Theodore Craig Levin (born 1951) is an American

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

. He is a professor of music at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and earned his undergraduate degree at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

and obtained his Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. Levin has focused his research on the people of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. His recordings from these regions have been released on various labels. Levin served as the first executive director of the

Silk Road Project Silkroad, formerly the Silk Road Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and ...

, an initiative of the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He also served as chair of the Arts and Culture sub-board of the

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a Grant (money), grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the wo ...

. Currently he is a senior project consultant to the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Levin began studying Central Asian forms of music in 1974. Since then, he has written several books, including ''The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York)'' (first published in 1996). He chronicled his journey to

Tuva Tuva (; russian: Тува́) or Tyva ( tyv, Тыва), officially the Republic of Tuva (russian: Респу́блика Тыва́, r=Respublika Tyva, p=rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə tɨˈva; tyv, Тыва Республика, translit=Tyva Respublika ...

in his book ''Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond'' (first published in 2006).

Books

Levin's first book, ''The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York)'', was published by

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

in 1996. It was republished in 1999. In it, Levin chronicles his travels across Central Asia from 1977 to 1994. Levin records information about various musical genres and traditions, such as shashmaqam, suvara, and dastan as well as a variety of folk genres. The book provides a detailed account of Central Asian folk customs in

Tsarist Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states ...

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and post-Soviet periods. The volume was published with an accompanying 24-track CD with location recordings. Levin's second book, ''Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond'', was first published by Indiana University Press in 2006. It was republished in 2010. In this volume, Levin chronicles his experiences with a

n throat-singing group. The author details the Tuvan people's ideas about nature and animals, and how their music reproduces the sounds and actions of those animals. The idea of tradition is also brought up frequently, especially in the case of the throat singers. A Russian edition of the book with contributions from Valentina Süzükei was published by Klassika-XXI in 2012 under the title ''Музыка новых номадов. Горловое пение в Туве и за ее пределами'' (literally "The Music of the New Nomads. Throat singing in Tuva and Beyond"). Both the English and Russian versions were published with an accompanying CD. Levin also edited the book ''The Music of Central Asia'' along with Saida Daukeyeva and Elmira Köchümkulova. The book was published in 2016 by Indiana University Press with the support and collaboration of the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. The volume contains contributions by 27 authors from 14 countries, and has a companion website (www.musicofcentralasia.org) with access to close to 200 audio and video examples. It was also published as an e-book in two volumes. The project received the 2017 Public Outreach Award of the

Central Eurasian Studies Society The Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) is a North American-based society for scholars concerned with the Central Eurasian region. The society seeks to "promote high standards of research and teaching, and to foster communication among scholars ...

as well as the 2018 RUSA Darmouth Medal for Excellence in Reference.

Recordings

Levin's recordings from the

, the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

, and

have been released on various labels, including Nonesuch Records,

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

Ocora Ocora (Office de Coopération Radiophonique) is a French record label specializing in field recordings of world music. It was founded in 1957 by the composer, pianist and musicologist Charles Duvelle with the musician Pierre Schaeffer. Ocora is ...

, and

Auvidis Auvidis was a record label founded in 1976 by Louis Bricard. Along with its subsidiaries, it was acquired in 1998 by Naïve Records. During its existence, Auvidis acquired a number of subsidiary labels, such as Unidisc; the traditional and world ...

. In particular, Levin produced the 1990 CD ''Tuva: Voices from the Center of Asia'', which is the first commercial recording of Tuvan music released in the West. Additionally, Levin and the French ethnomusicologist

Jean During Jean During (born 1947) is a French musician and ethnomusicologist specialising in music from the nations of the East especially Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. A commentator on the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, he is th ...

produced the two-CD set ''The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan'', which was released in 2001. Both of these albums were released on the Smithsonian Folkways label. Most notably, Levin produced the ten-disk series ''Music of Central Asia''. The project was implemented in collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and released on the Smithsonian Folkways label from 2004 to 2011. The second volume of the series was nominated for the 2007

Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists between 2004 and 2011 for quality traditional world music albums. The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and originall ...

References

External links

On the Silk Road with Professor Ted Levin

Music of Central Asia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levin, Theodore American ethnomusicologists American music educators American writers about music American travel writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Dartmouth College faculty Amherst College alumni Princeton University alumni Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers 1951 births