Lei Ouyang Bryant (PhD Ethnomusicology, 2004) has accepted a position as Associate Professor of Music at Swarthmore College in the Department of Music and Dance. Bryant will leave her current position of Associate Professor at Skidmore College, where she has taught since 2006. Her scholarly interests are in music, culture, and performance in East Asia (primarily China, Japan, and Taiwan) and Asian America. Her research examines issues of music and memory, identity, politics, race and ethnicity, popular culture, and social justice.

Congratulations to the Class of 2017! Graduates of the BA, MA, and PhD programs gathered together with faculty, staff, and family members for a meal and recognition ceremony for our artist/scholars and the milestones they have achieved. Faculty advisors summarized each graduate’s area of focus and accomplishments in way that was highly personal and indicative of the close collaboration that occurs between our faculty and students. Thanks to all the Graduates and family members who joined us for this wonderful time of celebration!

Charles Lwanga has had a productive and rewarding spring, including the premiere of a new duet for trombone and percussion and being appointed Visiting Assistant Professor at Skidmore College. Lwanga completed his PhD at Pitt in composition/theory and is preparing to defend a second PhD in ethnomusicology, so he is particularly well suited to a position at Skidmore that will call on him to teach both music theory and ethnomusicology courses.

Ethnomusicology graduate student Danielle Maggio’s review of Shana L. Redmond’s Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora has been published in the Fall 2016 edition of The Bulletin of the Society for American Music.

The Music Graduate Student Organization at the University of Pittsburgh is pleased to announce its first annual conference, to be held on Saturday, February 4, 2017

Shalini Ayyagari has received a Senior Research Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) for her project, "Small Voices Sing Big Songs: A Transmedia Documentary Film Project." The AIIS Senior Research Fellowship is a  competitive and prestigious award for senior scholars conducting research in South Asia, allowing them to establish formal affiliation with an Indian institution and conduct long-term uninterrupted research in South Asia.

PhD student Danielle Maggio presented a paper and a memorium at the EMP Museum, a nonprofit museum dedicated to​ contemporary popular culture.  Danielle’s paper, "Gospel Mime: Cultivating Voice of Praise Through Embodied Service," presented her local Pittsburgh research on the Gospel Mime community and showed how the unique, hybrid performance/praise practice in the black church community combines popular gospel music with the theatrical medium of miming.  Danielle was also one of ten presenters for "In Memoriam: Silenced but Eternal Voices,” which hon

Congratulations to Shanna Lorenz (PhD, 2007), who was recently promoted to associate professor with tenure at Occidental College. Shanna earned her PhD in ethnomusicology (and also holds a PhD in performance studies from New York University, 2014). Shanna's dissertation at Pitt, entitled "Japanese in the Samba: Japanese Brazilian Musical Citizenship, Racial Consciousness, and Transnational Migration," focused on the musical practices of migrants who circulate between Japan and Brazil. The focus of Shanna's research is the music of transnational migrants in the Americas.