Gerald Groemer began his studies of music as a pianist. After earning a Masters of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance at Peabody Conservatory, he entered the ethnomusicology program at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music where he earned a PhD in musicology in 1993, the first non-Japanese ever to do so. Since 1998 he has been professor of musicology, ethnomusicology, and Japanese music history at University of Yamanashi in K?fu Japan. He has authored several books on music and cultural history in both Japanese and English, including The Spirit of Tsugaru (2012), a translation Nishiyama Matsunosuke's writings on Edo Culture (1997), and Street Performers and Society in Urban Japan, 1600-1900: The Beggar's Gift (2015). He was awarded the prestigious Koizumi Fumio Prize for Ethnomusicology in 2008.