Faculty Profile: Joshua Rifkin

Position: University Professor (Musicology and Ethnomusicology)

• Email: jrifkin@bu.edu

B.S., The Julliard School; M.F.A., Princeton University. Joshua Rifkin has published studies on musical subjects ranging from Busnoys to the Beatles, with special emphasis on J. S. Bach and Josquin Desprez; his critical edition of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, appeared in 2006. He has conducted many prominent orchestras in the U.S., Europe, Israel, Australia, and Japan, and led operatic productions at Theater Basel in Switzerland and the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich. With the Bach Ensemble, which he founded in 1978, he has recorded the Mass in B Minor, the Magnificat, and many cantatas, and has performed in concerts and festivals throughout the U.S., Europe, and Australia. As a pianist, he played a major role in reviving the music of Scott Joplin. He received a B.S. in composition from The Juilliard School, an M.F.A. in musicology from Princeton, and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Dortmund and the Academy of Music in Krakow.