Society for Music Research
Joao Rocha
Historical Musicology
João Rocha is a PhD pre-candidate in historical musicology at the University of Michigan. Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, his research explores the intersection of musico-dramatic narratives, post-colonialism, race, philosophy, and nationalism in Brazilian Art Music from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. João aims to investigate how literature, politics, and imported racial ideologies influenced Brazilian music and produced an unevenly shaped and always incomplete mosaic of Brazilianness.
João’s writing has been published in the journal Rising Voices in Ethnomusicology, and he is part of the 2025 AMS Explore cohort. João earned a BM in viola performance from Western Illinois University, where he was a recipient of the President’s International String Quartet scholarship.
Contact: rochajoao@umich.edu
