Ph.D., Musicology, The Catholic University of America, 2023
MM, Classical Guitar Performance, New England Conservatory, 1996
BM, Classical Guitar Performance, Ithaca College, 1992
Minor in Latin American Music
Dr. Tom Rohde teaches music history, world music, Latin American music and a TSEM seminar on Brazilian composer and songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim at Towson University. His teaching emphasizes active listening, historical and cultural context, and the ways music reflects and shapes society. His courses encourage students to engage with music as both an artistic practice and a cultural expression, considering questions of identity, community and cultural exchange.
Dr. Rohde specializes in Brazilian music and culture, with research interests in musical and poetic adaptation, Brazilian musical identity, and the intersections of popular, traditional and art music. His scholarship draws on historical musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology and related interdisciplinary approaches. A central focus of his research is the modinha, an influential popular Brazilian sentimental song genre with roots extending to the late eighteenth century. His work examines the genre’s development and recontextualization across different historical periods and social settings, as well as its role in the formation of Brazilian musical and cultural identity.
Dr. Rohde has contributed entries and essays to The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music and presented his research on Brazilian music at the American Musicological Society’s Capital Chapter and the International Council for Traditional Music Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. He has also given frequent public lecture recitals on the history of choro and samba. His current scholarship examines the relationships among Brazilian popular music, literary culture and musical identity. Dr. Rohde is working on two journal articles on the Brazilian modinha and developing a book on the history and cultural significance of the genre.
An active classical guitarist and Brazilian music performer, Dr. Rohde frequently lectures on and performs Brazilian choro and samba. He regularly performs with Sínergia and the Educarte samba band and serves as an archivist at The Catholic University of America’s Latin American Music Center, where he works with Latin American and Brazilian music media collections.
