Maultsby & Associates Music Consulting

“As a high school student in Orlando, Florida, I witnessed a live performance of James Brown & The Famous Flames.  Known as the “Godfather of Soul,” Brown’s show featured a MC-comedian, back-up singers, dancers, and horn and rhythm sections. I was mesmerized by what I heard and saw. The pulsing rhythms, percussive sounds, choreographed movements, flashy costumes, and high energy performance resonated with the all-Black audience.  In ways, this performance that resembled Black church services, subconsciously shaped my curiosity about the production and meaning of Black cultural expressions.”

Portia K. Maultsby, PhD is Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology in the Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and Adjunct Professor Emerita of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University (IU).  She is also the Founding Director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture and the Founding Director of the IU Soul Revue, the first university credit-bearing, touring, and recording ensemble specializing in African American popular music.  She has made significant contributions to the field and beyond in the areas of popular music, music globalization, the music industry, and public ethnomusicology as a specialist in African American music.

Dr. Maultsby’s work has global reach, having lectured, and conducted workshops on African American Music throughout the United States and in England, The Netherlands, Norway, Uruguay,  Zimbabwe and Malawi.  Over her long and distinguished career, Dr. Maultsby has held visiting teaching appointments in the Music Departments of Utrecht University (The Netherlands), Colorado College, Seattle Pacific University, and Swarthmore College, and year-long research residencies as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, CA. (1999-2000) and Senior Scholar in Residence at the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of American History (1984-1985).

Dr. Maultsby has collaborated with educational and cultural institutions in the development of exhibitions, public programs, and curricular materials on African American music and culture.  Her work with museums, theme parks, film production, and interactive media companies draws from years of research and study as well as her experiences as a keyboardist-composer-arranger-musical director-record producer of classical and popular music.