Life & Work

Youth orchestra continues to wow audiences with stellar performances

bdmusicsafaricomorchest

The Safaricom Youth Orchestra is composed of prodigious schoolboys and girls from high cost schools like Hillcrest and Brookhouse to those from Korogocho and Kangemi. PHOTO | BILL ODIDI

The Safaricom Youth Orchestra returned to the Indoor Arena at Kasarani Stadium last weekend for a concert that marked the first anniversary since this group of prodigious schoolboys and girls was selected.

While on a trip to Sweden a few years ago, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore watched a youth orchestra playing at a concert and it is this performance that motivated him to float the idea of setting up a similar group of young musicians in Kenya and giving them an opportunity to express themselves and attain the highest standards of their skills.

Audition

An open audition was held with children of different backgrounds competing for a chance to join the orchestra. More than 150 children attended the auditions at the Strathmore University in March 2014 and it is from this group that the most talented were selected to join the Orchestra.

The 63 members are all of school going age and despite their different backgrounds, all share a common love for music.

Children from neighbourhoods like Korogocho and Kangemi to those attending schools like Hillcrest and Cavina and even some foreign nationals resident in Kenya all perform together in the orchestra.

Experience

“You have a child who is from Brookhouse School playing side-by-side with a child from St. John’s Korogocho and it is only through the power of music that you can get these children to listen to each other and work together,” says Collymore.

Before their selection at the auditions, most of the children had no experience of playing in an Orchestra so the whole experience has been a learning curve for them as a group.

At the launch of the Orchestra a year ago, Collymore promised that the children would be trained by the best Music Directors and tutors.

Their curriculum consisted of 3 terms of 10 weeks each from May 2014 to March this year under the guidance of 9 tutors with 2 directors providing lessons and mentorship.

The Music director is Duncan Wambugu, a well-known conductor who has led performances by the Nairobi Orchestra and the Kenya Conservatoire of Music Orchestra.

Tutors

The young boys and girls have also been learning at the hands of some of the most experienced music tutors including violinist Brian Sempele, a founder member and section leader with the Conservatoire Orchestra and who also teaches music at Brook House School, Kenya High and other schools.

Others tutors are clarinet and saxophone teacher, Dr Donald Otoyo, professional trombonist and leader of the Nairobi Jazz Orchestra, Mark Horton, trumpet instructor and performer, William Rowe and Grace Muriithi, an internationally-trained pianist who is the current Chairperson of the Nairobi Orchestra.

A few of the children owned their own instruments but many did not and so were provided with instruments.

Brothers Kwame and Kwaku Nsarkoh both started playing instruments at a very young age and are now both members in the Orchestra. 12-year-old Kwaku who is the older of the two plays the trumpet while his sibling, who is three years his junior, is a clarinetist and hopes to learn the Bassoon in the future.

11-year-old percussionist Talya Narotso Wattimah will forever be grateful to her parents for taking her to the auditions to join the Safaricom Orchestra.

Even though she doesn’t own an instrument of her own, she is constantly playing all kinds of beats on different surfaces.

Escape

Awuor Jada Onguri who is 12 and a student at Cavina School started playing the violin when she was just 4, initially as a way to dodge playing the piano which was not her favourite instrument. She counts herself doubly lucky for having joined the orchestra along with her best friend who she just identifies as Chelimo.

“Music is an escape,” she says. “It is my hiding place from the world.”

Groove awards

The first ever performance by the Safaricom Youth Orchestra was naturally for the parents and guardians of the children at the Strathmore University Auditorium, the same venue where it all started.

Their next appearance was at last year’s Groove Awards Gala, followed by a very successful Christmas concert at the Michael Joseph Centre.

Since the Orchestra’s inception they have played at some high profile performances together with the Safaricom Choir, including an appearance at the Safaricom International Jazz Festival.

Every year, members who are over 18 and who leave the orchestra to join college or university will be replaced but can still be invited back to join the group from time to time as guest performers during concerts.

A new round of auditions for new members was held in March this year at the Michael Joseph Centre, Nairobi.