John Baily is an expert in the music of Afghanistan, as researcher and performer, playing Afghan lutes (rubab and dutar) and accompanying his wife Veronica Doubleday, who is a renowned singer of Herati women’s folk songs. He is the author of several books, Music of Afghanistan: Professional musicians in the city of Herat (1988), “Can you stop the birds singing?” The censorship of music in Afghanistan (2001), Songs from Kabul: The Spiritual Music of Ustad Amir Mohamad (2011), and War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan. The Ethnographer’s Tale (2015). He is also a graduate of the National Film and Television School and director of the prize-winning documentary film: Amir: An Afghan refugee musician’s life in Peshawar, Pakistan (1985), as well as ten other films about the music of Afghanistan. These films are available from The Royal Anthropological Institute in London.

John holds a D.Phil. from the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex 1970 (Prism Adaptation and Motor Control) and a further PhD. from the Department of Social Anthropology, Queen’s University of Belfast 1988 (Music, musicians and musical performance in Herat, 1973-1977). He joined the Department of Music at Goldsmiths University in 1990, where he remained until his retirement as Professor in 2009.

John’s connection with Sempre began in 2011, when he was asked to visit the recently opened Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul as Sempre’s Ambassador. Baily spent a month at ANIM observing and filming lessons and performances at this co-educational school, and in collaboration with Sempre’s Professor Evangelos Himonides edited the footage into the observational documentary Return of the Nightingales (2013). Baily and Himonides later collaborated on two further Sempre projects. One is the Online Afghan Rubab Tutor (https://oart.eu), while the other is Silken Threads, a CD collection of traditional Afghan music performed by Veronica Doubleday (vocal and frame drum) and John Baily (Afghan lutes), recorded by Professor Himonides at Goldsmiths University and released by Sempre in compact disc format. Baily is currently completing an Afghan Rubab Handbook, a resource that includes sargam notations (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni Sa) in over thirty rags (melodic modes).

John says: "I often think (usually fondly!) of my 5 years at Sidcot, along with my various Clark and Morland relatives". He cites his interests as caving, sledging and skiffle - including Lonnie Donegan and "Rock Island Line', leading back to Huddie Ledbetter aka known as Leadbelly, and the 12 stringed guitar - which were all very influential on his future involvement in Ethnomusicology.

Congratulations John!