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Janice Kleeman Biography

In February of 2005, Jan Kleeman, James Koetting’s widow, visited the Orwig Music Building for the first time in many years. During that visit she discussed with me the Library’s plan to publish Koetting’s Ghanaian field work online. The original donor of the collection to Brown, she heartily approved, but unfortunately her death in April, 2005 prohibited her granting us the final permission or seeing the finished product. Her daughter, Ellen Klicka, granted permission for the project, provided us with the photo of Koetting recording in Ghana (on the home page of this site), and also with this biography of Jan Kleeman, a formidable ethnomusicological theorist in her own right, which we reproduce here in Kleeman’s honor. --Ned Quist, Project Coordinator

Janice Ellen Kleeman, wife of James T. Koetting, fed her passion for music by joining the academic community as an ethnomusicologist and by giving rock 'n' roll a prominent role in her personal life. Professionally, she obtained three degrees in music and served on Brown's music department faculty. In her youth, she took eight years of classical piano lessons, performed in and directed school musicals, and delighted in rock performers like Elvis and the Beatles. Later in life, Kleeman directed choirs and continued to play the piano and enjoy the work of popular artists.

Kleeman earned a B.A. in music from Wellesley College in 1971 and an M.A. from Brown in 1976. Her master's thesis was titled, "Acculturation in the folk music of a Polish-American community in Lackwanna, N.Y." Bonnie C. Wade, an ethnomusicologist studying Japanese and other Asian music, served as advisor on Kleeman's master's degree at Brown. When Wade went to teach at the University of California at Berkeley, Kleeman followed and completed her Ph.D. in music in 1982. Her dissertation was titled, "The Origins and Stylistic Development of Polish-American Polka Music."

Kleeman met associate professor Koetting while working on her master's degree at Brown, and the two were married in 1984. Koetting died of a heart attack only five months after the wedding, while the couple was in Los Angeles for the Society of Ethnomusicology Annual Conference. The night before he died, Koetting had participated in a panel presentation on African rhythm. With Kleeman's permission, panelist Roderic Knight took Koetting's notes from the conference and edited the paper for publication in Ethnomusicology, Winter 1986.

Kleeman, an assistant professor in Brown's music department from 1982 to 1988, taught courses on Asian classical music, European and American folk music, and the theory and method of ethnomusicology. Her unconventional yet very popular course "Rock 'n' Roll Is Here to Stay!" demonstrated the importance of rock in the evolution of our culture through 1970, tracing the genre to its roots in blues, gospel, soul and country/western.

In the Winter 1986 issue of Ethnomusicology, Kleeman penned a book review of The Role of Rock: A Guide to the Social and Political Consequences of Rock Music by Don J. Hibbard and Carol Kaleialoha. She also published an article in The Journal of Musicology, Winter 1985-1986, titled, "The Parameters of Musical Transmission."

After her tenure at Brown, Kleeman obtained a master's degree in counseling from Rhode Island College. She held positions at a substance abuse rehabilitation facility, a halfway house and a residence for troubled youth. She died in 2005 and is survived by her daughter Ellen H. Klicka. Klicka assisted in the development of this site by granting permission, on her mother's behalf, to publish Koetting's recordings and field notes. -- Ellen Klicka