Will Sumits is an ethnomusicologist and musician exploring the musical histories of the greater Middle East and Central Asia. With interests in musical paleography and the entangled conceptual histories of music from South Asia to North Africa, his research has focused on ever-evolving living musical traditions and their trans-historical journeys across geographies and cultures.
He is currently based in Istanbul at the Orient-Institut as a research associate for the Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae (CMO) project, where he is tasked with expanding the CMO Source Catalog of music manuscripts and notations. He joins the Maqām Beyond Nation team to assist in research and research data management.