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Bernard Woma, lead master drummer for the National Dance Ensemble of Ghana and its solo player of the gyil, a West African xylophone, will give a performance noon Friday in Interfaith Chapel, Hogg Hall.
The event is sponsored by the Chaplain’s Office Brown Bag Series. Lunch may be brought or purchased for $3.
The musician also will lead a workshop for students in “West African Song and Rhythm,” a First-Year Seminar taught by Kathryn Schubel, assistant professor of geology and environmental geosciences.
Woma was born in Hiineteng in the upper west region of Ghana and began playing the gyil at age two. He spent his early childhood training in the house of Xiem Tibo, a renouned gyil player in that area. In 1990, he was honored as Ghana’s “Musician of the Year,” the first time the award had been given to a percussionist. He also was named the best gyil player at the 1997 Kakube Traditional Festival in the Nandom area. He has taught in universities in the U.S. and Europe, and has performed in festivals around the world. He leads the award-winning Dagara Bewaa Culture Group, a musical ensemble. He is the state ceremonial Atunpan drummer in Ghana and has performed at the inauguration of Ghanaian president John Kuffuor, as well as for former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The gyil is the national instrument of the Lobi and Dagara people of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and the Ivory Coast. It is one of the grandparents of the mallet keyboard family. Its sound is like the Western marimba, yet more “earthen” in character. West Africans believe that its woody sound comes from a vibration of water that physically balances the water in the bodies of humans and animals.