Author Archives: Julie Strand

About Julie Strand

Hi! Thank you for your interest in the Music Department Dialogue of Civilizations program to Bali, Indonesia. I am Julie Strand, the director of the Dialogue. I teach full time in the music department as a Postdoctoral Teaching Associate in Ethnomusicology, and I've been at Northeastern since the spring of 2008. As an ethnomusicologist, I've studied many of the world's cultures and their musics, but my primary research has been on xylophones and other percussion instruments in West Africa, especially Burkina Faso. I have spent over two years living in West Africa over the course of several trips there since 1997, the longest being an 18-month stay in Burkina Faso on a Fulbright fellowship to conduct field research for my PhD in Ethnomusicology. I have also studied Indonesian music since 2000, having performed in a Javanese gamelan while in graduate school, and a Balinese gamelan, called Gamelan Galak Tika, in residence at MIT, since 2007. Aesthetically, there is much in common between African xylophone music and Balinese gamelan, particularly the complex interlocking parts at breakneck speeds, though there are no confirmed historical links between the traditions. I taught a successful Dialogue to Bali in 2011 and 2012, and I'm really looking forward to bringing students back to learn to play Balinese gamelan from a renowned composer and artist, Dewa Ketut Alit, and to experience the sights, sounds, and culture of Bali first-hand. Before I began at Northeastern, I taught for a few other study abroad programs as well, including Semester at Sea in spring 2007 and 2012, and a Summer Abroad program in Ghana for Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR. I'm really looking forward to sharing all of my experiences abroad with students, and in particular the music, dance, and culture of Bali, one of the most beautiful places on earth.