Michael Frishkopf, BSc (Yale University), MA (Tufts University), PhD (UCLA)

Area of Study / Keywords

Ethnomusicology Musical Traditions of the Middle East and Africa Islam Global Human Development Machine Learning Social Network Analysis Virtual and Augmented Reality

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About

Michael Frishkopf has a diverse academic background. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in pure mathematics from Yale University in 1984, then worked for five years at Bolt Beranek and Newman (now Raytheon BBN) on wide-area packet switched computer networks. He returned to academic life to study ethnomusicology at Tufts University, where he received his MA in 1989 with a thesis on Ghanaian song, then continued to the doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving the PhD in 1999 after six years of research on Sufi orders in Egypt (both theses are available for download). Also in 1999, he joined the University of Alberta Department of Music, first as a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, and then as an assistant professor. He is currently a full professor of music (ethnomusicology) and adjunct professor at the Department of Performing Arts, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies at the University for Development Studies in Ghana. He plays numerous instruments, including the piano, West African drums, and the Middle Eastern reed flute, the nay. In 1999, he founded the U of A West African Music Ensemble and, in 2004, founded the U of A Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble.

Frishkopf is a life member of the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Canadian Society for Traditional Music, and the Middle East Studies Association of North America. He directs the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology (cce.ualberta.ca), which works to preserve, promote, and disseminate multicultural musical sound for the public good.

As an academic, Frishkopf has studied music and sound through numerous lenses. These include religious studies, anthropology, sociology, global health, media studies, social network analysis, information science, machine learning, virtual reality and psychoacoustics. He’s published dozens of academic articles on these and other related topics. Throughout his career, he’s been the recipient of numerous fellowships, such as from the Fulbright Foundation, the American Research Center in Egypt, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada — which helped fund fieldwork in Egypt — and many others.

Further, he’s developed numerous applied projects including the Music for Global Human Development program (m4ghd.org), with numerous projects in Africa (Ghana, Liberia, Ethiopia, Egypt) and Canada. Starting in 2020, he’s been developing autonomous adaptive soundscapes using machine learning to select soundscapes to reduce stress among critically ill patients, and to improve student mental health and wellness.

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Research

Select Publications

(many are available for download at http://frishkopf.org)

