Robert Labaree

Robert Labaree

vice president

Robert Labaree is an ethnomusicologist specializing in Turkish music and medieval European music. As a founding member of the EurAsia Ensemble since 1980, he has performed and taught Turkish classical music across the US. Beginning in 1985, Labaree collaborated with the instrument-maker Feridun Özgören to create a contemporary version of the Ottoman harp, çeng which disappeared from Turkish classical, folk, and religious music in early 18th century. His recordings with EurAsia Ensemble include Eski Dünya ile Sohbetler (Conversations with the Old World), Istanbul on the Charles, and Boston Sema. His solo CD Çengnağme appeared in Turkey in 2001 on the Kalan label. He has been a member of New England Conservatory’s Music History faculty since 1984, teaching a wide range of western and non-western repertoires, and is co-director of New England Conservatory’s Intercultural Institute, which he established in 1993.