Monday 5 October 2015

2015 MUSON Festival ready to thrill guests with dance workshop, classical concert, visual arts exhibition et al



By ADA DIKE
Information reaching us has it that all is set for the celebration of 2015 Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Festival.
It is on this note that the management of MUSON hereby invites the general public to join them to celebrate the Festival which showcases all the arts’ excellent and aesthetic creativity.

With the theme: “Celebrating the School of Music – the Arts through Young Nigerian Eyes,” the selection of that theme for this year’s Festival, according to its organizers, is designed to draw attention to the significant progress the school has made since its inception first as a Basic School in 1969 and more especially, since the Diploma School came on stream in 2005.
Giving more explanation on the theme, Chairman, 2015 Festival Planning Committee, Arc Kitoyi Ibare-Akinsan, said the choice of the theme draws attention to the contribution of the school, its current students and its alumni have made at MUSON’s core activities, concerts and annual Festival programme, over the past decade.
He stated this at a press conference held at Mobil Block, MUSON Centre, Lagos, recently, and noted that this is amply demonstrated in this year’s Festival programme where school’s past and current students have significant presence in most of the events.
“In the Classical Concert and the closing opera: The Pirates Penzance, graduates of our Diploma school, as well as current students, feature prominently as singers and instrumentalists. A selected cream of current students in the Diploma school are also scheduled to give a Festival Recital, while this year’s Jazz Night will feature performances by the school’s current and former students, in the School’s Big Band, Jazz Quintet and Girlz Rule Band. The Youth Concert, the grand finale of a Talent Hunt, is organised by the school’s faculty,” Ibare-Akinsan explained.
He revealed that this year’s festival will commence on Wednesday, October 14, 2015 with Musiquest/Youth Concert and Awards organised by the Faculty of the MUSON School of Music. “It features candidates shortlisted from a talent hunt to compete at the final stage of the annual awards competition. It is followed on Thursday, October 15, 2015 with one of the Festival’s favourites: My Kind of Music, the personality programme where a cast of eminent Nigerians will provide a rare glimpse of their persona to an invited audience. Against this backdrop of their favourite music, they will discuss their musical preferences and how they relate to aspects of their lives, personal beliefs, philosophies and more. This year’s cast include: Consul-General, South African Consulate-General, Lagos, Ambassador M.S. Monaisa; Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria/Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Osagie Okunbor; Deputy Director, MUSON School of Music, Mrs. Edna Soyanwo and Head, Natural Resources, FBN capital, Lagos, Mrs. Rolake Akinkugbe,” he added.
In the same vein, the Vice Chairman, MUSON, Louis Mbanefo (SAN), narrated the history of the MUSON and how the Festival was formed. He stressed that, “A major event in MUSON is the Festival. During my chairmanship of MUSON in the late 1990s, I decided that the activities of MUSON should go beyond classical music and showcase all the arts at the highest level. I therefore instituted a two week long MUSON Festival. Apart from the classical music concerts, the Festival events included jazz, traditional Nigerian music and dance, drama productions and art exhibitions.”
He thanked the festival planning committee chaired by Arc. Kitoyi Ibare-Akinsan, and the General Manager of MUSON, Mr. Gboyega Banjo for their conscientious work in preparing this year’s Festival.
Other interesting features the Festival will showcase include: Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical, Jesus Christ Super Star produced by Uche Nwokedi’s Playhouse Initiative which takes the slot of this year’s Festival Drama and it is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, October 16 and 17.
Classical Concert comes up on Sunday, October 18, featuring the MUSON Symphony Orchestra to be conducted by its German Inspirational Visiting Conductor, Walter Michael Vollhardt. A new item on this year’s festival programme, the MUSON Diploma School Festival Recital follows on Monday October 19, featuring a cream of students drawn from the school. The Jazz Night, scheduled for Friday, October 23 is designed to unveil a treasure of talented groups and individual artistes in Jazz idiom, which abound among the current students and the alumni of the MUSON School of Music. Newswatch Times learnt that they will perform a broad repertoire of jazz favourites as well as popular and old school rhythm and blues in the jazz idiom.
An esteemed partner of the MUSON, the Society of Performing Arts in Nigeria (SPAN), is expected to contribute a Dance event at this year’s Festival on October 24.
The MUSON Day Concert and Cocktails coincide with Festival’s Closing Choral Concert, scheduled for Sunday October 25. The MUSON Choir and School Orchestra will perform Gilbert and Sullivan’s riveting opera, Pirates of Penzance.
They projected the future of MUSON Festival by saying that in the next 10 to 20 years, the Festival will showcase all the arts. But, they emphasised that sponsorship has been their major challenge and appealed to individuals and corporate organisation to indicate interest in the Festival by sponsoring it.
Present at the conference comprised dignitaries who made important contributions and they included: Director, MUSON School of Music, Mrs. Marion Apata; Uche Nwokedi (SAN); Director MUSON Choir, Sir Emeka Nwokedi; General Manager, MUSON, Gboyega Banjo; Artiste, Trustee and Patron, MUSON, Mrs. Franscisca Emmanuel; Former Chairman, MUSON, Chief Adeniyi Williams; Resident Composer, Tunde Jegede , and founder of SPAN, Mrs. Sarah Boulos.
Others were: Tunde Sosan, Phillip Uzor, MUSON Jazz Band, Members of SPAN, members of Playhouse Initiative, Girlz Rule Band and so on.

No comments: