Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Dr. Nyaho's 'Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora' Leads to Degree Recitals

[Piano Recital: Evan Engelstad, Thursday, March 11, 2010, 8:00 p.m. in Hudson Hall, Willamette University. Works by Bach, Beethoven, Isak Roux, Joshua Uzoigwe, Bjorn Gjerstrom, and Rachmaninoff with guest appearances by Debbie Southern and Brian Greggs.]

Dr. William Chapman Nyaho is a U.S. Pianist of Ghanaian heritage. He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1958, but was raised in Ghana, the native country of his parents. Dr. Nyaho is profiled at AfriClassical.com and has a website of his own, http://www.Nyaho.com. He has recorded three CDs and has compiled and edited a landmark 5-volume anthology, Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora, published by Oxford Univesity Press. He updates us on its impact:

“Greetings, I am proud to say the work put into the anthology by all parties concerned directly or indirectly, is paying off. Here's a poster of Evan Englestad at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon who will be performing for his Degree recital:

"Isak Roux's Township Guitar and Joshua Uzoigwe's Ukom with the optional slit drum (I am proud of Evan doing this!) I believe another student will be including Bongani's Flowers in Sand in her doctoral recital some time later on in the Spring. Uzoigwe's Egwu Amala was performed as an audition piece to enter for a Master in Piano Pedagogy degree recently.

"I hope this is inspiration for the composers! Cheers and may there be more and more of these degree recitals and auditions using composers of Africa and the Diaspora as it becomes part of the regular canon of piano music."
Nyaho





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