Kwasi Ampene holds a joint appointment in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance (SMTD) and the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) at the University of Michigan. He specializes in the rich musical traditions of the Akan of Ghana. His current research interrogates how the performing arts are individually and collectively created and experienced and how musical instruments and various aspects of performance are historically constructed and socially maintained through time. His book publications include Engaging Modernity: Asante in the Twenty-First Century (2nd edition, 2016. 1st edition, 2014), Discourses in African Musicology: J.H. Kwabena Nketia Festschrift (2015), and Female Song Tradition and the Akan of Ghana: The Creative Process in Nnwonkoróî (2005). His articles and book reviews appear in the American Music Research Center Journal (2012), American Ethnologist (2009), and Ethnomusicology (2007). Since 2009, Ampene has been doing extensive field research at the Asante king's court in Manhyia Palace in Kumase-Ghana. With rare and unrestricted access to the centuries old heritage of tangible and intangible stool regalia, he is documenting the court music, verbal art forms, musical as well as sound producing instruments. Ampene has given numerous presentations on various aspects of African musics and cultures at major universities and national and international conferences including Princeton University (2016/2005), Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro-Brazil (2015), SEM/ICTM Joint Forum in Limerick, Ireland (2015), Tufts University (2016/2012), Central Conservatory of Music Beijing-China (2014/2005), School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London-UK (2013), Rhabindra Bharati University, Kolkata-India (2013), and the University of Ghana (2016/2008).