not only in lyrics, but in sound itself.
READ THE INTERVIEW - LINK IN BIO
MEET ADITI SREENIVAS, THE 2026 COMMENCEMENT UNDERGRADUATE SPEAKER
Aditi Sreenivas’s experiences span continents, from Bangalore to New Jersey to California. When she arrived at UCLA, she loved music but lacked a clear idea of how music might become her career. Through the music industry program, she discovered a world far larger than performance alone—one filled with paths in business, law and technology.
As she launches her own career in the music industry, Sreenivas is thinking critically about the future of the industry, the challenges of AI, and the benefits of belonging to a music community.
READ THE INTERVIEW: LINK IN BIO
MEET ADITI SREENIVAS, THE 2026 COMMENCEMENT UNDERGRADUATE SPEAKER
Aditi Sreenivas’s experiences span continents, from Bangalore to New Jersey to California. When she arrived at UCLA, she loved music but lacked a clear idea of how music might become her career. Through the music industry program, she discovered a world far larger than performance alone—one filled with paths in business, law and technology.
As she launches her own career in the music industry, Sreenivas is thinking critically about the future of the industry, the challenges of AI, and the benefits of belonging to a music community.
READ THE INTERVIEW: LINK IN BIO
Celebrate Movses Pogossian in his final recital as Professor of Violin at UCLA, featuring Armenian classics, three world premieres, Beethoven, Wagner and more. Free & open to the public with RSVP.
📍 Schoenberg Hall
🗓️ Wednesday, May 27 • 8PM
Celebrate Movses Pogossian in his final recital as Professor of Violin at UCLA, featuring Armenian classics, three world premieres, Beethoven, Wagner and more. Free & open to the public with RSVP.
📍 Schoenberg Hall
🗓️ Wednesday, May 27 • 8PM
Smiles all around at rehearsal for the 6th Annual Day of Armenian Music. Join our star faculty for a celebration of music and selections from the newly released album “Stanzas in August: Armenian Music, New & Rediscovered”.
📅 Friday, May 22
🕒 3:00 p.m.
📍 Lani Hall
Smiles all around at rehearsal for the 6th Annual Day of Armenian Music. Join our star faculty for a celebration of music and selections from the newly released album “Stanzas in August: Armenian Music, New & Rediscovered”.
📅 Friday, May 22
🕒 3:00 p.m.
📍 Lani Hall
Looking back to our annual music industry capstone day! Aptly named “Hi-Fi”, our seniors showed us what they’ve worked on throughout their final year - from album releases, marketing proposals, to research projects, we are thrilled to see what their future holds!
Looking back to our annual music industry capstone day! Aptly named “Hi-Fi”, our seniors showed us what they’ve worked on throughout their final year - from album releases, marketing proposals, to research projects, we are thrilled to see what their future holds!
David Castañeda
“I enjoyed the connections that I made with my colleagues who have now become family, seeing my approach as a researcher develop substantially in such a short amount of time, and most of all the opportunity to grow as an instructor and educator.” – David Castañeda Ph.D. ’21 | Ethnomusicology
A stream of high-profile artists and scholars from around the world have energized and inspired our students, helping to transform their educational experience. Among them are J.H. Kwabena Nketia, considered Africa’s premier musicologist/ethnomusicologist; Akin Euba, a Nigerian composer, musicologist, and pianist; MacArthur Fellow Steven Feld, an American ethnomusicologist, anthropologist, and linguist, who worked for many years with the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea; Judith Becker, professor emerita of ethnomusicology, University of Michigan; Mark Slobin, the author or editor of books on Afghanistan and Central Asia, eastern European Jewish music, film music, and ethnomusicology theory; Chano Dominguez, award-winning Spanish-born pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and Hossein Omoumi, a scholar and teacher of Persian traditional music, among others.
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