Swaying to a different beat at Nairobi’s classical evenings club

Classical music singers entertain fans at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.

The crowd is paying special attention as a buzz of expectancy spreads through the auditorium. It is 8pm on a Thursday night at the Nairobi National Museum’s Louis Leakey Auditorium. The turnout is big.

This is the classical evenings club, which takes place every second Thursday of the month.

The performer who has the audience hanging on her soprano is Elizabeth Njoroge, a classical musician and the director of Art of Music — an outfit that promotes classical music in Nairobi. Her enthusiastic reception at the classical evenings club is a token of how the genre is slowly building a fan base and taking its place in mainstream entertainment in Nairobi.

The classical evenings club was started in August 2008 in conjunction with the Kenya Conservatoire of Music Orchestra. Ms Njoroge, who organises the event with sponsorship from Safaricom, said it is based on the Cup-a–Jazz club that ran once a month at the former Numetro, now Silverbird stores.

“The basic idea was to give classical music lovers a regular platform to perform, something they’ve never had before, as well as to give classical music fans an opportunity to just come out and listen to the music,” she said. The performances are usually free of charge and guests also can perform.

Performers are drawn from all walks of life — young, old, vocalists, instrumentalists, professionals and students.

“The idea is to encourage live performance. I am getting more people inquiring if they can perform and I’m usually booked up way in advance, which is great,” said Ms Njoroge, who is a vocalist.

The performers choose what they are good at and the repertoire is made as wide as possible to encompass all ages. “I have noticed that the audience tend to prefer vocal ensembles more than instrumentalists. But we like to keep the balance as instrumentalists are very skilled musicians and it is important to appreciate their talent and hard work too,” said Ms Njoroge.

East Africa in general is known for its emerging young musicians in the local genres of genge, kapuka and bongo music. And the popularity of hip-hop in the region cuts across most of the urban youth.

But classical music is making inroads among the young and the not so young, a population that istis mostly spotted at hip-hop concerts.

Killion Aguro, 22, attended the classical music session in January for the first time. He is an ardent footballer in his neighbourhood of Githurai, in the outskirts of Nairobi. But Aguro — like many other youths a fan of local genge musician Jua Cali —has found a new love: Classical music.

After the performance he said: “I enjoyed it. It is relaxing and I was so impressed by the way the piano was played and the sweet voice of the singer.”

Brian Sempele, a fourth year engineering student at the University of Nairobi, is a keen classical music fan and attends the sessions frequently. For others like Paul Nduati, who studies medicine at the University of Nairobi it is a forum to practise what he loves. He learnt to play the piano as a child and said the sessions help him “not to be a closed circuit thinker.”

These performances are not just entertaining, but also offer moral lessons. In one of the sessions I attended, the theme was love and lamentation. The music revolved around the story of a sad chambermaid wishing for the moments when her husband once loved her.

“The song I am about to sing is about a man who has lost his true love and has given up all hope. It is a song of heartbreak and loneliness,” said Earl Vennum, a performer, during one of the classical evenings.

Alfred Mugambi has been attending the sessions since inception 17 months ago. He believes classical music is organised and harmonised as opposed to other genres. He first learnt of the classical evenings club on Facebook, and has never looked back. “Classical music is smooth and peaceful. It is a work of genius and I believe a child who grows up listening to classical music has greater mental capability.”

Each classical session is impressive in a different way and I wish there was more of this,” said Mugambi.

Not many in the audience know the songs, but a majority like 22-year-old Liz Siya fall n love with the classical pieces.

In fact, Vennum once told the audience in jest: “You have been such a good audience listening to songs you don’t know, let me play you songs you know.”

He strummed on his guitar the tunes of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and the audience sang along.

 -The East African

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke