royal hartigan is a percussionist, pianist, and tap dancer. He has studied and performed the music of Asia, Africa, Europe, West Asia, and the Americas, and is versed in the traditions of African American blues, gospel, funk, hip-hop, and jazz. He has performed, given workshops, and recorded internationally with his own Blood Drum Spirit ensemble and many master artists including the Fred Ho Afro-Asian Music Ensemble, Hafez Modirzadeh's Paradox, and the David Bindman-Tyrone Henderson Project, among others. His publications include Blood Drum Spirit: Drum Languages of West Africa, African America, Native America, Central Java, and South India; West African Rhythms for Drumset; and articles in numerous music journals. hartigan is a professor at UMass Dartmouth and a visiting professor at the Centre for Culture and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. He holds doctorates in world music and ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. He served as a Center Performance panelist in 2014 and a Performance LOI panelist in 2015.