Edited by Timothy Rice and Megan Rancier

Robert Garfias, a distinguished ethnomusicologist and university administrator, received the first graduate degree, an M.A., in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1958. From 1962 to 1982 he taught in the School of Music at the University of Washington, where he founded its graduate program in ethnomusicology and served as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. From 1982 until his retirement in 2013, he taught in the dance and anthropology departments at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where he served as Dean of Fine Arts, Director of the UC Education Abroad Program in Costa Rica, and Director of the UCI Chicano/Latino Studies Program. At the national level he served as president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and held a presidential appointment to the National Council on the Arts. As a scholar, Robert Garfias is perhaps best known for his publications on Japanese court music (gagaku. He has also conducted in-depth research in Korea, the Philippines, Central America, East Africa, Burma, Romania, Okinawa, and Turkey.