John Bimbiras

John Bimbiras is a third-year Ph.D. student of Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin and a mentee of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute. Joining the Dominican Archives as an archival assistant in 2013, he learned to organize archival records and preserve rare documents and materials. Among the array of one-of-a-kind collections John was exposed to was the entire collection of original manuscripts of Dominican composer and bandleader Maestro Rafael Petitón Guzmán (1894-1983), which he went on to transcribe and arrange as a research assistant at CUNY DSI after receiving his Master’s degree in Music Theory and Composition from the City College of New York. In July 2021, CUNY DSI released The Petitón Trilogy, a three-part celebration of the life and work of Maestro Petitón, a project in which Bimbiras played an integral role. You can read more about his involvement here. Bimbira’s latest project, Impact of Diasporic Dominican Musicians on the Global Soundscape during the Early and Mid-Twentieth Century, seeks to bring to light the significant contributions Dominicans like Petitón have made to the global soundscape through their labor as performers, composers, bandleaders, recording artists, and educators. To undertake an in-depth study of the musical activities of early diasporic Dominican musicians living abroad, Bimbiras will employ ethnographic and archival methods, engaging directly with the descendants of the musicians.