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    About

    Alejandro L. Madrid is the Walter W. Naumburg Professor of Music at Harvard University. He is a cultural theorist of sound and music working in Latin American and Latinx studies. His eight books –five monographs, a textbook, and two edited volumes– and a host of distinguished articles, have established him as one of the foremost musicologists of his generation and one of the leading scholars in Ibero-American music studies. His five monographs, Tania León’s Stride. A Polyrhythmic Life (University of Illinois Press, 2021), In Search of Julián Carrillo and Sonido 13 (Oxford University Press, 2015), Danzón. Circum-Caribbean Dialogues in Music and Dance (with Robin Moore; Oxford University Press, 2013), Sounds of the Modern Nation. Music, Culture, and Ideas in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (Temple University Press, 2009), and Nor-Tec Rifa! Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World (Oxford University Press, 2008), as well as his edited volume Transnational Encounters. Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border (Oxford University Press, 2012), have all received top awards from organizations like the American Musicological Society (AMS), the Latin American Studies Association, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), and the ASCAP Foundation. He has been awarded the Humboldt Forschungspreis, the Dent Medal, given by the International Musicological Society and the Royal Musical Association for “outstanding contributions to musicology,” as well as Cuba’s Premio de Musicología Casa de las Américas, and Chile’s Premio de Musicología Samuel Claro Valdés.

    His work has been described as a “model for future works that aim to cross boundaries between musicology and ethnomusicology” and as “scholarship that intervenes in a number of important critical conversations.” Madrid’s scholarly output includes innovative and influential work on technology and cyber-communities, alternative modernisms, postcolonial musical interventions, nationalism and postnationalism, embodied culture, the materiality of musical instruments, and the musical performance of masculinities. His work engages popular, folk, and art musics from multi-methodological perspectives, making him one of today’s most effective scholars crossing over and often blurring the disciplinary boundaries between historical musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music studies, and cultural studies.

    His research has been funded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board, and the Ford Foundation, among other institutions.

    Apart from his remarkable and extensive award-winning publication record, Professor Madrid has served the scholarly community as editor of Oxford University Press’s Currents in Latin American and Iberian Music series, co-editor of Cambridge University Press’ journal Twentieth-Century Music, as well as in the Executive Committee of IASPM, as council member of the AMS and the Society for Ethnomusicology, and in the editorial board of several international scholarly journals and publishing projects. Furthermore, Professor Madrid is frequently invited as an expert commentator to national and international media outlets and most recently acted as music advisor to acclaimed filmmaker Peter Greenaway, whose latest film, Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015), is set in early 1930s Mexico.

    More information about Professor Madrid’s work can be found in the following websites:

    https://music.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/alejandro-l-madrid/

    https://harvard.academia.edu/AlejandroLMadrid

    Education

    The Ohio State University: Ph.D. in Musicology and Comparative Cultural Studies, June 2003.

    University of North Texas: M. M., emphasis in Musicology, May 1999.

    State University of New York/Purchase: M. F. A., emphasis in Guitar Performance, May 1995.

    The Boston Conservatory of Music: B. M., emphasis in Guitar Performance, cum laude, December 1992.

    CV

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    Publications

    Books:

    • Tania León’s Stride. A Polyrhythmic Life. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2021.

    • In Search of Julián Carrillo and Sonido 13. Series Editor Walter Clark. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

    • Danzón. Circum-Caribbean Dialogues in Music and Dance. Series Editor Walter Clark. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. [Co-authored with Robin D. Moore]

    • Music in Mexico. Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Series Editors Bonnie Wade and Patricia Campbell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

    • Sounds of the Modern Nation. Music, Culture and Ideas in Post-Revolutionary Mexico. Series Editor Peter Manuel. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.

    • Nor-Tec Rifa! Electronic Dance Music from Tijuana to the World. Series Editor Walter Clark. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

    • Los sonidos de la nación moderna. Música, cultura e ideas en el México post-revolucionario, 1920-1930. Havana, Cuba: Casa de las Américas, 2008.


    Edited Collections:

    • Experimentalisms in Practice. Music Perspectives from Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. [Co-edited with Ana R. Alonso Minutti and Eduardo Herrera].

    • Transnational Encounters. Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

    • Postnational Musical Identities. Cultural Production, Distribution and Consumption in a Globalized Scenario. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. [Co-edited with Ignacio Corona].


