About Us
Vision
To Educate and Entertain
Mission
To Present and Interpret Black Music through the Lived Experience of its Creators
Services
Maultsby and Associates Music Consultants develop African American content and provide resources for websites; podcasts; museum exhibitions; outdoor parks; interactive displays; documentary and multimedia media productions; and music, humanities, and social studies curricula.
We offer workshops on African American music and lectures for events, such as Black History Month, Black Music Month, Juneteenth Celebrations.
We develop and market apparel and educational materials on African American music
Meet the Founder & CEO
Maultsby & Associates Music Consulting is headed by Portia K. Maultsby, PhD the foremost authority on African American music genres including Negro spirituals, funk, soul, rhythm and blues, and contemporary forms of Black popular music.
Dr. Maultsby has presented at...
Interview with Dr. Portia K. Maultsby (Indiana University)
Portia Maultsby is Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. In this interview, she discusses her graduate studies in musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin; her involvement in the formation of Black studies at Indiana University in the early 1970s; her research on African American religious and popular music; and her work as a consultant for such institutions as PBS, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville.
Client Testimonials
"I’ve read your article The Use And Performance of Hymnody, Spirituals, and Gospels in the Black Church earlier and it lays a great foundation for several of our exhibition themes. I found it very to the point and compared with other articles and contributions I’ve read."
Rianneke van der Houwen, Conservator|Curator
Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, the Netherlands
"[Maultsby] played an instrumental role in raising black music’s visibility in the fields of ethnomusicology and black studies” in the 1970s."
Guthrie P. Ramsey
Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to
Hip-Hop.
Hip-Hop.
“I have been turning over in my mind, the long-time association we have shared and the way in which your intellectual brilliance and dedication enhanced what I was able to bring to our audiences at the Smithsonian. It was incredible to find a young African American scholar/ teacher, researcher, writer, and performer fluently embracing in her work on sacred and secular forms: gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz, instrumental and vocal traditions of African American music.”
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Former Director, Program in Black American Culture, Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
“I wanted to drop a line to thank you for your very interesting presentation on Black Music History last week. Your story-telling was great - I enjoyed very much the music clips that accompanied your talk. Very well done.”
Martin J. Curran
Executive Vice President, Corning Innovation Officer Corning Incorporated
“I am writing to thank you for such a powerful and significant Seeger Lecture. This was a great moment for the Society, and I was honored to have the opportunity to be there for this event. Thank you for your lecture, and for everything that you have done for the Society over the years.”
Harry Berger
Professor and Head, Department of Performance Studies, Texas A & M University
“I have been turning over in my mind, the long-time association we have shared and the way in which your intellectual brilliance and dedication enhanced what I was able to bring to our audiences at the Smithsonian. It was incredible to find a young African American scholar/ teacher, researcher, writer, and performer fluently embracing in her work on sacred and secular forms: gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz, instrumental and vocal traditions of African American music.”
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Former Director, Program in Black American Culture, Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
“Thank you for your presentation yesterday. I think we ended the session before you had a chance to see all the thank yous in the chat from our participants, but we had many grateful and inspired teachers.”
Sara Clamage
Program Associate PRIMARY SOURCE
"I enjoyed your informative presentation [“Curtis Mayfield and the Civil Rights Movement”] on c-span , please tell me I can get a copy of your paper.”
Vyllorya Evans
Texas
“I happened to catch the above topic [“Curtis Mayfield and the Civil Rights Movement”] from June 2010, on C-Span3 tonight, and wanted to share with you how much I love it when scholars analyze and dissect the music of our times.”
Ursula Bailey
Attorney Tennessee
Portia K. Maultsby has been an irreplaceable advisor and creative partner across myriad, award-winning film and video projects for over 30 years—including most recently the introductory film, “Roots,” featured at the National Museum of African American Music. Portia has been a leading force in the emergence of scholarship in the field of African American music and music of the African diaspora, and a creative force in her own right as a musician, arranger, and composer.
For our projects, Portia guided our development of stories, the interpretative framework, and engaging soundtracks that propelled the stories and captured the emotions conveyed through images. She emphasized the historical events and social conditions that gave birth to this music as well as the social norms, cultural practices, and aesthetic values that shaped the approach to music-making. Portia’s generosity in sharing her extraordinary depth of knowledge, experience, and talent as a creative collaborator has been a great blessing and gift in my life and work.
