October 16, 2018 is the 75th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding ethnomusicologist and folklorist, Doctor of Art History, professor M. A. Lobanov. His life and work are the examples of selfless devotion and service to science. The name of the scholar is inseparable from the processes of the development of musicology and folklore of the last decades. Lobanov contributed to the formation of new areas of research in ethnomuscology and exact academic research base, laid the conceptual basis for the study of genre and types of folklore style discovered by him, created an academic and pedagogical school in the field of studying archaic forms of traditional music and inter-ethnic interrelations. His numerous works, fundamental multi-volume works on bibliography, systematics of tunes, indexes have enriched modern science, laid solid foundations for future research in the field of theory and history of ethno-musicology. The materials of the study were the works of the scholar, personal impressions obtained during many years of communication with him, as well as the articles published in encyclopedias, journals and newsletters. The work uses the principles of historical analysis and generalization. The article gives a brief description of the activities of the scholar; analyses his fundamental works in the field of musical Slavic and Finno-Ugric Studies, and inter-ethnic folklore connections. It defines the significance of Lobanov’s works for the subsequent development of national and international ethnomuscology.