    Articles in refereed journals:

    • “Rastreando las huellas de la escucha performativa: la escritura como constelación archivística,” Anuario Musical 76 (2021): 11-30.

    • “Entre/tejiendo vidas y discursos: Notas y reflexiones en torno a la biografía y la anti-biografía musical,” Revista Argentina de Musicología 22/1 (2021): 19-43.

    • “Secreto a voces: Excess, Vocality, and Jotería in the Performance of Juan Gabriel.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1 (2018): 85-111.

    • “Landscapes and Gimmicks from the ‘Sounded City’: Listening for the Nation at the Sound Archive.” Sound Studies. An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2016): 119-136.

    • “Sonares dialécticos y política en el estudio posnacional de la música,” Revista Argentina de Musicología, No. 11 (2010): 17-32.

    • “Why Music and Performance Studies? Why Now? An Introduction to the Special Issue / ¿Por qué estudios de performance? ¿Por qué ahora? Una introducción al dossier.” Trans. Revista Transcultural de Música, No. 13 (2009).

    • “The Sounds of the Nation: Visions of Modernity and Tradition in Mexico’s First National Congress of Music.” Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 86, No. 4 (2006): 681-706.

    • “Dancing with Desire. Cultural Embodiment and Negotiation in Tijuana’s Nor-tec Music and Dance.” Popular Music, Vol. 25, No. 3 (2006): 383-399.

    • “Reapropiación y estética kitsch en ‘Tijuana Makes Me Happy’ del Colectivo Nortec.” Brújula. Revista Interdisciplinaria Sobre Estudios Latinoamericanos, Vol. 5. No. 1 (2006): 177-185.

    • “Imagining Modernity, Revising Tradition. Nor-tec Music in Tijuana and Other Borders.” Popular Music and Society, Vol. 28, No. 5 (2005): 595-618.

    • “Navigating Ideologies in ‘In-Between’ Cultures. Signifying Practices in Nor-tec Music.” Latin American Music Review, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2003): 270-286.

    • “Transculturación, performatividad e identidad en la Sinfonía No. 1 de Julián Carrillo.” Resonancias, No. 12 (2003): 61-86.

    • “Prácticas de significación e identidad. Los estudios culturales y la musicología.” Fragmentos de cultura, Vol. XII, No. 5 (2002): 905-910.

    • “Modernismo, futurismo y kenosis: las canciones de Átropo según Julián Carrillo y Carlos Chávez.” Heterofonía, Vol. XXXIII, No.123 (2000): 89-110.

    • “¿Influencias o elementos de retórica?: aspectos de centricidad en la obra de Silvestre Revueltas.” Heterofonía, Vol. XXXIII, No. 122 (2000): 19-38.

    • “De México, concierto para Andrés Segovia: una visita al Concierto del sur de Manuel M. Ponce.” Heterofonía, Vol. XXXI, No. 118-119 (1998): 106-117.


    Invited articles appearing in academic journals:

    • “The Body is a Vehicle for Walking in the World: A Conversation with Tania León / El cuerpo es un vehículo para andar por el mundo: una conversación con Tania León,” Americas: A Hemispheric Music Journal 29/1 (2021).

    • “Diversidade, tokenismo, músicas não-canônicas e crise das Humanidades na academia dos EUA,” Revista Brasileira de Música 32/1 (2019): 21-30.

    • “Sinécdoque, microhistoria y una reseña musical cubana de 1965,” Resonancias: Revista de Investigación Musical 23/44 (2019): 143-149.

    • “Diversity, Tokenism, Non-Canonical Musics, and the Crisis of the Humanities in U.S. Academia.” Journal of Music History Pedagogy, 7, No. 2 (2017): 124-129.

    • “Cuestiones de género: el danzón como un complejo de performance,” Boletín Música, No. 42-43 (2016) [co-authored with Robin Moore]: 3-55.

    • “Cantar la negritud: capeyuye e identidad mascoga en la frontera México-Estados Unidos,” Boletín Música, No. 32 (2012): 3-22.

    • “American Music in Times of Postnationality,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 63, No. 3 (2011): 699-703.

    • “El Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras y el dilema de la permanencia en México,” Pauta, No. 110 (2009): 75-78.

    • “Los sonidos de la nación moderna. El Primer Congreso Nacional de Música en México,” Boletín Música, No. 18 (2007): 18-31.

