Ben Paulding

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. Currently based in Boston, MA, Ben plays drums in Kotoko Brass, his percussion-fueled Ghanaian dance band described by the Boston Globe as “propulsive, infectious party music”, and 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 (The Garifuna Collective, Sona Jobarteh, Betsayda Machado, 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. Outside of music, Ben is an avid skier and recently completed hiking all New Hampshire’s 48 4000-foot peaks.