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Joseryl Beckley
Research topic
The Man Ballanta and Afiwa
Faculty
Home Town
Freetown
Country
Sierra Leone
Selected Award(s)
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
To have a better life and career and to teach at the university level.
Why did you decide to study at UBC?
I wanted to study at the best DMA program in Canada.
What is it specifically, that your program offers, that attracted you?
The UBC Voice and Opera Program is unique in the sense that it prepares students for the opera world.
What was the best surprise about UBC or life in Vancouver?
It almost never stops raining here in BC, and the summers are glorious. I can't complain.
What aspect of your graduate program do you enjoy the most or are looking forward to with the greatest curiosity?
Completing my thesis is the last part of my work here at UBC, and I am looking forward to completing my lecture recital.
What do you see as your biggest challenge(s) in your future career?
Starting or continuing my music conservatory back home in Africa because of poor sustainable funding. That is what I would really love to do.
I feel prepared personally but have no influence on the outside points of resistance that might be a setback.
What aspects of your life or career before now have best prepared you for your UBC graduate program?
My Performer Diploma and Masters in Music programs both helped to prepare me, in addition to 5 years of prior work experience before coming here.
What do you like to do for fun or relaxation?
Go for a walk on the beach, eat out with friends, visit the gallery, barbecue, etc. So much to do.
What advice do you have for new graduate students?
Manage your money wisely; Vancouver is an expensive city to live in.
Learn more about Joseryl's research
I research the ethnomusicologist and composer, Nicholas George Julius Ballanta who travelled around West Africa and studied the relationship between African traditional music and Western Classical music – mostly songs, drumming patterns, and secret society song rites. My thesis delves into studying what was African yet so Western about his composition, the opera Afiwa.