Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi
Assistant Professor of Music
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BA SUNY-Purchase College; MA New York University; PhD New York University
Research Areas: Kuwaiti pearl-diving music; Global jazz; Music and sea trade in Indian Ocean; Aesthetics; Philosophy
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi, PhD is an applied-ethnomusicologist who received his PhD in ethnomusicology from New York University in 2016. In addition to working as an assistant professor of music, Al-Mulaifi is also a Venice Biennale artist, composer, Khaleeji-jazz musician, and ensemble leader.
His research interests include Kuwaiti pearl diving music, the music of the Indian Ocean civilizations trade routes, global-jazz, and heritage production. His current musical efforts include performing with his ensemble Boom.Diwan where he and traditional Kuwaiti pearl diving musicians merge Kuwaiti bahri (sea) rhythms with global jazz traditions for the purpose of creating a new Kuwaiti music and engaging in a global musical dialog.
Courses Taught
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This course will introduce students to a foundational level of knowledge of music composition by producing work across a wide variety of different genres, styles, media and aesthetic traditions. Departing from an approach that looks at different musical systems, the course will guide students through different ways of organizing musical discourse. The emphasis will be on the practical creation of music using different approaches including improvisation and electronics, besides the more traditional paper composition. Students will be actively encouraged to perform their work, and to present other performances, including planned and free improvisation, approaches to the interpretation of contemporary music, installation work, graphic scores and other non-standard notations, as appropriate.
Previously taught: Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023
This course appears in...
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Artistic Practice Track
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
- Minors > Music
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This course will introduce students to performance practice and performance cultures in a global context. Through weekly lectures, workshops, and labs, students will explore the ways in which musicking functions as a creative practice for its practitioners, its 'users', and its listening cultures. Students will examine topics including the interface between performance and composition; performance as composition; musicking with technology; musicking as a crucible of experimentation and how to formulate practice research questions and frameworks. Each week will include extensive practical music experiences, such as listening exercises; guided readings and viewings; all in the service of facilitating music making and documenting.
Previously taught: Spring 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Mary S Gatchell - TR 14:10 - 15:25 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Music Practice Electives
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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2 credits
Beginning Group Music Instruction - Guitar is designed to introduce students to a new musical instrument. The course focuses on establishing basic technical competencies, along with musical literacy skills, which will serve as the basis for developing performance skill and increasing musical mastery.
Previously taught: Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Abir Youssef Saidani - TR 11:20 - 12:35 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Music Practice Electives
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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2 credits
A diverse array of ensembles is offered each semester. Participants develop skills in active musicianship: performance, listening, communication, and collaboration. Ensembles are offered at beginner, intermediate, and advanced performance levels. Ensemble formations include, for example, NYUAD Vocal Ensemble, A Capella group, or chamber music ensembles.
Previously taught: Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 1 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Cristina Ioan - M 14:10 - 15:25 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi - R 11:20 - 12:35 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi - T 11:20 - 12:35 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Warren Churchill - F 10:00 - 11:15 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi - T 11:20 - 14:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi - R 11:20 - 14:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Music Practice Electives
- Minors > Music
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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2 credits
Individual Instruction in Music is designed for students willing to develop their skills in one or more musical instruments, vocal performance, or wanting to learn compositional techniques and strategies to help them create musical work under supervision.
Previously taught: Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Abir Youssef Saidani - R 12:40 - 13:40 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Ioannis Potamousis - T 17:15 - 18:15 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Yarub Smarait - T 14:10 - 15:10 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Warren Churchill - Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Mary S Gatchell - W 11:00 - 12:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
F 14:20 - 15:20 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Ioannis Potamousis - M 16:00 - 17:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Cristina Ioan - W 11:20 - 12:20 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Abir Youssef Saidani - T 10:15 - 11:15 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Mary S Gatchell - R 12:45 - 13:45 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Carlos Guedes - T 10:00 - 11:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Music Practice Electives
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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Arab music culture, understood as an assemblage of ideas, practices, instruments, and traditions of sounding and listening, flourishes across the Arab world and in other places where Arabs have settled. This course provides a thorough overview of Arab music culture in the contemporary world, by investigating a number of its iterations within and beyond the Middle East and North Africa. Course materials, including sound recordings and films as well as written works, utilize music as a prism to view other aspects of society, such as religion, nationalism, and diaspora. By engaging critically with these materials, students cultivate ways of speaking and writing about music and culture in Arab and other contexts. The course thus prepares students for further work in ethnomusicology, the study of music as culture.
Previously taught: Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2022
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi - TR 09:55 - 11:10 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Islamic Studies
- Majors > Arab Crossroads Studies > Arts and Literature
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Ethnomusicology Electives
- Majors > Music > History, Theory, Criticism
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
- Minors > African Studies > Arts and Humanities Electives
- Minors > Anthropology
- Minors > Arab Crossroads Studies
- Minors > Arab Music Studies
- Minors > Heritage Studies > Heritage Theory
- Minors > Music
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
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This interdisciplinary course meets at the intersection of applied ethnomusicology and heritage studies. By establishing a Khaleeji percussion ensemble and music diwaniya it paves the way for an in-depth understanding of both Khaleeji Arab music, and culture more broadly. It will lay the foundation for an ongoing Khaleeji percussion ensemble where students and community members will participate and perform on campus and locally. The class will be divided into two daily segments: a hands-on percussion workshop and a seminar. The seminar portion draws from the disciplines of performance studies, ethnomusicology, ethnography, documentary traditions (film), music and technology (field and studio recording), and heritage studies. An integral part of this course will take place in the Black Box Theater where students will perform and record for the purpose of creating an ethnomusicological document.
