Symposium in Honor of Akin Euba

(Emeritus Andrew Mellon Professor of Music, University of Pittsburgh, USA)

Venue and date: University of Lagos, Nigeria, 16-18 January 2019

Keynote speakers: Kofi Agawu, George Dor, Meki Nzewi, and Tunji Vidal

Call for Papers

Preamble

Akin Euba, Emeritus Andrew Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh

(Pennsylvania, U.S.A.), is the foremost composer and scholar of African art music. His interest in

music began when he was a student at the CMS Grammar School (Lagos, Nigeria). After years of

study at the Trinity College of Music (London, U.K), and the University of California, Los Angeles

(U.S.A.), Euba returned to Nigeria to start the Department of Music at the University of Ife (now

Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1976. He left Ife for the University of Lagos where he was

appointed Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies and Professor from 1977 to 1980. The

Centre, including the Department of Music, later became the Department of Creative Arts in 1998.

Euba’s contributions to Africanist music scholarship and the growth of African art music

are well known. He introduced the concept of African pianism to theorize the ways in which

composers could use the Western pianoforte compositionally to reinterpret the structural and

performance features of African music. Also, he coined and popularized the term creative

ethnomusicology to conceptualize the relationship between ethnographic research and musical

composition. In addition, for many years, Euba edited a newsletter, directed a research center, and

organized an inter-continental symposium series to explore the significance of interculturalism in

musical composition and performance. The symposium series, which included "Africa Meets

Asia" and "Africa Meets North America," also focused on the symbiosis between
ethnomusicological research, composition, and performance. Euba’s works include numerous

academic publications and compositions, prominent examples of which are his book, Yoruba

Drumming (Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series, 1990), and Chaka, an opera in two chants,

which was recorded by the City of Birmingham Touring Opera (UK), conducted by Simon Halsey,

in 1999.

Organizing a special symposium and concert in honor of Professor Akin Euba would be a

highly significant way to celebrate the remarkable achievements of a man who has mentored many

scholars and musicians within and outside Africa, and whose works are invaluable academic and

creative resources for students, scholars and composers. The symposium will feature paper

presentations and a concert devoted primarily to his music.

The organizing committees of the Akin Euba Symposium and Concert hereby request

interested participants to submit an abstract that focuses on one or more of the following themes:

Main theme: African Art Music: Composition, Performance, Research and Pedagogy

Sub-themes

African art music: definitions and theories

African art music composition

African art music research

Performance and reception of African art music within and beyond Africa

Recording, publishing and broadcasting African art music within and beyond Africa

African art music and music education

Toward a historiography of African art music

Understanding and exploring Akin Euba’s concept of African pianism

Understanding and exploring Akin Euba’s ideas about Creative ethnomusicology

 Intercultural perspectives in music research and composition

Exploring the relationships between traditional, art, and popular music practices in Africa

Any other sub-theme that resonates with Akin Euba's work

Date of symposium: January 16-18, 2019 (arrival: January 15; departure, January 18).

Venue: Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.

Keynote speakers (in alphabetical order):

Prof. Kofi Agawu (Princeton University, USA); Prof. George Dor (University of Mississippi,

USA); Prof. Meki Nzewi (University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria); Prof. Tunji Vidal (Obafemi

Awolowo University, Nigeria).

Registration fee: Ten thousand naira (for local participants); one hundred US dollars (for

participants coming from outside Africa).

Deadline for the submission of abstracts: October 31, 2018.

Paper proposals (with name, e-mail address, title of paper and an abstract of not more than three

hundred words) should be submitted simultaneously to these two e-mail addresses:

bomojola@mtholyoke.edu

stephenolu2002@yahoo.com

Prof. Bode Omojola and Dr. Stephen Olusoji

(For the Organizing Committees)