Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Voice of African Music: 'Dr. Nyaho embodies the spirit of a true multicultural educator'



[William Chapman Nyaho - Asa: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent, MSR Classics MS 1242 (2008)]

The Voice of African MusicVolume 16, No. 2 May 2009
Piano Music by Composers of African Descent
New CD by William Chapman Nyaho Reviewed in May/June 2009 American Record Guide
“If the scores are in print, maybe some of them will start turning up on recital programs alongside the Three Bs.” “Anyone who has had it with pianists playing and recording the same repertory over and over should be delighted by the treasure trove of (mostly) premieres. The 11 composers whose works are offered here are not known quantities in our country, but they should be. For example, there is Fred Onovwerosuoke (b. 1960), who was born in Ghana to Nigerian parents. Nyaho begins with six of his Studies in African Rhythms'. These kinetic pieces easily get under one's skin and they sound like they are fun to play. Kushner, American Record Guide“

"It is very rare to find in one individual an unflinching devotion to both chart the course of artistic excellence and multicultural education. But pianist Dr. William Chapman Nyaho has done this with grace and unmatched charm. For almost a decade now he has singlehandedly carried the mantle of promoting the piano repertoire by composers of African descent.” “His research unveiled an enormous resource of unpublished piano works by African, African American and Caribbean and other African-descent composers. 'There indeed exists a vast repertoire of piano music by this unknown constituency of composers, appearing in myriad forms and styles, from simple to virtuosic...some properly noted, but much of it in manuscript form, and certainly not widely circulated.'”

“Besides performing, his five-volume anthology, Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora, published by Oxford University Press in 2007 and 2008, immediately became a seminal work cherished by students, scholars and music educators world-wide. His two CDs Senku and Asa,(which incidentally opens with six of my piano studies) released on the MSR-Classics label exclusively features piano works by composers from Africa and the African Diaspora and thus have become a much needed companion for the Oxford anthology. Together, these initiatives complement the collections of America's music libraries which today stock very little in classical music repertoire by African-descent composers.” “To most of us engaged in the promotion and scholarship of new intercultural music by African and other African-descent composers, Dr. Nyaho embodies the spirit of a true multicultural educator.” Fred Onovwerosuoke [Dr. William Chapman Nyaho is profiled at AfriClassical.com and has a website of his own, http://www.nyaho.com/

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