SOAS University of London

Department of Music, School of Arts

Staff

Associate Head of Department
Dr Nick Gray

Undergraduate Admissions Tutor

Dr Lucy Durán

Undergraduate Tutor

Dr Lucy Durán

Postgraduate Tutor

Professor Keith Howard

Research Tutor

Professor Richard Widdess

Lucy Durán
Senior Lecturer in African Music
Lucy Durán
Music in the Mande world; Music of Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau; gender and music in West Africa; popular musics of Atlantic Africa; childhood music learning in West Africa; Cuban music, especially son and rumba; radio as a medium; and the world music industry.
  • Tel: 020 7898 4374
  • Email: ld@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 596
  • Office Hours: Tuesdays, 3-5pm
Nick Gray
Senior Lecturer in the Music of South East Asia
Nick Gray

Music of South East Asia, Indonesia, Bali, especially music for the Balinese shadowplay, composition, improvisation, analysis, music and religion

  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4686
  • Email: ng18@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 505
  • Office Hours: Mondays 2-4pm
Rachel Harris
Reader in Ethnomusicology
Rachel Harris
Ethnomusicology; musics of China and Central Asia, especially Uyghur; recorded music; music and ritual, music, identity and politics
  • Tel: 020 7898 4513
  • Email: rh@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 513
  • On Sabbatical:Term 2 - 2015/16
Keith Howard
Professor of Music
Keith Howard
Keith Howard is an ethnomusicologist, musicologist and anthropologist. He is particularly interested in how people use and talk about music, and his work explores music and religion, composition, education, preservation and sustainability, commodification and commercialisation, traditions, and musical futures.

He is the author or editor of 16 books and more than 100 articles. He founded the SOASIS CD and DVD label and was founder and licensee of OpenAir Radio. He writes primarily about the music and culture of Korea, though he has also researched and published on the music of Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Siberia, Thailand, and Siberia.
  • Tel: 020 7898 4687
  • Email: kh@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 515
  • Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-3pm or by appointment
Angela Impey
Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology
Associate Head of Department
Angela Impey
Music of southern Africa and the African Horn (Sudan); advocacy ethnomusicology; sound/music, memory and place; forced migration, cultural mapping and borderland identities; human rights and development.
  • Tel: 020 7898 4433
  • Email: ai6@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 518
  • On Sabbatical:Term 2 - 2015/16
Caspar Melville
Lecturer in Global Creative and Cultural Industries
Caspar Melville

Specialist interest in popular music, the music industry, music of the Black Atlantic, Afro-diasporic music scenes and London music scenes.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4249
  • Email: cm54@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 512
  • Office Hours: On research leave for terms 2&3
Ilana Webster-Kogen
Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music
Ilana Webster-Kogen

Ethiopian music; Music in Israel/Palestine; Biblical cantillation; migration and nationalism; music and gender.

  • Tel: 0207 898 4334
  • Email: iw4@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 503
  • Office Hours: Tuesdays 3-5pm
Richard Widdess
Professor of Musicology
Richard Widdess
History and theory of Indian classical music, dhrupad, Newar music of Nepal, historical ethnomusicology, analysis of musical performance, cognitive approaches to music, music and meaning, music and religion.
  • Tel: 020 7898 4685
  • Email: rw4@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 507
  • Office Hours: Monday 3 - 5 pm

Emeritus Staff

Owen Wright
Emeritus Professor of Musicology of the Middle East
Owen Wright
Music of the Islamic Middle East; historical musicology

Administrators

Musical Instrument Curators

Teaching Fellows

Kadialy Kouyate
Senior Teaching Fellow
Kadialy Kouyate

Kadialy Kouyate comes from a very large African musical family of dialis, who are well known in Mandinka history. Since 2005 he has been teaching the Kora to undergraduate and postgraduate students at SOAS.

Rowan Pease

Rowan Pease is the Editorial Manager for SOAS journals. She learnt Chinese at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Xiamen University, China, before undertaking postgraduate study in ethnomusicology at SOAS. She is also a senior teaching fellow in the SOAS music department.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4063
  • Email: chinaq@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 479
  • Office Hours: By Email Appointment
Sanju Sahai
Senior Teaching Fellow (Performance)
Sanju Sahai
Sanju Sahai represents the distinguished lineage of tabla players and teachers from Banaras. He performs internationally as a soloist and in a variety of ensembles, and has been teaching tabla at SOAS for many years.

Research Associates

David W Hughes
Research Associate
David Hughes
Ethnomusicology; music of East Asia especially Japan; Japanese folk and theatre music; music and linguistics; Indonesian gamelan and Javanese street music
Stephen Jones
Research Associate
Stephen Jones

Music of China, specifically Northern ritual and folk music, instrumental ensembles; music and politics.

Noriko Manabe
Research Associate
Noriko Manabe

Music and social movements; music and language; the internet and the music industry; popular music in Japan; Japanese hip-hop; music and trauma; children's songs; Cuba; ethnomusicology; music theory. 

Min Yen Ong
Postdoctoral Research Associate

Ethnomusicology, intangible cultural heritage policy and practice, preservation and sustainability, tourism, memory and place. Primary regional research in China (especially Chinese opera), but also interest in music of the Pacific Islands.

Hwee-San Tan
Research Associate

Ethnomusicology, Buddhist music in China, Taiwan, diaspora studies, intangible cultural heritage preservation, music in Singapore and Malaysia.

Research Fellows