Academic CV
Education
In Progress PhD. in Ethnomusicology, Boston University
2020 Master of Arts in Music, Ethnomusicology concentration, Tufts University
1994 Bachelor of Arts in History, Carleton College
Areas of Research
African music
African guitar music
Popular music
Experimental rock
American jazz music
Javanese and Balinese Gamelan
Church bell music
Academic Employment
2023 Teaching Fellow to Rachana Vajjhala, MH413 Radical Restagings, Boston University
2023 Teaching Fellow to Miki Kaneda, MH407 Sound and Image in Modern East Asian Music,
Boston University
2022 Instructor, MU561 Global Music Ensemble: African Popular Music, Boston University
2022 Teaching Fellow to Michael Birenbaum Quintero, MH410 The Politics and Poetics of
Hip Hop, Boston University
2021 Teaching Fellow to Miki Kaneda, MU726 Decolonial Listening, Boston University
2020 Osher Lifelong Learning Center, Music of Africa, Tufts University
2019 Teaching Assistant to Attah Poku, MUS0091 African Drum & Dance Ensemble, Tufts
University
2019 Teaching Assistant to Prof. Michael Ullman, MUS0040 History of Jazz, Tufts University
2019 Teaching Assistant to Prof. Stéphanie Khoury, MUS0030 Music As Culture, Tufts
University
2018 Teaching Assistant to Attah Poku, MUS0091 African Drum & Dance Ensemble, Tufts
University
Professional Music Education Employment
Private Teaching Studio, 1997-present
Online Masterclasses, OTSFM, 2020-present
Guitar Faculty, Passim School of Music, Cambridge, MA, 2015-18
Senior Guitar Faculty, Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, 2004-14
Chair of Guitar Department, Chicago Waldorf School, 2005-12
Academic Awards and Arts Grants
2024 Winner Boston University School of Music Graduate Travel Grant
2023 SEM Applied Ethnomusicology Section Travel Award
2023-4 Foreign Language and Area Studies Dissertation Fellowship, US Dept of Education
2023 Foreign Language and Area Studies Summer Fellowship, US Dept of Education 2022 African Studies Center Travel Grant, Boston
University
2022 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, US Dept of Education
2022 Winner Boston University School of Music Graduate Travel Grant
2020 Finalist – Space on Ryder Farm Creative Residency (season cancelled)
2020 Winner Graduate Student Research Competition, Tufts University
2019 Project Grant, New Music USA
2019 GSAS Graduate Student Travel Fund, Tufts University
2019 Department of Music Special Projects Fund (Spring 2019), Tufts University
2019 Department of Music Special Projects Fund (Fall 2019), Tufts University
2019 Winner Graduate Student Research Competition, Tufts University
2018 Department of Music Special Projects Fund, Tufts University
2013 Individual Artist Grant awarded by Chicago DCASE funding fieldwork in Ghana
2005 CAAP Grant awarded by Chicago DCASE to record music for modern dance
2004 CAAP Grant awarded by Chicago DCASE to record original works for guitar ensemble
2002 CAAP Grant awarded by Chicago DCASE to record original works for large ensemble
Fieldwork
2024 Democratic Republic of Congo
2023 Ghana
2019 Ghana
2018 Ghana
2017 Ghana
2013 Ghana
2008 Ghana
Musical Collaborations
Anthony Akablay (Ghana)
Koo Nimo (Ghana)
Jupiter Bokondji (DRC)
Samba Mapangala (DRC)
Julius Juuko (Uganda)
Angela Kalule (Uganda)
Moussa Diakate (Mali)
Balla Kouyate (Mali)
Mathew Tembo (Zambia)
Commissions
“Three Rites: Liberty,” Original music and sound installation for choreography by Edisa
Weeks. Work-in-progress performed at Motion Arts Dance Festival, Providence, RI,
2022. Premiers April 2024, Washington D.C.
“Three Rites: Happiness,” Original music for new choreography by Edisa Weeks. Work-in-
progress performed at Gibney Dance Center, NY, and Mt. Tremper Arts, 2018, Snug
Harbor, NY, 2021. Premier November 2023 at 651 Arts, New York.
