Portia K. Maultsby

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Portia Katrenia Maultsby
Born (1947-06-11) June 11, 1947 (age 76)
Orlando, Florida, U.S.
TitleProfessor emerita
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison
Academic work
DisciplineEthnomusicology
Sub-disciplineAfrican American music
InstitutionsIndiana University

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[edit]

Early life and education[edit]

Maultsby was born in Orlando, Florida,[1] 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).[2][5] She also had a twin brother, Casel Hayes Maultsby (1947–1988), a pilot.[2][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,[7] graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in piano, theory, and composition.[1] The following year, she earned a master's degree in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[1] In 1974, she was awarded a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison;[7][8] she was the first African American to be awarded that degree in the United States.[1]

Career[edit]

Maultsby began lecturing at Indiana University in 1971, while still a graduate student.[1][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.[9][7] By 1975, she was an assistant professor in the Department of African-American Studies.[7] 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).[1]

Maultsby's specialization in African-American music spans genres, including funk, soul, rhythm and blues, and spirituals.[9][11] She founded the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture in 1991, and served as its director from 1991 through 2013.[9] 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.[4]

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[edit]

Books[edit]

  • African American Music: An Introduction (co-edited with Mellonee V. Burnim), 2006. ISBN 9781317934431
  • Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation (co-edited with Mellonee V. Burnim), 2016. ISBN 9781315472072

Book chapters[edit]

  • Maultsby, Portia K. (1992). "The impact of gospel music on the secular music industry". In Reagon, Bernice Johnson (ed.). We'll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. pp. 19–33.
  • Maultsby, Portia K. (2018). "Foreword". In Orejuela, Fernando; Shonekan, Stephanie (eds.). Black Lives Matter & Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. ix–xiv. ISBN 978-0-253-03843-2. OCLC 1062301971.

Articles[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wright, Josephine (2010). "Maultsby, Portia Katrenia". Oxford Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2087451.
  2. ^ a b c Madlee, Dorothy (1977-01-03). "'Tank' Would Rather Talk About People Than Football". The Orlando Sentinel. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  3. ^ "Maultsby-Williams, Valdee". The Orlando Sentinel. 2008-01-15. pp. C4. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  4. ^ a b Renze-Rhodes, Lisa (2003-02-06). "Archives spotlight heritage, history of black music". The Indianapolis Star. p. 19. Retrieved 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. 37 (3): 316–324. doi:10.1007/s10942-018-0309-3. ISSN 0894-9085. S2CID 149984153.
  6. ^ "Maultsby, Casel Hayes". The Orlando Sentinel. 1988-01-25. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  7. ^ a b c d e Demchuk, Tania (1975-03-19). "Tonight's Revue Success Mark for Jones Grad". The Orlando Sentinel. p. 43. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  8. ^ Maultsby, Portia (1974). Afro-American Religious Music: 1619–1861 (Doctoral dissertation). University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  9. ^ a b c d Stone, Ruth M. "About Portia K. Maultsby". Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Archived from the original on 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  10. ^ "Portia K. Maultsby". Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  11. ^ Molter, Jeff (1980-01-29). "Expert says music mirrors events". Journal and Courier. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  12. ^ Kauffman, Nicole (2006-03-26). "Tuning the page". The Reporter-Times. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  13. ^ Friedberg, Joshua (2018-12-11). "Aretha Franklin: Context, Intersectionality, and the Rock Canon". PopMatters. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  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. 43 (3): 534–536. doi:10.1080/01419870.2019.1654121. ISSN 0141-9870. S2CID 202280983.
  15. ^ Pittman, Bill (1990-03-01). "I.U. educator links music with black experience". The Indianapolis News. p. 16. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  16. ^ "IU teacher will have her ears tuned to a prized PBS series". The Indianapolis Star. 1990-01-14. p. 59. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
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