Gregory Melchor-Barz

Gregory Melchor-Barz is an ethnomusicologist who has engaged field research in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Israel. He received the PhD from Brown University and the MA from the University of Chicago. His current research project is on global drag traditions, focusing on drag performance in Boston and in Israel.

A former opera singer, Barz’s latest book is a co-edited volume titled Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology (Oxford). In addition, he has co-edited The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing in Music and the Arts (Oxford) and two editions of Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology (Oxford). His monograph, Singing for Life: HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda (Routledge) applies the central tenets of medical ethnomusicology to a study of HIV prevention in East Africa.

His book, Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, was also published by Oxford. He has produced 4 compact discs and a documentary film and received a GRAMMY nomination in the Best Traditional World Music category as producer of Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda (Smithsonian Folkways).

PUBLICATIONS

Books (Most Recent)

• 2019 – Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology, co-edited with William Cheng (NY: Oxford University Press)
• 2011 – The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing in Music and the Arts, co-edited with Judah Cohen (NY: Oxford University Press)
• 2008 – The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology, associate editor (NY: Oxford University Press)
• 2008 – Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, 2nd Edition, co-editor with T. Cooley (NY: Oxford University Press)
• 2006 – Singing for Life: Music and HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NY: Routledge)
• 2004 – Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. (New York: Oxford University Press)
• 2003 – Performing Religion: Negotiating Past and Present in Kwaya Music of Tanzania. (Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi)

Recordings (Most Recent)

• 2010 – Kampala Flow: East African Hip Hop from Uganda, (CD), co-producer, Lime Pulp Records
• 2009 – Music in The Commons (CD), producer, Vanderbilt University
• 2008 – God in Music City: The Sounds of Religion in Nashville, Tennessee, producer (Lime Pulp Records)
• 2007 – Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda, (CD) (Smithsonian Folkways)

Documentary Film

• 2011 – Inanga, A Song of Survival in a Daughter’s Rwanda, producer, documentary DVD & CD (Nashville: Lime Pulp Rec.).

Articles & Reviews (Most Recent)

• 2019 – “‘I Don’t Think We’re Safe Around You’: Queering Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology.” In Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology, co-edited with William Cheng (NY: Oxford University Press)
• 2019 – “Introduction,” In Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology, co-edited with William Cheng (NY: Oxford University Press).
• 2018 – “It Was a Great Annual Meeting. And Yet…” Presidential Column. SEM Newsletter, 52/4:3-4.
• 2018 – “A Listening Database for Ethnomusicology: The SEM Annual Meeting,” Presidential Column. SEM Newsletter, 52/3:3-4.
• 2018 – “The Coextensive Moment of Music and Politics in Africa: A Pedagogical Perspective,” SEM Student Newsletter.
• 2018 – “Introducing ‘Rhythm of Change: African Music and African Politics,” Vanderbilt Univ. Blog Post.
• 2018 – “Sounding Advocacy in Ethnomusicology,” Presidential Column. SEM Newsletter, 52/2:2-4.
• 2018 – “Doing Ethnomusicology vs. Being Ethnomusicology,” Presidential Col. SEM Newsletter, 52/1:1, 6.
• 2016 – “(Re-)Membering Pulse: A Foreword.” Ethnomusicology Review / Sounding Board, Pulse Special Issue.

Awards

GRAMMY Award Nomination (2008), producer in the “Best Traditional World Music” category, for Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda, CD recording (Smithsonian Folkways)