African musicians have been advised to produce music that definitely projects the culture of their countries including costumes and instrumentals, in order to attract foreign tourists. A musicologist of international repute, Emeka Nwokedi, gave the advice during a musical concert in Lagos, to mark the commencement of this year’s festival of the Musical Society of Nigeria, MUSON.
The objective of the annual music festival is to showcase young musical talents of African origin to the international community.
Mr. Nwokedi, formerly a music producer in Voice of Nigeria, VON, and music lecturer at the Lagos State College of Education, Badagry, and currently a Director at MUSON Center, said there was no doubt that African musicians are doing well. But he said it would be more beneficial to Africa if its musicians could use their talents to promote the continent’s rich cultural heritage which would attract expatriates.
As Mr. Nwokedi explained, “Music is taken very seriously, especially classical music, in most of the countries I have been to, but I must say that we try to propagate our own music which is the African kind of music with its inherent rhythmic structure, with costume and local instruments and this kind of music captivates the attention of expatriates visiting our continent.
He rated the performances that he watched at the event high, pointing out that African musicians, especially Nigerians, can compete with the best globally and regretted, however, that lack of infrastructure remained a constraint.”We have great talents in Nigeria and if given the opportunity to develop, I think we are comparable to the best you can find anywhere in the world. If we have the same facilities and opportunities that they have, for instance, in developed countries, they start playing music at childhood, they also have music entrenched in their academic curriculum”.
Mr. Nwokedi assured members of the public that this year’s festival would be a master piece, combining performances from different regions and countries including South Africa, China, Russia and France, hinting that the Gala edition slated for next week will be loaded.”We will do Kayama with the orchestra from Songs of Sanctuary by Karl Jenkins. Also we will do Die Fledermaus finale opera by an Australian composer, and then the choir will do on its own a variety of things. Apart from serious classical music, we are going to do lighter music like concert celebration by Andrew Lloyd Webber; we are going to enthrall the audience with some popular music, pop choral, Nigerian classical music from different cultural milieu and other African classical music”, he said.
