Justin Balcor

BIOGRAPHY

Justin Balcor leads the African Ensemble at Centre College. He is also the District World Music Instructor for Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Kentucky where he leads middle and high school World Music ensembles and teaches middle school ethnography.

Mr. Balcor is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a BA in Music (Percussion) from Berea College, an MME (Music Education) from Eastern Kentucky University, and an MA in Musicology and Ethnomusicology from the University of Kentucky. Justin has previously served as the director of the Kentucky Refugee Ministries’ Children’s Choir, and SambaLEX in Lexington, KY. 

Justin is a former FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) Fellow and has also received a research award for the American Councils Combined Research and Language Training program in Tbilisi, Georgia. His doctoral work focuses on musical instruments, national/gender identity, and musical constructions of masculinity in the Republic of Georgia, with a secondary emphasis on Sub-Saharan African music performance and pedagogy, particularly Ewe percussion and Zimbabwean mbira. 

Justin has given presentations at annual conferences for Society for Ethnomusicology and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies on topics such as race and power. 

Awards & Grants

American Councils Combined Research & Training Program
Foreign Language & Area Studies Academic Year Fellowship
Foreign Language & Area Studies Summer Fellowship
Kresge Mini Grant
Lyman T. Johnson Fellowship

AFFILIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS

American Musicological Society
Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies
International Council for Traditional Music and Dance
Society for Ethnomusicology