Music of Mali: Composition and arrangement of traditional Malian guitar music for Silk
Road Ensemble’s Mike Block. 2018.
“The Green Table,” Live scoring and performance for original choreography by Liana
Percoco. Premiered at Links Hall, Chicago, 2013.
“Dyad.” Original music for choreography by Jonathan Meyer/Khecari Dance. 2006.
Conference Presentations
“Local Authenticities and Global Reach in Kinshasa’s Musique de Recherche,” African
Studies Association Conference, Chicago, IL, December 2024.
“The Rhythm, the Rhythm: Borders of Method and Composition in Ghana’s Guitar
Tradition,” SEM Conference, Ottawa, Canada, 21 October 2023
“The Rhythm, the Rhythm: Borders of Method and Composition in Ghana’s Guitar
Tradition,”47th Annual ICTM Conference, Accra, Ghana, 19 July 2023
“Yaa Amponsah: Bridge of Ghanaian Musical Self-knowing,” Northeast Chapter of the
Society for Ethnomusicology, Online, 10 April 2021
“The Serene and Obscene: Franco’s Mbwakela Under Mobutu,” Society for Ethnomusicology
Annual Conference, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 10 November 2019
“Mbwakela Under Mobutu: Speaking and Hearing in TPOK Zaïrumba,” Northeast
Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Colby College, Waterville, ME, 6 April 2019
Publications and Podcasts
Author. “African Electric Networks,” for The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar,
ed. Jan-Peter Herbst and Steve Waksman. 2024.
Writer, host, producer. “Agua y Luz: Music of Tumaco and the Afro Colombian Pacific.”
Afropop Worldwide. 4 November 2022.
Writer, host, producer. “Echoes of Yaa Amponsah.” Afropop Worldwide. 2 November 2021.
Musical composer. Boston University Center for the Humanities Podcast. Season 2, Fall 2021.
Musical composer. “Mousetrap.” Radiotonic. Radio National, Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. 2015.
Musical composer. “Anarkali.” Radiotonic. Radio National, Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. 2015.
Invited Discussant/Residencies
Composer/performer, Weeksville Heritage Center/651 Arts, New York City, 2023
Composer/performer, Snug Harbor, New York City, 2021
Respondent to Steven Feld Films, Clemente Course, Codman Center, Boston, MA, 2019
Panelist “Bisso na Bisso (Between Us): A Discussion on Music and Collaborative
Ethnography in Africa,” University of Chicago, 30 May 2013
Visiting Artist, African Drum Ensemble, DePaul University, 2013
Artist-in-Residence, Music Meeting Festival, Nijmegen, NL, 17-24 May 2010
Panelist "World Musics and Multicultural Education in the Classroom," Midwest Chapter of
the Society for Ethnomusicology, Depaul University, Chicago, IL, 10 April 2010
EISMA Artist-in-Residence, Evanston Public Schools, Evanston, IL, 2010
Invited Lectures
“What is African Music?” for MUS 0001 Music in Global Perspectives, Tufts University, Spring
2024
“Children of the Rite of Spring” for MH413 Radical Restagings, Boston University, Fall 2023
“Popular Music in Africa: Guitar Hybridities” for MH436 Musical Culture, Boston University,
Fall 2023
“The Guitar in Africa” for MH435 Music of Africa, Spring 2023.
Guest Instructor, MU561 Global Music Ensemble: Omnivorous Ensemble, Boston University,
Spring 2022.
“Introduction to Field Recording and the Ethnographic Interview” for MU 826 Decolonial
Listening, Boston University, Spring 2021.
Lecturer/consultant, “Soundscapes of Protest: Music in Social Movements Across Africa.”
Podcast, Episode 3. Primary Source. 2020.
