Meet the Faculty
Jonathan McCollum, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Music
E-mail: jmccollum2@washcoll.edu
Phone: (800) 422-1782, ext. 6549
Office: Gibson 203
Education
- PhD (Musicology/Ethnomusicology), University of Maryland, College Park, 2004
- MA (Music), Tufts University, 2000
- BA with Honors (magna cum laude) (Music), Florida State University, 1997
Research Fellowships
Research Fellow with the Armenian Library and Museum of America, Watertown, Massachusetts
Performance
A former student of Dr. John Drew of Florida State University, Dr. McCollum performs on an Edwards trombone and is an active regional performer.
As a world music musician, Dr. McCollum plays both the Japanese koto and shakuhachi. He plays on a professional 1.8 jiari shakuhachi made by the Kitahara family in Japan, one of the most renowned family makers of shakuhachi, an antique professional 1.6 jiari made by a pre-war group shakuhachi consortium in Japan, a beautiful modern professional 1.8 jiari made by Monty Levenson of Tai Hei Shakuhachi in California, and a large 3.0 jinashi choukan hochikku made by Perry Yung of New York City.
A lifetime learner, Dr. McCollum is honored to be working toward professional shakuhachi licenses under Dai Shihan of Kinko Ryu (Grand Master of the Kinko School of Shakuhachi), Michael Chikuzen Gould. Dr. McCollum performs both koto and shakuachi with the Washington Toho Koto Ensemble.
Washington College Ensembles
W.C. Concert Band, Woodwind and Brass Chamber Ensembles, and the Early Music Instrumental Consort
Biographic Note
As the former Assistant Curator of Collections at the Armenian Library and Museum of America and as consultant for the Smithsonian Institution and Folkways Alive!, his experiences and interests have spanned several fields such as ethnomusicology, historical musicology, archeomusicology, museum studies, and art history.
Dr. McCollum's dissertation focused on the music and ritual of the Armenian Apostolic Church. He is the author of Armenian Music: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Discography (Scarecrow Press, 2004), is a contributor to Defining Music: An Ethnomusicological and Philosophical Approach (Edwin Mellen Press, 2007), and has published numerous articles and reviews. His recent major publications include "Music of Central Asia and the Caucasus" in OnMusic World Music (McGraw-Hill, 2008) and three articles in the upcoming "Genres of African and Middle Eastern Origin" of the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World (EPMOW) (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2012). Dr. McCollum has been invited to author thirty-two entries for the new edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (Oxford University Press) and is working on the books, A History of Armenian Music (Cambridge Scholars Press) and Religious Music, Pluralism, and Identity in the Former Soviet Union (Lexington Books).
Dr. McCollum regularly presents at conferences on historical ethnomusicological methodology, Armenian and Japanese music. He is a member of the American Musicological Society (AMS), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) and the Armenian Studies Association.
Courses
MUS 100 Introduction to Music
MUS 104 Introduction to World Music and Ethnomusicology
MUS 203 History of Music: Antiquity to Baroque
MUS 204 History of Music: Classical to Romantic
GRW 101 Intersections of Literature, Music, Science, and Art
MUS 312 Music in the Romantic Period
MUS 314 Music of Asia
MUS 327 Music, Ritual, and Early Christianity
MUS 328 The Symphony in Context: History and Development