Margaret Caton

Dr. Margaret Caton is an ethnomusicologist specializing in Persian music. She is a Research Associate of the Institute of Persian Performing Arts in Los Angeles and a member of the Board of Directors of the Music Research Institute in Point Richmond, California. After study and research in Iran in 1970 and 1974-77, she wrote her master's thesis on the music of a kamanche performer from the province of Gilan and her doctoral dissertation on a Persian classical song form, the tasnif. Her extensive Persian music collection of archival and field recordings is housed at the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archives, as well as included in Adam Mathew Digital's Global Field Recordings. She received her Ph.D. in music with the emphasis in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles and has written numerous articles on the subject of Persian music, published in journals, Encyclopaedia Iranica, and The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Her book, Hafez: 'Erfan and Music as Interpreted by Ostad Morteza Varzi, illustrates the relationship between classical poetry, mysticism, and music in Iranian culture. Her book A Persian Ode: Musical Life in Safavid and Qajar Iran is based on selected European travelers' narratives of their observations of musical life in Iran during the years 1500-1925. She also has a doctorate in clinical psychology and has worked as a psychologist in a variety of settings, including clinic, hospital, school, and private practice. She has authored a book on poems and sketches on her childhood experiences growing up in a small town and is the editor and writer for a collection of essays on gender issues.