Kimasi Browne - Azusa Pacific University

Kimasi Browne, Ph.D.

Director of Ethnomusicology and Music Research

Phone: (626) 815-6000, Ext. 3586
Email: kbrowne@apu.edu
Fax: (626) 969-7419

The American ethnomusicologist Kimasi L. Browne earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Ethnomusicology at UCLA where he was a protégé of ethnomusicologists Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, Cheryl L. Keyes, and Timothy Rice. At UCLA,he studied composition with composer Elaine Barkin. He studied with Philip Browne and earned his B.A. in Music Composition at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal-Poly, Pomona). In 2001, Kimasi joined the APU School of Music faculty. Since ariving he has served on the Faculty Senate, Diversity Council, Masters Studies Council, the WASC Task Force on Transformational Scholarship and on the Faculty Research Council. He was the founding director of the APU Gospel Choir and served as its director from 2001 to 2006. Professor Browne teaches the Graduate Seminar in Music History (19th, 20th, and 21st centuries). He developed the undergraduate ethnomusicology courses Introduction to World Music, Music of Africa, Soul Music, Music of Latin America and Music of Asia. He has been the recipient of an APU Faculty Research Council Publication Assistance Grant (2013), an Accomplished Scholar Award (2012) and the Rose Leigler Graduate Scholarly Achievement Award (2006). Before APU Browne taught at Pomona College, Whittier College, California State University Long Beach, University of Californian, Riverside and UCLA--where he founded and directed the UCLA African American Choral Ensemble (now the UCLA Gospel Choir). He has directed choirs and ensembles of various African American choral traditions for more than thirty years.

Kimasi is the President of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California and Hawaii Chapter (SEMSCHC). He is often an invited guest lecturer. He frequently presents papers, organizes panels and roundtables and speaks at local, regional, national, and international conferences and symposia on the African Diaspora, African American Gospel music, Soul music, transculturalarity (a term he coined in 2006), ethnomusicological pedagogy and on the nexus between African American-style Gospel choir music and Higher Education in the People’s Republic of China. Browne’s research projects have taken him from North America (California, Michigan; Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Missouri, and Ontario, Canada); to Europe (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, and Bulgaria); to Africa (Egypt. Ethiopia, Melilla, Morocco, Ghana, and South Africa) and to Asia (People’s Republic of China and South Korea). Browne’s scholarship has been sponsored by the Institute of American Cultures, the UCLA Center for African American Studies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Michigan International Institute, University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies, the University of Michigan Confucius Institute, the Azusa Pacific University Office of the Provost, and the APU Office of Diversity Planning and Assessment. Browne's research has been published by the University of California Press, the Music Research Institute (MRI Press), The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the Motown Historical Museum, The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village and the University of Granada (Spain) Foundation for Science and Technology. His articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Intercultural Music, Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology, and the Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology.

Kimasi has performed internationally--accompanying himself and choirs on piano and as a choral and orchestral conductor. He is a composer, arranger and baritone vocalist. Until 2006, he recorded annually with the 3,000-voice National Mass Choir of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. (GMWA). Professional artists with whom he has worked include Smokey Robinson, Brenda Holloway, Martha Reeves, Kim Weston, Carlton Pearson, Darryl Coley, Rodena Preston and her brother Billy Preston. In October 2005, he conducted a gospel choir workshop and concert as part of the Africa Meets Asia Symposium at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing. In 2007, he was invited to return to the Conservatory and to spend his 2008 Sabbatical Leave there as a full-time certificated
Foreign Expert in music culture and Visiting Professor. While at CCOM Browne taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in American Popular Culture and gospel choir piano accompaniment. He established China's first university gospel choir. In May 2008 he toured China giving lectures and performing his original compositions singing and playing piano with Chinese erhu virtuoso, Ma Xiaohui on her Erhu Holding Hands with the World tour. In June 2008, Browne conducted a series of concerts in Beijing, which featured the four gospel choirs he trained and directed. Beijing’s Fengtai Church was one of the concert venues. In 2009 Browne organized with Akin Euba, Cynthia Tse Kimberlin and Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje the first Africa Meets North America (AMNA) Symposium and Festival, hosted by the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. In 2010, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Taye Atske-Selasse invited Dr. Browne to deliver the Keynote Address at the Ethiopia’s first-ever Ambassadorial Concert in the Yared School of Music at Addis Ababa University. Browne was a Summer Scholar in the Ethnomusicology and Global Culture National Endowment for the Humanities and Society for Ethnomusicology Summer Institute (2011). He is co-editor with Jean N. Kidula of Resiliency and Distinction: Beliefs, Endurance and Creativity in the Musical Arts of Continental and Diasporic Africa. A Festschrift in Honor of Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (MRI Press, 2013).

