Ben Paulding is a leading American performer and researcher of Asante Kete royal court drumming from Ghana. He spent years living in West Africa, performing and studying traditional music in Ghana, Togo, Benin, Gambia, and Senegal, and adapting that music to his primary instrument: the drumset. Currently based in Boston, MA, Ben plays drumset in Kotoko Brass.

On the drumset, Ben is a founding member of Kotoko Brass — his percussion-fueled Ghanaian dance band described by the Boston Globe as “propulsive, infectious party music”. Kotoko Brass has shared stages with Angelique Kidjo, Red Baraat, and Femi Kuti at venues such as the House of Blues, the Sinclair, and the Brighton Music Hall. They spent the summer of 2023 on tour in Ghana, and are releasing their new full length album on November 9th at The Crystal Ballroom in Somerville, MA, presented by Global Arts Live. Ben also regularly plays drumset with Boston-based African musical acts such as Kina Zore, Kalifa & Koliba, and Boubacar Diabate, and has recorded with artists such as Kotoko Brass, Jerry Leake and his Cubist Band, the Agbekor Society, Billy Wylder, and Kelly Sciandra.

Also an accomplished musician in traditional percussion, Ben had over 200 performances in West Africa with internationally acclaimed drum and dance ensembles including the Centre for National Culture and the Nsuase Kete Group. At home in Boston, Ben also plays Gye Nyame Kete, New England’s premiere Kete group, and serves as Drum Leader for the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society — Boston’s oldest Ghanaian drum and dance ensemble. 

Ben Paulding teaches at Brandeis University where he directs the ensemble Fafali: Music and Dance from Ghana, and teaches the academic course Survey of West African Music: Dance-Drumming from Senegal to Nigeria. On campus at Brandeis, he works with MusicUnitesUS to curate weeklong global music residencies — recent examples include Sona Jobarteh (Spring 2022), Betsayda Machado: The Voice of Venezuela (Spring 2020) and A Taste of Ghana: Drum & Dance from Asante, Ewe, Ga and Dagomba traditions (Fall 2017). A member of the Vic Firth education team, he is the Director of Urban Programming at Inspire Arts & Music, and leads the Rhythms of Ghana percussion ensemble at ZUMIX, Boston’s award-winning youth music center. Ben has presented workshops at New England Conservatory, Boston University, College of the Holy Cross, Mount Holyoke, Brandeis University, Percussive Arts Society MA Chapter Day of Percussion, and Marcus Santos’ Grooversity Festival. While living in Ghana in 2012-2014, Ben taught music at Kumasi’s International Community School. 

In addition to performance and education, Ben is an ethnomusicologist actively involved in research and publication on African music. His publications include article “Meter, Feel and Phrasing in West African Bell Patterns: The Example of Asante Kete from Ghana” (African Music, 2017), book chapter “Kete for the International Percussion Community” (in Discourses in African Musicology: A Festschrift in Honor of J.H. Kwabena Nketia, 2015), and article “Kete for Drumset: Left Foot Bell Approach,” (Percussive Arts Society’s Rhythm! Scene, 2014). He has presented his research at conferences including the Northeast Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology (VT, 2017), Analytical Approaches to World Music (NY, 2016), Percussive Arts Society International Convention (TX, 2015), and The Life and Works of Emeritus Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia at the University of Ghana in 2011.

Ben holds his M.A. in ethnomusicology from Tufts University, where he studied with David Locke, worked as a Teaching Assistant to Attah Poku’s Kiniwe ensemble, and wrote his thesis on Asante Kete drumming from Ghana. Ben received his B.A. in World Music from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he studied with Chris Poudrier, Royal Hartigan, Jamie Eckert, and Kwabena Boateng.