About Mountain Top University Music Department

Dr. Bayo O' Yemi

H.O.D, Music Department, Mountain Top University

Meet Bayo O'Yemi, a seasoned music scholar with over 25 years of experience in music promotions and education. Holding a first degree in Music, a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies, a Master's degree in Music, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Music (Ethnomusicology), Bayo is a force to be reckoned with in African musicology. With 8 years of teaching experience as a music lecturer at a prestigious Nigerian university, he's developed a specialization in the theory, practice, and performance of African music. Bayo's research has been published nationally and internationally, and he's presented at conferences worldwide. His extensive ethnographic studies span the Yoruba region, both locally and in the diaspora. As the current head of faculty, Bayo's expertise shines in areas like piano performance, music business, tonal harmony, African music analysis, and popular music in Nigeria. His ongoing research explores the forgotten music of the Yoruba people, a project that's sure to shed new light on the rich cultural heritage of Africa.

Dr Victor Chijioke Chukwu

Lecturer, Music Department, Mountain Top University

Dr Victor Chijioke Chukwu is a musicologist and researcher whose interests lie in music theory, composition, creative musicology, African music analytical studies, music performance, music education, African music theory, aesthetics and interplay of culture, music and religion in African societies. He is an alumna of Music department, University of Nigeria Nsukka, and an adjunct member of Watchman Music Consult Lagos Nigeria. He served as a music director in Grace Schools Gbagada Lagos Nigeria. Dr V.C as he is popularly called currently works at the department of music, Mountain Top University, prayer city, Ogun state Nigeria. His hobbies include: Nollywood movies, reading and football.

Mr. Adedaramola Olaore

Lecturer, Music Department, Mountain Top University

An Architect turned musicologist. An active baritone who has had stints with reputable choirs like the MUSON choir and the Laz Ekwueme Chorale. Now, he is with the Mountains Top Chorale. Bagged his Master's in Architecture (Building Ornamentation, Theory & Practice) from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ilé-Ife Osun State. Studied music theory & composition in his MA at the University of Lagos. A voice student at to the Musical Society of Nigeria Diploma School. MUSON. under the tutelage of Banke Ademola. An active music analyst and passionate researcher in ethnomusicology. He currently teaches voice and History, also conducts the MountainTop University Chorus.

Mr. Osanebi Chukwuka Michael

Lecturer, Music Department, Mountain Top University

With a strong background in training, Mr Osanebi has developed interests in fieldwork and research, African music, art music, vocal performance, choir training, and choral conducting. He holds a Master of Arts degree (2014) and a Bachelor of Arts degree (2010). He is a member of the Association of Nigerian Musicology (ANIM). His publications include "Bridging Field Research and Composition in Stephen Olusoji Tiwan-tiwa and Ipade-Ilu" (2020) and "The Cultural Significance of Ukele Music in Ikenge Festival of the Ogume People of Delta State" (2018)

Dr Ayọ̀ Olúránti

Senior Lecturer, Music Department, Mountain Top University

Ayọ̀ Olúrántí, a current Harvard University Fromm Music Foundation commissioned composer, holds a PhD in Composition & Theory from the University of Pittsburgh (USA), having graduated from the University of Southampton (UK) with a first-class honours degree. Ayọ̀, who believes in both the traditional and the contemporary ‘experimental’ approaches to music within a postmodernist aesthetic, researches elements, processes and resources germane to the musical cultures of the Global South for use within his compositional language. To celebrate 100 years of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), Ayọ̀ was commissioned to write the piece, MandEʋe, for Vertice Sonora. It was performed in a 2023 program of world premieres by European and African composers under the artistic direction of Lukas Ligeti in Spain and South Africa. Olúrántí was also commissioned in 2022 by Ensemble Recherche (Freiburg, Germany) to compose the piece, Iná Ràn, under the aegis of Goethe-Institut (Manheim, Germany) as part of the Postcolonial Recherche project. His opera, Ọmọ Àgbẹ̀, was premiered by the James Madison University Opera Theatre in 2022 as part of the project, “Enriching and Decolonizing the Opera”. Ayọ̀'s Hẹlẹlẹ was premiered at the 2024 World Choir Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

Professor Bode Omojola

Distinguished Professor

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 and Smith colleges, and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, USA. Omojola received his Ph.D. from the University of Leicester, England, and taught previously at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria and Northeastern University in Boston, USA.

His research focuses on the musics of Africa and the African diaspora, ranging from indigenous to contemporary traditions as well as the works of neo-African composers of art music. He has held prestigious academic appointments, including the Radcliffe Fellowship in Musicology at Harvard University, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship at the University of Cologne, Germany, and the African Humanities Fellowship Program in African Music hosted jointly by the University of Ghana and Northwestern University. In 2019, he was awarded the Meribeth E. Cameron Faculty Award in acknowledgment of his exemplary scholarship.

Omojola combines scholarly work with composition. His publications include numerous articles and reviews in peer-reviewed journals like 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’s compositions cover a variety of media, including piano, chamber music, choral works, and operas. His most recent opera, Funmilayo, is based on a libretto on the anti-colonial activism of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900-1978). The opera was premiered in April 2023 by the Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra, the Five College African Opera students, conducted by Ng Tian Hui.

Professor Stephanus Muller

Distinguished Professor

Stephanus Muller is Professor of Music and Director of the Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation (AOI) at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Trained as a pianist and musicologist at the Universities of Pretoria, South Africa, and Oxford, UK (DPhil 2001), his research addresses the intersections of music, history, and politics in South Africa, engaging questions of modernism, coloniality, and cultural memory through archival, historiographical, and creative work.

Muller founded theDocumentation Centre for Music (DOMUS)in 2005, which established one of the continent’s most significant repositories for South African music archives. In 2016 he founded AOI, an interdisciplinary research unit dedicated to innovative and decolonial approaches to music studies in Africa. His leadership at AOI has fostered numerous projects and partnerships, including the Performing Arts Research Collections, and theSouthern African Encyclopaedia of Sound and Music.

An award-winning author, Muller’sNagmusiek(Fourthwall Books, 2014) received major literary prizes including the Jan Rabie–Rapport, kykNET-Rapport, and University of Johannesburg Debut Awards. His co-edited volumeSulkevriende is skaars: Die briewe van Arnold van Wyk en Anton Hartman (1949–1981)(Protea, 2020) won both the ATKV and kykNET-Rapport non-fiction prizes.

He has held fellowships at Oxford and Bayreuth and received multiple research awards from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Stellenbosch University. In 2025 he held theChair in South Africa: Languages, Literatures, Culture and Societyat Ghent University.