Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology

Six-time Emmy award winner Dr. Tyron Cooper is the director of Indiana University’s (IU) Archives of African American Music and Culture. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at IU. He holds a BA degree in music education from Bethune-Cookman University as well as a MA in jazz studies and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology both from IU.



Cooper's research focuses on Black popular and religious music broadly, and specifically live gospel music recording productions as mediated products. Along with his teaching and research in African American music, Cooper is recognized for his extensive studio recording and live performance contributions as music director, guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer and arranger for national artists in diverse genres including A Taste of Honey, Max Roach, Bo Diddley, Felton Pilate (of ConFunkShun), Marietta Simpson, Angela Brown, The Soulful Symphony, Donnie McClurkin, Jason Nelson, Lamar Campbell, Bishop Leonard Scott, Kathy Taylor, and Walt Whitman and The Soul Children to name a few. 



As composer, he has garnered six Emmys, one Telly and several Emmy nominations for his musical scores in PBS documentaries such as Strange Fruit: The Salt Project (2014), Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier (2014), Attucks: The School That Opened a City (2017), The Music Makers of Gennett Records (2018), Eva A-7063 (2018), Ernie Pyle: Life in the Trenches (2020), Crooked Stick: Songs in a Strange Land (2021), Singing Winds: The Life and Works of T.C. Steele (2022), and Major Taylor: Champion of the Race (2025). Other documentaries featuring Cooper’s compositions include Open Door: China in Indiana (2012), Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story (2014), Indiana Trailblazers (2016), and The Best We’ve Got: The Carl Erskine Story (2022).

• African American music and culture
• archival studies
• film music

• Emmy for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Sing Winds: The Life and Works of T.C. Steele, WTIU PBS-Bloomington, 2022
• Emmy Nomination for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Crooked Stick: Songs in a Strange Land, WTIU PBS-Bloomington, 2021
• Emmy for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Eva A-7063, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2019
• Emmy Nomination for Musical Composition/Arrangement, The Music Makers of Gennett Records, WTIU PBS-Bloomington, 2019
• Emmy for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Crispus Attucks: The School That Opened A City, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2017
• Emmy Nomination for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Indiana Trailblazers, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2016
• Emmy for Historical/Cultural as Arranger, Strange Fruit: The Salt Project, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2015
• Emmy for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2015
• Emmy Nomination for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2014
• Emmy Nomination for Art/Entertainment as Talent/Composer, Musical Threads: Expression of a People, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2012
• Emmy Nomination for Musical Composition/Arrangement, Open Door: China in Indiana, WFYI PBS-Indianapolis, 2012

• Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studie, 2018
• Black Faculty Student Choice Award, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2014

• Sounding the Archive
• Popular Music in Black America
• Issues in African American Music