Department of Music

Dr Morgan Davies

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Key information

Roles
Department of Music Senior Teaching Fellow
Department
Department of Music
Building
Russell Square: College Buildings
Email address
md63@soas.ac.uk
Thesis title
Musical Knowledge of the Laṅgās and Māṅgaṇiyārs

Biography

Morgan is a musician, composer and musicologist, specialising in performance on bowed and plucked stringed instruments from around the world. Having spent his formative professional years working as a guitarist, Morgan began studying music as an undergraduate at SOAS in 2000, and graduated with a first in performance on sāraṅgī - the quintessential bowed stringed lute of the North Indian classical music tradition. Subsequently, Morgan was awarded full postgraduate funding by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to undertake a Master’s programme in sāraṅgī performance; and he graduated with distinction as a Master of Music in December 2008. Morgan completed work on his PhD thesis at SOAS in September 2016, and was awarded his Doctorate in 2017. The primary focus of Morgan's PhD research concerns the musical knowledge and performance systems of the Langā and Māngaṇiyār musicians of Western Rajasthan. 

During fifteen years of music research work, Morgan's consultancy activities have involved many diverse tasks including project management and evaluation; transcription and audio/visual analysis;  database management; website editing and maintenance; academic proofreading; graphic design; preparing recordings for the British Library Sound Archive; and the capturing, editing and output of audio/visual data collected for AHRC-funded music research projects. Morgan was a member of staff in the Open University Music Department from October 2009 to September 2010, and a member of staff in the Music Department at Durham University from September 2010 until October 2011.

In addition to being engaged in an ongoing series of teaching, research and website-related contracts at SOAS since 2008, Morgan currently works as an Adjunct Faculty Lecturer for both the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) and the Accent Global Learning Study Center in London (where he teaches courses on music, media, gender and identity), and as an Assessment Specialist for Cambridge Assessment International. Morgan is General Administrator for the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, and he continues to pursue an evolving career as a composer, producer and live musician. In 2021, Morgan released two new solo albums of original music - Waking and In Decision - with a further two album releases planned for 2022. Morgan's growing music catalogue is available on Spotify, Apple MusicAmazon, Tidal, and a number of other digital streaming services.

Contact Morgan