Early life and education
Maultsby was born in Orlando,Florida, [1] to Maxie C. and Valdee Maultsby (later Maultsby-Williams), [2] [3] and grew up in the segregated American South. [4] Her older brother was psychiatrist Maxie C. Maultsby,Jr. (1932–2016). [2] [5] She also had a twin brother,Casel Hayes Maultsby (1947–1988),a pilot. [2] [6]
Maultsby graduated from Jones High School in Orlando in 1964. [7] She attended Mount St Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison,Kansas,on a music scholarship, [7] graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in piano,theory,and composition. [1] The following year,she earned a master's degree in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [1] In 1974,she was awarded a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; [7] [8] she was the first African American to be awarded that degree in the United States. [1]
Career
Maultsby began lecturing at Indiana University in 1971,while still a graduate student. [1] [9] She was recruited by Dr. Herman Hudson and became the founding director of the Indiana University Soul Revue,a student ensemble dedicated to Black music. [9] [7] By 1975,she was an assistant professor in the Department of African-American Studies. [7] In 1977 Maultsby produced a song called "Music is Just a Party" for her ensemble. This song would be selected as Billboard's top single in the First-Time-Around category. [10] She went on to become chair of the department (1985–91),then professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology (from 1992). [1]
Maultsby's specialization in African-American music spans genres,including funk,soul,rhythm and blues,and spirituals. [9] [11] She founded the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture in 1991,and served as its director from 1991 through 2013. [9] The archives started as Maultsby's personal collection and grew to include more than 10,000 pieces of music and music-related items (including interviews,photographs,and recordings) by 2003. [4]
Maultsby co-edited two textbooks with her Indiana University colleague Mellonee V. Burnim:African American Music:An Introduction (2006) [12] and Issues in African American Music:Power,Gender,Race,Representation (2016). [13] She wrote the foreword to the 2018 book Black Lives Matter and Music:Protest,Intervention,Reflection,edited by Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan. [14]
In 2011,Maultsby received an award from National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music. Maultsby has also served as a consultant for museums (including serving as a senior scholar at the Smithsonian Institution in 1985) and as a researcher documentary films (including the PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize). [15] [16] She has consulted on various different projects such as The Motown Sound,Wade in the Water,and Chicago’s Record Row:The Cradle of Rhythm and Blues.
