Dr. Randall Charles Kohl holds a BA in Music with Honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) and a Doctorate in History and Regional Studies from the Universidad Veracruzana (UV) in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.  He has been awarded scholarships and grants in music performance and research from Mexico’s Secretaría de Educación Pública, the Instituto Veracruzano de la Cultura (IVEC), the UCSC and the East-West Center of Honolulu (EWC) and has been a member of many prestigious research institutes and universities such as the UV, the IVEC, the UHM, Chaminade University of Honolulu, the EWC, and the UCSC.  He has given seminars and published articles on many musical traditions including those of Hawaii and Mexico as well as performing music of various classical and folk traditions in America, Europe and Asia. 

He has recorded several CDs including  Dos lados del corazón, composiciones originales para guitarra clásica, a recording of original compositions for solo guitar; Rags, Jazz, Bluegrass y Más, an exploration of US guitar styles; Les Deux Amis, música clásica para dos guitarras, with guitarist Roberto Aguirre; R. C. Kohl, more original works for guitar ensemble and solo guitar; Landscapes for guitar and orchestra; and Homenaje, with original compositions and arrangements by the Mexican guitarist Octaviano Yáñez (1865-1921)*.  He also has recorded with the Guitar Orchestra of Xalapa under the direction of Alfonso Moreno and his musical compositions have been performed around the world.

His published texts include Ecos de “La Bamba”: una historia etnomusicológica sobre el son jarocho de Veracruz, 1946-1959 (IVEC, 2007); Estudios étnicos para la guitarra clásica (UV, 2009); Escritos de un náufrago habitual: ensayos sobre el son jarocho y otros temas etnomusicológicos (UV, 2010); Octaviano Yáñez. Antología de arreglos y composiciones para guitarra (GLM Studios, 2010); Declaraciones del Son. El requinto jarocho en la creación del conocimiento socio-musical (Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz, 2013); ¿Músico pagado toca mal son? Unas miradas al mercado laboral del son jarocho (IVEC, 2018); La música imaginada. Un análisis iconográfico del son jarocho y otras música, (UV, 2021/2022); and Reflections on the Veracruz son jarocho: Images, Politics and Selected Themes of a Mexican Music and Dance Tradition (Peter Lang, 2023).

Currently, Dr. Kohl is a full-time professor on the Music Faculty at the Universidad Veracruzana and a member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI), of Mexico.