About Nate Ash-Morgan
Nate Ash-Morgan is a multi-instrumentalist who graduated with Honors in Music from Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and is currently a doctoral student in Ethnomusicology at the University of North Texas. After first taking lessons in drum set 26 years ago, Nate quickly endeavored to learn trombone, guitar, piano, and bass guitar, earning All-State and All-New England honors in trombone, performing professionally on guitar, and playing bass guitar for musical theater productions during his high school years. At Wesleyan University, Nate had a diverse musical experience, playing trombone in orchestra, drum set in a soul cover band, hand percussion in a reggae band, and guitar in multiple senior thesis projects. Nate's passion for drumming expanded to other cultures, studying Indonesian Gamelan and Indian traditional drumming while especially focusing on West African drumming, leading to multiple research trips to Ghana in West Africa to study traditional drumming more deeply.
After graduating from Wesleyan University in 2008, Nate was hired by the dance department to continue to accompany West African dance classes on various traditional drums and Modern dance classes on drum set, piano, guitar, and hand drums. This was also the year Nate started to teach private lessons professionally after teaching a few trombone students in high school and drum set students in college. Nate has developed his teaching style through the years teaching hundreds of students, a style that is both professional and entertaining, always aiming to develop the student's musical ability but keeping the lessons seriously fun!
Nate's passion for West African drumming ramped up after spending ten months in Ghana in 2014-2015. The following year he moved to Texas to start his doctoral studies in Ethnomusicology at the University of North Texas. After completing the required coursework for the Master's degree, he decided to continue directly to the PhD program. This year he is starting his dissertation on the traditional influence in the popular music of Ghana. Nate co-teaches the African drumming and dance classes with famed Professor Gideon Alorwoyie, and will be teaching the course Global Perspectives on Popular Music in the spring of 2022. Nate has maintained a roster of drum set, guitar, and piano students throughout his doctoral studies, sharing his passion for music in every lesson.
