Showing Archived Posts

VOA’s Veteran Music Man Leo Sarkisian Says Goodbye

Posted October 2nd, 2012 at 6:32 pm (UTC-4)
6 comments

Last Friday was a bittersweet day, particularly for me, as well as for my colleagues in the English to Africa Service and other departments at the Voice of America:  At age 91, Leo Sarkisian, founder of the radio program Music Time in Africa and pioneering African music collector, officially retired from the agency after what he called […]

In Pursuit of African Music CDs & Vinyl

Posted July 26th, 2012 at 5:02 pm (UTC-4)
15 comments

The music business is really different today than a decade ago. CDs and cassettes and vinyl discs are all but relics of the past. Downloads from iTunes, amazon.com, cdbaby.com, reverbnation.com, and a host of other music sites are the natural way that American youth and young adults acquire their music. Most statistics on illegal downloading […]

Gifts from Listeners

Posted October 28th, 2009 at 8:35 pm (UTC-4)
3 comments

After several long and time consuming posts, and while I am working on the next long one, I thought I’d squeeze in a brief post featuring some of the many wonderful recordings that our listeners have sent us over the years; this first batch includes a few of my favorites from West African listeners. The […]

Posted in Various

Listeners and lost nuggets

Posted February 26th, 2009 at 9:19 pm (UTC-4)
11 comments

I am just about to head out of town for a few weeks and I haven’t had the time to wrap up several features I have been working on. I had hoped in particular to post, before I left, a piece on Dahmane el Harrachi, one of the greats of Algerian music, most of whose […]

Posted in Various

About

About

Heather Maxwell produces and hosts the award-winning radio program “Music Time in Africa” and is the African Music Editor for the Voice of America. Heather is an ethnomusicologist with Doctorate and Master’s degrees from Indiana University specializing in African Music. She is also an accomplished jazz and Afrojazz/Afrosoul vocalist and has been working, researching, and performing in Africa and the U.S. since 1987.

The Leo Sarkisian African Music Collection >>

Latest Selection

Sidebar Playlist

Listen to Archived Music from 2007-2013