“Music as Political Critic in Sub-Saharan Africa” for Music As Culture, Tufts University, Fall
2019
“Free Jazz and Alternative Societies: Sun Ra and the AACM” for History of Jazz, Tufts
University, Spring 2019
“Guitar in Transition,” MUSIGA Ghanaian Musicians Union, Accra, Ghana, 2017
Performance and discussion, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 2017
“The History of West African Palm Wine Highlife,” Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of
Technology, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2015
“The History of West African Palm Wine Highlife,” University of Newcastle Conservatorium,
Australia, 2015
“The Guitar in Post-Colonial Africa: Instrument of Change, Tool of Tradition,” DePaul
University, Chicago, IL, 2013
“South African Music: Preservation and Dissent,” Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern
University, 2012
“The Guitar in African Popular Music,” recurring lecture for Intro to World Music,
Northwestern University, 2011-13
Performance, discussion with poet Daniel Marcellus Givens, Symposium on Time,
University of Minnesota, 2007
Performance, discussion with poet Anne Waldman, The Open Book, Minneapolis, 2003
Music School Courses Taught (Partial List)
Core Guitar Curriculum
Fingerstyle Guitar
Fingerboard Theory/Advanced Fingerboard Theory
The African Acoustic Guitar
African Electric
Fingerstyle Guitar Around the World
Open Tunings
John Fahey Guitar Styles
Bert Jansch Guitar Styles
Davy Graham Guitar Styles
Nick Drake Guitar Styles
Early American Parlor Guitar Music
Afrobeat and Afropop Ensemble
Ethiojazz Ensemble
Reggae Ensemble
Kill Yr Idols—The Rock Avant-Garde (Ensemble)
Songwriters’ Original Music Ensemble
Intro to Javanese Gamelan
Desert Blues
New Resources for Creative Fingerstyle
Selected Media Reviews, Profiles, and Interviews
“Understanding Sheet Music as a Medium to Expand Pedagogic Practice,” Matthew
Thibeault, Journal of Music, Technology & Education, Vol 9, No 2, 1 July 2016
“Exploring the Old Town School of Folk Music's Beck Song Reader Ensemble: An Interview
With Nathaniel Braddock,” Matthew D. Thibeault, General Music Today, 30 October 2013
“Blame Obama! A tribute to the president brought together Chicago's Occidental Brothers
Dance Band International and their new front man: African superstar Samba
Mapangala,” Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader, 15 April 2010
“Nathaniel Braddock,” Banning Eyre, Guitar Player Magazine, December 2009
Professional Service
Graduate Student Organization Representative for Musicology/Ethnomusicology, Boston
University, 2021-22
Provost Advisory Board representing the School of Music, College of Fine Arts, Boston
University, 2021-22
GSAS Mentor Collective, Tufts University, 2019
Chicago DCASE grant review panelist, 2006 & 2007
Languages
Proficiency in French
Proficiency in Lingala
Partial proficiency in Kiswahili
Professional Affiliations
Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society
African Studies Association
Society for Ethnomusicology
Africa and African Diasporic Music Section, SEM
Organology SIG, SEM
International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance
ASCAP
Ensembles Led
Occidental Brothers Dance Band, Int’l (West African and Congolese)
Accra Quartet (collaboration with Ghanaian Jazz musicians)
Trio Mokili (African and experimental jazz)
Air Congo (1960-70’s Zaïrumba)
Plutonians! (Revisionist surf rock and Sun Ra)
Selected Performances
2022 Chicago World Music Festival
2019 Hyde Park Jazz Fest, Chicago, IL
2019 Chicago Underground Film Fest, Chicago, IL
2017 Made In Chicago Festival, Poznan, Poland
2016 Chicago World Music Festival, Chicago, IL
2016 TEDx Cambridge, Boston, MA
