SOAS University of London

Department of Music, School of Arts

Music Department Staff

Head of the School of Arts 

Professor Anna Contadini

Learning & Teaching Coordinator

Professor Shane McCausland

Research Coordinator

Dr Rachel Harris

Associate Head of the Department of Music

Dr Angela Impey

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 11-1pm
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
  • Office Hours: Tuesdays 11-1
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
  • Office Hours: Wednesdays 2-4 p.m.
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: On sabbatical terms 1 and 2
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: Wednesdays 11 - 1
Richard Williams
Lecturer in Ethnomusicology
Richard Williams

Music of South Asia; Hindustani classical music; historical ethnomusicology; cultural history; historical musicology and musical aesthetics; lyric, song, and musical literature; music and gender; music and religion; history of emotions

Emeritus Staff

Keith Howard
Emeritus Professor of Music
Keith Howard
Ethnomusicology; anthropology; Korean music; music traditions in Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Thailand, and Siberia; studies of religion; composition; education; shamanism; early keyboard instruments, players and restorers
Owen Wright
Emeritus Professor of Musicology of the Middle East
Owen Wright
Music of the Islamic Middle East; historical musicology

Graduate Teaching Assistants

Morgan Davies
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Morgan Davies

Audio/visual editing and production; ethnomusicology; music and language; music performance; music transcription and analysis; South Asian classical and folk music systems. 

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
Staff Silhouette

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
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
Staff Silhouette

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
Staff Silhouette

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

Research Fellows