Patricia Vergara is an assistant professor of music at the University of California, Merced. She received her PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland and a bachelor of music degree in jazz piano performance from Berklee College of Music. Her current book project examines musical migrations and recontextualizations between Mexico and Colombia from the 1930s to the present, and the workings of the emerging music industry in the U.S. and Latin America, musical meaning, memory, and belonging in contexts of neoliberal multiculturalism and political violence. Vergara is a contributor of the edited volume ¡Arriba el Norte…! Música de Acordeón y Bajo Sexto.

Música Norteña Mexicana is published by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). She was the recipient of the 2017 Hewitt Pantaleoni Prize from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the 2014 Paper Prize from the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology. A pianist and accordionist, Vergara has toured in the U.S., Europe, and Brazil, performing and recording in a variety of Latin American music genres, jazz, and popular music styles. Her research and musical projects have received funding from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland, the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. She currently serves as the Director of the live performance series Arts UC Merced Presents, and is the Vice-President of the Northern California Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology. 

an Ethnomusicology Forum presentation