SCHOLARSHIP

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    Alex's research interests include the impacts of globalization on the academic percussion music instrument industry, sustainable methods of crafting marimbas and other environmentally problematic percussion instruments, and methods for reconnecting the actors of the music making experience within a global market economy. He received a Fulbright-Hays DDRA to conduct original research for eight months in Ghana (2018-2019)

​Saving the Songwood: Global Consumption, Sustainability, and Value

Published Work

​“Reconnecting the Music-Making Experience Through Musician Efforts in Instrument Craft.” International Journal of Music Education (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761418771993.
“Crafting New Musical Possibilities: A New Educational Area for Academic Music?” Perspectives of New Music 54 (2017). ​https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.54.2.0219.
“Reconnecting the Actors of the Music-Making Experience: Supporting Small-Scale Local Craftsmanship in the Academic Percussion Community.” Ecomusicology Review 4 (2016). https://web.archive.org/web/20170216165457/http://www.ecomusicology.info/ecomusicology-review/.
“New Musical Contexts for More Sustainably Made Marimbas.” Percussive Notes Online Research Edition 1 (2016). http://www.pas.org/publications/percussive-notes-online-research-edition. 
Review of George Dor’s West African Drumming and Dance in North American Universities: an Ethnomusicological Perspective. The Journal of Musical Arts in Africa 13, no. 1-2, 95-98.
Smith, Alex. "More Than a Marimba Bar." UCLA Echo Blog (April 27, 2015). http://www.echo.ucla.edu/more-than-a-marimba-bar/.