For Spring 2026 we welcome Dr. LaVerne de la Peña. As the first Trimillos Visiting Distinguished Professor of Ethnomusicology, he will be teaching MUS 678D Advanced Problems in Ethnomusicology: Music & Colonialism, a graduate seminar investigating the entangled relationship between music and colonialism in the Philippines. Employing ethnomusicological theories and critical frameworks, his course will explore how music was shaped by and responded to Spanish, American, and Japanese colonial regimes.
Dr. de la Peña served as Dean of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Music, Chair of the UP Department of Musicology, and Director of the UP Center for Ethnomusicology. He retired from UP earlier this year, and continues to serve in other professional capacities, including Vice Chairman of the UNESCO Memory of the World National Committee, among others. He received his PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2000 as a degree fellow of the East-West Center.
The Department of Music is very grateful to Prof. Emeritus Ricardo Trimillos for establishing the Trimillos Visiting Distinguished Professor of Ethnomusicology endowment, which enables us to invite distinguished scholars and professional musicians from outside the United States for up to a full semester in residence, enhancing our regular offerings in ethnomusicology.
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