Cesar Favila
Assistant Professor, Musicology

Cesar Favila is a native of rural Northern California and was a first-generation college student. After receiving a BA in music from UC Davis, he earned an MA and Ph.D. in the history and theory of music at the University of Chicago. His research and teaching focus on Mexican music from colonial New Spain to the contemporary Chicano experience. His work resides at the intersections of music, religion, gender, and race. Favila’s work is published in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, the Bulletin of Spanish Studies, the Journal of the Society for American MusicMexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, and Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture. His book, Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain, is under contract with Oxford University Press’s Currents in Latin American and Iberian Music Series. It will be the first book on women’s contributions to music-making in colonial Latin America.

His research has been supported through generous funding from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Academy for American Franciscan History, the American Musicological Society, the American Philosophical Society, the Hellman Fellows Program, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, the Society for American Music, the Fulbright Program, and UC MEXUS among others. In 2018, Favila was a Thoma Visiting Scholar in Latin American Colonial Art at UT Austin’s Blanton Museum and Benson Latin American Studies and Collections. In 2021, UCLA Undergraduate Education honored him with an Undergraduate Faculty Mentor Award.

Favila is an affiliated faculty member of the UCLA Latin American Institute. He serves on the faculty advisory committees for the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Center for 17th& 18th– Century Studies, the Chicano Studies Research Center, LGBTQ Studies, and the Center for the Study of Women. He has served in the American Musicological Society Council and Committee on Cultural Diversity.

Cesar Favila and Paul Feller Honored by American Musicology Society
Cesar Favila, an assistant professor of musicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has won the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society. The award, established by the
Meet Herman Luis Chavez, Undergraduate Commencement Speaker 2022
It was 2019, and Herman Luis Chavez was visiting family in Tarija, Bolivia. Chavez, who uses he, they and él pronouns, was a music student at Colorado State University at
Musicologist Cesar Favila named Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader and ACLS Fellow
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music is thrilled to congratulate Cesar Favila, assistant professor of musicology, who has received support  for his book project, “Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives
Elizabeth Randell Upton
Associate Professor of Musicology and Humanities
Mark Kligman
Professor of Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Humanities Mickey Katz Chair of Jewish Music Director of Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience
Thomas Hodgson
Assistant Professor of Musicology
Holley Replogle-Wong
Lecturer in Musicology, Program Director of CMH
Tiffany Naiman
Director of Music Industry Programs; Assistant Teaching Professor, Music Industry; Lecturer, Musicology
Nina Eidsheim
Professor of Musicology and Humanities Founder and Director of UCLA PEER Lab
Raymond Knapp
Distinguished Professor of Musicology and Humanities Chair of Musicology Director, UCLA Center of Musical Humanities (CMH)
Robert Fink
Chair of Music Industry IDP, Professor of Musicology and Humanities

Explore Other Degrees

Conducting
Graduate study and training in choral, orchestral, or wind conducting
Ethnomusicology
The study of global musical traditions through performance training, research, and field work
Global Jazz Studies
Jazz performance and musicianship courses are paired with African American Studies
Music Composition
Mentorship in the creation and realization of music for concerts, opera, and visual media
Music Education
Preparation for music educators leading to a B.A. and teaching credential in just four years
Music History & Industry
Combining Musicology and the Music Industry minor for practical hands-on training with the study of music within the context of different societies, cultures, and theories
Music Industry
Industry professionals and UCLA faculty prepare students for music-related careers
Musicology
The scholarly study of the histories, cultures, and critical interpretations of music and music-making
Music Performance
Study and training towards professional performance careers in Western classical music