Kumi Uyeda

Kumiko Uyeda received a BM in piano performance from University of the Pacific, where she studied piano with Rex Cooper. In 2015, she received her PhD in Cultural Musicology from University of California, Santa Cruz, with her dissertation, The Journey of the Tonkori: A Multicultural Transmission, which focused on the intersections of music and social movements of the Ainu indigenous people of Japan.

Dr. Uyeda is a recipient of the University of California Pacific Rim Research Fellowship and the Eugene-Cota Robles Doctoral Fellowship. She has presented papers at national and international conferences, including Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM). Dr. Uyeda's research centers on Ainu music, indigenous musics, and she has co-created the panel "Exploring Personhood: New Animism in Ethnomusicology" at the SEM national conference in 2016. She has produced a documentary on the socio-political significance of the Ainu instrument tonkori, which was presented at the ICTM's world conference in 2015.

Dr. Uyeda is a member of SEM, ICTM, Society for Asian Music, American Anthropological Association, and the Music Teachers Association of CA.