Kingsley K. Okyere

Kingsley K. Okyere is a researcher, composer, and arranger with a goal to bridge academic and public scholarship gaps through his work. Some of his recent creative-scholarly projects include the Bo Diddley Beat/African Rhythms project with the University of Florida Libraries (2022) and the Ghana National Anthem Project (2020) with former University of Ghana Vice Chancellor Prof. Ivan Addae Mensah. He has composed and arranged music for stage, screen, and installation, including for Agyeman Ossei’s Cycling on the Pool (2020) and Karim Hakib’s adaptation of I Told You So (2017). Before Penn, Kingsley was vocalist, keyboardist, arranger and founding graduate assistant for the University of Florida (UF) AfroPop Ensemble, with which he performed across northern and central Florida.

Kingsley’s current research specifically investigates problems that arise in intra-African regional musical exchanges, the non-musical impacts on and/or implications of West African studio musicking, African and Afro-diasporic musical circulations, and creative musicology. He has presented his research at conferences and symposiums, including recently at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and the International Council for Traditional Music and Dance (ICTMD). Kingsley has years of experience teaching ABRSM Music Theory and Piano. He plays the atumpan (Akan talking drums) and atentenben (Kwahu bamboo flute).