PRESS RELEASE: GOLDEN, CO Nov 15, 2023: CONTACT: Mary Brainerd, Media Liaison
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE africamusicbridge@gmail.com
+1 303 217 3333
Africa Music Bridge: Connecting Music Between Colorado and Tanzania
During a trip to Tanzania in November 2022, Mary Brainerd took tours of Cornelia Wallner-Frisee’s Amini School System (africaaminialama.com). She listened to the students speak of their dreams and hopes--some saying they wanted to be doctors or accountants--but she was shocked that not one child voiced the wish to become a musician. The love of music, of course, is close to Mary's heart as she is the owner of the music store Golden Music and has been a pianist for over 48 years. While Coloradan communities have amazing access to musical opportunities through the band and orchestra programs of schools, Tanzanian children do not have the kind of global resources that our children have today. Also, lacking instruments and teachers, the African children that do have interests in music don’t have the opportunities to pursue it. Identifying this need, Mary founded the African Music Bridge to connect the gap of music between Africa and the United States.
Next Summer, the African Music Bridge team will depart for Tanzania, equipped with instruments and a few of our dedicated local teachers. The main music teacher of the Africa Music Bridge, Jonathan Weedman, teaches band and orchestra at Bergen Valley, Elk Creek, Marshdale, West Jefferson and Wilmot Elementary schools. Jonathan and our other teacher, Sarah Hight, will teach the students the recorder, while other groups will be working with string and wind instruments. The students will learn traditional songs and rhythms from their own tribes and cultures, but with these new instruments. Perseverance, work ethic, and focus will be encouraged amongst the pupils, establishing life-long skills as learners and contributors to the community. These are gifts that band and orchestra programs can provide for students here and abroad.
The team is getting more and more excited for their time in Tanzania to work with the students. Currently, Sarah is transposing the Tanzanian tunes to sheet music in a teachable format, and also working with Jonathan to plan the curriculum. In March of next year, the team is going out to Africa to scout the opportunities and systems of the two Tanzanian schools to ensure the success of the two-month long session during the southern Africa winter, our summer. Then, with the success of the 2024 program, Africa Music Bridge will complete another intensive during the summer of 2025, and will then expand its scope to include full-year musical education in Tanzania and even other parts of Africa. Also, completing the Bridge, they will be bringing back the music and a rich experience to share with their Colorado students. With the idea and team in place, Mary is now working hard on the fundraising efforts.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2023
Africa Music Bridge: Bridging school music between Colorado and Tanzania
GOLDEN, CO Rooted in Colorado, the Africa Music Bridge is a project currently working to bring Western musical instruments and style to Tanzanian children and carry their musical elements to Colorado school music. Starting in 4th grade with 8-year-olds, students will be taught the basics of classical music with the recorder or another instrument, where they will learn rhythm, tempo, and tone. The first songs that will be taught are based on spiritual and dancing songs from the Masai, Chaga, and Meru—the native tribes of north-eastern Tanzania. As these African cultures are deeply rooted in physical expression through dance and music, this use of traditional African sound applies the children’s generational awareness to new forms of artistic expression.
As music has done in America through developments like jazz or rock, the program will establish a major impact in the individual and societal lives of Tanzanian people. Firstly, children will benefit from learning new life and thinking skills. Perseverance, work ethic, and focus will be encouraged amongst the pupils, which will aid in future occupations: the most popular among the children being the medicine, finance, and hospitality industry. Additionally, with musical focus on improvisation and genres such as jazz, students strengthen their abilities as free-thinkers and innovators. Similarly, the goal of this introduction of sound is not to reduce the native music, but to increase awareness and access to more parts of the world. In most American schools, children have access to music, history, and literature from all parts of the world. However, Tanzania is lacking in this wideness of opportunities where only 20% of children go to school; henceforth, through new connections to traditions of the west, a more dynamic and diverse community of learners and thinkers will be established.
Spanning two schools, each with 500 students, the team will depart to Tanzania for two months from June to July 2024. The primary teacher, Jonathan Weedman, who teaches band and orchestra at five elementary schools in Evergreen and Conifer, will also travel to Tanzania in March to assess possibilities and students, providing a more accurate plan for the major program in the summer, although it will be Tanzania’s winter. Now, the African school curriculum is actively being developed and knowledge spread through remote exposure, while school children in Colorado will be exposed to native African music, forming the bridge between our culture’s sound. With the success of the 2024 program, Africa Music Bridge will complete another intensive during summer 2025, will expand its scope to include full-year musical education and expand in other parts of Africa.
Siobhan Qualtire