Francis Kofi Akotuah
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Director of Music and Dance of Ghana Ensemble

Francis Kofi Akotuah is a traditional drummer and teacher from Accra, Ghana. Born and raised in the melting pot neighborhood of New Town, Francis grew up in an environment bursting with the sights and sounds of Ghana’s many ethnic groups. Francis began drumming as a teenager and has been teaching for over 25 years. At the young age of 18, Francis earned a position in the Ghana Dance Ensemble at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana and in 1997, he transitioned to the university’s School of Performing Arts to become a drumming instructor and dance accompanist, where he remained until he relocated abroad in 2015. During his almost two decades at the University of Ghana he taught hundreds of students from around the world and has collaborated with visiting artists and scholars across genres.

Francis is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area and, in addition to teaching at UCLA, he also teaches at UC Santa Cruz and the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. He has taught and performed at universities around the US and Canada, has toured Canada with the Juno-nominated band Mr. Something Something and has performed with Mohammed Alidu’s Bizung Family Band at the Rototom Sunsplash Festival in Valencia, Spain. In 2022, Francis served as a mentor through the ACTA Apprenticeship Program, and in 2023 he was an ACTA Living Cultures Individual Artist grantee and a California Arts Council Established Artist Fellow.

 

John Lee
Manager, Ethnomusicology & Musicology Departments
David Bragger
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Director of Old-Time String Band Ensemble
Maureen Russell
Adjunct Professor - Ethnomusicology (Audiovisual Archiving), Archivist of the Ethnomusicology Archive
Supeena Adler
Adjunct Associate Professor - Ethnomusicology, World Music Instrument Curator and Conservator, Director of Music of Thailand Ensemble;
Mark Kligman
Mickey Katz Professor of Jewish Music and Professor - Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Humanities, Director of Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience
Joko Sutrisno
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Director of Music of Java Ensemble
Diane White-Clayton
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Director of African American Music Ensemble
Chi Li
Adjunct Professor - Ethnomusicology, Director of Music of China Ensemble
Pejman Hadadi
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Co-Director of Music of Persia Ensemble
Abhiman Kaushal
Adjunct Professor - Ethnomusicology, Co-Director of Music of India Ensemble
Timothy D. Taylor
Professor - Ethnomusicology (Popular Musics, World Music, Cultural Theory)
Behzad Nadimi
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Co-Director of Music of Persia Ensemble
Armen Adamian
Instructor of Armenian Woodwinds; Ph.D. Student in Ethnomusicology
Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy
Adjunct Professor - Ethnomusicology (Folk and Classical Music of South Asia; Bollywood)
Robert F. Reigle
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology (Musical Cultures of the World: Europe and the Americas)
Jesús Guzmán
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Director of Music of Mexico Ensemble
Rahul Neuman
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Co-Director of Music of India Ensemble
Helen Rees
Professor - Ethnomusicology, Director of World Music Center (Music of China, Intangible Cultural Heritage in East Asia)
Donna Armstrong
Assistant to the Chair - Ethnomusicology
Marc T. Gaspard Bolin
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology (History of Jazz)
Miles Shrewsbery
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Music of India Ensemble
Steven Loza
Professor - Global Jazz Studies, Ethnomusicology, Director of the UCLA Center for Latino Arts
Soheil Nadimi
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Co-Director of Music of Persia Ensemble
Anna Morcom
Mohindar Brar Sambhi Professor of Indian Music, Professor - Ethnomusicology
I Nyoman Wenten
Adjunct Associate Professor - Ethnomusicology, Director of Music of Bali Ensemble
Roger Savage
Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology
Janice Mautner Markham
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Director of Klezmer Music Ensemble
Cheryl L. Keyes
Professor - Global Jazz Studies and Ethnomusicology (Contemporary Jazz, Hip Hop)
Münir Beken
Associate Professor - Ethnomusicology (World Music Theory and Composition), Director of Music of Turkey Ensemble
Gamin Kang
Lecturer - Ethnomusicology, Director of Music of Korea Ensemble
Hermann Hudde
Lecturer - Music of Latin America

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