Education

Ph.D.- Ethnomusicology, UCLA, 2005
M.A.- Ethnomusicology, UCLA, 1995
B.A.- Music Composition, California State Polytechnic University, 1992
A.A.- Fine Arts (Music), Citrus College, 1989

Department

School of Music

Expertise

African Music Secular and Sacred Popular Culture (Gospel, R&B, Motown, Soul Music)

British Underground Youth Culture (Northern and Rare Soul)

Ethnomusicology in the Christian Academy

Gospel Music

Graduate Music History, Music Fundamentals

World Music

Professional/Scholarly Presentations

Compositions
Sky and Dreams for Voice, Piano, and Erhu. Words and Music by Kimasi L. Browne, Dedicated to Ma Xiaohui (who recommended this title). Debut performance, Erhu Holding Hands with the World, Oriental Concert Hall, Shanghai, China. May 10. 2008

Strong (Because We Are Africans) for Voice and Piano. Spontaneously composed in tribute to UCLA Black Alumni Association members. Jazz Tone Club, Airport Residential, Accra, Ghana, West Africa. August 7. 2007

Call on the Lord for voice, erhu, piano, SAT and rhythm; composed by Kimasi L. Browne, Ma Xiaohui, and Jonte Moore; debut performance with the Azusa Pacific University Gospel Choir, Darling Library Rotunda, Azusa Pacific University, February 28, 2007

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing composed by Charles Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn; unaccompanied SATB and rehearsal piano arranged by Kimasi L. Browne; debut performance by the Pomona College Gospel Choir, Fall Concert, Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music, Pomona College, Claremont, 2002

I Will Not War (After the Flesh) for SATB and rhythm; composed by Kimasi L. Browne; debut performance by the Azusa Pacific University Gospel Choir, Fall Concert, Munson Chapel, Azusa Pacific University, 2002

The Most Important Thing in Life for SATB and rhythm; composed by Kimasi L. Browne; debut performance by the Pomona College Gospel Choir, Fall Concert, Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music, Pomona College, Claremont, 2002

Presentations
“The Benefits of Intercultural Exchanges” Keynote Address at Opening Ceremonies of the Africa Meets Asia: 2nd International Conference on African and Chinese Music. Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China, 2007

“The Role of Movement and the Sense of Self and Others in Performing African American Jazz and Gospel Music.” Invited Master Class. The China Children’s Choir. Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China, 2008

"Impartation, Invocation, and Improvisation: Teaching African American Culture in the Chinese Music Conservatory." Paper presented to the Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California and Hawaii Chapter. University of California, Los Angeles, 2009

Live Interview on Radio XFM 97.7 by Russ Winstanley on "Northern Soul Sunday Evening Show" discussion of Browne's Ph.D. dissertation. Manchester, England, 2006

"Soul Music: The Interculturalarity of a Repository for the African Diaspora and Beyond" 10th Biennial Symposium and Festival of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts (CIMA) and the III Spring Meeting (III Encuentro de Primavera) of La Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, 2008

“Multiple Identities and Overlapping Experience: A Brief History of Motown and Rare Soul Music in Britain,” British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual meeting, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2002

Commentary and Response to "Semiotic Theory and the Limits of Computer Mediated Learning;" and "Technical and Professional Communication Seals the Divide between the Two Cultures." Oxford Round Table: "Arts and Science." Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, 2006

"Negotiating Faith and Belief / Scholarship and Pedagogy: The Emerging Presence of Ethnomusicology in the Southern California Christian Academy." A position statement presented as part of a four-member Roundtable to the 51st annual meeting of the Society of Ethnomusicology. Honolulu, Hawaii, 2006

"The Intercultural Moment: Experiencing the Impartation of Gospel Music in Beijing, China." A Seminar presented to the 9th Biennial Symposium and Festival of the Center for Intercultural Music Arts (CIMA). In collaboration with Kai Scott Liu (China). Facultad de Ciencias de la Educaccion, University of Granada, Granada, Spain, 2006

"African American Soul Music in Underground Great Britain: A Brief History of Northern Soul." Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Miami, Florida, 2003

