Famous Ghanaian ethnomusicologist and composer, Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia’s music will come alive in New York City on June 26 at the Poet’s Den Theatre, when the NIA Theatrical Productions and Sankusem Foundation present a must-see celebration of his music.

Professor Nketia has achieved international fame as a musicologist, educator, author and composer. He uses African idioms such as scales, harmonic vocabulary, rhythms, folk tunes and games used by various tribal groups as source material for his contemporary music, thus creating a unique synthesis of Western and African ideas.

He studied at the University of London from 1944 to 1949, beginning with two years of study in linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies. In 1949 he began three years’ study at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Trinity College of Music, London, obtaining a B.A. degree. In 1958 a Rockefeller Fellowship allowed him to come to the United States, where he attended Columbia University (studying with Henry Cowell), the Julliard School, and Northwestern University, studying musicology and composition. He is an emeritus professor of music at the University of Ghana, where he began teaching in 1952. He currently directs the International Center for African Music and Dance (ICAMD).

Internationally renowned musicians American violinist Rachel Barton Pine, English cellist Sally Singer, and Ghanaian pianist George Francois collaborate in a presentation of Nketia’s violin, cello, and piano music. They will perform the Piano Trio in B Major, Opus 8 by Johannes Brahms in the second half. Go her to  get tickets.