Alumna Rashel Pakbaz, who holds both a cum laude Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master of Arts in Music History from SJSU, has been accepted into Cambridge University’s Ph.D. program in Musicology. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Rashel is committed to furthering her studies in order to make Assyrian music and culture accessible and understandable to a wide audience. Focusing not only on music as a performance, but also on the intersection of musical reading, playing, and orchestration with areas such as sociology, anthropology, politics, and history, she strives to achieve a greater understanding of the relationships between people and music, and the power music has to connect musicians with their audiences.
“I strongly believe that artists are not only artists, but also sociopolitical activists that play a major role in encouraging, criticizing, raising awareness, and promoting innovations through their creations,” Rashel elaborated. “Music is a language. Once you learn it, you can communicate with those who speak it. It can be overwhelming at times, but it is enjoyable, always.”
Rashel’s interest in musicology was sparked by music history classes she took with Dr. William Meredith and Dr. Gordon Haramaki. Her master’s thesis focuses on the work of William D. S. Daniel, an Assyrian author, poet, and musician. She was intrigued by Daniel’s purely Mesopotamian music, free of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or Kurdish resonance. She reports that studying Daniel’s work enables her “to see and distinguish the fundamental issues concerning the Mesopotamian music, culture, and society of which [she is] a part.”
Her research culminated in the publication of her master’s thesis, entitled “Reviving Mesopotamia: Genocide and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage in the Nationalistic Music of William Daniel,” which received the Roshan Graduate Fellowship Award in Persian Studies from San Jose State University and the Annual Assyrian American Association of San Jose’s Award in Oumanoota, both in 2015. These awards allow Rashel to do what she wants most — to share the knowledge of her culture and her history with others. With her thesis publication and her continuation of her studies at Cambridge, she hopes to reach even greater heights.
“Music and the arts are an important factor in the growth of a society as well as some of the most influential means of communication with the outside world. I know that I can acquire the necessary skills at Cambridge with its highly professional, diverse, free, and open academic environment as well as its excellent resources to help my community with its struggle to survive as a people and a culture.”
By Kaitlynn Magnuson
