Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko: Progenitor of Operatic Performance in Nigeria

Abstract

Joy Nwosu Lo-Bamijoko is a highly educated musician with interests covering every area of music specialization. She was the most gifted professionally trained Nigerian female musician of her generation, and the most productive female scholar, who had distinguished herself in her native country and internationally as an authority on Nigerian music. Earning her Ph.D. in Music Education with emphasis on African ethnomusicology in 1981 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, made her the second Nigerian woman to receive a doctorate in music. She was born into a musical family on August 27, 1940, in Enugu, Anambra State of southeast Nigeria. Her stunning career falls within the parameters of intercultural musicology. It explicates the imprint of the tertian cultures Joy encountered during her musical training and professional experiences in Nigeria, Italy, and the United States.