Han Kuo-Huang
ethnomusicologist and musician
Han Kuo-Huang (Chinese: 韓國鐄; pinyin: Hán Guóhuáng) is a Chinese-born American ethnomusicologist and musician. He is Emeritus Professor at Northern Illinois University and Adjunct Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Kentucky.
Early life and education
Han was born in Xiamen (Amoy), China on February 19, 1936, and grew up in Taiwan. He obtained his bachelor's degree in Taiwan. In 1960 he assisted Elizabeth (Whittington) Hovhaness, the wife of the American composer Alan Hovhaness, in obtaining recordings of Chinese and Taiwanese music during her trip to Taiwan, and in 1962 served as translator for composer Lou Harrison.
United States
Han eventually relocated to the United States, and obtained U.S. citizenship. He received both his M.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University and served as professor of music for over 30 years at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, retiring in 2003. He later served as professor of music at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky for several more years before retiring again.
He specializes in Chinese music as well as gamelan (both Balinese and Javanese) and directs these ensembles, formerly in the Asian Ensemble of Northern Illinois University and now at the University of Kentucky. His Chinese music ensemble from Northern Illinois University, formed in the late 1970s, was the first such ensemble at a North American university, and toured the United States and East Asia.
“Han Kuo-Huang” enters the record as ethnomusicologist and musician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kuo-Huang, ethnomusicologist and musician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5646631. VIAF identifies the subject as 315954902. The Library of Congress control number is n82063476. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1936, 1960, 1962 and 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “Han Kuo-Huang” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.