Edwin Seroussi, Emanuel Alexandre Professor of Musicology and Director
of the Jewish Music Research Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
since 2000, was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and immigrated to Israel in
1971. Held lectureships at the Department of Musicology of Tel-Aviv University
and at Levinsky Teachers' College in Tel-Aviv, before his full time appointment
at Bar-Ilan University in 1990, where he was head of the Department of
Music from 1994 to 1998. Was visiting professor at Binghamton University
(New York, 1992/3) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1998/9).
His works include: “Schir Hakawod and the Liturgical
Music Reforms in the Sephardi Community in Vienna, ca. 1881-1925”, Ph.D.
diss. University of California, Los Angeles (1988); Spanish-Portuguese
Synagogue Music in Nineteenth-century Reform Sources from Hamburg: Ancient
Tradition in the Dawn of Modernity (Jerusalem 1996); Cancionero
sefardí by Alberto Hemsi (Jerusalem 1995); Mizimrat Qedem:
The Life and Music of R. Isaac Algazi from Turkey (Jerusalem 1989)
and more than forty articles on diverse aspects of Sephardi music traditions.
In the past years he has also researched the popular music of Israel. His
book (co-written with Motti Regev) Popular Music and National Culture
in Israel was published by the University of California Press in 2004.
He contributed articles on Jewish and Israeli music for major music encyclopedias
such as The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Revised Edition
and the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. He founded and edits Yuval:
Music Series of the Jewish Music Research Center. Edited several CDs
of Jewish music, e.g. Titgadal ve-titkadash betokh Yerushalayim - Jerusalem
in Hebrew Prayers and Songs (Wergo, Berlin 1996) and Chants judéo-espagnols
de la Mediterraneé orientale (Inedit, Paris 1994).