Ayo Bankole Biography
Ayo Bankole was born in Jos, the capital of Nigeria’s Plateau State, on May 17, 1935. Bankole spent the first five years of his life caring for his biological father, the Reverend Theophilus Abiodun Bankole (deceased), who served as organist and choir master at St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Jos.
His mother was also a busy musician. Mrs Abeo practiced and taught music for several years at the federal high school Queen’s School Ede, Osun State.
When Bankole was a small child, his father noticed his musical talent and sent him to live with his grandfather, Akinje George, the church organist and choirmaster of the First Baptist Church in Lagos, in 1941.
Bankole’s grandpa started teaching him the piano and harmonium at seven. He also introduced him to other musical genres and often asked Bankole to perform for his friends, demonstrating his grandson’s raw talent.
While in Lagos, Bankole’s father encouraged him to join the distinguished Cathedral Church of Christ Choir, Lagos, where he could perform as a boy soprano and receive private organ lessons from the Cathedral’s organist and master of music at the time, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969).
At this time, Ayo Bankole’s father had moved from Jos to Lagos and served as the organist and choirmaster at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Faji, a short walk from the cathedral church.
His father, needless to say, opted to put the young Bankole into the Cathedral Choir rather than the church where he worked.
Cathedral Church of Christ Choir was the epitome of choral excellence in Nigeria, and other choirs around the country looked up to the choir as a model choir.
They were all extraordinarily gifted boys, members of the Cathedral Choir, and came from musical, upper-middle-class homes — families that embodied the crème de la crème of Nigerian high society. Erudite of that time and the only thoroughly trained organist and church musician in Nigeria, Ekundayo Phillips was the most polished.
Through his participation in the Cathedral Choir, Ayo Bankole was afforded the perfect opportunity to develop and nurture his musical prowess.
Bankole attended Baptist Academy, Lagos, a prestigious high school in the state, when he was 10 years old in 1945.
In high school, he was the school pianist and organist in the music program. While attending this institution, Bankole became interested in choral directing and started arranging smaller ensembles to participate in school functions.
Bankole performed regularly in the Nigerian Festival of the Arts performances and contests throughout her five years at the Baptist Academy. This event stood out as one of the few opportunities for up-and-coming musical artists to gain widespread acclaim.
The majority of Nigerian artists who were taught professionally participated in this event at some point during their formative years.
Bankole began her career in 1954, after finishing at the Baptist Academy when the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation employed her as a clerical officer.
During this time, he crossed paths with renowned musicians like Fela Sowande, Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, Arthur Langford, Leslie Perron, the first Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, and Christopher Oyesiku, who became a close friend and colleague to whom Bankole dedicated multiple solo songs. He also met Tom Chalmers.
Sowande was highly regarded by Bankole, who had the opportunity to learn advanced organ techniques from him. Bankole was already busy as a church organist in Lagos from 1954 to 1957. For example, he served as assistant organist at Ekundayo Phillips’s Cathedral Church of Christ in Lagos.
Ya Orule and Nigerian Suite, two of Bankole’s most famous solo piano compositions, began around 1957.
On a scholarship from the Federal Government, Bankole departed Lagos in August 1957 to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London to study music. Upon his arrival at Guildhall, he was given the roles of choirmaster and organist at St. James-the-Less.
Bankole held this role until 1961 when he graduated. At Guildhall, he studied harmony, counterpoint, composition, piano, and organ. Among his instructors were Guy Eldridge (composition), Alan Brown (organ), and Harold Dexter (organ).
When he was a student at Guildhall School of Music, Bankole was exposed to a wide range of musical genres from several European eras. His compositions from this era demonstrate the impact of the several modern European composers he was studying.
His Toccata and Fugue for organ (1960) and Three Yoruba Songs for voice and piano (1959) are two examples of his experiments with twentieth-century creative techniques.
This was the beginning of Bankole’s artistic career, which would eventually result in a distinctive international compositional style—the blending of Western and Nigerian idioms.
Sonata No. 1 (Christmas) for piano, Cantata No. 1 (Baba Se Wa Lomo Rere [Father, Make Us Good Children]) (1959), several part songs for female chorus, Sonata No. 2—The Passion, for piano (1959), and Variations, op. 10, no. 1 (1959), based on the Yoruba Christian song Ohun a f’Owo Se (also called Ise Oluwa), is among the works from this era.
