Akin Euba

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Akin Euba (born Olatunji Akin Euba, Lagos, Nigeria, April 28, 1935) is a Nigerian composer, musicologist, and pianist.

Euba studied composition with Arnold Cooke at the Trinity College of Music, London, and with Roy Travis at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Ghana, Legon (1974) and serves as Andrew Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the founder and director of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, London.

Euba's scholarly interests include the musicology and ethnomusicology of modern interculturalism. He has organized regular symposia on music in Africa and the Diaspora at Churchill College, Cambridge as well as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. These events have featured such notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena Nketia and Halim El-Dabh.

His compositions involve a synthesis of African traditional material (often from his own ethnic group, the Yoruba people) and contemporary classical music. His most ambitious composition is the opera Chaka (1970), which blends West African percussion and atenteben flutes with twelve tone technique.

[edit] Discography

1999 - Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants, from an epic poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor. Point Richmond, California, United States: Music Research Institute MRI-001CD.
2005 - Towards an African Pianism: An Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and the Diaspora. Vol. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States: A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, ABA 001 CD.
2005 - Towards an African Pianism: An Anthology of Keyboard Music From Africa and the Diaspora. Vol. 2. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States: A Bridge Across: Intercultural Composition, Performance, Musicology, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh, ABA 002 CD.