Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Cardiff University in Wales Programs Music of Seven African Composers Dec. 3, 2013

Dr. Robert Fokkens

On Monday, December 2, 2013 AfriClassical received a tweet from Dr. Robert Fokkens of the Cardiff University School of Music in Cardiff, Wales:

Robert Fokkens @RobFokkens
@AfriClassical music by African composers @CUSchoolMusic in Cardiff on Tues. Euba, Tamusuza, Nketia, El-Dabh, Uzoigwe, Van Dijk and Khumalo
12:51 AM - 02 Dec 13

The website of Cardiff University School of Music provides a biography of Dr. Robert Fokkens at this page: 

Excerpts:
"Robert Fokkens is a South African composer based in the UK. His music is regularly performed in major venues in the UK, South Africa, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, the USA and Japan, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio, Swedish Radio P2 and various South African radio stations."

"Dr Fokkens teaches composition at Cardiff University across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and is director of the Contemporary Music Group.

"More information about works and performances can be found at www.robertfokkens.co.uk"

AfriClassical.blogspot.com has a companion website, AfriClassical.com, which profiles 41 Composers of African Descent as a means of illustrating African Heritage in Classical Music in various locales and at various times in history. Akin Euba of Nigeria and James Stephen Mzilikazi Khumalo of South Africa are the only composers on today's program in Wales who are profiled at AfriClassical.com.  Works list for Akin Euba is included at the website, compiled by Dr. Dominique-RenĂ© de Lerma.

Justinian Tamusuza of Tanzania has been featured on AfriClassical a few times, and we have corresponded with him.

On August 10, 2013 AfriClassical posted: U. of Ghana: Professor Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia [age 92] is an Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Ghana, where he began teaching in 1952.  The link was provided by Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, who recently retired from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Halim El-Dabh of Egypt composed Coma Dance (5:08), which is included on a CD we have often discussed, William H. Chapman Nyaho's recording, Asa: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent, MSR Classics MS 1242 (2008).


Joshua Uzoigwe
of Nigeria is represented by Talking Drums on another recording of William H. Chapman Nyaho, Senku: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent, MSR Classics MS 1091 (2003). 

Van Dijk is the only composer on today's program with whom we are not familiar.

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