Heather Maxwell

Biography

Heather Maxwell is an American singer-songwriter and radio host for Voice of America. She sings jazz standards and composes original works on piano, kamalen n'goni, balafon, and percussion. Heather produces and hosts the radio and TV program Music Time in Africa for the Voice of America.

History

Maxwell was born Flint, Michigan and began singing at age 7 with her family's gospel band. She studied music and anthropology at Interlochen Arts Academy and University of Michigan, and African music at University of Ghana - West Africa.
From 1989 to 1991 Maxwell was a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural village in Mali. She spent time in Paris and Abidjan recording and performing with African musicians.
From 1995 to 2003 she earned her master's degree and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at Indiana University. Maxwell taught ethnomusicology at the University of Virginia. She also toured and recorded with jazz drummer Robert Jospé and with her own group Afrika Soul.

In 2011 Maxwell returned to Mali as a Fulbright Scholar for a teaching stint in Bamako at the National Conservatory of Music. The coup d'état on March 22, 2012, cut that short and she returned to the US. Later that year Heather joined the Voice of America in Washington, D.C., as host and producer of the worldwide radio program Music Time in Africa.