Hewitt Pantaleoni

Who was Hewitt Pantaleoni?

Hewitt Pantaleoni was a twentieth-century ethnomusicologist, best known for his work on African music. Trained in musicology at Harvard University, he completed his doctoral research on West African drumming in Ghana and received his Ph.D. from Wesleyan University. His fieldwork was primarily collaborative, leading to such joint projects as Songs and Stories from Uganda, a book he created with the Uganda dance ethnographer Moses Serwadda.

Pantaleoni taught Western and non-Western music for over twenty years at State University of New York at Oneonta, where the Hewitt Pantaleoni Memorial Concert Series continues to this day. The Mid-Atlantic Chapter for the Society of Ethnomusicology, of which Pantaleoni was one of the first members, awards the Hewitt Pantaleoni Prize each year to the student who delivers the best paper at the chapter’s annual meeting.

Hewitt Pantaleoni's stepmother Helenka Adamowska-Pantaleoni helped found the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and served as its president for 25 years. His niece is American actress Téa Leoni.