Fredric Lieberman

Who was Fredric Lieberman?

Fredric Lieberman was an American ethnomusicologist, composer, music professor, and author. As a faculty member at the University of California at Santa Cruz, he was affiliated with the Music Department. UCSC is where he became known for teaching and studying the Grateful Dead. He was perhaps best known for his role as the key contact between the University of California at Santa Cruz and The Grateful Dead, in finding a home for the band's archives at the University's McHenry Library and for his collaboration with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart on three of Hart's books: Planet Drum, Drumming at the Edge of Magic, and Spirit Into Sound. He was a composer of music and published several of his compositions. He co-authored a biographical study of composer Lou Harrison with Dr. Leta Miller and authored numerous other publications. His early research focused on East Asian musics, then American vernacular music, as well as his work on theories of organology and copyright law. He was an avid collector of traditional musical instruments from around the world.