Chad Hamill, Ethnomusicology
Assistant Professor
Office: Bldg. 37, Room 223
Phone: (928) 523-3849
Email: Chad.Hamill@nau.edu
Dr. Hamill is a dual specialist focusing on the classical music of northern India and Native American music. Before joining the faculty at Northern Arizona University, he taught courses in indigenous and world musics at Cal Arts, Naropa University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology in 2008. Inspired by his own Native American ancestry (Spokan), his doctoral dissertation, Songs from Spirit: Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau, is an investigation into traditional song as a catalyst for spiritual power among tribes of the interior Northwest, including the Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Spokan.
After earning a BFA degree in African music from Cal Arts in 1993, Hamill began his MFA studies in Indian classical vocal music under the direction of Pandit Rajeev Taranath, world-renowned vocalist and master of the sarod. Soon after receiving his degree, Chad was asked to join the North Indian classical department at Cal Arts where he taught courses in Indian classical theory, sargam, private lessons, and Indian classical ensemble. He performs regularly in the US and has been featured alongside artists such as Pandit Ramesh Misra, Ustad Roshan Bhartiya, Pandit Nayan Ghosh, Abhiman KaushalJi and Arup ChattopadhyayJi. Chad Hamill continues his lifelong study of Indian classical music under the direction of his guru, Pandit Rajeev Taranath and Pandit Parameshwar Hegde in Bangalore, India.
In addition to presenting papers at numerous national and international conferences, Hamill has published articles within his areas of expertise, including, “Indian Classical Music as Taught in the West: The Reshaping of Tradition?” in Cultural Diversity in Music Education: Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century (2005) “The Voice in (and of) Indian Classical Music: Carving Out a Tradition” in Sharing the Voices: The Phenomenon of Singing V (2008); and “Spiritual Symbiosis: The Jesuit, the Medicine Man, and the Leader of Song” (forthcoming).