Paul Humphreys

As a composer, Paul Humphreys has set texts that range from contemporary poets Wendell Berry, Denise Levertov, and Gary Snyder to classic sources that include the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead) and Daodejing. In addition to numerous live performances of his works in Southern California, Britain, Western Europe, and Indonesia, screenings of his most recent vocal work—the song that can be sung is Not the Eternal Song, for women's choir and harp—have been presented in Boston and in Wudangshan, China.

Humphreys' work as a composer is decisively influenced by study and research as an ethnomusicologist. Published in Perspectives of New Music, Open Space, Asian Music, and Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology, his articles and reviews follow from study and research in Indonesia, West Africa, Native North America, and Japan.

As a teacher, Humphreys endeavours to model openness to all musics and a passionate curiosity toward its cultural origins. His scholarly interests extend to theories of music that co-arise with music practice, especially as these illuminate individual music cultures, as well as commonalities between them. In addition to teaching at UCLA, California Institute for the Arts, California State University (Northridge), and Kunitachi College of Music (Tokyo, Japan), he has served on the faculty of the Department of Music at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles since 1997 where he is Professor and Director of World Music Ensembles.

Since 1984, both Soko Paul Humphreys and his wife, Koshin Susan Humphreys, have been lay disciples of Denkyo Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Humphreys is the meditation leader of the LMU Zen Group, founded in 2006.