NH
THEOPHILUS NII MARTEY Director/Leader
Theo Nii Martey (also produces music as Emperor T-Jiga) is a talented artist who was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Theo is a Drummer, Dancer, Songwriter, Recording Artist, Producer, Performer, Teaching Artist, and Award recipient of the 2019 Governor’s Arts Award for Arts Education, and he was featured on New Hampshire Magazine who’s it for 2019 It list. Most recently Theo was featured in New Hampshire Magazine for Instruments of Peace for the 2022 February issue and was named the New Hampshire Artist Laureate for 2022-2024. His vibrant artist residencies give students an opportunity to experience hands-on West African drumming and a variety of dance styles. He has been on the Arts Council’s juried Arts Education Roster since 2005. Theo is an accomplished teacher of African drumming and dance and has receive numerous grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council and New Hampshire State Council on the Arts to teach school residencies, workshops and performances in dozens of schools all over New England. He enjoys working in a variety of settings, with children and adults, making music, teaching rhythms and songs, and telling the stories behind the songs and the Ga’s tribe. Theo is the founder and leader of the Akwaaba Ensemble, which has performed concerts throughout NH, Northeastern US, Mexico and Canada since 2002. Each show brings West African drumming, music and dance to vivid life with rhythmic styles and patterns specific to tribal groups of West Africa. Theo and the Akwaaba Ensemble have recorded two albums including “AKWAABA WELCOME HOME” and “JEI ELAAJE WO (LOST IN THE WORLD)”.
He has collaborated with Randy Armstrong’s & Volker Nahrmann Beyond Borders world fusion Ensemble, Steve Ferraris’ Root System, Dan Perkins and the Manchester Choral Society for the Zulu Mass and Christmas Tapestry project and New Hampshire Theater Project for the Dreaming Again production and taught West African Drumming and Dance as an Adjunct Professor at UNH. Theo’s work has contributed to international diversity and cultural understanding throughout NH and New England. Whether he is onstage performing or leading a workshop, Theo says that making people feel welcome, which happens to be the Twi language’s meaning of “Akwaaba,” is the goal of everything that he does.
Additional Content:
Theo Martey
African Dance and Drumming Performance (UNH Theatre & Dance Department)
Theo Martey and the UNH Students
Theo Martey
Theo Martey
NH Drumming Festival "Drum Fun"
Theo Martey Drumming Solo
Theo Martey and The Akwaaba Ensemble performance at the Saint Anselm College
Theo Martey
Institution/Business Type:
Artist / Creative (Individual)
Legal Status:
Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship
Year Founded:
1995
Institution/Business Type:
Artist / Creative (Individual)
Legal Status:
Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship
Year Founded:
1995
Primary Discipline:
Multi-DisciplinaryAdditional Disciplines:
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University of New Hampshire
Date: 12/2019-12/2019
Theo Martey and the Akwaaba Ensemble perform an energetic drumming and dancing performance for the Kwanzaa Celebration host by the Black Students Union at University of New Hampshire in Durham.
Next Stage Arts Project
Date: 10/2019-10/2019
Theo Martey and the Akwaaba Ensemble perform a high enrgy Drumming, Dancing and Music performance at the Next Stage Arts Project at Putney Vermont. We had a warm and enthusiasm audience who were engaged through the whole an hour and half perfomance and they had the opportunity to join us on stage to participate in an easy dance steps and call and repond songs.
Amherst Street Elementary School
Date: 05/2019-05/2019
Theo Martey led a one week long Artist in Residency program at the Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua New Hapshire. The students learn about African Culture rhythms, dances and songs which they get to perform for the culmintating event for the whole school and their parents for the finale.
John Stark Regional High School
Date: 04/2019-04/2019
Theo Martey led a 2 day Artist in Residency program April 19-20 for 9th through 12th graders at the John Stark Regional High School to share his Culture, Music and story about his childhood growing up in Ghana ( West Africa)
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NEST Eligible Artist
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Fee Range:
$700 - $5,000State of Residence:
New HampshireMinimum Number of Performers:
1Maximum Number of Performers:
6