Nani Agbeli

Victor Nani K. Agbeli is a Ghanaian cultural arts educator, musician, dancer, ensemble director, and cultural historian whose work is rooted in Anlo-Ewe traditions of Ghana's Volta Region. Raised in a family of professional drummers, dancers, and singers, he trained under his father, the late Godwin K. Agbeli, founder of the Dagbe Cultural Institute in Kopeyia, Ghana, and later studied with family members and other artists at the National Arts Center in Accra. From 1998 to 2006, he served as Head Instructor and Artistic Director at Dagbe, teaching Ghanaian traditional arts to local and international students.

Agbeli currently serves as Lecturer in Music and Director of the West African Music Ensemble at Pomona College and as Lecturer of Music and Director of Kinkaviwo, The Ghanaian Drumming and Dancing Ensemble, at Lawrence University. His earlier leadership includes directing Kiniwe Ensemble at Tufts University, serving as Director and Head of the African World Music MFA Program at CalArts, and leading community and student ensembles including Agbekor Drum and Dance Society, PADAME, and Volta Drum Dance, which he founded in 2019.

His guest-artist and residency work has included the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, Salisbury University, Tennessee Tech, University of Central Missouri, CSU Long Beach, Claremont McKenna College, and the University of Virginia. He also develops school and community programs that combine drumming, dance, singing, storytelling, history, games, and hands-on arts and crafts. In Winter 2023, he developed a comprehensive after-school African cultural arts curriculum and instructor-training materials for program teachers.

Agbeli was the June 2016 cover feature and interview subject of the Percussive Arts Society's Rhythm! Scene and has appeared as a special guest artist at PASIC. His work is guided by cultural specificity, active participation, and the understanding that music and dance carry history, identity, responsibility and community.

Out of the many positions he’s held, Agbeli was the program head and director of the MFA West African music and dance program at CalArts, the artistic director and founder of Volta Drum Dance, a community-based group in Valencia, CA., and also the writer and founder of Adinkra, a Ghanaian traditional fusion band in Valencia.