BIO

Jeffrey W. Cupchik (Ph.D., M.A., B.Mus.) is a Trudeau Fellow, medical ethnomusicologist, composer, author, musician, and educator. He is currently Sessional Faculty Professor in the Department of Music with the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University. He is also an alumnus of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music (Theory and Composition) program, and an active composer and improviser.

An innovator in the field of music and health studies, he first designed and taught a university curriculum in music and well-being in 2005. Having studied closely with Buddhist masters for over 25 years, he contributes a unique perspective to cultivating wellbeing through music and meditation in daily life.

His articles have been published in leading journals including Yale Journal of Music & Religion, Asian Music, and Popular Music History.

His article, "Buddhism As Performing Art: Visualizing Music in the Tibetan Sacred Ritual Music Liturgies," in the inaugural issue of the Yale Journal of Music & Religion serves as a preview to his monograph, The Sound of Vultures' Wings: The Tibetan Buddhist Chod Ritual of Machik Labdron, forthcoming with SUNY Press.

This new book maps the performative architecture and sonic iconography in the Chod system of ritual music meditative practices, revealing the enactive symbolism that can guide the practitioner to psychophysical transformation.

Formerly a Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music, he has designed and taught courses on research methodology and ethics at CIHTS (CUTS, Varanasi) and CIBS (Ladakh) as well as at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester (NY), the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences. and St. John Fisher College (NY).

For a full Bio, please see the Home page.