Donna Lawrence
Creative Director / Owner, Donna Lawrence Productions
Throughout my career in academic Philosophy, my efforts have been devoted to the renovation of disciplinary practices of knowledge production to accommodate respectful, appreciative considerations of articulate expressions by persons and peoples African and of African descent. When in 2007 I was called on to chair the Storyline Committee to guide efforts to develop what is now the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM, Nashville, TN), I was honored. However, I knew that I did not have the necessary scholarly expertise regarding the musics of African peoples and of African descent. I needed to recruit a lead scholar with such expertise. My research led me to “The Evolution of African American Music,” a publication by Professor Portia K. Maultsby where she set out a comprehensive timeline that, with astute insight, chronicled global synchronic and diachronic developments of African American music genres from their African origins to contemporary manifestations.
Lucius T. Outlaw, Jr., PhD
Chair, Storyline Committee (2007-2021) Board of Trustees, Ex Officio (2016-2021) National Museum of African American Music
With the encouragement of very accomplished persons in pertinent museum work, I reached out to Professor Maultsby and asked her to come on board as the lead scholar for the development of the storyline for the NMAAM project. She agreed to do so and for more than a decade led the development of the guiding storyline, interpretative framework, and the core gallery content for what is now a functioning museum of groundbreaking presentations of the extraordinary and still-unfolding history of music-making by persons of African and of African descent.
Guiding the presentations is appreciation of the steadfast refusal of Black folks to succumb to the dehumanizations of enslavement and other oppressions. Rather, while resisting and enduring, many persons nurtured the strength to be creative in making soul-nurturing music. A proper story of this endurance and creativity required an extraordinarily broadly and deeply informed, intellectually gifted and creative scholar who, knowing the importance of the historic NMAAM project, would see it through while collaborating with other scholars and guiding all involved, exhibition designers especially. And so Portia K. Maultsby did…
W. Alton Jones Chair, Emeritus
Philosophy of Philosophy, Emeritus Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee
I was honored to be a part of a world class team led by JRA, Part of RWS Global for this innovative and important project.
With Portia’s expertise we began by building a comprehensive database of local music history and right away could see the tremendous power and the sweep of the story. Throughout the process, she fueled the creative team by presenting exciting options for musical expression which were deeply rooted in authentic culture, while driving story and theme. As an artist and performer, and with a background in music editing and production, she knew how to deploy music to move audiences and create compelling mood in the context of a guest experience.
The result is an experience as alive and vibrant as the music itself–and free to the public. Families, groups, young and old, and guests of all abilities are invited into the stories and into “the show” to enjoy, celebrate, and express their own creativity. Throughout the park, guests are invited to approach, touch, or join the experience.
Portia is a connector in so many ways, and at the heartbeat of this project. I learned a great deal working with her, and am very much looking forward to the opportunity to creating alongside her again.
For our projects, Portia guided our development of stories, the interpretative framework, and engaging soundtracks that propelled the stories and captured the emotions conveyed through images. She emphasized the historical events and social conditions that gave birth to this music as well as the social norms, cultural practices, and aesthetic values that shaped the approach to music-making. Portia’s generosity in sharing her extraordinary depth of knowledge, experience, and talent as a creative collaborator has been a great blessing and gift in my life and work.
Nancy Seruto
Nancy Seruto Owner/Creative Director, Seruto LLC
Working with a team of scholars, Gallagher & Associates developed a long-range plan and designed the inaugural exhibition for the 56,000 sq. ft. National Museum of African American Music (Nashville). Dr. Maultsby, the lead and senior music scholar on the team, is an inspiring and collaborative partner. Her broad knowledge of and insights on African American music--from spirituals to hip-hop—facilitated our work. She was a critical team member in all phases and aspects of design and content development—from the approach to presenting the music and its creators, her idea for a gallery exploring the business behind the music to the layered content behind the beautiful gospel, R&B and other media interactives. More than anything, Dr. Maultsby is a pleasure to work with. Her deep expertise and willingness to listen and collaborate are a perfect combination.
Liza Rao
Studio Director, Gallagher & Associates
INFORMATION
HELPFUL LINKS
CONTACT US
- Maultsby & Associates Music Consulting
- P.O. Box 551236 | Orlando, Florida 32855
- [email protected]
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