Bankole sat for external examinations and earned a number of professional diplomas and certifications while at Guildhall, despite the demanding curriculum. These included: Associate of the Royal College of Music (piano), Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music (piano), Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (Teacher’s Diploma), Associate of the Royal College of Organists, and Graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GGSM).
Following a four-year stint at London’s Guildhall School of Music, Bankole transferred to Cambridge University’s Clare College and earned a BA in music in 1964. Bachelor of Arts (Cantab) degrees immediately become Master of Arts (Cantab) degrees three years after graduation, same as at Cambridge.
As an organ scholar at Cambridge University, Bankole took the external examination on July 15, 1964, and became the second and only Nigerian to acquire the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), the highest credential in organ performance in Britain. In 1943, Fela Sowande became the first person from Nigeria and the first person from Africa to get the FRCO diploma.
Bankole composed music that he could play while he was in England. Being a pianist and organist by trade, he wrote a mountain of music for those instruments. Some of his choral and orchestral compositions are more technically targeted at European singers and listeners.
Art Thou Come (1964), Little Jesus (1964), Canon for Christmas (1964), and Four Yoruba Songs (1964) are choral compositions from this era, among other works. Sonata No. 4 (English Winter Birds) for piano, Variations Liturgical (Theme and Nine Variations) for piano, Three Toccatas for organ, Fugal Dance for piano, Organ Symphonia No. 2 for organ, drums, trumpet, and trombone are also featured (1964).
Bankole earned a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to pursue ethnomusicology at UCLA after finishing his bachelor’s degree in 1964 from Cambridge. Roy Travis, the preeminent American composer at the time who explored musical influences from Africa, was Bankole’s professor at UCLA.
A deep appreciation for music from different civilizations developed in Bankole. Through his time at UCLA, he developed his unique sound based on the tenets of traditional African music.
Ethnophony is only one example of his extensive use of non-African elements in his multi-cultural compositions. This book compiles Bankole’s expertise in ethnomusicology, demonstrating the merging of creative concepts with ethnomusicological methods.
In 1966, Ayo Bankole returned to Nigeria and took a job as a senior music producer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria) in Lagos. He stayed in this role until 1969 when he took a post as a music instructor at the University of Lagos’s Department of Music. There, he continued his study of indigenous music in Nigeria.
Bankole pioneered embracing all aspects of music while at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), and this approach would subsequently become popular among professional musicians in Nigeria. So, Bankole was an ethnomusicologist, musician, composer, and music instructor at UNILAG.
He never took a break from training, and he offered individual piano and vocal lessons to aspiring serious artists.
At the same time, Bankole’s enthusiasm for forming and instructing autonomous choral ensembles was at its peak. He introduced these ensembles to European classical music and composed substantial pieces for them.
He established the Choir of Angels, which was comprised of students from three of Lagos’s most prestigious high schools: Reagan Memorial, Lagos Anglican Girls Grammar School, and Methodist Girls High School. He founded notable choral groups, the Nigerian National Musico-Cultural Society, the Chapel of the Healing Cross Choir, and the Lagos University Musical Society.
Also Read: All Of Me Music Sheet
| Real Birth Name | Ayo Bankole |
| Date of Birth | 1935 of May 17th |
| State of Origin | Jos Nigeria |
| Genres | Classical |
| Instruments | Vocals, Piano & Organ |
| Occupation’s | Composer and organist |
| Relationship | Married (Toro Bankole) |
| Ayo Bankole children’s name | – |
| Years active | 1976 of November 6th |
.Questions In the article are below:
| Question | Answer |
| Who composed Iya yoruba music | Ayo Bankole |
| What is the date of Adele born? | 17 May 1935 |
| what date did Ayo get married? | Not mention |
| How many kid did Ayo have and name? | Not mention |
| Who were Ayo Bankole parent? | Bankole (Mother) and Theophilus Abiodun Bankole (father) |
| What is the name of Ayo bankole wife? | Toro Bankole |
| How did Ayo bankole dead? | Murdered at the age of 41 with his wife |
| What is Ayo Bankole Net worth? | – |
Download All Of Me Music Sheet
