Prolific Nigerian Composer, Professor Akin Euba Is Dead

Professor Akin Euba

Professor Akin Euba, a prolific Nigerian composer, musicologist, pianist, and author, has died less than two weeks to his 85th birthday.

Professor Euba died on the evening of Tuesday, April 14, 2020.

Dr. Akin Euba was Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh until his retirement in 2011. Euba’s scholarly interests include the musicology and ethnomusicology of modern interculturalism. He has organized regular symposia on music in Africa and the Diaspora at Churchill College, Cambridge as well as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, according to his bio on Wikipedia.

These events have featured such notable composers and scholars as J. H. Kwabena Nketia and Halim El-Dabh. With his Elekoto Ensemble, he has brought together musicians from Nigeria, China, India, Germany, Malta, and the United States.

His compositions involve a synthesis of African traditional material and contemporary classical music. His most ambitious composition is the opera Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants (1970).

Nigerians have taken to social media to mourn him.

See some tributes below.