Lazarus Ekwueme

Lazarus Edward Nnanyelu Ekwueme (born 28 January 1935), popularly known as Laz Ekwueme, is a Nigerian musicologist, composer, scholar and actor. He is one of the pioneer lecturers of music in Nigeria and also a prolific writer. He is a scholar who has written numerous articles and books on music especially the role of music in the lives of Africans and Africans in diaspora. He is the traditional ruler of Oko Kingdom. Biography Lazarus Ekwueme was born in Oko, Anambra State. He attended Government College, Umuahia for secondary education and the Royal College of Music, London, where he majored in composition and was under the direction of Gordon Jacob. In London, he earned a total of 10 diplomas in music, Speech and Drama and he also obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Durham. In 1962, he obtained the professional teaching diploma, Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music. While studying in Britain, he embraced the theatre and he was an actor in some African films produced by the African Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. He left Britain in 1964, and returned to Nigeria, where he took up a faculty position at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. As a l