Ethnomusicologist Robert Garfias is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Garfias served as a senior research fellow for the Japanese National Museum of Ethnology in Senri (Osaka), Japan, and taught at the University of Washington, where he established the graduate program in ethnomusicology. Among his awards and honors, Garfias was presidentially appointed as a member of the National Council on the Arts, served as a member of the Council of the Smithsonian Institution, and was recipient of the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun award, given by the emperor of Japan. He sat on the Center's music panel in 2009.