Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies

Dr. Tyron Cooper is a four-time Emmy award winner and Director of Indiana University’s (IU) Archives of African American Music and Culture.  He is also an associate professor in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at IU. Along with his teaching and research in African American music, Cooper is recognized for his extensive studio recording and live performance experience as music director, guitarist, vocalist, composer and arranger for national artists such as A Taste of Honey, Max Roach, Bo Diddley, Dionne Warwick, Felton Pilate, 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 four Emmys, one Telly and several Emmy nominations for his music 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) and Ernie Pyle: Life in the Trenches (2020).

• Emmy Award for PBS documentary, “Attucks: The School That Opened a City” in the category of Music Composition/Arrangement as Composer/Arranger, 2017
• Emmy nomination for PBS documentary, “Trailblazers: The Story of The Civil Rights Struggle in Indiana,” in the category of Musical Composition as Composer, 2016
• Emmy Award for PBS documentary, “Strange Fruit,” in the category of Historical/Cultural as Arranger, 2015
• Emmy Award for PBS documentary, “Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier,” in the category of Musical Composition/Arrangements as composer/arranger, 2015
• Emmy nomination for PBS documentary, “Bobby ‘Slick’ Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier,” in the category of Musical Composition/Arrangements as composer/arranger, 2015
• Black Faculty Student Choice Award, 2015
• Emmy nomination for PBS documentary, “Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story-Music Soundtrack” in the category of Composer/Arranger, 2014
• Emmy nomination for PBS documentary, “Musical Threads: Expression of a People,” in the category of Art/Entertainment as Talent/Composer, 2012
• Emmy nomination for PBS documentary, “Open Door: China in Indiana,” in the category of Musical Composition/Arrangements as Composer/Arranger, 2012
• Ford Foundation Dissertation Honorable Mention, 2011
• Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, 2005