Sherri Canon

Education

• BA, Music (Percussion), The University of Texas of Austin, University of Ghana, Legon
• MM, Ethnomusicology, The University of Texas of Austin
• PhD, Ethnomusicology, The University of Texas of Austin

Dr. Sherri Canon is a drummer, percussionist, pianist, songwriter, and music educator. With roots in the Austin, Texas music scene, Canon has played in a variety of performing groups, including pop, rock, punk, blues, jazz, folk, orchestra, percussion ensemble, musical theater, Afro-pop, and African traditional music. At Glendale Community College, Canon teaches Music Fundamentals and World Music. At Los Angeles Mission College, she has taught courses in Piano, Music Fundamentals, Music Appreciation, Jazz Appreciation, and Popular Music History. She teaches private lessons in drums, piano, music theory, and songwriting.

Canon’s academic work focuses on the transnational nature of ceremonial rites of passage—including baby namings, weddings, and funerals—among first-generation African immigrants in the U.S. For her doctoral research, Canon worked with Ghanaian and Senegalese immigrant families in Southern California in the early 2000’s to understand the primacy of kinship networks, identity politics, performance practices, and shared visual media for connecting families across diasporic spaces. She presented papers at The University of Texas at Austin, Wesleyan University, Atlanta, Azusa Pacific University, SCU Northridge, UC Berkeley, and SCU East Bay, and contributed chapters to two edited books.