Olabode Festus Omojola

Bode Omojola is the Hammond-Douglass Five College Professor of Music. As a Five College Professor, he holds a joint appointment with all five institutions of the Five College Consortium: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith colleges, and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, USA. Omojola received his Ph.D. from the University of Leicester in England and previously taught at Northeastern University in Boston, USA, and the University of Ilorin in Nigeria. His research focuses on the music of Africa and the African diaspora, encompassing both indigenous and contemporary traditions as well as the works of composers of neo-African art music. 

His publications have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Ethnomusicology, British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Research in African Literatures, and Black Music Research Journal. His books include Yorùbá Music in the Twentieth Century: Identity, Agency, and Performance Practice (University of Rochester Press), Popular Music in Western Nigeria: Theme, Style, and Patronage (Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique), and Nigerian Art Music: with an Introductory Study of Ghanaian Art Music (Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique). 

Omojola has held several fellowship appointments, including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship (University of Cologne, Germany), the Radcliffe Fellowship in Musicology at Harvard University, and the Ford Foundation African Humanities Program Fellowship (University of Ghana, Legon). His most recent opera, Funmilayo, premiered in 2023, featuring the Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra, Five College African Opera students, and visiting professionals, conducted by Ng Tian Hui.