Biography

Irene Markoff is an ethnomusicologist and performer who received her PhD degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington (Seattle), an M.A. degree in Ethnomusicology from the Bulgarian State Conservatory in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a B.A. in Music from the University of Toronto. She has taught at the University of Washington, Oregon State University, and Brock University. At York University, she has taught core courses, studies courses, Balkan vocal music and Turkish baglama (long-necked lute with frets), and directs the Balkan Music Ensemble. She also contributes to the Graduate Programs in Music, Anthropology, and Interdisciplinary Studies. Irene’s research interests, conference presentations, and publications focus on aspects of traditional and popular music of Bulgaria and Türkiye in the homeland and diaspora (performance practice, folk music theory, musical hybridity and syncretism in transnational perspective, and intercultural musical collaborations). Thanks to funding from SSHRC, her strong interest in Islamic mysticism resulted in publications concerning the expressive culture (the dynamics of rituals and the role and training of ritual music specialists; sacred musical and kinetic genres; saint veneration, and the socio-political implications of revivalist movements) of the mystically-inclined Alevi religious minority in Türkiye and Canada, and more recently, Alevi-related communities in Bulgaria. Dr. Markoff contributed to the Middle East volume of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music as a consulting editor and with articles on Turkish folk music theory and Alevi expressive culture. Her chapter “Deconstructing Haydar: Lineage, Ownership, and Innovation in the Creation of an Alevi Classic,” in Ethnomusicological Encounters with Music and Musicians: Essays in Honor of Robert Garfias (Ashgate, 2011), provides a detailed transcription and analysis in socio-cultural context of Haydar, the Alevi classic by Alevi bağlama (folk lute) virtuoso and vocalist Ali Ekber Çiçek. One of Irene’s more recent publications is the chapter “Articulating Otherness in the Construction of Alevi-Bektashi Rituals and Ritual Space in Transnational Perspective” in Music, Sound, and Architecture in Islam (University of Texas Press, 2018). Her articles have appeared in Asian Music, Edebiyat, The World of Music, Bulgarian Musicology, and Yearbook for Traditional Music, and she has refereed manuscripts for publishers such as The University of Chicago Press, the Mellon Press, the Scarecrow Press, Oxford University Press, and Ashgate. She co-edited a special issue of the refereed journal Musicological Annual and is currently co-editing a special issue of the journal Poligrafi. Irene is a longstanding member of the Society for Ethnomusicology, The International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, and the Middle East Studies Association. She is also co-chair of the Sacred and Spiritual Sounds and Practices Study Group of the ICTMD. Outside of the university she has given Balkan singing workshops and directs and performs with the Toronto-based Bulgarian folk choir Ot Izvora, as well as assisting and performing with the Turkish folk music ensemble Ezgi. Irene appears on the album Meden Glas (2014) as music director and performer together with members of the band Meden Glas consisting of former York University Balkan Music Ensemble students.