World Music Department
The world music department provides an environment of engagement, exploration, and interaction geared toward traditional musics and music's place in culture and society. Students explore the rich diversity of traditional musics both globally and locally through a combination of cultural studies and traditional performance practices. Our department offers a variety of traditions for students to participate in, as represented through folk tunes, melodies, songs, stories, and cultural expressions from around the world.
Celtic Ensemble is a traditional music group that performs tunes and songs of Irish,
Scottish, Welsh, Manx, Galician, Breton, and Scandinavian origins. With a varied instrumentation,
and an emphasis on learning aurally, the Celtic Ensemble is open to anyone interested.
Sangeet Ensemble performs traditional and classical musics from India and the surrounding
regions of Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The ensemble is open to anyone interested
in exploring music and culture from the Indian Subcontinent through learning songs,
melodies, rhythms, and lore.
World Music Workshop is a course that surveys traditional music from around the globe,
with an emphasis on exploratory play. Students perform traditional music on a variety
of traditional instruments and learn about cultural traditions that comprise the context
of the musical traditions represented in their hands-on coursework.
Chinese Folk Ensemble is a traditional music group dedicated to playing a variety
of traditional Chinese instruments and melodies from various regions around the country.
The ensemble promotes cultural exchange and awareness through creative expression
of traditional melodies and is open by appointment.
Folk Music of the Americas is an appointment-only ensemble that plays traditional
music from many regions of the Americas. The group has performed old time songs and
tunes from the United States, as well as indigenous songs, folk songs and tunes from
Central and South America, and syncretic musics, exploring a broad variety of American
cultural traditions.
The World Music Instrument Collection at Troy’s School of Music includes traditional
instruments from a rich variety of cultures, many of which are regularly played in
World Music Workshop and in our ensembles. Follow the link to see our expanding collection
of performance-quality instruments from around the world.