Wilberforce Echezona

Wilberforce William Chukudinka Echezona (18 August 1926 – November 1987) was a Nigerian musicologist and a pioneer teacher of music in Nigerian universities. He was the first Igbo man to be educated at London's Trinity College of Music, and the first African to obtain a degree in music education in the United States, where he received a PhD from Michigan State University in 1963. His work included the development and promotion of choral music in Nigeria, including by setting the works of young Nigerian lyricists to music.

Echezona was a member of the committee who selected the Nigerian National Anthem in 1960. In 1967, he manufactured an Ogenephone; an Igbo melodic instrument.

In some of his published works, he wrote on the classification of famous Yoruba and Igbo musical instruments such as the ọjà, agogo and xylophones.

Works Ibo musical instruments in Ibo culture. Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University, 1963. Echezona, W. Wilberforce C. Nigerian musical instruments: a definitive catalogue / W. Wilberforce C. Echezona. Apollo Publishers, c1981.