Peter Breithaupt

Peter Breithaupt is a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a Master of Music degree in percussion performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2013) and a Master of Arts in music research (2011) as well as a Bachelor of Music in percussion performance (2010) from Western Michigan University. His dissertation
research examines the alternative music scene in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, focusing on issues of labor and development. Peter is currently a lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Peter has presented papers at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Annual Meeting (2018), the SEM Southern Plains Chapter Conference (2017 and 2018), and the University of Texas at Austin’s New Directions in Anthropology (2017). His article “Entering the Conversation: Finding Information in the Library and Online for Percussion Research” appeared in the May 2019 volume of Percussive Notes. Peter’s research has been supported by Fulbright-IIE and the Presser Foundation.

Complementing his scholarly work, Peter maintains an active professional life as a drummer, percussionist, composer, and songwriter. He tours internationally with Msafiri Zawose, one of Tanzania’s foremost Gogo musicians, and performs regularly with Rattletree, an award-winning Afro-dance band, and Hecho a Mano, an Austin-based salsa band. He also composes music for film; most recently, he composed, produced, and scored the soundtrack to Maasai Remix (2019), a documentary film that follows three Maasai individuals from Tanzania who are trying to defend their community’s rights to land and a pastoralist lifestyle. An old-time music enthusiast, Peter is a dedicated clawhammer banjoist. He is also an avid mountain biker.