• Textual Dimensions of the Public Ḥaḍra in Egyptian Sufism. Musicological Annual (2022) 58 (1): 61–99. https://doi.org/10.4312/mz.58.1.61-99.
• A Neurobiological Framework for the Therapeutic Potential of Music and Sound Interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Critical Illness Survivors by Usha Pant, Michael Frishkopf, Tanya Park, Colleen M. Norris, and Elizabeth Papathanassoglou. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(5), 3113; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19053113
• The sonic performance of Islamic congregational prayer: Ṣalāh in mainstream Egyptian practice. Performing Islam, Volume 9, Numbers 1-2, December 2021, pp. 5-114 (110 pages)
• TranceCultural Music: Forging social resonance through asynchronous virtual musical interaction during pandemic. Collectively prepared by members of the TransCultural Orchestra: Allison Sokil, Ari Mastoras, Arsh Khaira, Behrang Nikaeen, Donna Dawson, Jane Zaïane, Jillian Fulton-Melanson, Matt Love, Mehdi Rezania, Michael Frishkopf, More J, Morteza Abedinifard, Nasim Ahmadian, Olga Zaitseva-Herz, Shruti Nair, Tuğrul Özer, and Vahid Macvandi. Published a special issue of the Journal of Music, Health, and Wellbeing (2021)
• Michael Frishkopf, Guilnard Moufarrej, George Mürer, Carolyn Ramzy, Jonathan Shannon, Nermeen Youssef, and Iman Mersal. (in press) "What Happened to “Songs of the New Arab Revolutions”?" in The Myth of Middle East Exceptionalism: The Unfinished Project of MENA Social Movements. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
• Frishkopf, Michael. “Music for Global Human Development.” 2021. In Transforming Ethnomusicology, vol. II, edited by Beverly Diamond and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (27 pages)
• Frishkopf, Michael. West African Polyrhythm: culture, theory, and representation'. In SHS Web of Conferences, Volume 102, 2021, The 3rd ETLTC International Conference on Information and Communications Technology (ETLTC2021)
• Frishkopf, Michael. Musical Journeys. 2021. Chapter 11, in Global Middle East: Into the 21st Century, edited by Asef Bayat and Linda Herrera. University of California Press. (View Webinar by contributing authors)
• Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika, Gillian Creese, Michael Frishkopf, and Njoki Wane. 2020. “Re-envisioning Resilience from African Immigrants’ Perspectives.” Canadian Ethnic Studies, 52:3, pp. 129-149
• Frishkopf, Michael. "Aesthetics, Creativity, and Mysticism: An Investigation of Three Modes of Consciousness", Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. 54(4), December 2019.
• Jayarathne, Isuru, Michael Cohen, Michael Frishkopf, and Gregory Mulyk. 2019. “Relaxation ‘Sweet Spot’ Exploration in Pantophonic Musical Soundscape Using Reinforcement Learning.” In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces: Companion, 55–56. IUI ’19. New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3308557.3308686
• Frishkopf, Michael. “Identity maintenance through ritual language performance among contemporary Egyptian Sufi orders.” 2019. In Aspects of Performance in Faith Settings: Heavenly Acts, ed. Andrey Rosowsky, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishers, pp. 233-266.
• Frishkopf, Michael. “Aesthetics, Emotion, and Social Solidarity in the Eʋe Kinka Funeral.” 2019. In Death and Creative Instinct: Some Mortuary Arts and Acts from Africa and the Diaspora, edited by Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi. Berlin: Galda Verlag.
• Rasmussen, Anne K., Angela Impey, Rachel Beckles Willson, Ozan Aksoy, Denise Gill, and Michael Frishkopf. 2019. “Call and Response: SEM President’s Roundtable 2016, ‘Ethnomusicological Responses to the Contemporary Dynamics of Migrants and Refugees.’” Ethnomusicology 63 (2): 279–314.
• Frishkopf, Michael. "Forging Transnational Actor Networks through Participatory Action Research: Responsibility to Protect via Musical Rehumanisation in Post-War Liberia". World of Music. 7 (1/2): 107-134, 2018.
• Frishkopf, Michael. Paralinguistic Ramification of Language Performance in Islamic Ritual, Yale Journal of Music and Religion, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2018.
• Frishkopf, Michael and Federico Spinetti, editors. Music, Sound, and Architecture in Islam, (University of Texas Press, 2018). (http://bit.ly/musari) Supplemental AV materials are on Archnet. Turkish translation: İslam'da Müzik, Ses ve Mimari, tranlated by Şükrü Atsızelti. Publication expected November 2020.
• M. Frishkopf, D.Zakus, S.Abu, H.Hamze, M.Alhassan, I.A.Zukpeni. "Traditional Music as a Sustainable Social Technology for Community Health Promotion in Africa: “Singing and Dancing for Health” in Rural Northern Ghana." Annals of Global Health, Volume 83, Issue 1, January–February 2017, Page 38.
• Frishkopf, Michael. Popular Music as Public Health Technology: Music for Global Human Development and “Giving Voice to Health” in Liberia.[4] Journal of Folklore Research, Vol. 54, No. 1-2, Music and Global Health (January/August 2017), pp. 41-86.
• Frishkopf, Michael, Michael Cohen, and Rasika Ranaweera. Curating Ethnomusicology in Cyberworlds for Ethnomusicological Research. "World Music in Wonderland". Ethnologies, special issue: Exhibiting Soundscapes, edited by Marcia Ostashewski and Michael Frishkopf. 37(1), 2017.
• Frishkopf, Michael, David Zakus, Hasan Hamze, Mubarak Alhassan, Ibrahim Abukari Zukpeni, Sulemana Abu. 2016 Traditional Music as a Sustainable Social Technology for Community Health Promotion in Africa: “Singing and Dancing for Health” in Rural Northern Ghana. Legon Journal of the Humanities, special issue: Music, Health and Wellbeing: African Perspectives, edited by Florian Carl and Eric Debrah Otchere, 27(2):59-90, 2016.
• Frishkopf, Michael, Hasan Hamze, Mubarak Alhassan, Ibrahim Abukari Zukpeni, Sulemana Abu, and David Zakus. 2016. “Performing Arts as a Social Technology for Community Health Promotion in Northern Ghana.” Family Medicine and Community Health 4 (1): 22–36, 2016.
• Ranaweera, Rasika, Michael Cohen, and Michael Frishkopf. 2015. “Narrowcasting and Multipresence for Music Auditioning and Conferencing in Social Cyberworlds.” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 24 (3): 220–42, 2015.
• “Muslims, music, and tolerance in Egypt and Ghana: a comparative perspective on difference." In Islam and Popular Culture, ed. by Karin van Nieuwkerk. University of Texas Press, 2016.
• Against ethnomusicology: Language performance and the social impact of ritual performance in Islam, Performing Islam, Volume 2, Number 1, December 2013 , pp. 11-43.
• Майкл Фришкопф. 2013. “Этноджаз". Этноджаз в Центральной Азии: 17-21. ”Ethnojazz.” EthnoJazz in Central Asia: 49-52. In: EthnoJazz in Central Asia: Sociocultural design in the sphere of culture. Bishkek: Central Asian Arts Management, 2013
• "Music as debate: Social forces shaping the heterodoxy of Sufi performance in contemporary Egypt." In Music, Culture and Identity in the Muslim World: Performance, Politics and Piety. Ed. Kamal Salhi. London: Routledge, 2013.
• "Tradition and modernity: the globalization of Sufi Music in Egypt." In Popular Culture in the Middle East and North Africa: A Postcolonial Outlook, edited by Walid El Hamamsy & Mounira Soliman. London: Routledge, 2012.
• "Prediction of dissimilarity judgments between tonal sequences using information theory"[5], in Proceeding HCCE '12: Proceedings of the 2012 Joint International Conference on Human-Centered Computer Environments, Pages 194-199, ACM New York, NY, USA ©2012
• “Ritual as strategic action: the social logic of musical silence in Canadian Islam”, in Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Artistic Developments in the Muslim World, edited by Karin van Nieuwkerk. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011
• Review of The Rough Guide to Sufi Music, Asian Music, Volume 43, Number 1, Winter/Spring 2012, pp. 148-155
• "Folkways in Wonderland: A Cyberworld Laboratory for Ethnomusicology"[6], (Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Frishkopf, and Michael Cohen), in Proceeding CW '11: Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Cyberworlds, Pages 106-112, IEEE Computer Society Washington, DC, USA ©2011
• “Technology, Change and the Music of Sufi Chanting in Egypt.” Earle Waugh & Michael Frishkopf. Musica Humana 3(1), 2011
• Music and Media in the Arab World[7], edited & with an Introduction by Michael Frishkopf. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, distributed by Oxford University Press (2010).
• "(virtual [world) music]: Virtual world, world music: Folkways in Wonderland" in Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Principles and Applications of Spatial Hearing, Zao, Miyagi, Japan, November 2009. (co-authored: Rasika Ranaweera, Michael Cohen, Nick Nagel, and Michael Frishkopf).
• "Mediated Qur’anic recitation and the contestation of Islam in contemporary Egypt", in Music and the Play of Power in the Middle East. Ashgate, 2009. Audio examples 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
• "Globalizing the soundworld - Islam and Sufi Music in the West", in Sufis in the West (Routledge, 2008)
• “Music”, in The Islamic World, edited by Andrew Rippin (Routledge "Worlds" series). New York: Routledge, 2008, pp. 510-526.
• "Nationalism, Nationalization, and the Egyptian Music Industry: Muhammad Fawzy,Misrphon, and Sawt al-Qahira (SonoCairo)" Asian Music, Volume 39, Number 2, Summer/Fall 2008, pp. 28-58.
• “‘Islamic Music in Africa’ as a tool for African Studies”, in Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 42, #2/3, 2008, pp. 478-507.
• “Metadata Infrastructure for Sound Recordings", Proceedings of ISMIR 2007 (International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, September 23rd-27th 2007, Vienna, Austria). Co-author.
• Islamic Music, in New Encyclopedia of Africa, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2007, pp. 643-648.
• Music of Makran: traditional fusion from coastal Balochistan, in Asian Music, Summer/Fall 2006
• Sufi music review: (1) Soufis d'algerie: Mostaganem/Algeria: The Sufis of Mostaganem. 2003. Prophet Collection 31. Philips 472 503-2; (2) Chant soufi de Syrie: Dhikr Qadiri Khalwati de la Zawiya Hilaliya, Alep /Sufi chanting from Syria : Dhikr Qadiri Khalwati of the Zawiya Hilaliya, Aleppo . 2002. Maison des Cultures du Monde, Inedit W 260109. (3) Maroc: L'art du sama' a Fes/Morocco: The Art of Sama' in Fez . 2002. Disques VDE-GALLO, VDE CD-1104. (CD reviews). In Yearbook of the International Council for Traditional Music, 2003.
• Review of “The Yemen Tihama: trance & dance music from the Red Sea coast of Arabia” International Music Collection of the British Library National Sound Archive. Topic World Series, Topic Records Ltd. TSCD920. (CD review). Asian Music, Fall/Winter 2003/2004, XXXV:1.
• "Authorship in Sufi Poetry", in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, #23: Intersections: Literature and the Sacred (2003)
• “Spiritual Kinship and Globalization”, in Religious Studies and Theology v. 22 #1, 2003
• "Some Meanings of the Spanish Tinge in Contemporary Egyptian music", in Mediterranean Mosaic, edited by Goffredo Plastino (in the series entitled Perspectives on Global Pop, edited by Gage Averill; Routledge Publishing) (2002).
• "Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami: A typical layla performance", Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 6 (2002).
• "al-Inshad al-Dini (Islamic religious singing) in Egypt", Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 6 (2002).
• Review of Asmahan’s Secrets: Woman, War, and Song (No. 13 in the Middle East Monograph Series ( Austin: UT Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2000), by Sherifa Zuhur), International Journal of Middle East Studies (fall 2002). Arabic version in Weghat Nazar.
• Musical transformations of time, in "Eighth International Conference on Human Interface Technology", March 14-20, 2002, Aizu University, Japan.
• "Inshad Dini and Aghani Diniyya in 20th c Egypt : a review of styles, genres, and available recordings", Bulletin of the Middle East Studies Association, Winter 2001. (Arabic translation: Wijhat Nazar (Viewpoints), #35, vol. #3, December 2001, under the title: “al-inshad al-dini wa al-aghani al-diniyya fi masr al-qarn al-‘ishrin”, pp. 68-72. Cairo : Egyptian Company for Arab and International Publication.)[8]
• "Changing modalities in the globalization of Islamic saint veneration and mysticism: Sidi Ibrahim al-Dasuqi, Shaykh Muhammad ‘Uthman al-Burhani, and their Sufi Orders". Religious Studies and Theology, v. 20 nos. 1 & 2(2001).
• "Tarab in the Mystic Sufi Chant of Egypt", in: Colors of Enchantment: Visual and Performing Arts of the Middle East, edited by Sherifa Zuhur. American University in Cairo Press, 2001, pp. 233-269
• The Magic of the Sufi Inshad: Sheikh Yasin al-Tuhami (compact disc liner notes). Paris: Long Distance, Real World Works, 1998
• La voix du poète : tarab et poésie dans le chant mystique soufi
• with M. Garner, V. Haimo, I. Loobeek, D.Davis, Type-of-service routing: Modeling and simulation. Technical Report 6364, BBN Communications Corporation, January 1987.
• with S. Cohn, S. Eiser, J. Robinson, and J. Wiggins, Congestion Control Study Final Report, July 1985.

MUSIC 148 - Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble I

The study of Middle Eastern and North African vocal and instrumental music (primarily Arab, Persian, and Turkish musical traditions) through group instruction and ensemble performance, and related readings, films, and discussions. The ability to read music is not required. Some traditional instruments will be available. Course may be repeated where topics vary. Prerequisite: consent of Department based on assessment in the first class.

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MUSIC 448 - Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble

The study of Middle Eastern and North African vocal and instrumental music (primarily Arab, Persian, and Turkish musical traditions) through group instruction and ensemble performance, and related readings, films, and discussions. The ability to read music is not required. Some traditional instruments will be available. Course may be repeated where topics vary. Prerequisite: MUSIC 148 or consent of Department based on assessment in the first class.

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MUSIC 468 - Area Studies in Ethnomusicology: The Arab World

Prerequisite: consent of Department.

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MUSIC 469 - Area Studies in Ethnomusicology: Music and Islam

Addresses the sonic practices of Islamic rituals, Muslim discourses about music, and the relation of both to the rich diversity of religious and musical practices in Muslim societies around the globe. Prerequisite: consent of Department.

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MUSIC 548 - Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble V

The study of Middle Eastern and North African vocal and instrumental music (primarily Arab, Persian, and Turkish musical traditions) through group instruction and ensemble performance, and related readings, films, and discussions. The ability to read music is not required. Some traditional instruments will be available. Course may be repeated where topics vary. Prerequisite: consent of Department

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MUSIC 568 - Advanced Area Studies in Ethnomusicology: The Arab World

Prerequisite: consent of Department.

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MUSIC 569 - Advanced Area Studies in Ethnomusicology: Music and Islam

Addresses the sonic practices of Islamic rituals, Muslim discourses about music, and the relation of both to the rich diversity of religious and musical practices in Muslim societies around the globe. Prerequisite: consent of Department.

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MUSIC 601 - Tutorial Study

Prerequisite: consent of Department.

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Browse more courses taught by Michael Frishkopf

Aswan Music Project

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Started: 2020-04-01

Autonomously Adaptive Soundscapes for Reducing Stress in Critically-Ill Patients

an intelligent bioalgorithmic system generating personalized therapeutic soundscapes, designed especially for critically ill patients in the ICU, using machine learning and autonomic biofeedback, at the intersection of Critical Care, Machine Learning, and Sound Studies/Ethnomusicology

Autonomous Adaptive Soundscapes

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DLSR

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Music for Global Human Development

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Music, Sound, and Architecture in Islam

Michael Frishkopf and Federico Spinetti, editors

2018 January;

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Michael Frishkopf

Cairo. 2010 January;