Akwaaba. Woezo. Welcome.
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 onto his primary instrument: the drumset. Currently based in Boston, MA, Ben plays drumset in Kotoko Brass, his percussion-fueled Ghanaian dance band described by the Boston Globe as “propulsive, infectious party music”, and percussion in Gye Nyame Kete, New England’s premiere Kete drumming ensemble. Ben teaches at Brandeis University, Inspire Arts & Music, Zumix, and the Fessenden School. As an ethnomusicologist, Ben has curated residencies for Brandeis’ MusicUnitesUS global music concert series (Sona Jobarteh, Betsayda Machado, Jomion and the Uklos, Taste of Ghana), published in African Music, Discourses in African Musicology, and Rhythm! Scene, and presented research at conferences of the Percussive Arts Society, Analytical Approaches to World Music, and the Northeast Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Ben holds his MA in Ethnomusicology from Tufts University, and his BA in World Music from UMASS. In his free time, Ben is an avid skier and is recently completed hiking all of New Hampshire’s 48 4000-foot peaks.
Performing at Drum boogie festival (NY) w/ kotoko brass
Ben Paulding is a founding member of Kotoko Brass, a band that 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. Ben also plays with Gye Nyame Kete and the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society. When in Ghana, Ben performs with the Centre for National Culture and the Nsuase Kete Group.
Directing the hyde park youth percussion ensemble
Ben Paulding teaches in the Music Department at Brandeis University, where he directs the Fafali Ghanaian drum & dance ensemble. A member of the Vic Firth Education Team, he teaches drumset and percussion at Inspire Arts & Music, Zumix, and the Fessenden School. Ben has presented workshops at New England Conservatory, Mount Holyoke, and Holy Cross, and has taught at the International Community School in Kumasi.
