Portia K. Maultsby Explained

Portia Katrenia Maultsby
Alma Mater:University of Wisconsin, Madison
Workplaces:Indiana University
Titles:Professor emerita
Discipline:Ethnomusicology
Birth Place:Orlando, Florida, U.S.
Birth Date:11 June 1947
Sub Discipline:African American music

Portia Katrenia Maultsby (born June 11, 1947)[1] is an American ethnomusicologist and educator. She is a professor emerita at Indiana University Bloomington and specializes in African-American music. She founded the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture in 1991.

Biography

Early life and education

Maultsby was born in Orlando, Florida, to Maxie C. and Valdee Maultsby (later Maultsby-Williams),[2] [3] and grew up in the segregated American South.[4] Her older brother was psychiatrist Maxie C. Maultsby, Jr. (1932–2016).[5] She also had a twin brother, Casel Hayes Maultsby (1947–1988), a pilot.[6]

Maultsby graduated from Jones High School in Orlando in 1964.[7] She attended Mount St Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, Kansas, on a music scholarship, graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in piano, theory, and composition. The following year, she earned a master's degree in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1974, she was awarded a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison;[8] she was the first African American to be awarded that degree in the United States.

Career

Maultsby began lecturing at Indiana University in 1971, while still a graduate student.[9] She was recruited by Dr. Herman Hudson and became the founding director of the Indiana University Soul Revue, a student ensemble dedicated to Black music. By 1975, she was an assistant professor in the Department of African-American Studies. In 1977 Maultsby produced a song called "Music is Just a Party" for her ensemble. This song would be selected as Billboard's top single in the First-Time-Around category.[10] She went on to become chair of the department (1985–91), then professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology (from 1992).

Maultsby's specialization in African-American music spans genres, including funk, soul, rhythm and blues, and spirituals.[11] She founded the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture in 1991, and served as its director from 1991 through 2013. The archives started as Maultsby's personal collection and grew to include more than 10,000 pieces of music and music-related items (including interviews, photographs, and recordings) by 2003.

Maultsby co-edited two textbooks with her Indiana University colleague Mellonee V. Burnim: African American Music: An Introduction (2006)[12] and Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation (2016).[13] She wrote the foreword to the 2018 book Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection, edited by Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan.[14]

In 2011, Maultsby received an award from National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music. Maultsby has also served as a consultant for museums (including serving as a senior scholar at the Smithsonian Institution in 1985) and as a researcher documentary films (including the PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize).[15] [16] She has consulted on various different projects such as The Motown Sound, Wade in the Water, and Chicago’s Record Row: The Cradle of Rhythm and Blues.

Selected works

Books

Book chapters

Articles

Notes and References

  1. Book: 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2087451. Maultsby, Portia Katrenia. Oxford Music Online. 2010. Wright. Josephine.
  2. News: Madlee. Dorothy. 1977-01-03. 'Tank' Would Rather Talk About People Than Football. 10. The Orlando Sentinel. 2020-06-05.
  3. News: 2008-01-15. Maultsby-Williams, Valdee. C4. The Orlando Sentinel. 2020-06-05.
  4. News: Renze-Rhodes. Lisa. 2003-02-06. Archives spotlight heritage, history of black music. 19. The Indianapolis Star. 2020-06-06.
  5. Wirga. Mariusz. DeBernardi. Michael. Wirga. Aleksandra. 2019. Our Memories of Maxie C. Maultsby, Jr., 1932–2016. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. en. 37. 3. 316–324. 10.1007/s10942-018-0309-3. 149984153. 0894-9085.
  6. News: 1988-01-25. Maultsby, Casel Hayes. 10. The Orlando Sentinel. 2020-06-05.
  7. News: Demchuk. Tania. 1975-03-19. Tonight's Revue Success Mark for Jones Grad. 43. The Orlando Sentinel. 2020-06-05.
  8. Book: Maultsby, Portia. Afro-American Religious Music: 1619–1861. University of Wisconsin-Madison. 1974. Doctoral dissertation.
  9. Web site: Stone. Ruth M.. About Portia K. Maultsby. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20200605045518/https://folklore.indiana.edu/about/emeriti-faculty/maultsby-portia.html. 2020-06-05. 2020-06-05. Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. en.
  10. Web site: Portia K. Maultsby . 2023-12-11 . Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology . en.
  11. News: Molter. Jeff. 1980-01-29. Expert says music mirrors events. 13. Journal and Courier. 2020-06-09.
  12. News: Kauffman. Nicole. 2006-03-26. Tuning the page. 13. The Reporter-Times. 2020-06-06.
  13. Web site: Friedberg. Joshua. 2018-12-11. Aretha Franklin: Context, Intersectionality, and the Rock Canon. 2020-06-09. PopMatters. en.
  14. Aksoy. Ozan. 2020-02-19. Book Review: Black lives matter and music: protest, intervention, reflection: foreword by Portia K. Maultsby, edited by Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan. Ethnic and Racial Studies. en. 43. 3. 534–536. 10.1080/01419870.2019.1654121. 202280983. 0141-9870.
  15. News: Pittman. Bill. 1990-03-01. I.U. educator links music with black experience. 16. The Indianapolis News. 2020-06-09.
  16. News: 1990-01-14. IU teacher will have her ears tuned to a prized PBS series. 59. The Indianapolis Star. 2020-06-09.

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