Linda C. Burman-Hall *74

Linda died Aug. 21, 2023, while traveling in Malaysia. She was 78.

Born in Los Angeles in 1945, she moved to Santa Cruz in 1970, where she hosted a radio show. She received her bachelor of arts degree in music composition at UCLA in 1966 and a Ph.D. in music theory from Princeton in 1974.

Linda was a music theory lecturer at UCLA from 1973 to 1974 before moving to UC Santa Cruz, where she taught courses in early music, Balinese gamelan, research skills, theory, and musicianship.

After retiring from teaching in 2014, Linda became a research professor at UC Santa Cruz. Her research centered on performance practices and improvisation in Western and non-Western music and specialized in Baroque and classical literature for early keyboards. She was an ethnomusicologist of traditional Euro-American and Indonesian music and published articles on South American folk fiddling, traditional and contemporary Balinese and Sudanese gamelans, and Ottoman music performances.

Linda founded the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival to present classical compositions from the 16th to 18th centuries. In addition to performing the works of Vivaldi and Bach, she chose inventive themes for each concert, such as music written for Shakespeare’s plays.

Linda is survived by her husband, Tim, and daughter Sarina.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.