Brown, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1927-2005

Robert E. "Bob" Brown (18 April 1927 - 29 November 2005) was a world famous ethnomusicologist, and the longtime president of the Center for World Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering an understanding of world music and performing arts through workshops, concerts, lectures and study abroad programs. Bob Brown is credited with coining the term "world music," and during his lifetime worked extensively to increase awareness of non-western cultures and music, especially those of India and Indonesia.

Robert E. Brown grew up in Clinton, NY and spent his undergraduate and graduate years at Ithaca College and Cornell University. Although Brown had a background in a wide variety of instruments, in 1953, he entered the PhD program at UCLA as a piano major. After Mantel Hood, famous American ethnomusicologist, arrived at UCLA, Brown switched into the new ethnomusicology program and became Hood's first graduate assistant. Brown's time at UCLA resulted in his dissertation, titled The Mrdanga : A Study of Drumming in South India (1965).

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