Akin Euba, Nigerian Composer and Musicologist, Was Born 75 Years Ago on April 28, 1935

[Akin Euba]

Dr. Akin Euba is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a Nigerian composer and author who was born in Lagos, Nigeria 75 years ago, on April 28, 1935. His theoretical work includes the Theory of African Pianism. Prof. Euba is a member of the Yoruba ethnic group. His biography is Akin Euba: An Introduction to the Life and Music of a Nigerian Composer by Joshua Uzoigwe. It is a 1992 publication of the Bayreuth African Studies Series, edited by Prof. Eckhard Breitinger. It explains that his father was an amateur musician and his mother was a teacher by profession.

Akin Euba began piano lessons with his father in 1943, and won first prize at the First Nigerian Festival of the Arts in 1950. He went to the U.K. In 1952. After two years of study at Trinity College of Music, Euba changed his program to allow himself to concentrate on courses he considered of more value to his future career: piano, composition, harmony and counterpoint, orchestration, organ and score-reading.

Dr. Euba is a leading Multicultural Musicologist. The latest example of his role was Dialogue in Music Project: Africa Meets North America, a festival and symposium at The Department of Ethnomusicology of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music from October 22-25, 2009. Classical artists who participated included pianist Girma Yifrashewa of Ethiopia, Liberian-born soprano Dawn Padmore, Jamaica-born pianist Maxine Franklin, British-born pianist Richard Thompson, and flute player Laura Falzon, born in Canada to Maltese parents. In an interview with AfriClassical, Laura Falzon recalled the many music festivals of Prof. Euba in which she has participated.

Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma of Lawrence University conservatory has compiled a Works List and a Bibliography of Akin Euba. They are featured on the composer's page at AfriClassical.com