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The ancient keyboard music of West Africa was performed and explained in three campus presentations last week.
Renowned musicians Valerie Dee Naranjo and Barry Olsen performed and talked about traditional West African xylophone music Sept. 4 at the Williams Center for the Arts. The event was geared toward two First-Year Seminar classes that attended: Towards Cultural Literacy: De-mystifying the Non-Western World, taught by Larry Stockton, professor and head of music, and West African Song and Rhythm, taught by Kathryn Schubel, assistant professor of geology and environmental geosciences.
The musicians returned to the Williams Center that evening to present a concert, then led a two-hour class workshop.
The next day, Naranjo talked about her life story and played some music at noon in the David A. Portlock Black Cultural Center. The event was focused on another First-Year Seminar class, Women’s Coming of Age Narratives: A Multicultural Exploration, taught by Elizabeth McMahon, professor of mathematics.
Naranjo, a renowned gyil soloist and multi-percussionist, has performed on six continents. She is the percussionist for NBC’s Saturday Night Live Band and Broadway’s Lion King, and she arranges for both groups. Her skills playing the gyil led to a chiefly decree in the Dagara nation that women be allowed to play the instrument.
The national instrument of the Dagara and Lobi nations of Ghana, the gyil is the “grandmother” of the keyboard family. Some believe that its sound comes from a water vibration that balances the water in the bodies of people and animals.
Olsen has performed with the top artists in the Latin music scene, including Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Eddie Palmieri, and Ray Barretto.
The musicians’ residency was sponsored by the First-Year Seminar program, the Africana Studies program, the religious studies department, the music department, and the Office of Intercultural Development.