Established in 1961, the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive is a world-renowned research archive dedicated to the study of musical traditions from around the globe. The Archive’s collection of more than 150,000 audio, video, print, and photographic items documents musical expressions throughout the world and includes unique field recordings as well as rare commercial recordings. As part of UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology, the Archive preserves and makes accessible over 50 years’ worth of audio and video recordings of the department’s famed concerts and also of lectures by legendary scholars and performers, ranging from Mantle Hood to Ravi Shankar to Nati Cano. In addition to preservation and access, the Archive offers a wide range of research, outreach, and educational services. From international scholars to local community members and UCLA students and faculty, the Archive is recognized locally and internationally as an important center of ethnomusicological research and discovery.
Ethnomusicology
Archive
About the Archive
1630 Schoenberg Music Bldg
Los Angeles CA 90095-1657
(310) 825-1695
Open hours:
Pursuant to public health orders, the campus is currently closed to the general public.
Ethnomusicology Archive Resources
Ethnomusicology Research Guide 
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A one-stop shop to help get you started on your research project.
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Audio and Video Online Learn More
Highlights of our collections, especially California-related audio and video. Now streaming on The Internet Archive.
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Ethnomusicology Archive Catalogue Learn More
Search our collection of over 150,000 audio, video, print, and image items.
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Online Archive of California Learn More
Select finding aids for Ethnomusicology Archive collections via the Online Archive of California (OAC).
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Message from the Archivist
Welcome to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, one of the world’s largest ethnographic media collections. Whether you’re researching your next article or book, investigating the sounds of your own cultural heritage, or just exploring musical traditions and expanding your own sonic world, we hope you’ll drop in and take advantage of what’s been called one of the School of Music’s “crown jewels.”
Related News
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The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Announces Fall 2019 Season
Grammy-nominated saxophonist Chris Potter, and jazz vocalist Fay Victor, are just two of the artists who will be part of the music school’s Fall 2019 season.
"Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings" now available
Presenting 58 field collections held by the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, this diverse and comprehensive resource features thousands of audio field recordings and interviews, film footage, field notebooks, slides, correspondence, and ephemera from around the world.
Ethnomusicology Graduate Student Wins Prize Presented at Society for Ethnomusicology Conference
Tyler Yamin received a Ki Mantle Hood Student Prize for his paper, “Creativity and Contestation in the Canopy: Reflections on the Material-Discursive Boundaries of Gibbon Song,” read at the 2018 SEMSCHC conference, and awarded at the 2019 conference.