"Cultural Identity: Production, Retention, and Contestation," annual meeting, Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern Calfornia Chapter, Loyola Marymount University, 2003

"Hip Hop World Part 2," annual meeting, Soceity for Ethnomusicology, Southern California Chapter, University of California, Los Angeles, 2004

"My Research on Northern Soul," A presentation to A World of Music at the invitation of Dr. David Kopplin. Alumni Professor of the Day, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Department of Music, 2002

Publications
“Soul Music:The Interculturalarity of a Repository for the African Diaspora and Beyond” in Musica, Arte, Dialogo, Civilizacion, Maria Angustias Ortiz Molina (Coordinadora), Fernado Ramos (Editor), Granada, Spain: University of Granada, Foundation for Science and Technology, pp. 143-165, 2008

“Traditional China and African Diasporic Culture: Erhu, APU, and the Gospel of Intercultural Eschnge” in Africa Meets Asia: Proceedings of the 2nd Internatinal Symposium on African and Chinese Music, (in English and Chinese) Boyu Zhang and Xin Li, eds. Point Richmond, California: MRI Press, (forthcoming 2009)

"The Introduction as Signature: An Analysis of Western Musical Instruments in Chimurenga, Mbaqanga and Motown" in Turn Up the Volume!: A Celebration of African Music, ed. Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History), pp. 220-229, 1999

"'Identity, Scene and Material Culture: The Place of African American Rare Soul Music on the British Northern Soul Scene." Published online at www.soul-source.co.uk

"'Soul or Nothing:' The Formation of Cultural Identity on the British Northern Soul Scene." Ph. D. Dissertation. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Publications, 2006

"Marvin Gaye: Culture Bearer of an African American Musical Tradition." Fourth Annual Tribute to Marvin Gaye. Detroit: Motown Historical Museum, pp. 9-18, 1993

"Praise the Lord!: Gospel Music in Washington, D.C." The World of Music (Germany, forthcoming), 2004

"The Intercultural Nexus Between the Music of Motown and the Beatles." Intercultural Music,Volume 4, ed. Robert Mawuena Kwami and Cynthia Tse Kimberlin. London: MRI Press/Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, pp. 57-71, 2001

View All Professional/Scholarly Presentations

Professional Experience

Academic Experience
Vocal Coach, Azusa Pacific University, 2001-2004

Director of Gospel Choir, Azusa Pacific University, 2001-2004

Director, Pomona College Gospel Choir, Pomona College, 2000-2004

Director of African-American Music Ensemble, UCLA, 1993-1997

Industry Experience
Conductor, Gospel Choral Workshop, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China, 2005

Conductor, Gospel Music Workshop, Irish World Music Centre, Limerick, Republic of Ireland, 1998

Conductor, producer, author, and choral director, African American Heritage Celebration: "Unity in Black and White," Faith Community Church, Covina, 1995

Ministerial/Para-church Experience
Choral Director, Faith Community Church, West Covina, 1993-1997

Director/founder, Faith Community Gospel Ensemble, West Covina, 1993-1997

Professional Involvement and Accomplishments

Honors, Awards, Recognition
2007 Diversity Grant - Institutional travel award to Ghana, Azusa Pacific University. Office of University Diversity and Assessment

2006 Induction and membership. The Oxford Round Table. Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, Oxford, England

2002 Alumni Professor of the Day, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, Ethnomusicology
2000-2001 Lecturer Faculty Merit Award, College of Liberal Arts, California State University, Long Beach
1998-1999 Dorothy Danforth Dissertation Fellowship, UCLA
1997-1998 Institute of American Cultures Research Grant (Support for fieldwork in England, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland)
1997-1998 UCLA Center for African American Studies Research Grant (Support for fieldwork in England, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland)
1994-1998 Project 88 Doctoral Fellowship, UCLA
1994-1995 The William Grandvil Carter Memorial Award in Ethnomusicology and African Studies, UCLA
1994-1995 Elaine Krown Klein Fine Arts Fellowship, UCLA
1993-1994 Chancellor's Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, UCLA
1992 Graduate Opportunity Fellowship, UCLA

Associations, Boards, Committees
American Choral Directors Association (ACDA)
British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE)
Centre for Intercultural Music Arts (CIMA)
College Music Society (CMS)
Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA)
International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM)
Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California Chapter (SEMSCC)
Oxford University Society (OUS)

School of Music