Professor Benjamin Obido Ayettey is from the Greater Accra Region of the Republic of Ghana. He is from the Osu Alata clan among the sonmenaa family. He earned his MFA in dance from Arizona State University. He specializes in:
Choreography, Modern and African Contemporary Dance
Techniques, Traditional African Drumming and Dancing.
He is a fellow at the Institute of African Studies and the current Artistic Director of the resident dance company, the Ghana Dance Ensemble (GDE) at the University of Ghana Legon. He began performing music and dance at a very early age and has led many music and dance groups throughout Ghana. He founded the Tswei Anaa cultural troupe and served as the group’s artistic director, choreographer, drummer and music composer. He also assisted Mr. C. K. Ganyo as the assistant artistic director in the Adzido Dance Company at Arizona State University, 1995.
In addition, he has international experience teaching workshops in the United States of America, Japan, Britain, France, India Germany, and in over twenty African countries. He is currently a Fulbright Scholar in Resident at the Ohio Northern University, Ada.
Professor Lukas Ligeti is a composer and improvisor (on drums and electronic percussion) whose work is informed by a unique approach to rhythm and a special interest in intercultural collaboration.
His compositions have been commissioned by Bang on a Can, the Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern, the American Composers Orchestra, the Vienna Festival, Goethe Institute, Armitage Gone! Dance, and many others. As a drummer, he has worked with John Zorn, Marilyn Crispell, Gary Lucas, John Tchicai, Henry Kaiser, Miya Masaoka, Michael Manring, Tarek Atoui, Thollem McDonas, etc., and co-leads the trio Hypercolor with Eyal Maoz and James Ilgenfritz. He has given solo concerts on four continents, performing on the Marimba Lumina, a MIDI controller designed by Don Buchla. Active in experimental collaboration in Africa for more than 20 years, he co-founded the ensemble Beta Foly in Côte d'Ivoire and co-leads Burkina Electric, the first electronica band from Burkina Faso.
Lukas studied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, his city of birth. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University and subsequently lived in New York City from 1998 until 2015. He is completing a PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was previously composer-in-residence, and has also taught at the University of Ghana. Among other prizes, he received, in 2010, the CalArts Alpert Award in Music
Score excerpt for Assignment 6
Audio exerpts on Playlist 6:
Kevins Volans, Second String Quartet, Hunting: Gathering, I, A–F
Ephat Mujuru, Nyamaropa
Scherzinger, Hallucinating Accordian for Piano Trio, I–IV
Steve Reich, Drumming, Part 1 (excerpt)
Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians, section VI
Volans, First String Quartet, White Man Sleeps, I
Akin Euba, Chaka: An opera in two chants, Prelude
Euba, Chaka, Act II, Scene 2, O My Belov'd