Thomas Garcia

Educational Credentials

• Ph.D., Performance Practice, Duke University
• M.M., Musicology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
• M.M., Performance, The Juilliard School
• B.M., Performance, The Juilliard School

Biography

Thomas George Caracas Garcia, professor of ethnomusicology, guitarist and luthier, is on the faculty of Miami University. Specializing in Brazilian and Portuguese music, he has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Brazil, in diverse cultural institutions including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Villa-Lobos Museum and the Museum of the Republic of Rio de Janeiro, the Salle Bulgaria in Sofia, Palácio Monserrat in Sintra, Portugal, the “Fiato Al Brasile" festival in Faenza, Italy, Music Hall in Cincinnati and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He has performed with Grammy-award winning artist such as Wynton Marsalis, Paquito de Rivera, Nestor Torres, and Jessica Rivera, and was the opening act for Bob Dylan. The Duma newspaper of Sofia, Bulgaria wrote: “A brilliant soloist, Thomas Garcia conquered the public from the first notes of his performance, with his clear sound and warm tone.”

Garcia holds a doctorate in Historical Performance Practice from Duke University, a Master’s in Musicology from the University of Massachusetts, and performance degrees from the Juilliard School. His publications include articles on the history of guitar and Luso-Brazilian music in the Luso-Brazilian Review, Veduta (Portugal), and Journal of Popular Culture, among many others, as well as numerous book chapters and encyclopedia articles. He contributed a chapter on Brazilian musician Jacob do Bandolim in the award-winning book Mazel Tov, Amigos!: Jews and Popular Music in the Americas, which won a prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology for contributions to Jewish music scholarship. He is co-author of the book Choro, A Social History of a Brazilian Popular Music, editor of the anthology Global Popular Music, and, most recently, editor of the English-language catalog of the Villa-Lobos Museum in Rio de Janeiro. He serves on Master’s and Doctoral committees at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, where he served as an investigator for EcoMusic, a project dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of Portuguese folk and popular music. Garcia performs on experimental guitars of his own design and construction.