Dr. Gregory Melchor-Barz (He/Him/His)

Director of the School of Music & Professor of Ethnomusicology, College of Fine Arts

  • Gender Identity: male
  • Sexual Orientation: Gay, Queer
  • Race, Ethnicity, and/or Nationality: white
  • Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
  • Religion: Jewish

Gregory Melchor-Barz is Dir. of the School of Music at BU where is professor of ethnomusicology. A medical ethnomusicologist engaging field research in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Israel, Melchor-Barz received the PhD from Brown University and the MA from the University of Chicago. A former opera singer, he recently served as Dean at Vanderbilt U. where he was Alexander Heard Distinguished Prof.. His latest co-edited volume is Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology (Oxford). His recent volume, The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing in Music and the Arts (Oxford) and his book, Singing for Life: HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda (2006) apply the tenets of medical ethnomusicology to HIV prevention in Africa. His book, Music in East Africa (Oxford) is used for classes on African music. He is co-editor of Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology. He has produced 4 CDs and a documentary film and received a Grammy nomination.

Contact Dr. Melchor-Barz for academic support, research support, and mentoring.

BU Profile