LONEKA BATTISTE

Loneka Wilkinson Battiste is an international scholar with over 20 years of experience teaching music in school and community settings. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Education (Music Concentration) from Dillard University, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Oklahoma, and a Ph. D. in Music Education from Louisiana State University. Her scholarly interests include culturally responsive teaching and Black musical aesthetics. Her work has been published in the Choral Journal, Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Journal of General Music Education, Proceedings of the International Society for Music Education, and General Music: Dimensions of Practice.

She frequently presents at local, national, and international conferences and symposia. She is also an active clinician who presents workshops on culturally responsive teaching and Black musical aesthetics. She has been a featured clinician for the Texas Music Educators Association conference in San Antonio, Texas, and was the featured mini-conference presenter for the Organization of American Kodály Educators national conference.

Dr. Battiste is dedicated to international engagement with music education. In 2019, she completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, where she studied music of the Xambá community. She has given speeches and papers in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil; João Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil; and Crato, Ceára, Brazil. In July 2023, she shared her research on Coco da Xambá at the International Council for Traditional Music Conference in Accra, Ghana. In September 2023, she gave the closing keynote for the Brazilian Music Education Association (ABEM) national conference in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Dr. Battiste was the founding director of the Knoxville Opera Children’s Choir, a position she held until July 2023. She is a member of the Smithsonian Folkways Education Committee and Higher Education Advisor for the Organization of American Kodály Educators. She recently served on the Tennessee Music Education Association Board as the Society for Music Teacher Education Representative and Research Chair. She has also served in various leadership positions in the Society for Ethnomusicology, including Co-Chair of the Education Section, Co-Chair of the Crossroads Section, and Co-Chair of the Gertrude Robinson Network of Scholars.