Previously taught: January 2020, June-Term 2021, Summer 1 2022
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Islamic Studies
- Majors > Arab Crossroads Studies > Arts and Literature
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Ethnomusicology Electives
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
- Minors > Anthropology
- Minors > Arab Music Studies > Arab Music Electives
- Minors > Heritage Studies > Heritage Management and Research Methods
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This interdisciplinary course meets at the intersections of applied ethnomusicology, performance studies, and heritage studies and contemporary Khaleeji Musical heritage with a focus on Kuwaiti Pearl Diving music between roughly 1900 and the present. With influences spanning from Zanzibar to Bombay to Kuwait and the coastal civilizations in between, this hybrid and cosmopolitan music was born of trade and cultural exchange. As a music of the Indian Ocean civilizations trade, it is also extra-Khaleeji and extra-Arabic. It changed with each pearling and trading season as sailors and divers played music with the locals as they waited for monsoon winds to change direction before sailing home, eager to share the new sounds and instruments upon their return. What happens to this tradition as it is appropriated into the realm of heritage performance as static national-capital? How does this music exist today as a dialogic and fluid expression of the pre-national past? How does cosmopolitanism play with national discourse? The class will also create a virtual Modern Khaleeji ensemble where we will collectively and virtually perform music.
Previously taught: Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Arts, Design, and Technology
- Core Curriculum > Cultural Exploration and Analysis
- Core Curriculum > Islamic Studies
- Majors > Arab Crossroads Studies > Arts and Literature
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
- Minors > Anthropology
- Minors > Heritage Studies > Heritage Theory
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This course begins with a history of Jazz as it originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans during the early 1900s; and continues by investigating the influences that modern globalization has had on this genre, (starting with the Afro-Cuban Jazz movement of the 1950s). In addition to providing a historical context about the origins and the evolutionary trajectory of Jazz, this course also takes a cross-cultural perspective in addressing particular migratory influences that spurred the diverse branches of contemporary Global Jazz, including: Afro-Cuban Jazz, Jazz Manouche (Gypsy Jazz) and Flamenco, Brazilian Jazz, South Asian Jazz, Highlife and Afrobeat, South African Jazz, Gnawa Fusion, Gypsy Jazz, Oriental Jazz, and Khaleeji Jazz. Central questions: What is "Global Jazz"? How does global jazz manifest itself as an expression of cosmopolitanism within the context of transnational encounters? and What does the term "Global Jazz" do that "Jazz" does not? What does it make possible?
Previously taught: Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Fall 2024
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Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi - TR 09:55 - 11:10 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Cultural Exploration and Analysis
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
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Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
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This applied-ethnomusicological course takes an interdisciplinary approach in addressing the migratory influences that spurred both diverse and overlapping musical traditions and instruments within the contexts of the Western Indian world. The geographic trajectory of this course follows the two most common trade routes in the Western Indian Ocean where the first starts in Basra during winter monsoon season (between November and February) and travels south to the Northeast African coast. While the second starts during the summer monsoon season (between April and September in Mombasa) in Mombasa and travels due east toward to the cities of Quilon and Calicut; before heading north along the Malabar coast and on to Persia on route back to Basra. 1. How has a system of debt and trade impacted the diverse and cosmopolitan music of the Western Indian Ocean? 2. Where can we find residual connectivity within musical aesthetic characteristics within contemporary diasporic communities? 3. What is the geopolitical legacy of the impact of hundreds of years of trade on the popular musics of the region?
Previously taught: Spring 2022
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Islamic Studies
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
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The Music Program Capstone Seminar is the space where students deepen their proposed Capstone project proposals in either track for the major. This consists of weekly meetings with the Capstone advisor, complemented by a series of periodic lectures given by each full-time faculty member in the Music Program. The lecture topics relate to issues found pertinent to the development of a solid, well-grounded and rigorous project and accompanying paper. Towards the end of the semester, students are required to formally present the projects to be completed in the following semester.
Prerequisite: Must be a declared Music major and Senior standing.
Previously taught: Fall 2017, Spring 1 2018, Summer 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024
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Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Carlos Guedes - T 17:00 - 18:15 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Artistic Practice Track
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
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Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
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The Music Practice Capstone Project provides seniors with the opportunity to work closely with a faculty mentor and to produce a senior thesis project. Projects may range from an original artistic practice to a theoretical, historical or ethnographic research project. This course is where the project proposal developed and presented in the Music Capstone Seminar is finally accomplished, presented publicly, and defended before a jury.
Prerequisite: MUSIC-UH 4000
Previously taught: Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Carlos Guedes - Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Mary S Gatchell - Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Warren Churchill - Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Carlos Guedes - Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Majors > Music
- Majors > Music > Artistic Practice Track
- Majors > Music > Music Studies Track
-
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks