Dr. Ephraim Amu (1899-1995)
Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus, Department of Ethnomusicology, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She forwards this program:
First
International Conference on
Notation-based
Music in Africa
February
21-22, 2014
Hosted
by:
The
New England Conservatory and Tufts University
Keynote
speakers:
Prof.
Kofi Agawu (Princeton University)
Prof.
Olabode Omojola (Mount Holyoke College)
A
symposium and festival celebrating the music of Ghanaian composer,
Dr.Ephraim
Amu, will be held in Boston, MA beginning Friday morning, February 21
through Saturday evening February 22, 2014. As J.H. Kwabena Nketia notes:
“There is no single individual who has influenced the course of the development
of art music in contemporary Ghana as much as Dr. Ephraim Amu.”1 The
symposium will explore not only Amu’s music, but also music of others
who identify as composers on the African continent. Friday
activities take place at NEC, with two sessions of
papers/presentations
and
a late-afternoon panel.
The following scholars are included in the
program events
on Friday: Misonu Amu (Dr. Amu’s daughter), Kofi Agawu, James Burns,
George W. K. Dor, Robert Labaree, David Locke, Emmanuel Nnamani, and
Bode Omojola. These sessions will be followed by an evening concert
of African
repertoires, including some of the most popular choral works of Amu: Abibrimma
(Sons of Africa rise up), Yɛŋ Ara Asasse Ni (This is our
land), and Saŋ Bɛfa
(Return home for those things that matter most); alongside the traditional
genres that influence or accompany these works: Asafo, Bɔbɔbɔ, as well
as Adzogbo.
Featured performers include Nani Abgeli (one of the
leading Ghanaian
dancers of his generation), the Agbekor Society, (founded by David Locke,
directed by Nani Agbeli), and choirs from both Tufts and NEC.
On Saturday,
the two workshops at Tufts University explore Dr. Amu's choral music
and traditional Ewe ritual music for percussion and dance. Misonu
Amu, musicologist
and daughter of Amu, will lead the choral workshop focused on her
father’s music, and Nani Agbeli will lead the workshop on
traditional drumming
and dance.
The
conference is free and open to the public, though we do request that
you register
at the following site (at the bottom of the “Home” page):
http://amufestival.weebly.com
Program
Committee: Felicia Sandler, NEC (Conference chair); Robert Labaree,
NEC; David Locke, Tufts; Olabode Omojola, Mt. Holyoke; Katarina
Miljkovic, NEC; John MacDonald, Tufts; Rick Feit, NEC; Anne Hallmark,
NEC.
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