The Music of J. H. Kwabena Nketia & Piano Trio opus 8 in B major by Johannes Brahms

This concert is jointly presented by Nia Production Inc and Sankusem Foundation. Sankusem is a not-for profit organization based in Ghana, formed to promote the composition. performance and general dissemination of contemporary music that uses African folk music idioms as source material.  Thus, the first half of the evening will feature the music of the Ghanaian composer J. H. Kwabena Nketia, one of the most esteemed musical figures on the continent of Africa. Sankusem Foundation is grateful for the opportuniy to  introduce Nketia's music for violin, cello and piano solo to the United States. It is especially delighted that this public presentation of Nketia's music in America will occur in Harlem, NY, a historically significant community in terms of black renaissance movements worldwide. In the second half, the three artists will collaborate in a performance of the popular Brahms piano trio opus 8 in B major.

Professor Nketia has achieved international fame as a musicologist, educator, author and composer. He uses African idioms such as scales, harmonic vocabulary, rhythms, folk tunes and games used by various tribal groups as source material for his contemporary music, thus creating a unique synthesis of Western and African ideas.

J. H. Kwabena Nketia, was born on June 22, 1921 at Mampong Ashanti (Ghana).  He began his formal training in music in a Teacher Training College in Ghana, continued at Trinity College of Music, London, and later at Julliard School of Music, Columbia University (with Henry Cowell) and Northwestern University for short periods as a Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation. Membership of the International Music Council (UNESCO) and other international music organisations enabled him to interact with several eminent western composers and educators. Exploring ways of writing art music that utilizes African resources and modes of expression in their own terms while allowing for the application of techniques that expand or enrich it without submerging its identity has been his primary goal. The need for this was demonstrated by an older composer Ephraim Amu, his mentor, who specialised in composing new choral music. It was he who encouraged him to go to “the traditional musicians and learn from them” because this was “how he started.” Following his advice, Nketia combined composition with ethnomusicology, concentrating on Africa as his primary area of field research interest. He has published several scholarly articles and books, including the Music of Africa (W.W.Norton 1974), which won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award in 1975, and which has been translated into a number of languages, including German, Italian, Chinese and Japanese.Nketia has written not only several choral works and solo songs in his own language, some of which are broadcast by the Ghana Broadcasting and Television Corporation, but also a number of instrumental pieces which draw their inspiration and source materials from different ethnic groups.

The performers for the evening are violinist Rachel Barton Pine, cellist Sally Singer and pianist George Francois

Rachel Barton Pine: Violin

American violinist Rachel Barton Pine has appeared as soloist with many of the world's most prestigious orchestras, including the Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, Dallas, Baltimore, Montreal, Vienna, New Zealand and Iceland Symphonies, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, working with conductors including Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Marin Alsop, Neeme Järvi, and Placido Domingo. Acclaimed collaborations include Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, William Warfield, Christopher O'Riley and Mark O'Connor. Her festival appearances include Ravinia, Marlboro, and Salzburg. She has been featured on St. Paul Sunday, Performance Today, From the Top, CBS Sunday Morning, and NBC's Today. Her 14 critically acclaimed albums for the Cedille, Dorian, and Cacophony labels include Brahms and Joachim Violin Concertos with Carlos Kalmar and the Chicago Symphony, "Scottish Fantasies" with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and "Beethoven and Clement Violin Concertos" with José Serebrier and the Royal Philharmonic. She holds top prizes from the J.S. Bach (gold medal), Queen Elisabeth, Paganini, Kreisler, Szigeti, and Montreal international competitions, and has twice been honored as a Chicagoan of the Year. Her charitable activities include serving as a trustee of the Music Institute of Chicago and president of the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation. She plays the Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu (Cremona 1742), known as the "ex-Soldat," on generous loan from her patron.

Sally Singer: Cello

A native of the United Kingdom, cellist Sally Singer has performed in the major concert halls of London, Vienna, Salzburg and New York. A former member of the Ashkenazy and Klimt piano trios, Ms.Singer is a member of the Icicle Creek Piano trio, with whom she recently released a recording of Schubert and Ravel Piano trios, critiqued by the American Record Guide as “one Album that is absolutely worth having”, and chosen as the “Editor’s Pick” on the international CD sales website CD Baby. She has given numerous world premier performances of solo and chamber works in Europe and throughout the States. As a soloist she performed with several orchestras in New York and Washington and with the Pleven Philharmonic, Bulgaria, and the Danbury Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut, to critical acclaim. Chamber performance highlights include the Tanglewood Music Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Alice Tully Hall, NY, First prize in the John Ireland Chamber Music Competition, UK, a top prize in the Corpus Christi International Young Artists Competition, and collaborations with Ian Swensen, Nathaniel Rosen, Heasook Rhee, Steven Doane and Karen Dreyfus. As Co-Artistic Director, Ms.Singer runs an innovative chamber series throughout the year at the Icicle Creek Music Center in Washington State, and presents an International Chamber Music Festival each July, as well as offering intensive tandem educational programs for young artists. She plays a Bernard Simon Fendt cello, made in England, 1835.

George Francois: Piano

Ghanaian pianist George Francois received music education from the University of Ghana, the Royal Northern College of Music in the United Kingdom, University of Texas at Austin, the Juilliard School, New York, and the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has performed in Africa, Europe, and extensively in the United States. In New York City he has played at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum, Yamaha Piano Studios, St Paul’s Chapel, and The Alfred Lerner Hall among other venues. In August 2007 he performed 4 concerts in Ghana, West Africa, including a command performance for President John Kuffour of Ghana. The New York Amsterdam News has described him as having a ‘wondrous command of technique’ with ‘fire when called for, but also lovely moments of lyricism to savor’. Mr. Francois is currently on faculty at Concordia College in Bronxville, Manhattan School of Music in Manhattan and Manna House Workshops in East Harlem.