    • “Los loops de Nor-tec. Reflexiones sobre el trabajo de campo en la frontera México-Estados Unidos,” Boletín Música, No. 11-12 (2003): 31-45.

    • “El continuo proceso de intercambio cultural: Leo Brouwer y La espiral eterna,” Pauta, Vol. XVI, No. 66 (1998): 67-77.


    Articles appearing in edited volumes:

    • “Experimentalism as Estrangement: Café Tacvba’s Revés/Yosoy,” in Experimentalisms in Practice. Music Perspectives from Latin America, ed. by Ana R. Alonso Minutti, Eduardo Herrera, and Alejandro L. Madrid. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. [Co-authored with Pepe Rojo].

    • “Más que ‘tontas canciones de amor’: Sentimentalismo cosmopolita en la balada romántica de México en los 1970s y 1980s,” in Canção romantica. Intimidade, mediação e identidade na América Latina, ed. by Martha Ulhoa and Simone Luci Pereira, 47-69. Rio de Janeiro: Folio Digital, 2016.

    • “Renovation, Rupture, and Restoration: The Modernist Musical Experience in Latin America,” in The Modernist World, ed. by Stephen Ross and Allana C. Lindgren, 409-416. New York and London: Routledge, 2015.

    • “Rigo Tovar, Cumbia, and the Transnational Grupero Boom,” in Cumbia!: Scenes of a Migrant Latin American Music Genre, ed. by Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste and Pablo Vila, 105-118. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013.

    • “Retos multilineales y método prolépsico en el estudio posnacional del nacionalismo musical,” in Discursos y prácticas musicales nacionalistas (1900-1970): España, Argentina, Cuba, México, ed. by Pilar Ramos López, 161-172. Logroño: Universidad de La Rioja, 2012.

    • “Music, Media Spectacle, and the Idea of Democracy. The Case of DJ Kermit’s ‘Gober,’” in Media, Sound, and Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, ed. by Alejandra Bronfman and Andrew G. Wood, 71-84. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012.

    • “Transnational Musical Encounters at the U.S.-Mexico Border: An Introduction,” in Transnational Encounters. Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border, ed. by Alejandro L. Madrid, 1-16. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

    • “Transnational Identity, the Singing of Spirituals, and the Performance of Blackness among Mascogos,” in Transnational Encounters. Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border, by Alejandro L. Madrid, 171-190. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

    • “Dancing with Desire. Cultural Embodiment and Negotiation in Tijuana’s Nor-tec Music and Dance,” in Electronica, Dance and Club Music, ed. by Mark J. Butler. Surrey: Ashgate, 2011.

    • “Transnational Cultural Translations and the Meaning of Danzón across Borders,” in Performance in the Borderlands, ed. by Ramón H. Rivera-Servera and Harvey Young, 37-57. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

    • “Música y nacionalismos en Latinoamérica,” in A tres bandas. Mestizaje, sincretismo e hibridación en el espacio sonoro iberoamericano (s. XVI-s. XX), ed. by Albert Recasens and Christian Spencer Espinoza, 227-235. Madrid: SEACEX, 2010.

    • “Ideology, Flux, and Identity in Tijuana’s Nor-tec Music,” in Postnational Musical Identities. Cultural Production, Distribution and Consumption in a Globalized Scenario, ed. by Ignacio Corona and Alejandro L. Madrid, 99-117. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. [Co authored with Ignacio Corona].

    • “Introduction: The Postnational Turn in Music Scholarship and Music Marketing,” in Postnational Musical Identities. Cultural Production, Distribution and Consumption in a Globalized Scenario, ed. by Ignacio Corona and Alejandro L. Madrid, 3-22. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. [Co-authored with Ignacio Corona].

    • “La musicología y los estudios culturales: La Sinfonía No. 1 de Julián Carrillo como composición performativa,” in Cima y Sima: La acción multidisciplinaria en la musicología, comp. by Gonzalo Castillo. Zacatecas: Plaza y Valdés, 2007.


    Book Reviews

    • Música Norteña. Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations, by Cathy Ragland, in the world of music (new series), Vol. 1. No. 1 (2012).

    • Reggaeton, ed. by Raquel Z. Rivera, Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernandez, in Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2010).

    • The Singing of the New World: Indigenous Voice in the Era of European Contact, by Gary Tomlinson, in Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 4 (2008) [With Cristián Roa de la Carrera].

