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.
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