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Andrew Raffo Dewar is Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts in New College and the School of Music. He holds an interdisciplinary BA in Anthropology, Music and Asian Studies from the University of Minnesota and an MA and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University.

Dr. Dewar’s research interests include experimentalism in the arts, intercultural music, jazz and improvisation, music and technology, and 1960s intermedia arts. His work has been published in the Journal of the Society for American Music, and his article, “Searching for the Center of a Sound: Bill Dixon’s ‘Webern,’ the Unaccompanied Solo, and Compositional Ontology in Post-Songform Jazz” appeared in a special issue of Jazz Perspectives. He has presented at the annual meetings of the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Society for American Music, several international conferences, and has been an invited lecturer at the University of Chicago and the University of Victoria.

Current projects include a book on the seminal electronic music group the Sonic Arts Union, an article on the Buenos Aires-based 1960s intermedia ensemble Movimiento Música Más, and investigating the ontological implications of the “re-performance” of jazz pianist Art Tatum’s improvisations.

In addition to his work as an ethnomusicologist, Dr. Dewar is a soprano saxophonist and composer who regularly performs his work internationally. He studied with avant-garde jazz legends Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, and experimental composer Alvin Lucier. He has also had a long involvement with Indonesian traditional and experimental music. Dr. Dewar’s compositions have been performed by the Flux Quartet (NYC), Sekar Anu (Indonesia), the Koto Phase ensemble (USA/Japan) and the XYZ composer’s collective (NYC). Recordings are available on the Striking Mechanism and Porter Records labels, and he also appears on several recordings by the Anthony Braxton 12+1tet and the Bill Dixon Orchestra. Dr. Dewar has received grants from Arts International, Meet The Composer and the Getty Foundation to support his work, and has been awarded the ASCAPlus award each year since joining ASCAP in 2008.

For more information, visit Dr. Dewar’s New College biography.