Silk Road Artists

Dr. Theodore Levin
ethnomusicologist (b. 1951, United States)

"I started in the European classical music tradition, with the piano. I went to Israel and wandering around East Jerusalem, I discovered, not Judaism, but Islam. It all had to do with hearing the sound of the muezzin, the sound of the person chanting the call to prayer from the minaret. That sound may be one of the more distinct sounds made by humans. Hearing that sound changed my life and ever since I’ve been studying the cultures of Islam."

Theodore Levin is Parents Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities and Chair of the Music Department at Dartmouth College. He holds a B.A. degree magna cum laude from Amherst College, and M.F.A. and Ph.D. degrees in music from Princeton University. As an advocate for music and musicians from other cultures, he has written books, produced recordings, curated concerts and festivals, and contributed to international arts initiatives. During a leave from Dartmouth, he served as the first executive director of the Silk Road Project (2000-2001), and subsequently as the Project’s curatorial director (2001-2002), in which position he co-curated the 2002 Smithsonian Folklife Festival “The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust.” He currently serves as Senior Project Consultant to the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, and as a member of the Arts and Culture Network sub-board of the Soros Foundations' Open Society Institute. At Dartmouth he teaches courses on ethnomusicology and world music, and in 2008, will begin teaching a new interdisciplinary College Course on the Silk Road.