2012 Millennium Park, Chicago, IL
2012 Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago, IL
2011 Chicago Jazz Festival, Chicago, IL
2010 Ottawa Blues Festival, Ottawa, Canada
2010 AfroFest, Toronto, Canada
2010 Moers Fest, Moers, Germany
2010 Music Meeting, Nijmegen, Netherlands
2010 Winter Jazz Fest, New York City, NY
2010 Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
2009 Vancouver Jazz Festival, Vancouver, Canada
2009 Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreal, Canada
2009 GlobalFest, New York City, NY
2009 Lincoln Center, New York City, NY
2009 Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
2009 Lotus Fest, Bloomington, IN
2008 Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago, IL
2008 Pitchfork Festival, Chicago, IL
2006 Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
2004 Whitney Biennial, New York City, NY
2004 Dance Theater Workshop, New York City, NY
2004 The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
Discography
2024 ACCRA QUARTET, Gbɛfalɔi (Travelers) (FPE Records), guitar, piano, producer
2024 AKABLAY-ASAMOAH-BRADDOCK-POKU, Palmwine Session, guitar, composer,
producer
2024 DYAD, Dyad: Music for Dance composer, guitar, producer
2024 OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS DANCE BAND INT’L, Likamobo Te, composer, guitar,
producer
2020 BRADDOCK GUITAR ENSEMBLE, If I Were A Bell, I Would Sing (Union Pole), producer,
composer, guitar
2017 Quadrille & Collapse:::VERSIONS (Invertebrata), solo guitar remixes (various)
2017 Quadrille & Collapse (Invertebrata), solo guitar, composer, producer
2015 NEVER ENOUGH HOPE, The Gravity of Our Commitment (Milk Factory), electric guitar
2015 African Roots & Americana, solo guitar, arranger, producer
2013 BUTCHER SHOP QUARTET, The Rite Of Spring, electric guitar
2013 BOUNDARY WATERS, Boundary Waters, trumpet
2012 FUTURE HITS, Songs For Learning, electric guitar
2012 WIL FLACHSBART, Songs In the Key of M, producer, guitar, piano, mandolin
2009 OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS DANCE BAND INT’L, Odo Sanbra, producer, guitar
2009 ANCIENTGREEKS, “Gentle Woman” on Crosswalk compilation, producer, guitar
2009 SIMON KASHAMA, “Yambi Yambi” electric guitar
2008 LOS ANGELES ELECTRIC 8, Plays Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Braddock, Siegel, and
Kohl, composer
2008 NEVER ENOUGH HOPE, The Gift Economy (Contraphonic), electric guitar
2007 MONINCS/ZINADE, Play Kevin Ayers (Duophonic), electric guitar
2007 ZINCS, Black Pompadour (Thrill Jockey), guitar
2007 OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS DANCE BAND INT’L s/t, producer, electric guitar
2006 NEVER ENOUGH HOPE, The Anchor, electric guitar
2006 JOAN OF ARC, Intelligent Design of Joan of Arc, (Polyvinyl), trumpet, electronics
2005 ZINCS, Dimmer (Thrill Jockey), electric guitar
2005 ANCIENTGREEKS, Departure Suite (& Records), producer, guitar
2003 BRADDO-RENCH, “Spiral Lightwave Converter” TVPow: Powerful Friends and Devoted
Lovers (bottrop-boy), producer, guitar
2003 CHICAGO CREATIVE ORCHESTRA, s/t (New World), electric guitar
2003 ANCIENTGREEKS, The Song Is You (Flameshovel), producer, guitar
2003 TALLULAH, Step Into the Stars, trumpet
2002 JACOPO ANDREINI, vs ‘900 vol.1 (Frigo/Burp/Bar la Muerte), trumpet
2001 WILSHIRE, Murderer’s Lullaby/We the War Bride (PiggyBack), guitar
2001 Between Sound and Vision, Exhibition Catalog/cd, producer, guitar
2001 STARS OF THE LID, The Tired Sounds of… (Kranky), trumpet
1999 JOAN OF ARC, Live in Chicago, 1999 (Jade Tree), trumpet
1998 DEALS GONE BAD, Large and in Charge (Jump Up!), trumpet
1997 JOAN OF ARC, A Portable Model Of (Jade Tree), trumpet, electronics
1996 JOAN OF ARC, Method & Sentiment (Jade Tree), trumpet