Awards

Bicentennial Medal - 2020

Distinguished Alumni Service Award - 1986

About Bruno Nettl

As a small child in Czechoslovakia and as a student at Indiana University, where his father was an honored faculty member of the School of Music, Bruno Nettl was steeped in the traditions and the techniques of music. Combining the fields of music, anthropology, and folklore, he completed undergraduate and graduate study before receiving the Ph.D. degree, concentrating on the comparative analysis of the world’s music traditions.

Dr. Nettl is, above all, a scholar, performing original research on tribal and classical music in the far-flung countries of the world and in ethnic centers in America and publishing extensively to contribute directly to greater cross-cultural understanding and appreciation of the arts. An inspirational teacher, he has multiplied the training he received at Indiana University by serving as mentor to generations of students, preparing them to enter the realm of music. Dr. Nettl devoted his life to teaching, field research and scholarship, and is honored as the most famous living ethnomusicologist.