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Ken Habib, conductor

Conductor

Ken Habib, Professor

Arab Music Ensemble Director, Ethnomusicology
(805) 756-2741
Davidson Music Center, Room 218C
khabib@calpoly.edu

In addition to teaching in the Cal Poly Music Department, Ken Habib has served as the associate director of the Middlebury College Arabic School, taught music at Pomona College and the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), and taught Arabic at Cuesta College and Santa Barbara City College. His education includes a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and a Certificate of Completion of Graduate Curriculum in College and University Teaching from UCSB, a Master of Arts degree in music composition from UCSB, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications studies from the University of California Los Angeles. The main areas of his research involve the art and popular music cultures of Lebanon, of the larger region of Southwest Asia North Africa, and of the U.S. An ongoing focus of his research is the iconic Lebanese singer, Fairuz, who in collaboration with the Rahbani family of composer-poets has been a preeminent force in Arab art and popular music for some 70 years. His articles appear in publications including The Encyclopedia of Islam, The Grove Dictionary of American Music, The Journal of Popular Music Studies, The Oxford Bibliographies in Islamic Studies, and The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture as well as on NPR’s Afropop Worldwide. He also is an active performer, composer, and poet, and has released an album of original Arab art music, “Salam,” and an album of original American art song, “child in me.”