Highlights from the Ethnomusicology Archive: Carol Merrill-Mirsky

UCLA Ethnomusicology alumna Carol Merrill-Mirsky (Ph.D. 1988, M.A. 1984) was Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives and Hollywood Bowl Museum for 25 years and retired in 2015.  She is currently a consultant at the Colburn School as project director of the Piatigorsky Archives and is making a documentary film.  Merrill-Mirsky wrote her thesis on "Judeo-Spanish song from the Island of Rhodes: a musical tradition in Los Angeles" and her dissertation on "Eeeny Meeny Pespsdenny : ethnicity and gender in children's musical play."  As she said, "with a little more time" on her hands, Merrill-Mirsky took a fresh look at several videos from her 1980s research and recently deposited newly-edited versions in the Ethnomusicology Archive.

I thought I would share two of them.

Handclapping and Ring Games in Three Los Angeles Schools: 1986-1987.  Field recordings made by Carol Merrill-Mirsky at Hillcrest Elementary, Rosemont Elementary, and Canyon Elementary (LAUSD) as part of her dissertation research in ethnomusicology at UCLA.  Research supported by a grant from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.

Rhythms & Roots: Five Musical Families.  This video was created in 1989 as part of an exhibition of the same name at the Hollywood Bowl Museum. Five local Los Angeles families are represented in this video -- recorded on site at the Hollywood Bowl Museum -- and in the exhibition through photographs, musical instruments, and stories.  The Vo Family: Vietnam.  The Ahhaitty Family: Native American.  The Echeverria Family: Mexico.  The Makarian Family: Armenian.  The Chambers Family: African American

Merrill-Mirsky wrote about her other film (with Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje) Remembering Kojo: The Maroons of Accompong, Jamaica for Ethnomusicology Review in November 2015.