Cynthia Tse Kimberlin
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Cynthia Tse Kimberlin (born Cynthia Mei-Ling Tse in Ganado,
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
,
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; Chinese name: ; pinyin: Xiè Měilíng; Cantonese: Tse6 Mei5ling4) is an American
ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...
. She is the executive director and publisher of the Music Research Institute and MRI Press, based in
Point Richmond, California Point Richmond, also sometimes referred to locally as The Point, is a neighborhood in Richmond, California, United States, near the eastern end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, between Interstate 580 and the San Francisco Bay. History Or ...
. Her primary area of expertise is the
music of Africa The continent of Africa is vast and its music is diverse, with different Regions of Africa, regions and List of African countries, nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres like makwaya, highlife, Mbu ...
, in particular
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
and
Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
.


Early life

Kimberlin was born on the
Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...
, in Ganado,
Apache County, Arizona Apache County is a County (United States), county in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. Shaped in a long rectangle running north to south, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 66,021. The county ...
and grew up in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
of
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
. Traveling to
Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...
, she was sent to the northern province of
Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
, where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1962 to 1964 along with Charlotte Heth. During this time she took it upon herself to conduct ethnomusicological fieldwork, although she had not yet received training in the field. She recorded many types of Eritrean and Ethiopian music (including songs of the
Tigray The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...
-
Tigrinya Tigrinya may refer to: * Tigrinya language Tigrinya, sometimes romanized as Tigrigna, is an Ethio-Semitic languages, Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic languages, Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It i ...
people), using a borrowed
Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...
reel-to-reel tape recorder with 3-inch reels. Many of these recordings are now of historical significance, as younger Tigray-Tigrinya people are largely unfamiliar with these songs.


Education

She earned a B.A. degree in
musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...
from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
in 1962, directly after which she joined the
Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...
, which had been founded a year earlier. In 1968 she received a Master of Arts degree in
ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...
from the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
(UCLA), writing her thesis on the subject of contemporary Ethiopian popular songs. While there, her instructors included
Mantle Hood Mantle Hood (June 24, 1918 – July 31, 2005) was an American ethnomusicologist. Among other areas, he specialized in studying gamelan music from Indonesia. Hood pioneered, in the 1950s and 1960s, a new approach to the study of music, and the c ...
,
Klaus Wachsmann Klaus Philipp Wachsmann (8 March 1907 – 17 July 1984) was a British ethnomusicologist of German birth. Born in 1907 in Berlin, he is considered a pioneer in the study of the traditional musics of Africa. His studies in Germany (on pre-Gregorian c ...
,
Charles Seeger Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the husband of the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919– ...
, David Morton, Tsun-yuen Lui,
Nicolas Slonimsky Nicolas Slonimsky ( – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (), was a Russian-born American musicologist, conductor, pianist, and composer. Best known for his writing and musical reference work, he wrote the ''Thesaurus ...
, and
Paul Chihara Paul Seiko Chihara (born July 9, 1938) is an American composer. Life and career Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent three years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idah ...
. In 1972 she returned to Ethiopia for more extensive fieldwork, recording a total of 97 reel-to-reel tapes of music performed by musicians from
Shewa Shewa (; ; Somali: Shawa; , ), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa, is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is located at it ...
,
Wollo Wollo (Amharic: ወሎ) was a historical province of northern Ethiopia. During the Middle Ages this province name was Bete Amhara and it was the centre of the Solomonic emperors. Bete Amhara had an illustrious place in Ethiopian political and ...
,
Begemder Begemder (; also known as Gondar or Gonder) was a province in northwest Ethiopia. The alternative names come from its capital during the 20th century, Gondar. Etymology A plausible source for the name ''Bega'' is that the word means "dry" in t ...
,
Gojjam Gojjam ( ''gōjjām'', originally ጐዛም ''gʷazzam'', later ጐዣም ''gʷažžām'', ጎዣም ''gōžžām'') is a historical provincial kingdom in northwestern Ethiopia, with its capital city at Debre Markos. During the 18th century, G ...
,
Tigray The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...
, Eritrea,
Welega Welega (also spelled Wollega; ; ) was a province in western Ethiopia, with its capital city at Nekemte. It was named for the Wollega Oromo, who are the majority of the population within its boundaries. Welega was bordered on the west by Sudan ...
, and
Gamu-Gofa Location of Gamu Gofa within the Ethiopian Empire Gamu-Gofa was a province in the southern part of Ethiopia, named after two of the ethnic groups living within its boundaries, the Gamo and the Gofa. First incorporated into Ethiopia by Emperor ...
, in
Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...
,
Harar Harar (; Harari language, Harari: ሀረር / ; ; ; ), known historically by the indigenous as Harar-Gey or simply Gey (Harari: ጌይ, ݘٛىيْ, ''Gēy'', ), is a List of cities with defensive walls, walled city in eastern Ethiopia. It is al ...
, and
Jijiga Jijiga (, , ''Jijiga'') is the capital city of Somali Region, Ethiopia. It became the capital of the Somali Region in 1995 after it was moved from Gode. Located in the Fafan Zone with 75 km (37 mi) west of the border with Som ...
. While there she also devoted intensive study to the ''
masenqo The masenqo (; Tigrinya: ጭራ-ዋጣ (ዋጣ), also known as masinko or mesenko, is a single-stringed bowed lute commonly found in the musical traditions of Eritrea and Ethiopia. As with the krar, this instrument is used by Ethiopian minstre ...
'', a traditional one-stringed bowed instrument. While in Addis Ababa, she spent six months as a
Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
Professor at
Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa University (; AAU) is a national university located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the oldest university in Ethiopia. AAU has thirteen campuses. Twelve of these are situated in Addis Ababa, and one is located in Bishoftu, about away. ...
in the Theater Arts Department, which was at that time under the chairmanship of Tesfaye Gessesse. In 1976, she received her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UCLA. For her Ph.D. dissertation, she focused on the theory and practice of ''qenet'' (
mode Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is the setting fo ...
) among ''masenqo'' players of the
Amhara people Amharas (; ) are a Ethiopian Semitic languages, Semitic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa, traditionally inhabiting parts of the northwest Ethiopian Highlands, Highlands of Ethiopia, particularly the Amhara Reg ...
of Ethiopia, which she recorded in and around Addis Ababa.


