Anne K. Rasmussen

Associate Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology

Director, The William and Mary Middle Eastern Music Ensemble

B.A., Northwestern University

M.A., University of Denver

Ph.D. in Music, University of California-Los Angeles

On leave in Manila, Philippines, Fall 2004; on campus Spring 2005)

Anne K. Rasmussen is associate professor of music and ethnomusicology in the Department of Music at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia where she also directs a Middle Eastern Music Ensemble. She received the Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles, and her BA and ME from Northwestern University and the University of Denver respectively. She also studied for two years at the Sorbonne in Paris and received her formative musical training at the New England Conservatory. Prior to joining the faculty of William and Mary in 1993 she held visiting teaching positions at Oberlin College and the University of Texas, Austin.

As an ethnomusicologist, Rasmussen teaches courses that deal with music outside of the Western art music tradition including Worlds of Music, an introduction to Ethnomusicology, Music Cultures of the Middle East, World Music and World Religion, Music and Gender, Music and Politics and so forth. In 2001 she received the Phi Beta Kappa Faculty Award for Excellence in teaching. She is active in professional societies and has been a member of the board of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Students who were introduced to the field of ethnomusicology through Rasmussen's courses and ensemble are currently pursuing advanced degrees in the ethnomusicology graduate programs at Indiana University, Brown University, The University of Texas at Austin, New York University, and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Rasmussen has produced four compact disc recordings, co-edited a book with Kip Lornell entitled Musics of Multicultural America (Schirmer 1997) and has written several articles, chapters, and reviews. Her current research concerns Islamic musical arts in Indonesia and female reciters of the Qur'ân. She was a Fulbright senior scholar based in Jakarta in 1999 and an article, based on that research won the Jaap Kunst prize for the best article in the field of ethnomusicology in 2001. In the year 2003 Rasmussen traveled to Indonesia three times for further research and fieldwork and is at work on a book tentatively titled "Women's Voices, the Recited Qur'ân, and Islamic Musical Arts in Contemporary Indonesia." Rasmussen has lectured widely on her research and on various topics in ethnomusicology. For example, in Spring 2004, she was a "distinguished lecturer" at both the University of Michigan and Boston College, and she participated in invitational conferences and led workshops at the University of Illinois, New York University, and Georgetown University.

Anne has been involved in studying, teaching and performing Middle Eastern music since 1985 in conjunction with her studies at the University of California at Los Angeles with Ali Jihad Racy and for her fieldwork among Arab Americans in communities across the country. She is primarily a player of the 'ud, the fretless lute, but is also a capable vocalist and performer of violin, percussion, accordion, and qanun. Prior to her arrival at William and Mary, Rasmussen directed ensembles at Oberlin College and the University of Texas She also had a career as a Jazz pianist and vocalist and has studied and performed American traditional music, Javanese Gamelan, and Western Art Music.

Under the direction of Anne Rasmussen, The William and Mary Middle Eastern Music Ensemble is composed of 15-25 primarily undergraduate students who come to the group often with excellent musicianship, but no prior experience with the Arab, Turkish Persian, Armenian and Greek traditions that comprise the music of the Middle East. The instrumentation includes 'ud (11 stringed, pear shaped lute), qanun (72 string zither), nay (reed flute), violin, 'cello, bass, various percussion including the tablah or darabukah (vase-shaped , ceramic drum), riqq (tambourine with fish-skin head and heavy brass, cymbals), and daff (frame drum).

The ensemble has been fortunate to work with a number of guest artists over the years including: Munir Beken (composer, 'ud and tanbur); Nadim Dlaikan (nay), George Sawa (qanun) Yusef Kassab (composer, vocalist); Nabil Azzam (composer, violin); Latif Bolat (composer, vocalist, and baglama) and Kenen Yildiz (baglama); Sue Rudnicki (darabukkah); Nader Majd (vocalist and tar) and Ali Analou (tonbak); Maryem Hassan Toller and Ernie Toller (vocalist and nay); Richard and Harold Hagopian ('ud and violin); Karim Mohammad (percussion and dance), and Anne Elise Thomas (charter Qanun-ist of the W&M MEME).

The ensemble has collaborated on several occasions with singers including the William and Mary Botetourt Chamber Singers formerly under the direction of James Armstrong, now directed by Jamie Bartlett as well as the Choir of the Williamsburg, Unitarian Universalist Church. The ensemble has worked with dancers Michele Forner, Jana Beaufait and her troupe, Najla Turczyn, and Alexandra King.

In addition to their formal concerts, the ensemble has been invited to perform for the Marhaba Club of the Tidewater Arab American community, SERMEISS: The Southeast Regional Association of Middle East and Islamic Scholars, MACSEM: The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, The University of Virginia, Duke University, The University of Pittsburgh, Georgetown University, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church and the unparalleled venue for acoustic and traditional music in the Mid Atlantic region, The Prism, in Charlottesville, VA. In the Williamsburg area the Ensemble has performed (sometimes repeatedly) for the Occasion for the Arts, Echoes, the James City and York County School Systems, various churches in the region and countless events on the campus of the College of William and Mary. The Ensemble has produced one compact disc recording titled: The William and Mary Middle Eastern Ensemble Live in Concert, which features their best performances from 1997-2001.

Select Publications by Anne K. Rasmussen

2004 "Mainstreaming American Musical Multiculturalism," American Music 22:2.

2004 "Bilateral Negotiations in Bimusicality: Insiders, Outsiders and 'the Real Version' in Middle Eastern Music Performance" in Performing Ethnomusicology Edited by Ted Solis, University of California Press. Pp. 215-228.

2003 "Music and Islam," and "Quranic Recitation," brief entries for the Harvard Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press.

2002 "Popular Music of Arab Detroit," for Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 6 The Middle East Volume, edited by Virginia Danielson, Scott Marcus, Dwight Reynolds, New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc. Pp. 279-288.

2001 "Middle Eastern Music" in Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Volume 3: The United States and Canada . New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc. Pp. 1028-1041.

2001 "The Qur'ân in Daily Life: The Public Project of Musical Oratory," The Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Edited by Bruno Nettl, (Vol 45 No. 1) Winter 2001 Pp. 30-57. Recipient of the 2002 Jaap Kunst Prize for the "Most Significant Article Published in the Field of Ethnomusicology (any journal, any language, in 2001).

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