Barley Norton

Professor Barley Norton is a distinguished ethnomusicologist and filmmaker at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he serves as Director of the Asian Music Unit (AsMU), convenor of the MA in Music (Ethnomusicology), and leader of the Goldsmiths Gamelan Group. His academic career focuses on the music and culture of Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, where he has conducted extensive field research.

His research interests span ethnomusicological filmmaking and theory, the cultural politics of musical practice, discourse on cultural heritage and music revival, music and religious experience, music and emotion, music and gender theory, music censorship, improvisation, and performance and modal theory. Norton's academic work is deeply informed by his practical musical engagement; during his field research in Vietnam, he learned to play the dan day and dan nguyet lutes, and he also performs Sundanese music from Indonesia on the kacapi zither and in the gamelan degung orchestra.

Norton's scholarly output reveals significant trends in Southeast Asian music studies, particularly focusing on the intersection of traditional musical practices with contemporary political and social contexts. His work consistently examines how musical traditions navigate processes of canonization, heritage safeguarding, and creative innovation within rapidly changing cultural landscapes. A notable thread throughout his research is the relationship between music, ritual, and identity in Vietnamese cultural contexts, with increasing attention to environmental concerns and climate change impacts on musical heritage in his most recent work.

• American Musicology Society's 2014 Ruth A. Solie Award for 'Music and Protest in 1968'
• Commendation - Intangible Culture Film Prize at the Royal Anthropological Institute's 12th International Festival of Ethnographic Film for 'Hanoi Eclipse: The Music of Dai Lam Linh'

Professor Norton has supervised numerous doctoral students including Christopher Hanby (Applied Ethnomusicology and Jèrriais language revitalization), Lin Lin (Creative Realization in the Compositional Process), Clare Salaman (Reimagining the trumpet marine), and Jasmine Hornabrook (Transnational networks in London's Tamil diaspora). His research has been generously funded by the Getty Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Academy, and ASEASUK, supporting projects on Vietnamese music revival and audiovisual archiving. He has also undertaken consultancy work with UNESCO, the British Council, and Vietnamese cultural institutions on music heritage projects.

As a key figure in the field, Norton directs Goldsmiths' Asian Music Unit, which serves as a hub for research, performance, and teaching focused on Asian musical traditions. The unit facilitates cross-cultural musical dialogue and supports field research in Asia, while the Goldsmiths Gamelan Group provides hands-on experience with Indonesian musical traditions. His leadership extends to international scholarly organizations, having served as Chair of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (2015-2018) and as a member of the Society for Ethnomusicology Council (2017-2020).