Dale A. Olsen, Ph.D.


CURRICULUM VITAE

Professor Emeritus of Ethnomusicology 
Not too long ago (1941) I was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where I lived, studied, and played music (clarinet and saxophone) until going off to college. I received the B.A. (1964) and M.A. (1966) degrees in Historical Musicology and Flute Performance from the University of Minnesota, followed by the Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles (1973). I began teaching in the School of Music at the Florida State University in 1973, and retired in 2008 as Distinguished Research Professor of Ethnomusicology in the College of Music. I am now Professor Emeritus. Between my Minnesota and California degrees, my wife, Diane, and I lived in Santiago, Chile as Peace Corps Volunteers (I was principal flutist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Chile as a PCV). Since then I have lived, worked, and conducted research in South America as a a National Endowment for the Humanities awardee in Venezuela and Colombia, a Fulbright scholar to Peru, a Florida State University Developing Scholar awardee to Brazil, several times a COFRS awardee to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, and sabbatical leave research in Brazil and Bolivia. I have also received grants to conduct research in American and European museums, in Italy, China, Korea, Tonga (South Pacific), Japan, Ireland, Vietnam, Thailand, and Panama. In 2005-06 I was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship to finish a book on the popular music of Vietnam.
Over the years, and since my days in the Peace Corps in Chile, I have learned how to play numerous musical instruments from the Andes (kena, siku, tarka, charango, and the Peruvian indigenous harp) and from Japan (shakuhachi and ryuteki). I have a shihan diploma in Kinko-ryu shakuhachi, which I received from my Japanese sensei, Iwami Baikyoku IV, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1983. In this picture I am playing shakuhachi in front of FSU's gamelan kebyar, while wearing a Vietnamese shirt. Talk about a mixture of cultures! Since spending part of a summer in Ireland, I have been playing Irish transverse flute, and purchased a nice instrument in Galway. My favorite flute for playing Irish music, however, is a classical period 7-keyed wooden flute made in England in the mid 1800s. A friend of mine bought it for me in Australia. I also play recorder (soprano, alto, and tenor), and my wife, Diane, plays harpsichord. We have great fun playing baroque music, mainly for ourselves.

In the academic world of teaching, I moved directly from UCLA after receiving my Ph.D. in music  (under Drs. Mantle Hood in ethnomusicology and Johannes Wilbert in anthropology) to Florida State University (see above). In this photograph, I am posing in my former office in the College of Music at Florida State University, along with several Warao musical instruments (see Books). In the area of academic service, I served as a Council and Board Member at Large of the Society for Ethnomusicology, as Board Member for Ethnomusicology/World Music of the College Music Society, as First Vice-President of the Society for Ethnomusicology,  as President of The College Music Society from January 1999 through December 2000, and as President of the Florida Folklore Society. Diane and I have participated in many international meetings of CMS, traveling to Japan, Ireland, Costa Rica, Spain, and Thailand.  

I enjoy doing fieldwork research and writing more than anything else academically. I have more than 100 publications, including 7 books. My most recently published book is titled Popular Music of Vietnam: The Politics of Remembering, the Economics of Forgetting, for which I did fieldwork during three summers. In the summer of 2005, while on my Guggenheim fellowship, I played weekly with a small jazz combo at the Sofitel Hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), as you can see from the photograph.  I have also edited Music of Latin America (Study Guide in series "Sounds of the World"); co-edited Volume 2 of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music with Dan Sheehy; and was Recording Review Editor for Ethnomusicology. I have also contribued many book chapters, and a number of articles have appeared in the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, Asian Music Journal, Ethnomusicology, Latin American Music Review, College Music Symposium, Journal of Latin American Lore, Worlds of Music, and elsewhere (please click here for my CV).
At the personal level, Diane and I have been married 45 years. Diane has her Ph.D. in Instructional Design and worked for the state Department of Revenue (now retired). She is an avid reader, a pianist and harpsichordist, a swimmer and runner, and a great intellect. Our son Darin has a bachelor's degree in architecture and a master's degree in building construction management from the University of Florida. He currently works in the Atlanta area as a project manager for a construction company. He enjoys mountain biking, canoeing, playing guitar, beating his mom and dad in Scrabble, and spending as much time as he can with his beautiful daughter, Isabella. This picture is taken from the deck of our beach house, Dunescape, on St. George Island, Florida. Dunescape is one of my favorite places on earth. It is my writing, reading, and relaxing retreat, although when I have the time to go there, I usually end up repairing things. The salt air has a way of making material objects in need of fixing--but I love it!
We have a beautiful 8-year-old granddaughter, Isabella, pictured on the right, jumping in the waves at St. George Island, Florida. She attends school in a northern Atlanta suburb. She loves the beach, enjoys riding her bicycle, swimming, canoeing, climbing trees, running all the time, drawing and painting, singing, playing soccer, collecting insects, and much more. Isabella has a wonderful imagination, great athletic ability, and a sparkling personality. She takes after her beautiful grandmother, Diane.

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