Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

Graduating senior Gonzalo Gallardo plays classical guitar in a doorway of Lincoln Hall earlier this month.

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Gonzalo Gallardo was a junior when he transferred to Cornell from the Manhattan School of Music. At his request, he matriculated as a sophomore in general studies. His plan was to get on a pre-med track while broadening his liberal arts training. A year into his Cornell experience, Gallardo was back at his music -- but following a brand new beat.

A native of Lima, Peru, Gallardo will pursue a graduate program in ethnomusicology at Florida State University. The turnabout occurred in a Lincoln Hall music studio while practicing for a recital. Gallardo, who plays classical Spanish guitar, was wood shedding a piece to be performed as part of a musicology project.

"My project focused on Spanish music and its influence in 19th-century French musical culture, and I was rehearsing something from the Spanish repertoire," he says. "I hadn't really played for almost a year and I felt so renewed -- it was suddenly very clear what I wanted to do."

Two things happened: Gallardo rediscovered his passion for the guitar and, with guidance from his adviser Martin Hatch, associate professor of music, found a fresh and intellectually challenging field of study -- ethnomusicology.

"He was awarded honors for his work in the department, including his honors thesis, which was an analysis of aspects of musical life today in Lima, Peru," says Hatch. "Gonzalo has a lively mind, wide-ranging interests and solid training and accomplishments in performance and musicology. I'm sure that he will continue his high level of accomplishment at Florida State University next year."

Gallardo's honors thesis explored the world of Chicha and Peruvian urban music. Chicha is a popular form of Andean music, a fusion of urban dance with Colombian influences, traditional highland styles and rock. Gallardo is keen to dispel the mass-marketed myth that Peruvian music is about short guys in hats and colorful shawls blowing the pipes of pan and strumming guitars. Like the fermented maize beer it is named after, Chicha music is a lively brew. And Gallardo's fieldwork in Lima took him to some lively venues. One night he hopped in a cab and asked to be taken to a club featuring a Chicha band.

"The cab driver refused to take me there," Gallardo smiles. "He said, 'We might get shot.'"

Taking that as a cue, Gallardo chose a different hot spot. He went with a friend -- who promptly got himself in trouble dancing with the partner of a local roughneck. When asked how his hands fared in the melee, Gallardo, who stands about 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs about 220, offers a sly smile.

"I was careful," he says.

Good thing -- Gallardo will need all his chops when he performs Roberto Sierra's "Concierto Barroco" with the Peruvian National Symphony Orchestra in August. Sierra is a Cornell professor of music and an award-winning composer. Gallardo will then head to Florida and on to a career as an ethnomusicologist. It's a far cry from a pre-med course -- but a route that suits his passion.

"I doubt very much I would be following this path if I had not come to Cornell," he says.