Guy Beck

Dr. Guy L. Beck is a scholar, author, musician, college professor, historian of religions, and musicologist. A Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (Oxford University, U.K.), he is presently Lecturer in Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Tulane University. He earned a B. A. in Social Sciences from the University of Denver, and an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of South Florida. He also holds an M.A. in Fine Arts, Musicology and a Ph.D. in Religion, South Asia from Syracuse University. In India, he studied Sanskrit and Indian philosophy under Prof. Gaurinath Sastri (President of Sanskrit College, Calcutta). At Syracuse University, he studied South Asian religions and Sanskrit literature under Prof. H. Daniel Smith and Swami Agehananda Bharati, Hindi language under Prof. Jishnu Shankar, history of religions under Prof. Charles H. Long, music theory and history under Prof. Howard Boatwright, and ethnomusicology from Prof. Ellen Koskoff. Dr. Beck is the author of Sonic Theology: Hinduism and Sacred Sound (University of South Carolina Press, 1993) where he examined Hindu theology and Indian philosophy in terms of sacred sound, and Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition (University of South Carolina Press, 2012), where he traced the historical relation between Hindu ritual and Indian classical and devotional music. He has also published, as editor, Alternative Krishnas: Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity (SUNY Press, 2005), wherein he presented the Krishnology of the Vaishnava sect known as the Radhavallabha Sampradaya. His other edited volume, Sacred Sound: Experiencing Music in World Religions (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006), includes chapters on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism by distinguished scholars, as well as a CD of forty selections of chant and music performed by the authors ("....highly recommended." CHOICE). As an archivist of Indian devotional music, Dr. Beck has recently compiled, edited, and recorded 108 temple songs of the Radhavallabha Sampradaya in the book and collection of 18 CD's entitled Vaishnava Temple Music in Vrindaban: The Radhavallabha Songbook (Blazing Sapphire Press, 2011). During 1992-1993, under a Fulbright Research Grant, Beck studied Haveli Sangit and Samaj Gayan, two genres of devotional music allied with Dhrupad, from musicians in Vrindaban and Mathura. In addition, Beck has written several articles on Indian religion and music for reference works such as Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts, Grove Dictionary of American Music, and Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, South Asia volume.

When Beck was a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies at Oxford University (U.K.) during the fall of 2001, he delivered the Michaelmas Lectures on Hinduism and Music, and taught a graduate seminar in ethnomusicology. During this time, he received a grant from the Infinity Foundation for research and study in England on the Indic influences on world religious chant and music.

Guy Beck has studied Hindustani classical vocal music for over seven years in India, and performs regularly. He has released two CDs: Sacred Raga (New Orleans: STR Digital Records, 1999) and Sanjher Pradip (Calcutta: Bihaan Music, 2004). Originally studying under Sangeetacharya Sri Sailen Banerjee of the Tansen Music College in Calcutta (1976-1980), he continued his training at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy (SRA), founded in Calcutta in 1978. At SRA, he has studied under Pandit Arun Bhaduri (Guru) and Pandit Vijay Kichlu (Founding Director/Guru). Sri Sailen Banerjee, vocalist and organizer of the famous Tansen Music Conferences since the 1940s, was a disciple of Ustad Dabir Khan, the last hereditary descendent of Mian Tansen, the legendary singer at the court of Emperor Akbar in the sixteenth century. Beck has also learned Dhrupad from the Dagar Brothers in Delhi, and at the Chhandam Institute of Dhrupad in north Calcutta. He has since performed in several national music conferences in India, at Fulbright House (New Delhi), Visvabharati Shantiniketan University, ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Shantipur Ragini, and Nad Music Circle in Burdwan (West Bengal). On record, he is the first American to have appeared in a national Indian music conference (Tansen Music Conference, 1977) of Hindustani music, and one of the first Westerners to earn a vocal music degree from an Indian institution ("Sangit Bivakar," B. Music, from the West Bengal State Academy of Music, 1980). Having also appeared on Doordarshan (Indian TV) and Radio Nepal, Beck has taught several students the art of Hindustani music, and frequently gives lectures and demonstrations at American college campuses and other venues. For a brief history of Hindustani music and an overview of his musical training, see the article, "The Magic of Hindu Music," in Hinduism Today (October 2007, pp. 20–31).

For further studies in Hindustani music, Beck was awarded a Senior Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies (A.I.I.S.) in 2008. This was followed in 2010 with a US Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship for the study of the Agra Gharana, the oldest and richest tradition of Hindustani vocal music with roots in Dhrupad of the fourteenth century. For this research and training, he was affiliated with the ITC Sangeet Research Academy under the guidance of Pandit Vijay Kichlu. Vijay Kichlu and his brother Ravi Kichlu ("Kichlu Brothers"), as disciples of the elder Dagar Brothers, performed as popular concert and radio artists of Dhrupad and Khyal. Vijay Kichlu, a disciple of Ustad Latafat Hussain Khan, is a highly-respected vocalist and authority in Hindustani vocal music and the Agra Gharana. Beck was also assisted in this work by Smt. Purnima Sen (disciple of Ustad Sharafat Hussain Khan), Dr. Tapasi Ghosh (Calcutta University, disciple of Pandit D. T. Joshi), and Waseem Ahmed Khan (SRA Scholar and family member of Agra Gharana, being the grandson of Ustad Ata Hussain Khan).

During the post-Katrina academic years of 2005-2007, Dr. Beck taught at University of North Carolina at Wilmington and the University of Mississippi (as Croft Visiting Assistant Professor)]. Thereafter he resumed teaching Asian Studies and Religious Studies at Tulane University.

In August, 2011, Dr. Beck was invited as a participant in the prestigious Eranos Conferences held in Ascona, Switzerland. The Eranos Conferences were inaugurated by psychologist C. G. Jung in the early 1930s, and hosted intellectuals and scholars like Rudolf Otto, Karl Kerenyi, Mircea Eliade, author Hermann Hesse, and many others over the years. The theme of the 2011 meeting was "Love and the Musical Arts," and was organized by the Fetzer Institute under the direction of Dr. Lawrence Sullivan (Harvard University, Professor Emeritus). At this meeting Beck discussed and performed "Ragas of Love: Devotional Music in the Hindu Tradition."

Born in New York City and brought up in a musical family, Guy began his musical training in piano and choral singing in upstate New York, where he studied classical piano under Prof. George Mulfinger at Syracuse University. He also learned popular music from his father, Harold Cooke, a noted pianist, composer, and Broadway vocal music arranger during the 1940s and 1950's in New York. Cooke worked with composer Harold Arlen and songstress Kate Smith, and was the pianist at the Blue Angel club in Manhattan where he used to accompany celebrity singers. Cooke was also a close associate of piano legend Cy Walter and singer Mabel Mercer.