Gregory Melchor-Barz

Gregory Melchor-Barz is an ethnomusicologist who has conducted field research in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Israel. He received the PhD from Brown University and the MA from the University of Chicago. His current research project is on global drag traditions, focusing on drag performance in Boston and in Israel.

A former opera singer, Barz’s latest book is a co-edited volume titled Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology (Oxford). In addition, he has co-edited The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing in Music and the Arts (Oxford) and two editions of Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology (Oxford). His monograph, Singing for Life: HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda (Routledge) applies the central tenets of medical ethnomusicology to a study of HIV prevention in East Africa.

His book, Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, was also published by Oxford. He has produced 4 compact discs and a documentary film and received a GRAMMY nomination in the Best Traditional World Music category as producer of Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda (Smithsonian Folkways).