Nicholas G. J. Ballanta

Nicholas G.J. Ballanta (1893–1962) was a Sierra Leonean music scholar, composer, and educator who conducted field research on the music of West Africa in the early 20th century. His education in European music influenced his musical compositions. The years he spent collecting indigenous African music prompted him to compose musical plays or operas set in African villages; his work combines elements from both African and European music. Early life Nicholas George Julius Taylor was born to Krio parents on 14 March 1893 in Kissy, near the city of Freetown in Sierra Leone. His mother was a Christian woman named Sarian Ade Wray, and his early memories included singing in the choir at St. Patrick’s Anglican Church. His father, Gustavus Taylor, played the violin and organ. A ship’s engineer, Gustavus Taylor travelled between Sierra Leone and the Gambia. Nicholas remembered his father performing concerts in the Gambia. Gustavus died in a shipping accident when Nicholas was ten years old. In 1905, Nicholas was sent to the CMS Grammar School in Freetown. Completing the high school course in less than the normal three years, he went to work as a clerk in the Sierra Leone attorney general’s of