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Dr.

Guy L. Beck is a scholar, author, musician, college professor, historian of religions, and musicologist.

A Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies ( Oxford University, U. K .), he is presently Lecturer in Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Tulane University.

He earned a B.

A. in Social Sciences from the University of Denver, and an M. A.

in Religious Studies from the University of South Florida.

He also holds an M. A.

in Fine Arts, Musicology and a Ph. D. in Religion, South Asia from Syracuse University.

In India, he studied Sanskrit and Indian philosophy under Prof. Gaurinath Sastri ( President of Sanskrit College, Calcutta ).

At Syracuse University, he studied South Asian religions and Sanskrit literature under Prof. H. Daniel Smith and Swami Agehananda Bharati, Hindi language under Prof. Jishnu Shankar, history of religions under Prof. Charles H. Long, music theory and history under Prof. Howard Boatwright, and ethnomusicology from Prof. Ellen Koskoff.

Dr. Beck is the author of Sonic Theology: Hinduism and Sacred Sound ( University of South Carolina Press, 1993 ) where he examined Hindu theology and Indian philosophy in terms of sacred sound, and Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition ( University of South Carolina Press, 2012 ), where he traced the historical relation between Hindu ritual and Indian classical and devotional music.

He has also published, as editor, Alternative Krishnas: Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity ( SUNY Press, 2005 ), wherein he presented the Krishnology of the Vaishnava sect known as the Radhavallabha Sampradaya.

His other edited volume, Sacred Sound: Experiencing Music in World Religions ( Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006 ), includes chapters on Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism by distinguished scholars, as well as a CD of forty selections of chant and music performed by the authors (".... highly recommended.

" CHOICE ).

As an archivist of Indian devotional music, Dr. Beck has recently compiled, edited, and recorded 108 temple songs of the Radhavallabha Sampradaya in the book and collection of 18 CD's entitled Vaishnava Temple Music in Vrindaban: The Radhavallabha Songbook ( Blazing Sapphire Press, 2011 ).

During 1992-1993, under a Fulbright Research Grant, Beck studied Haveli Sangit and Samaj Gayan, two genres of devotional music allied with Dhrupad, from musicians in Vrindaban and Mathura.

In addition, Beck has written several articles on Indian religion and music for reference works such as Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts, Grove Dictionary of American Music, and Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, South Asia volume.