Bill Banfield, 2017 October 20
Director of Berklee College of Music’s Africana Studies program William “Bill” Banfield describes his early music career in Detroit, his major musical influences, and his experiences working and studying in Boston in the 1980s: attending New England Conservatory and Boston University, teaching with the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood program, and traveling to Senegal. He also discusses the genesis of his recording company, B Magic Recording, his shift to composition, and his experiences teaching and studying ethnomusicology at University of Michigan. Banfield shares his thoughts on hip-hop, his philosophies on music and teaching, and curricular changes at Berklee over the previous decade. He describes the creation, evolution, and impact of the Africana Studies program, associated guests and visiting professors, and his vision for the African Studies Center.
Guitarist, composer, author, and professor William C. “Bill” Banfield (1961-) was born and raised in Detroit. In 1979, he moved to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1983. Around that time he also founded a recording company, B Magic Recording. He received a master’s in theology from Boston University in 1988 and a PhD in composition and ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan in 1992. Banfield received his first professorship at the University of Michigan, teaching in the Religious Studies department concurrent with his doctoral studies; he would go to teach at several colleges, including Indiana University, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of St Thomas, and the University of Minnesota. Banfield joined the Liberal Arts department at Berklee College of Music in 2005. In 2007, he launched the college’s Africana Studies program, which he directed until his retirement in 2020. During his tenure, Banfield created and taught courses, oversaw the Africana Studies Music and Lecture Series, assisted in the establishment of an African Studies minor in music and sociology, and opened the Africana Studies Center as a dedicated research and programming space. He is the author of Black Notes: Essays of a Musician Writing in a Post-Album Age and Landscapes in Color: Conversations with Black American Composers, the latter of which was also the name of the radio show he hosted for National Public Radio. Banfield received faculty emeritus status in 2022.
