It was a small world for music prof

Mirjana Lausevic, a U ethnomusicology professor, opened her heart to those whose music she studied.

By Ben Cohen, Star Tribune

Last update: July 20, 2007 - 9:07 PM

Mirjana (Minja) Lausevic, a University of Minnesota professor of ethnomusicology and a musician-singer, gave her friendship to many of the peoples whose music and ethnic culture she studied.

Lausevic, who performed as a Sacred Harp singer at the 2004 Academy Awards show for the film "Cold Mountain," died of an undisclosed recurring illness on Sunday in Northampton, Mass.

She was 41.

For the past year, she was a visiting professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Her husband, Tim Eriksen, who also worked on the movie's soundtrack, said that they worked together on each other's projects.

They raised money for victims of the 2004 tsunami by organizing a concert of ethnic music from the affected nations at the Ted Mann Concert Hall.

In her work as an ethnomusicologist -- one who studies culture through a people's musicmaking -- she made fast and loyal friends, he said.

Some of the musicmakers she worked with in the Twin Cities are Sudanese, Tanzanian, Hmong and Laotian.

"Her work was motivated by her love for the people and by their cultural expression," said her husband. When she engaged people with her smile, "the bonds" were "instant and lasting," he said.

Lausevic came to the United States from her native Bosnia a few years before the 1990s war. She earned her master's degree and Ph.D. at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.

"She was a top-notch singer," said her friend Peter Irvine of Northampton, who played and recorded with her, performing the music of the former Yugoslavia.

Lausevic was about to return to the University of Minnesota and her Minneapolis home this summer.

Peter Mercer Taylor, a professor of musicology, the study of Western music history, said Lausevic was a welcome addition to a faculty centered on Western music. "She invited people to take the music that exists in our culture and to become attentive to ways that people that are using music to make meaning in our lives."

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her son, Luka, 5; daughter, Anja, 3; brother, Dragan of Whistler, British Columbia, and mother, Nadezda, of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A memorial celebration will be held next Saturday near Northampton, Mass.

Ben Cohen • bcohen@startribune.com

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