James E. “Jamie” Cunningham, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Music at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida, where he teaches a wide variety of Western, non-Western, and popular music courses. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in World Music from San Diego State University, and a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington. His doctoral dissertation, Slahal: More Than a Game with a Song, focused on the role of music in contemporary indigenous gaming practices among the Coast Salish people of the Pacific Northwest and Canada. His subsequent academic research has concentrated on a variety of popular genres including Native North American, punk, and Florida surf musics.

Dr. Cunningham is also an instrument maker, composer, and performer of contemporary music featuring the didgeridoo. His musical approach to the didgeridoo was highly influenced by his nine-year study with avant-garde trombonist Stuart Dempster. He has recorded three albums of original music for the didgeridoo, two as a founding member of the Seattle-based Didgeri Dudes, and a 2007 solo release didgeridoo.diversions. His long-standing collaboration with alto saxophonist Glen Gillis has resulted in original recordings on the Saxspectrum 1 and Saxspectrum 2 albums, as well as numerous national and international performance appearances as Duo Gillis Cunningham. Currently, he is experimenting with the effects of captured ambience in live electro-acoustic musical performance contexts.