About the Author

Dale A. Olsen, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he taught ethnomusicology for 35 years (1973-2008) establishing one of the largest and finest ethnomusicology/world music programs in the United States. He was also the director of the Center for Music of the Americas. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Historical Musicology and Flute Performance from the University of Minnesota (1964 and 1966) and the Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA (1973). Dr. Olsen is a recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Japan Foundation Grant, Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and many others. Olsen has over 100 publications, including these books: Music of the Warao of Venezuela: Song People of the Rain Forest; Music of El Dorado: The Ethnomusicology of Ancient South American Cultures; The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora; Popular Music of Vietnam: The Politics of Remembering, The Economics of Forgetting; and World Flutelore: Folktales, Myths, and Other Stories of Magical Flute Power. He is coeditor of The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 2 and The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music. Dr. Olsen has served as Board Member and First Vice President of the Society for Ethnomusicology; Board Member for Ethnomusicology/World Music of the College and President of The College Music Society; as President of the Florida Folklore Society; and he was the co-founder and first President of the Southeast/Caribbean Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Dale Olsen and his wife were Peace Corps Volunteers in Santiago, Chile (1966-68), where Dale performed in the Philharmonic Orchestra of Chile as principal flutist. He also conducted fieldwork in the north and central regions of Chile, recorded and transcribed Chilean folk music for the Chilean Institute of Culture, and collected and learned how to play various Andean musical instruments. As an ethnomusicologist he studied Japanese shakuhachi and received a shihan (master diploma) from iemoto Iwami Baikyoko. With the professional name Olsen-Bai-O he has performed shakuhachi concerts in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Japan, Paraguay, and Peru. Dr. Olsen has lived, traveled, lectured, or researched in over 60 countries where he collected hundreds of musical instruments and learned how to play most of them.