Julie Strand was born in 1972. She received her BA in Clarinet Performance from the University of Michigan and her PhD in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. Her focus is primarily set on West African percussion music, including the Sambla xylophone music from Burkina Faso and the drumming of Ghana Mali. She has taught at Northeastern University in Boston, MA as well as Semester at Sea. She wrote her dissertation on the Sambla xylophone in Burkina Faso and the creation of the baan tradition.
She pursued Ethnomusicology because she found it extremely fascinating and wanted to explore other cultures. When she did her field work, she enjoyed working with other people and thought that because music is so universal yet so unique that it allowed for people to connect. She enjoyed working together with her peers and performers from around the world. In this way she felt that she could make a difference in the world by connecting with people and learning about other cultures outside of the West.
While she enjoyed being able to learn more about people from around the world, she found some drawbacks to ethnomusicology. She found that many people were set specifically on their tenure tracks, writing books and personal accomplishments rather than the connections made. She wanted to be an ethnomusicologist in order to improve the world around her and connect others through the arts, not to seek fame or success.
She hopes that ethnomusicologists today collaborate with others in the field and continue working with neuroscientists and psychologists to dig deeper into the importance of music in a scientific way. Ethnomusicologists have many different fields that they can work in to create the biggest impact on music and culture throughout the world. Julie Strand has now moved away from ethnomusicology as an academic status but uses the information that she learned to better her life and to be more aware of other cultures. She is now a member of the Foreign Service but uses her background to better the world around her.
