Kwasi Ampene

Bio

I was born and raised in Ghana in a very musical family. My father, Kwame Ampene, who passed away in 2015, was a musician and a teacher. His love for music and education was infectious. He instilled his passion for music in my siblings and I by encouraging us to study and play different musical instruments. This formed my earliest interests in music. However, most influential to my work as an ethnomusicologist is the experiences my father exposed me to because of his work. My father worked for the Ghana Education Service so he was regularly transferred to different locations. In every place we lived, I experienced different music traditions through performances of popular bands, court music, festivals and rituals. I found these fascinating and it eventually led me to the study of music at the University of Ghana where I obtained a General Diploma in Music. I followed this with a Master’s of Music in Western Music Theory from West Virginia University, and then a Doctorate in Ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh.

My teaching is enriched by my research in traditional and mass mediated popular music. I teach both undergraduate classes and graduate seminars including African Musics and Cultures, Performing Arts and Power in Africa, Hip Hop Africa/Afrobeats, Introduction to Ethnomusicology, and Field Research Methods in Ethnomusicology.

Research Interests

Intersections between historical and lived experience, music, and values; compositional conventions and theories in Akan music; Akan heritage of tangible and intangible stool regalia; and contested issues in Afrobeats/African popular music and hip hop in Africa.

Professional Affiliations

• Society For Ethnomusicology (SEM)

• African Studies Association (ASA)

• International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM)

• African and African Diaspora Music Section (AADM) in the SEM

• Ghana Studies Association (GSA), an international affiliate of the African Studies Association (ASA)