    • Otra visión de la música popular cubana, by Leonardo Acosta, in Latin American Music Review, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2007). [With Liliana González Moreno].

    • Musical Ritual in Mexico City. From the Aztec to NAFTA, by Mark Pedelty, in Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 87, No. 2 (2007).

    • Timba. The Sound of the Cuban Crisis, by Vincenzo Perna, in Ethnomusicology, Vol. 51, No. 2 (2007). [With Liliana González Moreno].

    • Pachangas: Borderlands Music, U.S. Politics, and Transnational Marketing, by Margaret E. Dorsey, in Latino Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2007).

    • El mar de los deseos. El caribe hispano musical: historia y contrapunto, by Antonio García de León Griego, in the world of music, Vol. 47, No. 3 (2005).

    • Jefe de jefes. Corridos y narcocultura en México, by José Manuel Valenzuela, in Ethnomusicology, Vol. 49, No. 2 (2005).


    Recording Reviews:

    • Julián Carrillo. Seis casi-sonatas en cuartos de tono para violoncello solo, Jimena Giménez Cacho, cello, in Latin American Music Review, 30, No. 1 (2009).

    • Guitarra de Cristal. Contemporary Cuban Music for the Guitar, Anton Machleder, guitar, in Latin American Music Review, Vol. 27, No. 1 (2006).


    Encyclopedia and Bibliography Entries:

    • “Mexico,” in Oxford Bibliographies — Music, ed. by Bruce Gustafson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015 <http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199757824/obo-9780199757824-0025.xml?rskey=P4hSAJ&result=104&gt;

    • “Nortec,” in Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, ed. by John Shepherd and David Horn. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.

    • “Capeyuye,” “Julieta Venegas,” and “Rigo Tovar,” in The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition, ed. by Charles Garrett. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

    • “Francis Schwartz” and “Roberto Sierra” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd edition. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2006.


    Other Writing:

    • “Constellations of Anarchy: Making Sense of the (Post-)Nation through Sound,” Fear Anger Love — CTM Magazine (2017).

    • “Loops de cultura e identidad en la música de Nor-Tec,” Contratiempo, No. 85 (2011).

    • “Music and Performance in the Nortec Collective’s Border Aesthetic,” Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Vol. 42, No. 78 (2009).

    • Liner Notes. Tañendo recio. Música para guitarra. Pablo Gómez, guitar and Juan Trigos, conductor, Camerata de las Américas. Quindecim Recordings (2001).

    • Liner Notes. De pura cepa. Manuel Rubio, guitar. Ars Fluentis Records (2000).

    • “Rafael Adame: A Biographical Sketch and an Aesthetic Appraisal,” Introduction to Rafael Adame, Concierto clásico for Guitar and Orchestra (Columbus: Editions Orphee, 2000).

    • “10 compositores mexicanos y el posmodernismo,” Viceversa, No. 69 (1999).

    • “Rafael Adame e il primo concerto per chitarra e orchestra del XX secolo,” Guitart, Vol. III, No. 12 (1998).

    • “Rafael Adame and the First Guitar Concerto of the Twentieth Century,” Gendai Guitar Magazine, Vol. 32, Nos. 4 and 6 (1998).

    • “La Missa brevis de Mario Lavista,” Viceversa, No. 67 (1998).

    • Cutting a Path to the Twenty-First Century: A Conversation with David Starobin,” Soundboard, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (1997).

    • “Samuel Zyman: A Mexican Composer in New York,” Soundboard, Vol. XXII, No. 3 (1996).

    • “Leandro Espinosa: A Voice from the North,” Soundboard, Vol. XXII, No. 1 (1995).

    • “Jorge Ritter Navarro: The Poetry in the Hand’s Movements,” Soundboard, Vol. XX, No. 3 (1994).

    • “Ernesto García de León: A Mexican Way of Continuing the Guitar Music Tradition,” Soundboard, Vol. XX, No. 2 (1993).

    Blog Posts

      Projects


      • Transcription, performance, and recording of Julián Carrillo’s complete chamber works for strings (in collaboration with the Momenta Quartet).

      • Homophobia, masculinity and popular music and culture in Greater Mexico.

      • Sound archives, listening, knowledge, and the Lettered City in Latin American.

      Memberships

      American Musicological Society

      Society for Ethnomusicology

      International Association for the Study of Popular Music

      Latin American Studies Association

      Alejandro L. Madrid

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      @almadrid68

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