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
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!
Opera UCLA’s production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride on Thursday night was a triumph—sung with aching beauty over Gluck’s sumptuous score. Visionary staging, dance, and modernist costuming brought new life to this ancient tragedy. Congratulations to the entire cast and creative team.
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NEXT PERFORMANCE
Saturday, May 16, 8:00 PM
Schoenberg Hall
Link in bio
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Congratulations to the Thursday cast!
Hannah Verduzco - Iphigénie
Leland Alexander - Oreste
Sam Song - Pylade
Adam Zeidler - Singing Thoas
Kyle Xu - Thoas
Lilliana Mindel - First Priestess
Sadie Habas - Second Priestess
Kazu Nakamura - The Scythian
Jacob Salzmann - The Priest of the Temple
Trinity Dela Cruz - Greek Woman
Leela Subramaniam – Diana
Priestess Chorus:
Milla Moretti, Amelia Birmingham, Thea Hsu, Shreya Goshal, Valerie Morris, Vibu Singh, Trinity Dela Cruz, Lilliana Mindel, Sophie Spier, Sadie Habas
Male Chorus:
Dustin Peng, Jacob Salzmann, Kazu Nakamura, Asher Bartfeld
Recorded Scythian Chorus:
Abdiel Gonzalez, Kevin Corrigan, Chris Hunter, James Callon, Elias Berezin, Jacob Salzmann, Kazu Nakamura
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Saturday, May 16 Cast:
Margaret Daly - Iphigénie
Leland Alexander - Oreste
Andres Delgado - Pylade
Kyle Xu - Singing Thoas
Adam Zeidler - Thoas
Lilliana Mindel - First Priestess
Sophie Spier - Second Priestess
Asher Bartfeld - The Scythian
Dustin Peng - The Priest of the Temple
Trinity Dela Cruz - Greek Woman
Leela Subramaniam - Diana
Opera UCLA’s production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride on Thursday night was a triumph—sung with aching beauty over Gluck’s sumptuous score. Visionary staging, dance, and modernist costuming brought new life to this ancient tragedy. Congratulations to the entire cast and creative team.
-
NEXT PERFORMANCE
Saturday, May 16, 8:00 PM
Schoenberg Hall
Link in bio
-
Congratulations to the Thursday cast!
Hannah Verduzco - Iphigénie
Leland Alexander - Oreste
Sam Song - Pylade
Adam Zeidler - Singing Thoas
Kyle Xu - Thoas
Lilliana Mindel - First Priestess
Sadie Habas - Second Priestess
Kazu Nakamura - The Scythian
Jacob Salzmann - The Priest of the Temple
Trinity Dela Cruz - Greek Woman
Leela Subramaniam – Diana
Priestess Chorus:
Milla Moretti, Amelia Birmingham, Thea Hsu, Shreya Goshal, Valerie Morris, Vibu Singh, Trinity Dela Cruz, Lilliana Mindel, Sophie Spier, Sadie Habas
Male Chorus:
Dustin Peng, Jacob Salzmann, Kazu Nakamura, Asher Bartfeld
Recorded Scythian Chorus:
Abdiel Gonzalez, Kevin Corrigan, Chris Hunter, James Callon, Elias Berezin, Jacob Salzmann, Kazu Nakamura
-
Saturday, May 16 Cast:
Margaret Daly - Iphigénie
Leland Alexander - Oreste
Andres Delgado - Pylade
Kyle Xu - Singing Thoas
Adam Zeidler - Thoas
Lilliana Mindel - First Priestess
Sophie Spier - Second Priestess
Asher Bartfeld - The Scythian
Dustin Peng - The Priest of the Temple
Trinity Dela Cruz - Greek Woman
Leela Subramaniam - Diana
Meet your 2026 commencement speaker: Kiran Gandhi
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Better known as Madame Gandhi, she has produced eight albums of her own music, toured with M.I.A., and traveled to Antarctica to record the sound of melting glaciers. A musician and an activist, she is revered for her intellectual curiosity and creative fearlessness, redefining what it means to be an artist in the 21st century.
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Read more about her, link in bio.
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Photo Credit: Molly Matalon for The New York Times
Meet your 2026 commencement speaker: Kiran Gandhi
-
Better known as Madame Gandhi, she has produced eight albums of her own music, toured with M.I.A., and traveled to Antarctica to record the sound of melting glaciers. A musician and an activist, she is revered for her intellectual curiosity and creative fearlessness, redefining what it means to be an artist in the 21st century.
-
Read more about her, link in bio.
-
Photo Credit: Molly Matalon for The New York Times
Iphigénie en Tauride follows the cursed House of Atreus in ancient Greece. With dramatic visual logic, mood, and atmosphere, we see Iphigénie’s journey as high priestess to the goddess Diana on the island of Tauride, where she is tormented by memory, duty, and the arrival of a peculiar prisoner.
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Ready to see it in action? Come catch a show, May 14 and 16 at 8:00 pm in Schoenberg Hall.
Iphigénie en Tauride follows the cursed House of Atreus in ancient Greece. With dramatic visual logic, mood, and atmosphere, we see Iphigénie’s journey as high priestess to the goddess Diana on the island of Tauride, where she is tormented by memory, duty, and the arrival of a peculiar prisoner.
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Ready to see it in action? Come catch a show, May 14 and 16 at 8:00 pm in Schoenberg Hall.
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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