Brian Q. Silver, long-time chief of VOA’s Urdu Service, is taking on a new and broader role at Voice of America, becoming Ethnomusicologist and World Music Curator for the agency. Although the title is new, the job reflects the important role that both traditional and contemporary world music has come to play in our programming for the radio, television and Internet audiences we serve worldwide. In this new position, Brian will utilize his experience and knowledge as an ethnomusicologist to facilitate world music programming throughout the agency, and to organize and maintain a library of national musics that can be used by VOA and its sister entities. Among other duties, he will create and manage a searchable database of music sources, and prepare program elements that depict the world’s music through various media.

A professional sitar player, Brian has received the honorary title Khan Sahib from the All Pakistan Music Conference, and has performed in concert and on radio and television around the world. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in an interdisciplinary program with specialization in Urdu and South Asian history and culture. He was Associate Professor of Indo-Muslim Studies at Harvard, and has also taught at the Universities of Minnesota, Chicago, and Virginia.