Simon Music Center, M225D
Education
- Ph.D., Musicology, Cornell University, 2019
- M.A., History, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2013
- B.A., Anthropology, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2004
Sergio Ospina-Romero is assistant professor of music in musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is a musician, anthropologist (B.A.), cultural historian (M.A.), and musicologist (M.A. and Ph.D.).
His research and publications deal primarily with sound reproduction technologies, Latin American music, and jazz in the early twentieth century.
Ospina-Romero is the author of two books, Dolor que canta (ICANH, 2017) and Fonógrafos Ambulantes (Gourmet Musical, forthcoming), as well as several articles, book chapters, and short pieces that have appeared in journals, books, and blogs across the Americas. Publication outlets include the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Ethnomusicology, Keyboard Perspectives, Latin American Music Review, Journal of Folklore Research, Musicology Now, Revista Argentina de Musicología, Resonancias, Boletín Música, Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura, Maguaré, Historia y Sociedad, Goliardos, Ensayos: Historia y Teoría del Arte, and BanRep Cultural.
Ospina-Romero has taught at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad de los Andes, and Cornell University. He is an active member of various academic associations, including the American Musicological Society, Society for Ethnomusicology, and Latin American Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.
Awards and recognitions include the Klaus P. Wachsmann Prize of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Cornell University’s Donald J. Grout Memorial Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship, and honorary mentions at the Otto Mayer Serra Award and at the Premio de Musicología de Casa de las Américas.
Ospina-Romero is the pianist and director of Palonegro, an ensemble of Latin American music and Latin jazz with which he recently recorded the album Two Minutes Apart, available on all digital streaming platforms.
He is also a passionate “real” football (aka soccer) player and an undervalued specialist in pizza dough.