Â鶹ŮÀÉ

Areas of Expertise

• Ethnomusicology
• Music History

About

James E. Cunningham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Music at Â鶹ŮÀÉ in Boca Raton, Florida. An ethnomusicologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, he specializes in Indonesian, Native American, and world popular music, exploring the gamut of world and popular musics from both cultural and musical perspectives. He teaches undergraduate core curriculum courses (Music Cultures of the World and Gateway to Musical Perception), as well as graduate courses at the master's and Ph.D. levels. Dr. Cunningham is also the director of the Â鶹ŮÀÉ Brazilian Percussion Ensemble and the instructor of the Didgeridoo Workshop.

In addition to his ethnomusicological research, he is a composer and performance artist of avant-garde music featuring the Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo, an approach highly influenced by his study with trombonist Stuart Dempster. He has performed nationally and internationally, recorded an album of original didgeridoo compositions, didgeridoo.diversions, as a faculty artist for the department’s Hoot/Wisdom Recordings label, produced two collections of didgeridoo duets as co-founder of the Didgeri Dudes, and is currently recording a collection of experimental electro-acoustic compositions for didgeridoo and alto saxophone with his long-time collaborative partner Glen Gillis.