• Faculty

  • Evan Rapport

    Professor of Ethnomusicology

    Email
    rapporte@newschool.edu

    Office Location
    M - 68 Fifth Avenue

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    Evan Rapport

    Profile

    I believe that composing, performing, writing, listening, and discussing are interrelated ways of engaging with music, and I work to cultivate this way of thinking among my students. I am a scholar of American music, race and ethnicity, immigration, Iranian and Central Asian repertoires, and Jewish musical life around the world. These many research aims come together in my first book, Greeted with Smiles: Bukharian Jewish Music and Musicians in New York (2014), on the musical life of Jewish immigrants from Central Asia at the beginning of the twenty-first century. My second book, Damaged: Musicality and Race in Early American Punk (2020), is an in-depth exploration of early punk's musical style as well as the ways in which punk was shaped by—and shaped—racial formations in the 1970s. I am a saxophonist and composer, and my classes often combine making music and seminar discussions. For example, in my recurring course on punk, students play with punk approaches in small bands; discuss punk's history with respect to race, class, and gender; and listen to nearly two hundred musical selections. I am also dedicated to civic engagement, and I have developed several courses in partnership with the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, bringing New School students together with artists from New York's Haitian, Colombian, Bukharian Jewish, and Sri Lankan communities. 


    Degrees Held

    PhD, Music (Ethnomusicology), CUNY Graduate Center
    MA, Music, CUNY
    BMus, (Jazz Composition), Oberlin Conservatory of Music


    Professional Affiliation

    Society for Ethnomusicology
    Society for American Music
    American Musicological Society


    Recent Publications

    “Bukharian Jewish Weddings and Creative Uses of the Central Asian Past.” In The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Music Studies, edited by Tina Frühauf, 531–49 (Oxford University Press), 2023.

    Damaged: Musicality and Race in Early American Punk (University Press of Mississippi, 2020)

    Greeted with Smiles: Bukharian Jewish Music and Musicians in New York (Oxford University Press, 2014) 

    “Repertoire and the Lives of Jewish Professional Musicians: Ezro Malakov from Uzbekistan and Al Drootin from Volhynia.” Musica Judaica 22, 2018/2019

    “International Popular Music Styles and Contemporary Bukharian Jewish Identity.” Journal of Jewish Identities 10(1), January 2017

    "Prosodic Rhythm in Jewish Sacred Music: Examples from the Persian-Speaking World," Asian Music 47(1), January 2016

    “Hearing Punk as Blues.” Popular Music 33(1), January 2014

    “New York: Ethnic Music.” The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd ed., edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett (Oxford University Press, 2013)

    “Performance Styles of a Bukharian Singer.” In Garment and Core: Jews and their Musical Experiences, edited by Eitan Avitsur, Marina Ritzarev, and Edwin Seroussi, 101–112 (Bar Ilan University), 2012

    “Bill Finegan’s Gershwin Arrangements and the American Concept of Hybridity.” Journal of the Society for American Music 2(4), November 2008

    Critical Minded: New Approaches to Hip Hop Studies, co-edited with Ellie M. Hisama (Institute for Studies in American Music), 2005


    Research Interests

    Intersections of composition and improvisation; music of Iran, Central Asia, and the United States; issues of ethnicity, race, and diaspora


    Awards And Honors

    Distinguished Teaching Award, The New School (university-wide), 2020.

    H. Earle Johnson subvention award (Society for American Music) for Damaged, 2020.

    American Musicological Society subvention award for Damaged, 2020.

    Center for Popular Music Studies / Rock and Roll Hall of Fame research fellowship, 2016. 

    Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University, 2012-2013.

    Dorot Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University, 2007-2008.

    Goldie and David Blanksteen Dissertation Award in Jewish Studies, Center for Jewish Studies (CUNY), 2006.


    Current Courses

    Contemporary Music: Methods
    LMUS 2200, Fall 2024

    Ind Senior Project
    LINA 4990, Fall 2024

    Independent Study
    LMUS 3950, Fall 2024

    Music & Mysticism
    LMUS 3018, Fall 2024

    Future Courses

    Composition Workshop
    LMUS 3107, Spring 2025

    Contemporary Music: Methods
    LMUS 2200, Spring 2025

    Ind Senior Project
    LINA 4990, Spring 2025

    Independent Study
    LMUS 3950, Spring 2025

    Jazz in Its Social Contexts
    JMUH 1804, Spring 2025

    Past Courses

    Arts Sr. Seminar: Creative
    LINA 4901, Spring 2024

    Contemporary Music: Methods
    LMUS 2200, Spring 2024

    Ind Senior Project
    LINA 4990, Spring 2024

    Independent Study
    LMUS 3950, Spring 2024

    Jazz in Its Social Contexts
    JMUH 1804, Spring 2024

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