James Bofill, graduate student

What do you enjoy most about teaching music at the U of A?
Teaching keeps me involved actively with music, because I learn a lot from students. Teaching keeps me on the edge, because I have to be updated, I have to keep on reading, playing and coming up with new ways to teach the music. I want to make the class entertaining and that requires a lot of previous work. … I also enjoy the responses that I get from the students from questions I ask and from assignments. Some of them reaffirm that music is a very personal thing.

Music can impact a person’s life. How has music impacted your life?
I am now doing my doctoral degree in music and ethomusicology. I have been playing for a long time. It forms an active part of my life. …I am either composing or singing music. I am also very active in performing. For me, music is a business, but it is also what gives me strength to wake up in the morning when I don’t want to get out of bed. After I sing, I definitely feel alive.

What does your future look like involving music?
I plan to write a book. Dr. Sturman has offered me to co-write a book on a class that we are teaching on the survey of Mexican folk music. I am also very interested in the music of Latin America, Caribbean and Brazilian music. … As a musician I would like to play these types of music. I am also trying to reactivate the composure side of me, because I was playing with a band in Phoenix. We would play a lot of my songs, and I am trying to get that started here in Tucson so that we can record. That is one of my big projects now.

– Kelsey Alhmark