Our Associate Head of Music says:
The Music Department embraces SOAS’ commitment to widening horizons, fostering cross-cultural perspectives, and engaging critically with social issues. Our academic staff are leading authorities on the traditional and popular musics of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and their diasporas, and we offer a wide range of exciting courses with performance, research and practical skills being integral to all our programmes.
Many of our staff members and senior students are involved in professional performance, composition and music production, and are the proud recipients of international awards and even Grammy nominations. Our students join us from all over the world, and our graduates enjoy successful careers in a range of sectors, from professional performance, academia, radio and print journalism, to composition for film, theatre and digital gaming, music education, and working on arts-based interventions with local and international NGOs.
Our Department has played a leading role in the development of the discipline of ethnomusicology in the UK. Amongst other initiatives, it has been instrumental in developing the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, the internationally acclaimed journal Ethnomusicology Forum, and the SOAS Musicology Series (published by Routledge).
The Department of Music is situated within the School of Arts.