Works, awards, and current position

In 1983 Kimberlin released an LP recording entitled ''Ethiopia: Three Chordophone Traditions'', which included her field recordings of plucked and bowed string instruments of Ethiopia (''
begena The begena, () is a ten-stringed box-lyre instrument from Ethiopia, and is the sole melodic instrument devoted only to the ''zema'', the spiritual part of Ethiopian music. Etymology and origin The instrument's name is derived from ''bägänä' ...
'', ''
krar The ''krar'' (Geʽez: ክራር) is a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale. A modern ''krar'' may be Instrument amplifier, amplified, much in the same way as an electric guitar or el ...
'', and ''masenqo''), along with her extensive liner notes. She also wrote the liner notes for ''The Music of Nigeria: Igbo Music'' (Bärenreiter Musicaphon, UNESCO Collection, 1983), an LP recording featuring the music of the
Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a t ...
ethnic group of
Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
, where she has also conducted fieldwork. Music from her ''Three Chordophone Traditions'' LP was used in the 1999 documentary film ''Adwa'', by
Haile Gerima Haile Gerima (born March 4, 1946) is an Ethiopian filmmaker who lives and works in the United States. He is a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. Since 1975, Haile has b ...
(who was a classmate of Kimberlin's at UCLA). In addition to African musics, Kimberlin's scholarly interests include intercultural music after 1950, American music, African-East Asian reciprocities in music, ethno-biography, global issues relating to music change, and theoretical studies in music. The Music Research Institute, of which Kimberlin serves as executive director, is a
501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...
non-profit educational institution, which was founded in 1984 by Dr. Marcia A. Herndon, who served as executive director from 1984 to 1997). Kimberlin joined the Institute in 1986 and has served as executive director since 1997. Kimberlin has taught at
San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
, the University of California, Berkeley, Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), and the University of Ife (now
Obafemi Awolowo University Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is a federal university in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as the University of Ife by the regional government of Western Nigeria, which w ...
, Nigeria). Kimberlin has presented papers at numerous music conferences in the United States,
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
,
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, including many symposia organized by the ethnomusicologist and composer
Akin Euba Olatunji Akin Euba (28 April 1935 – 14 April 2020) was a Nigerian composer, musicologist, and pianist. Career Born on 28 April 1935 in Lagos, Nigeria, Akin Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the Trinity College of Music, London, obt ...
, whose opera ''Chaka'' has been released on CD by MRI Press. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Dissertation Award, a Fulbright Teaching/Research Award, an
American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...
grant, and a Beyond War Award recipient (for U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, 1987). Kimberlin lives in Point Richmond, California with her husband Jerome. For many years she was affiliated with the Office of the President (Academic Affairs) at the University of California, Berkeley, and she also served as archivist for the Ethnomusicology Archive at UCLA.


Selected publications

*Kimberlin, Cynthia Mei-Ling (1968). "Ethiopian Contemporary Popular Songs." M.A. thesis. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles. Unpublished. *Kimberlin, Cynthia Mei-Ling (1976). "Masinqo and the Nature of Qanat." Los Angeles, California: The University of California, Los Angeles. *Kimberlin, Cynthia Tse, and Jerome Kimberlin (1984). "The Morphology of the Masinqo: Ethiopia's Bowed Spike Fiddle". In ''Selected reports in Ethnomusicology'' 5, pp. 249–61. *Kimberlin, Cynthia Tse (1989). "Ornaments and Their Classification as a Determinant of Technical Ability and Musical Style." In ''African Musicology: Current Trends: A Festschrift Presented to J. H. Kwabena Nketia'', ed. Jacqueline Cogdell Djedje and William G. Carter. Atlanta: Crossroads Press. Vol. 1, pp. 265–305. *Kimberlin, Cynthia Tse (2000). "Women, Music, and 'Chains of the Mind': Eritrea and the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, 1972-93." In ''Music and Gender'', ed. Pirkko Moisala and Beverley Diamond. Foreword by Ellen Koskoff. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. *"Orchestra Ethiopia 1963-1975: Halim El-Dabh, Catalyst for Music Innovation and Preservation" (2005). In ''Multiple Interpretations of Dynamics of Creativity and Knowledge in African Music Traditions: A Festschrift in Honor of Akin Euba on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday'', ed. Bode Omojola and George Dor. Point Richmond, California: MRI Press. .


Discography

*1972 - ''Ethiopia'' est Germany Barenreiter Musicaphon. LP. Anthology of African Music series; vol. 3: ''Three Chordophone Traditions''. Recorded in 1972 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by Cynthia Tse Kimberlin. Re-released on CD by Auvidis/UNESCO in 1996.


References


External links


Cynthia Tse Kimberlin page
at Music Research Institute site

from UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive page
Music Research Institute, Inc. site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimberlin, Cynthia Tse American ethnomusicologists Year of birth missing (living people) American people of Chinese descent Living people People from Ganado, Arizona University of California, Berkeley alumni Academic staff of Addis Ababa University American women musicologists Women ethnomusicologists San Francisco State University faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Academic staff of Obafemi Awolowo University American expatriates in Nigeria American expatriates in Ethiopia American women anthropologists 21st-century American women