Prolific Nigerian composer and musicologist, Professor Akin Euba has been announced dead. The father of African pianism died two weeks to his 85th birthday.
According to Dr. Albert Oikelome, head of Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Euba passed away on Tuesday, April 14, 2020.
Oikelome who made the disclosure of Euba’s demise said; “I got a message from Prof. Bode Omojola, a close friend of his, that he passed on Tuesday evening.
“This is a great loss to the nation. He was a mentor to a great many of us, who are in the field. Euba left a big shoe, which we would find difficult to fill. We are happy because he lived a fulfilled life.”
Born on 28 April 1935 in Lagos, Euba studied composition at the Trinity College of Music in London, obtaining the diplomas of Fellow of the Trinity College London (Composition) and a fellow of the Trinity College London (Piano).
He was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Mantle Hood, Charles Seeger, Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Klaus Wachsmann, and Roy Travis. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Ghana, Legon.
Well known for inventing and theorising the concept of African pianism, Akin Euba popularised the term ‘creative ethnomusicology’.
May his soul rest in peace.